BBC NEWS
'Respect atheists', says Cardinal
The Archbishop of Westminster has urged Christians to treat atheists and agnostics with "deep esteem".
Believers may be partly responsible for the decline in faith by losing sense of the mystery and treating God as a "fact in the world", he said in a lecture.
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor called for more understanding and appreciation between believers and non-believers.
The leader of Roman Catholics in England and Wales said that a "hidden God" was active in everyone's life.
The Cardinal's lecture at Westminster Cathedral comes after a spate of public clashes over issues such as stem-cell research, gay adoption and faith schools.
Mystery of God
He expressed concern about the increasing unpopularity of the Christian voice in public life, saying: "Our life together in Britain cannot be a God-free zone and we must not allow Britain to become a world devoid of religious faith and its powerful contribution to the common good."
Proper talk about God is always difficult, always tentative.
Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor
Last year, he complained of a "new secularist intolerance of religion" and the state's "increasing acceptance" of anti-religious views.
To stem this tide, he said Christians must understand they have something in common with those who do not believe.
God is not a "fact in the world" as though God could be treated as "one thing among other things to be empirically investigated" and affirmed or denied on the "basis of observation", said Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor.
"If Christians really believed in the mystery of God, we would realise that proper talk about God is always difficult, always tentative.
"I want to encourage people of faith to regard those without faith with deep esteem because the hidden God is active in their lives as well as in the lives of those who believe."
Story from BBC NEWS:
news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-...7390941.stm
Published: 2008/05/08 17:58:49 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
'Respect atheists', says Cardinal
The Archbishop of Westminster has urged Christians to treat atheists and agnostics with "deep esteem".
Believers may be partly responsible for the decline in faith by losing sense of the mystery and treating God as a "fact in the world", he said in a lecture.
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor called for more understanding and appreciation between believers and non-believers.
The leader of Roman Catholics in England and Wales said that a "hidden God" was active in everyone's life.
The Cardinal's lecture at Westminster Cathedral comes after a spate of public clashes over issues such as stem-cell research, gay adoption and faith schools.
Mystery of God
He expressed concern about the increasing unpopularity of the Christian voice in public life, saying: "Our life together in Britain cannot be a God-free zone and we must not allow Britain to become a world devoid of religious faith and its powerful contribution to the common good."
Proper talk about God is always difficult, always tentative.
Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor
Last year, he complained of a "new secularist intolerance of religion" and the state's "increasing acceptance" of anti-religious views.
To stem this tide, he said Christians must understand they have something in common with those who do not believe.
God is not a "fact in the world" as though God could be treated as "one thing among other things to be empirically investigated" and affirmed or denied on the "basis of observation", said Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor.
"If Christians really believed in the mystery of God, we would realise that proper talk about God is always difficult, always tentative.
"I want to encourage people of faith to regard those without faith with deep esteem because the hidden God is active in their lives as well as in the lives of those who believe."
Story from BBC NEWS:
news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-...7390941.stm
Published: 2008/05/08 17:58:49 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
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SF Bay Area
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Re: A Catholic Ally, sort of.
Fri, May 9, 2008 - 5:59 AMPluralism is a hard thing for most people to grasp. -
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Re: A Catholic Ally, sort of.
Fri, May 9, 2008 - 8:37 AMThe Pope has said this too. It's a natural outgrowth of the ecumenism of Vatican II, but many Catholics stopped listening to the Church already and so they don't know this, and of course those outside the Church are unlikely to be well versed in such teachings. -
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Re: A Catholic Ally, sort of.
Fri, May 9, 2008 - 10:32 AMI am skeptical that this will change people. Most people don't actually allow religion to change them... instead they shop around until they find a denomination that fits their beliefs. If a person is already open-minded, they won't need this type of encouragement. Likewise, if they aren't, I doubt this will open them up. Instead it will be a case of "the decline of the church" or "the acceptance of secularism".
*Note: I live in the bible-belt south. I accept that attitudes might be different up north.
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