During his meeting with Indonesian clergy yesterday, Pope Francis warned against “proselytizing,” instead urging them to share the “joy of encountering Christ” with “great respect and fraternal affection” for all.
Hundreds of religious, seminarians, priests, and bishops gathered in Jakarta’s Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption on Wednesday, to hear Pope Francis’ address.
The meeting formed part of the Pope’s busy schedule on the Indonesian leg of his Asian tour, and took place after Francis met earlier in the day with political leaders and Jesuits from the region.
Francis used his address to highlight the three themes of the Indonesia visit, namely “Faith, Fraternity, Compassion,” which is set in the context of the Muslim heavy population of the country (87 percent).
Share ‘joy of Christ’ but don’t proselytize
Having praised the work and example of catechists in handing on the Catholic faith, the Argentine Pontiff issued a stern rebuke against proselytizing.
Indonesian Catholics comprise only 3 percent of the population, though strong and deliberate efforts have been made at the governmental level to ensure peaceful relations between the Muslim majority and the minority Catholic populations.
Francis’ remarks came in relation to the theme of “fraternity,” which he prefaced by explaining that “living out fraternity, then, means welcoming each other, recognizing each other as equal in diversity.”
Drawing on this understanding of fraternity, the Pope described it as “a value dear to the Indonesian Church,” demonstrated through the “openness with which you address the various internal and external realities encountered on a cultural, ethnic, social and religious level.”
But he warned against promoting the Catholic faith in certain styles:
This, brothers and sisters, is important, because proclaiming the Gospel does not mean imposing our faith, placing it in opposition to that of others, or proselytizing, it means giving and sharing the joy of encountering Christ always with great respect and fraternal affection for everyone. [Emphasis added]
I invite you always to keep yourselves open and friendly to all – I like the expression “hand-in-hand” as Father Maxi said – prophets of communion, in a world where the tendency to divide, impose and provoke each other seems to be constantly increasing.
Francis’ remarks differed slightly from his prepared text, with the use of the term “proselytizing” not being originally planned.
For Pope Francis, condemning proselytism has been a recurring motif in his 11-year reign, and he has especially returned to the topic when addressing or visiting groups or countries where Catholicism is a minority.
During his 2016 trip to Georgia he famously condemned it as a “very grave sin,” commenting: “There is a very grave sin against ecumenism: proselytism. We should never proselytize the Orthodox! They are our brothers and sisters, disciples of Jesus Christ.”
In the first year of his papacy speaking with La Repubblica, he said, “Proselytism is solemn nonsense, it makes no sense … I believe in God, not in a Catholic God, there is no Catholic God, there is God and I believe in Jesus Christ, his incarnation.”
In contrast with Francis’ emphasis, Pope Benedict XVI gave a 2010 address, in which he stated: “The witness of charity, practised here in a special way, is part of the Church’s mission, together with the proclamation of the truth of the Gospel.”
Pope Leo XIII summarized the traditional Catholic teaching on relations with those of other faiths, when he wrote in his 1896 encyclical Satis cognitum that everyone should become a child of God by taking “Christ Jesus as their Brother, and at the same time the Church as their mother.”
The Fourth Lateran Council solemnly defined, in no uncertain terms, that “there is indeed one universal Church of the faithful outside of which no one at all is saved.”
Pope Pius XII reiterated this teaching by saying that Christ “decreed the Church to be the means of salvation, without which no one can enter the kingdom of heavenly glory.” (Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus (1949).
Francis or John Paul II?
Pope John Paul II’s 1989 speech to the assembled Indonesian clergy offers an interesting contrast to that of his successor.
In his address to the Indonesian Catholic clergy, John Paul paid particular attention to their Catholic work and identity, urging them to continue their mission to build the Church, saying the meeting was “an opportunity for me to encourage you to persevere and to grow in the vocation to which God has called you in the service of the Gospel.”
He quoted from Psalm 96 (95) to call upon the missionary clergy and religious to spread the Faith through the many islands of Indonesia:
“Let the many islands rejoice.” (Psalm 96/95) …
You will find that meaning in bearing witness to the joy of the Resurrection and in giving your life so that even the most distant islands may “rejoice” at hearing the Gospel, of which you are authentic preachers, teachers and witnesses …
Since the building up of the Church is the work of God, we must never cease to pray for vocations and ask others to do the same.
Though a similar length, Francis’ address to the Indonesian clergy did not include the forthright recommendations to spread the Catholic faith that are found in John Paul’s.