Dear Holiness,
The Catholic Community Forum has been the most tolerant and patient with me and that gives me great hope that it is reflective and continues to be reflective of the church. I have posted the following discussion on the Catholic Community Forum at:
http://www.catholic-forum.com/forums...5838#post85838
CCF:
Thank you for your guidance and patience as I am truly grappling with the enormity and power of the question I posed. No doubt I error in so many ways. It burdens my heart to ponder these weighty questions and saddens me greatly to pose them publicly.
What if the flaw in all our responses, including the responses of the church, is to grasp so tightly to the shelter and safety and comfort of our own dogma that even the church itself can not be in the world with outsiders to our faith, ever?
What do I mean by this, "even the church itself can not be in the world with outsiders to our faith, ever?"
Help me know my errors.
Tasking the church at the highest level, tasking the Pope himself from, may I refer to this task as the Great Encouragement?
Here is the enormity of this depressing question. When the power of the website itself begins forth thousands, then tens of thousands, then millions, then tens of millions, then billions of similar responses in sending in Notes of Encouragement to religious leaders, the church then is faced with a choice. How the church reacts to that choice is the question.
What preconditions must be satisfied to enable the church to accept the enormous task encouraged upon it by the petition raised through the website?
His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI has laid out one level of guidance which helps, "spiritual emulation, " respectful of each one's identity and more united in the service of common good"
In the interest of the "common good" referred to by Pope, may I extrapolate?
The Muslim will enter such discussions for the common good with the predisposition of understanding which he will be certain of, that Christ (may his name be praised) has not been proven divine and perhaps also the Muslim will feel the Holy Trinity makes no sense; it is the Christian that must come to change.
The Christian will enter such discussions for the common good with the predisposition of understanding which he will be certain of, that Mohammad (may his name be praised) has not enabled a religion of love, that he was a sinner of the highest order, a mortal spirit; it is the Muslim that must come to change.
If our Christian faith is a faith based on love, then isn't our required response posed by the enormity of the question and the task posed through the Great Encouragement, to forgive the Muslim and accept him as our brother, and treat him as such, for the common good?
I have come to the conclusion that God's larger plan for man is to recognize the good in each other and work with that. I guess the question I ask is simply, if I can do this, if billions of other ordinary people can do this, then can and will the Pope speak for this man (me) and do this too?
Rich Buckley
A visiting Methodist
Livermore, CA