Press Release
HINDU AMERICAN FOUNDATION CAUTIOUS ON ELECTION
OF CARDINAL RATZINGER TO POPE BENEDICT XVI
Date: April 21, 2005
Location: Tampa, Florida, U. S. A.
The Hindu American Foundation (HAF)
(www.hinduamericanfoundation.org) greeted the election of
Cardinal Ratzinger to the papacy with a degree of caution
and concern. While HAF congratulated the Roman Catholic
Church on electing a new leader, many members expressed
apprehension over some of the most influential and widely
quoted statements given by Cardinal Ratzinger prior to
his papal election.
As head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith,
Cardinal Ratzinger was the primary impetus behind the
Vatican document Dominus Jesus, released in 2000. This
document is uncompromising in its declaration of the
Roman Catholic religion as the only true path to
salvation and describes other religions, including other
Christian denominations, as "gravely deficient" and
misguided pursuits.
HAF noted with strong concern that the authors of Dominus
Jesus called for a new evangelism while disparaging
pluralism as "indifferentism" and "relativism." In a
widely quoted interview given in 1997, it was Cardinal
Ratzinger who outraged many people when he denigrated
Hinduism as a religion of "false hope" that guaranteed
salvation based on a "morally cruel" concept of
reincarnation resembling a "continuous circle of hell"
and Buddhism as "autoerotic spirituality."
"While we felicitate Pope Benedict XVI as he assumes the
leadership of Roman Catholics throughout the world," said
Mihir Meghani, M.D., President of HAF, "We sincerely hope
that the pope will reconsider his prior unfortunate
reflections on other faiths that are followed by billions
throughout the world, specifically his unequivocal
rejection of religious pluralism—a concept central to the
Hindu ethos."
The new Pope Benedict XVI was a close confidant of the
late Pope John Paul II. HAF members were hopeful, that
though Pope John Paul II had issued an unfortunate call
for the "harvest of souls" to Christianity in India in
1999, the new pope would further the spirit of Pope John
Paul II’s statement in Colombo, Sri Lanka on January 21,
1995: "Interreligious dialogue is a precious means by
which the followers of the various religions discover
shared points of contact in the spiritual life, while
acknowledging the differences which exist between them.
The church respects the freedom of individuals to seek
the truth and to embrace it according to the dictates of
conscience, and in this light she firmly rejects
proselytism and the use of unethical means to gain
conversions."
HAF called on the new papacy to consider seriously the
global repercussions that occur when religious
institutions exert claims of an exclusive hold on truth.
"Much conflict and suffering results when religious
leaders or traditions claim a monopoly on Truth while
denigrating other faiths," said Pawan Deshpande, member
of the HAF Executive Council. "It is difficult to uphold
world peace and the brotherhood of all human beings if
our religions divide us into hostile camps of believers
and non-believers. As Hindus, we ask that Pope Benedict
XVI lead his Church to an enduring relationship with
Hinduism predicated on mutual respect and the precepts of
understanding, tolerance and pluralism."
For further information: Please contact HAF.
http://www.hinduamericanfoundation.org/contact.htm
End of forwarded message from:
http://www.hinduamericanfoundation.org/media_press_release_pope_benedict.htm
Jai Maharaj
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti
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The terrorist mission of Jesus stated in the Christian bible:
"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not so send
peace, but a sword.
"For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the
daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in
law.
"And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
- Matthew 10:34-36.
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