Liberals vs Pope Benedict XVI

It has been interesting to look a little bit more closely at the sources of some of the criticism of Pope Benedict XVI, and the Vatican, over the last week or so. On the surface, this criticism comes from people who are at the cutting edge of inter-religious dialogue - be that Christian-Jewish dialogue or wider inter-faith dialogue. The impression this creates is that protagonists of inter-religious dialogue want to attack Pope Benedict for not being committed to this dialogue.

Let's look at two sources of this criticism.

An organisation called Interfaith Alliance UK has issued a statement strongly critical of Pope Benedict. The text of the statement is reported at Independent Catholic News. Now, this is taken from the website of the Interfaith Alliance UK (my emphasis):

The Interfaith Alliance UK is a family of people united in friendship, from diverse progressive and liberal faith communities, working together to promote the love of the One Same God, witnessed in social justice and parity of esteem for all God's children, regardless of race, gender, creed, disability, orientation, social or economic status.

The "Covenant" of the Interfaith Alliance is clearly liberal, and is not compatible with Roman Catholic teaching. It certainly has a component of indifferentism. I would suggest that, rather than being an alliance that engages in a genuine dialogue between faiths, it's liberal underpinning means that it cannot engage in dialogue in any real sense. That they should be critical of Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican arises not so much from principles of inter-religious dialogue but from the liberal principles underlying their work. They are not a real representative of the views of those engaged in dialogue between religions.

I have already commented on a letter in the Times from Dr Kessler. He was interviewed again on Radio 4's Today programme this morning. Dr Kessler is the Director of the Centre for Study of Jewish-Christian Relations, based in Cambridge. In his radio interview, he made reference to Pope Benedict, and those advising him in the Vatican, backtracking on the spirit and teaching of the Second Vatican Council. The Centre website shows that it is an academic instution contributing to teaching and research in the area of Jewish-Christian relations. There are no official representatives of Christian or Jewish faiths listed as partners of the Centre. The Centre, and the Woolf Institute of Abrahamic Faiths to which it is allied, do not represent an official structure of dialogue between the Christian and Jewish faiths (though I can see a value in the encouraging of dialogue outside the official structures). The Director has certainly approached recent events from an essentially liberal religious basis. So, again, the criticism appears to owe more to liberal principles than to a concern from sound principles of inter-religious dialogue.

And, surprise, surprise, they have made a determined attempt to make use of the media to publicise their criticism of Pope Benedict XVI. And to try to extend the influence of their views by claiming the support of the majority of Catholics and others for their views, when this probably just reflects the particular circles in which they move.

It all has a rather familiar ring to it ....