Interfaith dialogue can undermine truth – Benedict XVI

Dialogue between different religions in the interests of peace may put true faith at risk, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI warned this week in a rare public message.

In a message to students at the Pontifical College Urbaniana, relayed by his personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Benedict said:“Today many in effect believe that religions should respect each other and in dialogue become a common force for peace.” But he warned that dialogue could not “be a substitute for the mission”.

The Pope Emeritus noted the assumption that religions are variants of the same reality leads to the miscomprehension that true faith is “unreachable” and religion merely a collection of “interchangeable symbols”, adding: “This renouncing of the truth may be useful for the peace between the religions of the world. But it is lethal for the faith.”

After resigning in February 2013 Benedict XVI vowed to live “hidden from the world” and to serve the Church in prayer.

On Tuesday the Ordinariate for former Anglicans set up by the Bavarian Pope published a thank-you note he sent them after they wrote telling him their London church was built on the site of a Bavarian embassy chapel.

n Unveiling a bust of Benedict XVI?at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Pope Francis said his predecessor had been a great Pope: “Great for the power and penetration of his intellect, great for his considerable contribution to theology, great for his love for the Church and for human beings, great for his virtues and his religiosity.”

In an address to the academy he echoed the views of his recent predecessor, saying the Big Bang and evolution did not contradict the intervention of a divine creator “but, rather, requires it”.