Posted on 05/14/2004 10:11:07 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican warned Catholic women on Friday to think hard before marrying a Muslim and urged Muslims to show more respect for human rights, gender equality and democracy.
Calling women "the least protected member of the Muslim family," it spoke of the "bitter experience" western Catholics had with Muslim husbands, especially if they married outside the Islamic world and later moved to his country of origin.
The comments in a document about migrants around the world were preceded by remarks about points of agreement between Christians and Muslims but they seemed likely to fuel mistrust between the world's two largest religions.
The document said the Church discouraged marriages between believers in traditionally Catholic countries and non-Christian migrants.
It hoped Muslims would show "a growing awareness that fundamental liberties, the inviolable rights of the person, the equal dignity of man and woman, the democratic principle of government and the healthy lay character of the state are principles that cannot be surrendered."
When a Catholic woman and Muslim man wanted to marry, it said, "bitter experience teaches us that a particularly careful and in-depth preparation is called for."
It said one possible problem was with Muslim in-laws and advised future mothers that they must insist on Church policy that children born of a mixed marriage be baptized and brought up as Catholics.
If the marriage is registered in the consulate of a Muslim country, the document said, the Catholic must be careful not to sign a document or swear an oath including the shahada, the Islamic profession of faith, which would amount to converting.
DIFFERENT APPROACHES
The document highlighted the contrasting approaches the Vatican has taken in recent years toward Islam, which has emerged as a strong rival for souls, especially in Africa.
Pope John Paul has broken ground in dialogue with Muslims and even prayed in a mosque in Damascus. He won plaudits in the Muslim world for his strong opposition to the Iraq war.
But Vatican officials and leading Catholic prelates have expressed increasingly critical views about the spread of Islam and the challenge this poses for Catholicism.
The Vatican's top theologian, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, said earlier this week the West "no longer loves itself" and so was unable to respond to the challenge of Islam, which was growing because it expressed "greater spiritual energy."
The migration document also discouraged churches from letting non-Christians use their places of worship.
This issue arose last month when Muslims in Spain asked to be able to pray in Cordoba cathedral, which was once a mosque. A senior Vatican official said this would be "problematic."
It was a cathedral before it was a mosque. The Muslims would like to make it a mosque again, just as they'd like to turn all Spain back into al-Andalus.
The Novus Ordo Missae, Mass in the vernacular, greater laity participation, etc., were supposed to bring about greater "spritual energy." The opposite has been the result.
I am sorry that you cannot see beyond YOPIOS but you are wasting your time if you think you are convincing any adequately catechized Catholics.
Muslims to Catholics: "Don't MAKE me come over there!"
Church advises women to "think hard"
before marrying a Muslim...
DUH.
This warning, on the other hand, is what Catholics need to hear.
I can remember being told
to "think" before marrying
a Baptist or any other Protestant.
Ya'll would be a lot better off if more of you had married
Baptist. :>)
LOL!
And vice versa?
When I was in jr. high, we got blasted by the priest because we dared to go on a hay ride with a friend at her Baptist church gathering. However, I can see because of all the children being kidnapped over there that everyone, Christian and Jew alike, should run away very quickly from the religion of peace.
Seems like a step in the right direction. A small step, but a step none-the-less.
Recent proclamations from the Vatican has me wondering what side those guys are on.
I hope they revise this otherwise excellent statement to reflect and inform Catholics of what you state in this post.
That is correct, and converts to Christianity are considered heretics (even if they are very young). It is justified (required?) to kill heretics in Islam.
BlackElk! Nice to see you. It's been a long time. Hope all is well.
"Vatican Warns Catholics Against Marrying Muslims"... and the award for stating the obvious goes to the Holy See.
Well No Sh*t Sherlock. For the sake of completeness they should have added "... or anyone else for that matter" after the reference to Catholics.
"It puts muslim men in a very bad and accurate light..."
I assume you used the word "men" loosely. There is no such thing as a muslim "man", they're all cowards and some form of sub-human vermin. To use the word "muslim" and and any resemblance of a "man" in the same sentence is so contradictory.
It's the 60% of Catholics that voted in 2000 for Al Gore, that worry me. They are the ones refernced herein.
If that was true, you wouldn't be what you claim to be.
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