The pope said before an audience of Muslims in Brussels, Belgium,
Christians and Moslems, we meet one another in faith in the one God...[and] strive to put into practice...the teaching of our respective holy books.1Meeting with Muslim leaders in West Africa in 1993, the pope "called on Christians, Muslims and animists...to respect one another's religious beliefs..."2
Speaking to Shintoists and Buddists in Tokyo in 1981, the pope commended the wisdom of their ancient religions which inspired them "to see a divine presence in each human being...[As Christ's Vicar] I express my joy that God has distributed these [religious] gifts among you" 3
In Togo in 1985, the pope exulted that he had "prayed for the first time with animists"4 During a 1984 visit to New Guinea, the pope presidcd over an outdoor "New Mass" for the natives. It involved "dancers who pranced to the alter for the offertory procession, throwing up clouds of orange and yellow smoke, a pagan custom to ward off evil spirits...[while] an 18-year-old college studen read a passage of Scripture wearing her traditional clothes [nude above the waist]." A New York times article was cited in describing the event:
the Roman Catholic Church's efforts to make its services more universal by integrating into its ritual and litergy elements of the cultures of the peoples to whom Western missionaries brought their religion5
Catholic World had an entire issue affirming the New Age movement, without a single condemnation or correction.6 Thousands of priests and nums practice yoga and other forms of Hindu or Buddist mysticism.
In 1986, at Assisi, Italy, a meeting of 130 leaders of the world's 12 major religions that included snake and fire worshipers, spiritists, animists, North American witch doctors, Buddists, Muslims, and Hindus, along with "Christians" and Catholics (the latter two being cited separately), prayed together for world peas. The pope declared that all were "praying to the same God" and allowed his good friend the Dalai Lama - who claims to be God personally and the 14th reincarnation of the original Dalai Lama - to replace the cross with the Buddha on the alter of St. Peters church in Assisi and for him and his monks to perfrom their Buddist worship there.
To inaugurate the Dalai Lama's U.S. tour, he was feted at New York's St. Patrick Cathedral. Cardinal Cooke who hosted the event, proclaimed that all the worlds religions are essentially the same. The Dalai Lama was given a standing ovation by an overflowing crowd7
Spurred on by the pope, "Interfaith Councils" have sprung up across the U.S. The procedure of one of these meetings was described as:
Swami Bhaskarananda, a Hindu, chanted a prayer to God...Ismail Ahmed, a Muslim, recited a short prayer to God...as they stood in front of an alter adorned with pictures of Sri Ramakrishna, Jesus Christ and Buddha. 8The entire May/June 1990 issue of Catholic World was devoted to Buddism. The articles were all sympathetic, and included favorable quotes from the pope. One article was titled: "Buddha Revered as a Christian Saint."
1Abbe Daniel Le Roux, Peter Lovest Thou Me? (Australia: Instauratio Press, 1989), p.140
2National Catholic Reporter, Feb 19, 1993, p.11
3Le Roux, op. cit., pp 144-45
4Le Croix, Aug 23, 1985
5The Roman Catholic, June-July 1984, p.32 6The Catholic World: The New Age, a Challenge to Christianity, May/Jun 1989
7Newsweek, Sep 17, 1979, p. 115
8Carol M. Ostrom, "Trust is key, interfaith group agrees," Seattle Times (Seattle, WA), March 11, 1987
Amazingly some do not see.