It's this: the Areopagus strategy. In Acts, we read where Paul praised the Athenians for being "religious" and for believing in a Deity of whom we are "His offspring", "in Whom we live and move and have our being".
He acknowledges all this, but sees it as strictly preparatory, putting it in the context that "you are worshipping an Unknown God" and "what you are worshipping in ignorance, I will proclaim to you." He uses it as his entree in order to talk about the True God, and His only-begotten Son, our divine Savior Jesus Christ.
The Catholic Catechism does the same thing. It sees a quantum of truth in the Muslim's faith "in the Creator," but considers this (para 843) "a preparation for the Gospel and given by him who enlightens all men that they may at length have life." The Catechism follows this up with:
844 In their religious behavior, however, men also display the limits and errors that disfigure the image of God in them: Very often, deceived by the Evil One, men have become vain in their reasonings, and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and served the creature rather than the Creator. Or else, living and dying in this world without God, they are exposed to ultimate despair.
This is what I see in St. Paul's remarks to the Athenians, and in St. Francis of Assisi's dialogues with the Sultan Al-Kamil, but do not see in Dolan: the follow-up of proclaiming the Gospel.
Come on, Cardinal Tim. Give it to 'em straight.
I only had to read the first sentence and I knew who was writing. Flawless.
Yup, it’s a bit premature to celebrate Islam because, yay! they believe in a Creator.
Well, what KIND of Creator? And yes, there are wiser cardinals than Dolan with a voice in this matter. Any truth is a beginning towards God, who wants to save because He is love, but if the devil has bent it hard aside and the hearers gladly concur, that can’t just be ignored. That’s what evil is, basically: bent truth.