The Martyrdom of Saint Serapion by Francisco de Zurbarán, 1628 [Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut]
Posted on 11/03/2026 12:44:44 PM PST by ebb tide
I’m not sure whether Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, the Archbishop of Algiers, has read the satirical poem “Absolute and Abitofhell” by Monsignor Ronald Knox. The poem describes the Oxford dons and clergymen of his day, who were enamored of theological liberalism, the kind of churchmen that, St. John Henry Newman said, he had spent his life combatting.
The lines from that poem that come to mind about our man in Algiers are as sharp as vinegar: “When suave politeness, temp’ring bigot zeal / Corrected ‘I believe,’ to ‘One does feel.’ “
Cardinal Vesco has recently said several things that were more than merely polite to his Muslim neighbors. His initial statement condemned “proselytism,” which he described as “poison” – and has been challenged by Bishop Robert Barron, who knows a bit about evangelization.
Something of an internet storm has now erupted, with the usual suspects, the Knoxian dons, as one might call them, condemning Bishop Barron and reminding the world that the Cardinal ministers in a difficult situation – i.e., among Muslims. The usual apparatchiks of syncretism claimed that the words of the Cardinal had been misunderstood: he was not denying the “Great Commission” to preach the Gospel to all nations, nor the call to conversion.
Cardinal Vesco has attempted to clarify his earlier statements but has dug an even bigger hole. The Church, he said, is “not there to convert,” and has “better things to do” than seek converts from what he called the other “monotheistic religions.”
The Church in any country where Islam is dominant is, indeed, in a difficult situation. Where is the great See of Hippo today, or the town of Thagaste where St. Augustine was born? Its ancient Christian population is gone, attacked first by barbarian hordes, and then finished off forever under Islam.
It is difficult to proclaim Christ in conditions of hostility, as I know only too well from more than ten years helping persecuted Christians across the Middle East. So, the question arises: If it’s not the job of the Church to convert, for what does She exist?
For the first three centuries of Christian history, all Church members, hierarchy and people, were in overwhelmingly hostile situations. Ten of the twelve Apostles died for the Faith: Judas committed suicide, and only St. John lived to a ripe old age. Martyrs – men, women, and children – witnessed to the truth of the Christian faith. They believed, along with St. Paul, that there is “no other name under heaven by which we can be saved, than by the name of Jesus.”
Today, in the lands where my charity works, families are killed and priests are martyred in an overwhelmingly hostile place. They are forced from their homes, they leave all their possessions, their businesses are destroyed, because they believe the words of the One who proclaimed Himself to be the “Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
The Martyrdom of Saint Serapion by Francisco de Zurbarán, 1628 [Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut]
I have met people who have faced death because of their conversion from Islam. One lady, threatened by her own family, said that it did not matter now, because “she knew Christ.”
Interreligious dialogue is immensely difficult when someone wishes to cut your head off because of what you believe. This might even suggest that “dialogue” of this kind is pointless.
Some say the Cardinal only meant to condemn proselytism, a word which has taken on a modern connotation that makes it unfashionable. The modern understanding involves more than persuasion; it suggests some kind of coercion. Contra Cardinal Vesco, the idea that there can be the slightest possibility of coerced or forced conversions in a Muslim country is fanciful.
Rather than forced conversion, the Cardinal quite clearly means the very act of conversion itself. Yet the origin of the word proselytism, as was understood for centuries, comes from the Greek meaning “one who has arrived” – a proselyte.
Followers of Jesus Christ claimed, in great humility, that they had “arrived” at the truth. The “job” of the one who had arrived at the truth was, according to the Truth Himself, to tell others about this Good News. Indeed, He commissioned His disciples to do that very thing. “Woe to me,” said St. Paul, “if I do not proclaim the Gospel.” (1 Corinthians 9:16)
Pope Francis, early in his pontificate, firmly stated that the Church was not an NGO. Others can educate, feed, house, and answer the medical needs of various populations, often better than the Church. For what does the Church exist, then, if not proclamation and conversion?
Has the work been pointless? Should we not be helping our persecuted brethren if all religions are equal? Does it matter little whether one believes in Jesus, Mohammed – or the Buddha, for that matter? If we have “better things to do,” what exactly are they?
Hilaire Belloc, another enemy of foppish dons, was amazed at the “permanence and endurance” of what he regarded, correctly, as a Christian heresy (i.e., Islam). He called it the “most powerful denial of the Incarnation, the denial which came armed and victorious.”
A heresy is, to one who believes in Christ (as Chesterton said, in the “thrilling romance of orthodoxy”), something to be combatted, not weakly accepted or praised. A Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church wears red for a reason, because the shedding of blood for Christ – to be a martyr, although not sought – is the ultimate form of witness.
The martyrs of the last twenty centuries – the men, women, and children who are dying at this very moment solely for their faith in Christ – are not those who think conversion does not matter. They have found the truth that sets them free, even if they must die proclaiming it.
If the Church has “better things to do” than converting people to Christ, then, as Flannery O’Connor once remarked to friends who claimed that the Eucharist is only a symbol, if Church teaching is untrue, then “to hell with it.”
But the Church already has the “best” thing to do: And the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.
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Ping
When Vesco said “we (he) had better things to do” I wonder if he ever gave specifics. I realize he is in a hostile sea of moslems, and do not expect him to seek martyrdom. But if he can’t simply proclaim the Gospel then he should stfu and let his betters do it, not do islamic dirty work for them.
It’s his job to proclaim Christ. He should resign, or be removed(like that would ever happen).
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