Phoenix
by Dale J. Sprague
Reveries
4.2005
After the Vatican II document was published, I thought, "At last..new world Catholicism," which proved rather, to be a weak negotiation of old world, 'one and only' Catholicism with the new generations of congregations. That the word, 'Catholicism,' itself, is from the Latin, 'catholicus,' or 'universal,' gives some sense of the gravity that it assigned to itself.
At first opportunity, I attended a meeting of Catholics, mostly of high school age, lead by the local Catholic priest. At length, after the priest gave an introduction of the Vatican II document, and after a few questions from the attendees, I queried, "The Catholic religion has spoken and written much about the evils in the world. I was hoping that the Vatican II document would explicitly write to this. When a program of good and evil is taught, it seems to me that 'what is evil' should be explained in as much detail as 'what is good' has been. Why didn't this document be more explicit about what exactly evil is?"
There was a pause in the room until the priest responded..."Take all that is taught as 'good,' the opposite of that is evil."
I responded with..."I ask this because other religions, mainly other denominations of Christianity I've studied, are explicit about what evil, and Catholicism conspicuously is not, and wondered why. I have observed that people in other religions and denominations of Christianity regard theirs as the 'one and only' true religion. They all feel the same about their own."
Immediately, many of the young attendees objected and remarked, "No! Catholics believe the strongest that we have the true religion."
Eventually, the priest responded to them..."No. This is true. What he said is true. People of different religions and denominations of Christianity believe equally strong that theirs is the true religion," after which silence turned the walls into sponge absorbing every little sound.
Indeed, a religion is no more the 'one and only' true religion, than one race of human being is the 'one and only' true human.