CARDINAL TOMKO OPENS MISSIOLOGICAL CONGRESS

VATICAN CITY, OCT 18, 2000 (VIS) - Cardinal Jozef Tomko, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, gave the inaugural address yesterday afternoon at the International Missiological Congress at the Pontifical Urban University. Participants are meeting through October 20 on the theme "Who do you say that I am?"

Welcoming theologians and experts "who have come to offer their contribution and their experience of other religions," he began by referring to the question Jesus asked His disciples: "Who do men say that the Son of man is?" The cardinal observed that this question "implies an important suggestion: the answer of Christian faith must also take into consideration the search of those who do not share it. This was already the position of the Council when it invited the Church not to refuse what was true and holy in other religions."

Cardinal Tomko stated that, from the Council on, the Church has taught "that dialogue with other religions is part of the evangelizing mission of the Church."

The cardinal said that when Peter, asked by Jesus Who He was, "confessed his faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God," Jesus answered that this had been revealed by His "'Father Who is in heaven'. Here we have another important suggestion: this profession of faith is the work of grace."

Cardinal Tomko then underlined that, "while it encourages us to deepen this theme, 'since it is certainly useful for understanding better God's salvific plan and the ways in which it is accomplished', the recent document 'Dominus Iesus' warns against 'considering the Church as one way of salvation alongside those constituted by other religions, seen as complementary to the Church, or substantially equivalent to her, even if these are said to be converging with the Church towards the eschatological kingdom of God. This warning does not place limits on God's salvific action but asks that it be considered globally."

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