INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION PUBLISHES DOCUMENT ON CHRISTIAN MONOTHEISM AND VIOLENCE

Vatican City, 16 January 2014 (VIS) - The International Theological Commission, following studies carried out over the past five-year period (2009–2014), has drawn up a new document entitled: “God, the Trinity, and the Unity of Humanity: Christian Monotheism and its Opposition to Violence”. The text will appear in “La Civilta Cattolica”, no. 3926 (18 January 2014), the journal that traditionally publishes the Italian versions of the Commission’s documents. It will also be available, from today, on “La Civilta Cattolica’s” website (www.laciviltacattolica.it) as well as on the International Theological Commission’s webpage on the Vatican website (www.vatican.va). Awaiting its translation into the various languages, the Italian text is currently offered along with an introduction to the text in a few other languages.

As is evident from the document’s Preliminary Note, the text is the result of study regarding certain aspects of Christian discourse on God, particularly in response to theories that claim that a necessary relationship exists between monotheism and violence. The text was prepared by a subcommission composed of: Fr. Peter Damian Akpunonu, Fr. Gilles Emery, O.P., Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai, S.D.B., Bishop Charles Morerod, O.P., Fr. Thomas Norris, Fr. Javier Prades Lopez, Bishop Paul Rouhana, Fr. Pierangelo Sequeri, Fr. Guillermo Zuleta Salas, and the subcommission’s president, Fr. Philippe Vallin.

Between 2009 and 2013, the subcommission met to discuss the issue, which was also treated during the Commission’s plenary sessions. The present text was approved by the Commission “in forma specifica” on 6 December 2013, and was then submitted to the Commission’s president, Archbishop Gerhard L. Muller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who authorised its publication.