Vatican Plan to Make Asia Catholic

"Eccclesia in Asia" is a letter from Pope John Paul II to the clergy and lay people of Asia. Although its aim is to strengthen the missionary zeal of Catholics throughout Asia, it is also a document worth reading for any concerned non-Christians as to what to expect from the Vatican in its quest for world domination.

"Ecclesia in Asia" is a lengthy document, much of which is of little interest to non-Catholics, but there are some very important sections that need to be taken seriously. I am just going to highlight a few important quotes - the full document can be consulted online.

The purpose of the document is to lay down a strategy to convert Asians to Catholicism.

Religious and Cultural Realities

This paragraph sums up the whole Vatican outlook. "Asia is also the cradle of the world's major religions—Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. It is the birthplace of many other spiritual traditions such as Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, Jainism, Sikhism and Shintoism. Millions also espouse traditional or tribal religions, with varying degrees of structured ritual and formal religious teaching. The Church has the deepest respect for these traditions and seeks to engage in sincere dialogue with their followers. The religious values they teach await their fulfilment in Jesus Christ." Notice the contradiction in the last two sentences.

The first step is to create the idea that Jesus is Asian. Fairly hard to make this stick, but let us not forget that when the Jesus cult was being sold to the Romans the images of Jesus were of a clean-cut short-haired neo-Apollo. Not sure when the long-haired hippy look took hold.

The really big problem for Catholicism in Asia is that so many people have either a pantheistic or syncretistic religious view. Here in Thailand it is not uncommon to see household shrines with images of Buddha, Ganesh, Krishna, local holy men and sometimes even Taoist sages. "[...] many Asian Bishops referred to difficulties in proclaiming Jesus as the only Saviour."

But this is precisely the route to be taken into Asian homes, by preaching that Jesus is just another wise man - only pushing that he is unique when it is felt safe and profitable.

Key Areas of Inculturation

"The test of true inculturation is whether people become more committed to their Christian faith because they perceive it more clearly with the eyes of their own culture." Also,"It is they [the laity] above all who are called to transform society, in collaboration with the Bishops, clergy and religious, by infusing the "mind of Christ" into the mentality, customs, laws and structures of the secular world in which they live. A wider inculturation of the Gospel at every level of society in Asia will depend greatly on the appropriate formation which the local Churches succeed in giving to the laity." This, of course, includes political and economic action.

To sum up, the three steps are fairly simple:
Make Jesus Asian;
Put Jesus on people's shrines;
Declare Jesus the one and only saviour.

Oh, reading past some boring sections we come to some more great Vatican quotes.

Interreligious Dialogue

"From the Christian point of view, interreligious dialogue is more than a way of fostering mutual knowledge and enrichment; it is a part of the Church's evangelizing mission, an expression of the mission ad gentes." For the Vatican, "dialogue" is another word for "lecture". They only respect other religions because they have a rich source of new sheep to bring into the fold.

This is also amusing. "Only those with a mature and convinced Christian faith are qualified to engage in genuine interreligious dialogue." Otherwise there is the likely outcome that the Christian may actually apostate, which is not at all the wished-for result.

Ecclesia in Asia is available from the Vatican website.