La teología de la liberación en prospectiva - Noticias más vistas

nally included in the Council’s agenda under Bea’s secretariat, which waselevated to the status of commission four months later. The death of PopeJohn did not prevent Catholic interfaith relations from continuing to counton papal support. On June 17, 1964 Paul vi established the Vatican Secretariatfor Non-Christians. As for the conciliar fathers, the topic was firstconsidered by them as a chapter of the decree on ecumenism, to be laterrelocated as an appendix of the same document. Later it migrated to theconstitution on the Church, one of the most important documents of thecouncil. Finally, it stood on its own as a separate declaration. 7The final draft evolved in the words of Bea from a little mustard seedinto a tree in which many birds found their nest. The German cardinal wasreferring to the inclusion in the document of Hinduism, Buddhism, andIslam, along with a call to universal fraternity and equality for all peoples,in addition to the original treatment of the Jewish people. The documentstated that the Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy innon-Christian religions and exhorted Catholics to acknowledge, keep andpromote the spiritual and moral goods as well as the social and culturalvalues present in them. Hindus and Buddhists, the heathens and idolatersof the past, were now portrayed as the seekers of purpose and meaningand the providers of answers to the deepest questions of the human heart.Muslims, the invaders of the Holy Land and of venerable sites of Christianantiquity, the archenemies during the Crusades, the expelled centuries-oldsettlers of the Iberian Peninsula, and the ever-threatening neighbors of theno-longer existing Ottoman Empire, were now depicted as fervent adorersof the true and living God of Abraham. And Jews, stigmatized with the responsibilityof the death of Jesus for centuries, were now exposed as God’sbeloved people and free from the charges now pertaining only to someJewish authorities and some of their followers during the time of Jesus andnot to future Jewish generations. 8When the final draft was presented to the conciliar fathers for the solemnvote, there were those who rejoiced in the groundbreaking characterof the declaration and those who regretted it deeply. The text was overwhelminglyapproved by 2,221 fathers but it received 88 negative votes.Only one other council document received a higher disapproval from the7 Henry, Les Relations, 285; For the foundation of the Secretariat, see Robert Sheard, InterreligiousDialogue in the Catholic Church Since Vatican ii, An Historical and Theological Study(Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1987), 9-13.8 Henry, Les Relations, 37, 287-305.Congreso Continental de Teología x 707