92 Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Catholic-Muslim Relations: Post-Vatican II

Although, as Clare Amos remarks, the ‘Second Vatican Council did not resolve
the dialectic between the demands of mission and evangelization and the
imperative of interreligious engagement’, nonetheless among the number of
significant documents that have been produced by the relevant offices and
organisations of the Holy See in the years since Vatican II, two produced by the
Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID) do in fact ‘wrestle with
this relationship between interreligious dialogue and mission’.1 These are the
1984 milestone The Attitude of the Church toward Followers of Other Religions
(ACTFOR), subtitled ‘Reflections and Orientations on Dialogue and Mission’,
and the 1991 seminal Dialogue and Proclamation (DP) issued jointly by the
Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and PCID. By contrast, Dominus
Iesus (DI), the controversial document of the Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith issued at the turn of the millennium, was widely regarded as pouring
cold water on both ecumenical and interreligious relations. Although it did not
resile from either sets of relations; it was mainly concerned to supply dogmatic
correctives to perceived theological laxities within the Catholic fold. It was, in
effect, a call to reassert the fundamentals of Catholic Christian identity and
faith as both the basis of, and setting the discursive parameters for, interreli-
gious dialogical engagements. Perceptions and perspectives may be debated;
the place of interreligious dialogue, and within that priority for dialogue with
Islam, is vouchsafed nonetheless. Arguably, behind the impetus to engage in
interreligious dialogue lay the Catholic Church’s implicit acceptance of the
fact of religious plurality, or diversity, as something theologically valid –
although not, we should note, endorsing the ideological stance of pluralism
which is a conceptual framework for comprehending and valuing that plural-
ity – together with a particular concern for Christian–Muslim relations, both
pragmatically and in terms of theological coherence.

1 Clare Amos, ‘Vatican and World council of Churches Initiatives: Weaving Interreligious
Threads on Ecumenical Looms’, in Paul Hedges (Ed), Contemporary Muslim-Christian-
Encounters: Developments, Diversity and Dialogues (London: Bloomsbury, 2015), p. 189.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2017 | doi 10.1163/9789004344945_007

Catholic-Muslim Relations: Post-Vatican II 93

1 Early Years of Dialogue

The first Christian–Muslim meeting under the aegis of the work of the Secre­
tariat for Non-Christians (SNC) took place in Khartoum, Sudan, in January
1968. In 1969 Pope Paul VI made a number of visits during which he met for-
mally with Muslim leaders. He spoke to a large public gathering of Muslims in
Uganda where he stated: ‘You thus enable us to manifest here our high respect
for the faith you profess, and our hope that what we hold in common may
serve to unite Christians and Muslims ever more closely, in true brotherhood’.2
Considerable resources for the purposes of dialogical consultations were gen-
erated by the Secretariat and applied to the work of the Church, including the
production of guidebook in 1969.3 The SNC forged a working relationship with
another Papal organisation based in Rome, the Pontifical Institute for the
Study of Arabic and Islam (PISAI). A conference organised on the subject of
Islam and Dialogue was held at PISAI in November 1971 at which Muhammad
Talbi, professor of history at the University of Tunis, was the guest speaker.
Talbi’s was an encouraging voice championing a Muslim appreciation of the
prospect for dialogue that squared with the hopes and aspirations emanating
from Vatican II. From quite early on in its life the SNC participated in a host of
organised dialogues throughout the world and worked in conjunction not only
with other Vatican offices and organisations but also a number of Muslim
groups, especially in respect of jointly organised ventures and promulgated
outcomes. Furthermore, it was also involved with allied activities with the
World Council of Churches (WCC). One such significant early event was a con-
sultation held at Ajaltoun, in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1970 which, although it took
place at the initiative of the WCC, nevertheless involved representatives from
both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches, together with representa-
tives from ten other religions. A report on this consultation noted:

Both the formal discussions and the private ones, and the opportunity of
taking part in common prayer or meditations prepared by the different
members of the various religions, contributed to the emergence of a
deeper mutual understanding not only at a level of ideas, but also at a

2 PCID, Recognize the Spiritual Bonds which Unite Us: 16 years of Christian-Muslim dialogue
(Vatican City: PCID, 1994), p. 7.
3 Maurice Borrmans, Guidelines for Dialogue between Christians and Muslims, trans. R. Marston
Speight (New York: Paulist Press, 1990).