Relativism Seen Creeping Into Catholic Theology

Ilaria Morali Addresses Congress on Mysticism

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ANCONA, Italy, DEC. 4, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The ideas of relativism that permeate secular thought are also advancing in some areas of Catholic theology, warned theologian Ilaria Morali.

The dogmatic theologian made these affirmations at the congress on «Christian Mystical Experience, Non-Christian Mysticism and New Western Religiosity,» held until Saturday in Ancona at March Polytechnic University. It was organized by the East-West Center.

Morali, a theology professor at the Gregorian University, quoted from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Benedict XVI) and said that relativism, which considers all religions valid and equal, is becoming «the central problem for faith in our time.»

There is a tendency, according to Morali, to «profess an idea of the divine reality and of the relationship between man and God which is totally incompatible with faith, to the point that it rejects the fact that Christian revelation can aspire to have a unique character.»

«The universal value of a personal relationship between God and man, attested by Christian revelation, is excluded,» she said.

«The doctrine of friendship with God through grace is the foundation of Christian mysticism,» she said, and in this sense, it has a unique character.

The theologian urged that one not allow oneself to be «subjugated by the impersonal God worshipped by the relativists so as to again encounter the God of Jesus Christ, the personal face and friend of salvation.»

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