Wednesday, November 14, 2007
INTERFAITH ENTERTAINMENT
Over at Threshing Grain Catherine of Siena has blogged an upcoming Interfaith Concert to be held at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington--in the church proper, I presume. She has also blogged the pertinent Canon Laws which this concert appears to violate.
The concert is being promoted by, among others, the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions, the Temple of Understanding, and United Religions Initiative.
The Basilica website links the InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington website which lists the faith communities involved: Baha'i, Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, Jain, Jewish, Latter-day Saints, Protestant, Roman Catholic, Sikh, and Zoroastrian. The concept of the event is "Advancing Justice, Building Community, Nurturing Understanding." While these are good intentions, they are not the stuff of religious service for which a church is set aside.
Such an event in a Catholic church amounts to syncretism and indifferentism. A Catholic church is the House of the Trinitarian God set aside for worship. It is not a concert hall. In addition, a fee is being charged for this concert which violates canon law.
Interfaith work in the name of peace can only go so far. It cannot usurp the province of the Trinitarian God. It must remain on the human level, which means that it cannot take place in God's house. This is outrageous!
