Canada September 26, 2023
Catholics must help combat ‘anti-faith’ forces, imam tells bishops as plenary opens
By Peter Stockland
A Muslim imam urged Canada’s Catholic bishops at their annual plenary assembly to speak out for “moral rights,” while also being counselled by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines to pursue reforms that make the Church “open to all.”
Imam Abdul Hai Patel used brief remarks during a session on inter-religious dialogue to laud the “historic moment” of a new formal working relationship between Catholic and Muslim leaders. But Patel told the assembled bishops a key aspect of moving forward in good faith is asserting common moral positions in the face of “anti-faith” forces.
Mosque and Church dialogue, he said, can be a means to counterbalance those whose assertion of human rights seek to override the moral foundations of both faiths.
“We cannot solve the problems of the Middle East, but as inheritors of Abrahamic faith we can work together to solve the problems of Canada and preserve the values of our faith,” the imam said.
His comments came in advance of the soft launch of a website in development since 2019 that will serve as a forum for “building bridges” between Catholicism and Islam, which he noted is now the second largest faith tradition in Canada. The site, Fraternitas.ca, is expected to be public early in 2024.
“The values of our faiths are being challenged by the anti-faith movement, so we have to be steadfast in our principles and speak out,” Imam Patel told The Catholic Register following his comments to the bishops. “These are issues I hope we will go forward on together.”
He said the Sept. 20 Muslim-initiated Canada-wide march against “gender ideology” in schools is one such issue, but so is medically assisted suicide (MAiD), which he said he has discussed with Archbishop Emeritus Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto.
Imam Patel’s urgency contrasted with the tone, although not the message, delivered by Cardinal Tagle, the Vatican’s Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, at the opening of the plenary assembly held at Kingsbridge Conference Centre north of Toronto.
Speaking via video link from his native Philippines, Cardinal Tagle placed the bureaucratic reform of the Roman Curia in the much deeper context of Church renewal to rouse evangelization and revive in Catholics awareness that “every Christian is a missionary disciple” of Christ.
As such, he told the Canadian bishops, the restructuring of the curia according to Pope Francis’ Apostolic Constitution Predicate Evangelium is not meant to be read as a “set of bylaws” that all dioceses, and by inference parishes, must follow by rote globally.
“Do not clone the Roman Curia,” Cardinal Tagle said. “There is no intention of doing that.”
Rather, he stressed, the reforms are intended to promote the essential “missionary conversion of the whole Church.” Francis sees structural change to the bureaucratic offices of the Church exemplified by the establishment of the dicastery offices as an “optic” to more clearly see how the evangelizing mission can be galvanized and carried out.
“Reform is not an end,” Cardinal Tagle said. “It’s a means to more effective evangelization.”
He noted that while all dicasteries within the Vatican are theoretically equal, the dicastery of evangelization is referenced first – and Francis presides over it.
“The Bishop of Rome is to be the first evangelizer. He is the universal pastor.”
That puts the curia at the service of the Church, and certainly not “above the bishops” in Canada or anywhere else: “The curia should serve the bishops.”
Its renewal, framed in the language of Pentecost, seeks to overcome divisions within the Church that arose from “ethnic, ritual, tribal and caste” affiliations and unify Catholics not just with each other but with the world they are called to evangelize.
“The Church must become a home for all, especially those who feel they do not belong,” Cardinal Tagle said. “(It is) not only for the Catholic Church but for the whole of creation.”
The bookend-style messages delivered by Cardinal Tagle and Imam Patel were apropos to the timing of the plenary itself, which comes as four Canadian bishops set off next week for the month-long Synod on Synodality in Rome, which Pope Francis has heralded as a global opportunity to renew the Church as a “listening” institution primarily.
One of them is Vancouver Archbishop J. Michael Miller, who was asked at a press conference how he foresees the differing emphases represented by Patel and Tagle being addressed at the October event.
“We’ll see how that works out,” he said with a shrug and a broad smile.
Canadian Catholic News