Speakers see no contradiction between dialogue, evangelization

Published: 2003-10-30

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- There is no contradiction between evangelization and ecumenical or interreligious dialogue, a leading theologian and a top Vatican official said in Washington Oct. 25. U.S. Cardinal Avery Dulles and Archbishop Michael L. Fitzgerald, president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, were featured speakers at a symposium at Trinity College marking the 25th anniversary of EPS -- Education, Parish, Service -- a lay ministry training program for adults that is affiliated with the college. The symposium topic was "Evangelization, Ecumenism, Interreligious Relations." Speaking on evangelization and ecumenism, Cardinal Dulles said the two are intimately related because, in the words of the Second Vatican Council, discord among Christians "openly contradicts the will of Christ, provides a stumbling block to the world and inflicts damage on the most holy cause of proclaiming the good news to every creature." Cardinal Dulles, an internationally known Jesuit theologian, said, "The ecumenical movement, if it succeeded fully in its task, would greatly contribute to the work of missionary evangelization."

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