In the files of novelty for the masses a new file was just created, booked and filed away. Monsignor Swetland of EWTN fame and the head of Donnelly college, was recently in a debate with Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch (himself a Melkite - Eastern Catholic).
The whole article can be had HERE
"Msgr. Swetland contends that statements of recent Popes to the effect that Islam is a religion of peace fall into the category of teachings to which Catholics must give “religious assent,” as per the quotation below from the Second Vatican Council document Lumen Gentium.
If Msgr. Swetland is correct, then I am, as he puts it, “a dissenter from the papal magisterium.” So also, then, would be millions of other Catholics, including Catholics from the Middle East who have borne the brunt of Muslim persecution of Christians and know what Islam teaches, such as the gentleman from Lebanon who phoned in to the Mariani Show during my discussion with Msgr. Swetland. If Msgr. Swetland is correct, then Catholics must affirm that Islam is a religion of peace as part and parcel of being Catholic, and the Catholic Church will be requiring that its faithful affirm the truth of what is an obvious and egregious falsehood, as I demonstrated here and in many other places.
If Msgr. Swetland is correct, and it is Church teaching that all Catholics must accept that Islam is a religion of peace, then the Catholic hierarchy will have demonstrated that it does not have the authority or reliability in discerning and transmitting the truth that it claims to have; Papal claims to speak in the name of Christ will be eviscerated; and the Catholic Church as a whole exposed as a fraud...
It is very important for all believers that the authentic teaching of the Church be clear so that we may know the truth and attempt to live it to the full. I submit that there is a serious difference between the repeated magisterial teachings of the Church and the teaching of Robert Spencer in this area. For the sake of all, this situation needs to be clarified.
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Quite the interesting time for Msgr Swetland to be touting the Religion of Peace Dogma in the name of the Church. It was just last week that Abp Pozzo noted once again (cause Ratzinger had said this before) that the documents related to inter religious and ecumenical relations are not dogmatic, but pastoral letters which could never be bound on the Church as a whole because they are novel and do not relate to a matter of faith or morals. One Peter Five did a sum of this the other day which you can find HERE.
I seem to remember that every time traditional Catholic teachings that dealt with matters in relation to Jews or Muslims we are told constantly that we must approach it in the light of Nostra Aetate, as if a one size fits all definition fits reality.
Perhaps Msgr Swetland can spend a sabbatical in Iraq and Syria with his brother priests to experience non heretical Orthodox Islam? Just saying... but conservative Catholicism and EWTN approved?!
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An excellent follow up from the Thomist Edward Feser HERE
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Fr. Chad Ripperger also addressed this question and the question about whether Allah is the same God we as Christians worship in the following talk at the 58 min 50 second mark about. His response is different than Edward Feser who is also a Thomist on the latter issue:
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