Francis' neo-Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco,
an anti-Catholic prelate, and Protestant Pastor Samuel Amédro spoke to
Cath.ch on 17 January about their often shared pipe dreams for the "one
Church". Here is what Vesco said:
- The "essential thing" is that we are "disciples of Christ" - whatever that means.
- The "institutional" Church is "really secondary".
- "For Samuel and me, there is only one Church".
- I am used to saying that in Algeria we are a Church of Christians and non-Christians.
- "If the Church is the body of which Christ is the head, then the Church is the whole of humanity."
- "For me, conversion means being sure of having the last word [= Christ], about God and about others".
-
For Vesco, being a missionary means saying: "This is what I live for"
and listening to others, to their part of the truth that we may not
have.
- "I don't feel comfortable with 'our holy mother the Church'".
- "Fraternity in Christ presupposes that there is a community, with boundaries, but that it transcends itself."
-
"Freedom of conscience is of course an issue, but if we approach it
from our own criteria, we will inevitably miss the way Muslims live it.
Nevertheless, we're not very far from the 'outside the Church, no
salvation' attitude that not everyone has yet overcome".
If this is the way the Church is run in Algeria, it will not last much longer.
Picture: © Mazur, CC BY-NC-ND, #newsCtwsdrgcxj