Cardinal doubles down after saying Church should not ‘convert’ people
Cardinal Vesco responded to Bishop Barron's correction by saying that Catholics, Jews, and Muslims have 'better things to do' than trying to convert one another.
(LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, the archbishop of Algiers, Algeria, responded to Bishop Robert Barron’s correction of his erroneous statement that the Catholic Church is “not there to convert” by doubling down and saying that Catholics and members of other monotheistic religions have “better things to do” than trying to convert one another.
In an October 30 social media post responding to Bishop Barron, Vesco highlighted the actions of recent popes, including John Paul II’s Assisi meetings, Pope Benedict XVI’s building closer ties with Muslims, Pope Francis’ Abu Dhabi declaration, and Pope Leo XIV’s prayers inside a mosque.
Citing these recent interfaith examples, Vesco declared that believers from the three monotheistic religions (Christians, Jews, Muslims) have “better things to do than try to convert one another” and should instead “respect one another.”
“(T)he Church that gives life to me is the Church of Saint John Paul II and the interreligious declaration of Assisi, whose 40th anniversary was celebrated in recent days and which Pope Leo had planned to attend; the Church of Pope Benedict, who, together with Cardinal Tauran, developed more ties with the Muslim world than any pope before him; the Church of Pope Francis, with the Abu Dhabi Declaration on Human Fraternity, signed with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar on February 4, 2019; and the Church of Pope Leo, with his visit to Algeria and his silent prayer at the Great Mosque of Algiers, shoulder to shoulder with the rector,” Vesco wrote.
The French Algerian prelate, who has also repeatedly contradicted the Church’s teaching on same-sex “marriage” and gender ideology, continued:
Yes, I believe that the believers of the three monotheistic religions have better things to do than to seek to convert one another. Rather, they should accept that there is a measure of what they cannot know about the faith of the other, and respect one another in their respective faiths. Our world needs believers who are deeply rooted in their own faith and who recognize one another as brothers and sisters in our one sacred humanity.
In a viral X post on Thursday, Bishop Barron publicly corrected Vesco’s “puzzling take” that the Church should not convert non-Catholics, reminding the prelate that Our Lord Himself instructed the apostles to convert the world, that St. Paul and others traveled abroad to specifically convert them to Christ, not solely to “listen or to form a discussion group.”
In a recent interview with Belgian Catholic news site CathoBel, and reported by AdVaticanum, Vesco caused a global scandal by stating: “We are the Church of this people. Not a proselytizing Church, not a Church that is there to convert, but a Church that aspires to be one of the components of this people.”
He further asserted that “in monotheistic religions, proselytism is poison, because it implies considering the other person’s religion false.”
“Do we see ourselves as a besieged fortress? Or do we choose fraternity?” Vesco asked. “For me, it is the only worthwhile option.”