Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Rima Fakih and cognitive dissonance: "We practice both Muslim and Christian faiths"

Impossible.

Ms. Fakih, winner of the Miss USA pageant, makes an absurd claim.

First, Islam is not a faith it is a belief.

"The obedience of faith implies acceptance of the truth of Christ's revelation, guaranteed by God, who is Truth itself: 'Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time, and inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed'. Faith, therefore, as 'a gift of God' and as 'a supernatural virtue infused by him', involves a dual adherence: to God who reveals and to the truth which he reveals, out of the trust which one has in him who speaks. Thus, “we must believe in no one but God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”.

"For this reason, the distinction between theological faith and belief in the other religions, must be firmly held. If faith is the acceptance in grace of revealed truth, which 'makes it possible to penetrate the mystery in a way that allows us to understand it coherently',21 then belief, in the other religions, is that sum of experience and thought that constitutes the human treasury of wisdom and religious aspiration, which man in his search for truth has conceived and acted upon in his relationship to God and the Absolute."22 (Dominus Iesus)

Second, the perfect and complete revelation of the true God in Jesus Christ cannot coexist in any sincere way in the same person together with a cocktail of non-revealed human beliefs, no matter how they might be admixed with monotheism.

"Throughout the ages, there have been so-called 'private' revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ's definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the Magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church.

"Christian faith cannot accept 'revelations' that claim to surpass or correct the Revelation of which Christ is the fulfillment, as is the case in certain non-Christian religions and also in certain recent sects which base themselves on such 'revelations'." (CCC 67)

1 comment:

Kindred Spirit said...

Your words are perfectly on point, Father. However, I fear that the majority of those who call themselves Catholic do not understand what you have so clearly articulated in this post. What the Church sorely needs is authentic catechesis. May the Lord of the harvest soon find the necessary workers for His vineyard.


Thank you for visiting.

Followers

Kamsahamnida, Dziekuje, Terima kasih, Doh je, Grazie, Tesekur, Gracias, Dank u, Shukran

free counters