Adressing the problems, potential of eccumenical dialogue as it relates to Catholics

First let me begin in the practical world by stating clear, obvious facts that everyone already knows.

There are more than one religion on this planet. There are those with religion, those without it, those seeking it and those seeking to destroy it or ignore it. In short, a listing of all the various types of belief on earth is incomprehensibly large.

That said, we've only got one planet. There is a finite amount of space in which these belief structures must exist.

This means, of course, that to a degree we need to get along. I don't have to like or even respect Scientologists, but I can't run them over with my car or society doesn't work.

And since the western world has settled on the idea of freedom of religion, that means many times opposing believers will be neighbors in the truest sense.

All these facts have rightly led to ecumenical, that is to say inter-faith, dialogue. Often this will be a group of religious organizations banding together for a cause or sometimes banding together just to find common ground.

Let me stress, this is generally a good thing.

Christians, Jews and Muslims can find common ground in their common ancestry, Confucians and Buddhists can learn their similarities, neo-pagans and Mormons can meet face to face etc. When you put a face of a human being to a religion, unless you're a real bastard or fanatic, you're going to soften your dislike, distrust fear etc. All good things.

Here though is the issue. If you are a member of a faith that believes itself to be correct (most of them), believes that this world is only part of our existence (still most of them), believe that others will benefit by hearing of this (little less, still most) and believe that only your faith is the right one (IE, Christianity, Judaism, Islam and their offshoots), then it isn't so simple.

As Roman Catholics, we are Christianity. Of course you could call us offshoots of the Jews, that's kind of accurate but I digress.

The problem with ecumenicism today isn't ecumenicism itself, but rather the culture of total acceptance. The world is telling young people today that everything is ok. To be completely honest, in the realm of public sentiment it appears the neo-pagan religion of Wicca has won the day with it's creed of "An it harm none, do what thou will."

As young Catholics grow up, most aren't lucky enough to get private schooling that will teach them the faith. The CCD programs (religious teaching programs) for public schools kids are great, if parents bother to take them. And worse, so many Catholic parents don't know or care enough about their faith to teach their kids.

So the kids glean what they can from Sunday mass or at least from Christmas and Easter mass. Then they watch men making out on Glee, they see the (usually justifiably) negative media attention the Church gets, they date Mormons (Mary T, I'm talking to you here lol (also everyone note I'm not opposed to interfaith dating)) and at the end of the day, they've forgotten they are part of a religion of the truth and they join the religion of the world.

The same thing can happen with ecumenical dialogue. If a Catholic of weak belief or one who lacks education on the faith enters into such dialogue, instead of coming out of it with the correct belief that "We are all God's children," he may leave it thinking "We all serve the same God," which unfortunately isn't exactly true.

Your basic Abrahamic religions all recognize the same God's existence, but the contradiction in beliefs, the differences in the plan of salvation in each, are too great to be said to serve the same purpose completely. For example, Christian ultra-offshoot Branch Davidians believe David Koresh was God and was right to nail 14-year old "wives" of his. Mainstream Christianity believes marriage is between one man and one woman and that polygamy is adultery. Which is it? You see my point.

Through ecumenical dialogue the world can be a better place. Muslims can see that Jews aren't the work of the devil so much as they can be seen as conservators of scripture. Catholics can see that protestants aren't a scourge on the earth, but help cast a wider net that can bring people to the faith. Non-believers can see the good believers do and vice versa.

With ecumenical dialogue the world can be a much much much better place, but if it comes at the expense of abandoning the truth then as nice as it might be, it's not a place worth living in.