U.S. Catholic bishops, acting at the direction of the Vatican, have rebuked a theologian at Georgetown University for writings that they say conflict with church doctrine on the uniqueness of Christianity and Catholicism.<\/p>\n
In a 15-page statement released Monday, the bishops’ Committee on Doctrine criticized the 2004 book Being Religious Interreligiously: Asian Perspectives on Interfaith Dialogue by the Rev. Peter C. Phan.<\/p>\n
Phan is a Vietnamese native and a priest of the Dallas diocese. He teaches in Washington and is a former president of the Catholic Theological Society of America.<\/p>\n
The bishops specifically criticized Phan for arguing that Christ should not be described as the “unique,” “absolute” or “universal” savior of humankind; that non-Christian religions offer an “autonomous” path to salvation; and that past injustices committed by the Catholic Church disqualify it from claiming to be the “unique and universal instrument of salvation.”<\/p>\n
In what they presented as a “positive restatement” of relevant Catholic teaching, the bishops asserted that Christ “brings together humanity and divinity in a way that can have no parallel in any other figure in history.”<\/p>\n