Vatican To Reach Out To Atheists

By Francis X. Rocca
Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican announced a new initiative aimed at promoting dialogue between theists and atheists to be launched with a two-day event this March in Paris.

The Vatican's Pontifical Council for Culture will sponsor a series of seminars on the theme of "Religion, Light and Common Reason," at various locations in the city, including Paris-Sorbonne University.

The events will conclude with a party for youth in the courtyard of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, followed by prayer and meditation inside the cathedral.

The initiative, called "Courtyard of the Gentiles," takes its name from a section of the ancient Temple of Jerusalem accessible to non-Jews, which Pope Benedict XVI has used as a metaphor for dialogue between Catholics and non-believers.

"I believe that the church should also today open a sort of `courtyard of the gentiles' where men can in some way hook on to God, without knowing Him and before having gained access to His mystery," Benedict said in Dec. 2009.

The pope has made turning back the tide of Western secularism one of the major campaigns of his papacy. The Vatican last year established the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization to focus especially on promoting Christianity in Europe.

Comments

[Aj Deus]

04:45 AM on 03/25/2011

The public dialogue with Atheists could benefit from the new publication „The Great Leap-Fraud, Social Economics of Religious Terrorism.“ It is a saga of deceit and fraud under cover of religion through 2300 years of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In its approach as one piece of the struggle against poverty, it includes all necessary primary evidence how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict unfolds through the eye of history.
Herbert L. Calhoun asks in his review for The Great Leap-Fraud by author A.J. Deus:
“Is this the Historico-religious Trifecta of the Century?
It is my considered opinion that all the Sam Harrises, Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennetts in the world could not have made a more profound statement about why ridding the world of organized religion must remain postmodern man's most urgent task than the case made here by this author.”
Summaries can be found at ajdeus.org.

[RhysJ W]

12:00 PM on 03/23/2011

When Christianity is in charge we call it the dark ages. When free thought and reason is in charge we call it enlightenment. I'm on the side of the latter.

[Macnos]

11:24 PM on 03/24/2011

That's got absolutely nothing to do with the article. you probably just read the headline and headed straight to the comments section to post your anti-religion rant.

[RhysJ W]

11:41 PM on 03/24/2011

I read it, and its just the church trying to regain some influence on people, even ones that want nothing to do with them and the horrors that they incurred on humanity. If you want to be at peace with something that evolved from a house of lies to a house a pedophilia then be my guest.

[robertradliff]

11:53 PM on 03/03/2011

don't cave, Atheists. Don't cave.

[Macnos]

11:25 PM on 03/24/2011

It's about dialogue buddy. Somehow i don't think the Vatican gives a damn about saving atheists.

[New Yorker]

04:19 PM on 03/03/2011

Dear Atheists, for your own personal edification please read the words of Lucia, the surviving child of the Fatima Miracles who just died a few years back. The account of actually viewing hell by the 3 children was, she explained, probably capable of killing the children who saw the horror and heard the terrible cries of torment and agony from the poor lost souls writhing aolngside the many hideous demons for whom hell was originally created. Had the Blessed Mother not first assured them they would each be going to heaven, Lucia felt they would have never survived the experience. As children their account of this is in the historical record of the events that surrounded Fatima in 1917 from may 13th to October 13th. Today 4 million pilgrims visit Fatima, Portugal each year.

[New Yorker]

09:15 AM on 02/28/2011

The church is simply doing its job, locating sinners, and attempting to save them from the fires of hell. For God, all things are possible, but this seems to be a crowd eager to get burned.

[Zavier simpson]

07:39 AM on 02/12/2011

Oh please! so they THEISTS......... seeking alliance? no............way....... i dont want to hear anything from them.. Religion had their chance and blew it, it's ANTi-Theists turn to correct this world.. through Logists and Science.

[Macnos]

11:30 PM on 03/24/2011

You should be a diplomat buddy. We should all refuse to enter into dialogue with those who hold views different from ours, the last thing we want is for something positive to come out of it, right?

[Ricardo Valentin]

07:51 PM on 02/09/2011

Wonderful initiative of dialog between the church and the hellbound. Well as least they are not as bad as the heathens. I am sure some thought foundly about the cruzades and wondered why we are not so religious anymore.

[StevieRayB]

07:49 PM on 02/09/2011

"Religion, Light and Common Reason,"

Oops, can you say "oxymoron" ???

[Imzadi]

07:56 PM on 02/08/2011

Hilarious - why would they approach a losing cause?

[Nigel Patel]

08:49 PM on 02/09/2011

Why should we suck up to his holiness when we can go on ignoring him?

[bob5148]

07:24 PM on 02/08/2011

I am certain that the Gays, Women's rights and Progressives will be blamed for this too

[SpiralUp]

03:57 PM on 02/04/2011

they are running out of little boys

[Pembrokelib]

08:21 AM on 02/03/2011

I doubt if any ex Catholic atheists would want to rejoin a church whose
Leader has tolerated and even rewarded pedophile priests, refused to allow
Starving people to limit the size of their families, and seems totally ignorant
About what is going on in the world. The Vatican is run by ultra conservative
Clergy who will not listen to any liberal priests or consider reform in the church. I cannot imagine why anyone would want to have a dialogue with
Anyone there.

[Paul Robertson]

03:08 AM on 02/03/2011

What I don't get is why his holiness thinks anyone will turn up other than to cause trouble. While the church may have an interest in converting atheists, atheists want nothing from the church other than to be left alone. What does Benedict's club offer to the non-believer?

[Bernard Mulcahy]

01:30 PM on 02/26/2011

Honestly? He thinks people will show up because he knows European intellectuals, and knows that some number of atheists are interested in dialogue with believers. The goal won't be conversion for either group. Instead the point is to build mutual understanding for the sake of living together in a better way. Besides the strictly religious message of "Benedict's club" there's a Catholic rational contribution to humanism, philosophy, ethics, politics, law, etc. It's true that lots of believers and non-believers would be uninterested in this, or hostile to it, but for the interested minority the March conference will be a chance to talk. And get free food, I suspect.

[GravitonX]

10:55 PM on 02/02/2011

Most atheists are just angry Christians who would resent the outreach because of years of issues with organized religion.

[Paul Robertson]

03:11 AM on 02/03/2011

I disagree. That paints atheism as merely an emotional rebellion against the authority of the church. In fact, for all atheists I've spoken to, it's been an intellectual decision, based on facts and science.
I will, however, happily concede that there are a lot of angry ex-Christians. Perhaps the pope would do well to consider why that is?

[Michael Mount]

07:42 AM on 02/05/2011

There is some truth to that in regards to Fundamentalist Christianity. Having child like views of your religion are all well and good as a child, but as you grow up you need a more rational explanation for your faith. On the other hand, people WANT to believe it's all superstitious nonsense, because they feel burdened by all the rules in organized religion, especially those teachings on sexuality. Most young people just don't want to be told they have to abstain from sex until marriage.

[commonsense76]

12:46 AM on 02/09/2011

It's not that I'm an angry, resentful Christian, it's just that I don't have any interest in believing in a rather poorly written two thousand year old story book. Plain and simple.

[njgal4obama]

10:19 PM on 02/02/2011

Hide your wife!

Hide your children!

Hide your husband!

[silverwolf13]

07:49 PM on 02/08/2011

You have to hide both your wife and your husband? You do have a progressive marriage.

[njgal4obama]

06:23 AM on 02/09/2011

Yes, I do. Thanks for noticing.

But I can't take credit for those lines. They belong to Antoine Dodson.