ANNY YENNY reports at the website Politichicks that her eighth-grade son was given extra credit by his Catholic school religion teacher for fasting on the first day of Ramadan. When the mother complained, the teacher objected and “lectured [her] on the superiority of Muslims to Christians.”

The principles of ecumenism put forth at Vatican II lead with irrevocable logic to teaching Catholics how to be good Muslims.

— Comments —-

Daniel S. writes:

 You wrote:

The principles of ecumenism put forth at Vatican II lead with irrevocable logic to teaching Catholics how to be good Muslims.

I must disagree with this statement. I would classify myself among those skeptical of Vatican II and what came out of it, but I see nothinig in Vatican II that would encourage, even implicitly, Catholics to become Muslims or that Islam is superior to the Church. I would agree that the post-Vatican II ecumenical spirit is beset with an attitude of relativism, compromise (in a negative sense), and, in all to many corners, inferiority (see Thomas Molnar’s Ecumenism or New Reformation).

As far as this specific case is concerned, I would wonder if the teacher in question was even a Catholic (I know that many Catholic schools hire non-Catholics, even non-Christians). I would blame this particular problem not on Vatican II  per se (which certainly does deserve its share of blame for a good many other things), but on the school’s administration, which seemingly made little effort to find a suitable Catholic teacher to instruct the children in religious studies. I suspect the administration is made up of the usual politically correct types who thought they were being diverse and inclusive by hiring this female teacher.

Laura writes:

I was being somewhat facetious when I made that statement. I did not mean that the Church is directly teaching Catholics how to be good Muslims but that the ecumenical drift of Vatican II led to the idea, explicitly taught by the Church today, that Muslims worship the same God, a concept which irrevocably leads to the sort of comparative religion courses this eighth grader was taking. I do not entirely blame this teacher. “Comparative religion” in this context is synonymous with religious relativism.

Daniel responds:

You wrote:

I do not entirely blame this teacher. “Comparative religion” in this context is synonymous with religious relativism.

I would agree with that. I think most of the blame should fall on the school administration that clearly did not properly evaluate this woman’s character or religious orthodoxy. (I am of course assuming that those in positions of administration have some nominal adherence to orthodoxy.)

You are also correct that these “comparative religion” courses are often tantamount to religious relativism. Clearly it was not expected to be taught from that position that the Church is the True Faith. If that was the case than no teacher who would proclaim the superiority of Islam over Christianity would have been allowed into such a position. But then again we end up with my earlier charge against the administration, which clearly doesn’t place much stress on Catholic orthodoxy.

On an aside, the teacher in question apparently no longer works at the school. If she is still interested in working at Catholic schools teaching the superiority of Islam over Christianity than might I suggest she try Indonesia. The Muslim government in one of the provinces there has recently compelled Catholic schools there to offer Islamic lessons or else risk being shut down.