Joondanna priest Fr Peter Porteous had no way of predicting the protests and bloodshed that have ripped through the Islamic world in the past two weeks.
But it seems the information session on Islam he has helped to convene and will run at his parish this weekend, couldn’t have come at a better time.
God calls on all Catholics to be peacemakers, both through Scripture and Church teaching, Fr Porteous told The Record late last week. And peace begins at home.
“There is enough ignorance out there that is causing trouble. We really need to be, as Catholics, putting our hands out, to be the ones who initiate peace,” Fr Porteous said, pointing to the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on dialogue with non-Christian religions, Nostra Aetate.
Muslims believe in many of the same things we do, he said: the virgin birth; appropriate devotion to Mary; the spiritual patrimony of Abraham, Moses and Aaron; and that Jesus was the messiah – “al Masih”, the annointed one.
Perhaps the pivotal point of difference is Muslims do not believe Jesus Christ to be a person of the Godhead: Muslims are unitarian and do not believe God consists of three distinct persons.
Islam, much like the fractured corpus of Christianity riven by the East-West Schism and the Reformation, is far from being a unified religion.
Its three central traditions, Sunni, Shia and Sufism, are not only distinct from one another but internally diverse in their histories and theologies.
Violent protests and uprisings throughout the Middle East, Asia and here at home, are largely the function of a specific, hardline minority (Wahabism) emanating from Saudi Arabia.
Fr Porteous cited St Paul, saying there were many paths to God, describing Catholicism as containing God’s fullest revelation.
Islam also contained revelation and might be more suited to an adherent’s personality, Fr Porteous said (“it may not be the wrong path for them”).
The Joondanna priest has been interested in inter-faith dialogue and Islam since his earliest days in the seminary.
He studied at the National Centre for Excellence in Islamic Studies, a school of Melbourne University, during his first Masters degree, and is a member of the Archdiocesan Ecumenical Affairs Committee under whose aegis this weekend’s session is being run.
“One of the advantages of studying or trying to understand another person’s religion is that it leads you to a deeper appreciation of your own faith,” Fr Porteous said.
“You win more people to God and for God through love and understanding than you do through criticism and correction.
“There is a time for that but, at the same time, if you condemn or judge another religion, that is in fact quite un-Christian.
“We are not called judge or deem who is going to hell or who is going to heaven. It is for God the Father to judge that.”
Islam, a Life of Faith will take place at St Denis’ Church, Joondanna this Saturday from 9am – 12pm.