The Conversion Agenda

"Freedom to convert" is counterproductive as a generalized doctrine. It fails to come to terms with the complex interrelationships between self and society that make the concept of individual choice meaningful. Hence, religious conversion undermines, and in extremes would dissolve, that individual autonomy and human freedom.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Pope says God wants Converts and People Must Fear Him

Contributed by Ugo Lancione, Vatican Correspondent
Wednesday, 11 May 2005
mithuro.com
PRESSESC

The precise aim of divine intervention is to coerce people into conversion, Pope Benedict XVI said today.

He told a 17,000-strong faithful at today's general audience, held in St. Peter's Square that throughout history god has interfered with events of the world and has "his way" with affairs of people.

"History is not in the hands of dark forces, of chance, or of merely human choices," the pontiff said. "The Lord, supreme arbiter of historical events, rises above the discharge of evil energies, the vehement onslaught of Satan, the emergence of plagues and wickedness. He knowingly guides history to the dawn of the new heaven and the new earth, as mentioned in the last part of the book in the image of the new Jerusalem."

"Nations must learn to 'read' in history a message from God," he added. "The human adventure is not confused and meaningless, nor is it hopelessly condemned to the prevarication of the domineering and the perverse."

He highlighted the possibility of "recognizing divine action hidden in history," and of openness to "fearing the name of God."

"Thanks to fear of the Lord, one is not afraid of the evil raging through history and can vigorously resume the road of life," the 78-year-old pontiff concluded.

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