DID THE POPE PULL UP CARDINAL FRANCIS ARINZE ?

His Eminence Cardinal Francis Arinze said (05.03.2008) that on Good Friday all Catholics will pray that Jews, Muslims and others enter the Catholic Church, in general, to go to Heaven and to avoid Hell. Cardinal Arinze,at that time was the Prefect, of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Vatican.He  said that the Revised Prayer for the Conversion of the Jews, formulated by the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI is for the conversion, of the Jews, through Catholic Faith and the baptism of water.

This is our Catholic Faith, he said and that others (non-Catholics) are free to pray as they want.

He was speaking with me outside his office at the Vatican. He pointed out that when one has the Faith, one wants to share it.

Cardinal Arinze was referring to the prayers being said on Good Friday by Catholics, in the different rites; Latin, Greek, Syro-Malabar and not just the Tridentine Rite.

The same two questions were asked (26.02.2008) of the Secretary of Cardinal Francis Arinze, Mons. Anthony Kollamparampil (Tel: 06-69884005 Fax: 06-69883499). The answer was YES.

Mons. Anthony agreed that non-Catholics can be saved in their religion through the extraordinary means of salvation. However the ordinary means of salvation, to go to Heaven is the Catholic Church (Ad Gentes 7, Lumen Gentium 14). The religions itself are not means of salvation.

However the next time I saw Cardinal Arinze at St.Peters Basilica he looked at me with a scowl. Did the pope pull him for the statement he gave me ?

Why did he seem angry ? I quoted him directly and he also made a similiar statement earlier to someone else ?

Judaism

I must say that from the first day of my theological studies, the profound unity between the Old and New Testament, between the two parts of our Sacred Scripture, was somehow clear to me. I had realized that we could read the New Testament only together with what had preceded it, otherwise we would not understand it. Then naturally what happened in the Third Reich struck us as Germans, and drove us all the more to look at the people of Israel with humility, shame, and love.

In my theological formation, these things were interwoven, and marked the pathway of my theological thought. So it was clear to me – and here again in absolute continuity with John Paul II – that in my proclamation of the Christian faith there had to be a central place for this new interweaving, with love and understanding, of Israel and the Church, based on respect for each one’s way of being and respective mission[. . .]

A change also seemed necessary to me in the ancient liturgy. In fact, the formula was such as to truly wound the Jews, and it certainly did not express in a positive way the great, profound unity between Old and New Testament. For this reason, I thought that a modification was necessary in the ancient liturgy, in particular in reference to our relationship with our Jewish friends. I modified it in such a way that it contained our faith, that Christ is salvation for all. That there do not exist two ways of salvation, and that therefore Christ is also the savior of the Jews, and not only of the pagans. But also in such a way that one did not pray directly for the conversion of the Jews in a missionary sense, but that the Lord might hasten the historic hour in which we will all be united. For this reason, the arguments used polemically against me by a series of theologians are rash, and do not do justice to what was done. - Benedict XVI, “Light of the World: The Pope, the Church, and the Signs of the Times”, Ignatius Press, 2010. (From the website La Chiesa)(Emphasis added)