Religions and the religious dimension

26. In her mission of proclaiming the Gospel to all men and women of all cultures, which also always involves the inculturation of faith, the Church comes into contact with traditional religions, above all in Africa and Asia.(²²) Local Churches are invited and encouraged to study the traditional cultures and religious practices of their own region, to reach a discernment of values, customs and rites which might help root Christianity more deeply in local cultures (cf. Ad Gentes, 19 and 22).

The «return» or «reawakening» of the religious dimension in the West certainly calls for rigorous discernment. It is often more a question of religious feeling than of a demanding personal commitment to God, in a communion of faith with the Church. Still, none could deny that a growing number of men and women are turning once again to a dimension of human existence which they call spiritual, religious or sacred, as the case may be. It is worth noting, by the way, that this is largely something which affects young or poor people - which is all the more reason to pay careful attention to it - and brings them back to Christianity, which had left them quite disillusioned. Some of them will have turned to other religions, and others will have been enticed into sects, or turned to the occult.

All over the world, a whole new range of possibilities is opening up for a pastoral approach to culture to bring the light of Christ's Gospel to the hearts of men. On many points there needs to be a re-formulation of Christian faith which is more accessible to dominant cultures, because of the competition caused by the profusion on all sides of diffuse forms of religiosity.

A search for dialogue and its necessary correlative - a clearer identification of what is specific to Christianity - are an increasingly significant area of reflection and action in the proclamation of faith in our cultures. This is the frame of reference of the challenge a pastoral approach to culture faces in sects (cf. Ecclesia in America, 73), whose cultural effects are closely linked to those produced by their Aspiritual» content. This situation calls for rigorous reflection on the way we live tolerance and religious liberty in our societies (cf. Dignitatis Humanae, 4). Priests and lay people must, of course, be better trained to be competent discerners of sects and the reasons for their success, but we should never lose sight of the fact that the best weapon in the fight against sects is the quality of ecclesial life. Priests need to be ready to face the challenge from sects, but also to help the faithful who are in danger of leaving the Church and giving up their faith.