Understanding Islam and Roman Catholicism by Mike Gendron
Considering how Islam is so opposed to Christianity, we find it fascinating that the Vatican has included the Muslims in their plan of salvation (Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC], para. 841). Nearly 50 years ago, Roman Catholic Bishop Fulton Sheen predicted that Islam would be converted to Catholicism "through a summoning of the Moslems to a veneration of the Mother of God." He reasoned, "The Koran...has many passages concerning the Blessed Virgin. First of all, the Koran believes in her Immaculate Conception and also in her Virgin Birth. Mary, then, is for the Moslems the true Sayyida, or Lady." 1 More recently in a 1998 message to Islamic leaders, Pope John Paul II declared a unity of spirit already exists. He said, "There remains a spiritual bond which unites us and which we must strive to recognize and develop." At first glance, unity between Muslims and Catholics seems very unlikely but after a closer examination of the two religions we find much in common. Like Islam, Roman Catholicism has also offered spiritual inducements to those who put Christians to death. The Vatican offered plenary indulgences (the remission of punishment for sin) to those who killed "heretics." Those who died in such battles were offered immediate entrance into heaven. Other similarities between the two religions include the following...
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