Accusation of Sin or Tolerance? From Christian Thought on Tolerance

The Person and the Challenges Volume 11 (2020) Number 2, p. 187–197 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15633/pch.3757 Andrzej Zwoliński ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4712-1427 The Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow, Poland Accusation of Sin or Tolerance? From Christian Thought on Tolerance Abstract The Catholic Church is very diverse. This is its beauty and value. However, this can also be a cause of trouble. Where there are differences, conflicts may also arise. Some are open and want dialogue and conversation with everyone, about everything and in every possible way. They are always on the border. They try to understand the world and reach out to it and read the teaching of the Church in a modern way. They advocate reform and radical change. Others are conservative – they care more about preserving the most valuable things in the Church along the way. They care about tradition. They trust the wisdom of time. They do not want to make sudden changes. They look at the past with respect and draw wisdom and inspiration from it, in order to act today. There are different sensitivities, different spiritualities, and even different needs. Can conflicts be avoided? It is certainly not easy and also requires mutual tolerance. Keywords Church, tolerance, sin, freedom, person, human rights, heresy, John Paul II. A famous Christian preacher, Billy Graham (1918–2018), wrote in one of his articles: “One of the pet words of this age is “tolerance.” It is a good word, but we have tried to stretch it over too great an area of life. We have applied it too often where it does not belong. The word “tolerant” means “liberal,” “broad-minded,” 188 The Person and the Challenges Volume 11 (2020) Number 2, p. 187–197 “willing to put up with beliefs opposed to one’s convictions,” and “the allowance of something not wholly approved.” Tolerance, in one sense, implies the compromise of one’s convictions, a yielding of ground upon important issues. Hence, over-tolerance in moral issues has made us soft, flabby and devoid of conviction. We have become tolerant about divorce; we have become tolerant about the use of alcohol; we have become tolerant about delinquency; we have become tolerant about misconduct in high places; we have become tolerant about immorality; we have become tolerant about crime and we have become tolerant about godlessness. We have become tolerant of unbelief.”1 Pagans and Christians in medieval Europe were not as intermingled as in Christian antiquity. Within the borders of the Christian state, superstition and pagan witchcraft could still persist, but there was no pagan religion in the proper sense of the word. Except for Jews, all were baptized. The issue of the Church’s attitude towards those who professed other religions arose only on the peripheries of Spain, in Africa, the East, and Eastern and Northern Europe.2 The problem presented itself when the Church came to assess the crusades which aimed at converting the last remaining pagan tribes. The Church’s right to convert others by force through organizing crusades was questioned. The Church was often presented as the Body of Christ, in which the Church and the empire had separate functions while both being the organs of authority. In the 1073 Register of Pope Gregory VII ones reads that the empire is more superbly governed, and the power of the Holy Church is consolidated when the Church and the throne are united by bonds of agreement. For just as the human body is guided by two eyes, which are its natural light, so the body of the Church is guided and enlightened by these two dignities which are united by pure faith and which constitute its spiritual light.3 Hugh of Saint Victor called the laity who dealt with earthly affairs “the left side of the Body of Christ,” and the clergy “the right”. These two sides of one Christian community have their hierarchies: the secular and the ecclesiastical. 1 B. Graham, Christianity Today, 1959 https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2018/billygraham/ (12.10.2019); Cf. Grzech tolerancji, http://www.pbartosik.pl/2018/03/grzech-tolerancji. html (12.10.2019). 2 J. Lecler, Historia tolerancji w wieku Reformacji, t. 1, przekł. L. I H. Kuhn, Instytut Wydawniczy Pax, Warszawa 1964, pp. 102–104. 3 Gregory VII, Registre, I, 19, ed. Caspar, p. 31. Andrzej Zwoliński Accusation of Sin or Tolerance? From Christian Thought on Tolerance 189 The order of intervention and action within one community of all people is the result of this duality.4 Blessed Ramon Llull in “Disputatio Petri clerici et Raymundi phantastici” (1311) combines the missions of the crusade while treating them equally. He says that the Catholic Church has, as is said in the Gospel, two swords: a temporal sword, which is a material one and a spiritual sword, which is science and piety. Thanks to these two swords, the Church has what it needs to bring all infidels to the path of truth. First, the pope could send wise and prudent people, who would also be ready to die, against Saracens, Turks and Tatars, and they would show the infidels their mistakes and reveal to them the truth of the holy Catholic faith so that the infidels would come close to the holy baptism. In the event of violent resistance, the Pope should use a secular sword against them.5 St. Thomas Aquinas, who was strict towards heretics, showed indulgence towards pagans. He forbade all relations between believers and heretics, or the excommunicated. He taught that heresy was contagious – “haeresis estin fectivum vitium”.6 However, he gave general permission for contacts with Jews and unbelievers. He said that the Church had no jurisdiction over the latter. It should only judge them through secular courts in the event that, living among Christians, they commit an offence that justifies their punishment by the faithful in a secular way. The only exception was when pagans tried to influence simple and unaware people.7 St. Thomas Aquinas, as well as other scholastics, defended tolerance, but only in so far as it was limited for persistent heretics. “On the part of the Church, however, there is mercy which looks to the conversion of the wanderer, wherefore she condemns not at once, but “after the first and second admonition,” as the Apostle directs: after that, if he is yet stubborn, the Church no longer hoping for his conversion, looks to the salvation of others, by excommunicating him and separating him from the Church, and furthermore delivers him to the secular tribunal to be exterminated thereby from the world by death.”8He even allowed death penalty in dealing with heretics. 4 5 6 7 8 Hugh of Saint Victor, De Sacramentis, II, 1. P. L. CLXXVI, p. 416. Ramon Llull, Disputatio clerici et Raymundi phantastici, ed. Paris 1499, 85. Thomas Aquinas, In IV Sent. dist. 13, q. 2, a. 3. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Th. 2, 2. q. X, 8, 1. Summa Th. II. 2. q. II. 190 The Person and the Challenges Volume 11 (2020) Number 2, p. 187–197 The principles inciting such (...truncated)