Religion, the Italian archbishop explained, concerns "the spiritual good of persons, and their relations with God and with others, in the light of faith." Politics, on the other hand, refers to questions of public affairs. Howevever, Archbishop Lajolo cautioned, faith cannot be reduced to a purely personal, private matter. Moreover, he continued, if religious faith is expressed under compulsion, "it cannot be authentic nor worthy of God or of man."
It's the last line that strikes me as the most effective persuasion we might make to open-minded Muslims. This story also got me thinking about the prophetic nature of the Declaration on Religious Freedom. Probably the most controversial of the Vatican II documents, it turns out to have been necessary not only for engaging the Soviets and the secular West, but perhaps especially Islam. And who in 1965 was thinking about engaging Islam? The Holy Spirit, apparently.
