New pontiff assures Jews that he will strengthen Catholic-Jewish dialogue in the spirit of Vatican II
The Vatican is equating the teachings of Jesus with those of Buddha in its first interfaith message since Pope Leo XIV’s election, signaling the pontiff’s desire for continuity with the dialogical approach of Vatican II and Pope Francis to the world religions.
The pope’s Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue sent its greetings to Buddhists on the occasion of the festival of Vesak on Monday, likening the message of Jesus in John’s gospel with the teaching of the Buddha in the Dhammapada — an anthology of teachings in the Buddhist canon.
“The Buddha taught that, ‘he who is free from craving and attachment is perfect in uncovering the true meaning of the Teaching, and knows the arrangement of the sacred texts in correct sequence — he indeed is the bearer of his final body,’” the Vatican noted.
“He is truly called the profoundly wise one, the great man” (Dhammapada, Ch. 24, V. 352),” the document, titled “Buddhists and Christians in Liberating Dialogue for Our Time,” stated, marking the “sacred festival” commemorating the Buddha’s birth and enlightenment.
“For Jesus, knowledge of Truth is liberating: ‘You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free’ (John 8:32),” Cardinal Jacob Koovakad, the dicastery’s prefect who cosigned the document, wrote in his comparison of the Son of God with the prince who founded Buddhism.
Buddhism Offers “True Liberation”
Koovakad, a Syro-Malabar priest who was raised to the cardinalate by Pope Francis in December 2024, said, “This yearning for true liberation finds deep resonance in our shared pursuit of truth and fullness of life, and it aligns with the teachings of our respective traditions.”
The Vatican’s endorsement of Buddhism as one of the paths of “true liberation” echoes the sentiments of Pope Leo XIV, who shared a post on the Buddha’s teachings from Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi in 2014. The post, in Italian, quoted the Buddha as saying: “Life is not a problem to be solved but an experience to be lived.”
Koovakad’s message also echoes the final statement of the Seventh Buddhist-Christian Colloquium on “Karuna and Agape in Dialogue for Healing a Wounded Humanity and the Earth,” which involved the Holy See and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Thailand and put Jesus on the same plane as the Buddha concerning redemption and healing.
“As Buddhists and Christians, we see the Buddha and Jesus as Great Healers. The Buddha pointed to greed and Jesus to sin as the cause of suffering,” the colloquium declared. “On many levels, Jesus and the Buddha proposed love and compassion as medicine to drive out the darkness in the human heart and the world.”
“For those of us who work in Buddhism, the Vatican releasing that document also speaks volumes! Really happy where this is headed,” tweeted Tyler McNabb, a Catholic associate professor of philosophy at Saint Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania.
Great Healers, Hopeless, or Heresy?
In comments to The Stream, the Rev. Dr. Rohintan Mody, who converted to Christianity from his background in Zoroastrianism and is author of the book Empty and Evil: The Worship of Other Faiths in 1 Corinthians 8-10 and Today, noted that the new document “compares both Buddha and Jesus as two great healers with the same solution: love and compassion.”
“Yet it leaves the big question unanswered: the existence, nature, and identity of God,” he said. “Even if you want to do interfaith dialogue you have to start with God, not anthropology. The wrong starting place means the wrong answer. It is prima facie heresy.”
Dr. Paul Williams, a former Buddhist who is emeritus professor of Indian and Tibetan Philosophy at the University of Bristol, agrees. “If the Buddhist position is correct, our death in this life is actually, really, the death of us. Death will be the end for us,” he writes.
“I began to see that if Buddhism were correct then unless I attained enlightenment (nirvana) or something like it in this life, where the whole cycle of rebirth would finally come to a complete end, I would have no hope. Each one of us — the person we are — is lost forever. Buddhism for me was hope-less.”
Open-Minded Augustinian Pontiff
The message from the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue signals continuity with the religious inclusiveness heralded by the Second Vatican Council and the extraordinary strides Pope Francis made in interreligious dialogue during the 12 years of his pontificate.
When asked if Leo XIV would follow Francis’s lead when it comes to interfaith dialogue, Dr. Craig Considine, Islamic scholar and senior lecturer in the department of sociology at Rice University, told ABC News, “I think we’re going to see a continuation of Pope Francis’s approach.
“When he was at the Chicago seminary, one of his professors was a leading Jewish scholar on Jewish-Catholic relations, and I would surmise that this professor had a big impact on Pope Leo,” Considine observed. “I think that one of the big reasons why Pope Francis was so beloved was that he wasn’t trying to force-feed Catholicism on anyone.”
Pope Leo’s professor at CTU, Fr. John T. Pawlikowski, told The Jewish Chronicle: “My experience of him was he’s a very open-minded person who’s very much in the context of Vatican II.”
“Being an Augustinian means being pretty open,” explained Fr. Alejandro Moral Antón, the prior general of the Augustinian order to which Leo XIV belongs. Compared to other orders, theirs does not have “very rigid norms.”
Leo Praised for Inclusive Approach
Leo XIV’s alma mater, the Catholic Theological Union, is known for its interfaith emphasis, including courses on Catholic-Jewish and Catholic-Muslim studies. In 2020, CTU appointed a Muslim scholar, Prof. Syed Atif Rizwan, as the director of its Catholic-Muslim Studies Program.
On May 8, the day he was elected, Leo XIV wrote to the American Jewish Committee’s Director of Interreligious Affairs, Rabbi Noam Marans, pledging “to continue to strengthen the Church’s dialogue with the Jewish people in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council’s declaration Nostra Aetate.”
Marans’s response was warm. “We are deeply moved that Pope Leo XIV, so early in his papacy, has reaffirmed his commitment to Catholic-Jewish relations,” he wrote. “As we approach the 60th anniversary of this landmark declaration, we look forward to working together to deepen understanding and cooperation.”
“Complete Commitment” to Vatican II
In his first papal address, Leo XIV issued a call to dialogue: “Help us as well — help one another — to build bridges through dialogue, through encounter, uniting everyone to be one single people always in peace.”
Over the course of his first week in office, Leo XIV has repeatedly emphasized his desire to pursue continuity rather than rupture with the new magisterium of Vatican II and Pope Francis.
“I would like us to renew together today our complete commitment to the path that the universal church has now followed for decades in the wake of the Second Vatican Council,” he told the College of Cardinals on May 10. “Pope Francis masterfully and concretely set it forth in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium.”
Conservative Catholics reacted negatively to this inclusive approach. When asked how he would respond to the new pontiff’s “complete commitment” to Vatican II, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, a leading voice in the traditionalist movement, said: “I think a pope should not speak so because our first complete commitment is to Jesus Christ’s gospel.”
The prelate stressed that Leo XIV’s first task must be to correct issues that are “disfigured” or “confused” in the life of the Church, beginning with “the truth about the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the only way to salvation and that other religions are not means of grace or means or ways of salvation.”
The Smiling Buddha and the Crucified Christ
In his Credo: A Compendium of the Catholic Faith, Schneider notes that some of the affirmations of the Second Vatican Council “are in themselves ambiguous and can lead to an erroneous understanding.” The bishop writes that Catholics may “propose emendations or corrections of evidently ambiguous or erroneous statements or commands of a pope or ecumenical council.”
“Is Buddhism a means to supreme illumination and liberation from evil?” Schneider asks, citing Vatican II’s endorsement of that religion. “No. Buddhism rejects the Incarnation and Redemption, proposing instead a path of self-extinction through meditation techniques. Such a path is contrary to God’s plan for divine union with man in Christ, culminating in the illumination of the Beatific Vision in heaven.”
Koovakad, by contrast, cites Vatican II’s Nostra Aetate: Buddhism “proposes a way of life by which people can, with confidence and trust, attain a state of perfect liberation and reach supreme illumination either through their own efforts or with divine help.”
“Where is the basic difference between Jesus and the Buddha to be found?” theologian Hans Küng asks in his book Christianity and the World Religions. “We can bring it into sharp focus by holding side by side the figure of the smiling Buddha, seated on a lotus blossom, and that of the suffering Jesus, nailed to the cross.
“Christian faith is convinced, this Crucified One did not fall into nothingness [as in the teaching of Buddhism], but was taken up out of this temporary, fleeting, inconstant reality into the true, eternal life.”
Dr. Jules Gomes (BA, BD, MTh, PhD) has a doctorate in biblical studies from the University of Cambridge. Currently a Vatican-accredited journalist based in Rome, he is the author of five books and several academic articles. Gomes lectured at Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities and was canon theologian and artistic director at Liverpool Cathedral. This article has been cross-posted with the author’s permission from The Stream.
somehistory says
This is just more of the same mixing of non-Christian stuff with bits and pieces of what Jesus said.
Jesus never said that His disciples should go and mix what He taught them with what was taught elsewhere.
His disciples even had to lay aside some of the things they had done as Jews. That is why some who briefly followed Him, turned away. He asked Peter if he and the others also wanted to leave Him, and Peter replied, “To Whom shall we go away? You have sayings of everlasting life.”
John 6
“Amplified Bible
Simon Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You [alone] have the words of eternal life [you are our only hope].”
If those who claim to be Christian, speak with those who have another religious belief, the Christan should be sharing the “good news about the Christ,” not accepting the “teachings” of others as equal with the words and commandments of Jesus Christ.
Jesus *alone* has sayings of everlasting life.”
This ‘pope’ is just another false shepherd, leading the sheep in the wrong direction. The cliff is visible in the near distance.
Hoi Polloi says
Tommy Robinson addressed this issue with UK pastors of losing the core identity of Christianity by rushing forward with this inclusiveness idiocy. Of course they didn’t listen and have nearly lost all.
I especially liked this bit: “Dr. Craig Considine, Islamic scholar…..”I think that one of the big reasons why Pope Francis was so beloved was that he wasn’t trying to force-feed Catholicism on anyone.” Beloved by whom? Leave it to a muslim to speak of forcing religion with such monumental hypocrisy.
When I order a hamburger, I don’t want a fried cat’s tail. I buy a car because I want a car. Exactly how they decided it’s brilliant strategy to level every approach to God into bland nothingness, I don’t know, but they live in echo chambers, at the very least. It’s delusion.
somehistory says
You have made some really good points, HP. I don’t want someone claiming that every other ‘god’ worshipped by others is the same as Jesus, pretending to speak for my faith.
This “bland nothingness” helps absolutely no one.
GE says
From Dei Verbum section 4:
“The Christian dispensation therefore as the new and definitive covenant will never pass away and we now await no further new public revelation proclaimed before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Ref:
Tim. 6:14 and Tit. 2:13)
The Pope should stick to that.
Whatever happened to “Go and make disciples of all nations?
somehistory says
Exactly, GE.
Why claim to be Christian if serving Jesus is so unimportant?
Hoi Polloi says
Exactly to both of you. Not a Catholic but I’m beginning to comprehend the hostility to Vatican II.
Hoi Polloi says
And apologies for that ridiculous attempt at illustration regarding the cat tail. I can just see the teacher’s red ink on my page. When I was a TA, I noticed that students preferred corrections in some other color, ha.
somehistory says
Thanks, HP, but no apology needed….it grossed me out to think too much about being served cat tail….perhaps those that grow by the waterways and are edible would be palatable. But, I fully understand the idea. I would be grossed out if someone demanded that I began to act like the past pope and the new one.
James Lincoln says
Excellent post, somehistory.
So far, I’m not impressed with this new Pope…
࿗Infidel࿘ says
James
From what you’ve observed, is he any better than the late pope? I recognize that’s a pretty low bar, but still…?
James Lincoln says
Infidel,
Not sure yet, I am watching closely.
That being said, I’m not thrilled with what I have seen so far but I haven’t come to a solid conclusion yet.
Hopefully, if Pope Leo spends a little bit more time with his MAGA brother Louis, maybe something will rub off…
somehistory says
Thank you, James. Bad “first impression”….he will never undo that.
Daniel Bielak says
The phrase, “Life is not a problem to be solved but an experience to be lived,” is not a quote of the Buddha.
Daniel Bielak says
Most of the quotes attributed to the Buddha that are commonly found on the internet are not actually quotes by the Buddha.
https://fakebuddhaquotes.com
The oldest surviving recordings of the teaching of the Buddha constitute the Pāḷi Canon (the Tipiṭaka—”the three baskets”).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pali_Canon [at the bottom of the page there are links to English translations of the Pāḷi Canon]
gravenimage says
Daniel, I think that quote is from Soren Kierkegaard.
Daniel Bielak says
gravenimage, when I did a Google search for the quote, Google AI expressed:
“The quote ‘Life is not a problem to be solved but an experience to be lived’ is often attributed to Søren Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher and a key figure in existentialism. While it is not explicitly found in his written works, it reflects a core theme in his philosophy: the importance of individual existence and the need to embrace the unique challenges and opportunities of life. ”
I think that when I did a Google search for it previously, Google AI expressed that the quote was often attributed to Kierkegaard, but that it may have actually been by another person whose name I don’t remember.
Daniel Bielak says
gravenimage, I’m sorry if my comment seemed rude. I didn’t mean to be rude. I always appreciate your comments.
gravenimage says
Daniel, I appreaciate your comments–not rude at all. And quotes are so often misattributed–sorry if I was wrong about Kierkegaard. This was *certainly* not a quote from Buddha, though.
Daniel Bielak says
Thank you, gravenimage.
Lady of the Lake says
This Catholic Jewish dialogue is a bunch of crap. The Catholics need to do nothing more than respect Judaism. The Catholics might try blessing and giving thanks to God for the Jews..
࿗Infidel࿘ says
This whole “interfaith dialog” thing is a scam. No 2 sects, let alone religions, are the same. All that the adherents of the various religions have to do is leave the others alone, and just focus on their own faith. Judaism & Hinduism are great at that, Buddhism & Christianity not so much, and as for muslims, the less said, the better
somehistory says
When a Christian “focuses on his faith” he knows that he must speak to others about Jesus. Christians are not to *force* others to listen, but to keep their faith, they must preach.
If the hearer rejects the teaching, the Christian ‘dusts off his feet’ and goes elsewhere.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Fine, speak to other Christians about Jesus. Especially today’s woke Leftards, who think men can become women & vice versa. No need to speak to Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Rastafarians, Daoists, Shintos,… about a faith they don’t adhere to. Only exception to my above list is muslims, who should be encouraged to leave islam and go anywhere – Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Daoism, Zoroastrianism, Pasedjet, et al
Problem w/ the missionaries is that instead of trying to get Western Atheists of Christian ancestry back into the fold, they’ve given up on them and are now going to continents that are perfectly happy following other faiths. Having a Christian Burma while Britain or Italy goes islamic from Atheist would be pretty asinine, but that seems to be the goal
somehistory says
I have to disagree with you on this, Infidel, because Jesus is the One I listen to when it comes to the practice of my faith.
Jesus said to speak to everyone, to “make disciples of people of all the nations.” He didn’t say just to speak to other Christians, or to those who may have been born to Christians and became atheists.
I know you don’t like it; but Jesus is my Master and the Master of all Christians.
If a Christian approaches you to speak and you don’t want to hear, just say so.
I know you say it is different in India; that Christians force others to listen But those doing that are not Christians. They may say they are, but they do not understand the words of Jesus….and that’s something I truly wish I could change.
However, violence is not the answer.
Daniel Bielak says
Lady of the Lake, the following series of articles relate to what you wrote.
SEMITISM vs. ANTISEMITISM (Part 1). The Structure of our History, by Francisco Gil-White
https://franciscogilwhite.substack.com/p/semitism-vs-antisemitism-structure-of-history
Semitism Ascendant: The story of ancient Mesopotamia [SEMITISM vs. ANTISEMITISM Part 2], by Francisco Gil-White
https://franciscogilwhite.substack.com/p/semitism-vs-antisemitism-ancient-mesopotamia
The Church (and Western) paradox [SEMITISM vs. ANTISEMITISM Part 3], by Francisco Gil-White
https://franciscogilwhite.substack.com/p/semitism-vs-antisemitism-catholic-church-paradox
How did the Church become both Jewish and Greco-Roman? Paul did that. [SEMITISM vs. ANTISEMITISM Part 4], by Francisco Gil-White
https://franciscogilwhite.substack.com/p/semitism-vs-antisemitism-church-roman-jewish
Daniel Bielak says
Correction: “relate” should be “relates”
No Fear says
It depends on whether eternity is “endless for all time” or “outside the bounds of time”. Eternity certainly springs from within time.
Tim gallagher says
I think a religion is something which has some version god so it puzzles me why Buddhism is considered to be a religion. I would say it is a philosophy. That said I think it teaches tolerance and a live and let live approach. One of the half dozen best people I have in my long life is a Buddhist from Bangladesh who was doctor for a few years. As for inter faith dialogue, it seems pretty bloody futile when the Muslims bible, the Koran, tells them to hate and kill the non Muslims when the chance arises. I realise many Muslims are not going to try to kill us plenty do. I think the Hungarians have the right type interfaith dialogue when they tell the Muslims to piss off they are not having Muslims fouling up their country. Now that makes sense
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Tim
I have a Japanese-American friend who is Buddhist, and she told me that they do have concepts of God in Buddhism, at least in Japan. Also, the original Buddha – Prince Siddharth – considered/declared himself an incarnation of the Hindu deity Vishnu, and there are some (not too many) Hindus who believe that. While Buddhists live by principles such as the Noble Eightfold Path, it’s not exactly an Atheistic religion as some people think it is. It’s just not very God-centric, and Buddha does occupy a status similar to Confucius in Confucianism
There are religions centered more around their founders than around any deity. Some may call them “cults”, especially if the founders are still alive
Fully agree w/ you about muslims. Even if “interfaith dialogs” made sense to begin w/, having them w/ muslims makes no sense whatsoever
Tim gallagher says
Thanks for that information, infidel. That explains why Buddhism is a religion which it generally is. I had a book on the history of all the religions, I think, from memory, the author was ninian smart, and it included Buddhism, but I have to say I never got around to reading much of it. Buddhism seems to encourage a live and live attitude which I like. As for dialogue with islam, what a stupid and futile idea. A total waste of time
Daniel Bielak says
Tim and ࿗Infidel࿘,
According to Google’s dictionary (which apparently is provided by Oxford Languages), two definitions of “religion” are:
• “a particular system of faith and worship.”
• “a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance.”
So, according to those definitions, Buddhism is a religion.
The earliest surviving recordings of the teachings of the Buddha constitute the Pāḷi Canon (the Tipiṭaka—”the three baskets”). The school of Buddhism which adheres to the Pāḷi Canon is Theravada (“Way of the Elders”) Buddhism. Theravada Buddhism is the main religion of Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar, and is a major religion of Cambodia, and Laos.
It is my understanding that, according to the Pāḷi Canon:
The Buddha called the religion that he founded, “the doctrine and the discipline” (Dhamma-vinaya). The Buddha did not say that he was a reincarnation of Vishnu. The Buddha said that he did not discern a creator being nor a beginning of the universe, and that trying to figure out whether or not there is a beginning of the universe is an “imponderable” question, which trying to know the answer to is futile and does not lead to the goal of the holy life, which is the cessation of (one’s own) suffering. However, the Buddha said that there is a heaven realm (which has many realms itself), and that there are heavenly beings (devas and brahmas). However, the Buddha said that heaven is impermanent, as he said of all the other realms of existence (the hell realm, the animal realm, the “hungry ghost” realm, and the human realm) that the Buddha said exist. The Buddha said that the life span of a being reborn in the hell realm, or the hungry ghost realm, or the heaven realm, can be extremely long, but that it is finite. The Buddha said that in one’s next life, one is reborn into a realm whose nature is in accordance with the nature of the intentional thoughts, intentional speech, and intentional bodily actions (kamma (Pāḷi); karma (Sanskrit)) that one has done in one’s past lives and in one’s current life. The Pāḷi name of the results of actions is vipaka.
Daniel Bielak says
What is Theravada Buddhism?
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/theravada.html
Refuge: An Introduction to the Buddha, Dhamma, & Sangha, by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu.
“A short introduction to the basic principles of Buddhism. Included are readings drawn from the earliest Buddhist texts and essays explaining aspects of the Triple Refuge that often provoke questions in those who are new to the Buddha’s teachings.”
https://www.dhammatalks.org/books/#refuge
The YouTube Channel of Ven. Ajahn Sona (contains many talks on Buddhism and Buddhist meditation)
https://www.youtube.com/@AjahnSona
Daniel Bielak says
“a particular system of faith and worship.”
Although Theravada Buddhists don’t worship anything.
Theravada Buddhists revere, and have faith in, the Buddha and his teachings.
However, the Buddha said:
“… Don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to welfare & to happiness’—then you should enter & remain in them …”
—Kalama Sutta (excerpt), Aṅguttara Nikāya, Sutta Piṭaka, Tipiṭaka
Tim gallagher says
Thanks for clarifying the situation with Buddhism, Daniel. It certainly does seem to teach its adherents to have tolerant and peaceful attitude from what I have. Here in Australia we have lots of Buddhists and I used to live in an area of Sydney where a lot of Vietnamese Christians and Buddhists lived and something I liked were the Buddhist temples, some big and a very attractive small Khmer temple. I really liked the appearance of that building.
Daniel Bielak says
You’re welcome ,Tim. Yes, Buddhism is a peaceful religion. The Buddha taught that greed (in all its forms; lust, gluttony, etc.), hatred (aversion in all its forms), and delusion, in one’s own mind should be removed by skillful mental effort, and that one should have an attitude of kind friendliness toward all living beings, and that one should always be non-violent.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Daniel
Thanks for that data on Theravada Buddhism. Yeah, it’s the main Buddhist sect in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, while it splits the cake w/ Mahayana Buddhism in Cambodia and Laos. There are 3 Buddhist sects:
⮞ Theravada, which you described
⮞ Mahayana (Greater vehicle), which is headed by the Dalai Lama and is popular in Tibet, Mongolia, Chinese Buddhists (to the extent they exist), Vietnam, Taiwan, Korea and Japan
⮞ Vajrayana which is popular in Bhutan as well as the Indian states of Sikkim, Arunachal and Buddhists in Nepal
Buddhism, though born in India, was driven out of there in the 13th century, and became primarily a religion of East Asia (not including the East Indies)
Daniel Bielak says
You’re welcome, ࿗Infidel࿘.
Yes, what you wrote about the three currently existing schools of Buddhism is correct, except that Vajrayana Buddhism is the school of which is a type is Tibetan Buddhism, which is headed by the Dalai Lama. And I think that Vajrayana Buddhism is the school of Buddhism that is popular in Mongolia.
Zen Buddhism is a type Mahayana Buddhism, and was brought to Japan from China, where it is called Chan Buddhism. The word chan derives from the Pāḷi word jhāna (dhyana in Sanskrit) which means a type of meditative absorption taught by the Buddha.
Daniel Bielak says
I regret the typos I made in my most recent previous comment.
Daniel Bielak says
Typo corrections:
“… of which a type is Tibetan Buddhism…”
“… a type of Mahayana Buddhism …”
Namer says
Just another sellout Pope.
Deuv Vult says
So, to summarize, Pope Leo 14 is exactly the fool that I suspected he would be.
GE says
This has been an amazing discussion, and I really gained some new perspectives—
It was good to hear all the different viewpoints, and I respect them all.
I learn a lot here.
somehistory says
I learn a lot of things too, GE. some things from you. 🙂
Alex Benziger says
Everybody wants cheap publicity. Therefore these interfaith dialogues. Already Our Lord Jesus Christ warned about this. According to the Gospel St. Matthew.6:1-8.
somehistory says
Absolutely right, Alex.
gravenimage says
Rome Likens Jesus to Buddha: Pope Leo XIV Affirms Continuity on Interfaith Dialogue
…………………………………..
If *only* you could compare Jesus to something postive that would make him look good… sarc/off