The Columban Superior General says understanding other religions helps us better understand God. This is an extract from an interview by Father Barry Maguire, now the editor of the Columban magazine in Korea.

Fr Tommy Murphy, who became Columban Superior General in 2006, says Catholic missionaries such as the Columbans must engage with people of other faiths and religious traditions. He worked as a missionary in Korea beginning in 1974 and later continued his work in Taiwan.

Father Murphy, saw two very different reactions to Christianity and Catholicism in these two Asian nations.

Q: How was being a missionary in Taiwan different from Korea?

A: The big difference was that the Chinese didn’t seem to have any interest in Christianity.

When I was leaving Korea in the mid –‘70s there were one million Catholics: when I went back on a visit two years later, there were two million!

In Taiwan, by comparison, if 50 people came to Sunday Mass, it was considered a good turnout. I quickly realized, however, it was not that the Chinese are not religious.

They are very religious: they are very clear about the bigger issues; they know they are not the ones in charge; they know there are Higher Powers.

Their relationship to those gods/spirits, however, is expressed in ways that they have developed culturally over thousands of years. They don’t feel a need to express themselves in another way. So, it was an exception when someone came and said they wanted to be a Catholic.

Q: How do you understand Catholic missionary work today?

A: I see mission as primarily trying to engage people and trying to understand what God is doing in the world.

We get some ideas from the Gospels, but if we look at countries such as Korea, China and India, we see teeming masses of people. They do, I believe, have some concept of a Higher Being, and perhaps some level of relationship with that Being, but clearly they are not all going to become Catholic Christian.

In the old days, there seemed to be no salvation outside Catholic Church. Now, we realize that such great religions are valid paths to salvation for their adherents, as Vatican II taught us. So that means God is doing something very good in these religious traditions, I dot not claim to understand God fully. I have some insights, but God is still a mystery, and it’s up to me to try and grow into this mystery.

If I, as a Catholic, understand a bit better what’s going on with Hindu, Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist people, then I’m going to understand God better. So it is a matter of urgency for us to engage with people of other religious traditions.

All of us together must face the terrible suffering that affects so much of our world. And the only way we can do that is by appreciating how deeply we are loved by God and responding out of that experience of love.

Q: How do you understand Catholic missionary work today?

A: I see mission as primarily trying to engage people and trying to understand what God is doing in the world.

We get some ideas from the Gospels, but if we look at countries such as Korea, China and India, we see teeming masses of people. They do, I believe, have some concept of a Higher Being, and perhaps some level of relationship with that Being, but clearly they are not all going to become Catholic Christian.

In the old days, there seemed to be no salvation outside Catholic Church. Now, we realize that such great religions are valid paths to salvation for their adherents, as Vatican II taught us. So that means God is doing something very good in these religious traditions, I dot not claim to understand God fully. I have some insights, but God is still a mystery, and it’s up to me to try and grow into this mystery.

If I, as a Catholic, understand a bit better what’s going on with Hindu, Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist people, then I’m going to understand God better. So it is a matter of urgency for us to engage with people of other religious traditions.

All of us together must face the terrible suffering that affects so much of our world. And the only way we can do that is by appreciating how deeply we are loved by God and responding out of that experience of love.

The Church and other faiths

Nostra Aetate, the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on ‘The Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions], opens with these words:

1. In our time, when day by day mankind is being drawn closer together, and the ties between different peoples are becoming stronger, the Church examines more closely the relationship to non-Christian religions. In her task of promoting unity and love among men, indeed among nations, she considers above all in this declaration what men have in common and what draws them to fellowship.

One is the community of all peoples, one their origin, for God made the whole human race to live over the face of the earth. One also is their final goal, God. His providence, His manifestations of goodness, His saving design extend to all men, until that time when the elect will be united in the Holy City, the city ablaze with the glory of God, where the nations will walk in His light . . .

2. From ancient times down to the present, there is found among various peoples a certain perception of that hidden power which hovers over the course of things and over the events of human history; at times some indeed have come to the recognition of a Supreme Being, or even of a Father. This perception and recognition penetrates their lives with a profound religious sense . . .

The Church, therefore, exhorts her sons, that through dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions, carried out with prudence and love and in witness to the Christian faith and life, they recognize, preserve and promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the socio-cultural values found among these men.