«Dominus Iesus» Is «Jubilee» Document

Interview with Cardinal Pierre Yet

VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 6 (ZENIT.org). - Cardinal Pierre Eyt, archbishop of Bordeaux and president of the French bishops' Commission on Doctrine, wrote the introduction to "Dominus Iesus," the declaration of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the "salvific uniqueness and universality of Jesus Christ and the Church." It is a document centered on Christ and the mystery of the incarnation, which the Jubilee celebrates.

-- ZENIT: What role did you play in the drafting of "Dominus Iesus"?

-- Cardinal Eyt: The document is the fruit of collective work. I contributed to its drafting long-distance, by identifying certain questions, certain sensibilities. I did not, however, see the text until it was in its final form.

-- ZENIT: To some people the document might seem an about-face, a putting the brakes on interreligious dialogue and ecumenism. What are the pastoral questions that motivated this theological work?

-- Cardinal Eyt: The document appreciates the social mobility of persons, groups, families - for example, the marriages between persons belonging to different religions. ? It is good that people belonging to different religions can travel the road together. The Church, however, wants that journey, made from the perspective of respect and understanding, to be founded on the essential gifts of the faith, in keeping with the Bible, Tradition, the teaching of the Church. But this concern is not always present. What motivated the text is the concern that the dialogue with persons, with groups of other religions, be founded on what is essential in our faith.

-- ZENIT: What, then, are the remedies? More formation, adult catechesis, more widespread biblical teaching?

-- Cardinal Eyt: There are, at the level of formation and information, many helpful elements. However, what matters above all is the spiritual element: attachment to the person of the Lord Jesus, who is the all of our existence, and of the world's existence. Even if there is need for formation and information, there is the essential perspective: attachment to Christ, the conviction of faith, in a way that is oriented to the person of Jesus, recognized just as he presents himself: the Way, the Truth and the Life. Not as "a" way among others, but as the unique Way.

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