Inferior logic.

In his bestselling book Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot, humorist Al Franken recalls 1996 presidential candidate Pat Buchanan's answer to a question about his religious convictions. Buchanan, a Catholic, opined, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and is actually God and ... is the path to salvation, so quite obviously I believe it's superior to Buddhism and Taoism and other faiths, yes."

"I'm fine with that, I guess," Franken, a Jew, wrote in reply. "But, not to be flippant, will someone explain to me how Jesus can be both the son of God and also God? Does it have something to do with the Holy Trinity? Help me here; I'm from an inferior religion."

Inferior might not be the best term, Al. Let me suggest "gravely deficient," the phrase used by the Catholic Church's very own Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and the Vatican's Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.

In its recent declaration Dominus Iesus, the congregation quite reasonably insists that Catholics believe in certain core beliefs, like the universal validity of Jesus' message of salvation for all the world. But what takes the document to another level is what it has to say about other Christian denominations--some of which are "not churches in the proper sense"--and followers of other religions--who are "in a gravely deficient situation in comparison with those who, in the church, have the fullness of the means of salvation."

In "We need to revise our perfidious views" (pages 18-22), our interview on Christian-Jewish relations, Sister Mary C. Boys, S.N.J.M. tells a similar story of a Catholic priest who invited local leaders from other religions to the rededication of his church, only to share his faith with them by saying, "For me, faith is faith in Jesus Christ, or it isn't faith at all."

Like Dominus Iesus, the problem isn't the first part of this statement; it's the second. To affirm faith in Jesus Christ is one thing; to make this affirmation by invalidating the faith of others is another. As an alternative, Boys speaks of the task of developing a "strong religious commitment and Catholic identity without having to disparage either other Christian groups or ... any other religion. We must develop our identity without either denigrating others or becoming total relativists." Boys also offers important insights into the at times tragic and brutal attitude of Christians toward Jews, and ways to change that attitude today.

One of the challenges of faith is to affirm our beliefs, share them, and, yes, even attract others to them. The universality of the church's witness--the catholic part of the church--should not require denial of one's own convictions, but neither should it require the gratuitous denial of others' faith. Catholics at their best seek communion, with their Lord, with their church, and with people of faith everywhere. Let's be fine with that.