Formation Toolbox: Truth or Tolerance?

Historically, tolerance seems to last only as long as 1) people haven’t made up their minds or 2) nobody’s strong enough to impose their own view. Why?

The answer is simple. Simply getting along isn’t enough. People want to be right. Because being right means being true: in touch with reality. And being in touch with reality is the key to doing what’s best for everyone.

Tolerance can’t be a goal. It’s just a tool. Groundwork that lets everyone present their point of view so that we can get down to the real business of sorting things out and finding the truth.

That’s why Pope Benedict is right to bring the debate about faith back to basics. He doesn’t like Catholicism because it’s nice. He likes it, defends it and preaches it because it’s true. He’s not afraid of saying so. And he’s definitely not afraid of measuring his faith against others, and ultimately against the harshest judge of all: reality.

The Pope said just that during an interview this Monday:

The second reason for my hope lies in the fact that the Gospel of Jesus Christ, faith in Jesus Christ, is quite simply true; and the truth never ages. It too may be forgotten for a time, it may be laid aside and attention may turn to other things, but the truth as such does not disappear. Ideologies have their days numbered. They appear powerful and irresistible but, after a certain period, they wear out and lose their energy because they lack profound truth. They are particles of truth, but in the end they are consumed. The Gospel, on the other hand, is true and can therefore never wear out. 

In other words, the Holy Father isn’t afraid of measuring the Catholic faith against the hard reality of truth.

If only everyone else were as brave. We might just get down to the bottom of things.

Go here for the whole interview.