In this clip, Cy Kellett welcomes William Albrecht to discuss the Catholic Church’s approach to evangelization, particularly in relation to Islam. Albrecht emphasizes the importance of building bridges while inviting others to the fullness of truth, countering the caller’s concerns about cowardice in dialogue.
Transcript:
Caller: I’ve been Catholic for, like, three decades, and I’m really disappointed that my Roman Catholic Church has now become the Roman cowardly Church, because in Nostra883 or something, it says, we regard the Muslims with esteem, blah, blah, blah. Why is the Catholic Church not talking about the age of Aisha and about apostasy and blasphemy laws? And why isn’t Islam being banned in all Christian countries? And why aren’t Catholic schools teaching, you know, the truth about Islam? I even talked to, like, some of my priests and teachers in my old schools, and they’re afraid to talk about Islam, and they’re even blocking me on Facebook.
Cy Kellett: Wait a second, Nick. I just got to. Hang on. Did you just. Blah, blah, blah? A document of the Catholic Church, like, that’s. That seems to be a little bit dismissive of the teachings of the Catholic Church.
William Albrecht: Yeah, and that’s a real tough thing there, Nick. Let me. Let me just say one thing, Nick. Maybe you’re being blocked because maybe you’re coming across as hostile. We’re able to have fruitful dialogue, my friend, but you need to come across as one that is willing to have charitable dialogue and not attack a very important document of the church. Number one, there are a lot of phenomenal priests, and I know because I work with many of them that critique Islam. Many of them, I work with a lot of phenomenal Catholic apologists that critique Islam as well, besides Islam. We’re able to do that, and we’re able to do that by examining their holy book and being fair about it. But I don’t think you’re being fair. Being a Catholic for three decades, I would recommend you read Nostra Aetate because Nostra Aetate is very clear. It is looking for common ground in certain things in regards to Islam. But let me be very clear. It is not saying that we are not to evangelize, though all of Vatican II’s documents are very clear that we do need to evangelize. That is the number one call, indeed to evangelize. And even though Nostra Aetate is not number one, it’s not a. A moral judgment to where it’s going to get into a discussion on Aisha that you brought up there, but rather what it’s doing. It is showing you that there are shared spiritual truths that we have in common with other religions, not only Islam. And those can be bridges to then evangelize and bring them to the fullness of the truth, my friend. So we need to look at bridges to then be able to use Them as a theological and a pastoral manner to. To bring them to the fullness. It is a call to evangelize, not merely a call to say, okay, well, we have this in common. We’re not meant to evangelize. No, we are meant to then preach the truth in charity, even if sometimes the charity is rough. So I can tell you right now, maybe the people that you’re dialoguing with don’t want to talk about this because I know it might be difficult in some countries. I can tell sai right now in England what we’re doing right now. Not so easy to do over there in England. That is an unfortunate thing. So it might be that case that maybe depending on the country, maybe people are being urged to not speak out against certain things. But I can tell you right now, the church has done a phenomenal job in building a bridge to show that really we want Muslims to come to the fullness of the truth.
Cy Kellett: Nick, go ahead. What’s your response?
Caller: That’s your response?
Caller: Matthew 23:33. Matthew 23:33. Isn’t it the one where he. Where Jesus was like, condemning all those Pharisees? I mean, Jesus wasn’t, like, looking for bridges or, you know, whatever there he was just calling out everyone, you know, religious hypocrisy. That seems. It’s not like what the Catholic Church is doing at all. You’re looking for common ground, building bridges, because obviously you’re afraid of being beheaded and afraid of extremists. And that’s why I’m disappointed. My Roman Catholic Church is not the Roman cowardly church.
William Albrecht: Unfortunately, brother, you’re incorrect, because our Lord did look to build bridges and bring people to the fullness. An example would be the Samaritan woman that he dialogues with. He does cross a religious boundary there to show that he can associate with her and try to bring her to the fullness of the truth. But there are many other examples. There are many examples. We find one other one would be The Centurion, Matthew 8, 5, 13, who is a centurion. You know very well he was a Roman. He was a pagan. And our Lord listens to his faith. He listens to it. Now, the goal is to build a bridge and then to call people to the fullness. So you’re right. Our Lord will tell you the truth. When one is steeped in hypocrisy and they are refusing to come to the fullness, he will call that out. But then there are others that he realizes we can listen to them and then evangelize people that aren’t hard of heart. There’s a great difference, my friend. And I would really, really recommend that you look at how the church has done a great job in evangelizing. Another example would be Pope Benedict. He would go and he would dialogue with Muslims and he would call them to conversion in a friendly way. He would look at what do we have in common and then call them to the fullness of the faith. I can give you an example. Pope Benedict and many people don’t focus on this. In a mosque, he prayed a trinitarian prayer that tells you all you need, my friend.
Caller: I mean, you build bridges when it comes to, like, the good people, the centurion, the Samaritan, the Hindu, the Buddhist, the atheist, but not the Pharisees. You don’t build bridges with them.
Cy Kellett: Are your senses that all Muslims fall into the bad people category?
Caller: Yes. Yes.
Cy Kellett: Okay.
William Albrecht: Well, then the big problem there, my friend, is then should we just abandon all of them and not try to bring anyone to the fullness? Let me tell you one thing, my friend. I was dialoguing a few days ago with a woman who her whole family has come into the Catholic Church because she’s been hearing my evangelization efforts along with my friend Sam’s for many months now. She’s been hearing us as we’ve been trying to teach the faith. By your logic, if I would have connected and merely tried to pummel her and call her a Pharisee, I would have lost her immediately and her whole family, and they would have never come to Jesus, who we are able to criticize a religion but then show there are commonalities. But you need to come to the fullness of the truth, which is found only within Catholicism. I think you need to realize that there are a lot of Muslims out there that are steeped in ignorance because they have known nothing other than Islam their whole life. And we really need to evangelize those people.
Cy Kellett: William, I imagine that you and I hate being called a coward for two different reasons. You, because you’re not a coward.
William Albrecht: Right.
Cy Kellett: And me, I hate that when it hits close to home like that. But I do very much appreciate Nick calling. Look, it does seem to me that it’s quite obvious that relations between Christians and Muslims, relations between the west and the Muslim world are fraught because there’s tremendous violence has been perpetrated in, you know, in. Over the course of the last. Well, I actually don’t know how far back to go, but certainly since 911 here in the United States, we’re aware that there are violent streams of Islam that are very active in the world. Very, very active in the world. So I don’t want to just act like, oh, yeah, none of that ever happened. We’ve forgotten that that happened. But I don’t know exactly what Nick thinks we’re supposed to do about that.
William Albrecht: Right, yeah, no, that’s a very good point there. And I sympathize and I understand Nick and I want to be very clear. Nobody here is defending Islam. In fact, we’re doing a whole show here showing that Islam is false and people need to be Catholic. Indeed, we’re in Catholic Answers, showing that the fullness of the truth is found only within the Catholic Church. So we are urging people to come to that fullness. But all the while doing that, we realize that it is valuable to evangelize Muslims. And when we look at the Vatican II documents, we look at Nostra Aetate and many others, I don’t think that a lot of people give them a fair shake or are realizing what they say. Many people think that they are bending the knee to Islam. That is not the truth. Because if you read the whole of the document, it will look for, okay, what do we have in common then? To show we need to evangelize and to evangelize it is a non negotiable. Our Lord is almighty God. We believe in the Trinity. We believe all these things that are Catholic. But remember by me telling you to build a bridge, I am not telling you to then bend the knee and become Muslim. No, I am telling you there are certain things in common. Now it is time to evangelize and bring them to the fullness of the truth.
Cy Kellett: Again, the numbers. 8, 8, 831-87-8, 8 4. Our guest is William Albrecht. We’re talking about Islam both hours today and it is an opportunity for hard conversations. So I don’t want anyone to feel that you are not welcome here.