c. 1997 Religion News Service

Vatican official calls Buddhism”erotic spirituality” (RNS) The chief custodian of Roman Catholic doctrine has ridiculed the rising appeal of Buddhist practices among Christians, saying the church must do all it can to combat the challenge.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said in an interview with the French news weekly L’Express published Friday (March 21) that”if Buddhism seduces it is because it seems possible to reach the boundless and the bliss without having concrete religious obligations. In that sense it is an erotic spirituality.” Ratzinger reiterated a prediction he said he made years ago: that Buddhism would replace Marxism as the church’s greatest challenge by the year 2000.

The German prelate’s office did not refute the published comments.”It’s causing a lot of conversation in the corridors today,”said a Ratzinger aide.

And not only in the Vatican.

Mariangela Fala, secretary of the Italian Buddhist Union, called the remarks”uninformed and provincial.”She said it would chill dialogue between the church and Italian Buddhists, who are scheduled to hold a conference in May on efforts to improve relations.

Ratzinger, one of Pope John Paul II’s closest advisers, also ridiculed Buddhist and New Age notions of reincarnation that conflict with Christian ideas.

This is not the first time the Vatican has reacted negatively to Buddhism.

The church has become increasingly anxious about the growing attraction of Buddhism, which has been popularized in the West by the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, and others.

In 1989, Ratzinger issued a document on Christian meditation that warned the faithful not to stray from accepted models of prayer.

In his book,”Crossing the Threshold of Hope,”the pope called Buddhism a”negative”and”atheistic system.”Buddhism, he said,”offers a doctrine of salvation that seems increasingly to fascinate many Westerners as an `alternative’ to Christianity or as a sort of `complement’ to it.”But, the pope added,”the doctrines of salvation in Buddhism and Christianity are opposed.”

DEA END RNS