Vatican City, - The Vatican on Friday defended the "right and duty" of Catholics to do missionary work aimed at converting people from other religions and other Christian denominations. The assertion came in a document titled "Doctrinal Note on some aspects of Evangelization", issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, the Vatican's department in charge of matters of church orthodoxy.
Lamenting what it said was "growing confusion" about the Catholic Church's missionary mandate, the document stressed that that evangelization or spreading of the church's message is "an inalienable right and duty, an expression of religious liberty".
Respect for religious freedom and its promotion "must not in any way make us indifferent towards truth and goodness. Indeed love impels the followers of Christ to proclaim to all the truth which saves", the 19-page document said.
Similar proclamations by the Vatican that the Roman Catholic Church believes its message to be the "truth" and that its mission is to make converts, has angered leaders of other Christian and non- Christian faiths.
But the Vatican's top Indian-born cleric, Cardinal Ivan Dias, said he believed the "vast majority" of Hindus - the largest religious group in India - would welcome the document.
"Most Hindus have a millenarian tradition of religious tolerance," Dias who heads Vatican's department in charge of missionary work, the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, said speaking at a news conference presenting the document.
Hindus "respect our honesty in declaring our beliefs about the founder (Christ) of our religion without attempting to dilute our message," Dias said.
Past episodes of intolerance against Catholic missionaries in India was the work of "a Hindu minority that grabbed the headlines" Dias said.
Christianity along with many other religions, originated in Asia, which has a long tradition of culture and faiths " each of which contains praiseworthy values," Dias said.
However, some of these other religions and cultures' practices "were not consistent with the Christian ethos, for example the caste system, revenge laws, social condition of women, treatment of widows and prejudices against the birth of female children," Dias said.
The document also addressed the issue of Catholic evangelization in countries where other Christians live, stating that Catholics must carry out their mission with "true respect for the tradition and spiritual riches of such countries as well as a sincere spirit of co- operation".
In July a similar document by the Vatican which said that non- Catholic Christian denominations were not full churches of Jesus Christ, drew criticism from Protestant and Orthodox leaders, especially from the Moscow Patriarchate.
Friday's document did not specifically deal with the Catholic Church's relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church, but "respect for the sensibilities" of denominations who were "recovering from years of living under Communist atheist regimes," was required, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, Cardinal Willam Levada said speaking at the news conference..
The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, was headed for many years by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the current Pope Benedict XVI.
