Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, the Archbishop of Algiers, recently said in an interview with the Belgian Catholic outlet CathoBel that the Church’s job is not to proselytise and try to convert other people. His Church, he said, is “not a proselytising Church, not a Church that is there to convert”.
Many Catholics – as expected – were upset by this. Others rushed to the cardinal’s defence, insisting it couldn’t possibly be what he meant. He must have been hedging. Algeria is a Muslim country where trying to convert Muslims is illegal, so he must have been trying to head off any persecution that might come if he said his mission was to convert them.
