2. Exclusivist claims may be viewed as part of the historical process through which a community of faith seeks to establish its identity and to differentiate itself from other traditions before being able to come to dialogue with them. Alternatively, when subjected to exegetical, hermeneutic and contextual study, such claims can be seen as intended to reinforce knowledge and confession within a tradition rather than being directed to those outside it.
3. "This attitude...is directed to the destruction of all religions, but particularly the Catholic faith, which cannot be placed on a level with other religions without serious injustice, since it alone is true." Moreover, to contend that there is nothing to choose between contradictories and among contraries can lead only to this fatal conclusion: a reluctance to accept any religion either in theory or practice. (Papal Encyclical, Ad Petri Cathedram, 29 June 1959).
4. A philosophy in which there shines even a glimmer of the truth of Christ, the one definitive answer to humanity's problems, will provide a potent underpinning for the true and planetary ethics which the world now needs. (Papal Encyclical, Fides et Ratio, 14 September 1998).