The latest issue of the New Oxford Review carries an interesting article by Jim Coop entitled "In 1531, Mary Intervened to Prevent a Clash of Civilizations" (NOR, Feb. 2007), 16-20. It's primarily about Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico, but also drawing on parallels to the current confrontations between Christians and Muslims recently exemplified in the Holy Father's trip to Turkey. The passage about Archbishop Fulton Sheen I wish to highlight from the article comes near the end:
Many years ago, Archbishop Fulton Sheen noted the difficulties Christian missionaries were having in converting Moslems to the Faith. He proposed a solution to the problem: Fostering devotion to the Virgin Mary. In his book The World's First Love, he wrote, "It is our firm belief that the fears some entertain concerning the Moslems are not to be realized, but that Islam will eventually be converted to Christianity. This will not happen through the direct teaching of Christianity but through the summoning of the Moslems to a veneration of the Mother of God.... Because Moslems have a devotion to Mary, our missionaries should be satisfied merely to expand and develop that devotion with full realization that Our Lady will carry the Moslems the rest of the way to her Divine Son." (p. 19)
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