Apparently the Pope is tired of Fundamentalist Evangelists hogging the asshole spotlight for so long and wants Catholics to get in on the action:
The Roman Catholic Church has the inalienable right and duty to convert any person to Christianity, Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday.
Evangelism is a central mission of the Church, the pope told a Vatican body that encourages Catholic missionary activity.
The appeal for the conversion of “all nations,” attributed to Jesus Christ in the Gospels, remains “an obligatory mandate for the entire Church and for every believer in Christ,” the pontiff said.
“This apostolic commitment is both a duty and an inalienable right, the very expression of religious freedom with its moral, social and political dimensions,” he said.
[...] In December, the Vatican published a doctrinal note reaffirming the mission of all the faithful to seek to convert non-Catholics including members of other Christian denominations, while avoiding placing undue pressure on them.
I love the usage of undue pressure in that last bit. I suppose it means we shouldn’t expect any new Inquisitions anytime soon and for that I am truly grateful. Still, if any significant amount of Catholics actually tries to put this into practice then things are sure to get more annoying as a Missionary Arms Race breaks out between the Fundamentalists and Catholics. On the plus side at least they’ll be aggravating the hell out of the Protestants too which should be fun to watch.
Obviously conversion is going to be high on the agenda. Trying to convert others to your world view is natural for humans- we do it all the time on this blog. Religeons have the added imperative that they consider it an order from on high, and a positive action for the convertee.