It is God’s "will that all men should be saved and be led to recognise the truth" (1 Tim 2,4). In the Pauline affirmation it is emphasised that God’s universal redeeming will is at the very foundation of the Church’s missionary spirit. The Church, because it is the guardian of the truth, is the universal sacrament of redemption; the sign and the effective instrument for mankind’s union with God (see Cost. dogm. Lumen gentium, nos. 1, 48) and, according to the expression used by Saint Cyprian, "the inseparable sacrament of unity" for the whole of mankind (Epist. Ad Magnum, 6: PL 3,1142).

In the Declaration Nostra aetate from the last Council (October 28^th 1965) on the subject of the Church’s relations with non-Christian religions, we can read: "The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions...Indeed, she proclaims, and ever must proclaim Christ "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6), in whom men may find the fullness of religious life, in whom God has reconciled all things to Himself" (Nostra aetate, no. 2).

Truth, dialogue, redemption: an extremely important trinomial, the terms of which are linked by a Christological connection with very important consequences for ecclesiology. In the incarnate Word from the very beginning God began his dialogue with mankind and the cosmos: He revealed Himself as Truth. The Church and within the Church also all Christians, are called upon to take part in this divine dialogue, bringing to all the redemption contained in the truth; they are invited to be the redeeming dialogic path, paved with mercy, humility and respect for freedom (see Second Vatican Council, Declaration Dignitatis humanae, no. 1, 7 December 1965).

The theological meditations that follow will guide us to rediscover this authentic dialogue, the human instrument for real knowledge, an efficient means for intellectual and existential enrichment based on the divine Revelation and mankind’s reflective and communicative capacity (cf. Decree Ad Gentes, ni. 7).