Religions must respect each other and cooperate but this doesn't mean Catholics should stop preaching Christian values and beliefs, Pope Benedict XVI said on Friday.
In an end-of-year speech to cardinals and Vatican officials, the pontiff stressed that it was a duty for the Catholic Church and its members to carry out a ''missionary'' role in the world.
But he said this did not - or should not - contradict efforts to promote inter-religious dialogue and to collaborate with other faiths wherever possible.
''Anyone who has recognised a great truth, whoever has found a great joy must transmit it, can't keep it for themselves,'' the pope said.
Benedict's remarks touched on a highly sensitive aspect of the Catholic Church's relations with other faiths and cultures.
The Vatican has a troubled relationship with China, where all religion is restricted, and one of the problematic areas in Catholic-Muslim dialogue is the fact that Christians in Muslim countries often have less freedom to practice their faith than Muslims in Christian ones.
Relations with the Russian Orthodox Church are frequently punctuated by accusations that the Vatican is trying to 'proselytise', or poach its believers in some parts of the former Soviet Union.
The 80-year-old pontiff has made inter-religious dialogue a priority of his papacy and has worked hard to mend relations with Islam since he seriously upset Muslims around the world with his comments on the prophet Mohammed in 2005.
But he said it was a mistake to think that the Catholic Church's ''wish for dialogue and collaboration'' meant ''we can no longer transmit the message of Jesus Christ...to men and to the world''.
The Vatican's doctrinal department, which Benedict headed before becoming pope, issued a note making a similar point on December 14.
''We do not proselytise, but it is possible for someone to have an encounter with the Catholic faith and then want to join the Catholic Church,'' Cardinal William Levada, head of the Congregation, said at the presentation press conference.
In these circumstances, the Catholic Church must help the person concerned to convert, he added.
In his speech on Friday the pope recalled what were for him the key moments of 2007. He mentioned his trip to Brazil, a letter from 138 Muslim leaders calling for dialogue, his own letter to Chinese Catholics in June, his visit to Austria and a meeting with Catholic youth in Loreto in September.
