Pope Francis: “Every Religion Is a Way To Arrive at God”

Mr Flanders looks at Francis's heresy  'Meanwhile, we will teach our children the truth: indifferentism is a heresy, pure and simple.'

From One Peter Five

By Timothy Flanders, MA

Editor’s note: these are Pope Francis’s actual words: “Tutte le religioni sono un cammino per arrivare a Dio.” The live translator translated these words with those quoted in the title of this article, as discussed below.

Speaking in southeast Asia to a group of young people from different religions today, the Holy Father emphasised the importance of peaceful cooperation and dialogue, but seemed to drop a bomb of heresy in the midst of this, “shooting from the hip,” as we say in the States. So let’s look at what happened and what was said.

First, it’s always important to consider the context: this is one of the things that is missed from Trad critiques of the Post-conciliar Magisterium. Vatican II is the post-war council. Ecumenism and interreligious dialogue was proposed by churchmen who had experienced the trauma of a worldwide bloodbath between baptised Christians, and peaceful cooperation was essential in a Cold War context.

But in the midst of this good intention – whether naïve or not, let history judge – the Neo-Modernists sought their own ends, and the St. Gallen Mafia has been working for decades to use this good intention as an occasion for their lies. And now they are coming out of the woodwork under this Pontificate, to whom the Holy Father himself seems to give deference and preference, (despite a Peronism which seems to mitigate this ideological bent).

Having said that, let’s look at the official English translation of his remarks, which seem to white wash the translation (original text in Italian). But before we discuss that, let’s look at some good things that were said:

Young people are courageous and like to seek the truth but they have to be careful not to become what you referred to as “armchair critics” with endless words. A young person must be a critical thinker, and it is not good never to be critical. But you must be constructive in criticism, because there is a destructive criticism, which only makes a lot of complaints but does not offer a new way forward. I ask all young people, each of you: are you critical thinkers? Do you have the courage to criticize but also the courage to let others criticize you? Because, if you criticize, then someone else will criticize you. This is sincere dialogue between young people.

These are good words. The internet monetises and incentivises shallow thinking and irrational behaviour. This is a serious issue as the Holy Ghost declares (justifying what the Holy Father says): he who heeds discipline, shows the way to life; he who ignores correction leads others astray (Prov. x. 17).

More wisdom from the Holy Father:

Young people must have the courage to build, to move forward and go out of their “comfort zones”. A young person who chooses always to spend his or her time in “comfort” is a young person who becomes fat! Not fatter in body, but fatter in mind! That is why I say to young people, “Take risks, go out! Do not be afraid!”. 

To the credit to these non-Catholic and non-Christian young people, they invited the Holy Father to speak. That is already taking a risk to listen to a very old man to seek wisdom from him, and to acknowledge his religious authority – at least in some sense – as the Roman Pontiff. The foolishness of the young in western Europe and the Americas is in disdaining their elders and seeking to rebel against them, and thus forsake the path of wisdom. By welcoming the Holy Father to speak, they are showing that they are indeed seeking wisdom. They seek wisdom by the natural light of reason or by means of a secret actual grace of the Holy Spirit – despite their false religions – toward the one Ark of Salvation, the Catholic Church. But we’ll get back to this fact in a moment.

Yet more wisdom from the Holy Father, this time getting back to the enslavement of the mind by the worldwide technocracy, as he discussed cogently in Laudato Si’:

You have also talked about the media. Today there are so many options, so many possibilities for using the media, cell phone, or television. I would like to ask you: is it good to use media or is it not good? Let us think about this. What is a young person who does not use media like? He or she is closed. What about young people who live totally enslaved to the media, what are they like? They are lost. All young people should use the media, but in a manner that can help us move forward, not in a way that can enslave us. Understood? Do you agree or disagree?

It is hard to overemphasise the importance of this consideration. It is a question that burdens me daily since my job is indeed media and internet, as Mr. Carr discusses:

A recent recommendation from Jason Craig at Sword & Spade magazine

By your prayers, dear reader, may God give me and all of us wisdom to use these technological tools properly, turning their evil into God, by the mercy of the Almighty!

But after these wise words, the Holy Father turned to his controversial statements. This is where the official English seems to mistranslate. You can watch the video of the statements here:

Mr. Haynes’ English text in his Tweet is the actual English that was translated by the translator during the speech (albeit disjointed somewhat, due to space). Note the bolded words in the Italian official text:

Tutte le religioni sono un cammino per arrivare a Dio. Sono – faccio un paragone – come diverse lingue, diversi idiomi, per arrivare lì. Ma Dio è Dio per tutti. E poiché Dio è Dio per tutti, noi siamo tutti figli di Dio. “Ma il mio Dio è più importante del tuo!”. È vero questo? C’è un solo Dio, e noi, le nostre religioni sono lingue, cammini per arrivare a Dio. Qualcuno sikh, qualcuno musulmano, qualcuno indù, qualcuno cristiano, ma sono diversi cammini. 

Thus the live translator used the English words “paths” and “arrive at God,” using the comparison of language as the Holy Father said. However, note the difference in the official English text published by the Vatican:

The English text seems to be massaged significantly (against what the official translator said during the Speech, as seen in the video and transcribed by Mr. Haynes). The final comment “ma sono diversi cammini”is completely removed altogether from the English official text. Catholic Sat provides a translation from the Italian which seems more accurate, even though it is not a transcription from what the English translator said in the video:

Well, I guess the good news is that the English translator at the Vatican understands that this statement is at least problematic prima facie.

After he said this and the Holy Father said “Understood?” the crowd broke into applause. Did this mean that the non-Christians felt justified in their false religions and worship of idols? Perhaps.

So what does Pope Francis say next?

…I don’t know if it happens here, in this city, but in other cities it happens that among young people something bad occurs: bullying… Always. Just think about what happens in schools or children’s groups: bullying targets those who are weaker. For example, a disabled boy or girl. Instead, we saw here this beautiful dance with disabled children! Each one of us has our own abilities and limitations. Do we all have abilities? [Answer: “Yes!”] Do we all have some limitations? [Answer: “Yes!”] Even the Pope? Yes, all, all! As we have our limitations, we must respect the disabilities of others. Do you agree? This is important. Why do I say this? Because overcoming these things helps in your interfaith dialogue since it is built upon respect for others. This is very important.

This of course are the good intentions that comes in that post-war context: in some places of the world, no doubt, there is violence or “bullying” to various degrees of severity, based on religion. Here the Holy Father gives a Christian response: any preying of the stronger against the weaker is evil, and a Christian must stop this evil, and indeed, a Christian may call upon the truths which are possessed by non-Christians – despite their false religions – in order to promote natural peace and prevent unjust violence. This is true and again, makes perfect sense in the post-war context. The Holy Father even seems to make reference to the post-war context in his final remarks:

If you dialogue as young people, you will also dialogue as adults; you will dialogue as citizens, and as politicians. I would like to tell you something about history: with every dictatorship in history, the first thing it does is to cut off dialogue.

Obviously this is true. In western Europe and the Americas, we are currently fighting what Pope Benedict called “the dictatorship of relativism” which certainly seeks to “dethrone truth Himself” as Dietrich von Hildebrand wrote in an important text.

Of course we need to be reasonable and say that if the Pope or any bishop is speaking to a bunch of non-Christians, it may be imprudent to say truths which will offend others and harden their hearts against the Gospel. St. Francis himself in his rule stated that this “cautious” path is legitimate among the Saracens, as long as the other – blunt proclamation of the Gospel with expectation of imminent martyrdom – is not also neglected (Rule, XVI).

Yet the Holy Father seems, by all reasonable appearances, to be basing his gentleness not on Christian charity, but on the lies of Neo-Modernist poison. Does not Original Sin incline all non-Christians to seek to justify to their guilty conscience a way to not receive the Gospel of King Jesus? Thus it is not charity to say anything to them that would appear to justify their position of being outside the Ark of Salvation. We must show them respect, including respecting their deeply held religious convictions (which is a respect for their hearts, not their false religions). These are truths which non-Christians possess but are not coming from their false religions, qua religion. The Qur’an, for example, says something true from time to time, because God is indeed “the merciful one” (bism-Allah al-Rahman al-Raheem), not because the Qur’an is inspired. The Qur’an, like all false religious texts, is a poisonous mixture of truth and falsehood. Anything true in these religions can indeed be a seed of the Logos Incarnate, yet it is not charity to keep such souls in the dark, or justify their darkness, to make them more comfortable there. Such actions are acts of hatred for souls.

Is the Holy Father guilty of this hatred of souls? Let God see and judge. We do not know everything about his heart or his intentions and we are certainly not his judge. Let God deal with that. As for us, let us never harden our hearts against the Holy Father, nor any cleric – our fathers in the Church. But rather love them and if they are in the wrong, let us speak to them with piety and reverence. As it is written: An ancient man rebuke not, but entreat him as a father (I Tim. v. 1).

Meanwhile, we will teach our children the truth: indifferentism is a heresy, pure and simple.