Looking at the video above, PopeWatch has just one question: Why did Christ bother coming to us and dying for us? The strong implication of the above video is that one religion is as good as another. If that were the case, surely God would not have died on the Cross for us.
Salvation and Jesus?
That’s what the implications of equaling all faiths will question. God lied! Jesus IS NOT the only route to Salvation.
Good job Pope Francis.
Undo the centuries of struggles and martyrdom’s made at the hands of those who believe what was preached abovementioned.
For they killed those who would not waiver from the doctrine that Jesus is the only way to the Father.
Indifference indeed.
If this video is a tool only to create dialogue to then introduce the truth, then it is deceiving.
Missing in that final pic was that notorious crucifix with merged with the atheist hammer and sickle, since all earthly religions appear to serve one purpose these days, divorcing love from its source—truth.
Game changer. Francis has hauled down his false flag and raised his true colors, and this is is the opening broadside against the Barque of Peter. Either that, or he was just taped reading from his script and everything else was done afterwards in the studio and in the editing room, and the Holy Father had no idea how it was going to come out.
Game changer, indeed. He’s actually a disciple of Rodney “Can’t we all just get along” King. He’s certainly not Christian, with its required claims of exclusivity.
“The most deadly poison of our times is indifference. And this happens, although the praise of God should know no limits. Let us strive, therefore, to praise HIM to the greatest extent of our powers.” -St.Maximilian Kolbe.
The Praise of God is ultra-limited in this current pontificate. Mercy year?
If it’s truly Mercy, then sing from the dome of St. Peter the Truth that Jesus Saves, and no one else. That’s MERCY!
“In our time, when day by day mankind is being drawn closer together, and the ties between different peoples are becoming stronger, the Church examines more closely her relationship to non-Christian religions. In her task of promoting unity and love among men, indeed among nations, she considers above all in this declaration what men have in common and what draws them to fellowship. “
“One is the community of all peoples, one their origin, for God made the whole human race to live over the face of the earth. One also is their final goal, God. His providence, His manifestations of goodness, His saving design extend to all men, until that time when the elect will be united in the Holy City, the city ablaze with the glory of God, where the nations will walk in His light.” -Nostra Aetate, Oct. 28, 1965
….
Our present state of indifferentism is laid out in these first two paragraphs of Nostra Aetate of Vatican II: that all faiths supposedly seek the same common unity of belief. The philosophical error underlying this position, as well as its 1960’s naïve optimism, is so obvious it is glaring. Just as peace is not necessarily the absence of war, a true unity of faith is not pretending to our [few] areas of agreed belief (areas which need be kept sufficiently vague and undefined), but as we can see, it in fact leads to our present utter faithlessness—another word for indifferentism.
…
But here we are, 50 years later, with the Obfuscapontiff Maximus, further blurring differences and flattening distinctions, greasing the skids for an enormously disastrous conflict ahead. He wont stop, of course: he is all on board with it (note how he studiously avoided mentioning the name of Jesus Christ during his historic opportunity to address the US nation in his October, 2015 address to Congress.) Well done, good and indifferent (=faithless) servant!
Most of the planet’s inhabitants declare themselves believers.
True.
This should lead to dialogue among religions.
Not necessarily. A fairly harmless non sequitur, I think.
We should not stop praying for it and collaborating with those who think differently.
True.
Many think differently, feel differently, seeking God or meeting God in different ways.
True.
In this crowd, in this range of religions, there is only one certainty we have for all: we are all children of God.
Not true at all. If by “certainty” you mean knowledge, then we believe that anyone can through reason prove that God exists, but you can’t prove a lot of other things, such as us all being children of God. If by “certainly” you mean things that all these faiths believe in, then you have to acknowledge that “children of God” means very different things among the religions. If by “certainty” you mean things that are true, we Catholics have hundreds of them; other religions have a few truths mixed in with various errors.
I hope you will spread my prayer request this month: “That sincere dialogue among men and women of different faiths may produce the fruits of peace and justice.”
I have confidence in your prayers.
Fine.
Overall, definitely not a statement I would have made, but I don’t see anything in it that should offend the faithful.
Pinky, you are forgetting that this is not an ordinary intentions message offered in written form. Add the propagandistic Jesuit-produced video and you’ve got a serious problem. The Pope’s role in the agitprop is relative minor (although still very problematical). When he says something like “people think and feel differently,” yes, that is true. But when you couple it with the video, it becomes “people think and feel differently, and we’re cool with that, because look how nice and sincere these people are.” And the only certainty we have is that we’re all children of God? “Not true” indeed! So why is the Pope lying? Because he has little time left to plant a pan-human religion of Love. At the end, the image of each religion’s symbols held out together can only demonstrate indifferentism. I guess it’s something you either get or you don’t. I guess you could say, “Aw, look, they’re just talking together despite their fundamental differences in belief.” The same repeated phrases by the different god-models reminded me of a Democrat political ad from a few years ago, but I’ll never remember the details.
Just came across Athanasius of Alexandria;
“By the sign of the Cross all magic is stopped, and all witchcraft is brought to naught, and all the idols are being deserted and left, and every unruly pleasure is checked, and everyone is looking up from earth to heaven…”
Fourth century was hellish. Alexandria’s book “On the Incarceration,” might be the reminder all Catholics need as this era is one falling back to the fourth century. Homosexuality as a normal lifestyle. Idol worship on the increase. Unruly pleasures propagated.
Everyone looking at earth…not Heaven.
It is by the Holy Cross that we have a chance.
As this world turns back to paganism, it is imperative that Our Catholic Leadership prepares the faithful. Prepares. Not abandon.
Bear, I get it. I don’t like the thing. It implies that all religions worship a god of love who sees all his people as equals and encourages us all to do the same. That’s a terrible reading of Buddhism, a bad reading of Islam, and even a questionable reading of Judaism. But I’ve only got 15 hours a day when I’m not eating or sleeping, and I’m going to spend as little of it as I can getting angry at the pope.
“One is the community of all peoples, one their origin, for God made the whole human race to live over the face of the earth.”
He also made communities of angels in Heaven. How’d that unity work out with that Lucifer fellow and his rebellion?
Unity in God requires truth……
How does this NOT make Pope Francis one of the little anti-christs about whom the epistle of 1st John speaks?
I was curious if Mark Shea would offer a defense. It turns out he shut down Catholic and Enjoying It (est 2002) at the end of the year.
All you need is ‘luv’, eh?
I also don’t want to be angry with the pope. as a matter of fact I laughed a little at first when I saw this on rome reports facebook page comments:
“Pope Francis is full of piety and thoughtfulness! Well done! Hare Krishna!”
but then I quit laughing.
.
Donald McClarey you are genius to have this post on the same day as your wonderful quote from Pius 10.
Mark Shea did comment at his new digs, according to a poster on my blog. It was predictable. I find myself wondering if the problems we are seeing in the Church are not just part of the great retreat of the West, and all institutions are crumbling as an invisible tide advances. It still seems very odd to me how prominent something as silly as homosexuality should be in the general destruction. The maladies we see in the U.S. seem identical to what we’re seeing sweep the Vatican. Narcissism, a pathological need to be seen as a “correct thinker,” exaggerated fear of global warming, compulsive denial of the realities of our age, magical thinking, promotion of “dialogue” without a goal, etc.
“…problems we are seeing in the Church are not just part of the great retreat of the West..”
.
Yes. the West and the Church go hand in hand, as they have in the past. Up and down hill.
Is the video real or is someone playing games somewhere?
I mean like an hilarious joke?
For me the answer to all of this is clear. We are in the end times. The devil is more and more in charge. How do we know this? The devil is irrational and these are irrational times. Irrational suicidal actions such as accepting homosexuality as a good. Acceptance of Islam whose goal is to eliminate Christianity and Western civilization. A Pope, while representing Christ, denies His teaching. Acceptance of abortion which eliminates mankind’s future. The world is becoming more and more suicidal because it sees no hope. Hope is to be provided by Christianity. Pope Francis is killing Christianity. Doesn’t it all seem obvious. Lots more could be said. Note The Bear’s words above.
“Most of the planet’s inhabitants declare themselves believers.
True.”
I’m not sure but that depends upon how many I Buddhists. They don’t believe in a deity. If the majority of the world are non-Judo-Christian or Muslim, then it is possible that most don’t believe in a personal God.
“Many think differently, feel differently, seeking God or meeting God in different ways.
True.”
In part. Though the Christian vision is not that we seek God in different ways, but that God seeks us through Jesus Christ. More than that, he saves us through his passion, death and resurrection. This because he is God. And all salvation comes through Christ and him in Unity with the Father and the Spirit. Something no other religions holds for their founder.
When I saw this video, I first thought it was a satire. Well, it wasn’t a satire, but it sure was a sick joke!
But Phillip, is there any difference between the video above and the ecumenism promoted in 1986 at Assisi by the pope from Krakow, Poland?
We all need to wake-up.
The rain started beating us in 1962 or thereabouts. What we need now is the restoration of the Holy Church.
http://popeleo13.com/pope/2015/11/08/category-archive-message-board-483-pray-for-the-restoration-of-the-church/
Assisi was a disaster by committee. Pope Francis has knowingly and willfully promoted the heresy of indifferentism by means of a deliberately, carefully produced and persuasive piece of video propaganda produced under the authority of the Pope, and with his direct participation. In it he directly and deliberately promotes indifferentism by erroneous statements such as the only certainty is that all people are children of God, and, without the slightest disapproval characterizes false religions as simply people feeling and believing differently, all of which are in direct conflict with the condemnation of indifferentism by Pope Gregory XVI in Mirari Vos, Holy Tradition, Sacred Scripture and, in summary, the entire deposit of the Catholic Faith. As with, to a lesser extent, his implicit denial of the divinity of Jesus Christ by preaching that He had to apologize for teaching in the Temple. It is impossible to imagine a man with his background being ignorant of Catholicism and its specific doctrines, so ignorance is not an available defense. Indeed, he has on more than one occasion expressed contempt for the very idea of doctrines. Pope Francis does not feel bound by any doctrine, and is determined to pursue his idiosyncratic, non-Catholic course which combines leftist humanitarianism and the promotion of of a pan-religious cult of Love whose chief sacrament is dialogue and under which missionary work is discouraged because every person can count on salvation in their own religion. This leaves only two possible conclusions. Pope Francis believe God revealed the Christian religion, but that revelation may be safely ignored; or Pope Francis does not believe God revealed the Christian religion. He has repeatedly proved himself to be unfit as Pope, and appears to be straying into formal heresy with his slick promotion of indifferentism.
Much as JP II is the great saint of the 20th Century if not the second millennium, he, like all other saints made prudential errors. Some of his efforts at ecumenism, while not denying the truth of the Faith, nonetheless gave appearances of inappropriate equating of faiths.
I believe Benedict XVI did a great job of reseting course and a good summary is here:
https://www.ewtn.com/library/HUMANITY/86assisi11.htm
The problem with Francis’ video is the ambiguity not only of the video but of the Francis Papacy. There is no clarity and deliberate entertaining of theological theories comprehensively dealt with and rejected by the Church over time.
Now, Francis may be unaware of the video. If so, calling attention to it by varied means is our duty as Catholics. But I agree with the Bear. I think he is showing his true colors. Not that I ever had much doubt.
Just another interesting, albeit unrelated, take on the Francis effect:
http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1351203?eng=y&refresh_ce
From Treasure in Clay: The Autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen :
As the Damascus scene impressed on my early priesthood the continuity of Christ through history in His Body which is the Church, so the Athens scene taught me that the central theme of all our preaching must be Christ and Him crucified.
Paul first preached in the marketplace, where the philosophers, particularly the Stoics and Epicureans, disputed. Many of them were students of the University of Athens, but since they were searching more for novelty than depth they compared St. Paul to a small bird which picks up different seed for its food. He was not unprepared to meet the diverse philosophers, one of whom was devoted to pleasure and the other to a puritan way of life, for he had acquired a familiarity with their doctrine in his own city of Tarsus. In any case, St. Paul defended his position so well that the crowd proposed that he should go to the top of the Areopagus, or Mars Hill—the most famous spot in Athens. It was a place of sacred judgment and the center of arbitration on religious matters. Pericles had stood there.
On the way up the hill, Paul passed through streets that were lined with the statues of gods. In fact, I observed many images of the ancient gods still remaining as I made my way to the hill. What struck me was not just idolatry, but that these stone images were yearnings in the hearts of men for God to appear among them. If their gods would not come down from their Olympian heights, they would force them to come down by incarnating them in rock and gold and silver. These were unconscious cravings for Emmanuel or “God among us.”
Every night I went to Mars Hill and reread that famous speech of St. Paul in chapter 17 of Acts. From the point of view of rhetoric and pedagogy it was a perfect speech. First, he began with a tribute that was to win their souls. Paul spoke of how God made the universe, was the Lord of Heaven and earth, did not dwell in temples made with hands (such as the beautiful one he was looking on); that He made of one blood every nation of men that dwelled upon the face of the earth, fixing the limits and extent of their habitation, and inspiring them to seek God even though they might be groping in the darkness. God, Paul said, was not far from any one of them. As the poet put it, “We are all His offspring.” Paul then jumped to the subject of Judgment and the Resurrection.
He made only two converts—Dionysius, and a woman named Damaris. The talk was not a success. It was rather one of Paul’s great failures. He left the city immediately after the talk and walked to Corinth. He never went back to Athens, never wrote a letter to the Athenians, and there is no record that he established a church in Athens. As I sat evening after evening reading that speech, it finally dawned on me why St. Paul had failed in that talk. He had failed to mention the Name of Christ and His Crucifixion. I am sure that as he walked that dusty road between Athens and Corinth he must have said over and over again what he later wrote to the Corinthians: “I am resolved among you to know nothing but Christ and Him Crucified.”
Quotermeister.
🙂 Great insight!
Pope Francis, president of the “Coexist” club. Look for the bumper sticker to appear on his little Fiat shortly.
Well done, Quotermeister: only someone like Fulton Sheen could bring alive S Paul’s experience, in this case (the speech, designed to meet the criteria of the “great philosophers” of his day at Athens at the Areopagus (Acts 17:22-31), of his failure—and why. No Christ-crucified, no Christianity.
…
Yet now we cant even get our great philosopher-prelates and clergy to mention happy-clappy Christ at all—whether Christ as legendary teacher, Christ as great healer, or Christ-as- Risen-and-bypassing-the-hurt-and-pain-of-real-human-experience. If Christ is mentioned today, it is the “christ” (small “c”) of Shelby Spong, not the Christ of Maximilian Kolbe.
Steve Phoenix.
The Christ of Maximilian Kolbe is growing in popularity. It will be the Holy Spirit that will see to it, especially if Holy Father misses the opportunity due to his beam removal business in the face of traditional Catholic’s. Be that what it may, the Truth will not be smothered.
The Maximilian Kolbe’s of this era are growing. Love of Jesus in Holy hours of Adoration lead souls to authentic love of neighbor. Love of our Lady lead these new Kolbe Catholic’s to speak Christ Crucified and the dangerous road to hell for unrepentant sinners.
I’m not worried about this pontificate because the one who knows the hearts of men will not be conquered. His people will hold fast to the Truth. His chosen souls will lead in the trenches, fearing nothing and trusting in His Sacred Heart. Man is fallible…of course.
Jesus is not. Jesus who is Judge of all will see to your completion the marvelous designs He has planned. Mine too. Pope Francis as well. The difficulty is patience!