"francis, by now well established, says things that leave Catholic listeners confused and hoping he meant something other than what he actually said. That all religions have equal weight is an extraordinarily flawed idea for a Pope to appear to support."-- Charles j. Chaput, Archbishop emeritus of Philadelphia
"The view that all religions are alike is calculated to bring about the ruin of all forms of religion, and special of the Catholic religion, which, as it is the only one that is true, cannot, without degrading justice, be regarded as merely equal to other religions."--Pope Leo XIII
"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me."-- Jn. 14:6
In a recent address to an inter-religious assembly of Singaporean youth during his Apostolic journey to Asia Pope francis made a statement saying all religions are paths to God, suggesting that all religions are equal or relative. This is what's known as indifferentism.
francis did a great injustice to the Catholic religion. He shirked his duty to affirm the unique claim of the Catholic Church to be the very storehouse of Truth itself, having received divine revelation from her founder, you know, the guy we consider the savior of the world. Jesus did not say I am one of the ways, one of the truths. Anyone can come to the father through any number of paths. Does francis really believe that other deities such as Waheguru of the Sheiks ,Allah of the Muslims and Brahmin of the Hindus are the same as the triune God whom Catholics worship? Obviously not all religions seek the same God. Some religions are both wrong and potentially dangerous(1), materially and spiritually. To say they're all equal drains Catholic martyrdom of its meaning, such a sacrifice would be senseless. Indeed, frances gives the impression that the Church has wasted considerable time, money, and energy not to mention lives in her efforts over the past 2 millennial at evangelizing and conversion.
francis has broken with the magisterial teaching of the Church of which he is the spiritual titular head. He's teaching contravenes those of like Pope Saint John Paul II who stated: "Widespread indifferentism found among Christians is based on incorrect theological perspectives and is characterized by religious relativism which leads to the belief that one religion is as good as another." And Pope Benedict XVI who said: "It would be contrary to the faith to consider the Church as one way of Salvation alongside those constituted by other religions, seen as complementary to the Church or substantially equivalent to her. In ACTS God willed that the Church founded by him be the instrument for salvation for all Humanity." This truth of faith does not lessen the sincere respect which the Church has for the religions of the world, but at the same time, it rules out, in a radical way, the mentality of indifferentism.
Pope francis has failed to propose his own professed religion, Catholicism, as a viable option to religious seekers. He offers no compelling reason for them to take seriously the unique claim of Jesus Christ to be the only way to salvation. This is a duty the Pope's words have worked against on more than 1 occasion.
1. The rare counter-example does nothing to disprove the average result. Groups differ within themselves as well as between each other, but group differences still exist. There's no organized Catholic group that's committing acts of religiously motivated violence today. There's no Catholic equivalent of isis, al-qaeda, Boko haram, Abu sayyaf, hamas, hezbollah, and the like, which are not small isolated groups of fanatics but veritable international armies.
