During a three-day visit to Singapore and while attending an interreligious meeting with young people at a Catholic junior college, Pope Francis departed from his prepared remarks and declared to the gathering that "every religion is a way to arrive at God." He continued, "Sort of a comparison, an example, would be they're sort of like different languages in order to arrive at God."
The leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics continued along this universalist tack: "But God is God for all. And if God is God for all, we are all sons and daughters of God."
He lamented that some argue, "But my God is more important than your God!" and asked, "Is that true?"
Answering his own question to the young people, the pontiff finished,
There is only one God and each of us has a language, so to speak, in order to arrive at God. Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Christian. There are different paths. Understand?
And the leaders on stage, representing various religions, happily shook their heads in agreement.
Reacting to the pontiff's comments, Bishop Joseph Strickland, who oversaw the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tyler, Texas, until his dismissal by the Vatican last year, said in a post on X, "Please pray for Pope Francis to clearly state that Jesus Christ is the only Way. To deny this is to deny Him. If we deny Christ, He will deny us, He cannot deny Himself."
Strickland was ousted for disagreeing with Francis on the issue of banning pro-abortion Catholic politicians from receiving communion and over the degree to which outreach to the LGBT community is acceptable in the Catholic Church. A petition created in defense of Strickland last year said he was ousted because he "publicly corrected several heterodox statements from Pope Francis."
Jesus didn't say, "Go out and point people toward any random religion or philosophy," nor did he offer any prompt that affirms "all religions are paths to God." The pope's claims simply do not stand up to the Bible's historical and theological narrative -- and even an atheist understands this reality.
The proclamation is a head-turning, show-stopping moment considering it slipped from the lips of the man who heads the world's largest Christian denomination. Critics were quick to appropriately react in sheer horror, frustration and with corrective rebuke. READ MORE
