Pope At The Center Of New Controversy Amid Claims He Denounced Christ’s Own Words

Devout Catholics esteem him as the ‘Vicar of Christ’. Whatever else that title might mean, shouldn’t it, at minimum, entail standing in agreement with the explicit words of Jesus Christ?

It’s one thing for there to be swings in political ideology between one pope and another. There’s room for some latitude between political positions across time and cultures.

But isn’t the entire point of the Catholic Church as an institution built on the preservation of those core identity markers of the faith without which… faith itself would collapse into meaninglessness?

Whatever our objections might be with respect to his political meddling in questions of American politics, Socialism, and the environment — or our astonishment about his comparative silence in the face of Chinese outrages against the faith — those are mostly tangential to his role as chief theologian of his denomination.

What is more alarming is the interaction he recently had about an issue that touches the very singularity of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross itself… and it’s important to consider that the explicit context was an inter-faith meeting with people of different religious backgrounds.

As there is some dispute as to his actual words, I’ll represent it as fairly as possible.

Here is the video of Pope Francis speaking, with his English Translator translating phrase by phrase.

NEW: #PopeFrancis on inter-religious dialogue:
“Every religion is a way to arrive at God. There are different languages to arrive at God but God is God for all.
But my God is more important than your god, is that true?
There is only 1 God & each of has a language to arrive at… pic.twitter.com/TMHRDjEuJ9

— Michael Haynes 🇻🇦 (@MLJHaynes) September 13, 2024

There is a counter-claim that the English translator did not properly catch the pope’s intended meaning, and that the Vatican gave a follow-up message of his actual intention. The full text in Italian and competing translations can be found online, but are beyond the scope of this article.

Here is one summary of the rebuttal:

Another social media account pointed to the context of the limits of local Singaporean laws where there is no equivalent to free speech, and a local history of religious violence.

None of this addressed the most central part of the actual statements he made.

It would be one thing for a religious leader to explicitly put violence out of bounds and remind them that Jesus was the Prince of Peace and taught us to pray for and lay down our lives for our enemies, not to take up arms against them.

But it’s quite another to suggest that ‘all roads lead to God’… to do so is to ignore the words of Jesus himself who declared:

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. — John 14:16

Or what none other than The Apostle Peter said when confronted by people hostile to his gospel (emphasis added):

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” — Acts 4:8-12

Or the explicit Old Testament warning about those with a responsibility to speak to the danger faced by men (and women) whose souls are not right with God:

Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 8 When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked person, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade them from their ways, that wicked person will die for[a] their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. 9 But if you do warn the wicked person to turn from their ways and they do not do so, they will die for their sin, though you yourself will be saved. — Ezekiel 33:7-9

The explosive growth of the gospel did come from timid declarations of faith in Christ being one path among many… but that he was the one true path in a world full of counterfeits.

Recall when Christ called out to his Father in Matt 26:39. And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” If there was another way to reconcile man to God, the sinless Son would never have had to suffer and die on our behalf.

To say their is ANY other way for fallen man to be reconciled to a Holy God isn’t just a heretical departure from the Ancient Creeds… it’s much more than that.

It is to accuse God the Father himself of cruel malice in the moment his Faithful Son needed him most.

If ANY other path leads us home to God, a Good God could have — and would have — spared his Son in that moment.

Instead, the Apostle Paul explains why that cross was necessary.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

In simple language: his holiness required that wickedness have a real consequence. His love required him to offer us a way to come back to Him. The only way to cut that Gordian knot was to pay the full penalty in Himself… and offer a gracious pardon to any of us who accepted His terms of that pardon.