Is the Pope Catholic?
Is the Pope Catholic?
Is the Pope Catholic?
Have you watched Pope Francis’ first video message for the traditional papal prayer intention for the month, in which he calls on people of different faiths around the world to work together for peace and justice?
Susan Stabile, an occasional poster to FamVin, observes, “The reaction to the video has been sharp and varied, with some expressing joy and admiration for the Pope’s words, and others questioning the Pope’s catholicity.”
She continues… “Perhaps the greatest challenge to interfaith dialogue is how to reconcile Christianity’s faith in Jesus Christ as the universal Savior with the positive meaning in God’s plan of salvation of the other religious traditions and their saving value for their adherents. To quote one commentator “How to make sense of the universal mission of Christianity for the whole world without having thereby to depreciate and undervalue the significance of other religious faiths for their adherents?”
It is not a small challenge.
Here is the video
Tags: Stabile
2 Comments
I think those questioning Pope Francis’ catholicity need to look up the definition of the word. As a small “c,” it means:
1.broad or wide-ranging in tastes, interests, or the like; having sympathies with all; broad-minded; liberal.
2. universal in extent; involving all; of interest to all.
3. pertaining to the whole Christian body or church.”
His prayer intention certainly encompasses all three meanings. I applaud his call for interfaith dialogue and working together toward peace and justice. I don’t see that as being in conflict with Pope Francis also being Roman Catholic, with a capital “C” at all.
I join you in applauding Pope Francis’ “call for interfaith dialogue and working together toward peace and justice.”
Those who are questioning the Pope’s catholicity and orthodoxy are recycling, it seems to me, the criticisms hurled by doctrinaire intellectuals against Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict over the World Day for Peace in Assisi
Critics claimed then that such papal initiative would send the wrong message that all religious believers pray to the came deity or that there are no real distinctions among religious faiths. Critics of Pope Francis’ initiative think he is fostering religious indifferentism and relativism.