Pope Francis in Singapore, Indifferentism - John 14:6
During this interreligious event in Singapore Pope Francis delivered his addresses to the assembled young people in Italian but was accompanied by a priest who translated his words into English - a language widely spoken in that dynamic and prosperous region.
(What follows is an almost exact rendering of this translator's version of Pope Francis' utterances.)
One of the things that struck me about all of you here is your ability to engage interreligious dialogue.
And this is very important.
Because if we start to fight amongst ourselves and say - "My religion is more important than yours. My religion is true, yours is not." Where will that lead us?
Where will it lead us?
Someone respond, where will it lead us?
A voice in the audience was heard answering, "to destruction," to which Pope Francis assented.
And we will start to argue.
It is OK to discuss ...
Because every religion is a way to arrive at God. Sort of a comparison and an example would be that there are sort of like different languages to arrive at God, but God is God for all.
And if God is God for all then we are all sons and daughters of God.
But my god is more important than your god.
Is that true?
"There is only one God, and each of us is a language, so to speak, to arrive at God. Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Christian. They are different paths.
Understood?
Pope Francis then received an enthusiastic round of applause from the confessionally, (and culturally), diverse assembly of young people.
Christianity has traditionally accepted the veracity of such Biblical verses, attributed to Jesus, as:-
"I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me." (John 14:6)
It is quite possible to see Pope Francis' words at the interreligious meeting as being unscripted, informal and as being said in a spirit of
generousity, yet, from the point of view of traditional perspectives about the implication of content of such Biblical verses as John 14:6 the
record keepers at the headquarters of Roman Catholic Church, based in Rome at the Vatican, can be seen as somewhat watering-down key sections of Pope Francis'
unscripted, informal and generous-spirited discourse which, almost immediately, had become rather controversial.
(This official English-language version was available at https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2024/september/documents/20240913-singapore-giovani.html
within a very few days of Pope Francis' words spoken during his appearing at the interreligious meeting with young people in Singapore.)
INTERRELIGIOUS MEETING WITH YOUNG PEOPLE
ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS
"Catholic Junior College" (Singapore)
Friday, 13 September 2024
One of the things that has impressed me most about the young people here is your capacity for interfaith dialogue. This is very important because if you start arguing, "My religion is more important than yours...," or "Mine is the true one, yours is not true....," where does this lead? Somebody answer. [A young person answers, "Destruction".] That is correct. All religions are paths to God. I will use an analogy, they are like different languages that express the divine. But God is for everyone, and therefore, we are all God's children. "But my God is more important than yours!". Is this true? There is only one God, and religions are like languages, paths to reach God. Some Sikh, some Muslim, some Hindu, some Christian. Understood?
On 17th September a video was played at Med 24, an event themed as - Pilgrims of Hope, Builders of Peace - held in Tirana, Albania.
In this video message delivered to young Christians and non-Christians Pope Francis' statements included:
"I invite you to learn together the signs of the times, contemplate the difference of your traditions as a richness, a richness God wants to be.
Unity is not uniformity and the Diversity of Religious Identities is a Gift of God."
Shortly thereafter on September 24 Pope Francis delivered closing remarks at an 'international prayer meeting for peace,' organized by the Sant'Egidio Community, stressing a need to combat 'climate change' and encouraging 'fraternity' between the world's religions.
Pope Francis has told this interreligious meeting in Paris that the multi-faith group must be open to guidance "by the divine inspiration present in every faith" in order to establish peace in the world.
The gathering, which took place between September 22-24, included speakers such as Justin Welby, the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury, Chems-Eddine Hafiz, the rector of Paris' grand mosque, Haïm Korsia, the chief rabbi of France, and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Noting that the meeting finds its origin in Pope John Paul II's 1986 Meeting for Peace in Assisi and thanking the Sant'Egidio Community "for the passion and creativity with which it continues to keep the spirit of Assisi alive," Pope Francis expressed his hope that, while holding differing "religious beliefs," including Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Buddhism, Shintoism, and Judaism, the group had "experienced the power and beauty of universal fraternity."
"This is the vision our world needs today," the Pope added, stressing that "the goal" of interreligious dialogue, like that of the Sant'Egidio Community meeting, is "to establish friendship, peace and harmony, and to share spiritual and moral values and experiences in a spirit of truth and love."
Neglecting to mention Jesus or the Catholic Church in his speech, Francis urged the group to "weave bonds of fraternity and to allow ourselves to be guided by the divine inspiration present in every faith," building upon comments made during an interreligious gathering in Singapore just weeks ago in which he stated that "every religion is a way to arrive at God."
Concluding his address, Francis insisted to the representatives of "the world's great religions" that "God has placed also in our hands His dream for the world: fraternity between all peoples."
Pope Francis' remarks in Singapore, and elsewhere, have drawn criticism from some Christian traditionalists, but what he said is not substantially different from things said by his immediate predecessors. Pope St. John Paul II was often criticized for his participation in interfaith prayer and dialogue. He said at a general audience in 1998 that other religions are "different routes" that attempt to answer the same human desire for communion with God.
"It must first be kept in mind that every quest of the human spirit for truth and goodness, and in the last analysis for God, is inspired by the Holy Spirit," he said. "The various religions arose precisely from this primordial human openness to God."
Pope Benedict XVI understood other religions in a similar manner. In Truth and Tolerance, he wrote: "Salvation does not lie in religions as such, but it is connected to them, in as much as, and to the extent that, they lead men toward the one good, toward the search for God, for truth, for love."
There have however also been pronouncements against this kind of levelling of religious differences. Pope Gregory XVI, in his 1831 encyclical Mirari Vos, denounced:
indifferentism, . . . that base opinion which has become prevalent everywhere through the deceit of wicked men, that eternal salvation of the soul can be acquired by any profession of faith whatsoever, provided morals are conformed to the standard of justice and honesty.
However, on Thursday, 26 September 2024, Pope Francis returned to more traditional messaging at a meeting with the authorities, civil society and the Diplomatic Corps in Luxembourg:
... I am here to testify that the Gospel is the life source and the ever fresh force of personal and social renewal. It brings about harmony among all nations, among all peoples; harmony, and the ability to experience and suffer together. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ alone that is capable of profoundly transforming the human soul, making it capable of doing good even in the most difficult situations, of extinguishing hatred and reconciling parties engaged in conflict. May everyone, every man and woman, in full freedom, know the Gospel of Jesus, who has reconciled God and humanity in his Person, and who, knowing what is in the human heart, can heal its wounds. The Gospel is always positive.
Circa 1965 the Roman Catholic Church sought to re-set itself in order to better connect itself with people in an increasingly secularized world. A series of meetings were held in a process known as Vatican II.
One of the key documents authorised and issued under this process was Nostra Aetate, (In our Time, or In our Age), which treated with relations to non-Christian Religions.
DECLARATION ON
THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS
NOSTRA AETATE
PROCLAIMED BY HIS HOLINESS
POPE PAUL VI
ON OCTOBER 28, 1965
This document includes such content as:
From ancient times down to the present, there is found among various peoples a certain perception of that hidden power which hovers over the course of things and over the events of human history; at times some indeed have come to the recognition of a Supreme Being, or even of a Father. This perception and recognition penetrates their lives with a profound religious sense.
Religions, however, that are bound up with an advanced culture have struggled to answer the same questions by means of more refined concepts and a more developed language. ...
The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men. Indeed, she proclaims, and ever must proclaim Christ "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6), in whom men may find the fullness of religious life, in whom God has reconciled all things to Himself.
How far can we see Pope Francis' statements in September, 2024, as being consistent with the double emphasis included in Nostra Aetate?
The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions ... and ever must proclaim Christ "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6).
(Said Nostra Aetate being a document whose finalization was itself fiercely contested during the proceedings of the Second Vatican Council!)
Most Human Beings, if consulted, will tend to self-identify, more or less remotely, as being Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Taoist, Jewish, Agnostic or Atheist.
And again, most Human Beings can possibly give reasons, such as family heritage, marriages, broad cultural associations, religious conversion or skepticism for such self-identifications.
(There is a dictum which holds that "To persons of faith - no explanation is necesary - whilst to those who find faith problematic - no explanation is possible.)
There is no reason to supppose but that many people who self-identify as Christians will contine to see verses such as John 14:6 as being highly relevant.
It is entirely possible that Human Beings, who self-identify with other faiths than Christianity, (or none), will have reasons to continue with their own
personal self-identifications.
How then to avoid Indifferentism whilst also being respectful to the undeniable diversity of confessions?
One route might well be to demonstrate that ALL the major World Faiths recognise, and may even be said to share, capacities for "Spiritual Profundity" and "Spirirtual Insight".
There is another -ism, Perennialism, wherein some scholars have claimed to identify a Common Ground, or Perennial Philosophy, in relation to the
Core Spiritual Teachings of the major World Faiths.
Some truly extra-ordinary wisdoms ~ a brief selection of "Central Spiritual Insights"
gleaned from Christian sources closely followed by another brief selection of "Central Spiritual Insights" drawn from "non-Christian"
Inter-Faith sources ~ are set out below!
A selection of "Central Spiritual Insights" gleaned from Christian sources
"...the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. ..."
(From the first letter written by St. Paul to a faith-community in Corinth)
These Christian quotations have been selected based on their inherent Spiritual Impact, (rather than whether they might be deemed to be
Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox), and come from The New International Version of The Bible.
- A Disdain for Materialism
-
Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Jesus
- A Distrust of Intellect
- So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.
They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening
of their hearts.
St. Paul
- Spiritual Insights are possible!
- What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely
given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities
with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them
foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
St. Paul
- Charity
- Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does
not love does not know God, because God is love.
St. John
- Purity of Heart
- Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, "children of God without fault in a warped and
crooked generation." Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life...
St. Paul
- Humility
- Nor are you to be called 'teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant. For
whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Jesus
- Meekness
- Therefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man worketh not the
righteousness of God.
St. James
- Humility
- Nor are you to be called 'teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant. For
whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Jesus
- The Golden Rule
- And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.
St. Luke 6:31
- On a Contented Life
- Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful of nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; and if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.
St. Paul
"Central Spiritual Insights" drawn from "non-Christian" Inter-Faith sources
"... The original Buddha-nature, in all truth, is nothing which can be apprehended. It is void, omniscient, silent, pure; it is glorious and mysterious
peacefulness, and that is all which can be said. You yourself must awake to it, fathoming its depths. ..."
(from: "The Teachings of the Compassionate Buddha," edited by Edwin A. Burtt, c 1955, p. 194-204)
Our world seems to be becoming more and more "globalised" presenting us with new challenges of co-existence between cultural communities and of toleration between faith communities!
Extensive studies have been conducted into Comparative Spirituality by ourselves at age-of-the-sage and were actually undertaken before 2000 A.D. and hence prior to that difficult situation,
often overstated as being an actual "Clash of Cultures," that has (however that situation should be depicted) been all too evident in recent years.
As such these studies will hopefully qualify to be considered as having adopted a somewhat open and unprejudiced consideration of the spiritual teachings of
such major World Religions as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Taoism and Judaism.
In the following brief overview one or two quotes are presented from Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, Sikh and Taoist sources respectively.
Such inclusivity as this is quite clearly necessary in any genuine attempt to present a wide-ranging and profound overview of non-Christian spiritual insights.
Those inclined to look further into Comparative Religion Spirituality can find links to more detailed studies at the end of this initial presentation.
- A Disdain for Materialism
- Chuang Tzu put on cotton clothes with patches in them, and
arranging his girdle and tying on his shoes,
(i.e. to keep them from falling off),
went to see the prince of Wei.
"How miserable you look, Sir!" Cried the prince. "It is poverty,
not misery," replied Chuang Tzu. "A man who has TAO cannot be
miserable. Ragged clothes and old boots make poverty, not
misery."
Chuang Tzu - (Taoism)
- A Distrust of Intellect
- Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment; Cleverness is mere
opinion, bewilderment intuition.
Rumi - (Sufism ~ a notably mystical, minority, tradition associable with both Sunni and Shia Islam)
- Spiritual Insights are possible!
- The intelligence of the mean man does not rise beyond bribes and letters of
recommendation. His mind is beclouded with trivialities. Yet he would penetrate the
mystery of TAO and of creation, and rise to participation in the ONE. The result is
that he is confounded by time and space; and that trammelled by objective existences,
that he fails apprehension of that age before anything was.
But the perfect man, - he carries his mind back to the period before the beginning.
Content to rest in the oblivion of nowhere, passing away like flowing water, he is
merged in the clear depths of the infinite.
Chuang Tzu - (Taoism)
- Charity
- He that does everything for Me, whose supreme object I am, who
worships Me, being free from attachment and without hatred to any
creature, this man, Arjuna!, comes to Me.
Bhagavad Gita ~ (Hinduism) ~ also known as ~ (Vedanta).
And my soul is absorbed
In the Love of My Lord.
Bow humbly to the saint
That is a pious act.
Bow to the ground before him
That is devotion, indeed.
The faithless know not,
The joy of the love of the Lord;
From Sohila-Arti ~ a bed-time prayer
This section of which is attributed to Guru Ram Das - (Sikhism)
- Purity of Heart
- The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more
and more unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is as
darkness: they know not at what they stumble.
Solomon - (Judaism)
- Humility
- Would you become a pilgrim on the road of love? The first
condition is that you make yourself humble as dust and ashes.
Ansari of Herat - (Islam)
- Meekness
- Let a man overcome anger by love, let him overcome evil by good;
let him overcome the greedy by liberality, the liar by truth!
Speak the truth, do not yield to anger; give, if thou art asked
for little; by these three steps thou wilt go near the gods.
Dhammapada - (Buddhism)
- The Golden Rule
- This is the sum of duty: Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you.
Mahabharata 5:1517 - (associable with Hinduism)
- On a Contented Life
- There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness.
The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man shall be satisfied from himself.
Book of Proverbs - (Judaism)
An undeniably significant Christian teaching, known as The Parable of the Sower, presents a scenario where
"seeds", (i.e. Spiritual Teachings), fall on the ears of hearers variously characterized as being "stony ground", "thorny ground" and "good ground."
In this teaching it is clearly implied that the "seed analogy" refers to grain of some kind.
In favorable conditions grain seeds germinate and this typically leads to the growth of maturing
plants which individually have the potential to produce a multiple harvest of individual grains from an original single seed sown.
The Parable of the Sower can be interpreted as inferring that the sowing of a Spiritual "seed" can lead to a spiritually-related "harvesting" of Insight or Knowledge.
… And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear
the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold,
some sixty, and some an hundred.
And he said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a
bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick?
For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested;
neither was anything secret, but that it should come
abroad.
Jesus' teaching from St. Mark's Gospel, Chapter 4
Two particularly noteworthy Faith versus Reason quotes, related to Spiritual Insight, from "non-Christian" sources now follow:-
"Would he had been less full of borrowed knowledge! Then he would have accepted inspired knowledge from his father. When, with
inspiration at hand, you seek book-learning, your heart, as if inspired, loads you with reproach. Traditional knowledge,
when inspiration is available, is like making ablutions in sand when water is near. Make yourself ignorant, be submissive,
and then you will obtain release from your ignorance."
Rumi - (Sufism / Islam)
Rumi lived 1207 - 1273, (by the western calendar).
A BBC "Culture" web page of April, 2014 has said of him:-
The ecstatic poems of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, a Persian poet and Sufi master born 807 years ago in 1207, have sold millions of copies in recent years, making him the
most popular poet in the US. Globally, his fans are legion.
Vivekananda, (the name-in-religion
Vivekananda translates as - The Bliss of Discerning Wisdom), was a Vedic scholar and Hindu sage who made an
appearance at the Parliament of World Religions that convened in Chicago in 1893 and was generally recognised as having made a singularly important contribution to the
proceedings:-
"When there is conflict between the heart and the brain, let the heart be followed, because intellect has only one state, reason,
and within that intellect works, and cannot get beyond. It is the heart which takes one to the highest plane, which intellect
can never reach; it goes beyond the intellect, and reaches what is called inspiration. Intellect can never become inspired; only the
heart when it is enlightened, becomes inspired. An intellectual, heartless man can never become an inspired man. It is always the
heart that speaks in the man of love; it discovers a greater instrument than intellect can give you, the instrument of inspiration. Just
as the intellect is the instrument of knowledge, so is the heart the instrument of inspiration."
Whilst Buddhism cannot lay claim to having as many self-identifying adherents as Christianity, Islam or Hinduism it is often viewed with a degree of
respect by very many persons who would see themselves as being "spiritual but not religious".
"The Enlightened One" is one of the titles attibuted, (by Western observers), to Gautama Buddha, the founding figure of Buddhism.
This term actually appears to be a fairly direct translation of what the word "Buddha" means in its original linguistic context.
Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism are joined by Sikhism in accepting possiblities of "Spiritually-related" Insight.
Nanak, the founding figure of Sikhism, (and his nine recognised successors), are all considered to have been "Gurus" - (i.e. Spiritual and Intellectual guides and leaders).
The Holy Book of the Sikh faith, the Granth, continues this tradition
being known to the Sikh faithful as The Guru Granth Sahib.
(Sahib being a respectful term expressive of perceived authority)
Many persons inclined towards atheism or agnosticism can tend to see Religion as being superstitious: it is to be hoped that the last few quotations and observations from
Christian, Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist sources will do something encourage people to view the practice of Spirituality as potentially resulting in heightened capacities for
spiritually-related Insight.
That being said we must all have a common interest in attempting to promote harmonious co-existence between the peoples, the religions and Human cultures.
On the Age-of-the-Sage Home Page visitors can find much more about Comparative Religion studies.
Page content, (and linked content), available there more fully demonstrate the range of agreement about core spirituality common to the Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Taoist, Jewish faiths.
Most of these faiths recognise possibilities of close communion with Spiritual Divinity.
It is also demonstrated there that the five World Religions with the greatest number of adherents, (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism), ALL view Spirituality as being relative - both to Desire, and to Wrath.
