In a message to an interreligious gathering in Paris for peace, Pope Francis wrote that the divine inspiration is present in every faith.
The remarks of the Pontiff contradicted those of his predecessors who held that “it is contrary to the Catholic faith to consider the different religions of the world as ways of salvation complementary to the Church”.
They came in a written message this week to the International Meeting of Prayer for Peace, an event in Paris organised by the Sant’Egidio Community.
“If others continue to make war, together we can work for peace,” said the Pope as he evoked the spirit of the interreligious gathering convoked by Pope St John Paul II in Assisi, Italy, in 1986.
“It is against this backdrop that the title of this Paris Meeting – ‘Imagine Peace’ – is most eloquent,” said Francis.
“We need to keep meeting, to weave bonds of fraternity and to allow ourselves to be guided by the divine inspiration present in every faith, in order to join in ‘imagining peace’ among all peoples.”
The words of the Pope echo his remarks in Singapore earlier this month when he said: “There’s only one God, and each of us has a language to arrive at God. Some are Sheik, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, and they are different paths.”
He said: “They are like different languages in order to arrive at God, but God is God for all … Since God is God for all, then we are all children of God.”
Such religious pluralism shocked Catholics who believe Jesus Christ to be the one Saviour of the world and who are worried that it might hinder missionary efforts to bring people to the faith.
Some were also confused by the apparent embrace of religious pluralism against the teachings of Pope St John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.
The denunciation of religious pluralism by his predecessors was made explicitly in their treatment of Fr Jacques Dupuis, a Belgian Jesuit theologian, after his 1997 book, Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism sought to investigate “the significance of the plurality of religious traditions in God’s plan for humanity”.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, headed at the time by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, published a “notification”, with consent of Fr Dupuis to say that the book “contained notable ambiguities and difficulties on important doctrinal points, which could lead a reader to erroneous or harmful opinions”.
The notification said that although it was “legitimate to maintain that the Holy Spirit accomplishes salvation in non-Christians” there was no foundation in Catholic theology to consider other religions as “ways of salvation” … because “they contain omissions, insufficiencies and errors regarding fundamental truths about God, man and the world”.
Confirmed by Pope St John Paul II in 2001 and ordered to be published with every edition of the book, the notification unambiguously declared Jesus Christ as “the sole and universal mediator of salvation for all humanity”.
“It is therefore contrary to the Catholic faith not only to posit a separation between the Word and Jesus, or between the Word’s salvific activity and that of Jesus, but also to maintain that there is a salvific activity of the Word as such in his divinity, independent of the humanity of the Incarnate Word,” the notification said.
“It is … contrary to the Catholic faith to maintain that revelation in Jesus Christ (or the revelation of Jesus Christ) is limited, incomplete or imperfect … the historical revelation of Jesus Christ offers everything necessary for man’s salvation and has no need of completion by other religions.
“It is consistent with Catholic doctrine to hold that the seeds of truth and goodness that exist in other religions are a certain participation in truths contained in the revelation of or in Jesus Christ.
“However, it is erroneous to hold that such elements of truth and goodness, or some of them, do not derive ultimately from the source-mediation of Jesus Christ.”
The notification said explicitly that it was contrary to the Catholic faith “to hold that the salvific action of the Holy Spirit extends beyond the one universal salvific economy of the Incarnate Word”.
“It must be firmly believed that the Church is sign and instrument of salvation for all people,” the notification said. “It is contrary to the Catholic faith to consider the different religions of the world as ways of salvation complementary to the Church.
“According to Catholic doctrine, the followers of other religions are oriented to the Church and are all called to become part of her.”