ROME — Pope Francis told young people in Singapore on Friday that all religions are paths to God, a statement that appears to contradict the Christian belief in Jesus Christ as the sole savior of mankind.
Beyond religion Meetings Speaking to young people at a Catholic junior college in Singapore, the Pope stressed the importance of interreligious dialogue, arguing that there is no point in arguing about who is right when everyone is right.
If people start fighting over whose religion is more important, “or if they start saying: 'My religion is true, yours is not true,' where does that lead? Where does it lead?” the Pope asked.
Someone in the audience answered, “Destruction,” and Pope Francis agreed.
“Exactly,” he said. “All religions are paths to God. They are like different languages, different dialects, to reach God.”
“But God is the God of all,” he continued, “and because God is the God of all, we are all God's children.”
“But my God is more important than your God!” he said dramatically. “Is this true? There is only one God and we, our religion, are the language and the path to God.”
“There are Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus and Christians, but they are on different paths, do you understand?” he said.
Pope Francis spoke in Italian, but the Vatican's English translation The text softened and changed some of his most controversial statements, presumably to avoid stirring up conflict.
In Italian, the Pope asserted that “all religions are paths to God,” but the Vatican's English translation reads, “Religion is Saw As a path Try to attain God” (emphasis added).
In the Italian original, religions are described as “like different languages, different dialects to reach them,” while in the English text they are “like different languages in which to express God.”
“There is one God and we, our religion, are a language, a way of approaching him,” the Pope said in Italian, which the Vatican translated as “There is one God and religion is like a language that tries to express how to approach him.”
“Some are Sikh, some Muslim, some Hindu, some Christian, but they are on different paths,” the Pope actually said, but the English translation reads simply “Some are Sikh, some Muslim, some Hindu, some Christian,” omitting the reference to “paths.”
In its authoritative document on the “Uniqueness and Universality of the Saving Mystery of Jesus Christ,” the Vatican states: Quote Acts: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
“Therefore, we must firmly hold as a truth of the Catholic faith that the universal saving will of the one and triune God was once and for all revealed and accomplished in the mystery of the Incarnation, death and Resurrection of his Son,” the text reads.
“Jesus may be one of the many faces that the Logos has taken over the course of time to redeem humanity,” the document warns, a claim that is “deeply at odds with Christian beliefs.”
“There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for all,” says the Bible, quoting St. Paul's First Letter to Timothy (1 Timothy 2:4-6).
The document was personally ratified and confirmed by Pope St. John Paul II, who ordered its publication.
