Francis: “Not Interested in Converting Evangelicals to Catholicism”

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Francis: “I’m Not Interested in Converting Evangelicals to Catholicism”

For all those neo-cons in the Novus Ordo Church who were still in denial over Francis’ repeated affirmations that he opposes converting non-Catholics to Catholicism, “Pope” Jorge Bergoglio reiterated his position once more, this time in a conversation he had with Evangelical Protestant Brian Stiller, who is the Global Ambassador of the World Evangelical Alliance.

Stiller visited Francis in the Vatican in June 2014 and published a blog post about his encounter, entitled “Lunch with the Pope”, on July 9. There are two salient passages in Stiller’s account worth quoting:

So, in the first passage, Francis is quoted as saying that he will apologize to a Protestant congregation for the Catholic Church’s “oppressive presence” in Rome that apparently curbed the heretical sect’s influence and obstructed its efforts to recruit more people. By doing this, Francis once again demonstrates that he is not a Roman Catholic, because he can only do this under the supposition that non-Catholic religions and denominations have a right to exist and to preach their false teachings and recruit new adherents, which is, if not outright heresy, at the very least, a most grave and damnable error favoring heresy (see, for example, Pope Gregory XVI’s Encyclical Mirari Vos and Pope Pius IX’s Encyclical Quanta Cura).

In the second passage, Francis once more displays his much-appreciated candidness when he states explicitly: “I’m not interested in converting Evangelicals to Catholicism.” Yeah, we had a hunch he wasn’t about to start a new round of Crusades any time soon. This open admission on his part shows that, as we have pointed out before, Francis speaks out of both sides of his mouth, because he is also on the record saying that we must constantly “preach the Gospel” — obviously, then, he is either simply a liar, or to him the Gospel is a completely different thing from what it actually is. But either way you look at it, he is clearly relinquishing his first duty (supposing him to be the Pope for a minute), which is bringing people to the True Faith and thereby to salvation (cf. Mt 28:19-20). He is a heretic who helps the body but destroys the soul (cf. Mt 10:28).

The Modernist Jorge Bergoglio then continues: “I want people to find Jesus in their own community.” Well, isn’t that interesting — some time ago, Francis was saying you can’t find Christ outside the Church, something the usual neo-con apologists jumped on right away as a supposed reaffirmation by Francis of the dogma No Salvation Outside the Church.

Are you confused by Mr. Bergoglio? There’s a perfect explanation for this: He’s a Modernist, and Modernists love vagueness, contradiction, and ambiguity, whereas Catholics extol clarity, consistency, and certitude. Yet, this particular contradiction can actually be reconciled fairly easily when you realize that when Francis says “church”, he doesn’t necessarily mean “Catholic Church.” For him, all Protestant, Anglican, and Orthodox sects are also part of the church, as we pointed out in a post many months ago (see “Francis says Christ not found outside the Church — What Does He Mean?”). Once again, we have been proven right.

Francis stated furthermore: “There are so many doctrines we will never agree on. Let’s not spend our time on those.” This statement is scandalous and noteworthy on two accounts:

(1) It flatly contradicts the directives given by Pope Pius XII in 1949, according to which not one iota of Catholic truth is allowed to be denied, minimized, or glossed over when discussing religious matters with Protestants; in addition, it contradicts Pope Pius XII’s teaching in 1944:

(2) Doesn’t Francis’ assertion that they will never agree on “so many doctrines” run contrary to all the ecumenical efforts of the Vatican, which have doctrinal agreements and “unity” as their stated goal?

Clearly, we have a Modernist at work here, and one who loves to hear himself talk. All this confusion starts to make sense, though, when you realize that Mr. Bergoglio is not a Catholic. That’s the key to understanding it all. His mission is to confuse people, to spread error, and to destroy Catholicism under the guise of being “merciful” and “humble.”

Now that this latest “I don’t want to convert anyone” story is out, watch the professional Novus Ordo apologists scramble to “explain” what Francis “really” meant:

• “Fr.” Zuhlsdorf, after putting down his Kindle for a minute, will rush to tell you that we really can’t assume these quotes by Mr. Stiller are accurate and since he probably didn’t record Francis’ words, the whole thing can’t be taken seriously — and then “Fr. Z” will give you a link to click on so you can buy him something from his Amazon wishlist;
• Jimmy Akin, who has already bent over backwards “explaining” that when Francis said to Eugenio Scalfari, “I don’t want to convert you”, he really meant, “I do want to convert you”, will offer ‘9 things to know and share’ and tell you that Francis probably didn’t say “convert” but “proselytize”, or at least meant “proselytize”, and so that what he was really saying is that he doesn’t want to strong-arm any Evangelicals to become Catholics; or, in case you don’t fall for this, Akin will tell you that Francis is just cleverly employing a psychological trick: get people to open up and let their guard down by assuring them you won’t try to convert them, and then go ahead and try to convert them anyway;
• Mark Shea, after vociferously denouncing as self-righteous pharisees all who think they know more Catholic theology than Francis, will “explain” that Francis uses a different approach for making converts, one based on “mercy”, not dogma, one that traditionalist nincompoops obviously can’t understand;
• Michael Voris will, of course, ignore the story, hoping you won’t hear about it and just watch his videos instead;
• Update: The Rev. Dwight Longenecker weighs in with what amounts to a “who knows if this is really true” argument, though kudos to him for pointing out that you can’t respect a religion whose adherents think so little of it that they don’t want people to convert to it

Mark our words: If this story gets enough attention, the usual suspects will spring into action and “explain” it all for you, something they’ve had to do a lot of since March 2013. (Though some, Deo gratias, have finally given up.)

To provide further information and context for this news story, here are several highly interesting posts published by the one-of-a-kind Call Me Jorge blog, which you should not miss out on:

• The Evangelical Lunch — a Photo Gallery
• Evangelicals Meet with Francis: a Who’s Who
• Francis & Evangelicals Prepare for One-World Religion
• Luxury “Evangelist” Ken Copeland prays over Francis
• Francis and “Brother Bishop” Tony Palmer

You’ll also want to have a look at Tom Droleskey’s commentary on Francis’ latest candidness:

• Bergoglio Shows Us Hell Every Day

Here is a video showing Francis receiving a “blessing” from a Protestant preacher at a charismatic-ecumenical gathering in 2006 in Buenos Aires. Not much has changed since then:

One final point: Notice how in previous times when Francis spoke out against “proselytism,” the Modernist apologists always told us that proselytism doesn’t mean converting but converting through dishonest or coercive means. Except this time, Francis said “I’m not interested in converting Evangelicals,” not, “I’m not interested in proselytizing.” Once again, we have been proven right in saying that when Francis says “proselytism,” he means converting people, as he made clear in August 2013, and which is what 99.99% of his listeners understand him to be saying anyway.

Not that “Pope” Benedict XVI was interested in converting Protestants, either:

• “Cardinal” Ratzinger told Lutheran NOT to convert to Catholicism

Finally, please take a look at the links that follow for more insight and information.

The True Catholic Position on Ecumenism & Christian Unity:

• Pope Pius IX, Instruction to Puseyite Anglicans on True Religious Unity (1865)
• Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Praeclara Gratulationis Publicae (1894)
• Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Satis Cognitum (1896)
• Pope Pius XI, Encyclical Mortalium Animos (1928)
• Pope Pius XII, Instruction on the Ecumenical Movement (1949)

For more on the true Roman Catholic position on religious unity and against Ecumenism, see our extensive topical page, “Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue”.

Photo Credit: “Catholic Church (England and Wales) General Audience with Pope Francis” via photopin (license)