Naturalism at Full Blast: Francis on the Existence of All Religions

Bergoglio reflects on his trip to Morocco…

Naturalism at Full Blast:
Francis on the Existence of All Religions

None are so blind as those who refuse to see…

At today’s General Audience, the Jesuit apostate Jorge Bergoglio (“Pope Francis”) reflected on the trip he took this past weekend to Rabat, Morocco, where he proclaimed that “being a Christian is not about adhering to a doctrine” and other heretical idiocies. Surprisingly, he did not comment on April 3 being the 50th anniversary of the Novus Ordo Missae (“New Order of the Mass”) of “Pope” Paul VI, the liturgical travesty that passes for the “Roman Catholic Mass” at your local Novus Ordo parish.

An English transcript of the audience has been provided by Zenit (video is available here):

• General Audience: Francis Recalls Highlights of Morocco Visit

It will be worth our while to go through that text and highlight some of the most egregious errors:

My pilgrimage followed in the footsteps of two Saints: Francis of Assisi and John Paul II. 800 years ago, Francis took the message of peace and fraternity to Sultan al-Malik al-Kamil; in 1985, Pope Wojtyla carried out [h]is memorable visit to Morocco, after having received in the Vatican — first among the Muslim Heads of State — King Hassan II.

No doubt Francis followed the behavior and teaching of his apostate predecessor John Paul II, but he most certainly did not follow “in the footsteps” of St. Francis of Assisi, as we have pointed out before. Far from preaching some interreligious creedless “peace and fraternity”, St. Francis had a distinctly supernatural message to share, one that pertained directly to the sultan’s salvation:

The Sultan Meledin asked him who sent them, and for what purpose they came? Francis answered with courageous firmness: “We are not sent by men, but it is the Most High who sends me, in order that I may teach you and your people the way of salvation, by pointing out to you the truths of the Gospel.” He immediately preached to him, with great fervor, the dogma of One God in Three Persons, and the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind.

(Congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, The Life of S. Francis of Assisi [New York, NY: D. & J. Sandlier & Co., 1889], pp. 197-198)

“Pope” Francis can only claim to be following St. Francis of Assisi for as long as people don’t actually bother to look up the story. But then, that’s what Novus Ordo Watch is here for!

Francis continues:

However, some might ask: why does the Pope go to the Muslims and not just to Catholics? Why are there so many religions, and why ever are there so many religions? With the Muslims we are descendants of the same Father, Abraham[.]

Why are there so many religions? That’s easy: Because people have been deceived by Satan and/or have refused to listen to the truth and preferred their own ideas to the naturally knowable truth and to divine revelation.

Just think of the Israelites in the desert. Even a great many of them, for whom the true God had worked miracles to release them from bondage in Egypt, turned to idolatry, worshipping a molten calf (see Ex 32:1-6). Why did they do so? Because they had grown impatient while their leader, Moses, was on Mount Horeb speaking to that very God who had parted the Red Sea to save them from the Egyptians and had given them miraculous food from Heaven (see Ex 15:13-30 and Ex 16:11-15).

Francis’ comment that Muslims and Catholics “are descendants of the same Father, Abraham”, can be understood in two ways, but either way is false:

• naturally: we are descended from the same biological ancestor through natural generation — this is false, for, although some Catholics are physically linked to Abraham, most of them are not, and the Church of Jesus Christ, in any case, makes no distinction between the two: “Where there is neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free. But Christ is all, and in all” (Col 3:11). See also Jn 6:64.
• supernaturally: we both share the same Faith of Abraham and thus have a spiritual link — this is false, too, for Muslims reject Christ, as do the Jews. They therefore cannot have the Faith of Abraham and therefore there is no spiritual connection: “Know ye therefore, that they who are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. Therefore they that are of faith, shall be blessed with faithful Abraham. And if you be Christ’s, then are you the seed of Abraham, heirs according to the promise” (Gal 3:7,9,29). See also Lk 3:8, Jn 8:39, and Rom 9:7.

Thus, it is easy to see that Francis’ statement about Muslims and Catholics having the same father, Abraham, is false and heretical on both counts.

The apostate Jesuit continues:

[W]hy does God permit so many religions? God willed to permit this: the theologians of Scholasticism referred to God’s permissive voluntas [will]. He willed to permit this reality: there are so many religions; some are born of the culture, but always looking to Heaven, looking at God.

It’s interesting to see that Francis now suddenly brings up God’s permissive will, the very thing he denied in Abu Dhabi on Feb. 4, 2019, in which document on human fraternity he blasphemously affirmed that God willed different religions to exist in the same sense in which He also willed there to be different sexes, races, colors, and languages — and that is His active will, not merely His permissive will.

Here we see Francis throwing a crumb to the likes of Athanasius Schneider, who is now happily telling the world that ‘Francis meant permissive will’, when it is clear that the text of the document does not permit such a reading at all:

• Apostasy in Abu Dhabi: Francis says God wills Diversity of Religions
• Ark of Apostasy: Why Francis’ Interreligious Fraternity Document does Not Admit of an Orthodox Interpretation
• Francis lies to “Bp.” Schneider, tells him he meant God wills Diversity of Religions merely Permissively

Of course, Bergoglio’s claim that all religions — “so many”, as he says — are “always looking to Heaven, looking at God”, is erroneous as well, to say the least. Notice how the language Francis uses there is deliberately vague: Just what does “looking to Heaven” or “looking at God” mean? This lack of clarity is deliberate, of course. Why should he communicate clearly when he can do so obscurely and thus allow different people to understand his words in different ways?

Regardless of what exactly he intended by his words, however, it is clear that they are false. For there are many religions that most certainly do not “look at God” or Heaven. The most obvious counterexample to Francis’ claim would be Satanism. There are other religions, too, that deny the existence of a single God, such  as Hinduism, or of a personal God, as does Buddhism. Of course, none of that matters to Francis, who is on record stating that “the true religions are the development of the capacity that humanity has to transcend itself towards the absolute.” That is textbook Modernism!

So God “willed to permit this reality” of many different religions. That is true. But so what? It is irrelevant. God also willed to permit the fall of Lucifer (Satan), the fall of Adam and Eve, idolatry, heresy, blasphemy, murder, abortion, child abuse, adultery, wars, and every other evil that can be found in this world. What are we to conclude from that?

Chaos Frank continues:

However, what God wills is fraternity among us in a special way — here is the reason for this trip — with our brothers, children of Abraham like us, the Muslims. We must not be scared by the difference: God has permitted this.  We must be scared if we don’t act with fraternity, to walk together in life.

Ah! So there is the conclusion the Argentinian Jesuit wants us to draw: “We must not be scared by the difference [because] God has permitted this”. It’s too bad that this conclusion is a non sequitur — that is, it does not follow. As enumerated above, there are a great many things God permits that we must be afraid of, especially sin and other spiritual dangers, but also physical ones, of course.

Francis is introducing an extremely dangerous new idea into the minds of his sheeple here: He teaches that because God permits something, it need not be feared, that “it’s okay”. It should be obvious how spiritually ruinous such an idea is guaranteed to be. And what does Scripture say? “Pierce thou my flesh with thy fear: for I am afraid of thy judgments” (Ps 118:120); “And fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him that can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Mt 10:28).

Ah, but now Francis contradicts himself, for he says: “We must be scared if we don’t act with fraternity, to walk together in life.” What? Does God not also permit us to act without “fraternity”? Logic is a dangerous enemy for theological shysters.

Back to the Jesuit’s audience text:

To serve hope, at a time like ours, means first of all to build bridges between the civilizations. And it was a joy and an honor for me to be able to do so with the noble Kingdom of Morocco, meeting its people and its rulers. Remembering some important international summits that in the last years have been held in that country; with King Mohammed VI we confirmed the essential role of religions in defending human dignity and promoting peace, justice, the care of Creation, that is, our common home. In this perspective, we also signed together with the King an Appeal for Jerusalem, so that the Holy City is preserved as patrimony of humanity and place of peaceful encounter, especially for the faithful of the three monotheist religions.

The “hope” Francis has in mind here is clearly of a Naturalist kind. He means by it the prospect of a better future, a more humane world, a world in which (at best) many natural virtues are to be found, but also, and especially, one in which all the Masonic ideals are upheld, especially freedom of religion, freedom of conscience, the dignity of man, and so forth. This, however, has nothing to do with the supernatural virtue of hope by which we are saved (see Rom 8:24), and to which Christ calls all men, and which all Catholics, especially the Pope, have a duty to proclaim (see 1 Pet 3:15).

Francis’ statement that all religions play an “essential role … in defending human dignity and promoting peace, justice, the care of Creation” is likewise false. The only true religion, the Catholic religion, does indeed play a role in that, but all other religions only have one legitimate role to play: to go away. Their existence is merely permitted by God (remember?!), not willed by Him. They ought not to exist and therefore have no role to play in anything.

Such a thing is entirely clear when one considers religion from the supernatural perspective, but of course Francis doesn’t do that because he is a Naturalist. For him, the purpose of religion is essentially a natural one, that is, focused on the temporal world as its proper end. The idea is to “make this world a better place”, according to Francis — for him, religion has nothing essentially or primarily to do with the worship of God, the acceptance of divine revelation, or the salvation of souls for a blessed eternity. The supernatural end of man is, to him, secondary at best, if it is acknowledged at all.

This explains why Francis was able to say, so nonchalantly, in Morocco that “being a Christian is not about adhering to a doctrine”. For him, it’s not about Faith but about experience, feeling. Hence he also condemns proselytism. Religion, in the Bergoglian mind, is first and foremost the means to making the world a better place, not to adore God or save one’s soul so as to reach the ultimate purpose for which one was created: eternal blessedness with God in Heaven.

After talking about his favorite worldly concern, that of helping migrants invade Europe, Bergoglio says:

I don’t like to say migrants; I prefer to say migrant persons. Do you know why? Because [the word] migrant is an adjective, whereas the term person is a subject. We have fallen into the culture of the adjective: we use so many adjectives and very often we forget the subjects, namely, the substance. An adjective is always linked to a subject, to a person; therefore, a migrant person. So there is respect and one doesn’t fall into this culture of the adjective, which is too liquid, too gaseous.

No doubt there is some gas here that needs to be relieved, and we can start with Francis’ butchering of grammar. “Migrant”, of course, is a noun, not an adjective, when referring to people. Perhaps it is derived from the adjective migrant, which, however, requires a noun it modifies, such as migrant birds. The word “person” is a noun, too, and whether or not it is a subject depends on how it is used in a sentence.

So Bergoglio doesn’t like using adjectives as nouns. In other words, no more Catholics — they will now be people who practice Catholicism. That is odd, given that he is the very one who constantly refers to the poor, the marginalized, the sick, and the elderly. Perhaps we will soon hear him talking about those who have little, those who are not at the center, those who do not enjoy good health, and those who have lived a long time already.

Enough already of the Bergoglian drivel! There is more that could be said about Francis’ words at his General Audience today, but we will end our analysis here.

Francis’ promotion of “human fraternity” is not the Christian charity to which we are called by God but a Modernist-Masonic counterfeit. It was rejected by Pope St. Pius X in his condemnation of Sillonism:

The same applies to the notion of Fraternity which they found on the love of common interest or, beyond all philosophies and religions, on the mere notion of humanity, thus embracing with an equal love and tolerance all human beings and their miseries, whether these are intellectual, moral, or physical and temporal. But Catholic doctrine tells us that the primary duty of charity does not lie in the toleration of false ideas, however sincere they may be, nor in the theoretical or practical indifference towards the errors and vices in which we see our brethren plunged, but in the zeal for their intellectual and moral improvement as well as for their material well-being. Catholic doctrine further tells us that love for our neighbor flows from our love for God, Who is Father to all, and goal of the whole human family; and in Jesus Christ whose members we are, to the point that in doing good to others we are doing good to Jesus Christ Himself. Any other kind of love is sheer illusion, sterile and fleeting.

Indeed, we have the human experience of pagan and secular societies of ages past to show that concern for common interests or affinities of nature weigh very little against the passions and wild desires of the heart. No, Venerable Brethren, there is no genuine fraternity outside Christian charity. Through the love of God and His Son Jesus Christ Our Saviour, Christian charity embraces all men, comforts all, and leads all to the same faith and same heavenly happiness.

By separating fraternity from Christian charity thus understood, Democracy, far from being a progress, would mean a disastrous step backwards for civilization. If, as We desire with all Our heart, the highest possible peak of well being for society and its members is to be attained through fraternity or, as it is also called, universal solidarity, all minds must be united in the knowledge of Truth, all wills united in morality, and all hearts in the love of God and His Son Jesus Christ. But this union is attainable only by Catholic charity, and that is why Catholic charity alone can lead the people in the march of progress towards the ideal civilization.

…

But stranger still, alarming and saddening at the same time, are the audacity and frivolity of men who call themselves Catholics and dream of re-shaping society under such conditions, and of establishing on earth, over and beyond the pale of the Catholic Church, “the reign of love and justice” with workers coming from everywhere, of all religions and of no religion, with or without beliefs, so long as they forego what might divide them – their religious and philosophical convictions, and so long as they share what unites them – a “generous idealism and moral forces drawn from whence they can.” When we consider the forces, knowledge, and supernatural virtues which are necessary to establish the Christian City, and the sufferings of millions of martyrs, and the light given by the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, and the self-sacrifice of all the heroes of charity, and a powerful hierarchy ordained in heaven, and the streams of Divine Grace – the whole having been built up, bound together, and impregnated by the life and spirit of Jesus Christ, the Wisdom of God, the Word made man – when we think, I say, of all this, it is frightening to behold new apostles eagerly attempting to do better by a common interchange of vague idealism and civic virtues. What are they going to produce? What is to come of this collaboration? A mere verbal and chimerical construction in which we shall see, glowing in a jumble, and in seductive confusion, the words Liberty, Justice, Fraternity, Love, Equality, and human exultation, all resting upon an ill-understood human dignity. It will be a tumultuous agitation, sterile for the end proposed, but which will benefit the less Utopian exploiters of the people. Yes, we can truly say that the Sillon, its eyes fixed on a chimera, brings Socialism in its train.

(Pope Pius X, Apostolic Letter Notre Charge Apostolique; underlining added.)

Any questions?

One final note: Our most recent podcast, TRADCAST EXPRESS 081, provides some insightful and entertaining commentary on Francis’ spiritual crimes in Morocco:

If denial of the known truth caused weight gain, this guy couldn’t fit into St. Peter’s Square.

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License: fair use