Pope envisions world and church that’s open, inclusive, all about ‘we’

[Stone]

Pope envisions world and church that’s open, inclusive, all about ‘we’

A message for World Day of Migrants and Refugees in September emphasized universality and 'human fraternity' rather than salvation of souls.

May 6, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) -- Pope Francis published his message for the 107th World Day of Migrants and Refugees to be celebrated September 26, inviting the world to move “towards an ever greater we.”

He presented his thoughts as a program in response to the “health crisis,” calling on Catholics and people of good will to reject the temptation to “plunge even more deeply into feverish consumerism and new forms of egotistic self-preservation.”

However, this appeal for a life that would be less materialistic operates in the way of G.K. Chesterton’s “old Christian virtues gone mad,” transposing a personal call to holiness and to center oneself on God and eternity to a political message where the sovereign rights and duties of nations toward their own are portrayed as selfish and unjust.

In his message, the Pope describes God's plan for humanity, referring to Genesis, as a march toward an open world.

“God created us male and female, different yet complementary, in order to form a ‘we’ destined to become ever more numerous in the succession of generations. God created us in his image, in the image of his own triune being, a communion in diversity,” the Pope recalled. But in subsequent comments, he added, “When, in disobedience we turned away from God, he in his mercy wished to offer us a path of reconciliation, not as individuals but as a people, a ‘we,' meant to embrace the entire human family, without exception: ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them.'”

This is a transparent reference to a recent leitmotif in papal declarations: “No one is saved alone, we can only be saved together,” as he wrote in Fratelli Tutti. He has recently stated that this is the “lesson” of the “recent pandemic:” being saved together would be the only way to obtain “peace, prosperity, security and happiness.”

This is a horizontal vision of salvation: an oversight at best and a contradiction at worst of this truth: Redemption and eternal salvation are offered to people individually. Christ suffered and died on the Cross for each of us, for you and for me, giving the last drop of His Precious Blood so that you, and I, can personally gain access to eternal life, which we do not deserve and are incapable of obtaining alone, that is, without the merits of His Passion, and on the condition that we personally accept and respond to His grace.

In his message, the Pope expressed a different “dream:”

“The truth however is that we are all in the same boat and called to work together so that there will be no more walls that separate us, no longer others, but only a single ‘we,' encompassing all of humanity. Thus I would like to use this World Day to address a twofold appeal, first to the Catholic faithful and then all the men and women of our world, to advance together towards an ever wider ‘we.'”

It is a utopia, and like all utopias, it is dangerous.

The idea of universal fraternity without common belief in the one, true God is also a distortion of Catholicism – a distortion that freemasonry, with its rejection of any kind of dogma, has preached for a long time.

It is a dangerous and misleading utopia when the Pope makes it the condition for access to a “Church that is more and more catholic,” or universal. This amounts to confusing the plane of “human fraternity” on the material level, and that of incorporation into Christ through baptism and the practice of the faith in order to be among the elect in the afterlife. The fact that the Chuch is “universal” does not mean that some do not reach heaven because they refuse salvation. Such confusion fundamentally conveys the idea that all are saved, that none can be damned.

How would Pope Francis like us to make his dream come true?

“The Catholic faithful are called to work together, each in the midst of his or her own community, to make the Church become ever more inclusive as she carries out the mission entrusted to the Apostles by Jesus Christ: ‘As you go, proclaim the good news, The kingdom of heaven has come near. Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment’”.

Besides the fact that the word “inclusive” is politically correct newspeak, with its “anti-racist” overtones and their ideological thrust, it should be noted that it makes the Church the agent of inclusion, whereas it is in the first instance the person who asks for baptism, faith, and the grace of becoming a child of God, which the Church then provides by communicating grace from the treasure entrusted to her by Christ.

Fortunately, the Pope added, 

“In our day, the Church is called to go out into the streets of every existential periphery in order to heal wounds and to seek out the straying, without prejudice or fear, without proselytizing, but ready to widen her tent to embrace everyone. Among those dwelling in those existential peripheries, we find many migrants and refugees, displaced persons and victims of trafficking, to whom the Lord wants his love to be manifested and his salvation preached.”

Leaving the jab at “proselytizing” aside, it is comforting to hear that the Pope wants to see Christ’s salvation proclaimed to migrants.
However, the question remains, given the context: What exactly is this “salvation” that is being proclaimed?

The pope continues:

“Our societies will have a ‘colorful’ future, enriched by diversity and by cultural exchanges. Consequently, we must even now learn to live together in harmony and peace. (…) This is the ideal of the new Jerusalem (cf. Is 60; Rev 21:3), where all peoples are united in peace and harmony, celebrating the goodness of God and the wonders of creation. To achieve this ideal, however, we must make every effort to break down the walls that separate us and, in acknowledging our profound interconnection, build bridges that foster a culture of encounter. Today’s migration movements offer an opportunity for us to overcome our fears and let ourselves be enriched by the diversity of each person’s gifts. Then, if we so desire, we can transform borders into privileged places of encounter, where the miracle of an ever wider 'we' can come about.”

At a time when ethnic clan wars, violence and insecurity are rife in countries such as France, this vision clearly puts the responsibility for a more peaceful, nay, a possibly ideal world on the shoulders of those whose countries are being profoundly changed by the influx of people who do not share their history, what is left of their patriotism, their way of life and their faith, particularly the Christian faith. Wanting to defend one’s history and identity in the face of these risks is clearly being qualified as un-Catholic by the Pope. All this is coupled, in his conclusion, with an eco-political message rather than a call to conversion in view of eternal salvation:

“I invite all men and women in our world to make good use of the gifts that the Lord has entrusted to us to preserve and make his creation even more beautiful. ‘A nobleman went to a distant country to get royal power for himself and then return. He summoned 10 of his slaves, and gave them ten pounds, and said to them, 'Do business with these until I come back’ (Lk 19:12-13).

"The Lord will also demand of us an account of our work! In order to ensure the proper care of our common home, we must become a ‘we’ that is ever wider and more co-responsible, in the profound conviction that whatever good is done in our world is done for present and future generations. Ours must be a personal and collective commitment that cares for all our brothers and sisters who continue to suffer, even as we work towards a more sustainable, balanced and inclusive development.

"A commitment that makes no distinction between natives and foreigners, between residents and guests, since it is a matter of a treasure we hold in common, from whose care and benefits no one should be excluded.”

The confusion between the spiritual and the temporal, the virtuous and the ecological appears to be here to stay.


[Emphasis mine.]