The Pope is in trouble again with his off-the-cuff remarks on the airplane back from his trip to Singapore and other locales. Well, trouble in one sense, for I don’t the Pope thinks he’s in trouble, even if his words cause much consternation in the hearts of many faithful Catholics. A caveat, however, for if things are lost in translation, they are even more lost in simultaneous translation in a quite-literally turbulent airplane. Some nuances, perhaps, required, and the reader may discern for himself.
I’m just thankful that on the Vatican webpage, outlining the various papal pronouncements and teachings, from Apostolic Constitutions to his various audiences and sermons, there is, as yet, no heading for plane interviews. We may, as Catholics, let these meanderings slide away into the mist of history like water off a duck’s back. The musings of a Pope at 35,000 feet are most definitely not Magisterial teaching, even if the Pontiff is wearing his cassock and stole. But I suppose some clarification is in order, for many will be swayed by what the Pope says.
But, first, before the flight, the Pope, speaking to young people, wandered away from his prepared notes – fair warning – proceeded in his remarks to equate all religions as ‘paths to God’. In the original Italian (which was softened in the official Vatican English translation).
Tutte le religioni sono un cammino per arrivare a Dio
Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church, clarifies the perennial teaching that there is no salvation outside the Church – extra ecclesiam nulla salus, as enunciated by today’s saint, Cyprian of Carthage. His phrase pithily reiterates Christ’s own teaching that baptism into His Church is necessary for salvation.
That is not to say only visible, card-carrying members of the Catholic Church are saved, and that everyone prior to and outside of the hierarchical Church is damned – which Father Leonard Feeney (+1978) taught and was rightly censured for doing so. Only that if one is saved, one is saved through the Church, by the truths and salvific means she offers. At a deeper level, one must be joined to Christ in His Mystical Body through grace and charity to attain heaven. Jesus Christ, and He alone is the ‘way, the truth and the life’. Only the Church has the fullness of the means of salvation, even if other religions have some of these means:
Whatever good or truth is found amongst them is looked upon by the Church as a preparation for the Gospel. She knows that it is given by Him who enlightens all men so that they may finally have life. (LG, 16)
But the further one is from the Church, the more error and falsity one finds, and the more difficult things get, as the Constitution goes on to warn:
But often (ed.: saepius – literally ‘more often’) men, deceived by the Evil One, have become vain in their reasonings and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, serving the creature rather than the Creator.(129) Or some there are who, living and dying in this world without God, are exposed to final despair.
It is not charitable to leave people wallowing in error and misguided moral teaching. Hence:
Wherefore to promote the glory of God and procure the salvation of all of these, and mindful of the command of the Lord, “Preach the Gospel to every creature”, the Church fosters the missions with care and attention. (ibid.)
During his plane interview, Pope Francis waded into the American election fracas, alluding to Trump’s and Harris, making a strong analogy between the crime of abortion and the refusal to welcome migrants:
Both are anti-life — both the one who throws out migrants and the one who kills babies — both of them are against life.
Abortion is the direct killing of an unborn child, a grave and intrinsic evil – a fact the Holy Father to his credit reiterated in no uncertain terms – while immigration policies are fraught, uncertain and dependent much upon circumstances. It is not always a sin to turn away migrants. Au contraire, it may be quite charitable to one’s own citizens and country to do so. No nation can survive completely open borders for, by definition, it would cease do be a ‘nation’.
Pope Francis urged that in choosing a candidate, one should ‘choose the lesser evil’, but left ambiguous whom that meant:
What is the lesser evil? That woman, or that man? I don’t know. Each one, in his or her conscience, must think and do this.
As may be predicted, American news outlets are already pouncing on this to sway the votes of Catholics.
We would respond, yes, vote with one’s conscience, but a properly formed one, which should see that Kamala Harris is a pro-abortion, pro-LGBTQ, anti-Catholic zealot, who, should she come to power, will impose these ideologies on one and all, with the full force of federal law. Whatever Donald Trump’s difficulties and compromises, he is far more amenable to the Catholic Church and to life issues that the Democrat’s murderous policies.
Lesser evil, indeed.
The Pope also spoke of China:
I am happy with the dialogue with China…I have heard how things are going from the secretary of state, and I am happy.
It does not seem too many faithful Catholics in China are so happy, as the Communist regime runs roughshod over the Church. One may peruse the draconian policies put in place, which we have outlined here and here, and which Cardinal Zen outlines here. To take but one glaring example, ‘children’ under 18 are banned from attending church. This, need it be said, will basically destroy the Church, for how will one ever be formed as a Catholic except – yes – in some sort of ‘underground’ Church? And is not a grave sin to miss Sunday Mass and other days of obligation? Were not countless martyrs made – including today’s saints – for living the Faith against God-less regimes? Certainly, there are things we know not, and this deal may itself be a compromise, and the ‘lesser of two evils’. If so, one wonders what the greater evil might be. Sometimes, I would argue most of the time, if not all of the time, one must just stand up to totalitarianism, and take what consequences there be.
We pray for the Holy Father, and for holy Mother Church. May the truth win out, even through obfuscation and ambiguity. Christ knows what He is about, and the victory is His, if we have but eyes to see, and ears to hear.