Francis thinks in opposition to what the Church teaches

Abu Dhabi-gate: Round and Round We Go

by Chris Ferrara

Fatima Perspectives #1291

First, Pope Francis formally declared in a signed Joint Declaration with “Grand Imam” El-Tayeb at Abu Dhabi that “The pluralism and the diversity of religions, colour, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings. This divine wisdom is the source from which the right to freedom of belief and the freedom to be different derives.”
Then, confronted with his own heretical statement by Bishop Athanasius Schneider during an ad limina visit, Francis told the bishop privately that “you can say this, too, that the diversity of religions is the permissive will of God” — which can only mean, as the Church teaches, that God tolerates the “diversity of religions” replete with error and superstition as an evil from which He is able ultimately to draw a good.  In no orthodox sense can the divine toleration of false religions be likened to the divine positive will that there be differences of “colour, sex, race and language” among men.
Next, however, Francis doubled down on the original heresy by ordering that the Joint Declaration, without correction, be circulated to “professors, priests, and sisters at universities to ‘facilitate the distribution, the study, and the reception’ of the document, adding that the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue ‘will be grateful to you already now for any possible initiative, in the frame of this institution, which aims at the spreading of this Document.’”
But now Francis has issued a “clarification” in the form of an impromptu remark during his General Audience of April 3.  The “clarification,” however, essentially affirms that the “diversity of religions” is a good thing, not merely a tolerated evil.  To quote Francis (translation by Diane Montagna of LifeSiteNews):

“But some may wonder: but why does the Pope go visit the Muslims and not only the Catholics? Because there are so many religions, and why are there so many religions?
“With the Muslims we are descendants of the same Father, Abraham: why does God allow so many religions to exist? God wanted to allow this: the Scholastic theologians referred to the voluntas permissive [permissive will] of God. He willed to permit this reality: there are many religions; some are born of culture, but they always look to heaven, they look to God.
“But what God does will is fraternity among us, and in a special way — hence the reason for this journey — with our brothers, who are sons of Abraham, like us, the Muslims. We must not be afraid of the difference: God has permitted this. We ought to be frightened if we do not work in fraternity, to walk together in life.”

So, according to the clarification:

• “With the Muslims we are descendants of the same Father, Abraham…”

No, we aren’t.  The religion Muhammad invented has no claim on the spiritual inheritance of Abraham, which belongs to the followers of Christ, “the son of David, the son of Abraham…” (cf. Matt 1:1-17), who belong to the Church He founded and “purchased with His blood” (Acts 20: 28) in order to enact the New and Everlasting Covenant with God.

• “God wanted to allow this [the diversity of religions].”

Wrong again.  God does not “want to allow” evil of any kind, including the lies and superstitions of religions invented by men. To “want” something means “to have a strong desire for … to have an inclination to… to have need of.” (Merriam Webster) Nothing of these mental states can be predicated of God, Whose very nature excludes any desire, inclination or need to allow evil to be done. To quote Saint Thomas: “God therefore neither wills evil to be done, nor wills it not to be done, but wills to permit evil to be done; and this is a good.”  In like manner, it cannot be said that God “wanted to allow” murder, sodomy, war, or indeed all the sins of men.
But, on the other hand, the colloquial “wants” would be appropriate in explaining the revealed truth that God “will have [“wants”] all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God: and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Tim 2:3-5). That revealed truth, as should be obvious by now, is about the last thing Pope Francis would proclaim.
Granted, this may be merely yet another case of the inexact colloquial speech that litters Francis’ endless stream of theological improvisation. Yet it conveys the false impression that God “wanted to allow” the evils in question because there is something good about the evils as such, which is exactly what Francis thinks, as the next point explains.

• “there are many religions; some are born of culture, but they always look to heaven, they look to God.”

In other words, what Francis really believes is that all religions “always look to heaven, they look to God” — no matter what lies and superstitions they contain. That is, they are all more or less good and pleasing to God, not merely tolerated evils. Francis thus embraces precisely the error condemned by Pius XI as the gateway to abandonment of the one religion that God has revealed:

“that false opinion which considers all religions to be more or less good and praiseworthy, since they all in different ways manifest and signify that sense which is inborn in us all, and by which we are led to God and to the obedient acknowledgment of His rule.
“Not only are those who hold this opinion in error and deceived, but also in distorting the idea of true religion they reject it, and little by little, turn aside to naturalism and atheism, as it is called; from which it clearly follows that one who supports those who hold these theories and attempt to realize them, is altogether abandoning the divinely revealed religion.”

And finally:

• “what God does will is fraternity among us… We must not be afraid of the difference: God has permitted this. We ought to be frightened if we do not work in fraternity, to walk together in life…”

So, according to Francis, God has permitted the existence of false religions in order that we may have fraternity and “walk together” with their adherents, of whose damnable errors we must not be afraid.  Fraternity replaces truth in the divine plan, according to Francis.  This is the religion of the Freemasons, not the religion of the Gospel.
Francis has clarified his position alright. He has made it quite clear that he sees no evil in the diversity of religions nor any imperative that their adherents “be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” because “there is one God: and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
For six years, Francis has been taking the faithful on a ride on a roundabout, and it seems we always return to the point at which the ride began. And there we find what Francis really thinks as opposed to what the Church teaches.