“All Religions are a Path to God,” Pope Francis Tells Young People
(Worthy News) – Pope Francis has come under fire from US Christian leaders after telling a group of young people in Singapore last week that “all religions are a path to God,” the Christian Post (CP) reports. The pontiff made his statement while addressing an interreligious meeting at a Catholic junior college last week, at the end of an 11-day visit to Asia, CP reports.
“If you start to fight, ‘my religion is more important than yours, mine is true and yours isn’t,’ where will that lead us?” the pope asked, according to Crux Now. “There’s only one God, and each of us has a language to arrive at God. Some are Sheik, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, and they are different paths [to God].”
“For interreligious dialogue among young people, it takes courage, because youth is the time of courage in our lives,” Francis added. “Since God is God for all, then we are all children of God,” he said.
The remarks triggered an outcry in the US as well as around the world. Among those who responded with a rebuke, Bishop Joseph Strickland, who formerly oversaw the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tyler, Texas, said in a statement on X: “Please pray for Pope Francis to clearly state that Jesus Christ is the only Way. To deny this is to deny Him. If we deny Christ, He will deny us, He cannot deny Himself.”
In another critical response noted by CP, Fr. Calvin Robinson who leads a church in Michigan, said on X: “This is a counter-scriptural statement from Pope Francis. The Scriptures teach us the opposite. The gate to [H]eaven is narrow.”