by Uri Brito
Fellow KC contributor, Adam McIntosh, has already expressed some valid concerns regarding the pope’s words. Allow me here to deal with the broader question without delving into the specific exegetical details. Many are asserting that the pope has declared his universalistic theology, thus altering traditional Catholic theology. Is the pope a universalist? I doubt it. The pope was offering his thoughts on the Gospel lesson from Mark 9:38-40. The point of the leader of the Roman Church had to do with whether an unbeliever (an atheist) could do good works. a The famous remarks had to do with the possibility of good works, and not with soteriology, strictly speaking. Here is the statement:
“[A]ll of us have this commandment at heart: do good and do not do evil. All of us. ‘But, Father, this is not Catholic! He cannot do good.’ Yes, he can…”The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone!…We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: we will meet one another there.”
Here is the surprising conclusion of this story: the head of Rome does not believe in limited atonement. Shocking, isn’t it? As the Church teaches in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
“At the end of the parable of the lost sheep Jesus recalled that God’s love excludes no one: “So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” He affirms that he came “to give his life as a ransom for many”; this last term is not restrictive, but contrasts the whole of humanity with the unique person of the redeemer who hands himself over to save us. The Church, following the apostles, teaches that Christ died for all men without exception: “There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer.” — (CCC, 605)
Catholic writer Brandon Vogt observes that there is a distinction between redemption and salvation in Catholic theology. Whereas redemption for all allows even atheists to do good works, salvation, on the other hand, is not for all. In his letter to the Founder of “La Repubblica” he writes: “…and it’s the fundamental thing – the mercy of God has no limits if one turns to him with a sincere and contrite heart.” b The conditional here is something like faith. However Catholics understand faith is another matter which can be discussed later, but to assert that the pope is saying that no belief is necessary to come to God is a falsity. In fact, his language echoes that of repentance: “if one turns to him with a sincere and contrite heart.” One does not need to support Rome’s theology to see that at the very least bloggers have not been wholly charitable to his words. There is a lot to debate and disagree with in this letter c, but to assume the pope is giving a soteriological carte blanche to Sam Harris and Christopher Dawkins is rather naive.<>
- Obviously more clarification would have been helpful, thus avoiding this article altogether (back)
- http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/pope-francis-letter-to-the-founder-of-la-repubblica-italian-newspaper?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zenit%2Fenglish+%28ZENIT+English%29 (back)
- I disagree with much of it as a Protestant minister (back)
