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CV NEWS FEED // Archbishop Charles Chaput has commented on Pope Francis’ recent statement during his visit to Singapore that “[Religions] are like different languages in order to arrive at God, but God is God for all.”
In a piece published on First Things, the Archbishop Emeritus of Philadelphia stated, “That all religions have equal weight is an extraordinarily flawed idea for the Successor of Peter to appear to support.”
The Pope stated in an audience with interreligious youth,
[Religions] are like different languages in order to arrive at God, but God is God for all. Since God is God for all, then we are all children of God. If you start to fight, ‘my religion is more important than yours, mine is true and yours isn’t,’ where will that lead us? 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].
While Archbishop Chaput agreed that all religions express a yearning for God, he clarified that “not all religions are equal in their content or consequences.”
“Substantial differences exist among the religions the pope named. They have very different notions of who God is and what that implies for the nature of the human person and society,” the Archbishop continued.
He pointed to St. Paul’s statements and actions in Acts 17:22–31, where the saint acknowledged that the pagan Greeks were looking for God, but condemned their false religion and preached that Jesus Christ is “the reality and fulfillment of the unknown God whom the Greeks worship.”
The Archbishop stated, “Simply put: Not all religions seek the same God, and some religions are both wrong and potentially dangerous, materially and spiritually.”
He then pointed to the uniqueness of the Christian position, which unlike any other world religion, accepts Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and accepts that man is saved only through Jesus Christ.
He also pointed to the witness of the martyrs, saying, “Why give up your life for Christ when other paths may get us to the same God? Such a sacrifice would be senseless. But the witness of the martyrs is as important today as ever,” since martyrs show man that a full, rich life means giving oneself fully to another.
“Christians hold that Jesus alone is the path to God,” the Archbishop concluded. “To suggest, imply, or allow others to infer otherwise is a failure to love because genuine love always wills the good of the other, and the good of all people is to know and love Jesus Christ, and through him the Father who created us.”
