Pope Francis meets with young people engaged in interreligious dialogue in Singapore September 2024. Photo: CNS/Lola Gomez Fr Pat Collins CM
Recently, when he was in Singapore, Pope Francis said, “All religions are paths to God, I will use an analogy: they are like different languages that express the divine. But God is for everyone, and therefore, we are all God’s children. ’But my God is more important than yours!’ Is this true? There is only one God, and religions are like languages, paths to reach God. Some Sikh, some Muslim, some Hindu, some Christian.”
Predictably, some Catholics have criticised the Holy Father’s words by accusing him of implicitly saying that all religions are equally true paths to God. That is neither what he said nor believes. Pope Francis knows, only too well, that ultimately “there is only one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ” (1 Tim 2:5). But what the Pope was saying is that there are true pointers to God in all religions. Justin Martyr (100-165 AD), one of the Fathers of the early Church made that point when he wrote, “God scattered seeds of truth before his incarnation, not only among the Jews, but also among the Greeks and barbarians, especially among philosophers and poets, who are the prophets of the heathen. Those who lived reasonably and virtuously in obedience to this preparatory light were Christians in fact, though not in name… Socrates was a Christian as well as Abraham, though he did not know it.” St Thomas Aquinas echoed that point when he wrote, “If something is true, no matter who said it, it is always from the Holy Spirit.”
Appearances
We have an outstanding example of these points in the book of Wisdom 2:12-20 which foretold, like Isaiah 53, that the Saviour to come would be despised and rejected, smitten and afflicted. It is worth mentioning that there is a passage in the writings of Plato’s Republic, (375 BC) which is surprisingly reminiscent of the ones already mentioned.
After enduring every humiliation he will be crucified, and learn at last that in the world as it is we should want not to be, but to seem, just”
Aeschylus, a man of simplicity and moral integrity, wanted to be good and not merely to appear to give the impression of being good. His envious opponents said to themselves, “We must, indeed, not allow him to seem good, for if he does, he will have all the rewards and honours paid to the man who has a reputation for justice, and we shall not be able to tell whether his motive is love of justice or love of the rewards and honours. No, we must strip him of everything except his justice, and our picture of him must be drawn in the opposite way to our picture of the unjust man; for our just man must have the worst of reputations even though he has done no wrong… we shall give him an undeserved and lifelong reputation for wickedness, and make him stick to his chosen course until death… The just man, then, as we have pictured him, will be scourged, tortured, and imprisoned, his eyes will be put out, and after enduring every humiliation he will be crucified, and learn at last that in the world as it is we should want not to be, but to seem, just.”
Inspiration
This passage, which was written by a pagan, is intriguing. It is obvious that is similar to the ones in Wisdom and Isaiah which were written by inspired Jewish prophets. Apparently, it is unlikely that Plato had read the Old Testament or that the author of Wisdom 2 or Isaiah 53 had read Plato. It would appear, therefore, that Plato was a bit like Balaam. He was a pagan who received a prophetic revelation about the coming of the messiah (cf. Number 23-24). It is worth noting that Pope Benedict XIV said in the 18th century, “The recipients of prophecy may be angels, devils, men, women, children, heathens, or gentiles; nor is it necessary that a man should be gifted with any particular disposition in order to receive the light of prophecy provided his intellect and senses be adapted for making manifest the things which God reveals to him. Though moral goodness is most profitable to a prophet, yet it is not necessary in order to obtain the gift of prophecy.”
Pope Francis wants Catholics to engage in that respectful but discerning type of interreligious dialogue”
What Pope Francis was encouraging was respect for one another’s religions. He also wanted to foster interreligious dialogue as an important aspect of evangelisation. John Paul II used to refer to the Areopagus in Athens where Paul dialogued with the pagans about God. Benedict XVI used to refer to the Court of the Gentiles in Jerusalem, where Jewish people dialogued with pagans about religious matters. Pope Francis wants Catholics to engage in that respectful but discerning type of interreligious dialogue.