Papal Scandal in Singapore: The Error of the Equality of Religions -- and the Faith of St. Francis Xavier (De Mattei)
The official Vatican account quotes verbatim these phrases from Francis: "All religions are a path to get to God. They are - I make a comparison - like different languages, different idioms, to get there. But God is God for all. And because God is God for everyone, we are all God's children. "But my God is more important than yours!" Is this true? There is only one God, and we, our religions are languages, paths to get to God. Some Sikh, some Muslim, some Hindu, some Christian, but they are different paths. Understood?" Understood?
Our answer is immediate: no, Holy Father, we have not understood and cannot understand it. Our religion and also the history of the Society of Jesus, to which you belong, teach us otherwise.
The diocese of Singapore, where you made these statements, has a distinguished Jesuit founder, St. Francis Xavier, who arrived in Malacca, the ancient name of the area, in 1545. In 1558 the territory was elevated to a diocese, suffragan of Goa, India.
St. Francis Xavier also left us an “Act of Faith” that deserves to be recited on our knees and deeply meditated upon in these confusing times:
“I believe, with all my heart, all that the Holy Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church commands me to believe of You, O my God! One God in three persons.
I believe all that the Church believes and teaches regarding the eternal Son of the Father, God like Him, and who, for my sake, became man, suffered, died, rose again and reigns in heaven with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
I finally believe all that the holy Church, our mother, commands me to believe. I have a firm resolve to lose everything, to suffer everything, to give my blood and my life, rather than to give up a single point of my faith, in which I want to live and die.
When my last hour comes, my cold mouth may not be able to renew the expression of my faith; but I confess, as of now, for the moment of my death, that I acknowledge You, O Jesus Savior! as the Son of God. I believe in You, I dedicate to You my heart, my soul, my life, my whole self. Amen.”