Yesterday, the Holy Father gave a homily in which he stressed the importance of "doing good" throughout the world. Please, do NOT take my word, or ANYONE ELSE'S WORD, on this: READ THE SCRIPT OF HIS HOMILY FOR YOURSELF.
Ok... I feel a little better now...
Anyway, there seems to be a misunderstanding of the Holy Father's words regarding atheists. In the homily he states:
"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."
Taken out of context, I can see why people would be going crazy. It sounds like he's uprooting all of Catholic tradition by saying the acceptance of the Christian Faith is as legitimate of a choice among faith traditions as the choice to dine at McDonald's or Burger King.
But no. I'm relying on YOU to read the text of his homily, but the most important thing to remember is the distinction between REDEMPTION and SALVATION.
You know, if you are a professed Christian who doesn’t believe that Christ is the redeemer
of the world, you’re a heretic (see article IV of the Catechism of Trent). Pope Francis didn’t say atheists were saved;
he said they were redeemed. And while
that might sound like semantics, it’s an important distinction because it shows us that our specific salvation is contingent upon our choice to accept Christ's universal redemption.
I feel the need to go into this in more depth at a later time. Hopefully I'll get a chance to do so very soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment