I’m no fan of this Pope, however the title is misleading. To share ones faith is different from what he actually said. Prosletizing is attempting to convert someone. Sharing ones faith to me means just that. It’s up to the person what he or she decides to do with it.
I’m no fan of this pope either. But I do understand that the pope has media enemies just like PDJT does.
I’m not sure who is more thrilled by this papacy; the world’s Marxists, or the “Whore of Babylon” nutballs on FR.
The title is hardly misleading.
His quote:
“The last thing I should do is to try to convince an unbeliever. Never,” he said. “The last thing I should do is speak. I should live my faith with consistency. And it will be my witness that will awaken the curiosity of the other who may then ask: ‘But why do you do this?’ And yes, then I can speak.”
“But listen, the gospel is never, ever advanced through proselytism,” he continued. “If someone says he is a disciple of Jesus and comes to you with proselytism, he is not a disciple of Jesus. Proselytism is not the way; the Church does not grow by proselytism.”
Had I not been ‘proselytized’ to about 25 years ago, I would never know the True Gospel.
This evil man is advising his deluded flock to keep their mouths shut and let those unbelievers continue on as ‘children of god’ and end up in hell when they die.
The truth is love! John 14:6
He seems to have actually said this, “the Church does not grow by proselytism.”
Isn’t that an admission he is not interested in saving souls? His focus is growing the Church? He sounds to me only like someone wanting to bring dues-paying members into a club.
He can be defended on many of his pronouncements by saying he speaks ambiguously and unclearly. Defending him on this basis is absolving the English king of all responsibility for the death of Thomas a Becket. Surely it’s his duty as head of a world wide organization to speak clearly or not at all. But “who are we to judge,” right?
I will pray for his conversion and salvation.
Mark 16:15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”
Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Pretty clear what the Bible says and means
Somehow I don't see the Disciples as timidly "sharing" their faith.
They were bold in their proclamation, and determined in their mission.
Paul, in 2 Corinthians 11:
in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. 24 Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. 26 I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; 27 I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
If a friend of mine hadn’t gotten in my face about accepting Christ as my savior, I doubt I would have become a believer (although God may have eventually put somebody else in this man’s place). He was a fairly new Christian himself and he was this way with everyone who would talk to him. At dental school, they mockingly dubbed him St. John the Evangelist because he witnessed to others so much. I and at least two others I knew became believers because of him.
As marvelous as it was, he fell away and became a Scientologist while I am still walking with Christ. God, in His own time, uses both the saved and unsaved for His will and His works.
It’s unusual to find someone that understands the actual meaning of a word in English. Prosletizing and sharing the Gospel are not the same thing. I’m not a Pope Francis fan, but the amount of crap written that is misleading is huge. Of course, if he’d just learn when to not talk, he’d be far more successful.