Pope's letter to non-believers in Italian paper La Repubblica

Vatican Radio ^ | September 11, 2013

[NYer]

(Vatican Radio) Does God forgive non-believers? Does absolute truth exist? And is God merely a creation of the human mind?
In a lengthy letter to the former editor of the Italian daily ‘La Repubblica’, Eugenio Scalfari, Pope Francis shares reflections on these three questions and urges all non-believers to engage with Christians in an open and sincere conversation.

Listen to Philippa Hitchen's report:

In the letter published on Wednesday, the Pope laments the impasse that has grown up over the centuries with those who see Christianity as ‘dark and superstitious,’ in opposition to the ‘light of reason’.
Quoting from the recent encyclical ‘Lumen Fidei’, the Pope stresses that, on the contrary, faith must never be intransigent or arrogant, but rather humble and able to grow in relationship with others.


Responding to the three questions posed by the Italian journalist and writer, the Pope says the key issue for non-believers is that of “obeying their consciences” when faced with choices of good or evil. God’s mercy, he stresses, “has no limits” for those who seek him with a sincere and contrite heart.


Reflecting on the question of absolute truth, Pope Francis says he prefers to describe the truth in terms of a dynamic relationship between each Christian and Jesus, who said, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life’. The truth of God’s love, the Pope insists, is not subjective, but it is only experienced and expressed as a journey, a living relationship with each one of us, in our different social and cultural contexts.


Thirdly, Pope Francis considers the question of God as a creation of the human mind, who will thus disappear when human beings cease to exist on earth. In my experience, he says - and in that of so many other Christians past and present – God is not merely an idea but is a “Reality” of infinite goodness and mercy, revealed to us through his son, Jesus of Nazareth.


Reflecting on the originality of the Christian faith in relations to other religions, the Pope stresses the role of Jesus who renders us all sons and daughters of God, therefore also brothers and sisters to each other. Our arduous task, he says, is that of communicating God’s love to all, not in a superior way, but rather through service to all people especially those on the margins of our societies.


Finally the Pope spoke of his deep respect and friendship for people of Jewish faith – especially those with whom he worked so closely in his native Argentina. Reflecting on the terrible experience of the Shoah, he said, we can never be grateful enough to the Jews who maintained their faith in God, thus teaching us too to remain always open to his infinite love.

[Uri’el-2012]

May you come to know the Peace of Jesus the Messiah

May you come to know the truth within the Church founded by Christ.

shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach

May you learn to abide by the rules and post translations of any foreign language you post. I don't think that rule applies only to those who post Latin.

The Roman church of which you speak was started by
the Pagan Emperor Constantine in 325 CE at Nicea.

It ended the WAY of Yah'shua.

shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach

[Al Hitan]

The Roman church of which you speak was started by the Pagan Emperor Constantine in 325 CE at Nicea.

I wasn't speaking of a Roman Church started by Constantine. If you read my post, you'll see I was speaking of the pillar and ground of the truth.

shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach

Make believe Hebrew is just silly and is not real Hebrew.

[Uri’el-2012]

I wasn't speaking of a Roman Church started by Constantine. If you read my post, you'll see I was speaking of the pillar and ground of the truth.

AHH; you must be speaking of the religion of "peace"

May you seek YHvH in His WORD !

shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach

[metmom]

nonsense....there have been hundreds of millions of people that have lived on this Earth who hed no conception of what God was....good people, honest people, people who loved each other and their families.....do you really suppose that an all loving God would condemn them to hell......pathetic!

Good by WHOSE standards?

God's standard is perfection. Without it, NO ONE can see His face.

Jesus said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Salvation is by grace through faith in Christ. There is no other name under heaven by which we MUST be saved.

Works don't save anyone, therefore no matter how good people think someone in the world is, they aren't saved unless they have repented and confessed and accepted Christ for the forgiveness of their sins.

Forgiveness is the ONLY way to be made righteous before God.

[metmom]

What about the case of the Good Thief. He was a non-believer, but rebuked the other thief and only asked Jesus to remember him when Jesus entered his Kingdom.

He started out as a non-believer. By the time he asked Jesus to remember him when Christ came into His kingdom, he had crossed the line, BY FAITH, and Jesus' response was that today, he would be with Him in paradise.

Saved by faith in a deathbed conversion.

Great is our God.

[metmom]

Post of the day......

[metmom]

AMEN!

Preach it, brother.

[Resettozero]

Looking at the photo you posted...

Is Pope Francis a descendant of Stan Laurel? Who has the Pope’s family tree?

[metmom]

GeronL:Why would I need proof of something so obvious? The word “Catholic” is not in the Bible, that is proof enough.

SPV: It is not “obvious.” The fact that the word is not in the Bible is not sufficient proof. Is the word “Trinity” in the Bible? By the way, do you know what the word, “catholic,” means?

Well, the terms *sola scirptura* and *sola fide* are not explicitly found in the Bible and for that reason alone are wholeheartedly and thoroughly condemned by every Catholic I have ever seen post on the RF.

Can Catholics agree to stick to a standard of being consistent in what they do? Double standards are hypocrisy. Either it is rejected off the cuff if it's not found specifically by word or phrase in Scripture, or it is not.

This nonsense about accepting Catholic doctrine without it having to be mentioned specifically by word and rejecting *Protestant* doctrine because it is not mentioned specifically by word of which Catholic approve, is hypocritical beyond almost anything else I've seen.

If *trinity* and *Catholic* are expected to be accepted based on proof texts, be consistent in applying critical analysis and do not disqualify *sola scriptura* because it's based on proof texts.

Catholics need to show some integrity in this area.

[metmom]

May you learn to abide by the rules and post translations of any foreign language you post. I don't think that rule applies only to those who post Latin.

He did. First in English and then in Hebrew.

Clue: Shalom = peace

Yah'shua HaMashiach = Jesus Messiah

Catholic education certainly is lacking if it's not Latin, eh?

[CynicalBear]

>>If *trinity* and *Catholic* are expected to be accepted based on proof texts, be consistent in applying critical analysis and do not disqualify *sola scriptura* because it's based on proof texts.<<

That Catholic faith would be stripped bare if it weren’t for duplicity.

[SkyPilot]

God will not grant blanket forgiveness to those who don't want it. You have to confess and repent. And you have to believe that God IS. If you don't believe that God is, then you are not going to be confessing anything.

Amen.

I heard Dr. Ravi Zacharias speak last autumn. He was debating an atheist - and this atheist was no dummy. His arguments were very well thought out, and his attacks were rehearsed. He hid an ounce of truth in a pound of lies, and sold it to the weak minded.

Ravi related a story: he had just boarded an aircraft from a country he said he did not want to mention. Next to him was a woman who was originally from the Netherlands. She was a Christian who had a mission to rescue children from sexual slavery. She related to Ravi that the night before, she was holding a 9 month old infant girl that she had rescued just before the man was about to rape the baby. He recalled that another atheist, Richard Dawkins, had said all humans behave as they will - they are simply "Dancing to their own DNA." Zacharias' gentle voice suddenly turned to outrage and power, and confronted the atheist on stage and asked in a forceful tone: "Is THAT what this man was doing!"

The pope's blather about people following their "conscious" is not only embarrassing, is an outrage.

[CynicalBear]

>>I believe he was referring to people who for various and sundry reasons were “invincibly ignorant”.<<

So let me get this straight. Catholics believe that anyone who has never heard of Christ and know nothing of God but live what Catholics would call “good lives” are going to heaven. Right?

Then Christ teaches, and Catholics believe, that they should go out to teach the world about Jesus. Right>

So now you have people who would have gone to heaven who refuse to believe in this Jesus guy because they have been good anyway and are now going to hell because they didn’t believe and become a Catholic. Am I getting this right so far?

[svcw]

Amen

[svcw]

Then why did the pope say: you don’t have to be a believer to go to heaven or sin is whatever you think it is?
Not getting what the Catholic church teaches to what their leader says.

[WVKayaker]

I am sure that an i8ntelligent poster will realize that none of mine were crying or whining.

Hahahahahahahahaaaaa

[WVKayaker]

Some slick PR guy no doubt

[svcw]

Good one.

[daniel1212]

I was referring to the poster of post #30 which i had linked to, given in response to an RC. Sorry for any misunderstanding.