What concerns me are the phrases “Everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them. . .”
Are “good” and “evil” what WE conceive them to be?
And, this one, “The world is crisscrossed by roads that come closer together and move apart, but the important thing is that they lead towards the good.”
But, I thought the “good” was whatever WE conceive it to be, right?
Look, I’ll be upfront - I’m a Baptist, but I certainly do not hate Catholics or this Pope. I appreciate that the Catholic church has preserved many of the Greek/Hebrew texts of the Scriptures. I respect their pro-life position and how they have never wavered from it. But, in this day and age of moral and religious relativism and pluralism, I think sending out “fuzzy” statements only contributes not only to confusion, but to a false sense of security with God for the unbeliever.
A non-Christian hearing those statements would probably think the Pope is saying, “hey, whatever you think is right is right, whatever YOU think is wrong is wrong - God will accept that”.
Now, maybe that’s NOT what the Pope means, but it sure sounds like that is what he is saying.
I don’t condemn anyone, that’s God’s prerogative, but we are to “test” the spirits, test and discern, and yes, judge right and wrong according to God’s standards, not ours.
The Pope isn’t saying anything new.
He’s not saying that good and evil are what we think they are. He’s saying that each man is obliged to pursue the good as he understands it.