Pope: “'But I belong to this religion, or to that one …' it doesn’t matter!"

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"I care!"

On Sunday Pope Francis made another "surprise" visit, this time to an Earth Day celebration in Rome, sponsored in part by Focolare. 

Focolare is officially a Catholic group, though some have called it an indifferentist cult.

However, in fairness to Focolare, it wasn't a representative of that group that made the statement of the post title, but the Vicar of Christ himself.

Who needs Focolare when we have Francis?

Here are some excerpts from the Pope's "impromptu" remarks on an outdoor stage (from a Crux translation of a Vatican provided transcript):

Thanks much for everything, and now I’ll do a little improvisation. I’ll leave aside what I wrote down to say to you, and say instead what comes to me … 

Listening to you speak, two images came to me: The desert, and the forest. I thought, these people, all of you, all, are taking up the desert in order to transform it into a forest. They go where there’s desert, where there isn’t hope, and they do things to make a forest of this desert. The forest is full of trees, it’s full of vegetation, but too disorganized … but, life is like that. Passing from the desert to the forest is the beautiful work you do! You transform deserts into forests! (applause) Then, one can see how to regulate certain things in the forest … but there’s life in it, while in the desert there’s death. 

There are many deserts in the cities, deserts in people’s lives who don’t have a future, because there’s always – and I’ll underline a word here – always there are prejudices, fears. These people live and die in the desert of the cities. You perform a miracle with your work of changing the desert into a forest: Go forward that way. 

What’s your plan of work? I don’t know … We’re approaching you, and we’ll see what we can do. Life has to be taken as it comes. It’s like a goaltender in soccer: You have to take the ball where it’s kicked … it comes from here and there. But you must not be afraid of life, or afraid of conflicts … 

...The desert is ugly, both the desert in the heart of all of us, as well as the desert in the city, in the peripheries, which is also an ugly thing. There’s also a desert that’s in the gated neighborhoods … It’s ugly, but the desert is there too. We must not be afraid to go to the desert to transform it into a forest, where there’s exuberant life, and to go dry the many tears so that everyone can smile.... 

...I’ll give you an assignment to do at home. Look at the faces of people when you go into the street: they’re worried, everyone is closed in on themselves, they lack a smile, in other words they lack tenderness, social friendship … they lack this social friendship. Where there isn’t social friendship there’s always hatred and war. We’re living a piecemeal Third World War, everywhere. Look at the geographic map of the world, and you’ll see. 

...There’s a word not to forget in this world, where it seems that if you don’t pay you can’t live, where the person, the man and woman that God created to be the center of the world, to be for that matter at the center of the economy, are thrown out and instead we have at the center a god, the god of money. Today at the center of the world is the god of money, and those who can approach to adore this god … (applause) … they approach, and those who can’t finish in hunger, in illness, in exploitation … Think about the exploitation of children, of young people... 

...Look, these are the things that come to my mind. How to do this? Simply in the awareness that we all have something in common, we’re all human. And in this humanity, we can get close to each other to work together … “But I belong to this religion, or to that one …” it doesn’t matter! 

Let’s all go forward to work together, respecting each other, respecting! I see this miracle: the miracle of a desert that becomes a forest. Thanks for everything you do!

Is Pope Francis an Indifferentist?

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From Carol Glatz Catholic News Service (10/28/15):

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The world expects all people of religious faith to work with everyone for a better future, Pope Francis told representatives of major religions. 

"We can walk together taking care of each other and of creation" in joint projects that fight poverty, war and corruption and help people live in dignity, he told them during a special general audience dedicated to interreligious dialogue. 

The audience in St. Peter's Square Oct. 28 marked the 50th anniversary of "Nostra Aetate," the Second Vatican Council's declaration on relations with other religions; the audience also recalled the historic first World Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi, Italy, Oct. 27, 1986. 

"The flame, lit in Assisi, spread to the whole world and marks a permanent sign of peace," Pope Francis said in his address. 

The rain-soaked square was awash with color as thousands gathered under colorful umbrellas or plastic ponchos. Large groups of people came from other Christian communities and from other world religions and many held aloft olive branches. Representatives of many religious traditions sat in a VIP section near the pope and prayed in silence with him at the end of the audience. 

Inviting the thousands gathered in the square to pray according to their own religious tradition, the pope said, "Let us ask the Lord to make us be more like brothers and sisters, and more like servants to our brothers and sisters in need." 

In his written address, the pope said, "The world looks to us believers, it urges us to collaborate with each other and people of goodwill who do not profess any religion, it asks from us effective responses to many issues: peace, hunger, poverty," the environmental and economic crises, corruption, moral decay and violence -- especially that waged in the name of religion. 

Religions don't have a special "recipe" to solve these problems, he said, "but we have a great resource -- prayer. Prayer is our treasure," which believers turn to in order to ask for those gifts people are yearning for. 

Concerning the future of interreligious dialogue, he said, "the first thing we have to do is pray. Without the Lord, nothing is possible; with him, everything becomes" possible. 

He asked that prayer lead people to follow the will of God, who wants everyone to recognize each other as brothers and sisters and to form a "great human family in a harmony of diversity." 

Unfortunately, much of the violence and terrorism unfolding in the world have made people suspicious or critical of religion, he said. 

However, "although no religion is immune from the risk of fundamentalist or extremist deviations," he said, people must look at the positive aspects of religious beliefs, especially how they are a source of hope for so many. 

Pope Francis said respectful dialogue can lead to friendship and concrete initiatives between religious believers in serving the poor, the elderly, the marginalized and immigrants. 

In fact, the upcoming Year of Mercy is the perfect occasion to work together on charitable projects, he said. 

Charity, "where compassion especially counts, can unite with us many people who do not consider themselves to be believers or who are seeking God and truth," and with anyone who makes those in need a priority, he said. 

The pope also praised the profound improvements in Jewish-Christian relations. He said the past 50 years have seen indifference and conflict turn into collaboration and goodwill, and enemies and strangers have become friends and family. 

Mutual understanding, respect and esteem make up the only path for fruitful dialogue, not only with Jews, but with Muslims as well, he said. 

"The dialogue we need has to be open and respectful," he said, and includes respecting people's right to life, physical integrity and fundamental freedoms like freedom of conscience, thought, expression and religion."