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Pope Francis Moves to Unite World Religions

by | Thu, Feb 14 2019

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Pope Francis greeting crowds

Pope Francis. (Photo credit: Shutterstock)

Pope Francis has met with Islamic leader Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, Grand Imam of Egypt's al-Azhar mosque, for a joint document which says “the pluralism and diversity of religions are willed by God in his wisdom.”

The aim of the document is to create peace between nations, religions and races by presenting global unity between leaders from Christianity, Islam, Judaism and other faiths.

Charles Newington of Family Voice Australia spoke with Neil Johnson on Vision Christian Radio’s 20Twenty program about the concerns of more traditional Catholics who aren’t happy about the increasingly worldly views of Pope Francis.

Traditionalist and conservative Catholics find this recent ‘uniting’ gesture of Pope Francis deeply troubling. Cardinal Müller, the former chief of Catholic Doctrine who was sacked by Pope Francis in 2017, put out a manifesto arguing this declaration contradicts core Catholic teaching.

Cardinal Muller

Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller (Photo credit: Dr. Meierhofer via Wikimedia)

He stated that the Christian belief in the Trinity is a fundamental difference with other religions and to deny the divinity of Christ – even if not directly but by a joint statement suggests it is not as important is and is a position that is anti to Christ.

This act of the Pope and several other statements and actions that depart from Catholic doctrine has caused many Catholics leave the Catholic Church.  It seems that some sections of the Church are trying to shift to a more socially liberal position in the hope of keeping congregants moving to the left politically and socially. However, it only serves to drive conservatives out and the so-called progressives that they are trying to please often have no loyalty to the Church. Churches lose members on left and right.

Ironically, a similar thing is happening in Islam. Fundamentalism is causing many nominal Muslims to leave Islam, either to become atheists or join another religions like Christianity.  Egypt is one of the places in the Islamic world where this shift is happening in significant numbers.

Listen to the full discussion between Neil and Charles Newington in the audio clip below.

Tune into 20Twenty and join the conversation with Neil Johnson, weekdays on Vision Christian Radio. Click here for your local times.

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