In September 2024, Pope Francis visited Singapore as part of his tour of Asia. He gave a speech about the importance of inter-faith relations at the Catholic school, Catholic Junior College. The transcript of the speech is here.
As usual I will give a theological take on current events, also for this speech in this post.
The good
"A young person must be a critical thinker, and it is not good never to be critical."
"Do you have the courage to criticize but also the courage to let others criticize you?"
"Young people must have the courage to build, to move forward and go out of their “comfort zones.”
The Pope advocated for critical thinking, and that is always good. Too often we Asians tend to have overly fear authority. We rather go through the motion pretending a fallacy is correct then to questions the legitimacy of a claim and risk upsetting the harmony of a team project, or upsetting the boss.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. - John 14:6
This applies doubly for Christians. As Jesus claimed to be the truth, Christians should not be afraid to examine any claim or study any research with a critical and sceptical mind in order to find truth.
Although the pope's speech started out well, it went downhill from there.
An inter-religious gathering in Singapore, 2017 |
The bad (wasted opportunity)
"If you start arguing, “My religion is more important than yours...,” or “Mine is the true one, yours is not true....,” where does this lead? Somebody answer. [A young person answers, “Destruction”.] That is correct."
"All religions are paths to God. I will use an analogy, they are like different languages that express the divine. But God is for everyone, and therefore, we are all God’s children. “But my God is more important than yours!”. Is this true? There is only one God, and religions are like languages, paths to reach God. Some Sikh, some Muslim, some Hindu, some Christian. Understood? Yet, interfaith dialogue among young people takes courage."
Instead of advocating for the exclusivity of Christianity, Pope Francis chose the safer, political path. He claimed that religions are pathways to the same God, and that arguing a single, right path is "destructive".
To me, this was a great wasted opportunity. The pope had a stage to preach Christ to a multicultural Singapore, and threw it away. It is not like this platform was unprecedented; the Apostle Paul took his chances at multicultural Athens 2000 years ago and preached the following in Acts 17:
So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, - Acts 17: 22-28
While as Christians we are taught to be live in peace with our neighbours, ultimately we are also to speak of God's love and sacrifice for everyone.
Conclusion
While we Christians should strive to live in harmony as far as possible, we are called to evangelise.
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[b] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” - Matthew 28: 18-20