Don't Believe What You Read - The Pope is Not Offering Indulgences on Twitter

C'mon, people.

Earlier this week, the major news outlets said that the Pope was offering to get people out of Hell by following him on Twitter. It was the joke of the day. Protestants with an axe to grind were trying to use it as an example of the corruption of the Vatican, while others thought it provided a reason to avoid organized religion, all together. But I thought the story sounded absolutely ridiculous.

Those who follow Catholicism more closely were quick to point out the facts - Pope Francis offered no such thing. It makes for a good headline, but it's just not true. Naturally, people will probably think this really happened for years to come because so few people are willing to look past news headlines for the truth. Pope Francis has shown himself to be a down-to-earth, reasonable person, so we shouldn't be so quick to believe these sorts of stories about him.

From StPetersList.com

Universal Church, Universal Salvation?

I was on vacation last week, so I missed the hubbub on facebook and the internet in general that resulted when the Huffington Post released an article on Pope Francis's mass last Wednesday. The article featured this compelling headline:

"Pope Francis Says Atheists Who Do Good Are Redeemed, Not Just Catholics"

This headline was in response to these head-scratching words from the Pope:

"The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone! And this Blood makes us children of God of the first class! We are created children in the likeness of God and the Blood of Christ has redeemed us all! (from Radio Vatican -- read more)

As expected, blog-rolls and facebook feeds lit-up with claims and questions about whether or not Pope Francis is a universalist. Some compared him to Rob Bell. David Gibbons from Charisma news says that the Pope is not endorsing universalism; rather, Gibbons says, "Francis was only affirming the doctrine that Christ redeemed the whole world. Whether people accept that belief is another matter." This blogger provides a helpful, brief history of the subject of universalist and inclusivist beliefs in the church. (I encourage you to read it if you'd like to know more) and compares the Pope to C.S. Lewis.

I think both of the linked articles, above, are helpful in thinking through the Pope's remarks. However, what many seem to miss is the main point of Pope Francis's sermon. According to Radio Vatican, the main goal of the sermon was to endorse not universal salvation but universal peace through the creation of a "culture of encounter" in which everyone -- Atheist, Muslim, and Catholic alike -- contributes to peace through good works.  And it is helpful to read what the Pope said just after those controversial words quoted above. He went on to say:

...the Blood of Christ has redeemed us all! And we all have a duty to do good. And this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace. If we, each doing our own part, if we do good to others, if we meet there, doing good, and we go slowly, gently, little by little, we will make that culture of encounter: we need that so much. We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: we will meet one another there.” It sounds to me like Pope Francis isn't talking so much about specific individual "salvation," but about the common grace available to all through Christ that enables everyone to display God's image, however fractured that may be. It seems like Pope Francis is affirming that as humans created in God's image, we each have the ability to pursue peace and do good (albeit imperfectly), and that, Pope Francis says, is the basis for peace in the world.

I encourage you to read the rest of the Pope's remarks for yourself at the Radio Vatican website.

5 Reasons Pope Francis Rocks

Maybe it's a little early into the new papacy for this Baptist girl to be declaring her love for the new Pope, but here are 5 reasons why, so far, he seems great:

1. He doesn't just pray for the Church; he asks the Church to pray for him.

In this article from Christianity Today, Jeremy Weber writes:

Argentina's evangelical leaders were just as surprised as anyone when Jorge Mario Bergoglio, former archbishop of Buenos Aires, was revealed Wednesday as the new Pope Francis. But they were not surprised when his first words broke from papal tradition.

In a move that Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano called "unprecedented and shocking," before Francis offered the world the traditional papal blessing, he asked those watching to first pray for him.

Such a request is one of Bergoglio's trademarks, said Juan Pablo Bongarrá, president of the Argentine Bible Society. "Whenever you talk to him, the conversation ends with a request: 'Pastor, pray for me," said Bongarrá. He recalls when Bergoglio once attended a weekly worship meeting organized by Buenos Aires's charismatic pastors. "He mounted the platform and called for pastors to pray for him," said Bongarrá. "He knelt in front of nearly 6,000 people, and [Protestant leaders] laid hands and prayed."

2. He is the first Pope to wash the feet of women in the traditional Maundy Thursday feet washing ceremony.

This non-traditional move ruffled some feathers, but it also showed love. Read more here.

3. As Cardinal in Argentina, he was known to take Baptism and Eucharist to the streets to those in need.


Kenneth Tanner reports:

In an interview last winter, then-Cardinal Bergoglio told Andrea Tornielli of Vatican Insider:

"Instead of just being a Church that welcomes and receives, we try to be a Church that comes out of itself and goes to the men and women who do not participate in parish life, do not know much about it and are indifferent towards it. We organize missions in public squares where many people usually gather: we pray, we celebrate Mass, we offer baptism which we administer after a brief preparation"

4. He's a true disciple of his namesake, Francis of Assissi

Many have reported the Pope's surprisingly ordinary ways of dressing and living. But this would have been no news to St. Francis, who adopted a life a poverty after coming from a life of plenty in order to follow Jesus and take hope into the streets.

5. This viral photo is more than a photo op; it's a picture of Christ's love.

I freely admit that I teared-up when I saw this photo. I teared-up even more when I read what the boy's father had to say about the experience of seeing his disabled son in the Pope's embrace on Easter Sunday:

It’s just so awesome to see the Holy Spirit take over like this, and that He chose to use Dominic to do it is practically beyond belief. But it shouldn’t surprise us, since from the very beginning of salvation history God has always willed to use the weak and marginalized to move and shame the powerful and the wise. Why should he not also do it today, particularly on Easter Sunday? (And I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that this marvelous encounter occurred on Easter, as if God’s raising up Dominic confirms that he and all the disabled shall one day be whole and strong and healthy, and that the glorification of their bodies in the final resurrection will be particularly wondrous.) full story here 

Mostly, I love the new Pope because he has gone out of his way to show love and humility. If Christianity is going to be represented publicly (and for many, the Pope is who people will think of when they think of Christianity) then by all means let it be represented through Pope Francis's acceptance of outsiders, his embrace of the needy, and his care for the poor.