Pope Francis made two comments last week that touched off a tempest in Christendom. ...
I have a different perspective. Pope Francis wasn’t watering down the Christian faith; he was expressing existential humility. He was unwilling to state, definitively, the mind of God and to pass judgment on the souls of others. His words were surprising not because they were heretical in any way, but rather because existential humility contradicts the fundamentalist spirit of much of contemporary American Christianity. His words were less a declaration of truth than an invitation to introspection, a call to examine your conscience.
Consider the contrast between the pope’s reluctance to consign believers in other faiths to hell (much less his willingness to embrace the idea that non-Christians can “arrive at God”) or to take sides in American politics with the willingness of many Christians to declare even fellow believers as lost forever if they hold different views on abortion or the 2024 election.
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