The ‘divine inspiration’ is ‘present in every faith,’ Pope tells interreligious gathering
September 25, 2024
In a message to an interreligious gathering in Paris for peace, Pope Francis wrote that the divine inspiration is present in every faith.
“We need to keep meeting, to weave bonds of fraternity and to allow ourselves to be guided by the divine inspiration present in every faith, in order to join in ‘imagining peace’ among all peoples,” Pope Francis wrote in his message to Imagine Peace, organized by the Sant’Egidio Community.
Recalling Pope St. John Paul II’s 1986 interreligious gathering in Assisi for peace, Pope Francis thanked the Community for “the passion and creativity with which it continues to keep the spirit of Assisi alive.”
The Pope also wrote that “the urgent task of the religions is to foster visions of peace, as you are demonstrating these days in Paris. As men and women of different cultures and religious beliefs, you have experienced the power and beauty of universal fraternity. This is the vision our world needs today.”
The message, signed by the Pope on September 17, was released by the Vatican on September 24.
The Pope’s September 17 written statement that “the divine inspiration” is “present in every faith” came four days after his extemporaneous remarks, delivered in Italian, during an interreligious gathering in Singapore that “all religious are a path to arrive at God” (43:18).
On September 13 in Singapore, the Pope said, according to the Vatican’s transcript, “Tutte le religioni sono un cammino per arrivare a Dio. Sono—faccio un paragone—come diverse lingue, diversi idiomi, per arrivare lì.” (Literally, “All religions are a path to arrive at God. They are—I make a comparison—like different languages, different idioms, to arrive there.”) The Vatican’s English translation mistranslated the Pope’s words as “All religions are paths to God. I will use an analogy, they are like different languages that express the divine.”
The Vatican, however, did not mistranslate the Pope’s written words in his message to the interreligious gathering in Paris. The English translation (“to allow ourselves to be guided by the divine inspiration present in every faith”) is consistent with the Italian (“di lasciarsi guidare dall’ispirazione divina che abita ogni fede”) and the French (“de se laisser guider par l’inspiration divine qui habite toute foi”). Indeed, in the Italian (and in the French), the Pope makes a slightly stronger assertion than in the English translation: the Pope writes of the “divine inspiration that inhabits every faith.”
Catholic teaching on the relationship between the Church and non-Christians is summarized in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, nn. 839-845.
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Posted by: loumiamo4057 -
Today 2:58 PM ET USA
Don't know why people are upset with Pooe Francis. In my Church of Whats Happening Now Bible [2024, Sodom & Gomorrah Publishers], it clearly states at the end of Matthews gospel: Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, unless they are already religious and don't need bapizing." So what's the problem?
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Posted by: feedback -
Today 8:21 AM ET USA
This explains the Scalfari interviews, the pachamama worship, the Abu Dhabi kumbaya, celebrating 500 years of Luther's revolt, and promotions that harm the Church. Those were the good old days, when every nonsense coming out from the Vatican used to be blamed on bad translation.
