EDITOR, The Tribune.

During the week of Christmas a prominent Baptist YouTuber uploaded a video on YouTube in which he criticised Pope Francis for a controversial and heretical statement made during his Christmas Day address at the Vatican. Pope Francis spoke about children whose childhood was devastated by war, referring to them as “little Jesuses”. Many of the commenters rightly observed that there’s only one Jesus, the second member of the triune Godhead. Pope Francis could’ve used a more appropriate analogy to drive home his point, rather than engaging in outright blasphemy.

I have chosen to address this subject because the Catholic Church has a very strong and ubiquitous presence in The Bahamas, despite the disproportionate disparity in numbers between it and the Protestant camp. Notwithstanding its small population, thousands of Bahamians consider Pope Francis to be their spiritual authority, due to them being members of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Francis’ recent pronouncements should give these Bahamians cause for concern. Weeks before his Christmas Day speech, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Faith announced that priests are now allowed to bless individuals in same-sex relationships and others in irregular situations.

To allay the fears of conservative Catholics, the Vatican has made it clear that these same-sex blessings will not be done in a liturgical or sacramental context. The church still opposes homosexuality. Still, this move by Pope Francis is confusing, to say the least. In one breath, the Catholic Church is saying homosexuality is a sin, yet in the other, it is saying to LGBTQ couples that it is willing to bless them. So, which is it? This is a slippery slope Pope Francis has set the Catholic Church on. This is eerily similar to the Episcopal Church in North America that approved same-sex marriage in 2015. As a result of this Episcopalian apostasy, thousands of conservative Episcopalians defected from that denomination. Homosexual couples will now be allowed to have special services of blessing in Church of England parishes. This comes after the Church of England leadership announced that Anglican priests are allowed to bless same-sex couples in early 2023. Obviously Pope Francis is following in the footsteps of the Church of England. The paradigm shift within the Anglican and Catholic communes is similar to what I see going on within the evangelical church in North America, owing to the massive influence of Andy Stanley, Tyler Perry and his Madea stage act and, to a lesser degree, the embattled Bishop T D Jakes.

In late 2023 during the COP28 climate change conference in Dubai, Pope Francis issued a statement from the Vatican in which he called on the world religions to “unite in opposing the rapacious devastation of the environment”. Based on that statement alone, some are now wondering aloud if the Pontiff is a syncretist. If so, the implications of his alleged syncretism would then mean that he believes Muslims, atheists, Buddhists, Hindus, Rastas, Satanists and voodoo practitioners are all going to heaven. Belief in the New Testament gospel isn’t necessary in the grand scheme of things.

Moreover, Pope Francis, a Jesuit priest who was born in Argentina, has also been accused of being a universalist. Universalism, which was taught by the heretical third century Alexandrian Church Father Origen, is antithetical to the exclusive claims of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In defense of Pope Francis’ alleged universalism, Catholic World Report, in an article published in 2013, claimed that Pope John Paul III, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (edited by Pope Benedict XVI) and Pope Leo XIII all taught a soteriology similar to what the current pope embraces. If true, universalism is still heretical. And finally, Pope Francis was accused of being a Marxist by American conservatives Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck.

The Economist - a prominent financial magazine - accused the Pontiff of being a follower of Vladimir Lenin, the founder of communist Russia. Pope Francis has denied the Marxist allegations. Yet his repeated railings against the prosperous free market economies of the Western Hemisphere has led keen observers to the conclusion that he is pro-Marxist. Hailing from Latin America, the breeding ground of Marxist revolutions in the West, has also led to the allegations. Bahamians, by and large, are traditionalists who reject same-sex unions. They are pro-free market and are, at least from an ideological standpoint, evangelical in their views on biblical doctrines. Their views conflict with those of Pope Francis. Bahamian Catholics must now have a come-to-Jesus moment with their Pope, whom I believe is not a Christian. Why would you continue to follow a man who does not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? That’s the million dollar question Bahamian Catholics must ask themselves.

KEVIN EVANS

Freeport, Grand Bahama

January 3, 2024.