Bishop Schneider affirms Catholicism as ‘only religion willed by God’ in response to Pope Francis’ errors

PITTSBURGH (PerMariam) — Bishop Athanasius Schneider has issued a public profession of faith citing Catholic teaching that Catholicism “is the only religion willed by God,” following recent comments from Pope Francis who argued that “every religion is a way to arrive at God.”

Speaking at the Catholic Identity Conference in Pittsburgh this past weekend, Astana, Kazakhstan’s auxiliary Bishop Schneider delivered a public response to the widespread confusion which has spread in recent days thanks to Pope Francis

The bishop’s declaration begins: “We unshakably believe and profess what the ordinary and universal Magisterium of the Church has continuously and infallibly taught since the time of the Apostles, namely, That faith in Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God and only Savior of mankind, is the only religion willed by God.”

The full text is reproduced in full below, upon request of Bp. Schneider

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It comes after three instances in which Pope Francis attested that other religions can be reliable paths to God. In Singapore, on September 13, he stated:

Every religion is a way to arrive at God. There are different languages to arrive at God, but God is God for all. And how is God, God for all? We are all sons and daughters of God. But my god is more important than your god, is that true?

There is only one God and each of us has a language to arrive at God. Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, they are different paths.

This he followed up a few days later, addressing another inter-religious group of young people and repeating lines from his 2019 Abu Dhabi document which have been condemned by theologians. “The diversity of your cultural and religious identities is a gift of God,” he said.

Some days later still, Francis told yet another inter-faith meeting that there is “divine inspiration present in every faith.”

However, the Catholic Church notes that “The one true Church established by Christ is the Catholic Church.” (Baltimore Catechism, Q. 152)

Catholic doctrine teaches that this fact is knowable since the Catholic Church alone has the four marks of being the true Church: one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic.

The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 declared definitively: “There is but one universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved.”

As a result, the Church teaches that all souls must “belong” to the Church to be saved:

All are obliged to belong to the Catholic Church in order to be saved. — Baltimore Catechism, Q. 166.

For Pope Pius XI, promoting the belief that “all religions are more or less equal” was not a light matter, but a path towards atheism and the ultimate rejection of God. He wrote in Mortalium Animos:

Not only are those who hold this opinion in error and deceived, but also in distorting the idea of true religion they reject it, and little by little turn aside to naturalism and atheism, as it is called; from which it clearly follows that one who supports those who hold these theories and attempt to realize them, is altogether abandoning the divinely revealed religion.

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“We fervently implore the help of Divine grace for all those churchmen today who, by their words and deeds, contradict the Divinely revealed truth about Jesus Christ and His Church as the only path by which men can reach God and eternal salvation,” writes Schneider.

Bishop Schneider’s full declaration is produced below upon request of His Excellency.

Profession of Faith in Jesus Christ and His Church as the only path to God and to eternal salvation

We unshakably believe and profess what the ordinary and universal Magisterium of the Church has continuously and infallibly taught since the time of the Apostles, namely,

That faith in Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God and only Savior of mankind, is the only religion willed by God.

After the institution of the new and everlasting Covenant in Jesus Christ, no one may be saved by adherence to the teachings and practices of non-Christian religions. Because “the prayer, which is directed to God, must be linked with Christ, the Lord of all people, the one Mediator (1 Tm 2:5; Heb 8:6; 9:15; 12:24) through whom alone we have access to God (Rom 5:2; Eph 2:18; 3:12).” (General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours, n. 6)

We firmly believe that “there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12), except the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was crucified, whom God hath raised from the dead (cf. Acts 4:10).

We believe that it is “contrary to the Catholic faith to consider the Church as one way of salvation alongside those constituted by the other religions, seen as complementary to the Church or substantially equivalent to her, even if these are said to be converging with the Church toward the eschatological kingdom of God” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration Dominus Iesus, 21).

We furthermore hold that Divine Revelation, faithfully transmitted by the Church’s perennial Magisterium, forbids affirming:

• That all religions are paths to God,
• That the diversity of religious identities is a gift of God, and,
• That the diversity of religions is an expression of the wise will of God the Creator.

We hold, therefore, that Christians are not simply “travelling companions” along with adherents of false religions – which God forbids.

We fervently implore the help of Divine grace for all those churchmen today who, by their words and deeds, contradict the Divinely revealed truth about Jesus Christ and His Church as the only path by which men can reach God and eternal salvation. With the help of divine grace, may these churchmen be enabled to offer a public retraction, required for the good of their own soul and the souls of others. For “not accepting Christ is the greatest danger for the world!” (St. Hilary of Poitiers, In Matth. 18).

By the prayers, tears and sacrifices of all the true sons and daughters of the Church, and especially of the “little ones” in the Church, may the Shepherds of the Church, and first and foremost Pope Francis, receive the grace to emulate the Apostles, countless Martyrs, numerous Holy Roman Pontiffs and a multitude of Saints, especially St. Francis of Assisi, who “was a Catholic and an entirely apostolic man, who set about personally and commanded his disciples to occupy themselves before everything else with the conversion of the heathen to the Faith and Law of Christ.” (Pope Pius XI, Encyclical Rite Expiatis, 37)

We believe and, with God’s grace, are ready to give our lives for this Divine truth pronounced by Jesus Christ: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

+ Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana

with the Participants of the Catholic Identity Conference 2024

Pittsburgh, September 29, 2024

Reprinted with permission from PerMariam: Mater Dolorosa.