Pope Leo Continuing Francis’ Legacy of Uniting with Other Religions

David Martin | The Daily Knight

On October 28, the Catholic world was outraged over disturbing footage of Leo XIV’s livestream celebration of religious unity showing Hindu dancers and interfaith rituals inside the Vatican. This took place during a meeting of world religions held in celebration of the 60^th anniversary of Nostra Aetate.  

Nostra Aetate is the heretical Vatican II document that was penned in 1964 by ex-priest Gregory Baum who at the time was a practicing homosexual and who earlier had raped a Catholic nun. Baum who had been a fierce opponent of Pope Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae on human life continued to live a homosexual life until his passing on October 18, 2017.

Nostra Aetate is about Interreligious Unity

Nostra Aetate is all about uniting the Catholic Church with other religions. The document dignifies other religions and heretically affirms that God continues his covenant with the Jews.

At his weekly audience on October 29, Leo said that all religions are a path to God and he urged clergy and laity “to involve themselves in dialogue and in collaboration with the followers of other religions, recognizing and promoting all that is good, true and holy in their traditions.”

In praise of Nostra Aetate, Leo said: “The spirit of ‘Nostra Aetate’ continues to illuminate the path of the church,” which recognizes that all religions can reflect “a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men.”

Non-Catholic Religions are not Paths to Grace

The problem with this is that non-Catholic religions do not reflect the rays of truth since the Author of Truth [Christ] does not abide in other religions. In his Papal Bull Cantate Domino (1441), Pope Eugene IV dogmatically decreed:

“The most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will go into the eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless before death they are joined with Her.”

Francis Wholly Embraced Nostra Aetate

Of all the Vatican II documents, Nostra Aetate was perhaps Pope Francis’ favorite. His embrace of the document greatly enhanced today’s present-day dialogue and unity with other religions, which was the principal theme of Nostra Aetate.  

In an interreligious meeting with the youth of Singapore in September 2023, Francis made a jaw-dropping statement that left the Catholic world bewildered. He said:

“All religions are a path to reach God. They are – to make a comparison – like different languages, different dialects to get there. But God is God for everyone. If you start to fight saying ‘my religion is more important than yours, mine is true and yours isn’t, where will this lead us? There is only one God, and each of us has a language to arrive at God. Some are Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, and Christians; they are different ways to God.” (Pope Francis, September 15, 2024)

This and other like statements of Francis are more pertinent than ever because Pope Leo is committed to continuing the legacy of Francis who was heretical. The above quote is a glaring denial and contravention of the Church’s dogmatic teaching that outside the Catholic Church there is no other church through which men might be saved.

In 1302, Pope Boniface VIII dogmatically decreed:

There is one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, outside of which there is neither salvation nor remission of sins.

-- Unam Sanctam, Papal Bull of Boniface VIII

Popes Who Fall to Heresy Automatically Lose Their Papacy

According to St. Francis de Sales, St. Alphonsus de Ligouri, St. Robert Bellarmine, and other Church fathers going back to antiquity, a pope automatically excommunicates himself and loses his papacy if he falls into heresy.

This is not to be confused with slight inadvertent mistakes that popes sometimes make. Minor mistakes committed by popes do not contradict the Church’s teaching on Papal Infallibility. Popes are human and can make slight errors, but if a pope directly contradicts a dogmatic article of faith he loses his papal office. Teaching that all religions are paths to God is just as serious as teaching that Jesus never resurrected or that he never instituted the Sacrifice of the Mass. These are acts of formal heresy.   

Some will argue that it is not possible that heresy could issue forth from the Chair of Peter. They will insist that a pope cannot profess heresy.

This is actually true because if a pope attempts to profess heresy, he automatically loses his papacy and is reduced to a heretic, whereby the profession was made as a heretic and not as a pope.

Consider the words of St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1797), Doctor of the Church:

“If ever a pope, as a private person, should fall into heresy, he should at once fall from the pontificate. If, however, God were to permit a pope to become a notorious and contumacious heretic, he would by such a fact cease to be pope, and the apostolic chair would be vacant.”

St. Robert Bellarmine, Doctor of the Church, makes it clear:

“A pope who is a manifest heretic automatically ceases to be a pope and head, just as he automatically ceases to be a Christian and member of the Church. Wherefore, he can be judged and punished by the Church. This is the teaching of all the ancient fathers who teach that manifest heretics immediately lose all jurisdiction.”

The problem right now is that we have a pope who is bent on advancing the manifold heresies of Francis, who seemingly “lost all jurisdiction.” This spells danger for the Church, yet Leo echoes Francis right and left.

For instance, on the feast of Christ the King, he said, “No one possesses the entire truth,” insinuating that the Catholic Church isn’t the sole possessor and custodian of Christian truth. In the spirit of Francis he allows hordes of homosexual activists to overrun the Vatican, and now the latest Vatican abomination with the interfaith dancers. Like Francis, everything with Leo is “dialogue,” “synodality,” and “oneness” with other religions.

But what does this have to do with the worship of God and the salvation of souls? Dialogue and Synodality are small-minded political causes having nothing to do with religion so we pray that Leo will dump these and think only of the salvation of souls, which will only come about through a universal return to sacred tradition.