Pope Francis Points to Dangers of Intolerance and Ideology







Donate now





© Vatican Media

Pope Francis Points to Dangers of Intolerance and Ideology

‘The young Saul is portrayed as intransigent, namely, as one who manifests intolerance towards those that think differently from him’
OCTOBER 09, 2019 15:46GENERAL AUDIENCE

Pope Francis continued his catecheses on the Acts of the Apostles today with an analysis of one of history’s greatest changes of heart: the conversion of Saul to Paul. And the Holy Father suggested the story demonstrates the dangers of intolerance and ideology.
The Holy Father’s remarks came during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square, where he met pilgrims from around the world. He recalled the horrible persecution of the Christians carried out by Saul with the authority of the high priest. In fact, Saul thought he was doing the right thing.
“The young Saul is portrayed as intransigent, namely, as one who manifests intolerance towards those that think differently from him; he absolutizes his political or religious identity and reduces the other to a potential enemy to fight — an ideologist,” the Pope explained. “In Saul, religion was transformed into an ideology: religious ideology, social ideology, and political ideology.  Only after having been transformed by Christ will he then teach that the true battle is not ‘against flesh and blood, but [. . .] against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness’ (Ephesians 6:12). He will teach that one must not fight against people, but against the evil that inspires their actions.”
Francis continued by noting that Saul was angry. He was determined to eliminate the Christians. The Pope suggested that believers should ask themselves how they live their faith:
“How do I live my life of faith? Do I go to encounter others or am I against others? Do I belong to the universal Church (good people and bad people, all) or do I have a selective ideology? Do I adore God or do I adore dogmatic formulations? How is my religious life? Does the faith in God that I profess make me friendly or hostile towards those who are different from me?
Of course, when Saul encountered the Risen Lord on the road to Damascus, he was stuck with a deep and penetrating question: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?” (Acts 9:4).
“The Risen One manifests here His being one with all those that believe in Him: to strike a member of the Church is to strike Christ Himself!,” the Holy Father asserts. “Also, those that are ideologists because they want the ‘purity’ — in quotation marks — of the Church, strike Christ.”

The Holy Father’s Full Catechesis

OCTOBER 09, 2019 15:46GENERAL AUDIENCE

About Jim Fair

Jim Fair is a husband, father, grandfather, writer, and communications consultant. He also likes playing the piano and fishing. He writes from the Chicago area.


 

Support ZENIT

If you liked this article, support ZENIT now with a donation
Donate now






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Image

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH & FLEET STREET FINANCIAL DISPATCH LONDON — SEPTEMBER 2025 — SPECIAL ECONOMIC INVESTIGATION THE ARCHITECTURE OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM AND THE MECHANICS OF UNIVERSAL DEMAND An Analytical Examination of the Post-War Industrial Order, the Fallacy of Unfettered Laissez-Faire, Mechanisation, and the State-Guaranteed System of Participatory Remuneration BY OUR SPECIAL ECONOMIC CORRESPONDENT IN FLEET STREET, Warren A. Lyon with Cheuy Leon Stephen Lam Tom. LONDON — In the tenth year following the cessation of European hostilities in 1955, as the Western world navigates the transition from wartime economic controls to the mid-century industrial consensus, thoughtful observers in Fleet Street, Westminster, and the City must confront a fundamental problem of political economy. The modern capitalist apparatus—stretching across the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth, North America, and Western Europe—operates upon a single, immutable law: the imperative equilibrium between Supply and Demand. Yet, despite the vast expansion of mechanized production, factory automation, and electronic computation, our financial architectures continue to suffer from a crippling structural defect: the systemic failure to guarantee requisite consumer purchasing power (ability to pay/ATP) across the whole of the populace. I. THE LESSONS OF THE POST-WAR CONSCIOUSNESS: SUPPLY, DEMAND, AND THE ELECTRIC CIRCUIT To comprehend the crisis of modern industrial organization, one must discard the antiquated Victorian dogma that human existence is defined solely by manual toil. Under the classical doctrine of laissez-faire, labour was treated as an elastic commodity, hired when factories required muscle and cast aside into poverty when machines replaced handiwork. In an age dominated by automatic machinery, conveyor systems, and early electronic computing, such a doctrine is not merely obsolete; it is actively destructive to the civic health of the realm. Consider the macro-economic structure as an electrical power grid carrying a constant current of thirty amperes. Under a rational and balanced order, this current is bifurcated equally along two parallel conductors: fifteen amperes are directed to energise the lamp of Industrial Supply (the manufacturing apparatus, capital investment, and technological innovation), while the remaining fifteen amperes flow uninterrupted to power the lamp of Demand—the Ability to Pay vested within the consumer public. In an unregulated laissez-faire system, however, an artificial blockage is introduced along the conductor powering Consumer Demand. It acts as a deliberate obstruction—resembling a corkscrew jammed into the brass fittings of a ship's engine room. The electrical energy, unable to reach the lamp of Demand, encounters extreme resistance; heat builds rapidly within the circuit, insulation scorches, and the entire socio-economic edifice is threatened with catastrophic conflagration. Energy in an economic system, like energy in physics, is never destroyed; if it is denied its proper outlet in legitimate consumer spending, it manifests as market collapse, civil unrest, shoplifting, and social decay. Click here.

Post a Comment