Pope Francis in Mongolia: An Evangelical Reflection

From 31 August to 4 September Pope Francis was in Mongolia. It was historic as it was the first time a pope had visited the country. For Pope Francis his trip to Mongolia marked his 43rd Apostolic journey and his 61st country visited since becoming Pope in 2013. That is an impressive resume. Despite his health continuing to decline, and the ever-increasing difficulty of getting around, Pope Francis continues to travel and take his work seriously. He is to be commended for that. Commendable too is his continued advocacy for religious freedom and peaceful co-existence, which was underscored once again in Mongolia.  

Less commendable, however - at least from an Evangelical perspective - is the theological message that continues to permeate his speeches and discourses. They are not surprising, but they need to be carefully considered by the evangelical church because understanding his messages requires going below the surface and avoiding making unhelpful and inaccurate assumptions. If evangelicals remain at the surface of Roman Catholicism, they run the risk of theological naivety and making wrongful and costly assumptions.

For example, during his trip to Mongolia Pope Francis gave a speech in which he commended the small Catholic presence in Mongolia (roughly 1,500) to constantly proclaim Jesus. He invited the Catholic ministers to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” He encouraged them to continue spending their lives for the gospel, for it is a worthy cause. Jesus, Francis insisted, “is the Good News, meant for all peoples, the message that the Church must constantly proclaim, embody in her life, and whisper to the heart of every individual and all cultures.” Bear witness to the love of Christ, Francis encouraged.

On the surface this sounds very nice, and it is difficult to disagree with it. What evangelical would say the church should not be involved in these activities? Only someone who wanted to be a theological nitpicker and unnecessarily divisive would criticize the Pope’s general message in Mongolia. True, unnecessary theological nitpicking is rarely helpful, but that is not the case here. While on the surface the Pope’s message seems agreeable, a quick excavation below the surface reveals that his is an altogether different message. Francis himself informs the Church how the Catholic faithful should bear witness to the love of Christ. “They will do this…by cultivating communion and simplicity of life, by being close to the people and caring for them, and by bringing Jesus to them by the examples of their lives.”

These are admirable, biblical, and godly activities, and the church must practice them. The risk, however, is leaving out key components and the Gospel remaining incomplete. None of these activities inherently require a confrontation with sin, condemnation, and judgement. None are a call to repentance. None are a rejection of one way of life in favor of another one. None of them require renouncing idols and replacing them with the living God of the Bible. That requires Gospel intentionality. Now the skeptic might say at this point, “You are jumping to conclusions. Just because what you say was not explicitly mentioned does not mean they are not part of the Pope’s theological vision when he speaks of those activities.” That is a fair point, and there is no desire to jump to inaccurate conclusions. The observations above, however, are far from unwarranted. Indeed, they follow a long and consistent pattern of Pope Francis’s clearly articulated theology that does not include sin and that is different from the gospel as defined by Scripture.

Here is Pope Francis in his own words during an interreligious meeting in Mongolia. He begins his address with these words: “Good morning to all of you, dear brothers and sisters! Allow me to address you in this way, as a brother in faith to those who believe in Christ, and as a brother to all of you in the name of our shared religious quest and our membership in the one human family. In terms of that religious quest, humanity can be compared to a band of wayfarers treading the earth with eyes lifted to heaven. A traveler from afar once observed that here in Mongolia he saw ‘nothing but the sky and earth.’ Here indeed, the sky, so clear and blue, embraces these vast and imposing lands, as if to remind us of the two essential aspects of human life: the earthly, made up of our relationships with others, and the heavenly, consisting in our quest for the transcendent Other. Mongolia thus reminds all of us, as pilgrims and wayfarers, to lift our gaze on high in order to discern which path to follow on our journey here below.”

This is a perfect summary of Pope Francis’s most recent encyclical Fratelli tutti (All Brothers). We are all brothers and sisters, all on a quest for the transcendent Other, all discerning which path we want to follow. Because we are all brothers and sisters, and because we are all on a similar quest, there is no need to call attention to sin and error. Talk of condemnation and judgement have no place. Instead, we are to embrace and draw near to one another and help each other along as we journey on this quest for the transcendent Other. The paths we choose may be different, but they are also all the same.

This is cause for reflection. Considering the Pope’s above-stated words, how do we make sense of his previous calls to “taste and see that the Lord is good,” and to “bear witness to Christ,” and to “proclaim the gospel”? It should be further noted that at the same interreligious meeting Pope Francis declared that altruism (concern for the well-being and happiness of others) and harmony are the paths that should be pursued, while fundamentalism destroys fraternity and fuels tension. For Francis fundamentalism is synonymous with theological conviction and doctrinal clarity.

Evangelicals must not fall into the trap of believing that altruism is an antonym of theological conviction and clarity. That is certainly not the case. In fact, the Gospel of Jesus Christ suggests that true altruism is best expressed in the faithful proclamation of the biblical Gospel, especially the parts of it that offend fallen human nature. If the proclamation of the Gospel according to Francis is affirming the innate fraternity of mankind and traveling together in our quest for the transcendent Other and choosing our own path, then the Evangelical church should take note of this and realize that the Roman Catholic Gospel is an altogether different one than that which the Bible proclaims and that the church has been tasked to preach.

“May the prayers we raise to heaven and the fraternity we experience here on earth spread seeds of hope. May they be a simple and credible testimony to our religiosity, our walking together with eyes lifted to heaven, our living in this world in harmony…” With these words Pope Francis concluded his interreligious speech in Mongolia. It is not important who you raise your prayers to, just that they are raised and that they spread seeds of hope and that we walk together, affirming and embracing one another in harmony. You choose your path, I’ll choose mine. In light of this the Evangelical church must ask itself: Is this what it means to proclaim the Gospel? Is this what it means to bear witness to Christ and his love? Is this what it means to taste and see that the Lord is good? Is this the Good News? God’s Word suggests otherwise. May the Evangelical church take note of this and hold fast to the biblical Gospel, preaching and proclaiming it faithfully. Altruism, peace, and harmony are not enemies of the biblical Gospel. They are fruits of it.