(LifeSiteNews) — I have been following Pope Francis’ 12-day tour of Asia and Oceania in La Prensa. It is admirable that the Pontiff should take on such a demanding task at almost 88 years of age. It does seem as if the entire Vatican was in tow, with doctors, nurses, and other employees attentive to Francis’ every need – there were plenty of servants to take turns pushing his wheelchair. I do not want to think about the exorbitant cost of this tour. (Will Soros pay?)

Something that spontaneously arose in my mind was a contrast to Jesus’ sending of the apostles: “go into all the world” (Mk. 16:15). In the original Greek, the emphasis is not so much on “go” (poreuthentes eis ton kosmon apanta) – which should be translated as “going into all the world…” – but on the action to be carried out, namely, what he is sending us for, which is to teach and to baptize (matheteusate panta ta ethne, baptizontes). The insistence is on the action of baptizing, i.e., making new Christians, repopulating the world with disciples of Jesus. The history of the Church has shown how the mandate has been fulfilled in every age: from the initial moments up to that plenary fulfillment of a Christian Empire which succeeded the Roman Empire. And the mandate to go out, teach, and baptize was also exercised in the New World, in America. Numerous Doctors of the Church have illustrated what it means to be Christian, the fruit of Jesus’ mandate, and have overcome errors and heresies, the accidental deformations that have not been able to obscure reality.

Francis’ tour began in Indonesia, where he urged dialogue with Islam and expressed his concern over climate change. He praised the “mutual respect for cultural, ethnic, linguistic, and religious particularities,” and he recommended young people to discuss these among themselves because it is something that “makes one grow.” The contradiction with an authentic Christian message was especially evident in his exhortation to resist extremism and intolerance: he asked the local clergy not to place their own faith “in opposition to that of others.”

One success in the midst of such horror: he denounced the “laws of death” that limit births and questioned why there are some families who prefer “to have a cat or a puppy rather than a child.” He pointed out the differences between the world and Indonesia, a country home to marriages that “instead have four or five children, which is good. Keep it up.” A considerable part of humanity lacks the means to have a dignified life and faces serious, growing social imbalances that trigger severe conflicts. The Pope said “this cannot be solved with a law restricting the birth rate,” which is already low in many countries, several of them in Europe.

READ: Bishop Eleganti: Pope Francis’ comments on other religions conceal Jesus and contradict the Gospel

Still in Indonesia, he participated in a meeting with the Scholas Occurrentes movement, which brought together 1,500 people. He declared that he wishes to implement interreligious dialogue and attended an ecumenical meeting in a mosque, because “if all things were the same it would be a bore” (how frivolous!).

In East Timor, according to La Prensa, the Pope received an enthusiastic welcome. There he praised the country’s recovery and made a veiled allusion to an abuse scandal.

Upon arriving in Papua New Guinea he exclaimed, “It’s amazing that I’m here.” This is a poor country with little infrastructure, where more than a thousand tribes live in jungle areas. There he was guided by Argentinean missionaries belonging to the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE). They are not well regarded by many in a progressive Argentina, yet they are requested by several episcopates since they work very well in evangelization – and the same is true for its female branch, the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará. Father Tomás Ravaioli, a 42-year-old porteño, son of my dear and always remembered friend Luis Aldo Ravaioli, father of a fruitful family and enthusiastic pro-life leader. Those who criticize and undermine the IVE should recognize its missionary spirit and service to the renewal of the Church.

The extensive tour of the Pope, preacher of ecumenism and ecological activist, ended in Singapore. He presided over a joyous event with young people, whom he urged to “make a mess,” and also a Mass at a stadium for 55,000 people. It is worth noting that Christians are barely three percent of Singapore’s population. The Pope did not dare to present Jesus Christ as universal Savior to whom we must adhere through faith.

I have intentionally presented the Pontiff’s journey as a tour, not a missionary trip. It is scandalous for this show of force and money to promote “interreligious dialogue and care for the Earth in the face of climate change” when people objectively need to be told about Sacred History, centered on the manifestation of God to Israel, and to be exhorted to recognize the Lord as true God and true man, as the Savior who gives meaning to what He does in the world by opening the gates of eternity.

The pontifical tour is a heterodox caricature of the apostolic journey of the Twelve. The face of the Church is thus altered – without even obtaining the admiration of the political world. It would be cheaper and healthier to stay home and teach the Catechism. This trip also contrasts with the apostolic journeys of St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI, which were truly apostolic, not tours.

+ Héctor Aguer
Archbishop Emeritus of La Plata

Buenos Aires, Thursday, September 19, 2024
Saint Januarius, Bishop and Martyr