Pope Francis and the Act of Faith of St. Francis Xavier
by Roberto de Mattei
Among the most serious errors prevalent today, even in Catholic circles, is the one according to which all religions are equivalent because they all worship one God. This error is most serious because it denies, at its root, the intrinsic truth of the Catholic Church. Unfortunately, Pope Francis' statements at the Catholic Junior College in Singapore last September 13, 2024, are along these lines and, with all due respect to the Pope, are objectively scandalous.
The official Vatican account quotes verbatim these phrases from Francis: "All religions are a path to get to God. They are - I make a comparison - like different languages, different idioms, to get there. But God is God for all. And because God is God for everyone, we are all God's children. "But my God is more important than yours!" Is this true? There is only one God, and we, our religions are languages, paths to get to God. Some Sikh, some Muslim, some Hindu, some Christian, but they are different paths. Understood?" Understood?
Our answer is immediate: no, Holy Father, we have not understood and cannot understand it. Our religion and also the history of the Society of Jesus, to which you belong, teach us otherwise.
The diocese of Singapore, where you made these statements, has a distinguished Jesuit founder, St. Francis Xavier, who arrived in Malacca, the ancient name of the area, in 1545. In 1558 the territory was elevated to a diocese, suffragan of Goa, India.
Francis Xavier was born to noble parents in 1506 in Navarre, studied at the University of Paris, where he had Ignatius of Loyola as his roommate, who transformed the young man from a model student to a champion of the Gospel. On June 24, 1537, he was ordained a priest, and, in the spring of 1539, he was among the first founders of the Society of Jesus. The following year, when King John III of Portugal requested missionaries for the Portuguese colonies, he was sent to India by the Pope with the title of "Apostolic Nuncio."
Arriving in Goa in 1542, after a long and troubled journey, he went for two years from village to village, on foot or on uncomfortable boats. exposed to a thousand dangers, baptizing, founding churches and schools, converting thousands of inhabitants, hailed everywhere as a saint and a miracle-worker. In 1549, he left Goa for Japan, where he planted the seeds of the Catholic faith. On April 17, 1552, he embarked to carry out his final project: to take the Gospel to China. During the adventurous voyage he landed on the island of Sanciano (Shangchuan), a refuge for pirates and smugglers, where he fell ill with pneumonia, and deprived as he was of all care he died in a hut on Dec. 3 of that year, after having repeated several times, : "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! O Virgin, Mother of God, remember me!"
His body two years later was transported intact, first to Malacca and then to Goa, where it is venerated in the Church of the Good Jesus. The Church of the Gesù in Rome preserves one of his arms, removed in order to be venerated next to the tomb of St. Ignatius. He was beatified in 1619 by Paul V and canonized in 1622 by Gregory XV. The Church set his liturgical feast on Dec. 3 and proclaimed him patron of the Missions.
St. Francis Xavier translated into lived Christianity the words Jesus addressed to the Apostles, "Go into all the world, preach the Gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved: but whoever does not believe will be condemned" (Mt. 16:16). Our Lord's words are clear: there is, ordinarily, no salvation outside the name of Christ. It is estimated that the missionary saint conferred baptism on some 40,000 pagans, opening to them the gates of Paradise.
In a famous letter dated Jan. 15, 1544, St. Francis Xavier writes from Goa: "Since I arrived here, I have not stopped for a moment; I assiduously travel through the villages, administering baptism to children who have not yet received it. Thus I saved a very large number of children, who, as they say, could not distinguish right from left. The children then let me neither say the divine office, nor take food, nor rest until I taught them some prayers; then I began to understand that to them belongs the Kingdom of Heaven (...) a great many in these places do not now become Christians merely because they lack those who make them Christians. Very often it comes to my mind to go through the Universities of Europe, especially that of Paris, and to start shouting here and there like a madman and shaking those who have more science than charity with these words: alas what a great number of souls, because of you, are excluded from heaven and cast into hell! Oh! If they, as they occupy themselves with letters, also gave thought to this, that they might give an account to God of the science and talents they have received! Verily, a great many of them, troubled at this thought, giving themselves to meditation on divine things, would dispose themselves to listen to what the Lord says to their hearts, and putting aside their lusts and human affairs, they would put themselves totally at the disposal of God's will. They would certainly cry out from the bottom of their hearts, 'Lord here I am; what do you want me to do? Send me wherever you want, maybe even to India'.”
St. Francis Xavier also left us an “Act of Faith” that deserves to be recited on our knees and deeply meditated upon in these confusing times:
“I believe, with all my heart, all that the Holy Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church commands me to believe of You, O my God! One God in three persons.
I believe all that the Church believes and teaches regarding the eternal Son of the Father, God like Him, and who, for my sake, became man, suffered, died, rose again and reigns in heaven with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
I finally believe all that the holy Church, our mother, commands me to believe. I have a firm resolve to lose everything, to suffer everything, to give my blood and my life, rather than to give up a single point of my faith, in which I want to live and die.
When my last hour comes, my cold mouth may not be able to renew the expression of my faith; but I confess, as of now, for the moment of my death, that I acknowledge You, O Jesus Savior! as the Son of God. I believe in You, I dedicate to You my heart, my soul, my life, my whole self. Amen.”
