Did Pope Francis call Satanism a pathway to God?!

Dr. Adrian Wong

3 weeks ago

Did Pope Francis call Satanism a pathway to God?!

Did Pope Francis call Satanism a valid pathway to a relationship with God?! Take a look at the viral claim, and find out what the facts really are!

Claim : Pope Francis called Satanism a pathway to God!

People are sharing an article (archive) by The People’s Voice (formerly NewsPunch), which claims that Pope Francis called Satanism a valid pathway to a relationship with God!

Here is an excerpt of the (intentionally?) rambling and confusing article. Feel free to skip to the next section for the facts!

Pope Francis: ‘Satanism Is a Valid Pathway to God’

Pope Francis has declared that worshiping Satan is a valid pathway to having a relationship with God.

According to Francis, “every religion is a way to arrive at God”, including Satanism and Paganism.

Addressing an inter-religious meeting of young people in Singapore just before departing for his return flight to Rome, Francis turned to one of the central themes of his pontificate – inter-religious dialogue.

“One of the things that struck me about all of you here is your ability to engage in inter-religious dialogue, and this is very important,” he told the crowd, assembled in Singapore’s Catholic Junior College.

Leaving aside his prepared speech and speaking largely off the cuff, Francis instead spoke chiefly on dialogue between religions, having just taken questions from a Catholic, a Sikh, and a Hindu.

The meeting’s widely varied mix of creeds represents Singapore’s status as one of the most diverse religious nations in the world. Focusing on this, Francis urged that no religion be given priority but that individuals instead focus on parity between beliefs

He closed the meeting by calling on all present to “pray for each other” in silence. The Pope did not give a formal blessing – echoing his actions in Indonesia – but instead vocally called for God’s blessings on those present

Pope Francis has made numerous inter-religious statements and collaborated in formal documents on the matter – notably the controversial 2019 Abu Dhabi document and the Istiqlal Declaration, signed just days ago in Indonesia. The Abu Dhabi text has been described as seeking to “overturn the doctrine of the Gospel” due to its promotion of equality of religions in a form of “fraternity.”

However, the Catholic Church teaches clearly that it is the only true Church, the Body of Christ (Eph 1:22), and it exercises the charge given by Christ to spread the Gospel to all nations and to bring souls into the Church. (Mark 16)

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Truth : Pope Francis did not call Satanism a pathway to God!

This appears to be yet another example of fake news created / promoted by The People’s Voice, and here are the reasons why…

Pope Francis did not call Satanism a pathway to God

Let me start by simply pointing out that Pope Francis never said or declared that Satanism, or worshipping Satan, is a pathway to God.

If that actually happened, it would have been reported widely by news outlets all over the world, as well as religious websites. It would also have sparked outrage and criticised widely by Christians. Yet, none of that happened, because it was all made up!

The truth is Pope Francis only declared that “every religion is a way to arrive at God” on Friday, 13 September 2024 during his visit to Singapore.

Every religion is a way to arrive at God. There are different languages to arrive at God but God is God for all. But my God is more important than your god, is that true? There is only 1 God & each of has a language to arrive at God. Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, they are different paths.

Unsurprisingly, The People’s Voice article itself did not provide any evidence to back up its shocking claim. In fact, the words “Satan” or “Satanism” is only mentioned in its title and the first two sentences, but nowhere else in the very long article!

Pope Francis never had inter-religious dialogue with Satanists

This isn’t the first time Pope Francis has attempted to improve the Catholic Church’s relationship with other religions through inter-religious dialogue.

In February 2019, he even signed a peace declaration on “Human fraternity” with Ahmed el-Tayeb, Grand Imam of al-Azhar, during inter-religious meeting in Abu Dhabi.

While Pope Francis has had inter-religious dialogues with leaders of major religions like Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Protestant and Orthodox Christianity, as well as indigenous religions, he has never had inter-religious dialogue with Satanists.

The People’s Voice is known for fake news

The People’s Voice is the current name for NewsPunch, which possibly changed its name because its brand has been so thoroughly discredited after posting numerous shocking but fake stories.

Founded as Your News Wire in 2014, it was rebranded as NewsPunch in November 2018, before becoming The People’s Voice. A 2017 BuzzFeed report identified NewsPunch as the second-largest source of popular fake news on Facebook that year.

Its articles have been regularly debunked as fake news, so you should think twice about sharing anything from NewsPunch / The People’s Voice. Here are some of its fake stories that I fact checked earlier:

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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