By Robert Royal

A sometimes-tart critic of this site - a self-described atheist who reads this page regularly for reasons unknown - came to the defense of Pope Francis' recent remarks in Singapore about all religions being a path to God (in the original Italian, Tutte le religioni sono un cammino per arrivare a Dio): "Even as an atheist I have to feel sorry for him. . . .He can't get away with anything without the reactionary storm." St.

John Paul II, she reminded TCT, said, "Everybody that is just is called to form part of the Kingdom of Heaven - whether they be Buddhists, Jews, or Atheists - as long as they are good."

She continued, in a somewhat less gracious vein: "He got away with that completely. . . .I was really fond of him, but I guess he was just another jerk who didn't understand church doctrine and of course there was no Papal Posse then. . . .He also said. . . .Hell is not a place. . . .that caused some stir but not the mass hysteria that follows any little thing Francis says."

I'm not quite sure that there is something people call a "frenemy," i.e., someone who, paradoxically, is a friend by sharply attacking. But if so, she might qualify. Because some questions - we might even call them dubia - about critical reactions to Pope Francis are duly formulated here and, in a way, call for an answer. And it's almost always good when we're challenged to think more deeply, more justly, more charitably if we are friends - to the truth.

The first thing that might be said about that moment in Singapore is a dubia: Is that correct?

Even a non-Catholic following a different faith might ask: Hey, wait just a minute. What you Catholics believe is idolatrous and false, which is why I'm a Lutheran, or Mormon, or Orthodox Jew, or Muslim. Who says I belong to just one of many paths to God? The paths you and others follow seem to me to be to the Devil or, at least, a delusion. We may agree to tolerate one another in public, but I'm quite happy not to think everyone in every religion is going the right way.

How about the Canaanites? The Aztecs? The post-modern Satanists?

Some Catholic heads rightly exploded over this textbook instance of a false universalism - and pronounced by the Pope of Rome. Francis has done this many times already. He states a sentimental hope that everyone can "just get along." And could even have saved the day with the simple qualifier: "We hope that all those in every religion will follow the path to the fullness of truth in Jesus Christ. In the meantime, we seek to help one another towards - and not kill one another over - that Truth."

A small adjustment that would both have urged the world to peace - while affirming the true universal religion, which the pope heads.

Words matter. Concepts matter. Yes, "reality is greater than ideas," per Francis, but false ideas obscure reality. As the words our atheist reader quoted make plain, John Paul II said that members of other religions and atheists are called to be part of the Kingdom of Heaven. As are we all. He didn't say that Buddhists and Jews and Atheists are each following a path to the same place. Paths also diverge.

The reason that many Catholics don't let Pope Francis "get away with" reckless remarks is that, over a dozen years, now this sentimental part of his papacy logically contradicts his more Catholic teachings.

He has, for example, made clear - in more stark language than any previous pope - that abortion is like "hiring a hitman to solve a problem" (his very words). And so, any Catholic or person of goodwill, trying to draw some logical consistency out of his words, would have to think that politicians who blithely promote abortion, some even claiming to be Catholic, are for him like mafia dons putting out a contract on someone.

Yet in the press conference on the plane returning from the Far East - regular events now that traditional Catholics dread and progressives (Catholic and not) look forward to - he created out of thin air a moral equivale...