Has The Pope Abandoned Christ’s Great Commission?

"Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.'"
Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV)

In recent remarks on Islam during an official visit to Algeria’s Grand Mosque of Algiers where he used the word “communion” to define ties between Christians and Muslims under the “maternal love” of Mary, a link which is vehemently rejected by the Quran by the way, Pope Leo XIV left many Christians believing that he has abandoned Christ’s Great Commission to “make disciples of all nations” in favor of the suicidal empathy of interfaith dialogue.

Indeed, it appears the Catholic Church under Pope Leo XIV now prioritizes interreligious dialogue alone at the expense of evangelization, and Muslims will use this “to project an image of tolerance,” noted the European Centre for Law and Justice.

The irony of the Pope’s remarks, coming as they did in a place, Algeria, where Islam is the state religion, but which was once a center of Christian thought and teaching, see St. Augustine of Hippo, that was conquered by Muslims, who promptly extirpated Christianity from their new realm, is too rich not to note.

This Pope Leo seems to never have been taught about his predecessor, Pope Leo IV, who literally created Vatican City after a Muslim raid against Rome that took place in 846.

Muslim raiders (Saracens) plundered the outskirts of the city of Rome, sacking the basilicas of Old St Peter's and St Paul's-Outside-the-Walls, but were prevented from entering the city itself by the Aurelian Walls.

Pope Leo IV began the Leonine Wall on the right bank of the Tiber, in order to protect the Church of St. Peter from Muslims. The territory enclosed by the wall, defended by Castel Sant'Angelo, was named the Leonine City after the pope, and was considered a separate town with popes formerly maintaining a residence in the Castel.

The walls around the Vatican built 1200 years ago were literally built to protect the Vatican from invasions by Muslim armies.

One of the richest parts of the irony is that while this Pope Leo has dedicated a room in the Vatican to Muslim prayers, Pope Leo IV organized a Christian coalition to defend Rome and expel the Muslims who were occupying parts of Italy. That coalition won the Battle of Ostia, one of the most famous in the history of the Papacy of the Middle Ages. That Chrisitan victory is celebrated in a famous fresco by Raphael and his pupils in rooms of the Vatican Palace in the Vatican City.

The ignorance of Pope Leo XIV about the history and the true dark nature of Islamic conquests is truly frightening to Christians of all denominations who look to the Pope as a universal advocate for the Christian faith.

Ignoring the direct teachings of Islam, as expressed in the Quran and other authorities, the current Pope actively aligns the Church with Islam, promoting interfaith initiatives that blur sacred doctrine, prioritizing dialogue with Muslim leaders over boldly defending core Christian teachings, and softening the Church’s voice in the face of the hostile Islamic invasion of Christian countries.

And this dialogue and interfaith initiative have produced zero reciprocity from Muslims.

Where is the Muslim leader or partner in dialogue who has decried the kidnapping and murder of Christians in Nigeria or Syria? Where is the Muslim leader who has asked for the release of the Christian girls in Nigeria who have been kidnapped and made sex slaves?

No matter how much “interfaith dialogue” in which Pope Leo XIV engages, no Muslim leader will join such a request because sex slavery of girls obtained as spoils of war is expressly provided in the Quran.

It is not just allowed, it is expressly made part of the deal as compensation to Allah’s warriors.

But maybe we shouldn’t blame Pope Leo XIV too much, popes have fallen for these delusions about Islam for decades:

•        Vatican II declared Muslims “adore the one God” and called for unity.
•        Pope John Paul II kissed the Quran and prayed in mosques.
•        The current Pope Leo XIV’s immediate predecessor Pope Francis aggressively pushed strengthening Catholic-Muslim relations through dialogue, high-profile visits to Muslim-  majority nations (UAE, Iraq), and engagement with Muslim leaders, such as the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar.
•        Pope Leo XIV now proposes uniting with Muslims: praising Christian-Muslim “fraternity,” calling for religions to “coexist and promote peace,” urging the West to be “less fearful” of Islam, and pushing dialogue as a “way of life.”

All while Christians are being slaughtered in Muslim nations — Nigeria, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, and beyond.

This isn’t peace. It’s deception, and another Pope Leo, in this case Pope Leo XIII understood this and spoke of it clearly:
 
It often looks like Islam, on the march with all the power and arrogance of Satan, is winning because Christian leaders fail to “serve God and His only begotten Son with their whole mind and with an entire will,” failing to stand unapologetically for truth, tradition, and the uncompromising defense of Christianity.

Popes Leo IV and Leo XIII understood the spiritual battle we are truly in and they never diluted the faith or sought false unity by compromising with Islam. The current Pope Leo XIV is regrettably ignoring the incompatibility of Islam with Christianity that they understood. We urge our current Pope to turn away from the path he is now on and to reject the ideology of empathetic civilizational self-destruction in favor of standing unapologetically for truth, tradition, and the uncompromising defense of Christianity.

CHQ Editor George Rasley is a member of American MENSA, an ordained Elder of the Presbyterian Church and a member of Faith Leaders for America. The views expressed in this column are his own and not necessarily the views of any denomination, congregation or organization with which he has been affiliated.