VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) – The Vatican’s goal in engaging secular groups in issues of human development is not to provoke conversion or promote Catholicism, but to promote “common humanity,” declares a top cardinal categorically.
In a revealing interview with Vaticanist Edward Pentin, Cdl. Peter Appiah Turkson, Prefect of the Dicasty for the Advancement of Integral Human Development, affirms that “the Catholic faith as the only authentic means of human salvation” has not been discussed in any group because we recognize that it is a multi-religious group.
“The goal is not to provoke conversion in everyone, to bring someone to their faith. At least it is about the point of our common humanity, and how we can use the various institutions to promote it,” Turkson insists. On.
The Ghanaian Cardinal, considered papabile (eligible to be Pope) by Pentin in his book The Next Pope: The Leading Cardinal Candidates, states that his department testifies to Christ by presenting the social doctrine of the Church and by “expressing Christ incarnate.”
The Vatican is also working with secular bodies such as the Council for Inclusive Capitalism (CIC) to fulfill the mandate of dialogue with society “with all its problems and issues” expressed in Vatican II in the document The joy and hope, Turkson argues.
A ‘reset’ for Christ?
Pentin’s penetrating interview, published Wednesday, repeatedly and emphatically questions the Cardinal about the Church’s primary mission to “proclaim the gospel with Christ at the center” as “central to any plan to promote integral human development.”
The journalist stubbornly returns to the question of what Turkson’s dicaster is doing to ensure that “the Catholic faith is fully promoted and defended within the initiatives” of the Vatican meetings in Davos, the CIC, the United Nations and the World Economic Forum (WEF) – a body pushing the agenda of the “Great Reset”.
The goal is not to convert everyone, to bring someone to their faith.
There are a lot of people who talk about resetting the future, but the one thing everyone has in common is “that they see the current system as flawed” – a feature mostly exposed by the pandemic, Turkson notes. on.
Church Militant got a portion of the conversation with the Cardinal that was not included in the published interview, in which Pentin Turkson asks:
By not talking about Christ and putting Him clearly center stage, and instead talking generically about God and faith, you think a person could easily stray into supporting a pseudo-religion, what some call “ climate religion, ” or a pantheistic environmentalist religion some say this Great Reset Initiative represents?
Turkson responds:
A Vatican dicaster cannot promote pantheism. For example, in our treatise on ecology this was taken pantheistically when we described the earth as our common home. But that is far from the case, because when we referred to St. Francis of Assisi, who is the inspiration for all these ecological teachings of Pope Francis, St. Francis invited us to consider that we belong to a universal brotherhood because we all have the calling to praise God together.
“Creation cannot be a deity because deity cannot praise God,” notes Turkson, emphasizing that while “Davos talks about resetting the future, but without Pope Francis and without his religion, Pope Francis about resetting the future. the future rooted in Scripture, rooted in the grace of God, [and] rooted in Christ. “
Veiled communism?
The cardinal also rejects the charge of utopianism against Pope Francis and the charge that the Vatican’s new allies are promoting “communism under a different name” by calling it the “Great Reset.”
Fortune magazine interviews Cdl. Turkson in 2016
“I know for some [the pope’s vision is] a little socialist or whatever, but if we go back to the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles and how they lived, or even look at the book of Deuteronomy (chapter 5) and the anniversary celebration, that said there would be no poor in among you, this has been the biblical view from the beginning, ”Turkson states.
By not talking about Christ … do you think a person can easily drift into supporting a pseudo-religion, what some call “climate religion”?
Turkson does not quote Deuteronomy 15, which says, “For there will never cease to be poor in the land” – a text quoted by Jesus in the story of a woman who anoints him with very expensive perfume made of pure spikenard (Mark 14 : 7, Matthew 26:11, John 12: 8).
When Pentin pressures Turkson to respond to criticism of initiatives that “ put a lot of power in a very small group of people, who then impose a certain worldview on others, ” Turkson seems to dismiss the charge as a conspiracy theory – sort of formerly attributed to the “Illuminati”.
On the issue of the abolition of private property, discussed as one of the themes of the “Great Reset”, Turkson vaguely refers to St. Ambrose and St. John Chrysostom, who say “rich people have wealth so that they can serve the poor and so on. the poor will have a way of appreciating them for their help. “
The Cardinal also speaks of how the inventions of some inventors such as Edison and Einstein became “common property” and “universal property”.
The cardinal rejects the “trickle-down” economy and calls for “inclusive capitalism”, which he describes as people with wealth who decide to sit down more firmly when a newcomer comes in who has no wealth.
“So that’s what we should focus on, sitting tight to make room for other people,” Turkson confirms.
Davos is talking about resetting the future, but without Pope Francis and without his religion.
In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed the Cardinal President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (PCJP).
But in 2017, Pope Francis dissolved the PCJP and made Turkson the prefect of the new “super dicaster” to promote integral human development.
In 2020, Pope Francis appointed Turkson coordinator of a five-group Vatican task force to respond to the socio-economic impact of the coronavirus.
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