Blessed Pope John Paul II and Universal Salvation

[Marc_Anthony]

Let me start out by saying I absolutely love Blessed Pope John Paul II. I admire his remarkable efforts at evangelization and his sincere enthusiasm in improving the Church after Vatican II. His role in ending communism and his bravery and heroism during the second World War are also things I love very much about Blessed Pope John Paul II.

But I’ve been doing some research on him (related to another thread on the salvation of Judas) and it seems to me like the Holy Father might believe in universal salvation, or at least the possibility. But this is a heresy, is it not?

When I looked it up, I found a lot of quotes by him on it and they certainly seem to point to the idea that he believed in the possibility of universal salvation.

Is his theology defensible? Is universal salvation undoubtedly heretical? Did the Holy Father actually believe this heresy, if it is a heresy? What does this mean about him or about the teachings of the Church and her guardianship of the truth?

I’ll give you some quotes by Blessed Pope John Paul II:

First, here’s a link to a long list: romancatholicism.org/jpii-quotes.htm

Here’s a link by a site called tentmaker that says the Catholic Church has believed in universal salvation since Vatican II: tentmaker.org/articles/universal_salvation_roman_catholic.html

A site that talks about the beliefs of Blessed Pope John Paull II: traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/a031htPerplexing_Remi.htm

Some direct quotes:

“Christ, Redeemer of man, now for ever “clad in a robe dipped in blood” (Apoc, 19,13), the everlasting, invincible guarantee of universal salvation.” (Message Of John Paul II To The Abbess General Of The Order Of The Most Holy Saviour Of St Bridget)

“This affirmation of the Savior’s “uniqueness” derives from the Lord’s own words. He stated that he came “to give his own life in ransom for the many” (Mk 10:45), that is, for humanity, as St. Paul explains when he writes: “One died for all” (2 Cor 5:14; cf. Rom 5:18). Christ won universal salvation with the gift of his own life.

“From the death of Christ new life flowers, memory and message of an undying hope: universal salvation.” (Stations Of The Cross At The Colosseum In The Presence Of His Holiness Pope John Paul II, Good Friday 2002)

…All of this strikes me as troubling. But Pope John Paul II is a Blessed. So are we misinterpreting things? I have no problem with him being very optimistic, but I always thought that absolute universal salvation was something Catholics could not believe; there must be at least one human being in Hell. Is this correct? Is this what Pope John Paul II is saying, or is he being misinterpreted?

This should prove to be a fruitful and interesting discussion.

 

[peace2u2]

Let me start out by saying I absolutely love Blessed Pope John Paul II. I admire his remarkable efforts at evangelization and his sincere enthusiasm in improving the Church after Vatican II. His role in ending communism and his bravery and heroism during the second World War are also things I love very much about Blessed Pope John Paul II.

But I’ve been doing some research on him (related to another thread on the salvation of Judas) and it seems to me like the Holy Father might believe in universal salvation, or at least the possibility. But this is a heresy, is it not?

When I looked it up, I found a lot of quotes by him on it and they certainly seem to point to the idea that he believed in the possibility of universal salvation.

Is his theology defensible? Is universal salvation undoubtedly heretical? Did the Holy Father actually believe this heresy, if it is a heresy? What does this mean about him or about the teachings of the Church and her guardianship of the truth?

I’ll give you some quotes by Blessed Pope John Paul II:

First, here’s a link to a long list: romancatholicism.org/jpii-quotes.htm

Here’s a link by a site called tentmaker that says the Catholic Church has believed in universal salvation since Vatican II: tentmaker.org/articles/universal_salvation_roman_catholic.html

A site that talks about the beliefs of Blessed Pope John Paull II: traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/a031htPerplexing_Remi.htm

Some direct quotes:

“Christ, Redeemer of man, now for ever “clad in a robe dipped in blood” (Apoc, 19,13), the everlasting, invincible guarantee of universal salvation.” (Message Of John Paul II To The Abbess General Of The Order Of The Most Holy Saviour Of St Bridget)

“This affirmation of the Savior’s “uniqueness” derives from the Lord’s own words. He stated that he came “to give his own life in ransom for the many” (Mk 10:45), that is, for humanity, as St. Paul explains when he writes: “One died for all” (2 Cor 5:14; cf. Rom 5:18). Christ won universal salvation with the gift of his own life.

“From the death of Christ new life flowers, memory and message of an undying hope: universal salvation.” (Stations Of The Cross At The Colosseum In The Presence Of His Holiness Pope John Paul II, Good Friday 2002)

…All of this strikes me as troubling. But Pope John Paul II is a Blessed. So are we misinterpreting things? I have no problem with him being very optimistic, but I always thought that absolute universal salvation was something Catholics could not believe; there must be at least one human being in Hell. Is this correct? Is this what Pope John Paul II is saying, or is he being misinterpreted?

This should prove to be a fruitful and interesting discussion.

I have to admit that I didn’t go through and read all the links that you provided, but in trying to understand your question regarding absolute universal salvation this is what I understand it to mean:

The Catholic Church teaches and probably what Blessed John Paul II implied is that Jesus did (absolutely) die for all people (universal) not just the Christian, but the Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, and even the atheist but that salvation is contingent upon what you do with that free gift. So therefore what is the state of your soul when you die.

We know that yes Jesus came to save not condemn and God desires for everyone to be saved, but we know from Sacred Scripture that there is a place called hell for those who reject God, Jesus and His Holy Spirit and that free gift of salvation.

A good reason to pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to transform the hearts of those who don’t believe and lead them with contrite hearts to repentance and conversion!

 

[Marc_Anthony]

Is it me or were a lot of replies randomly deleted?

 

[Dom_Desiderius]

"As Pope he repeated this in his encyclical Ut unum sint and spoke often of the possibility of the universal salvation of all men. "

I am uncertain that there is anything that can be pinned on John Paul II that unequivocably shows him to believe in “Universal Salvation”. There is on the other hand no question that he did emphasizing a very compassionate, some would say “overly compassionate” view toward fallen man, a view that was a bit “trendy” at the time. His participation in the Assissi gathering and ecumenical events , once again a trend of that time period, had much to do with why some have made this criticism of him.

I think it is a valid criticism, but shouldnt be taken too far to the “feeneyite” position either. It’s not as if there was much talk of the fires of hell and the great judgement on the last day during the 70’s. Even now this important Church teaching is not mentioned as much as it should be. We don’t need to be overly fearful of it , but we ought to certainly have awareness of it for helping form our consciences.

“The way to God lies through love of other people, and there is no other way. At the Last Judgement I shall not be asked if I was successful in my ascetic exercises or how many prostrations I made in the course of my prayers. I shall be asked, did I feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and the prisoners: that is all I shall be asked.”

Given the amount of rebellion going on in the 70’s and 80’s perhaps the only way to deal with it was with compassion. That’s not to say that John Paul II in some sense wasnt himself part of the rebellion, as some would see it, that is he retained the status quo of the newer ideas “newer mass” of the time…he kept out the worst developments, but he didnt turn the clock backward as far as many of us would like either. (Back to how things were before 1965)

I myself believe that salvation is open to all people who are within the church, and I recognize that the bounds of the Church are not necessarily visible to us all. If responses to the question were deleted it may be because they were overly polemical or uncharitable. This is a controversal question amongst some people.

At the end of the day a Pope is still able to believe in certain errors and be a Pope.
I wouldn’t worry too much about it, this idea is a trend of the past. We all fall short in some way.

 

[Linusthe2nd]

This should prove to be a fruitful and interesting discussion.

A complete missreading of the Pope. His constant emphasis on " universal salvation " was his way of instilling hope in a generation lacking in hope - and that certainly includes our own, perhaps even more so. Of course God’s plan was for universal salvation but man, in his freedom and weakness, can destroy that plan. John Paul never taught that all men would be saved, that cannot be maintained by what you posted. Let us just say that it was his fondest hope just as it was Christ’s. But we still have to run the race, for if we don’t then there certainly will be no " universal salvation. " In other words, anyone can loose their souls and anyone can be saved - it depends on how well we run the race. But John Paul wanted to give us hope so we would at least start running!!