In 2019 the controversial Abu Dhabi document asserted that God wills “the pluralism and the diversity of religions” in apparently the same sense that He wills a plurality of races and sexes. It was Bishop Athanasius Schneider from Kazakhstan who secured from Pope Francis an informal clarification, when the pontiff verbally conceded that God’s willing of a plurality of religions is merely permissive. There is a strange poetry, therefore, to the fact that, this month, a renewed statement on the same topic was issued by the Pope together with leaders of other world religions in Kazakhstan itself.
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Pope Francis, the Permission of Evil, and the “Right to Heaven”: Bishop Athanasius Schneider Takes Stock
Diane Montagna

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