The Great Decommission

World Youth Day is Not About Winning Converts: Organiser

The Catholic Bishop heading up World Youth Day has said he does not want to convert young people to Christianity.

I guess World Youth Day will just be a hippie festival paid for by the Catholic Church.

It certainly raises the question, what exactly is the church for, if not to covert people?

Bishop Americo Aguilar told Portugal radio on July 6 …

“We don’t want to convert the young people to Christ or to the Catholic Church or anything like that at all.”

He said the purpose of World Youth Day was to get young people together while “respecting their diversity”.

“We want it to be normal for a young Catholic Christian to say and bear witness to who he is or for a young Muslim, Jew, or of another religion to also have no problem saying who he is and bearing witness to it, and for a young person who has no religion to feel welcome and to perhaps not feel strange for thinking in a different way.”

So diverse.

So inclusive.

So pointless.

If being a Catholic is just as good as being a Muslim or being a Jew or being an atheist, what then is the point of being a Catholic at all?

Me: I’m a part of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. But I somethings I think maybe I should become a Christian.

Bishop Americo Aguilar: Why? You’re good.”

I might consider converting to Islam if a Muslim convinced me it was the only way I could live forever. But I would certainly not consider conversion to Islam if a Muslim shrugged and told me: “Meh. Do what you want, none of it matters.”

If Jesus is not a real person who actually lived and died and rose again, but is, rather, a mere social construct; and if Jesus is not the sole way to salvation which, evidently can now be achieved through ‘social justice’, then what is the point of any of it?

If you believe your religion you should want to covert me. That you don’t care to convince me means that you don’t really believe your religion is necessary; or that you don’t really care about me.

Bishop Aguilar has turned himself into no more than a guy in a dress with zero to say, zero to add and zero to contribute beyond the zombie-like chant of “diversity is our strength”.

World Youth Day will be held in Lisbon in August. It was instituted by Pope John Paul II in 1985 and has, until now, been an opportunity for young people from all over the world to discover Jesus and commit to following him.

But not any more.

Bishop Americo Aguilar wants it to be all about appreciating difference.

The problem is that you can appreciate difference so much you end up going full circle and denying that any real difference actually exists.

Sure Christians and Muslims and atheists are different, but if none of it matters then it’s all the same.

“All religions are basically the same” is the confession of someone who has appreciated all the critical thinking out of their brain.

There are different approaches to evangelism but preaching that your religion doesn't matter is surely not one of them.

I challenge anyone to find a saint, a martyr or an apostle who spoke such nonsense as Bishop Aguilar.

I guess he knows better than Jesus Christ, who quite famously said: "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you."

The Bishop, soon to be made a cardinal, has a new gospel.

‘Go, therefore and appreciate the difference of all religions, affirming them in the name of diversity, inclusivity and equity, teaching them that nothing I have commanded you should be necessarily observed by them’.