Pope urged to avoid 'supermarket of religions' in Kazakhstan

Pope Francis is warning Kazakhstan’s bishops against fueling nostalgia for the past

Pope Francis warned Kazakhstan's bishops on Thursday against fueling nostalgia for the past, as one of his traditionalist critics here did just that by suggesting that Francis’ participation in an interfaith conference could imply papal endorsement of a “supermarket of religions.”

The warning from Bishop Athenasius Schneider, auxiliary bishop of Astana, was perhaps to be expected, given he is one of Pope Francis' most vocal critics, regularly calling out what he considers to be Mr. Francis' doctrinal ambiguities and overly progressive bent on issues such as homosexuality and interfaith outreach.

Mr. Francis began his third and final day in Kazakhstan by meeting with bishops, priests and nuns in the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cathedral in the capital Nur-Sultan. Later Thursday he was to give a concluding address to a government-sponsored interfaith gathering that was expected to insist that religion must never be used to justify war — a call that was coming against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Catholics in Kazakhstan number around 125,000 in the country of 19 million, the majority of whom are Muslim or Orthodox Christian. On Thursday, Mr. Francis urged his priests and bishops to find grace in the church’s small size and not be fixated on rigid rules and regulations or nostalgia for the church's past tradition.

“The faith was not passed down from generation to generation as a set of ideas to be understood and followed, as a fixed and timeless code,” Mr. Francis said. Because of the church's small size, she needs people of other faiths, he said.

“May we realize, in a spirit of humility, that only together in dialogue and mutual acceptance, can we truly achieve something good for the benefit of all. That is the special task of the church in this country: not to be a group bogged down in the same old way of doing things, or withdrawn into its shell since it feels small, but a community open to God’s future.”

In the audience was Bishop Schneider, who has joined other traditionalist and conservative cardinals and bishops in criticizing several of Francis’ signature gestures and what they say is his doctrinal ambiguities on issues such as divorce and remarriage, homosexuality and interfaith relations.