Did Pope Francis Deny Christ's Divinity?

By David Martin

The pope’s favorite interviewer has gone on record as saying that Francis denies the divinity of Christ. Italian journalist Eugenio Scalfari said on Wednesday that the pope told him that Jesus of Nazareth “was not God at all.”

In the October 9 issue of La Repubblica, Scalfari wrote: “Those who have had the chance, as I have had different times, to meet him [Pope Francis] and speak to him with the greatest cultural confidence, know that Pope Francis conceives Christ as Jesus of Nazareth, a man, not God incarnate. Once incarnated, Jesus ceases to be a God and becomes a man until his death on the cross.”

Scalfari cites examples in Scripture where Christ prayed, including the account of his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, to support his thesis that Jesus Christ was not divine. He continues: “When I happened to discuss these phrases, Pope Francis told me: ‘They are the definite proof that Jesus of Nazareth, once he became a man, even if he was a man of exceptional virtue, was not God at all.’”

The Vatican press office has discouraged the report, opining that Scalfari’s account merely represents “a personal and free interpretation of what he has heard.” Even so, the Vatican has not been able to refute the report with any certitude. The fact that Francis has done nothing to disavow the report tends to give it credence.

If the report is true, then Francis has unofficially professed the heresy of Arianism, which says that Christ on earth was not God Himself, the Second Person of the Trinity by Whom “all things” were made (John 1: 3), but was just a mere man.

This inference is encouraged when we consider Francis’ ongoing slight of doctrine and his repeated efforts to dissuade Catholics from attempting to convert members of other religions. If Francis has no confidence in the One True Church that Christ left us, would it not indicate that it is Christ Himself Whom he lacks confidence in?

This apostate attitude is certainly reflected in the Amazonian Synod presently underway in Rome. According to Archbishop Viganò, 'Christ is absent' from the synod's working document. Cardinal Burke has described the Synod as “a direct attack on the Lordship of Christ.” The synod is all about bowing to “mother-earth” in defiance of the everlasting ordinance that we bow only to Christ the King on His throne, so Scalfari’s claim about Francis is not far-fetched.

If it is, the pope will publicly disavow this, but if he doesn’t we can only infer that he blesses Scalfari, just as he has blessed him in the past by granting him new interviews after Scalfari had publicly attributed to him outlandish statements that contravene doctrine. If this isn’t an endorsement of Scalfari’s work, what is?