"You're going to hell," my friend Greg Oswald told me when I was twelve. "Why?" I asked. "Because you're not a Catholic," he announced.
Greg's view is still shared by millions. But, Pope Francis isn't one of them. That is why many believe that his selection is a transcendent blessing.
"The Lord has redeemed all of us with the blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics," the new pope has declared. "Everyone!"
My backyard reading of this pope's views tells me that his understanding of Radical Loving Care runs deep. His particular message of tolerance is nothing short of revolutionary for a church that has long held that only Catholics enter heaven. Many other religions recruit members with the same strange promise – only our believers will be saved.
Suddenly, this pope says all are redeemed. 'Father, the atheists?' he was asked. "Even the atheists. Everyone!" he repeated firmly.
With one statement, Pope Francis began to redeem his church from centuries of religious bigotry.
If Christians are the only ones who enter paradise what about all the people in China who had never heard of Christianity? I wondered as a kid. Didn't you wonder the same?
Why is religious exclusiveness a problem? Hundreds of hospitals carry religious names signaling a loving mission. But in the past, that did not stop some from practicing discrimination.
Organized religion is a mixed blessing. It offers lovely communities of believers and a way to develop personal spirituatiality. But too many wars and too much persecution have offset many of the gifts that religion offers.
With a pope like Frances there would have been no need for Martin Luther to launch the Protestant Reformation. Back then, the Catholic Church made followers pay indulgences to get into heaven. (The "Protestant" name arose because Luther was protesting 16th Century Catholic practices.)
This pope would never have allowed the tortures of non-Catholics in the Middle Ages. Yet today, in many parts of the world, Muslims discriminate against Christians, Christians discriminate against Hindus and Buddhists in Southeast Asia are being imprisoned for their beliefs.
In later life Luther himself demonstrated hypocrasy by turning anti-Semitic. And Lutherans and Catholics did little to stop the rise of Nazism in the 1930s.
This past Saturday, November 9, marked the 75th anniversary of "Kristallnacht," the night when Nazi gangs burned Jewish establishments in Berlin and sent more than 30,000 Jews to concentration camps. Where were the so-called Christians as six million more were tortured and murdered in those camps?
Our beliefs may be fine for us but do we have the right to force them on others, to make the arrogant assumption that every other path is wrong? Doesn't this feed Love's nemeses – discrimination?
Radical Loving Care teaches tolerance. Caregivers love patients because every human, "even the atheists," carries the spark of the divine.
-Reverend Erie Chapman
Note: November 11 is Veterans Day in America. May we honor all of our veterans all year long.
Journal of Sacred Work 
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