One fellow Catholic responded, "There has to be some inclusion of the Holy Spirit winning people over with honey and His action that supersedes categorical narratives of religious belief, was not Paul won over both in his recognition of his own false belief but so too by the experience of respect received towards his own religion by the Christians he had killed? They did not argue with him but let him follow his conscience and themselves be killed in order that Christ would be revealed through a cry of forgiveness."
The following is my response:
It doesn't seem to me that St. Paul was won over at all by honey from the Holy Ghost...
Was not he knocked off of his horse, temporarily blinded and [rightly] accused of persecuting our Lord Jesus Christ?
"And falling on the ground, he heard a voice saying to him: Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" - Acts 9:4
Within the ministry of St. Paul, one must needs distinguish between his evangelizing to the gentiles (whose gods are all devils, Ps 94:5 & 1 Cor 10:20) and those who [ought to] know better (like the unbelieving Jews, Acts 14:2, Jn 8:44).
To the gentiles, who were blind in their paganism, St. Paul wrote, "Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are too superstitious.
For passing by, and seeing your idols, I found an altar also, on which was written: To the unknown God... we must not suppose the divinity to be like unto gold, or silver, or stone, the graving of art, and device of man.
And God indeed having winked at the times of this ignorance, now declareth unto men, that all should every where do penance." (Acts 17:22,29)
Again he exhorted those who would hear his word not to "walk not as also the Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind,
Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts." (Eph 4:7-8)
St. Paul was patient, kind, but firm in his directive that they abandon their paganism, idolotrous ways and be baptized and live.
As for the unbelieving, hypocritical Jews, we can refer to the language of our Lord, who described them bluntly and with veracity as snakes, brood of vipers and whited sepulchers.
St. Peter was no different, making it clear to the Jews that they were guilty of deicide: "Therefore let all the house of Israel know most certainly, that God hath made both Lord and Christ, this same Jesus, whom you have crucified." - Acts 2:36
All of this being said, there is a certain respect that is due to ancient and true Judaism insofar as it came from Almighty God...but, at the same time, the Old Covenant is abolished (Hebrews 8:13) and all things made new through the advent of the Messiah.
Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, Session 11, 1442
It firmly believes, professes and teaches that the legal prescriptions of the old Testament or the Mosaic law...once our lord Jesus Christ who was signified by them had come, came to an end and the sacraments of the new Testament had their beginning...it asserts that after the promulgation of the gospel they [Mosaic Laws] cannot be observed without loss of eternal salvation. Therefore it denounces all who after that time observe circumcision, the sabbath and other legal prescriptions as strangers to the faith of Christ and unable to share in eternal salvation, unless they recoil at some time from these errors...
So even to Judaism, no actual respect is owed to their religion as it is no longer valid. It is fulfilled, renewed, and abolished all at the same time.
From the above, it seems to me to be manifest that we owe no respect to false religions. All praise and thanksgiving is owed to Almighty God from whom all good things come, including and "seeds of the truth" (so called) in other faiths, but those seeds are in and of themselves insufficient to be of any merit to those who live them out. Only the life giving waters of Holy Baptism and the life giving sustenance of the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass are sufficient to unite us to the infinitely meritorious propitiation of Jesus Christ.
So in saying all of this, I must elaborate that the chief concern felt by both Stephen and myself is that we presently have a Supreme Shepherd, a Vicar of Christ who acts more in a way that would lead sheep to the slaughter than to verdant pastures.
His words and actions both condemn him, "Knowing that he, that is such an one, is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned by his own judgment." (Titus 3:11)
My challenge to you or to anyone who disagrees would be twofold:
1.) Read the encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis by St. Pius X and find a way to reconcile it with the post-conciliar theology
2.) Find some quotes/articles/homilies/etc. by Francis of him stating the necessity of being Catholic to be saved, which is an infallible dogma of the faith.
There are numerous, perhaps even seemingly infinite quotes from the 2000 year Magisterium and saints and doctors of the Church to clearly show that no respect is owed to false religions and that the Catholic faith is the only true faith, the one faith of Jesus Christ and the only one worthy of praise and admiration.
"Leo XIII, Custodi di Quella Fede, 1892, #15
Everyone should avoid familiarity or friendship with anyone suspected of belonging to masonry or to affiliated groups. Know them by their fruits and avoid them. Every familiarity should be avoided, not only with those impious libertines who openly promote the character of the sect, but also with those who hide under the mask of universal tolerance, respect for all religions...These men seek to reconcile Christ and Belial."
Pius VIII, Traditi Humilitati, 1829, #4
"Among these heresies belongs that foul contrivance of the sophists of this age who do not admit any difference among the different professions of faith and who think that the portal of eternal salvation opens for all from any religion."
"Indeed this deadly idea concerning the lack of difference among religions is refuted even by the light of natural reason. We are assured of this because the various religions do not often agree among themselves. If one is true, the other must be false; there can be no society of darkness with light. Against these experienced sophists the people must be taught that the profession of the Catholic faith is uniquely true, as the apostle proclaims: one Lord, one faith, one baptism"
"Also perverse is that shocking theory that it makes no difference to which religion one belongs, a theory greatly at variance even with reason. By means of this theory, those crafty men remove all distinction between virtue and vice, truth and error, honoral and vile action. They pretend that men can gain eternal salvation by the practice of any religion, as if there could ever be any sharing between justice and iniquity, any collaboration between light and darkness, or any agreement between Christ and Belial."
Pope Pius XII, Humani Generis, 1950, #32
"They allege...the contemporary mind must look to the existence of things and to life, which is ever in flux. While scorning our philosophy, they extol other philosophies of all kinds, ancient and modern, oriental and occidental, by which they seem to imply that any kind of philosophy or theory, with a few additions and corrections if need be, can be reconciled with Catholic dogma. No Catholic can doubt how false this is."
Psalm 95:4-5
4 For the Lord is great, and exceedingly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods.
5 For all the gods of the Gentiles are devils: but the Lord made the heavens."
Pope Gregory XVI, Summo Iugiter Studio, 1832, #3
Quoting Pope St. Gregory the Great
"The holy universal Church teaches that it is not possible to worship God truly except in her and asserts that all who are outside of her will not be saved."
1 Corinthians 10:20-21
20 But the things which the heathens sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God. And I would not that you should be made partakers with devils.
21 You cannot drink the chalice of the Lord, and the chalice of devils: you cannot be partakers of the table of the Lord, and of the table of devils.
Pope Pius IX, The Syllabus of Errors, 1864, #4
"All the truths of religion proceed from the innate strength of human reason; hence reason is the ultimate standard by which man can and ought to arrive at the knowledge of all truths of every kind - CONDEMNED"
Pope Leo XIII, Inscrutabili Dei Consilio, 1878, #5
The Church, by spreading the Gospel throughout the nations, has brought the light of truth amongst people utterly savage and steeped in foul superstition.
Pope St. Pius X, Pascendi Dominici Gregis, 1907, #8
"Hence, Venerable Brethren, springs that ridiculous proposition of the Modernists, that every religion, according to the different aspect under which it is viewed, must be considered as both natural and supernatural...religious consciousness is given as the universal rule, to be put on an equal footing with revelation."
Pope St. Pius X, Pascendi Dominici Gregis, 1907, #14
"Here it is well to note at once that, given this doctrine of experience united with the other doctrine of symbolism, every religion, even that of paganism, must be held to be true...And with what right will Modernists deny the truth of an experience affirmed by a follower of Islam? With what right can they claim true experiences for Catholics alone? Indeed Modernists do not deny but actually admit, some confusedly, others in the most open manner, that all religions are true...the most that Modernists can maintain is that the Catholic has more truth because it is more living."
Pope St. Pius X, Pascendi Dominici Gregis, 1907, #19
"[Modernists] explain [theological immanence] in a way which savours of pantheism and this, in truth, is the sense which tallies best with the rest of their doctrines"
