“Diwali is an ancient festival originating in India, and is considered the largest shopping season in the Hindu religion. In addition to hanging lights and sharing legends and mythological stories about battles between good and evil, Hindus offer prayers to one of more of their deities—most commonly Lakshmi, the “goddess of wealth” and spouse of the myth god Vishnu.”
(Heather Clark – Christian News) The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue recently sent greetings and “prayerful good wishes” to Hindus for Diwali, a festival in which adherents pray to various pagan gods and goddesses to seek a blessing of prosperity and wisdom for the new year.
The council sought to use the occasion as a time to speak of caring for the vulnerable in society and to urge readers to “join hands with the adherents of other religious traditions” to “make collective and concerted efforts” to help others.
“The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue is fulfilling the Jesuit agenda to unite all people under the papacy,” opined Mike Gendron of Proclaiming the Gospel Ministries in Plano, Texas.
He noted that Jorge Bergoglio, also known as Pope Francis—being the first Jesuit pope—once said that all men are children of God, no matter their beliefs.
“He said, ‘Many think differently or seek God in different ways, but there is only one certainty: we are all children of God,’” Gendron expounded. “The pope’s assertion is completely false according to God’s word. No one seeks for God (Rom. 3:11). No one seeks after the true God, but there are many who seek after false gods of their own imagination.”
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