Pope Francis is Telling Christians Not Convert Nonbelievers

A student asked the pope how a Christian should treat people of other faiths or no faith, and he said, “we are all the same, all children of God,” adding that true disciples of Jesus do not attempt to convert someone.

“There is a mixture of blood, a strong miscegenation in Argentina — I am the son of a migrant — and this made for a culture of coexistence. I went to public school and we always had companions from other religions. We were educated to coexistence,” the pope said. He added that the experience taught him that we are all the same – “all children of God and this purifies your gaze, it humanizes it.”

Pope Francis said a Christian should never try to convince others of the truth of Christianity – a Christian must simply “give a testimony of consistency and wait for others to ask about the faith,” said Breitbart. “The last thing I should do is to try to convince an unbeliever. Never,” he said.

“If someone says he is a disciple of Jesus and comes to you with proselytism, he is not a disciple of Jesus. Proselytism is not the way; the Church does not grow by proselytism,” he added.