According to Osho, the debate never occurred because his respectful open invitation—issued in place of street protests—was not taken up by the Pope. He sought to contest: the asserted reality of God and the devil; whether truth can be expressed and the Bible’s holiness; prayer versus meditation; the male-only Trinity; and Catholic opposition to birth control that, he argued, fuels poverty and conversion.
He invited the Pope to a calm, public talk that wasn’t accepted, hoping to question beliefs about God/devil, holy books, prayer vs meditation, no woman in the Trinity, and banning birth control.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
You wanted to challenge the pope to a public debate during his last travel to india, but it didn't happen. Why? Particularly on which points did you want to contest with the pope?
Not only had I challenged him for a public discussion on fundamental questions of religiousness, I had opposed the Hindu chauvinistic people who were opposing him. I was the only one in the whole of India who raised his voice to say that the pope should not be opposed in such a way, that this is ugly. The better and more human way is to invite him respectfully to public debates, wherever he goes. India has thousands of years' experience in argumentation. There is no problem in arguing about fundamental questions, but throwing stones, shouting, screaming, protesting... All these are ugly things. I hope the pope will remember, when I come to Italy, that I was the only one who was opposing the people who were opposing him in these inhuman ways. The fundamental questions I want to discuss publicly -- amongst his own people, in his own citadel, in…
Beloved Osho, the vatican has just issued a statement in which the pope suggests that cults, sects and "new religions" should be seen as a challenge to church and society. The statement says that deprogramming of cult members is misguided. The vatican made the statement after consulting catholic experts in seventy-five countries. Have you any comment?
Now the pope is consulting experts from seventy-five countries... it is not his own insight, it is not his own understanding. It is these experts who first suggested deprogramming. Now seeing the results.... It does not help, it simply creates a confusion in the mind of the person -- a part of him still remains with the new movement he joined out of his own choice, and a part is what you have forced on him, and he cannot forgive you; you have been violent with him. And many deprogrammed people again join the movements, and you cannot deprogram them a second time, because they know all the tricks that you did before. These are the same experts who had suggested that people who are leaving Christianity and moving into new movements, can be turned back very easily. Now they see that they cannot be turned back so easily. Even…
If you were to meet pope john paul ii, would you have things to say to each other?
I don't know about him... I have many things to say to him. I don't think he can manage to say anything to me. Most probably he will escape when I enter Italy. While he was India I challenged him that I wanted a public debate, and like a coward he remained silent. I will go to Italy! He has already informed the Italian catholic news media that they should not publish anything about me -- for or against, negative or positive. Now what can this man have to say to me? I have always thought that Polacks are a little retarded, but I have never thought that they are such cowards. But this man seems to be both. I have certainly many things to say to him, because he is one of the greatest criminals in the world today, and I have to point out every crime that he…
Question: BELOVED MASTER, WHAT IS YOUR MESSAGE FOR THE POPE WHO IS IN INDIA NOW? It is absolutely wrong of Hindus to oppose the pope, because this is not the way of the East. It is ugly. He should be treated in an Eastern way. He should be invited in every place he goes for a public discussion, in a friendly way. Hindus have nothing to lose; they have a far richer religion. The pope is simply poor. To oppose him is not worth it. Expose him, don't oppose. And Christianity is a third-rate religion anyway. It has no great heights, it has never produced great mystics. It has not produced great philosophers. Its heritage is very poor. In every place where the pope goes, respectfully, lovingly invite him for a public discussion. There are Hindu thinkers, Hindu mystics, there are Buddhist mystics, there are Jaina mystics.
Seven days he could not sleep because the question was not only Edmund Burke's question, it became his question also; the question was significant. Seventh day, the next Sunday, he reached early because still the question was there and there was no answer. He reached early in the church, prayed to Christ and asked that, "I cannot find the answer; you give me the answer; otherwise your representative will be proved stupid." But he was so tired, for seven days continuously thinking and not sleeping, that he fell asleep there on his knees and he had a dream. And in the dream he saw that he is in a train and he asked other passengers where they are going, and they said they are going to heaven. He said, "That's good -- that's what I wanted." They reached heaven.