Roman Catholic  News

By: K. B. Napier

A New Catechism

Rome is to publish a long-awaited Social Castechism that will give moral guidance on a large number of issues. These include material on Catholic social teaching, human persons, the family, the social order, role of the state, democracy, work and salaries, unemployment, poverty, charity, the environment, the beauty of creation, the international community, immigration and foreign debt.

In that little lot you will see hints at how Rome is going to change views…immigration by illegal ‘refugees’ (how many does the pope have living in the Vatican State??), poverty (often caused or exacerbated by Rome in poor countries), and the international community (with its one-world order and one-religion aspirations).

How sad it is that Catholics have to rely on one man to tell them what to think and do. They cannot just act alone.

I have no doubt whatever that much of what Rome will say on these matters will be just and acceptable to human beings. But, we must always bear in mind that the thoughts and acts of an unsaved man are only good in his own eyes. If his thoughts and actions are not those prompted by God in a saved person, then it is all in vain, pointless. God says of these good works by unsaved men, that they are as dung, a stench in His nostrils.

This said, thousands of Catholics are making the lives of many poverty-stricken folk in the UK easier. As a social service this is good, but in God’s eyes it is fruitless. We are certainly to help those God has given us to help, but the end result of this growing Catholic influence in our society, will be a pro-Catholic bias and a weakening of the ability of Christians to preach the true Gospel to the people who have been helped. Not all good is good! Catholic ‘good works’ will send many people to hell with full bellies but empty hearts and dead spirits. Wrong dressed as Right

Christian Aid is supported by both Catholic and Protestant people. But is their work always good? Any group that finds favour with Catholicism is suspicious to me!

Christian Aid, overstepping its supposedly Christian mandate, is trying hard to get the EU to stop its trade agreements with Israel. The reason is that “The most basic right is the right to life.” Though it recognises that Palestinian suicide-bombers are also to blame, it is calling on the EU to punish Israel and to allow Christian Aid to send aid to Palestine.

In scripture, only God has the right to create and dispose of life. Even so, we do not find the Christian Aid ‘principle’ of a ‘right to life’ in scripture! This is something invented by humanists. God says that those who do not obey Him have no right to life, and will therefore be sent to hell for eternity. In this life the right to life can be abruptly ended by a death sentence, for a murderer must be put to death. Such has no ‘right to life’.

A suicide-bomber has no ‘right to life’, nor do those who support and encourage him, for they are equally guilty. Maybe Christian Aid should read their Bibles before they make politically-orientated pronouncements! But, their calls will no doubt mix well with the pope’s new Catechism.

Faith in Watching

Elderly folk attending The Holy Family RC church in Small Heath, Birmingham, UK, wondered if their hearing had deteriorated even more recently. No matter how much the volume on the sound system was turned up, it made no difference. That’s because thieves had stolen the speakers!

The parish priest called on the thieves to return the speakers. He said “The theft has taken away much of the enjoyment parishioners got from attending church, listening to Mass being said, and to the homilies and special announcements”. Can you see what is so tremendously sad about this?

His church has old people whose enjoyment rests in just listening and watching. They may as well put their faith in a TV, or a newspaper. True Christian faith is about a personal and dynamic relationship with God Himself. It is not found in merely reading or watching what others say and do.

The Need is Great!

The pope is urging all Catholics to use the internet to reach billions of people throughout the world with the Catholic message. He tells them that the internet is a ‘decisive gateway’ for evangelism. The Vatican website gets a staggering one million visits a day! (Unfortunately, the inventor of radio, Marconi, was the one who initiated Vatican Radio).

There are now thousands of Catholic websites, from small-time to big-time, and each one proclaims the gospel according to Rome. Friends, our BTM website is a drop in the bucket compared with Rome’s, but the need is great. There are relatively few truly Christian websites out there. Like most other things, websites need money to expand.

The website itself costs small amounts to maintain, but there is a need to make the work known throughout the world and this takes cash. We either recognise the influence of the internet, or we leave it all to Rome, who will certainly catch millions of souls with its websites.

Our website is currently featured by many major ‘search engines’ (which send enquirers to websites) except AOL for some reason. I looked recently at one search engine and found 344 references to our website! Indeed, there were almost no others on the list!! That is without advertising, but to reach others more fully we need to compete against the likes of the EA and Rome. Think about it.

The Queen’s Blindness

As Christians we are bound to obey the monarch…unless he or she disobeys God. So, what of the UK Queen, who unveiled a statue to a late adversary of the true Gospel, Cardinal Hume?

Bishop Ambrose Griffiths said “It’s the first time ever – certainly since the Reformation – that the Queen has unveiled a statue to a Catholic prelate. This would have been inconceivable until recent years.” Thus our Queen has swept aside hundreds of years of Biblical truth in this land.

The Queen is indeed blind to truth, as are her family and spiritual advisers. They have made sure that the Reformation has been replaced by Catholic lies and have given to Rome its greatest desired prize – the ‘Dowry of Mary’, Britain! Rome knows and has said, that once it has regained Britain the rest of the English-speaking world will fall into her grasp.

Pope as God

By using the title ‘Vicar of Christ’ the popes claim to be God on earth. The present pope recently sent out a strongly-worded instruction to all Catholic leaders to urgently bring back the full confessional (the ‘Sacrament of Reconciliation’). General absolutions are okay for some things he said, but “Catholics must make an individual and integral confession of all their mortal sins to a priest to gain reconciliation with God.”

This blasphemy is so blatant! Scripture says that we do not need priests or to confess to them. We have direct access to God through Christ alone, and gain reconciliation through salvation in Christ, not through continually confessing our sins to a priest who prevents direct access to God.

The 15 page letter (Misericordia Dei – ‘mercy of God’) was sent via senior cardinals to a press conference, motu proprio (‘on the pope’s own initiative’). He says that only when a person is prepared inwardly can he have the ‘right’ of reconciliation with God, via the Church (of Rome).

This right can only be dispensed by a priest. “...for the priest to know the penitent’s spirit, with a view to granting or withholding absolution, the faithful must confess each and every mortal sin and show they are truly sorry. Individual confession and absolution are the sole means by which the faithful…are reconciled to God and the Church.”

In his letter the pope is trying to combat a general or communal ‘anonymous’ absolution pronounced over a congregation as a whole, in an effort to bring back Catholics who feel too ashamed of their sins to confess them personally to a priest. Cardinal Ratzinger told the media that Christ Himself instituted the confessional!!

Rome provides for communal or general absolution in certain cases, such as on a battle-field, in a disaster, etc. But to use it in normal circumstances, Rome says, is to break Church rules. Needless to say, these Romanist rules have nothing to do with God or with the true Church. These rules show us why so many Catholics are afraid of Rome’s powers, for she claims she can give or withhold absolution for sins and the reception of God’s grace.

Is it Right?

The Catholic churches in Iraq have been given official freedom by Saddam Hussein, though other non-Muslim religions have been hard-pressed by his dictatorship.

This has been achieved by their public support for Saddam’s regime. But is it right to lend church credence to a regime that is so obviously evil? Though we are talking about Catholicism, which is notorious for assimilating any old belief system so long as the RCC flourishes, I must say that I wonder what Protestants would do in a similar position. Would they be less accommodating, or just as collaborative to ensure their survival?

The Swiss Unguarded

The 110-strong Swiss Guard that traditionally guards the popes, had 28 new recruits in May, with more following in June. The pope told them that they should see their service “as soldiers of the pope as a mission that the Lord Himself entrusts to you”. The Swiss folk must be a little unguarded to believe that!

The Vatican finds it hard to recruit men from Switzerland for the job, since the murder of the previous Commander and his wife in 1998, by a guardsman who then killed himself. Not bad going for a man supposedly called by Christ Himself!

“Tradition says…”

Churches get away with lots by saying that! The pope travelled to Bulgaria in May to visit the Orthodox Patriarch, Maxim, and took a ‘gift’ - the upper arm bone of ‘Saint’, Dasius. A gift that is claimed to heal many.

Dasius was, they say, a Roman Centurion at the time of the 4th century emperor, Diocletian. It was custom to choose a ‘king of misrule’…similar to a carnival king. The chosen one would lead the revelry at the month-long winter Saturnia festival, before being sacrificed to the Roman Gods. Dasius, though, proclaimed his faith soon after being chosen and was beheaded for his trouble. “Tradition says” that his bones were taken to Aconia in Italy.

Even Catholics?

Ian Haworth of the Cult Information Centre, in an interview with The Universe (May 12th) said that “even Catholics…are just as likely as anyone else to become victims.” Even Catholics?

Obviously, he does not regard Catholicism as a cult in its own right. As cult members, (for that is what they are) Catholics may easily transfer their allegiances to other cults, because there is no real difference between one cult and another in God’s eyes. They are all equally sinful!

A Word to the Wise

Many Christians join forces with Catholics on issues like abortion. May I advise that this is an error. To join with Catholics on issues is to indirectly endorse their heretical beliefs. Beware! If you have to protest against anything do so on Christian grounds.

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