Roman Catholic  News

By: K. B. Napier

Muslim-Christian Dialogue

On Thursday May 27th a Catholic cardinal and archbishop participated in the Qatar conference on Muslim-Christian Dialogue. The event, organised by Rome, and held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, had an open session on that day, followed by another two days in secret talks about religious freedom. (VIS 040525 (190)). Why secret??

No true Christian can enter into ‘dialogue’ of this nature with Muslims, whose religion is false and against God. The banner should be very simple – Islam is wrong and there can be no discussion about its supposed veracity. Christians may participate with good conscience in talks concerned with civil activities, but not about faith, for Muslims are not equal partners with Christians. Nor, for that matter, are true Catholics.

Wrong Way Round

In a parting address to USA bishops at the Vatican on May 22^nd 2004., the pope spoke of the importance of the family.

But he got everything round the wrong way when he said that the love within a family is a model for the love we ought to have in the Church.

In truth, it is scripture and God’s love that are the model for love within the family. The pope also said that the family are the cornerstone of building up the Kingdom of God in history. Wrong again! Only saved men and women help build the Church, and only after God has called them to be saved. The task belongs to God, not to families. (VIS 040524 (550) )

The Mary Myth

Catholics have had differing views on Mary’s supposed sinless life for centuries. In 1854, Pius IX wrote his Bull, Ineffabilis Deus. The text is as follows:

“…To the honour of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, to the glory and adornment of the Virgin Mother of God, to the exaltation of the Catholic Faith and the increase of the Christian religion, we, with the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and with our own, do declare, pronounce and define that the doctrine which holds that the Virgin Mary was, in the first instance of her conception, preserved untouched by any taint of original guilt, by a singular grace and privilege of Almighty God, in consideration of the merits of Christ Jesus the Saviour of mankind – that this doctrine was revealed by God and therefore is to be firmly and steadfastly believed by all the faithful.

Wherefore if any shall presume (which God forbid) to think in their hearts anything contrary to this definition of ours, let them realise and know well that they are condemned by their own judgement, have suffered shipwreck concerning the faith, and have revolted from the unity of the Church, and that besides this they do by this subject themselves to the lawful penalties if they shall dare to signify, by word or writing or any other external means, what they think in their hearts.”

This is the Roman church in full flower, making its own fanciful ideas into doctrine, and claiming that it is with God’s blessing! There is nothing in scripture, said by Peter or Paul, or even by Jesus Christ, to support the notion that Mary was born without sin, or that she holds a place in heaven above all others.

Note that the pope says that he writes his decision with the ‘authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and with our own’! Without a single shred of evidence, he has elevated his own ‘authority’ to the same level not just of the Apostles, but of Jesus Christ Himself! Then, he demands that all Christians should obey his decision.

Like so many other Romanist fables, this is unbiblical and heretical. It is also blasphemous, for it places Mary on par with Christ, as the claim is for her sinlessness.

Suffering Not Always Godly

A short while ago I saw a piece of Pentecostal logic on a poster which suggested that God is always with us in our suffering. When speaking to a general audience in St Peter’s Square on June 16th, the pope said a similar thing. (VIS 040616 [390]). Neither speaks the truth.

He said, “…God (Who is) our refuge and strength, and Who is always near us in our suffering”. If our suffering is self-inflicted through sin, He will not be near us. Nor will he show interest in those whose lives are dedicated to self and are unsaved. Nor will He help Christians who have deliberately turned away from God and suffer as a consequence.

The idea that God is always with us, no matter what, denigrates the genuine suffering of God’s people and tells us that suffering is to be treasured for its own sake, which is bunkum.

Rome Encourages Revolution

Rome often denies telling its priests to get involved politically, yet she does so all the time. We can look at a recent chat the pope had with African Bishops (June 16th, at a meeting of the Post-Synodal Council of the Special Assembly for Africa of the General Secretariate of the Synod of Bishops. Wow! They love their official titles and long-winded administrative processes!!) (VIS 040616 [350]).

Acknowledging that Africa is a hot-bed of war, massive corruption, disease and unrest, he spoke to the bishops: “the five priorities to give Africans what has been taken from them, often violently (are): respect for life and religious diversity, the eradication of poverty, an end to arms trafficking, and end to conflicts and concrete action with a view to development motivated by solidarity.”

Now, what is that if not a call to social action?? No wonder priests are at the forefront of preaching a social gospel and urging locals to enter into blood-baths!

Rome Concentrates on Death

Roman theology places greater emphasis on the death of Christ than on His resurrection and so subtly displaces hope and substitutes reliance on Roman teachings.

The pope was reflecting on this in St Peter’s Square on June 13th after reciting the Angelus prayer. He spoke of the ‘solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. This is the feast day of the Eucharist, the sacrament in which Jesus left us the living memorial of his Easter, the central event in the history of mankind.” (VIS 040614 [310]).

Yes, Christ’s death is central – but only when linked with His resurrection, without which His death would have been nothing but a show of piety, saving no-one at all.

The pope then went on to underline the utter blasphemy of the Roman Eucharist; “it is so beautiful that on this occasion the faithful gather around the Most Holy Sacrament to worship it… (and express) with so many signs of devotion, their faith in the living Christ and joy in His presence.”

That is, they gather around a biscuit and declare it to be the actual body of Christ. Yet, note the significant use of the word ‘it’ to describe Him as a biscuit? The biscuit is NOT Christ!! He is NOT present in the sacrament!!

The ‘Year of the Eucharist’ will run from October 2004 to October 2005, when there will be a special Synod of Bishops that will talk about the Eucharist in detail.

The reformed claim that the prayer meeting is ‘at the heart’ of church life, whereas Rome says the heart of church life is the Eucharist. Both are wrong. The pope said that he would entrust the Year of the Eucharist to “our Lady, the ‘Eucharistic woman’…she who, in the Year of the Rosary, helped us to contemplate Christ with her glance and her heart”. What drivel! How on earth can Mary, a woman who died like anyone else and awaits the day of judgement, possibly ‘help’ anyone?

Sad Facts

One notes in the figures quoted for a Pontifical Act (the appointment of Msgr Pierre Burcher as auxiliary bishop of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg) the sad fact that half of those cities’ inhabitants are Roman Catholic (the rest probably being Lutheran – but these being subject to Rome anyway). For just three cities there are 628 priests, 15 deacons and 1542 religious (e.g. monks, nuns, etc). With such a huge Romanistic presence we cannot expect anything but deadness in these areas.

This deadness becomes even worse where Rome has held sway almost exclusively. For example, Tuxtla in Mexico. Out of a population of 968,266 920,138 are Catholics! However, they have only 86 priests, 83 deacons and 103 religious.

In the Moundou district of Chad, there are 180,000 Catholics out of a population of 531,793, with 25 priests, no deacons and 65 religious.

And in one district of Vietnam, Thanh Hoa, half the population are Catholic, with 40 priests and 148 religious. In Izabal, Guatemala, two thirds of the population are Catholic (quarter of a million), with only 16 priests and 55 religious.

Look at any Third World area saturated by Romanism and you will find poverty and restlessness, just as it is with strict Muslim countries. These dark places have no room for Christ, and it shows.

New Age Consultation

I always find it amusing when one cult seriously examines another cult and then solemnly declares it a cult!! Rome is currently in the process of doing this in its three day international consultation on the ‘New Age’. (We noted last time how Rome loves to make all its deliberations ‘international’). (VIS 040615).

Two ‘biggy’ groups in Rome are dealing with the examination, together with 20 ‘experts’. It will be interesting what one cult says about the others, and what it proposes to do to combat their encroachment upon Rome’s turf.

Inquisition Thoughts

On March 12th, 2000, the pope celebrated a Day of Forgiveness. Basically, he made the evils of Rome seem to be pure and holy! On that day he sought a bogus ‘forgiveness’ for “the errors committed in the service of the truth, when unethical methods were used.” He was talking about the Inquisition!! (VIS 040615 [660])

It is a bit late to seek forgiveness from those long dead, who resisted the might of Rome! The pope, using guarded language, referred to ‘public opinion’ that equates the Inquisition with a ‘counter-witness’. Note that he does not say it was Rome’s opinion – and so he carefully seeks forgiveness for something that Rome itself initiated and encouraged.

Rome unleashed the Inquisition not to uphold the truth, but to retain power over the people, who began to question Rome’s unholy stranglehold on entire countries. This, of course, was called ‘heresy’ by Rome.

Please Remember…

A growing number of Christians think it is a shame that Protestants oppose Rome. They say we should talk with Rome to reach some kind of agreement, by discussing our differences. This is a smokescreen and, frankly, these Christians know nothing of God’s character or will.

Roman Catholicism is NOT just a branch of Christendom. It is a cult, an outright heresy that has no Christian root at all. Its gospel is Arminian (coinciding with that of charismaticism, which Rome espouses) and this one fact alone relegates Rome to the garbage can of spiritual life.

If any group, no matter how large or old, preaches that we can save ourselves by our own efforts, then that group is to be rejected out of hand, for scripture says such preaching is anathema. Don’t be lulled by big words from Rome!

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