On December 13, 2000, the official Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, under the heading, “All are called to build God’s kingdom,” published the Pope’s words from his General Audience of December 6,. The Pontiff declared,
“Those who have chosen the way of the Gospel Beatitudes and live as ‘the poor in spirit’, detached from material goods, in order to raise up the lowly of the earth from the dust of their humiliation, will enter the kingdom of God….Those who lovingly bear the sufferings of life will enter the kingdom…All the just of the earth, including those who do not know Christ and his Church, who, under the influence of grace, seek God with a sincere heart, are thus called to build the kingdom of God by working with the Lord, who is its first and decisive builder.”
These beguiling words are false. Each expression suggests salvation in a way that is alien to Scripture. It is not by choosing “the way of the Gospel Beatitudes” that one enters the kingdom of God, but rather faith in ‘The Way’, Jesus Christ and in His finished work on the Cross; “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” It is not by “lovingly bear[ing] the sufferings of life” that we enter into the kingdom, but by Christ “bearing” our sins and “suffering” in our stead. It is nonsense to imply that a man who does not know Christ can be a part of the kingdom of God. I am the Good Shepherd and know My sheep, and am known of mine (John 10:14). The papal pronouncement can only be understood in the light of the Pontiff’s continued plans for World Government. His presupposition is that the kingdom of God already exists in the Roman Catholic Church. This is consistent with the his new Catechism, “…The [Roman Catholic] Church is the seed and beginning of this kingdom. Its keys are entrusted to Peter.”[1]
Centuries of patient aspiration, plotting, planning, and political subterfuge have come at last to fruition, for the European Union (EU) appears to be the prototype for the Vatican plans for World Government. As one studies the official words of a previous pope on “Effective World Authority’’[2] and is cognizant of what has already happened in the EU, one wonders just how close are we to a World Criminal Code, World Prosecutor, and the regular branding of biblical churches as ‘sects’. What is happening in Europe was outlined in the UK’s Sunday Telegraph, October 20, 2000,
“The Blair government is preparing to transfer huge swathes of power to Brussels at the December Nice summit. It has signaled its intention to give up the veto in many of the areas where it remains; to accept a written constitution for the European Union (known as the Charter of Fundamental Rights); to approve further steps towards a European army and police force; and even to allow the European Union to set up its own criminal code, with a European Prosecutor.”
Since 1973 the European Common Market had by plan and purpose become the European Community (EC). The EC further evolved into the European Union. Now the EU is expanding its collective presence by proposing an European army, police force, criminal code, and Prosecutor. In 1998, Torquil Dick-Erikson of the Critical European Group (CEG), a group of academics and students interested in scrutinizing the EU, wrote,
‘Corpus Juris’ is a plan prepared by the EU commission (XXth DG) at the request of the European Parliament, to tackle fraud against the EU budget. It will set up a European Public Prosecutor, on the continental inquisitorial model, who will have over-riding jurisdiction throughout Europe, to instruct national judges to issue arrest warrants against suspects, have these held in custody for indefinite periods pending investigation (or transported to other countries in Europe)¾with no obligation to produce prosecution evidence and no right to a public hearing during this time.
The cases are then to be tried by special courts, consisting of professional judges and ‘excluding simple jurors and lay magistrates’. They will be empowered to hand down sentences of up to seven years.
It is the expressed intention of the EU Commision, and the President of the EU Parliament Don Gil Robles, for this system to be an ‘embryo European criminal code’, later to be extended to all kinds of crime. On November 8-9, 1998, there was an Inter-Parlimentary Conference in Strasbourg, where the Corpus Juris project was put forward for informal consideration. Fourteen member states expressed general agreement with the idea.”[3]
It is disconcerting to note that the EU is considering legislation that seems to resemble historic Roman Catholic Church judicial practice. Absent is ‘due process’; gone are the Miranda Rights. Is this coincidence? Or is history repeating itself? In centuries past, the Church of Rome always employed governmental henchmen to hold, even bind, her people together. She has always desired, and for much of her history has had, secular prosecutors and an inquisitorial system to apply her penalties against what she considered heresy. One must ask what is the ultimate purpose of the Papacy in European and international affairs and just what is the structure of the Papacy that would give it international political power to achieve those goals.
Society on the International Level
“The Sovereign Pontiff John Paul II” sees himself as the one capable of (if not ordained to) bringing in World Government. Through his new Catechism he declares,
“It is the role of the state to defend and promote the common good of civil society. The common good of the whole human family calls for an organization of society on the international level.”[4]
And from his perspective, the “common good of civil society” is Roman Catholism[5], embraced by the rank and file; defended and enforced by civil authorities; subject to the will of the Holy See. The Pontiff’s goal for ecumenism plots towards world government in political, economic, and social life.[6] This is the way his predecessors on the Pontifical Throne also expressed themselves. For example, Pope Paul VI in his 1967 encyclical on the topic of “The Progress of Peoples” in an entire section titled “Toward an Effective World Authority’’ proclaimed,
“This international collaboration on a worldwide scale requires institutions that will prepare, coordinate, and direct it until finally there is established an order of justice which is universally recognized….Who does not see the necessity of thus establishing progressively a world authority, capable of acting effectively in the juridical and political sectors?”[7]
Who indeed! Upon hearing this statement we must cast a backwards glance at the witness of history; for what has ever been the purpose of the juridical and political sectors in the eyes of Rome but to function as a secular sword, wielded at her behest! For when she was Mistress of the world, then and only then was there to her mind a “healthy socialization.”[8]
International Criminal Court & “Heinous Crimes”
And so Archbishop Renato Martino (the Holy See’s permanent Observer to the United Nations) on June 16, 1998, at the Diplomatic Conference for the Establishment of an International Criminal Court spoke for the Vatican,
“As Pope John Paul has stated, ‘Within the international community the Holy See supports every effort to establish effective juridical structures for safeguarding the dignity and fundamental rights of individuals and communities. Such structures however can never be sufficient in themselves; they are only mechanisms which need to be inspired by a firm and persevering moral commitment to the good [who defines that good?] of the human family as a whole.’”[9]
Although the Roman Catholic Church’s historical record is consistently one of absolute, and more often than not, deceitful tyranny, breaching rather than “safeguarding the dignity and fundamental rights of individuals,” and this fact the Archbishop undoubtedly knows, Rome nevertheless imagines herself as the only authority on morality. This position, so clearly codified in her present day Canon Law, implies that the Roman Catholic Church is the one whose right it is to define ultimately what is for “the good of the human family as a whole.” Thus, it is not difficult to see that her interest in the International Criminal Court is distinctly and solely a vested interest. Post this frightening note upon hearth and home; the Holy See has a delegate to the World Association of Jurists thus giving Catholic Canon Law an influence on the judiciary on an international scale. Archbishop Martino further stated,
“Those who are responsible for violations of the most heinous crimes which offend the conscience of the human family, the crimes which will fall under the jurisdiction of this Court, must be made to accept their responsibility in accordance with universal [read “Catholic”] norms…Any structures or rules which could lead to decisions about guilt or innocence that are based upon political rather than juridical considerations have a questionable role in the proposed statute.”
Since the Church of Rome declares that her laws, including those defining heresy, are “irreformable”[10], the statement that “those who are responsible for violations of the most heinous crimes which offend the conscience of the human family...will fall under the jurisdiction of this Court” is broad enough to include eventually those things that Rome defines as heresy.
Power & Politics
The Roman Catholic Church deals with nations under the title of “The Holy See.” On her web page, while commenting on the “The Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations,” she states,
“The term Holy See stands for the central authority of the Church, which transcends, even if it includes, the tiny sovereign State of Vatican City. Thus, the Holy See represents a world wide community and not only the citizens of Vatican City.”[11]
Distinctly, therefore, she defines herself simultaneously as “the Holy See” and “the central authority.” She then sets the jurisdiction of this “central authority” to swallow up the “ world wide community.” We would be deluded were we to imagine that only Roman Catholics are included within this realm, for Rome’s own dogmas teach that all humanity falls under papal sufferance. Exactly how ‘magnanimous’ and ‘beneficent’ such “authority” intends to be is a foregone conclusion. In a concise, intense, insightful official law, the same RCC authority declares, “The First See is judged by no one.”[12] No accountability, only tyranny: such has ever been Rome’s stamp upon the pages of history. The Pope’s mission is also clearly declared in his official pronouncements. He defines the Church as, “the Church which is a ‘sacrament or sign and instrument...of the unity of the whole human race.”[13] No doubt, to be unwilling to submit to “central authority” would be a heinous crime offending the “conscience of the human family,” and disrupting the “the unity of the whole human race.”
The Structure That Makes Power Possible
It would appear that the goal of the RCC hierarchy to restore the Holy Roman Empire is being realized on a global scale. Setting aside the biblical and simple organizational structure of the bride of Christ, the RCC clearly documents the structure by which she controls her own household. Her power structure is central and totally dictatorial. “She” is a system of men, carefully set forth in order of command, fully arrayed in costumes that signify rank. The Pope claims absolute authority his Empire, “By virtue of his office, the Supreme Pontiff possesses infallibility in teaching when, as supreme pastor and teacher of all the Christian faithful...he proclaims by a definitive act that a doctrine of faith or morals is to be held.” “No appeal or recourse is permitted against a sentence or decree of the Roman Pontiff.”[14] Thus, it is here, at this point that the “dignity and fundamental rights of individuals and communities” cease to be.
The Chain of Command
The government she mimics is not that of a church, but that of the Roman Empire. Like the latter her power structure is similar, with senate (curia), ambassadors, and a world net of influence. The Roman Catholic hierarchy consists of the Pope, cardinals, patriarchs, major archbishops, archbishops, metropolitans, coadjutor archbishops, Diocesan bishops, coadjutor bishops, episcopal vicars, eparchs (bishops of the Eastern Churches), Vicars apostolic, prefects apostolic, apostolic administrators, vicar generals. Most Roman Catholic pastors or parish priests deal with the last on the pecking-order regime, “the vicar general.”[15] Crushed beneath this ponderous hierarchy are the nuns and laity. As they serve “Holy Mother the Church,” they obviously fail to reflect that this hierarchy is composed solely of celibate men. “Also subject to the Holy Father are titular archbishops and bishops, religious orders and congregations of pontifical right, pontifical institutes and faculties, papal nuncios and apostolic delegates.”[16] “Assisting the Pope and acting in his name in the central government and administration of the Church are cardinals and other officials of the Roman Curia.”[17]
The Imposition of Power
The Roman Catholic Church imposes her rigorous rules on men and upon their consciences. In that domain she claims that her pope is infallible, and that no one can judge him. The baptized Catholic must give loyal submission of the will and intellect to his teachings, even when these teachings are not claimed to be infallible. Thus, she decrees, “This loyal submission of the will and intellect must be given, in a special way, to the authentic teaching authority of the Roman Pontiff, even when he does not speak ex cathedra.”[18] The Roman Catholic Church enforces authority over 814,779 women who are her nuns, 57,813 men whom she calls religious brothers, and 404,626 men whom she calls her priests.[19] For the nuns the vow of obedience, alien to biblical thought, compels submissiveness. Her Canon Law #601 teaches, “The evangelical counsel of obedience, undertaken in a spirit of faith and love in the following of Christ who was obedient even unto death requires a submission of the will to legitimate superiors, who stand in the place of God when they command according to the proper constitutions.” Obedience to the Lord as commanded in the Bible is twisted in the Catholic world into obedience to one’s local superior “who stands in the place of God.” Each local superior is accountable in the chain of command to his immediate overseer, an upward progression that ends ultimately at the Pope. The RCC goes so far as to declare, “Religious can be coerced by penalties by the local ordinary [the Bishop] in all matters in which they are subject to him.” (Canon 1320) Such dictates as these run contrary to the Lord’s command to His servants, “For one is your Master and ye are all brethren”; “be ye subject one to another”; “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” In truth, the Papacy cannot point to a New Testament model for its hierarchal structure. It also runs contrary to Federal and State law that no foreign power can coerce U. S. citizens.
The Predicament of the Catholic
The following is a summary from Peter de Rosa, a RC writer,
“The dilemma of American Catholics today is simply the dilemma of most Catholics writ large. They live under two conflicting ideologies. Patriotism and religion have little in common....In the state, a Catholic rejoices in openness, complete freedom of worship, democracy. He takes it for granted that freedom leads to a deepening of the truth. He is used to his leaders having to present themselves for his approval. He can vote them in, he can vote them out. He demands press conferences, freedom of information, an unfettered press that is like a second government. “In the church, a Catholic has to put up with total secrecy and lack of accountability. There are no choices, no elections. No bishop or pope is, as far as he is concerned, voted in or out. He has to accept what he is given. In the church, there are no press conferences, no checks and balances, no explanations. The control from the top is absolute.”[20]
The Sovereign Power & Evangelicals
Evangelicals who used to warn of a “one world government” now seem intent to run into the arms of this “central authority.” They refuse to recognize what the RCC is, and how she operates¾not as a Church but as a sociopolitical empire. For example, Charles Colson, Timothy George, Os Guinness, Richard Land, Max Lucado, T.M. Moore, Mark A. Noll, and J.I. Packer endorsed “The Gift of Salvation” document that begins with the statement, “We give thanks to God that in recent years many Evangelicals and Catholics, ourselves among them, have been able to express a common faith in Christ and so to acknowledge one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.”[21] If Christ were their sole Lord and Master, they would not kowtow to the system of “The Sovereign Pontiff John Paul II.”
The Word of God and Rome
The Holy Spirit, foreseeing all these things, as the Guide and Comforter of the true church has graciously provided a divine answer for the dangerous, ubiquitous, reviving Holy Roman Empire. In the Bible, the Spirit of God has portrayed the Church of Rome as wonderful in the eyes of the world, but deplorable as apostate. For the believers, He has broken her magic spells; He has lifted her mask, and has written in large letters her title for all to read: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT.[22] The true believer must compare everything to the Word of the Infinite, All Holy, Unchangeable, All-Powerful, All Knowing, and All Wise God. When confronted with the behemoth of Rome, the confidence believers have in the Lord is similar to that of David as he weighed the might of Goliath against the True God. “Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.”[23] It is the Lord’s task to consume the wicked with His power. “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.”[24] In the meantime, multitudes are saved from her, “with fear, pulling them out of the fire. “[25] This gracious deliverance is by the Gospel word of truth. The Lord Christ Jesus, the Exalted Head of the Church, and His Sovereign Spirit give comfort and victory, for “The gospel is the power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16). ¨
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[1] Catechism of the Catholic Church (San Francisco, CA: Igantius Press, 1994) Para. 567
[2] Paul VI, Populorum Progressio (1967), 78
[3] Torquil Dick-Erikson, commentary on “Corpus Juris”: http://www.euroscep.dircon.co.uk/corpus3.htm Bolding in any quotation indicates emphasis added by this paper.
[4] Catechism, Para 1927
[5] “[T]he [RC] Church was founded by Christ…and is composed of men; they, the members of the earthly city, are called to form the family of the children of God….Made one in view of heavenly benefits and enriched by them this family has been ‘constituted and organized as a society in the present world’ by Christ and ‘provided with means adapted to its visible and social union.’ Thus the [RC] Church, at once ‘a visible organization and a spiritual community,’ travels the same journey as all mankind and shares the same earthly lot with the world: it [the RCC] is to be…as it were, the soul of human society in its renewal by Christ and transformation into the family of God.” Vatican Council II The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, No. 64, “Guadium et Spes”, 7 Dec. 1965, Austin Flannery, Ed., 1981 ed. (Northport, NY: Costello Publ. Co., 1975) Para 40, pp. 939-940 All Vatican Council II documents are taken from this source unless otherwise noted.
[6] See John Robbins, Ecclesiastical Megalomania: The Economic and Political Thought of the Roman Catholic Church, (Unicoi, TN 37692: The Trinity Foundation, 1999).
[7] Paul VI, Populorum Progressio (1967), 78
[8] Guadium et Spes, Para. 42
[9] Catholic International August, 1998, Vol. 9, No. 8, p. 350
[10] No. 28, Lumen Gentium, p. 380
[11] (Footnote information missing.)
[12] Code of Canon Law, Latin-English ed., New English Tr., (Wash. DC: Canon Law Society of America, 1983, Canon 1404. All canons are taken from this edition unless otherwise stated.
[13] August, 1998 webpage http/www.vaticanva, Encyclical Letter of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II, Solicitudo Rei Socialis. In saying this he is referring to Vatican Council II Documents, No. 28, Lumen Gentium, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Vol. I, Sec. 1, p. 350
[14] Canon 749 Sect 1 & Canon 333 Sect 3
[15] Catholic Almanac, 2001 (Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor) pp. 286-288
[16] Ibid.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Vatican Council II Documents, No. 28, Lumen Gentium, 21 Nov. 1964, Vol. I, Sec. 25, p. 379
[19] Catholic Almanac, 2001 (Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor) p. 343
[20] Peter De Rosa, Vicars of Christ: The Dark Side of the Papacy (New York, NY: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1988) p. 150
[21] Christianity Today, December 8, 1997
[22] Revelation 17:5
[23] I Samuel 17: 45
[24] II Thessalonians 2:8
[25] Jude 2:3