By Richard Bennett –
former Dominican Order Roman Catholic (RC) priest(Published with the written permission of the author. http://www.bereanbeacon.org)
On June 29, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI published a new encyclical entitled Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth). After a list of RC people to whom the document is addressed, it inclusively states, “and [to] all people of good will.” The Pope's audience is to be not only the adherents of the Church of Rome, but also all those who claim to believe that justice, integrity, and love are the ethical foundations of human well-being. Thus to induce others into his line of thinking, the Pope includes leaders and followers of every religious creed, social dogma, economic and political persuasion.
Many who purport to be Evangelical are already actively endorsing Papal Rome. For example, a Presbyterian conference to be held January 2010 is to offer “insight into some of the factors involved in Protestants converting to the Roman Church” and a study of the influence of the Vatican Council II in order to learn from the RC communities.
One of fifty books offered on the Internet explains how you can accept Roman Catholicism. It states, “If you are of a Baptist or Evangelical persuasion … get an understanding of how Catholicism corrects and fulfils many of the strands of theology.” Thus the Papacy moves ahead with strategic dialogue for enlisting every civil regime and all major religious establishments worldwide to its viewpoint.The Pope's latest encyclical does not stand alone. Rather it is the most recent addition to the corpus of RC social doctrine. Catholic social doctrine, a tool of the Papacy, has been and is being carefully honed and directed toward gaining both spiritual and temporal control over all nations.Historically the Papacy has been obsessed with world control. It could not and did not arise until after the power of the Imperial Roman Empire had disintegrated. The horrendous persecutions of Bible believers in earlier centuries did not cause them to give up their faith but instead created turmoil within the authority structure of the Imperial Roman Empire. Consequently, the Emperor Constantine in 313AD declared Christianity to be the official state religion. This gave Christians legitimate status within the Imperial Empire. Accordingly, Constantine organized the newly designated official religion under four districts, similar to his military. Thus he replaced the biblical structure of the church with a new military style structure.In the fifth century, as the Imperial Roman Empire destabilized, the bishops of the realm, particularly the Bishop of Rome, were called on for advice. Gradually through this setting they gained legal authority in the civil arena. In the sixth century the Emperor Justinian sought to use the “Christian” state church as a stabilizing force to thwart the disintegration of the Imperial Roman Empire, which had been established and held together by military might.
Justinian's edict in 538 AD proclaimed the bishop of Rome “the Head of all the holy churches.” Thus he declared the Bishop of Rome head of the state church over all four districts of the Imperial Roman Empire. By 800 AD, however, the shoe was on the other foot when the Pope as religious leader of the Holy Roman Empire crowned Charlemagne as its Emperor.It was Hildebrand, Pope Gregory VII, in the eleventh century who nailed down the legal power base of papal canon law so that it became incorporated into Western civilization in the legal system. Through Hildebrand's claim of divine authority for his teaching, the Papacy in the succeeding centuries was able to surpass the kings and princes with whom it fought for supreme authority in the Holy Roman Empire. It was through Popes Innocent III and Boniface VIII that Hildebrand's strategy was fully implemented throughout the Holy Roman Empire.
Innocent III's contribution was principally to turn the Crusades from being used against Islam to being used against those whom the Papacy termed “heretics.”The Roman Catholic Church (RCC) as part of the civil state had the authority to define and teach the Christian faith. Therefore, whatever the Papacy called heresy was a civil offence, and civil authority could be used to enforce conformity to the state religion. Thus the infamous Inquisition began in 1203 against the prosperous Bible believing Albigenses.
The Inquisition, the Papacy's bloody tool for enforcing submission to its dictates by both kings and common people, lasted over 600 years across Europe. Upwards of fifty million people were tortured and killed, their goods and lands confiscated to the Papal treasury. Nobody was exempt.The beginnings of the break up of the Holy Roman Empire manifested in the sixteenth century and seemed complete at the end of the eighteenth century. The power of the Papacy with its enforcer, the Inquisition, was broken by the recovery of the Bible and the true biblical Gospel, which were the power of the Reformation of the sixteenth century. Apparent final demise of the Holy Roman Empire and the Inquisition occurred when Napoleon's army entered the Vatican and removed Pope Pius VI from his throne. With that, the destruction of the Holy Roman Empire per se was complete, for the Papacy had lost the last vestige of its basis as a civil power. The Papacy at that point had neither military might nor civil authority infrastructure by which to enforce its rule through its Inquisitors.
The kind of world government Pope Benedict XVI is seeking to advance is one over which the Papacy would again sit as moral and judicial authority. It is to be a one-world civil body composed of member nations, all of whom are equal in status and power. Over the civil body of member nations is to be a political governing body, which in turn will enforce through civil law the ideas of Catholic social doctrine. While papal plans for accomplishing this agenda are still being formulated, much of their strategy and practice is already at work in the world.First, the Roman Catholic Church still claims that its popes, who sit in the Chair of Peter, are each in his time “the Vicar of Christ.” As such he claims the right and the duty to judge everybody and every institution of whatever kind and magnitude. In present day canon law, Canon 1405 states that it is the right of the Pope to judge those in highest civil offices. Canon 333, Sect. 3 states, “There is neither repeal nor recourse against a decision or decree of the Roman Pontiff.” Pope Pius XI's encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, is part of the corpus of RC social doctrine. It states “That principle which Leo XIII so clearly established must be laid down at the outset here, namely, that there resides in Us [the Papacy] the right and duty to pronounce with supreme authority upon social and economic matters.”
These documents, and many others, state emphatically that the modern day Papacy has right and duty to pronounce with supreme authority upon social and economic matters.Second, the papal plan will require a new social order as defined by the corpus of RC social doctrine. The new social order does not apply to the Papacy itself, which is claimed to be divinely instituted, or in their terminology “from above.” It does apply to all peoples, all lay Roman Catholics, all civil and secular structures. These all are designated as temporal, or “from below.” This distinction is absolutely primary to the Papacy.The new social structure will include every human person of the temporal realm. In his latest encyclical Benedict, citing Pope Paul VI, states, “authentic human development concerns the whole of the person in every single dimension.”10And, “The truth of development consists in its completeness: if it does not involve the whole man and every man, it is not true [authentic] …development.”11 What many true Bible believers may not understand is that “the whole man and every man” in the temporal realm will be required to conform to the goals of the world administration devised by the Popes of Rome and enforced by the nation states and the governing body superior to them.
In order to implement this agenda, the Compendium of [Roman] Catholic Social Doctrine has already spelled out some of the necessary compliances. For example, nobody will be allowed to refrain from co-operating in “the common good.” “The common good” is officially defined as follows:
The principle of the common good, to which every aspect of social life must be related if it is to attain its fullest meaning, stems from the dignity, unity and equality of all people…the common good indicates 'the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfilment more fully and more easily…
The common good, in fact, can be understood as the social and community dimension of the moral good.
Benedict's encyclical makes much of requiring freedom for the individual “human person” and for the Papacy. This is totally a ploy as there is no freedom allowed for anyone in the temporal realm. Thus Compendium states,The common good therefore involves all members of society, no one [in the temporal realm] is exempt from co- operating, according to each one's possibilities, in attaining it and developing it.”
Further, all private property and goods are to be subject to papal ruling on whether it is being used for “the common good.” The Compendium, of which this latest papal encyclical is a part, states the position to which Benedict holds. Its directive is the following,Putting the principle of the universal destination of goods into concrete practice…means that methods, limits and objects must be precisely defined…If it is true that everyone is born with the right to use the goods of the earth, it is likewise true that, in order to ensure that this right is exercised in an equitable and orderly fashion, regulated interventions are necessary, interventions that are the result of national and international agreements, and a juridical order that adjudicates and specifies the exercise of this right.
While this is astonishing, the directives become worse, the Compendium states,Christian [i.e., RC] tradition has never recognized the right to private property as absolute and untouchable: 'On the contrary, it has always understood this right within the broader context of the right common to all to use the goods of the whole of creation: the right to private property is subordinated to the right to common use, to the fact that goods are meant for everyone.
The idea that “goods are meant for everyone” is a principle that inspired Marxism and has been practised in all the communist regimens of the Soviet Union, North Korea, China, Yugoslavia, Cuba, Hungary, etc. The Compendium continues,The Church's social teaching moreover calls for recognition of the social function of any form of private ownership that clearly refers to its necessary relation to the common good….The universal destination of goods entails obligations on how goods are to be used by their legitimate owners…From this there arises the duty on the part of owners not to let the goods in their possession go idle and to channel them to productive activity, even entrusting them to others who are desirous and capable of putting them to use in production.
New technological and scientific knowledge must be placed at the service of mankind's primary needs, gradually increasing humanity's common patrimony. Putting the principle of the universal destination of goods into full effect therefore requires action at the international level and planned programmes on the part of all countries.
Whatever papal Rome teaches on economics, re-distribution of wealth, and social justice, it does so even while seated as a primary player in international industry and banking. Being international itself, the Papacy wants increasing influence on an international level.Clearly RC social doctrine envisions neither a communist nor a welfare state because it holds that all goods, including private property, are to be at the service of civil authorities. These authorities will direct how, when, and by whom all goods are to be used. Further, the Papacy understands that people do not come easily or willingly to accept governmental authority over the use of their privately owned goods. But it is expected that over time, with education as to their duty to provide for “the common good,” they should do so. Therefore, bad attitudes concerning participation continue to be tolerated, but presumably only until effective measures to correct them can be instituted. Thus the Compendium continues,The overcoming of cultural, juridical and social obstacles that often constitutes real barriers to the shared participation of citizens in the destiny of their communities calls for work in the areas of information and education. In this regard, all those attitudes that encourage in citizens an inadequate or incorrect practice of participation or that cause widespread disaffection with everything connected with the sphere of social and political life are a source of concern and deserve careful consideration.
In spite of its incessant talk of freedom, the new RC social structure imposes many parameters that interfere with the individual's exercise of choices regarding every area of his life.
The envisioned new social structure also has an agenda for the highest governing bodies, which are part of the temporal sphere. To this end, Pope John Paul II, in his address to the UN in 1995, called for that body to revise its thinking. Rather than to understand its function as mostly administrative, it ought to promote all nations not as a collection of nations but as a family of nations, a much different concept. Implicit in the idea of family is the understanding of a governing body, the parents, who train, oversee, and guide the development of each individual member. The same idea is implicit in the concept of the family of nations.
In 1995 Pope John Paul II publicly set the stage for Benedict's latest encyclical.Further, all member nations are to be of equal status with a civil governing body over them. This equality rests on the concept of “the dignity of the human person” and therefore “human rights.” Indeed “the dignity of the human person” is the foundation, about which the whole corpus of Roman Catholic social doctrine continually speaks. The Compendium has described the Roman Church's social doctrine,
The permanent principles of the Church's social doctrine [are]…the dignity of the human person…which is the foundation of all the other principles and content of the Church's social doctrine; the common good; subsidiarity; and solidarity.
Further, the true concept of subsidiarity is that matters ought to be handled by the least centralized competent authority. It means that a central authority should have a subsidiary function, performing only those tasks which cannot be performed effectively at a more local level. This principle in the society of the Western world acknowledges the rights and freedom of the individual through self government, generally called self-control. The principle recognizes the next layer of society, the freedom of the husband with the help of his wife to manage his household, including his financial interests. Last, society acknowledges civil government.
According to the Bible, civil government is given the power to enforce its nation's laws by coercion and to protect its citizens by making war against the nation's enemies. Issues of charity, therefore, are not the legitimate concern of civil government. Rather, they are the legitimate concern of individuals and of the church.In his latest encyclical, however, the Pope makes use of the concept of “subsidiarity,” a concept which does not apply to the Papacy.
He writes,
A particular manifestation of charity and a guiding criterion for fraternal co-operation between believers and non-believers is undoubtedly the principle of subsidiarity an expression of inalienable human freedom. Subsidiarity is first and foremost a form of assistance to the human person via the autonomy of intermediate bodies. Such assistance is offered when individuals or groups are unable to accomplish something on their own, and it is always designed to achieve their emancipation, because it fosters freedom and participation through assumption of responsibility. Subsidiarity respects personal dignity by recognizing in the person a subject who is always capable of giving something to others.
The Pope gives the impression that the Papacy itself accepts and lives by the principle of subsidiarity. In its official teaching and practice it does no such thing. Regarding individual persons and the basic rights of families, the Papacy claims and exercises its power.It claims to have absolute authority over families in its legislation over marriage, even its validity and unmaking. In its present Code of Canon Law, Canon 1671 states, “Marriage cases of the baptized belong to the ecclesiastical judge by the proper right.” In Canon 1142 the Pope legislates,For a just cause, the Roman Pontiff can dissolve a non-consummated marriage between baptized persons or between a baptized party and a non-baptized party at the request of both parties or of one of them, even if the other party is unwilling.These are just two of the more than one hundred and ten canon laws that the Church of Rome legislates on family life for Catholics around the world.
Thus the Pope's statement concerning subsidiarity and “inalienable human freedom” is simply a ruse and strategy to conceal his true intentions. In a similar way while speaking of the sovereignty of governments, the Papacy claims authority over nations across the world. Pope Benedict, in speaking of the principle of subsidiarity, uses it to fashion a façade under which he operates to capture power over families and nations.
Thus the Pope with many long sentences of many words attempts to entice authorities worldwide to institute the Vatican's policies.The thrust of the latest encyclical is to promote the “reform” of the UN, economic institutions and international finance so that a newly established authority will be able legally to enforce papal social doctrine among nations that belong to this world body. This is what is being articulated in its Section 67,In the face of the unrelenting growth of global interdependence, there is a strongly felt need…for a reform of the United Nations Organization, and likewise of economic institutions and international finance, so that the concept of the family of nations can acquire real teeth…Such an authority would need to be regulated by law, to observe consistently the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity, to seek to establish the common good, and to make a commitment to securing authentic integral human development inspired by the values of charity in truth. Furthermore, such an authority would need to be universally recognized and to be vested with the effective power to ensure security for all, regard for justice, and respect for rights. Obviously it would have to have the authority to ensure compliance with its decisions from all parties, and also with the co-ordinated measures adopted in various international forums…The integral development of peoples and international co-operation…also require the construction of a social order that at last conforms to the moral order, to the interconnection between moral and social spheres, and to the link between politics and the economic and civil spheres, as envisaged by the Charter of the UN.
The papal call for reforming the UN, economic institutions and international finance under a new universal authority has come a little over a century since the public advent of the new RC social doctrine. Strong nations still have to be levelled to be economically equal with the third world nations. Capitalists still abound and stand in the way of redistribution of their goods. National governments throughout the world continue to be regulated by internal laws and accountability measures. As such, they are not so quick to give over their national sovereignty. Thus the Papacy wants a world civil authority that is able “to ensure compliance with its decisions from all parties.” It means that the Papacy, in spite of all its talk of peace, understands red-letter perfect the necessity of a new universal civil authority that possesses coercive powers to enforce effectively its decisions on every nation. Finally, it is the Pope, as the purported “Vicar of Christ”, and his Vatican that will declare what is the correct “interconnection between moral and social spheres.”Regarding politics, economics and civil governments of all levels – or the temporal sphere – the new universal temporal authority will enforce these papal declarations. Section 67 of the latest encyclical, when placed in the context of the corpus of RC social doctrine, shows that the Papacy is very much obsessed with gaining the power to have all the world under its control.
The Papacy is engaged in applying a classic pincer tactic of squeezing from the top and the bottom to capture its objective. It is employing both the civil governments, as shown above, and the Roman Catholic lay faithful to achieve its objective. The Pope as the “supreme teaching authority” of the RCC has decreed the following for its lay people.In the tasks of evangelisation, that is to say, of teaching, catechesis and formation that the Church's social doctrine inspires, it is addressed to every Christian [i.e., Catholic]…This social doctrine implies as well responsibilities regarding the building, organization and functioning of society, that is to say, political, economic and administrative obligations — obligations of a secular nature — which belong to the lay faithful, not to priests or religious. These responsibilities belong to the laity in a distinctive manner, by reason of the secular condition of their state of life, and of the secular nature of their vocation. By fulfilling these responsibilities, the lay faithful put the Church's social teaching into action and thus fulfil the Church's secular mission.
Testimony to Christ's charity, through works of justice, peace and development [as defined by Roman Catholic social doctrine]…
form the basis for the missionary aspect of the Church's social doctrine, which is an essential element of evangelisation. The Church's social doctrine proclaims and bears witness faith [in the to Roman Catholic Church ]. It is an instrument and an indispensable setting for formation in faith.The Papacy has put real teeth into its dictates on this issue: “Insofar as it is part of the Church's moral teaching, the Church's social doctrine has the same dignity and authority as her moral teaching. It is authentic Magisterium, which obligates the faithful to adhere to it.”The duty of all lay Roman Catholics to evangelise by teaching and implementing Roman Catholic social doctrine everywhere in secular society is obligatory on pain of excommunication. This means that the Papacy has a dependable fifth column in every nation where Roman Catholics are found.The Papacy's vision is this: it claims the divine right to organize the whole human race by whatever means necessary to participate in its “divine vision” becauseMan's earthly activity, when inspired and sustained by charity, contributes to the building of the universal city of God, which is the goal of the history of the human family. In an increasingly globalized society, the common good and the effort to obtain it cannot fail to assume the dimensions of the whole human family, that is to say, the community of peoples and nations, in such a way as to shape the earthly city in unity and peace, rendering it to some degree an anticipation and a prefiguration of the undivided city of God.
To organize “the community of peoples and nations, in such a way as to shape the earthly city” is to work to implement a terrible snare. The Lord Jesus clearly proclaimed, “My kingdom is not of this world.”
The Lord fulfilled all righteousness in respect to fearing God and fulfilling His law. Plainly, the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ is heavenly, not a “globalized society” on earth. True believers in the Lord Jesus Christ live in the world as He did. They are in the world, but they not of the world. In contrast, the kingdom of the Pope of Rome is very much of this world. Papal Rome binds men in political, economic and religious activities. Papal pronouncements documented here 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 RCC. This is consistent with his teaching in his new Catechism,The [RC] Church is the seed and beginning of this kingdom. Its keys are entrusted to Peter.
His documented statements are an affront to the Lord Jesus Christ in His work of redemption. Likewise they are an affront to the Holy Spirit in His ministry of convincing the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. Paul, the apostle, wrote under the direction of the Holy Spirit,… the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold (literally “suppress” or “hold down”) the truth in unrighteousness.”
Who can bear with the devouring fire of God's everlasting wrath? The good news is that personal faith and salvation are also from His hand,God has exalted Him with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.36
The Scripture proclaims,Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved - Acts 16: 31The Lord Himself declared,He who believes, and is baptized, shall be saved; … he who does not believe shall be damned - Mark 16: 16The Lord will always be merciful to those who turn to Him in faith for the remission of sins. He clearly said,Come to me, all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest to your souls - Matthew 11: 28Before the all-holy God, according to the Bible, an individual is saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Following on this, all glory and praise is to God alone!
