Is the Pope Catholic?

Pope Francis

Pope John Paul II was undoubtedly one of the greatest men of the twentieth century. He served as the pope, head of the Catholic Church, and the most well known Christian in the world, from 1978 until 2005. I sought out and watched every biopic and documentary of his life. His successor, Pope Benedict, reigned for eight years as the 265^th man to hold his office and was by my estimation an admirable man of distinction. Then came Pope Francis.

Christianity is the largest religion in the world. About a third of the people on Earth are Christians, 2.5 billion. Just over half of them are Catholics.

I am not a Catholic but a non-denominational Christian, an Evangelical, one could say. I am certainly not anti-Catholic in any way. Many of my personal friends are Catholics, and some of the most winsome people are Catholics. In particular, you can hardly beat some of their great thinkers and writers, G. K. Chesterton, J. R. R. Tolkien, Paul Johnson, William F. Buckley Jr., Russell Kirk, Richard John Neuhaus, Henri Nouwen, Benjamin Wiker, and Robert Sarah. And who didn't love Mother Teresa?

I know that Pope Francis is a sensitive subject for my Catholic friends. So much so, that they might be afraid to read this. I do want to be clear that I cherish Catholics as my brothers and sisters in Christ.

Pagan Idolatry

In October 2019, a 26-year-old Austrian Catholic named Alexander Tschugguel took pagan idols out of a Catholic Church in Rome and threw them in the Tiber. Pope Francis had allowed in his sacred churches the worship of these idols of a pregnant Incan fertility goddess, Pachamama, 'Mother Earth.’ Cardinal Muller called this what it is: idolatrous desecration and satanic sacrilege.

Pope Francis issued a public apology—not for allowing pagan worship in Christian churches but to those who might be offended at the idols being removed and thrown into the river. “I ask forgiveness from those who have been offended by this gesture,” he said. Francis explained that the idols were there because the Church needs to be ‘inclusive.’

An international group of 100 Catholic dignitaries issued a letter calling on Pope Francis to “repent publicly and unambiguously of these objectively grave sins. ” As the letter accurately explains, “the rendering of worship to anyone or anything other than the one true God, the Blessed Trinity, is a violation of the First Commandment. Absolutely all participation in any form of the veneration of idols is condemned by this Commandment.”

How Did This Man Become the Pope?

Francis is from Argentina, making him the first pope from the Western Hemisphere, and the first pope from the Southern Hemisphere. He accomplished little in his life that would seem to make him a good candidate to lead the Catholic world. He was controversial from the start, and so divisive that he was canned after six years as a Jesuit provincial superior in the 1970s, and booted out of Jesuit housing in 1992. In 2001, Francis was put forward to become a cardinal but rejected because of mental instability. He was under psychiatric care, an odd thing for a man of God.

The Argentine was nominated for the papacy by a secret group of ‘progressive’ Northern European cardinals, known as the St. Gallen Group, which was formed specifically to oppose John Paul II. The group's main agenda was to undo Church teachings on sexuality. Francis was their candidate in 2005 but lost to Benedict. In 2013, their man won.

Environmentalism

Environmentalism is a godless religion. Its adherents deify Nature and worship the Earth, which they pretend is a goddess named Gaia. Pope Francis is an environmentalist.

According to him, the coronavirus pandemic is “certainly nature’s response” to “catastrophes” caused by human beings in advanced civilizations who have altered the climate. Francis presents Nature as having consciousness, which is Animism or Pantheism—both heresies.

The pope declares, "Economic inequality has caused sister earth, along with all the abandoned of our world, to cry out, pleading that we take another course. Let us also learn to listen to indigenous peoples, whose age-old wisdom can teach us how to live.” Primitivism.

So COVID-19 is Mother Earth taking revenge on us. Even more ludicrous, Francis said, “Who now remembers that 18 months ago a boat could cross the North Pole because the glaciers had all melted?”

Islam

Pope Francis enthusiastically promotes—demands—the mass migration of millions of Muslims into every hamlet and metropolitan area of Europe, formerly known as Christendom. Islam was invented to prove Christianity is wrong. It teaches that Jesus is not the Savior but a nice guy who paved the way for the far greater Mohammed. It teaches that the New Testament is a lie.

Muslims have made war on Jews and Christians non-stop for 1,400 years. They are responsible for the vast majority of terrorism in the world. Christians who live in Muslim lands face fierce persecution, if not extermination. Islam demands that Christianity be extinguished from the Earth. Islam requires that all human beings convert or be executed.

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But Francis declares that Islam is a “religion of peace” and that terrorism has no relation to it. He claims, “Authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence.” Mohammed murdered many infidels, including the defenseless Jews of Medina, and the Koran teaches jihad by the sword—holy war against all non-Muslims.

Cardinal Robert Sarah believes as I do that, it is insane to bring millions of people into your midst that are sworn to your destruction and the death of your civilization. “If the West continues in this fatal way, there is a great risk that, due to a lack of birth, it will disappear, invaded by foreigners, just as barbarians have invaded Rome." Cardinal Sarah warned that if Europe were to fall, Islam would prevail as the world religion. Whoever wants to see that day come does not love Christ.

China

The pope’s right-hand man and fellow Argentine, Bishop Sorondo, declares that China, of all places, is the best example in the world of Catholic social teachings. "Right now, those who are implementing the Church's social doctrine the best are the Chinese."

Christians are intensely persecuted in China. Not to mention the tens of millions of forced abortions, the concentration camps, and the totalitarian denial of even the most basic of individual rights, the massive environmental damage, and the official Atheism of China’s government.

Pope Francis gave the rulers of China, who are utterly hostile to Jesus Christ, the right to name all bishops and priests in that country. He did this via a secret agreement.

Marxism

Pope Francis is pretty much a communist. He is widely known for habitually bashing free enterprise, and zealously despises the American economic system, which he has dubbed "savage capitalism."

On the other hand, he speaks with admiration of communists, who, in his imagination, love the poor and therefore are more Christian than Christians. He seems to be unaware of the gulags and totalitarian Nature of Marxism, with its visceral hatred of the Church. He seems not to know that Communism and National Socialism were both secular religions that saw Christianity as a rival to be crushed.

To Francis, economic freedom is nothing more than greed that devastates the environment. He seems ignorant of the fact that Socialist regimes have been by far the most horrible polluters in the history of our fair planet. He sees the world through the eyes of the militant Atheist Karl Marx. It’s all about exploitation, class struggle, and redistribution. Francis embraces the very ideology that in 100 years saw his native Argentina fall from the 14^th wealthiest country in the world to 63^rd.

George Will calls Francis a “false prophet. ” Will believes that economic freedom and modern civilization have improved the lives of billions of people, not as Francis has said, turned the world into an “immense pile of filth.” The pope’s ideas “would devastate the poor on whose behalf he purports to speak,” says Will.

Notably, the men Pope Francis admires most are always socialist tyrants. Evo Morales of Bolivia was "the Holy Father's favorite leader in the Americas." Morales gave Francis a cherished crucifix decorated with a hammer and sickle. Francis loved Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez as champions of Social Justice.

Globalism & Open Borders

Francis is a Globalist who is big on the United Nations and other international organizations. He vehemently denounces border walls, despite the giant walls that surround the Vatican. He demands open borders for the United States and all the European countries—but not elsewhere in the world.

The Vatican is, of course, in Italy, where, as Robert Royal writes in the Claremont Review of Books, “50% youth unemployment has made utopian schemes for resettling large numbers of mostly poor Middle Eastern and African immigrants deeply unpopular.”

The pope is for unlimited mass migration of people from the Third World into Western Civilization. He even sent $500,000 to assist illegal aliens from Guatemala to breach the U.S. border from Mexico. Nearly all Guatemalans are brought into America by human smuggling operations, a $2.3 billion business that the pope thereby subsidized.

For trying to stop illegal aliens from invading our country, Pope Francis compared President Trump to the mass murderer King Herod. You know, King Herod who slaughtered untold numbers of innocent infants in the hope that the Baby Jesus was among them. Francis failed to grasp that Joseph and Mary fled from Herod—the opposite of illegal aliens, who are running towards President Trump.

As Monica Showalter notes in American Thinker, “A desire to have borders and a legal process of entry into a country that already accepts one million legal immigrants each year is hardly a Herod haven. Illegals come to the U.S. after paying very large smuggling fees to Mexican cartels in order to avail themselves of U.S. welfare benefits and free medical care. U.S. taxpayers are rightly indignant about this harvesting of their hard-earned resources by foreign invaders who can't even respect the most basic of U.S. laws, and whose first act within the U.S. is to break the law, before moving on to break others.”

The pope is just as hard on Italy and its interior minister Salvini, whose crackdown on illegal immigration has made him deeply popular. Salvini has the audacity to want Italy to stay Italian. Incredibly, he thinks it should be up to Italians to decide who they do and do not want to live in their country. For this, Francis compared Salvini to Satan, said he would never meet with him, and that anyone who votes for him is not a Christian.

At the same time, the pope says the Indians of the Amazon do have a right to secure borders. He blasted, “the violation of the rights of indigenous peoples, such as the right to territory, and the demarcation of territories,” and that we must “protect their territories.”

Francis also implies that living in the Stone Age is a superior way of life. And that it was wrong for Christian missionaries, who risked and gave their lives, and suffered untold hardships and disease, to bring the Gospel to jungle tribes. We should have just left them alone in their primitive savagery with their pagan idolatry.

If that were not enough, Pope Francis commands Christians to stop seeking new converts. Apparently not familiar with the Great Commission, he announced, “For Jesus did not choose us and send us forth to become more numerous!”

According to him, the job of a missionary is not to baptize more Christians but to generate “change” and awaken “wonder and compassion.” The pope condemned proselytization — the attempt to bring others into the Christian community. The pontiff's statements made headlines throughout the world.

And here I thought the central theme of Christianity was that it is only through Jesus Christ people can attain everlasting life.

Anti-Western Civilization

Pope Francis is full of invective for Europe and America. What he sees as the ‘sins’ of Western Civilization against the rest of humankind never seem far from his mind. Italian philosopher Marcello Pera believes that what the pope really wants is for Europe to commit suicide, which is why Francis wants "indiscriminate" and "massive" immigration into European states.

“Frankly, I do not get this pope, whatever he says is beyond any rational understanding,” Pera declares. “I ask myself: why does he say it? The answer I can give myself is only one: The Pope does it because he hates the West and aspires to destroy it. As he aspires to destroy the Christian tradition.”

William Kilpatrick asks: “Does Francis consciously desire to destroy the West and Christianity? Or is he simply a well-intentioned do-gooder who doesn’t understand the consequences of his experiments? Whatever the intention, do his policies and programs actually tend toward the destruction of the West and Christianity? I would say, ‘Yes, they do.’”

Progressive Secularism

At every question about how then should we live, Pope Francis appears to favor the godless ‘religion of man’ that serves as the foundation for the false gospel of Secular Humanism over the Eternal Truth of the Gospel. Christian orthodoxy takes a back seat to ‘progressive’ positions on social and political issues. One rarely hears from him about grace, individual salvation, prayer, repentance, penance, or anything supernatural. He seems to preach mercy without remorse, and may not even believe in Hell, or the necessity for forgiveness for individual sins.

Secular Humanism has its mission: To drive Christianity from the public square. It denounces the Christian view of humanity and the world, calls faith in Christ ‘a fable,’ divine truth non-existent, moral law subjective and relative, worship nothing but superstition, and the Church an institution destined and deserving to die. These are the actuating convictions of the ideological allies of Pope Francis.

We can thank Wikileaks for revealing the influence on Francis and his Church of George Soros—an Atheist—and the heretic John Podesta. Soros' Open Society Foundation, it turns out, funds many 'Catholic' heretical organizations. The mission is, infiltrate the Church around the world, including in the Vatican, to subvert the dogmas and doctrines of the Christian faith, and confuse ordinary Christians.

Mr. Podesta, Hillary Clinton's right-hand man whom some say is a Satanist, personally helped launch the Alliance for the Common Good and Catholics United to instigate a progressive revolt against the traditional morality of the Catholic Church. The main idea is to push heretical views such as gender equality and abortion-on-demand, as well as open borders and ‘climate change.’

At a minimum, the goal is to persuade the Church to downplay the importance of abortion and sexual morality, and instead to amplify support for government welfare and free medical care. The purpose is to make it so that Catholics will vote for Democrats despite their mockery of Holy Matrimony, transgenderism, and the Stain on the National Soul of America—the American Holocaust—the murder of 60 million babies by their mothers.

The Notion of Sexual Sin is Old Fashioned

Pope Francis has signaled his disdain for Catholics who remain faithful to the traditions of the Church, and believe in the Holy Bible. He sees them as rigid, close-minded, politically incorrect, and inordinately worried about sexual sin and abortion. Francis pronounced that the Catholic Church was “200 years behind the times.”

Arturo Sosa, the head of the Jesuits, the order that produced Pope Francis, has stated that we cannot be sure what Jesus thought or said about anything, especially marriage, because "no one had a tape recorder" back then. Does this not demonstrate the open mockery of the Word of God?

Today, Francis is firmly under the influence of the heretical German Church, which urges the acceptance of divorce, aims to accept homosexual behaviors, with abortion and euthanasia not far behind.

As R. R. Reno writes in First Things, “This pontificate wants to sideline the two-generations-long battle against the sexual revolution. This will allow church leaders to pivot to more pressing issues, such as fighting climate change, welcoming migrants, and guiding globalization. These priorities allow the Church to align itself with establishment opinion in Europe rather than oppose it, to bring the Church into conformity with elite priorities.”

Queried by a reporter about homosexuals, specifically the rumored escapades of one of his closest collaborators, the pope responded, “Who am I to judge them?” The world heard what it wanted to hear—and made him ‘Person of the Year’ on the cover of the Advocate magazine for people who glorify sodomy.

Francis also remarked recently, “The most serious of the evils that afflict the world these days are youth unemployment and the loneliness of the old.” What? Those are the “most serious of the evils”?

As Cardinal Gerhard Muller says, again and again, God bless him, "The Church must recover the clarity of true theology and the natural moral law. Spiritual and moral renewal in Christ and not the de-Christianization of the Church or her transformation into an NGO" is necessary now. I think he is saying that the pope is supposed to be the Vicar of Christ, not a representative of the United Nations.

Daniel J. Mahoney, writing in National Review, calls for “fidelity to enduring moral and theological truths, faithful adherence to the full weight of Catholic wisdom, and a firm rejection of a politically correct substitute.”

Cardinal Sarah calls on the Church to “fearlessly witness to the truth about man.”

The Francis Effect

The Catholic Church is the body of Christ, a spiritual community. The plan of Pope Francis, it seems to me, is to bring it down to the secular level, the City of Man.

George Neumayr reminds us, “Francis is the first pope to approve of adultery, flirt with proposals to bless gay marriages and cohabitation, tell atheists not to convert, tell Catholics to not breed "like rabbits," praise the Koran, and support a secularized Europe.”

R. R. Reno adds, "It's shameful that Pope Francis and his allies chase after the fickle winds of political and moral fashion, undermining the Church as a visible sign of faith's courage and constancy. The present pontificate has sown confusion, division, and conflict. Francis is advancing a doctrinally suspect revision of Catholicism because he wants to empower those who seek a wide-ranging concordat with the sexual revolution."

Joseph Hippolito writes in FrontPage magazine, “As Christians worldwide celebrated their most significant holiday, and their most recognizable figure delivered a distinctly secular message. On Easter Sunday, the Vatican released a letter Pope Francis wrote to Catholic organizations that the coronavirus pandemic ‘might be a good time to consider a universal basic wage’ that would enable the poor to enjoy ‘the benefits of globalism.’ Francis hoped the pandemic would generate ‘a humanist and ecological conversion.’ Nowhere in his letter did Francis mention Jesus Christ.

“Part of the ‘Francis effect’ is to have exacerbated existing divisions and tensions within the Church, sometimes producing strong opposition to the Holy Father among Catholics themselves. Attendance at the pope’s Wednesday audiences in Saint Peter’s Square and visitors to the Vatican were at record lows compared to his two predecessors,” before the coronavirus hit, writes Robert Royal in his article entitled “Is the Pope Catholic?”

I wish I had thought of that title first.

Comments

James A Watkins (author) from Chicago on June 03, 2020:

T ~ I appreciate you coming back by with your additional insights. I wholeheartedly agree with you that "whatever idea mankind comes up with God can use to achieve his will."

As you say, "humankind, is so far removed from the eternal wisdom, mercy, and love of God that trying to fully understand him without the Holy Spirit within you has to be an exercise in futility, and even with the Holy Spirit it has it’s limitations."

Thank you and you are most welcome.

T on May 29, 2020:

Yeah, that is a good question, could denominations be His idea? Kind of makes me laugh when I think about it cause what idea on earth could not be His idea. But I know possession is not what you mean but application.

I look at it this way, whatever idea mankind comes up with God can use to achieve his will.

The Ten Commandments are His idea but He knew when he gave them to us we would not follow them but he uses them to show us we need salvation, his will.

God desires unity but knows we will not follow that so yes, I can imagine as you say, He uses denominations (our idea maybe) as “A way to spread the Kingdom of God far and wide, amongst all sorts of people.”

That makes total sense. But you know what? I’ve resigned myself to the belief that I, humankind, is so far removed from the eternal wisdom, mercy, and love of God that trying to fully understand him without the Holy Spirit within you has to be an exercise in futility, and even with the Holy Spirit it has it’s limitations. When I can’t understand God I know the problem is with me, not with the creator of the universe. One day all things will be made clear and all we can do is pray that when that day comes he will say well done my good and faithful servant.

I’m grateful for one thing of you, your Christian perspective in all your articles have helped me (and others) to better understand many things. Thank you!

No need to reply, just keep writing these awesome articles! You put out more (quality) work in a week than I could do (not so quality) in a year! But I can be witty. People are always telling me to get witti T.

James A Watkins (author) from Chicago on May 29, 2020:

Eric Dierker ~ All the while growing up I never heard of annihilationism. I was taught that the Lost were tortured in Hell day and night for a zillion years. It always troubled me. Why would God do that?

When I joined an SDA church I learned a different doctrine: The Lost will be burned in Hell alright, but what happens when something is burned? It is burned up. Burned to ashes. That immediately made sense to me the first time it hit my ears. I don't think God is interested in tormenting anybody for a zillion years day and night. In this way of looking at it, it is the Fire that is Eternal - not the punishment.

Speaking of Potter Stewart, I loved his dissent when God, the Bible, and Prayer were banned from public schools, where they had been an integral part for 300 years with no seeming ill effects. Stewart said:

"If religious exercises are held to be an impermissible activity in schools, religion is placed in an artificial and state-created disadvantage. And a refusal to permit religious exercises thus is seen, not as the realization of state neutrality, but rather as the establishment of a religion of secularism, or at least, as governmental support of the beliefs of those who think that religious exercises should be conducted only in private."

James A Watkins (author) from Chicago on May 29, 2020:

T ~ Well, I do wonder about denominations. Jesus preached and taught unity among the brethren, which would make seem as if there is something wrong – maybe even sinful – about denominationalism. On the other hand, since God is sovereign, could it be that denominations are His idea? A way to spread the Kingdom of God far and wide, amongst all sorts of people. In other words, emotional Pentecostalism for those who need that sort of thing. A quiet dignified service, such as the Presbyterians do, for those for whom that would be the best fit. In which case, denominations could be like the parts of the Body of Christ that Paul describes—and none should denigrate the other, because each is needed for its special tasks.

To me a cult is David Koresh, or the Moonies, or Jim Jones.

Thank you for coming back to further express your thoughts, and you are welcome. I enjoy the dialogue. I surely do not have all the answers.

Eric Dierker from Spring Valley, CA. U.S.A. on May 28, 2020:

I had not thought of Annihilationism as a theological notion regarding this area of inquiry. I believe in it, but I have yet to meet a really wicked person. So I am no judge. (seen them on TV;-). I just decided in throwing in real racism, not phony, into the mix of cults. Seems to fit. I reference Potter Stewart's dictum as mentioned here and apply it to racism.

The Pope is Catholic but not catholic. But I think SDA are Protestants, so what do I know.

We got your Sunday and we got your Sabbath. Personally I think Monday is the first day of the week.

James A Watkins (author) from Chicago on May 28, 2020:

T ~ Thank you for coming back by with your interesting comments. I appreciate you kindly providing that link. I agree with its “three prime examples.” I do not agree with its assessment of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. The three main things they believe that may fall out of main stream orthodoxy, as considered by some, I think they are absolutely right about, after much study and prayer. The Sabbath IS Saturday. The diet they follow IS healthier. And I believe Annihilationism is true, although that is the only doctrine with which my church does not agree with my personal views on. Your link can say SDA views are unbiblical and I have seen many try to prove it but they did not convince me of it.

The SDA preacher I mentioned I am certain was wrong. In my couple of years going to that church I had not encountered such declarations before. So I voted with my feet and stopped going there. (It was the only SDA church near my home.) It was HIM who turned me off not the doctrines of the Church or the community of Believers.

I decided to stay out of denominations and their squabbles after that.

I am all for discussion and all against censorship. As Paul says, some people esteem one day over another and some don’t—each man must decide for himself.

As for cults, I remember when that judge famously answered the question, “What is pornography?” He said, “I know it when I see it.”

The Logician from then to now on on May 25, 2020:

James, the definition of a cult you reference is more the definition of a social or religious cult.

By that definition Christianity itself is a cult

“A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, “