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Communism |
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CATHOLIC JOURNALS
An article by R.C. Priest Francis Fenton, the decline of Roman Catholic
anti-communism exposes Roman Catholic compromise with
Communism. Some of the instances cited were:
(1) The Vatican and Communist Yugoslavia resuming full diplomatic
relations in August 1970, and Tito, Communist dictator of Yugoslavia,
making an official visit to Pope Paul VI.
(2) The Headquarters of the I.L.O., identified by George Meaney as an
instrument of the Communist apparatus, was visited by Paul VI in June 1970.
The pope described the I.L.O. as "a deserving and representative
international organism, so very congenial with our own mission of justice,
of peace and of brotherhood."
(3) U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT, 7/5/71, observed, "Pope Paul VI has
espoused Red China's admission to the United Nations."
(4) The alleged silencing of Josef Cardinal Mindszenty as a condition
for his release.
(5) Continual collaboration of the Vatican with the pro-Communist World
Council of Churches.
Fenton closes, "Once the implacable foe of the International Communist
Conspiracy, the Roman Catholic Church has withdrawn from the field of
battle...those Roman Catholic clergymen responsible for it will have much
to explain when the time comes to render to Almighty God an account of the
stewardship entrusted to them."
From COLUMBIA, June 1990., page 7. "...Of course there is a historic
transformation going on in the Soviet Union. In the book...was a photo of
Mikhail Gorbachev coming to Rome to visit the pope. The visit itself was
quite symbolic and quite important. Gorbachev, like heads of state for
thousands of years, came to Rome to see the pope. But of great
importance was what they talked about and what they said afterwards. In
that sense, the events of 1989, especially those in Eastern Europe, have
exemplified this unique sovereignty of the Holy See."
From THE MONITOR (Trenton, NJ). 5/16/91. "Fatima, Portugal. A papal visit
to Portugal in early May turned into a four-day salute to Mary and showed
the continuing strength of Marian devotion among Catholics.
"Pope John Paul II thanked Mary for freeing Eastern Europeans from
communist rule, protecting the Church against decades of Communist
repression and saving his life 10 years ago in an assassination attempt.
"Mary also was entrusted with the tasks of helping the rebirth of a
Christian Europe and orienting contemporary generations lost to religion
toward God."
From Editorial from AMERICA, May 25, 1991. On May 1, feast of St. Joseph
the Worker, Pope John Paul II issued his encyclical CENTESIMUS ANNUS (The
Hundredth Year), whose title announces the centenary of Pope Leo XIII's
RERUM NOVARUM (Of New Things). Leo XIII's plea that working people receive
justice ushered in a century-long epoch of social teaching in the church.
The May 5 first reading at Mass described Peter's seminal insight and
subsequent teaching that a fundamental equality must obtain among God's
children if the Holy Spirit has been given. The church has not always been
true to this teaching, beginning with Peter, whom Paul once upbraided for
backsliding on the point.
John Paul II takes note at the outset of the collapse of communism, in
Eastern Europe especially. Polish satisfaction in this downfall is
understandable enough. But ... does the Pope conclude to the "triumph" of
capitalism. Hardly. The Pope specifically warns the Western countries that
they risk seeing communism's collapse as a one-sided victory for their own
system and thus might fail to correct it in accord with Christian social
teaching.
RELIGIOUS JOURNALS
From CHRISTIAN NEWS, 9/26. "Marxist Zimbabwe's one-party Communist regime
is headed by former guerilla leader Robert Mugabe who is a Marxist and a
Catholic. Pope John Paul II in a recent visit there praised Zimbabwe as a
model Christian nation."
From FOUNDATION, 1-3/88. "The Vatican and Kremlin leaders are jockeying for
position and power as the vie for world influence. Pope John Paul II would
like to visit the Soviet Union (something no other pope has ever done); and
Gorbachev wants to visit Italy which has the largest Communist party in the
West. In the past, Catholicism has had the reputation of being strongly
anti-communist, but now Roman Catholic priests are leading Communist
revolutionary groups in many areas of the world. Of course, Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev's new strategies of `openness' and `change' would make it
advantageous for him to hold out the `olive branch' of peace at this time.
True believers should realize that Pope John Paul II and Mikhail Gorbachev
are two of Satan's most deceptive `angels of light.' Both should be
recognized as enemies of the Gospel and promoters of Satan's false peace
program which is paving the way for the coming of the antichrist."
SECULAR JOURNALS
From THE IRISH TIMES, Dublin, Eire, 4/18/67. POPE PAUL ACCUSED OF "HOLY
ALLIANCE". Communist China yesterday denounced the Pope as a hypocrite who
was playing an important role in Soviet and American attempts to end the
Vietnamese war.
"The heavy attack on the Pope was made in response to reports in Soviet
publications describing him as "a standard bearer of socialism."
"As everybody knows," the PEOPLE'S DAILY said, "the Vatican is a docile
tool of imperialism, a stronghold of international reaction, and a loyal
champion of the capitalist system."
The paper accused Russia of entering "into collusion with the Vatican,"
and said that the Papal court had long since become a centre for "political
deals between them and the U.S. imperialists."
It also made a bitter attack on the Pope's recent encyclical, saying: The
beautiful but hypocritical phrases contained in the encyclical are only
designed to deceive the people and are not worth a farthing. How
preposterous for the Vatican, which controls more than $10 billion, to
attack `the rich for keeping what they do not need, for the Papal court,
which owns more than 400,000 hectares (988,000 acres) of land in Italy
alone, to attack `landowners who misuse their vast properties' and for the
Pope, who plunders fabulous sums from tin mines in Bolivia, copper mines in
Chile, plantations in Angola, etc., to attack men who drain money from a
country and transfer it abroad.
From TIME, 12/4/89. CROSS MEETS KREMLIN. Gorbachev's historic visit to Pope
John Paul II seals a truce after 72 years of bitter spiritual warfare. " .
. .John Paul helped inflame the fervor for freedom in his Polish homeland
that has swept like brush fire across Eastern Europe ... In 1981 Pope John
Paul barely escaped assassination. It is believed in the highest circles of
the Vatican that Gorbachev's Kremlin predecessors were the masterminds,
though the Soviet's deny this. The reason for the attack, claims a ranking
official of the Holy See, was that the Polish Pope refused to accept the
division of Europe into East and West. ... While Gorbachev's hands-off
policy was the immediate cause of the chain reaction of liberation that has
swept through Eastern Europe in the past few months, John Paul deserves
much of the longer-range credit."
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