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Spiritual Intimidation Mary Ann Collins (A
Former Catholic Nun) www.CatholicConcerns.Com December
2001 |
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Popes
have used excommunication and interdicts in order to pressure secular rulers
into submitting to them. Both excommunication and interdicts deprive people
of the sacraments. In addition, excommunication kicks people out of the
Catholic Church. Because Catholics believe
that the Catholic Church and the sacraments are necessary for salvation, this
is, in effect, sentencing them to hell. As we will see later, official
statements of excommunication can explicitly state that people are condemned
to hell. The anathema is the most
severe form of excommunication. It means that the Pope has ritually placed
someone under a solemn ecclesiastical curse which is intended to send them to
hell. My paper "Ecumenism and the Council of Trent" discusses the use
of the anathema, and describes the ritual. The anathemas of the Council of
Trent have never been revoked. This is not ancient
history. The authority, and the procedure for exercising it, are in existence
today. The present Pope (John Paul II) has issued a new edition of Roman
Catholic Canon Law (the legal regulations of the Roman Catholic Church).
Canons 1331 and 1332 deal with punishments for people who have been
excommunicated or placed under interdict. Canons 1364 to 1399 deal with
penalties for "delicts" (offenses against Canon Law). These
penalties include excommunication and being placed under interdict. [Note 1] "The Catholic
Encyclopedia" gives some general guidelines for excommunicating people
today. This article is available on-line. [Note 2] In addition to
excommunicating individuals, Popes have sentenced large groups of people to
excommunication or interdict. For example, in 1014, Pope Leo IX
excommunicated the entire Orthodox Church. This means that, according to
Catholic theology, every single Orthodox priest, nun, layman, and laywoman is
damned to hell unless they repent and submit to Rome. [Note 3] In the twelfth century,
Pope Innocent II placed the entire nation of France under interdict. [Note 4]
In 1600, Pope Paul V placed the city of Venice under interdict. [Note 5] Following is an example
of a declaration of excommunication. In the thirteenth century, Pope Innocent
III declared, "We excommunicate, anathematize, curse and damn
him..." He also declared that if any person helped the excommunicated
man in any way, then they would come under the same sentence because of it.
[Note 6] One of the most famous
incidents of excommunication occurred when Pope Gregory VII excommunicated
the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry IV, and everybody who was associated with him.
In order to receive forgiveness from the Pope, and to have the
excommunication removed, King Henry had to spend three days repenting in
front of the castle where the Pope was staying. It was bitter cold (January,
1077). Henry spent most of his time kneeling in the ice and snow. When Pope
Gregory finally allowed King Henry to come into the castle, he publicly
humiliated him. [Note 7] Pope Gregory VII declared
that the Pope has the right to depose kings and emperors, to make laws, and
to have princes kiss his feet. And nobody has the right to judge the Pope.
[Note 8] Pope Innocent III
declared that the Pope has the right to determine who reigns, and that the
Pope is entitled to use spiritual "weapons," including
excommunication and interdict. In the papal bull "Deliberatio,"
Pope Innocent III said, "By me kings reign and princes decree justice."
[Note 9] In the bull "Unam
Sanctam (November 18, 1302), Pope Boniface VIII declared that the Pope has
both spiritual and worldly power. He ended the bull by pronouncing and
declaring, "[I]t is altogether necessary to salvation for every
human creature to be subject to the Roman pontiff [Pope]." [Note 10] Pope Boniface's
declaration is an official papal pronouncement regarding a matter of faith.
Therefore, according to the Catholic doctrine of papal infallibility, it is
still in effect, and it cannot be reversed. 1962 INTIMIDATION IN MALTA A less severe but more
modern example of spiritual intimidation is the 1962 election in Malta (a
small island in the Mediterranean Sea, near Sicily). Dr. Mark F. Montebello is
a Catholic priest from the Island of Malta. He wrote a series of three
articles entitled, "Civil Rights in Malta's Post-Colonial Age." The
third article describes how the Archbishop of Malta required Malta's Catholic
priests to help him prevent Catholics from voting for the Labour Party
candidate (Mintoff) in Malta's 1962 election. According to Fr.
Montebello, the Archbishop instructed the priests to use the sacrament of
confession to coerce the consciences of Catholic voters. He ordered the
priests to threaten people with eternal damnation. He also endorsed
literature which contained "medieval intimidations" (i.e., the kind
of spiritual intimidation that was done during the Middle Ages). [Note 11 links
to this article.] The Catholic Church
officially declared that it was a mortal sin to vote for the Labour Party
candidate (Mintoff). Priests who failed to cooperate were silenced. Some of
them were forced to leave Malta and become missionaries in foreign countries.
[Note 12 links to this article.] Maltese Catholics who
voted for the Malta Labour Party were placed under interdict. It became a
mortal sin to vote for Mintoff (the Labour Party candidate). Catholics who
voted for Mintoff were banned from church life and the sacraments. They were
denied a Christian burial. Instead, they were buried in an
"unconsecrated" section of the cemetery which was called "the
rubbish dump," implying that the soul of the dead person was damned. A
citizen of Malta recounts, The Catholic Church used the pulpit, the confessional, the
media and even public meetings in its vigorous campaign. I asked my father
about his experience. When he went to confession, the priest asked him how he
intended to vote in the general election and refused to give him absolution.
[Note 13 links to this article.] The Catholic Church
categorizes sins as either mortal sins (the most serious kind) or venial sins
(which are less serious). [Note 14] According to Catholic doctrine, if a
person dies in a state of mortal sin, then he or she is damned to hell. [Note
15] In order for a mortal sin to be forgiven, a Catholic must go to
confession (the "sacrament of reconciliation") and receive
absolution from the priest (the priest absolves the person of their sins).
[Note 16] However, if a Catholic is under interdict, then he or she is not
allowed to receive the sacraments, and therefore cannot receive absolution
for their sins. So if it is a mortal sin
to vote for the Labour party, and if the priests refuse to grant absolution
to Catholics who voted for the Labour party, then according to Catholic
doctrine, those voters cannot have their sins absolved. And they will die in
a state of mortal sin, which means that they will go to hell. The one
exception would be if someone knows that they are dying and finds a priest
who is willing to absolve them of their sin because they are in imminent
danger of dying. USE OF THIS ARTICLE I encourage you to link
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Please give this information to anybody who might be interested in it. DOWNLOADING THIS ARTICLE You can download this
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and choose "Save Target As" to save it to disk. Download Microsoft Word 2.0 version Download Microsoft Word 6.0 version Download WordPerfect for Windows 6.0 version NOTES 1. "Code of Canon
Law," Latin-English Edition, New English Translation, pages 416,
427-435. Washington, DC: Canon Law Society of America, 1998. 2.
"Excommunication" in "The Catholic Encyclopedia" (1913),
Volume 5. This is on-line. The information about modern excommunication begins
on page 17 of my print-out. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05678a.htm 3. Malachi Martin,
"The Decline and Fall of the Roman Church," pages 133-134. (New
York, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1981.) Malachi Martin recently died. He was a
Jesuit priest, a Vatican insider, and the personal confessor of Pope John
XXIII. 4. "Pope Innocent
II" in "The Catholic Encyclopedia" (1913), Volume 8. It is
on-line. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08012a.htm 5. "Pope Paul
V" in "The Catholic Encyclopedia" (1913), Volume 11. This is
on-line. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11581b.htm 6. Paul Johnson, "A
History of Christianity," page 199. New York: Touchstone, Simon &
Schuster, 1976, first Touchstone edition 1995. Paul Johnson is a prominent
historian and a Catholic. 7. Malachi Martin,
"The Decline and Fall of the Roman Church," pages 137-145. 8. Paul Johnson, "A
History of Christianity," pages 196-197. Malachi Martin, "The
Decline and Fall of the Roman Church," page 140. 9. Paul Johnson, "A
History of Christianity," page 199. 10. Paul Johnson, "A
History of Christianity," page 191. This papal bull is available
on-line. http://www.newadvent.org/docs/bo08us.htm http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/b8-unam.html 11. Dr. Mark F.
Montebello, "Civil Rights in Malta's Post-Colonial Age," Part III,
"Independence According to the British," first subheading,
"The Most Shameful Episode". This article is available on-line. The
information is on page 1 of my print-out. http://www.maltamag.com/features/civil_rights3.html 12. E.C. Schembri,
"The Making of a Statesman". This is an article about Mintoff, the
Labour Party candidate in Malta's 1962 election. The information is on page 2
of my print-out. http://members.tripod.com/~bezzul/mintoff2.html 13. Joe Mizzi,
"Liberty of Conscience". On-line article by a citizen of Malta. http://www.justforcatholics.org/a76.htm 14. "The Catechism
of the Catholic Church," Paragraphs 1854-1856, 1863. http://www.christusrex.org/www2/kerygma/ccc/searchcat.html http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc.htm This second address
didn't always work for me. If you have a problem with it, then go to http://www.scborromeo.org
and click under "Must Know" where it says "The Catechism of
the Catholic Church".". 15. "The Catechism
of the Catholic Church," Paragraphs 1033, 1874. 16. "The Catechism
of the Catholic Church," Paragraphs 1395, 1424, 1449, 1484, 1497. |