Protestant View

Hume’s successor

WE said in a past issue, “It was an ominous day for Britain when the man who was born George Hume became the leader of England’s Roman Catholics. The Times claims that due to his efforts, and ‘after centuries during which there had always been a suspicion that to be a Roman Catholic was to be either foreign or in some sense disloyal, Catholicism had become, once more, a natural part of English life’.”

Hume’s successor has been appointed. He is the Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, the Rt Rev Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, who was chosen, said the editor of The Catholic Herald, “because of his similarity to Cardinal Hume. He has spent a lot of time at the Vatican – he knows how it works and he knows how to handle Rome. There will be no surprises and no radical change in policy.”

This again bodes ill for our nation. As Romanism advanced under Hume, so it will advance under Murphy-O’Connor, unless God will prevent it. Murphy-O’Connor is a dedicated ecumenist who worked with Hume in narrowing the divide between Romanism and other religions. He has co-chaired the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) since 1983.

Like Hume, he is seen within Rome as a devoted son of the church and a safe pair of hands. The hierarchy is confident he will further raise the profile of Roman Catholicism in the nation. We cannot afford to be complacent.

AIDS among Roman Catholic priests

IN America The Kansas City Star newspaper has recently run a series of articles on AIDS among Roman Catholic priests. The editor of the newspaper writes, “Catholic priests are dying of AIDS at rates many times higher than the general population. . . The nationwide survey sent by The Star to 3,000 priests across America was completely voluntary and strictly confidential.”

One report says, “The actual number of AIDS deaths is difficult to determine. But it appears priests are dying of AIDS at a rate at least four times that of the general U. S. population, according to estimates from medical experts and priests and an analysis of health statistics by The Kansas City Star. The deaths are of such concern to the church that most dioceses and religious orders now require applicants for the priesthood to take an HIV-antibody test before their ordination.”

Another report says that psychotherapist A. Sipe, a former lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, has spent decades studying the issue. Based on case studies of 2,700 priests, he believes that 15 percent of priests are practising homosexuals.

One cannot but ask, Is that awful situation unique to the USA? It is a dreadful indictment of Rome’s anti-Biblical requirement of celibacy for its priests. Scripture shows us that one of the characteristics of Babylon, the papal antichrist, is uncleanness – “full of abominations and filthiness of her fornications”.

Return to Table of Contents for The Free Presbyterian Magazine – March 2000