The Queen at the Vatican
Sadly, the Queen has again visited the Pope. In his official address, the Pope, showing obvious signs of frailty, told her, “Your Majestys visit immediately brings to mind the rich heritage of British Christianity and all that Great Britain has contributed to the building of Christian Europe, and indeed to the spread of Christianity throughout the world, since St Augustine of Canterbury preached the gospel in your lands”. But to suggest that there was no gospel before 597 is not history; it is either ignorance or propaganda presumably the latter. This Augustine used his influence to lead the Church in Britain in a Romeward, and therefore downward, direction. The Christianity of earlier years was much more scriptural.
The Pope also declared, “There can be no turning back from the ecumenical goal we have set ourselves”. There ought now to be no doubt about the view from the Vatican on the ecumenical goal: it is only achievable on their terms all other Churches must acknowledge papal supremacy. Only the previous month the Vatican declared that Protestant bodies “are not Churches in the proper sense” because they do not recognise the primacy of the Pope. The Pope, not surprisingly, was also anxious to lend his support to further European Unity.
One is concerned to find the Queen thanking the Pope for his “support in the quest for peace in Northen Ireland”. His claim to be a peacemaker would have sounded less unconvincing had he been willing to excommunicate convicted terrorists in Northern Ireland. Here, as always, the interests of Rome must come first; union with the South must always be the gleam in the Vaticans eye.
Compensation to Be Paid by Roman Catholic Church in USA
The Roman Catholic Church in America is to pay almost $50 million (£34.5 million) as compensation to 22 men who were sexually abused by one of its priests, Maurice Grammond, in the archdiocese of Portland. The archdiocese has also issued an apology, to be read in all its parishes, which concedes that “some of the priests of this diocese have sexually molested children”.
The case is one of the biggest in the USA, ranking with that of James Porter, a priest in Massachusetts, sentenced in 1993 to 20 years in prison for similar offences, and that of priest Rudolph Kos, sentenced in 1998 to life imprisonment, whose victims were paid more than $30 million by the diocese of Dallas. Also the archdiocese of New Mexico has paid an undisclosed amount in settlement of some 45 lawsuits alleging abuse by priest Jason Sigler.
Another report claims that the sensational national outbreak in the 1980s of abuse by priests has become the Churchs greatest scandal. Each of the 188 archdioceses in the USA has had to face at least one paedophilia case. The report continues, “In his book Lead Us Not Into Temptation, the definitive text on the topic, author Jason Berrys introduction quotes a former church attorney estimating the cost of litigation at close to a billion dollars”.
These cases would have come to light much sooner if the victims had not largely kept silent because they felt so ashamed and afraid. Now that those cases have come to light, one wonders how many more victims will one day speak out and add to the testimony of those whose lives have been so dreadfully blighted by Rome. As one of Grammonds victims said, “My parents entrusted us to Grammond believing this would be the last place harm would come to us. He and the Church broke that trust.” The Roman Catholic Church, by repeatedly failing to deal properly with such perverted priests, has truly earned its notoriety for immorality.NMR
Cruelty of the Church of Rome
A Roman Catholic nun, Marie Docherty, was found guilty in September at Aberdeen Sheriff Court of cruel and unnatural treatment to children under her care in homes run by the Roman Catholic Church in Aberdeen and Midlothian. Not surprisingly, her lenient sentence she was admonished by the sheriff called forth a whispered “Thank you” from her. But it also provoked controversy, especially among those who gave evidence that they had been subjected to her cruelty. She has, however, appealed against the verdict.
Of particular interest to some were the comments of the Roman Catholic Bishop in Aberdeen, Mario Conti. One woman, who contacted him about ill-treatment in Nazareth House, Aberdeen, at an early stage in the inquiry, says that when she told him he was accountable, he responded, “We are an autonomous organisation . . . we are not accountable to anybody”. No doubt that is the view of many leading men in the Church of Rome, but it certainly indicates astonishing arrogance on their part.
The bishop also said, after Docherty was sentenced, “We can confidently restate that cruel and unnatural treatment did not form part of any official policy promoted or accepted by the Sisters or the Church, then or now”. Cruel and unnatural treatment is most certainly part of the policy of the Roman Catholic Church, as is seen in those laws of its councils which decree the use of force upon, and extermination of, heretics laws which have never been disannulled and continue to be ecclesiastical statutes. That policy was put into effect in a most dreadful manner in the tortures of the Inquisition, the Massacre of St Bartholomew, and the fires of Smithfield, to mention only three of the ways by which many thousands of people lost their lives at the murderous hands of Rome. As R P Blakeney says in his Manual of Romish Controversy, “When the essential principles of the Church of Rome are taken into account, it should cause no wonder that Rome is drunk with the blood of the saints”.
NMR
Return to Table of Contents for The Free Presbyterian Magazine – November 2000