By the Rev. Dr. Hugh Farrell, formerly a Carmelite Friar *
A thing I always do in the United States before I start speaking to any group is to present my credentials. After all, you do not know me and I do not know you. I am sure that most of us have a common bond here of belonging to the Lord, of being Evangelical Christians, and believing in and upholding the Gospel of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. But had I been here seven or eight years ago that would not have been true of me. Not that I did not uphold our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, but I was very much an Anglo-Catholic and a Modernist.
Twenty years ago when I left the Roman Catholic Church where I had been for many years a monk in the Carmelite Order, I became an Anglican minister or an Episcopalian minister as we call such a person in the United States of America. For 15 years I served in various parishes and several chaplaincies. I felt that being an Anglo-Catholic was the most satisfactory thing and I also prided myself on my Modernism.
* This article appeared in “The English Churchman,” 29th September, 1961, and is published here by permission of the Editor of the said paper. It is of interest in view of the present Vatican Council in Rome.—Editor.
Then six years ago, by the grace of God, He who foreknew me and predestined me to be made in the image and likeness of His Son, called me to grace. From that moment on, I set out in the work that I am doing now.
What am I doing? I am not here as a rabble-rouser. I am not here to incite you against your Roman Catholic relatives, friends or neighbours. You may come up to me afterwards and say, “I have very fine Roman Catholic neighbours.” Well, I can go one better. I have very fine Roman Catholic brothers and sisters, and I know there are many good Roman Catholics. But on the other hand, because of my long years of education, and my long years in the monastery, I also know the insidious way in which the Roman Catholic Church goes about to achieve its end. This may seem very improbable to you, because knowing these neighbours, you are judging the entire Roman Catholic Church by them. I would ask you to do this, if you really wish to understand the Roman Catholic Church: go to Spain. Spain is the bulwark of the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church prides itself on the fact that Spain is the most Catholic of all nations. Therefore go to Spain, as I do every two years, and live there for a while. Go into South America, into Colombia and some of the dominantly Roman Catholic countries. Go also into parts of Europe that are not entirely Roman Catholic countries, such as South Germany, Austria, parts of Switzerland, the Roman Catholic cantons of Switzerland, and then you will see the Roman Catholic Church at its work. If you still disbelieve what I am saying here to-day, come to America.
U.S.A. Roman Catholic
Now you may well say that the United States of America is a Protestant country. There are about 200,000 Protestant ministers in the United States who are suffering from the same delusion. They still think it is a Protestant country, yet if they are to face up to the facts politically and spiritually, they will see that beginning with 1960, United States of America ceased to be a Protestant nation and became Roman Catholic. To-day in the United States we number 180 million people (our latest census is not in), and out of that 180 million people, there are 40 or 42 million Roman Catholics. I know some of the young minds are working right now and telling me that I do not know my mathematics, because 40 million is certainly not the majority as far as 180 million is concerned, but it is the majority because that 40 million is a consolidated, a concentric group. It is a working group, and it knows what it is doing. Also remember this, those of you who know anything about Irish Roman Catholicism, that the hierarchy in the United States is 90 per cent. Irish, either born in Ireland, or at the most second generation Irish. They are determined to see that the United States of America is under the authority of the Pope, and have done very well up to this date.
If I paint you a picture of what happened in the United States of America in the past 30 years, you can see what is happening now in Britain, and will have been accomplished, unless God prevents it happening by a miracle, by the year 1975. That is the date, back in the “thirties,” that the Roman Catholic Church set as the time for the “Dowry of Mary” to be returned to the Bishop of Rome. They decided that 1975 was the time to aim for when England would become Roman Catholic. And they are doing very well despite the fact that there are only about five million Roman Catholics in the British Isles.
Now what happened in the United States? Back when I was in the Seminary, that is studying for the priesthood before I entered the monastery, a plan was established, beginning with the defeat of Alfred E. Smith for the Presidency of the United States in 1928. This plan came into effect in approximately 1930-31. I do not remember the exact date, because the exact date was not important to me. The date that was important to me was the year 1960 because they declared at that time, if their plan went well, if all Roman Catholics co-operated, then by 1960 the United States of America would be dominated by Roman Catholic influence. This did not seem possible back in 1930. Actually there were 17 million Roman Catholics in the United States and a great majority of them were to be found among the immigrants—Italians, Poles, Irish and what have you from Europe. We in America discounted their influence. I did not, because I was one of them. The American Protestants themselves discounted their influence because they said, “After all they are foreigners and what can they hope to accomplish?” So very benignly they looked upon them as having certain ambitions, but felt it was impossible for them to achieve those ambitions because Protestantism was alive and alert—at least they thought so! The Roman Catholic Church very nicely allowed them to suffer under that illusion. As a matter of fact, they encouraged it, and they kept very much underground. What they did was organise on a local basis. Whenever there was an assembly man or a council man or a local government representative to be elected, the Roman Catholics would pull for one of their members, saying, “Well, after all, there are two or three Protestant members on the council and why should there not be a Roman Catholic member?” This seemed to the Protestants to be very just, and so in most cases the Protestants supported the election. Then when the Roman Catholic member was elected, whether it was on the council or borough council, they would never permit any kind of legislation that was detrimental to the Roman Catholic Church to be enacted. If an attempt were made to do so they would immediately cry out “This is bigotry. This is not Americanism. We must not allow this thing to happen in this country because all of us have freedom.” But on the other hand, if anything was necessary for the good and growth of the R.C. Church, they would always get up and say, “Now this is a thing we should do to show that we are not prejudiced—that we are not bigots, and that we love our brethren and we want to share all things equally with them.” Of course this is the great Jesuitical plan. It has been carried on, historically speaking, since the foundation of the Jesuits. Possibly you may not know the Jesuits are regarded as the vanguard of the Pope, the vanguard of the Roman Catholic Church—the Papacy. They go in ahead, they lay plans, they infiltrate, and whatever they do is all right because their motto is, Ad majorem gloriam Dei (“To the greater glory of God”). They feel that since the end, the terminus, determines the sin, whatever they are doing is morally right because the end is good. They are trying to add to the glory of God, which in their mind is the glory of the Roman Catholic Church.
Rome and Communism
So from this, a local basis, they then have stepped up into our state government. As you know, our country is divided into 50 states. Each state is fairly independent from the other, and also from the Federal Government, although that freedom is gradually being taken away. On the state level, they elected their assembly men, their legislative members, their State Senators and their governors, so that to-day out of the 50 governors recently elected in United States, there are 22 Roman Catholic governors—far out of proportion to their number. Also every large city, north of the Mason Dixon line (this is the surveyors’ line that separates the North from the South and is the line of demarcation in the Civil War), and that includes among others Boston, New York, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, Los Angeles, is Roman Catholic. I could go through many of the other cities and name them—and all of them have a Roman Catholic Mayor, and they are entirely dominated by the Roman Catholic Church. This is simply because the Protestants sit back and say, “Now if we stand up for what we believe is right, our priceless heritage, this Protestant heritage, we shall be counted as bigots by the Roman Catholic Church, and we do not want to be called bigots. Therefore we shall compromise and we shall win them because they will see that we are charitable.” The Roman Catholics laughed at them. I used to laugh at them. I used to think, “How stupid can you get?” And remember this is the very policy that the Communists pursue. They have taken many hints from the Roman Church and have developed them. They cry out, for instance, “We must not go to war” and at the same time they are the first ones who start again making their bombs and finding out how good their bombs are. You must not look at their actions, you must not look at what they are doing. You must look at what they are saying. And so with the Roman Catholic Church.
Now you may say, “Do they realise that they are being insidious?” No, because they believe so firmly in what the Roman Catholic Church teaches that they can see nothing else. Therein lies the spiritual danger, and why? Because Roman Catholics are taught that anything that the Church does not teach or profess is evil, and because they claim that if it were good, the Roman Catholic Church would believe it. Now Roman Catholics believe in the Scriptures, but, on the other hand, they are not permitted to interpret the Scriptures. They claim that the Roman Catholic Church has always interpreted and taught the Scriptures according to the unanimous consent of the Holy Fathers, that is Jerome, Cyril, Athanasius and others. Yet if you know the writings of the early Fathers, if you have made a study of them (Roman Catholic priests study them so they should know better), you will find that the early Fathers did not interpret the Scriptures as the Popes interpret them to-day. Also the Roman Catholic Church claims that it alone is the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church. That they are the true church, and no one outside of that church has a chance for salvation unless they are ignorant of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. That it is possible for Protestants to be saved, but only if they are ignorant of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. If they refuse to profess a belief in the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, although they know about them, then they are in danger of eternal damnation. If you doubt this, I refer you to “Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma” by Ludwig Ott, an outstanding Roman Catholic theologian. This book is published by the Roman Catholic Church. Turn to page 312 and you have your reference right there. Extra ecclesia non est salus (“Outside the Church there is no salvation”) and down in the second paragraph it states, “By faith it is to be firmly held that outside the apostolic Roman Church none can achieve salvation.” This was enunciated by Pope Pius IX, who lived in the last century. Wherever any article in the Roman Church begins “De Fide,” that is “By faith,” you have to hold and profess it under the pain of eternal damnation.
Great Danger
This is the great spiritual danger we face to-day in our evangelical Christianity. Due to the dissemination of their doctrine, due to the fact that they have this great scheme which they are carrying out, and due to their great publicity and propaganda, we are beginning to accept the fact that possibly the Roman Catholic Church may be half right. Whenever we accept the proposition that the Roman Catholic Church may be half right, we say then, “Would it not be logical to go ahead and join with them because then we can help reform the Roman Catholic Church? We can reform the Roman Catholic Church from within.” Now this error has been committed by many a young lover. They have known a person who was addicted to alcohol and have said, “If I only marry this person, I will reform this person, because my love will be great enough to teach him that he is doing wrong, or that he is hurting himself or hurting his family.” But if you look at the cases of alcoholics that have been reformed by marrying them, you will find there are very few.
The Roman Catholic Church can never abdicate her position, can never change her doctrine because otherwise she will cease to be the Roman Catholic Church.
Now what is the major difference between ourselves and the Roman Catholic Church? Well, briefly it is this. First of all there is only one infallible teacher in all Christendom and that is the Pope. Only he may make an infallible pronouncement and whatever he declares to be a faith, you have to believe. For instance in 1950 he declared that the body of Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ, is now in heaven at the right hand of God; the physical, corporate body of Mary is present there, and any Roman Catholic who denies this truth will go to hell. That is if they persist in their denial. Up to 1950 Roman Catholics could believe it or not. Many Roman Catholics possibly will tell you, not thinking, that he has not made an infallible pronouncement, but that is ridiculous. As a matter of fact, in 1854, the Pope declared that Mary was Immaculately Conceived—that is that Mary was ever without sin, was ever without a stain of sin, that she was born without sin. Then in 1870 he declared that Roman Catholics must believe this doctrine because from now on he was to be held as infallible.
Another difference is that of the question of the hierarchy. The power comes from the Holy Ghost to the Papacy, the Pope. He in turn, and he alone, can appoint the bishops throughout the world, so the bishops are dependent on him for their appointment, and whatever power they enjoy is enjoyed in his status because he is the universal bishop of the world, and they merely participate in his bishopric. He has the right to consecrate them, he has the right to depose them, he has the right to appoint them, he has the right even to take over their diocese. Then since he is the one infallible teacher in Christendom as far as the Holy Scriptures, and all the doctrine concerning the Holy Scriptures is concerned, you have to believe if you are a Roman Catholic that he alone can tell you what the Scriptures teach. You may argue with me that Roman Catholics are allowed to read the Scriptures, and therefore, it is logical that they may see the truth as revealed in the Scriptures. But whenever Roman Catholics come to a point in the Scripture which differs from the teaching of the church, or seems to differ from the church, immediately they think “I do not understand this correctly because it is not the teaching of the church” and so they close their mind. When you are dealing with a Roman Catholic you will soon recognise that they separate their mind into departments, and when they open one department to you they will close the other. They have to do this because if they ever come to the point where they recognise the validity of the teaching of the Scriptures, where they recognise the authority of God’s Word, then of course they will doubt many things their church teaches.
Another major doctrinal difference is the doctrine of Mary. Mary is gradually taking the place of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. There is no one here who honours Mary more than I do. I love Mary as the Mother of my Saviour. I love Mary as the one chosen by Almighty God that she might give flesh and blood to His only begotten Son, who has existed from all eternity. Who is co-equal with the Father. Because remember Jesus Christ is eternal. It is only as Man that He had His beginning. God chose this vessel. God gave her a purpose and she fulfilled that purpose. But God did not raise her to the dignity of a deity. You can see this very well if you read the Gospel. You will not see any mention of her divinity there. Obviously she has fulfilled a purpose. She was honoured for this, but there was no idea of elevating her to a status, which, if it continues, will destroy the Trinity itself. At the next Ecumenical Council, which the Pope is now planning, and I know some of the plans because I spent the winter in Rome, you will find that they will declare that no grace comes to men except through Mary; they say, Ab Jesu per Mariam (“From Jesus through Mary”). She is called “the channel of all graces.” If you look in their Missal for the optional Mass, you will find ascribed to her there the title “Mary, Mediatrix of all graces,” the “co-redemptrix of the human race.” This is very dangerous because as you elevate Mary you take away from the Son. The only commandment we have from Mary is the one she gave concerning her Son at the wedding feast of Cana: “Do what he tells you to do.” Therefore we have it from her own lips that she wants us to follow her Son and do His Will in regard to our spiritual life, and to our whole life.
(To be continued)