The Pope is petitioned to declare Mary to be Co-Redemptrix
MORE than four million Roman Catholics in the USA have petitioned the Pope to pronounce Mary, the mother of Christ, “Co-Redemptrix, Medatrix of all graces and Advocate for the people of God”, again making her equal with Jesus Christ. The petition has the support of Cardinal John O’Connor of New York, who has made his views known to a Vatican commission. It appears that the Pope, an ardent devotee of Mary, favours the petition.
The blasphemous teaching of Rome about Mary already is that “she . . . by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation . . . Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix” (Catechism of the Catholic Church). This is altogether contrary to the truth that the only advocate with God the Father is “Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1), and that there is “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5).
To proclaim Mary to be co-redeemer with Christ would be further great blasphemy. Rome already teaches that the redemption which Christ wrought out is insufficient and our works must be added to it, and that Christ Himself is too remote and must be approached through a mediatrix. We need not be surprised if Rome takes another step and rejects the Biblical truth that Christ is the only Redeemer, and pronounces Mary to be “Co-Redemptrix”.
Millions throughout the world are being blinded by such soul-destroying teaching and therefore do not look to the omnipotent Saviour of whom Scripture says, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:10). □
The difference between the saints of Rome and the saints of Scripture
Someone whom Diana, Princess of Wales, greatly admired, died on the eve of the Princess’s funeral. We refer to Gonxha Bojaxhiu, the Roman Catholic nun known as Mother Teresa. Although much praised for work among the poor in Calcutta, she was in fact a deluded devotee of Romanism who believed that her charity work would earn her a place in heaven. We are not suggesting that she did not feel for the destitute, but for her it was not the Biblical teaching of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ alone, but the Romish idea of salvation by works.
Were it not for Malcolm Muggeridge, who later became a Roman Catholic, she would never have become famous. In 1968 the BBC asked him “to find an Indian female, a nun of sorts, someone doing good works in Calcutta to feature in a documentary”. He found Mother Teresa, and as a result she found international fame and received vastly increased financial support for her charity.
Pressure is now building up within the Roman Catholic hierarchy for her to be canonised through “popular acclamation”. The Pope wants to speed up the procedure for her canonisation; Cardinal O’Connor, New York, “is certain that she is already in heaven”, (no purgatory for her evidently); Cardinal Hume said that he will be asking her to intercede for him; and some senior bishops have suggested that because she is “obviously already a saint” she should be beatified (the first stage in canonisation) and canonised immediately. Romanism has certainly gained enormously from the favourable media attention given to her, and we suspect that Rome will devise a way of speedily canonising her.
How deceived Roman Catholics are when they think that only a few people can be saints, and then only by having extraordinary qualifications including working of miracles, and even then only after going through purgatory (that invention of Rome by which it has generated vast income through the centuries). Happy indeed are those people who are convinced of their sins, and led by the Holy Spirit to believe only on Jesus Christ for salvation. Immediately they believe they become saints in the Biblical sense. All of them without exception are “saints of God” now and for ever. □
Praise from the press for the Pope in Paris
IN an adulatory editorial, The Daily Telegraph praised the Pope for adhering “to traditional teaching” and for triumphing in Poland “over tyranny by positing God’s truth against the amorality of communism.” This is yet another example of people being blind to the errors and duplicity of Rome because it holds some orthodox truths. The occasion of such ill-informed praise was the Pope’s visit to Paris to celebrate a mass, which was attended by more than a million people, on 24th August, the 425th anniversary of the massacre of St Bartholomew.
On that fearful night in 1572, and in the days that followed, at least 74,000 Protestants were murdered in France by the Church of Rome operating through the secular powers, with Charles IX at their head, and with the willing aid of the Roman Catholic population.
The Pope, when in Paris, is reported to have apologised for the massacre. But, as the English Churchman points out, the apology is nothing new. Rome has already conceded, through the Catholic Truth Society in 1893, that “the St Bartholomew massacre was a great crime committed by persons professing the Catholic faith.” But her concession is only apparent. Rome’s explanation is that first, the massacre was inspired by political, not religious motives; second, that it was of ‘very short premeditation’, if not a sudden impulse; and third, that the ‘holy see’ was in no way responsible for, or accomplices in, the slaughter.
Like so much of the truth of the Catholic Truth Society, this explanation also is a figment of the imagination and a wicked attempt at whitewashing. Even secular historians with no axe to grind have shown that the massacre was inspired, carefully planned, and executed by Rome, albeit by using the secular powers. Let no one be taken in by the Pope’s so-called apology. □
Winning refused a prominent place at the funeral of the Princess of Wales
THE growing arrogance of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Scotland was shown at the time of the death and funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales. The office of Cardinal Thomas Winning had the boldness to make approaches to the Westminster Abbey authorities and the Lord Chamberlain’s office with the request that he be given a place beside British church leaders at the Princess’s funeral. However, the Dean of the Abbey “ruled that there was ‘no precedent’ for the cardinal’s inclusion in the small party”.
However, this setback will not deter the Cardinal from continuing to ratchet up his influence in the life of Scotland, helped no doubt by the vote for devolution, and the hope of independence for Scotland. Considering that a disproportionate number of Roman Catholics already wield political power in Scotland, one does not have to be a political analyst to see that an independent Scotland would have a disproportionate number of Roman Catholics at the helm. □