Guernica is a painting by Pablo Picasso, depicting the Nazi German bombing of Guernica (Gernika-Lumo), Spain, by twenty-four bombers, on April 26, 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. This bombing outraged public opinion in the democracies. (Photo source: Wikipedia)

Picasso commented as he worked on the by the Republican's commissioned mural:

The Spanish struggle is the fight of reaction against the people, against freedom. My whole life as an artist has been nothing more than a continuous struggle against reaction and the death of art. How could anybody think for a moment that I could be in agreement with reaction and death? ... In the panel on which I am working, which I shall call Guernica, and in all my recent works of art, I clearly express my abhorrence of the military caste which has sunk Spain in an ocean of pain and death.

1953 - The Concordat

The Concordat served to legitimize the regime in the eyes of many Spaniards, and it was instrumental in strengthening Franco's hold over the country. However, already when Franco came to power in 1939, he had restored the church's privileges:

• Roman Catholicism was the only religion to have legal status; other worship services could not be advertised, and only the Roman Catholic Church could own property or publish books.

• The Church was given control over education.

• The Government would pay priests' salaries and subsidize the church. Also, it assisted in the reconstruction of church buildings damaged by the war.

• Laws were passed abolishing divorce and civil marriages.

• Laws were enacted banning abortion and the sale of contraceptives.

•  Homosexuality and all other forms of sexual permissiveness were also banned.

• Catholic religious instruction was mandatory, even in public schools.

In 1953 this close cooperation was formalized in a new Concordat with the Vatican that granted the church an extraordinary set of privileges:

• Mandatory canonical marriages for all Catholics

• Exemption from government taxation

• Subsidies for new building construction

• Censorship of materials the church deemed offensive

• The right to establish universities, to operate radio stations, and to publish newspapers and magazines.

• Protection from police intrusion into church properties; and exemption of clergy from military service.

Here are some excerpts from the original:

Article 1

The Apostolic Roman Catholic Church will continue to be the sole religion of the Spanish State and will enjoy the rights and prerogatives due to it under Divine and Canon Law.

 

Article 2

1. The Spanish State recognizes in the Catholic Church the character of the perfect society and guarantees it the free and full exercise of its spiritual power and jurisdiction, as well the free and public exercise of the religion..

 

Article 16

5. When clergy or those in Religious Orders are detained or arrested they will be treated with the consideration due to their state and position.  Prison sentences will be served in a Church or religious house which, in the judgement of the local Ordinary and the relevant State authority, offers suitable guarantees.  Sentences will not be served in facilities where there are lay people unless the relevant Church authorities have demoted the person concerned to the lay state.  They will be allowed bail and any other benefits established in law.

 

Article 19

3. The State, faithful to the national tradition, will pay annual grants for the construction and maintenance of parish churches, rectories and seminaries; for the promotion of Religious Orders, Congregations and Church institutions dedicated to missionary activity and to the care of historically important monasteries in Spain, as well as sustaining the Spanish College of St Joseph and the Spanish Church and Montserrat Residence in Rome.

 

Article 26

In all centres of education, of whatever type or level, both public and private, teaching will conform to the principles of the dogma and morality of the Catholic Church. 

The Ordinaries may freely exercise vigilance over said centres of education in respect of the purity of the Faith, good habits and religious education.

The Ordinaries can demand that books, publications and educational materials contrary to Catholic dogma and morality are prohibited or withdrawn.

 

Article 27

1. The Spanish State guarantees the teaching of the Catholic religion as a regular and obligatory subject in all centres of education, both public and private, of all types and levels. . . .

The Supreme Order of Our Lord Jesus Christ rewarded Franco in 1954 with a full membership for giving the Church extensive privileges in the 1953 Concordat. Only heads of state are eligible for this highest Vatican honor. They must be Catholic, but they needn't be democratic.

 

E. The Vatican and the Vietnam War--Analysis of a Tragedy

Introduction

The Vietnam war 1957 to 1975 was urged on and prolonged by the Catholic Church, but it is Vietnam and the United States that will pay a heavy price in lives and treasure.

     American Senator Ernest Gruening, in a speech delivered to the U.S. Senate on April 9, 1965, stated:

That civil war began . . . when Diems regime--at our urging--refused to carry out the provision contained in the Geneva Agreement to hold elections [in 1956] for the reunification of Vietnam.

     Indeed, there is strong evidence that if the elections promised for 1956 would not have been rejected by influential Catholics, Pope Pius XII, Cardinal Spellman, Joseph Kennedy and son John F.  Kennedy, who in turn influenced the U.S. and South Vietnam government, the American Vietnam War could have been avoided.

     The election of 1956, which would have brought about a peaceful reunification of the country, was rejected because polls indicated that the people of Vietnam overwhelmingly favored Ho Chi Minh and his movement because they had the country liberated from the French. The Vatican and the U.S., however, regarded them as communists. Hence, this democratic electoral takeover was unacceptable to them for the following reasons: 

• This would have been contrary to the objectives of the Vatican which was the Catholicization of all of Vietnam and the creation of a totalitarian Catholic state, a Catholic theocracy. Although the American public believed that Vietnam was preponderantly Catholic, only a small minority of less than ten percent was actually Catholic.
• Also, it would have been inimical to the interests of the U.S. Government which was concerned that if Vietnam would become communist, then neighboring states would fall like dominos and too accept communism--the so-called "domino theory."

     However, the domino theory was a prediction based on guesswork, for Ho Chi Minh was a communist with national not international interests. Moreover, Ho Chi Minh, like Nelson Mandela later, and the modern liberators in Latin America, turned for help to socialist countries like Russia and China because Western capitalist democracies would not only not aid them but often actually support their oppressors and exploiters.   

The Vietnam War's costs in lives and treasure:

• 3 to 4 million North and South Vietnamese were killed.
• 1.5 to 2 million Laotians and Cambodians lost their lives.
• More than 58,000 Americans died.
• At least 5 million individuals were seriously injured.
• Much of Vietnam was leveled by heavy bombing and the countryside poisoned by chemical warfare (agent orange). Deformed, agent orange, children are still born today.
• The drain on the U.S. treasury was such that President Lyndon B. Johnson's declared "war on poverty," his vision of a "Great Society," had to be abandoned.

An analysis of this war is important because it serves as an example of what happens when a spiritually dogmatic religious institution allies with an economically dogmatic and militarily powerful nation to impose their respective ideologies on a country that has no need for either. Moreover, this is a macro examples of many like events in Latin America where military dictators, the Catholic Church, and the U.S. allied to maintain and expand their unearned power, wealth, and privileges. The driving motivation in case of the U.S. is the fear, bordering on paranoia, that a more social economic system could be successful and compete with their system of unbridled capitalism.

 

Background

The Vietnamese were for much of their history under Chinese rule. However, Vietnam was independent when in the mid-1800s it was, together with Cambodia and Laos, colonized by the French. From there on, the country was run mainly for the benefit of France, French settlers, a traditional ruling class, and a small group of a Vietnamese elite that had converted to the Catholicism introduced by the French. It was mainly them who gained from a Western-style educational system, medical care, and the profits from exporting tobacco, indigo, tea, and coffee.

      From 1926-1945 the country had a puppet emperor Bao Dai, meaning "Keeper of Greatness," who served at the pleasure of the French and later the Japanese (1940-1945). During his reign, various leaders demanded self-government and human rights that were, however, largely ignored by the French. Among those demanding reform, Ho Chi Minh (1890-1960) would eventually be successful.

 

1941 to 1945 - Alliance with the United States to fight the Japanese occupiers

In 1941, under Ho Chi Minh, the Viet Minh, a communist and national liberation movement formed to seek independence for Vietnam from the French and resist the Japanese occupation. At the same time, the U.S. threatened Japan with military action if they would not leave Indochina. When this did not happen, the Viet Minh, under the principal leadership of Ho Chi Minh, effectively cooperated with the United States and:

• started a guerilla war against the Japanese occupiers,
• fought in Vietnam the Vichy French Government, a Nazi puppet, which was administering Indochina for Japan.
• rescued downed U.S. pilots,
• searched for and located Japanese prison camps,
• helped U.S. prisoners to escape,
• provided valuable intelligence to the forerunner of the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), the OSS (Office of Strategic Services),
• Ho Chi Minh agreed to and was made a special OSS agent.

1946 to 1954 - Betrayal by the U.S. causes the First Indochina War

When the Japanese surrendered in September of 1945, a by the Constitution of the U.S. inspired Ho Chi Minh announced the independence of Vietnam and named it the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV). The French, however, refused to acknowledge Vietnam's independence, and the war that followed could have easily prevented by the U.S. The betrayal by the U.S. of their former ally was twofold:

First, in May 1945, the Truman administration gave France its approval to resume colonial authority in Indochina. Instead, the U.S. could have done the right thing and acknowledge the independence of Vietnam, thus stopping the immoral ambitions of the French to re-colonize. Many OSS agents had informed the U.S. administration that Ho Chin Minh, though a communist, was not a puppet of the Soviet Union and could continue to be an ally in Asia. Moreover, Ho had written eight letters to Harry Truman pleading with him to recognize the independence of Vietnam.

Second, the U.S. could have simply refused to materially support the French, for they did not have the means to engage in such an undertaking far from home. Instead:

• In 1946 U.S. warships transported elite French troops to Vietnam, and the war started in December of that year.
• The U.S. bankrolled much of France's effort to overthrow Ho Chi Minh's government. U.S. aid increased during the war and reached 80 percent of the financial cost of the war by 1954.
• In 1950, the U.S. recognized France's puppet king in Vietnam, Bao Dai. 

     The First Indochina War ended in 1954 shortly after the Battle of Dien Bien Phu which finished with a massive defeat of the French by Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh. At Geneva Switzerland, in July 1954, the French and Viet Minh signed a settlement. Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, Communist China, and representatives from the two other Indochina nations, Laos and Cambodia, attended the conference. It was an agreement that Vietnam was to be temporarily divided at the 17th parallel. For two years the French were to be allowed to maintain their administration in the southern half of Vietnam. Then elections were to be held in 1956 to reunite Vietnam. Moreover, elections were to be supervised by an International Control Commission that had also been appointed as part of the agreement.

     However, The Vatican never accepted the division of Vietnam, as envisaged by Geneva, because of the consistency of its general strategy. This could be identified with the pursuit of four main objectives as:

1. the maintenance of the unity of Vietnam;

2. total elimination of communism;

3. Catholicization of the whole country with Buddhism and Protestantism

    eliminated;

4. the creation of a totalitarian Catholic state, to achieve and to maintain

    the first three.

     One of the first moves was to select a man fit to carry out these objectives. His name would be Ngo Dinh Diem. Diem had been carefully groomed by the Catholic establishment, was an ardently religious person, a fanatical anti-Communist, and a ruthless religious and political dogmatist. He had been watched for some time, both by the Vatican and certain individuals in the U.S. When the moment for the choice came, the decision was taken, mostly by American Catholics, the best known of these being Cardinal Spellman, Joe Kennedy and his son the future President John F. Kennedy, and last but not least, by John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles, and their secret entourage (see below).

 

The Vatican encourages the Vietnam War (1957-75)

The American lobby for the war:

• John Foster Dulles (1888-1959) Secretary of State (1953-59) had an intense hatred of Communism, which was in part based on his deep religious faith. It was this passionate hostility to Communism that was the leitmotiv of his policy. He willingly joined Pope Pius XII (reign 1939-58) and Cardinal Spellman in promoting the Cold War.
• Allen W. Dulles (1893-1969) Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) (1953-1961) He resigned in the autumn of 1961 as a result of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in which he was implicated. This illegal action had 1,500 Cuban exiles invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs with the objective to overthrow Fidel Castro. The invasion was financed and directed by the U.S. (Kennedy) government. Like his brother John Foster Dulles, he too had an intense hatred of Communism, which was in part based on a deeply religious faith.
• The Catholic lobby was headed by Cardinal Spellman, also known as the American pope. Avro Manhattan reports:

Cardinal Spellman was so identified with the Vietnam War that after he came out in the open prior to years of hidden promotional activities, he became the popular epitome of the war itself, and this to such an extent, that the Vietnam War eventually was labeled the Spellman War. This was not a scornful adjective. It was the verbal epitome of a concrete reality. Cardinal Spellman, as the personalized vehicle of the double Vatican-American strategy, had begun to represent the Catholic-American policy itself.

     To that effect he was fully endowed with the right attributes. He was the religious-military representative of both Catholic and military powers since he represented both, being the Vicar of the American Armed Forces of the U.S.:

• He was always flown in American military aircraft,
• visited regularly the U.S. troops in Vietnam, and repeatedly declared, with the personal approval of both Pius XII and J.F. Dulles, that the U.S. troops in South Vietnam were: "the soldiers of Christ."
• Which in this context, being cardinal of the Catholic Church, meant soldiers of the Catholic Church (my emphasis).

• Joseph Kennedy and his son John F. Kennedy were also Catholic lobbyists. John who would later use his presidential powers to expand the war was:

The first Catholic president of the U.S. Kennedy, already as senator, was part of the Catholic lobby which pushed for the installation of a Catholic president in South Vietnam. As early as 1954-55 he advocated military intervention to help the French hold back Communist advancement in North Vietnam. He was instrumental in the installation of Ngo Dunh Diem as Prime Minister. When Kennedy became President, he rapidly escalated the U.S. military involvement in support of Diem's Catholic regime. Later when Diem's persecution of the Buddhists began to draw fire from world opinion, Kennedy had to choose between supporting his church's effort or promoting his own political career (my emphasis).

 

At first, a nuclear knock-out strike was supported by the Vatican's lobby

Avro Manhattan reports:

As Pius XII continued to support the U.S. lobby advocating "an atomic preventive war." When in 1954 the U.S. Army planned a nuclear attack on the Vietnamese, besieging the French at Dien Bien Phu, the same Vatican supported lobby gave their approval of the proposal. During the Eisenhower Administration, when the Dulles brothers, Spellman and thus Pius XII helped formulate U.S. policies, the U.S. military considered dropping from one to six 31-kiloton bombs on the Vietnamese forces. The weapons were three times as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb. This scheme to use nuclear weapons against Vietnam was disclosed in declassified material in the first volume of a 17-volume official history of the Vietnam War published in 1984 by the Army's historical office.

 

The American war effort was doomed from the beginning

On the one hand, the American opponent Ho Chi Minh and his Viet Minh forces were highly motivated and disciplined, for they had the support of most Vietnamese - the population had been overjoyed with the prospect of a free unified country and considered them national heroes on account of expelling the French oppressors.

     On the other hand, America's South Vietnamese ally was President Ngo Dinh Diem who was recommended by the Catholic lobby and subsequently installed and kept in power by the U.S. in 1955. He was picked for his fiercely anti-communist and devoutly Catholic ideology. Otherwise, he and his semi-totalitarian regime were incredibly totalitarian and corrupt:

• Starting with his thinking, he considered the Catholic religion the only true religion and    had convinced himself that he had been chosen by God to fulfill a definite task, namely, that of uniting Vietnam and establishing a Catholic totalitarian regime. At this time only about ten percent of the population was Catholic. As Avro Manhatten observed:

Diem took the teaching of these Popes literally. For instance, he firmly held, as Pope Pius IX declared in his Syllabus of Errors, "that it is an error to believe that the church is not a true and perfect society." For the Church to be perfect, the state must be integrated with her so that the two become,   as one, because quoting again Pius IX "it is an error to believe that: the Church ought to be separated from the State and State from the Church" a principle, which went totally against the Constitution of the U.S., his sponsor.

• Beginning in 1955, the U.S. created the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Diem used these troops to take land away from the peasants and returned it to former landlords, thus, reversing the land redistribution program implemented by the Viet Minh.

• Between 1954 and 1955, agents paid by the CIA spread rumors in northern Vietnam that Communists were about to persecute Catholics. This resulted in1 million Catholics to flee to the south. Their preferred treatment uprooted Buddhists who were already upset with Diem's rule on account of his draconian discrimination against them.

• In violation of the Geneva agreements, he held a separate election in 1955 South Vietnam. Although he was advised by the CIA to win believably with 65-70 percent of the vote, he rigged the election process and one with 98.2 percent. We know that it was fraudulent because he won in Saigon with 135 percent (!) of the vote. Apparently, he had advised his followers to vote early and often.

• Diem forcibly removed many villagers, often at gunpoint, from their ancestral lands to controlled settlements in an attempt to eliminate Communist activity. Moreover, he drafted their sons into the ARVN.

• Conservative estimates reckon that during the initial period of Diem's terror--that is from 1955 to 1960--at least 80,000 people were executed or otherwise murdered, 275,000 had been detained, interrogated with or without physical torture, and about 500,000 were sent to concentration or detention camps.

• The Catholic Church in South Vietnam, from having only three upper and middle schools in 1953, had multiplied them to 1,060 schools by 1963, a brief period of only ten years.

• The U.S. "Relief Program" donated millions of tons of food, agricultural implements, building materials, vehicles, and uncountable goods of all kinds. This was distributed and therefore controlled by the "Catholic Relief Services" a branch of Diem's regime. The goods were freely given to Catholics but had to be paid for by Buddhists. Although this was perceived by Buddhists as discriminatory, whole villages converted to Catholicism to get this benefit.

• Diem was a poor administrator who refused to delegate authority. Also, he was pathologically suspicious of anyone who was not a member of his family. By 1960, South Vietnam had become the political domain of Diem's family and friends. All exceptionally zealous Catholics who monopolized the South Vietnam:

• His brother Ngo Dinh Nhu was a trade union leader, the head of the semisecret Can Lao movement, and the head of the fearful secret police. He controlled an extensive system of extortion, payoffs, and influence peddling through the Can Lao, which had clandestine members in all government bureaus and military units as well as schools, newspapers, and businesses.

• Another brother Ngo Dinh Luyen governed the province of Cham minorities.

• Yet another brother Ngo Dinh Can ruled central Vietnam as a war lord from the town of Hue--the center of Buddhism.

• Still one more brother Ngo Dinh Thuc was the Catholic Archbishop of the province of Thuathien.

• There were nephews, nieces, friends, army officers, judges, top civil service officials--all zealous Catholics acting in total accordance with the Catholic Church and her objectives.

• In the countryside, ambitious programs of social and economic reform had been allowed to fade while many local officials and police engaged in extortion, bribery, and theft of government property. That like Diem himself, many of these officials were northerners and Roman Catholics further alienated them from the local people of South Vietnam.

Lack of motivation cripples South Vietnamese and eventually U.S. forces

The South Vietnamese forces:

• were mostly Buddhist conscripts who had little motivation to be in the army other than a paycheck. They had even less enthusiasm to fight for a Catholic regime that was as or even more oppressive and corrupt than the French colonists.

• had 113,000 deserters in 1965. And by 1972 the desertion rate was 20,000 per month.

• suffered from internal corruption. Many units were in fact seriously understaffed because commanders claimed nonexistent soldiers and then pocketed their pay.

• had many soldiers who were secretly working for the enemy, the southern Communists NFL (National Liberation Front). Intelligence provided by them subverted the U.S. effort.

• experienced internal conflict at various times when battles bordering on civil war broke out between troops.

• were poorly directed and failed most of the time to appropriately deal with the enemy's actions. 

The United States forces:

• on account of the above, came to dislike and mistrust their ally, the South Vietnamese forces and even accused them of abandoning the battleground.

• consisted mainly of young conscripts from the poorer section of American society. The injustice of the Selective Service system lowered the moral of many conscripts. Laws exempting from military service favored the more privileged and affluent members of society:

• student deferments effectively allowed most middle- and upper class youngsters to avoid military service*.

• physical exemptions were easily obtained by the privileged, especially from draft boards in affluent communities.

• the well-connected citizens could serve their military service at home in the National Guard (e.g., President George W. Bush).

• suffered from internal conflicts on account of racism against the Vietnamese. Especially sensitive were those who where at the receiving end of racism at home in the U.S. Vietnamese friends and foes were routinely referred to as "gooks" thus dehumanizing them. This encouraged many atrocities including the well-known one at My Lai.

• had soldiers who strongly felt that their superiors put their lives unnecessarily at risk. They would then intentionally wound or kill them by, for instance, throwing fragmentation grenades into the officer's sleeping quarters. One official account noted 382 such incidents, known as fragging, between 1969 and 1971 alone. However, many other fraggings went unreported. 

• by 1971, when some U.S. troops started to withdraw on the hopeful theory that Vietnamese could carry a larger share of the war, no soldier wanted to be the last one to be killed. This had the effect that entire units refused direct orders to go out on combat controls. Moreover, the desertion rate peaked at 7.35 percent in 1971. And around half a million men received less than honorable discharges.

*The warmongers for the current Iraq war (2003-?), which is as illegal, immoral, corrupt, and disastrous as the above noted Vietnam War, are among those who avoided military service in Vietnam. As Robert Kennedy Jr. points out:

I look at this White House and I ask myself, how did they get so many draft dodgers in one place? The President; Dick Cheney, five deferments; John Ashcroft, six deferments. Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Tom DeLay, Dennis Hassert, Rush Limbaugh – well, you know, there are a lot of people who dodged the draft during the Vietnam War. Most of them did it because they had moral qualms about that war. But not these people. These people loved the war; they just wanted somebody else to fight it.”

     In the current Iraq war history repeats itself. A war from which old, rich and powerful men benefit is fought by young, poor, and powerless men who were "conscripted" by hunger and die for their country of which most don't even own one square inch.

Conclusion

Wars like this one, and the many that have been fought in Latin America, will continue until the Vatican and the U.S. Government decide to do what is right, namely, reject their intellectually dishonest and unethical ideologies. The Vatican must give up: 1. the indefensible claim to be the one and only true religion, and 2. the quest to dominate the world spiritually. And the United States must give up: 1. the claim that their unbridled capitalism is the one and only model for all economies, and 2. their quest to dominate the world militarily and economically.

    

F. The Liberation Theology Movement (1968)

From the beginning, the Catholic Church in Latin America had been supporting the rich and the oppressors by telling the poor "this is your divinely assigned fate, accept it." However, in the 1960's some clerics decided to become in part a Church to liberate the poor.

     The birth of this social movement is usually dated to the second Latin American Bishops' Conference, which was held in Medellín, Colombia, in 1968. It is a form of Christian theology that emphasizes social and political liberation as the anticipation of ultimate salvation.

     The prime role of Jesus as "Liberator" was enthusiastically adopted by mainly Roman Catholic Christians in Latin America. Furthermore, Liberation Theology has been of influence in developing nations around the world and has encouraged priests to become involved in politics in the fight against injustice. It is based on the teachings of the Gospels:

• Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me (Matthew 19:21).

• Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God (Mathew 19:23-24).

• For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in (Mathew 25:35):

• And the King [of heaven] shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

• THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE HAS ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR; HE HATH SENT ME TO HEAL THE BROKENHEARTED, TO PREACH DELIVERANCE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERING OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET AT LIBERTY THEM THAT ARE BRUISED (Luke 4:18).

     The need for Liberation Theology arose because in the past the Roman Catholic Church in Latin America helped the rich landowners, military dictatorships, and other oppressors and exploiters to keep the masses docile. In general, the Church did little to help these deprived and oppressed.

     In sum, rather than standing by, liberation theology advocates the belief that the teaching of Jesus demands action against poverty, social injustice, and the misuse of political power, in order to free the poor from tyranny and economic abuse.

     The movement was fiercely repressed by right-wing death squads and military dictatorships that worked on behalf of the rich (landowners) and powerful. Many church workers, priests, and nuns have been imprisoned, tortured, and killed. In El Salvador, Archbishop Oscar Romero spoke out continually against the oppressive actions of the military government, and in 1980 was assassinated during Mass. In 1989, six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter were gunned down.

     However, the movement was reduced or even halted by the Church:

• In the 1980s, the Vatican issued official rejections of the theology and liberation theologians were harshly scolded by Pope John Paul II.

• By the 1990s the Vatican fought the movements influence with a top-down approach, that is, Pope John Paul II appointed more conservative bishops and cardinals in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America.

• The current Pope, Benedict XVI, has also been long known as an opponent of an effective liberation theology, and issued several condemnations of tendencies within it whilst head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (formerly the Inquisition).

G. The Roman Church's Doctrines Hostile to Life

                    Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind.

                    And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

                                                                       Jesus of Nazareth (Matthew 15:14)
 

In promoting a perfect, blissful other-worldliness, the Church is degrading this world by, among other things, her hostility to life here and now. It shows in many areas such as in: her abuse of children and women, family planning, education, health care, social politics, and all versions of religion and spirituality other than her own. Here, the Church is on common ground with other world religions, and it has been explained above under:

• Egregious Errors in Religions
• Abuse of Children in Religions
• Hatred of Women in Religions

     However, the Roman Church's opposition to the means of effective family planning stands out on account of the number of death, diseases, injuries, and suffering it causes. Hence, it is imperative to highlight it in a separate chapter:

• The Roman Catholic Church's Ongoing Holocaust in Egregious Errors in Religions.

    

H. The Papacy, a Global Power with World-Conquering Ambitions

 

More powerful and influential than ever, the papacy under Pope Benedict XVI (reign 2005-?) aggressively pursues its fundamental, unchanging, long-term mission. Popes often choose their names after a predecessor whom they admire. Hence, if one reads the ideology of Pope Benedict XV (reign 1914-22) above, one will have a good idea of what Benedict XVI is up to. It is first to impose its idea of the perfect society and moral doctrines wherever it can. And finally, to convert all of humanity, if necessary by force and against their will, to the Roman Catholic version of Christianity.

     Force would be used by an economically and militarily powerful nation such as the U.S., egged on by the Vatican through connecting its goals with plausible U.S. objectives serving as a pretext as we have seen in the past:

• To fight socialism, that is, its economic system and materialistic worldview rather than the Roman Church's spiritual view of the world and ultimate belief. An economic system must be designed, take into consideration, the conditions as they are found in a given country. There is no magic, good for all, formula even if it comes from a conservative, capitalist U.S. think tank. The U.S. model has been a failure, causing much misery, in Latin America for the last 100 years or so. It "works" in the U.S. because the countries productivity is so high that the many, though deprived of their just share or reward, can be satisfied with "bread and circuses," that is, a minimum to exist and television while seeking the "American Dream," which is the U.S. ideal according to which equality of opportunity permits any American, if he or she only works hard enough, to aspire to high attainment and material success.

• To make the world safe for democracy, meaning, the U.S. version of predatory rather than social capitalism and conservative, right-wing politics and religion.

• To fight terrorism. Terrorism, the act of terrorizing, is defined as "the use of force [including killing, torture, maiming, imprisonment] or threats to demoralize, intimidate, and subjugate, especially when used as a political weapon or policy." By this definition, the papacy has engaged in terrorism, in particular that of the mind, from its beginning in the 4th century. The U.S. has promoted this activity when it was in their interest worldwide and regularly in Latin American countries.  

• To eliminate weapons of mass destruction or programs to create them. 99.9 percent of nuclear weapons are under the control of nations other than Islamic (U.S., Russia, China, France, Great Britain, Israel). Sometimes these nations have leaders that are as unstable as the heads of Islamic states. Hence, the emphasis should be on eliminating these stockpiles, for as long as these weapons exist, their use is just a matter of time.

• To act preemptively as in the case of the second U.S. Iraq war. A "compelling" reason is found by stacking intelligence in favor of what is just a wild speculation. If a few hundred thousand get killed, as in Iraq or millions in Vietnam, this is dismissed as collateral damage for a well-intended mission.

The Roman Church claims to be the "only true" Church on earth and grounds her right to compel the rest of the world to its doctrines on her interpretation of:

• the scriptures of the New Testament,

• binding Church tradition,

• and the infallibility of the pope.

     The history and current demands of the Roman Church reveal her desire for a spiritual world conquest with world leaders and societies made in her image--she simply has not changed. The following and the section below makes clear that this church has indeed the potential to achieve world domination. And if the past is an example, the Church will do so regardless of the destruction, suffering, and loss of life it will cause.

 

Factors that explain the Roman Church's power

a.) The Church's double nature, religious and political

b.) The Church's numerical strength and formidable organizations (2007)

c.) The Church's unwavering ideology and mission

d.) The Church's diplomatic power and presence at the United Nations

 

a.) The Church's double nature, religious and political

As correctly observed by Avro Manhattan:

The master-mind directing the moves of the various Catholic organizations and parties in the fields of regional, national, and international social and political struggle naturally resides in the centre of Catholicism-namely, the Vatican. The better to exert its double activity (religious and political), the Catholic Church has two facets:

 first, the religious institution, the Catholic Church itself;

 secondly, the political power, the Vatican.

Although they deal separately, whenever convenient, with problems affecting religion and politics, the two are in reality one. At the head of both stands the Pope, who is the supreme religious leader of the Catholic Church as a purely spiritual power, as well as the supreme head of the Vatican in its quality of a world-wide diplomatic-political centre and an independent sovereign State (my emphases).

b.) The Church's numerical strength and formidable organizations (2007)

• Its nominal members number approximately 1,100 million or almost 20% of the world's population. There are Catholics in every corner of the world.

• There are over 400,000 priests active in some 218,000 parishes. Almost all come from Catholic homes, have been indoctrinated during their formative years, and were later deprived of a genuinely enlightened, impartial education. Typically, they finish high school and 4 years of college before entering a theological seminary for 4 years of final indoctrination. They are then ordained and allowed to practice and teach as long as they do so within the doctrinal confines of the Church. They provide mental comfort to the unquestioning or blind believer while simultaneously promoting the teachings of the Church.

• Approximately 800,000 ordained sisters do charitable work and corrupt the minds of children to whom they teach by passing on their own indoctrination. Also, there are about 80,000 ordained brothers.

• Catholic political parties such as the Christian Democratic parties of Europe often form the government alone or with others in leading European countries.

• Even if Catholic political parties are in the minority, they often take advantage because their vote will be a decisive tipping of the scales. For example, as we have already seen above, Hitler came to power with the Catholic Centre Party's vote, and the Church was rewarded with a most favorable Concordat. Still another example, elaborated on below, the Church demanded that presidential candidate Jimmy Carter, if successful, would appoint Catholics to higher, sensitive positions as a reward for the Church not endorsing his opponent in the race, then President Gerald Ford. 

• Opus Dei, a secret Catholic organization of mostly lay professionals has over 85,000 members worldwide and is represented in over 80 countries. Only about 1,900 of the 85,000 are priests.

• The Knights of Columbus, a semi-secret international society of Roman Catholic men, has been active in religious, educational, war-relief, and social-welfare programs. Since 1948 the Knights of Columbus has sponsored a Roman Catholic advertising program to explain Roman Catholic beliefs.

• Thousands of influential politicians, law makers, administrators, and heads of state, and though often non-Catholic, owe their office to their endorsement by the Church.

c.) The Church's unwavering ideology and mission

• The spirit that moves the Catholic Church and which makes it act with the firm conviction that its fundamental mission is to convert the whole of mankind, not to Christianity, but to Catholicism.

• The church demands blind obedience from her followers, laity and clergy alike, under the threat of excommunication, spelling eternal damnation. Conformance is proportional to the strength of prior indoctrination. It is strong among priests, sisters, and brothers, but much less among the somewhat educated laity who with social responsibility practices birth control. Priests and nuns are under duress, for if they leave the Church, there education does not qualify them for any kind of profession.

• Catholicism is more rigid than any other religion as regards the spiritual field. Catholics must put their Church's interest before any social or political matter. To this is added the fact that a good Catholic owes blind obedience to his Church and  Since this body comprising millions of such Catholics, living all over the world, hangs on the words of the Pope, it is easy to see the long-range power that the Catholic Church can exercise in non-religious spheres.

• The Church's asserts that it has the right to teach moral principles as well as religious ones. For instance, she declares that the right of private ownership is inviolable without distinguishing between "personal ownership of the necessary things for life" and the "ownership of the means of production and institutions" that make the many dependent on powerfully selfish, politician buying, private parties rather than a social  democratic community. This is against Jesus' teachings as stated in "The Sermon on the Mount" as well as against the principles of a great movement of social, economic, and political character known under the general term of "Socialism." As Avro Manhattan points out:

As Socialism, in its various shapes and forms, is a purely social and political movement, trying to enforce its principles on the economic, social, and political life of society, it follows that it is bound to incur the hostility of the Catholic Church. Such hostility automatically leads the Church into social and political arenas. Catholics, because they must blindly obey their Church, must fight the theory and practice of Socialism; and this they do in their capacity as citizens, Members of Parliament, or as individuals in the ranks of some powerful political party.

• Catholics opposing either their Government or other political parties are required to follow the rigid and dogmatic tenets of Catholicism and the pronouncements of God's representative on Earth, the Supreme Leader of the Catholic Church, namely, the Pope.

• The Church does not care with whom she forms alliances or how many innocent get killed and maimed in the process as long as her ideology is promoted.

d.) The Church's diplomatic power and presents at the United Nations

The Roman Church has from its beginning in the 4th century been an expert at playing politics and political intrigue. Hence, she takes full advantage of the fact that diplomatically many countries treat the Vatican as being on the same footing as a state because of the influence of the pope as leader of Catholics worldwide. Nowhere is this more obvious today than at the United Nations.

     At the UN, the Vatican maintains "observer status" - taking advantage of its unique claim to be both the headquarters of a world religion and a state. This special status allows the Vatican to meddle in political affairs while acting as if it is above the battle. In fact, the so-called Holy See's own Permanent Observer Mission statement says that: "As a full member of the international community, the Holy See finds itself in a very particular situation, because it is spiritual in nature. Its authority ... is religious and not political ... The real and only realm of the Holy See is the realm of conscience".

     The Roman Church's active opposition to effective family planning and its pernicious consequences as noted above is in large part made possible by its peculiar position at the UN. As a Non-member State Permanent Observer, the Holy See can take part in UN meetings and conferences, and is typically granted full status at these events, including a vote on any question that is put to a vote. As the UN generally seeks consensus rather than forcing issues to a vote, this allows dissenting voices a stronger voice than they would normally have. This allows the Vatican to sabotage programs and funding for family planning. Thus, Vatican reproductive politics are played out with devastating effect in vulnerable, developing countries, where women must incubate babies they cannot feed--much less educate adequately.

     "The time has come to challenge this façade of the Vatican as a state," said CFFC (Catholics For Free Choice) President Frances Kissling. "Why should an entity that is in essence 100 square acres of office space and tourist attractions in the middle of Rome with a citizenry that excludes women and children have a place at the table where governments set policies affecting the very survival of women and children?" asked Kissling. "The question of the Vatican’s status at the United Nations is not an empty political debate. Vatican positions on issues in the United Nations and in countries across the world have had the effect of increasing the suffering of the world’s poorest women" (my emphases).

 

I. The Vatican's Political and Spiritual Conquest of the U.S.

 

According to some estimates, there were at the most 25,000 Catholics in a colonial population of about 4,500,000 at the time of independence in 1776. However, by the early 21st century Catholics accounted for 66 million or 22 percent of the American population. With 200 dioceses, the American hierarchy is the third largest in the world. This largest of the religious voter block has been used by the Church to gain a disproportionate influence as the example of the U.S. Supreme Court, 56 percent Catholic, below indicates.

 

     The Catholic vote will swell to about 30 percent in the next one or two generations on account of the masses of illegal immigrants who come across an unprotected border from Catholic countries like Mexico. Moreover, Catholic couples who practice the Church's only allowed method of birth control, the unreliable rhythm method (fertility awareness) are known as being frequently parents. Although these immigrants drive wages down for the many citizens, it is not in the interest of the church (voting power) or business (cheap labor) to protect the borders.

     In sum, the conquest of the U.S. by the papacy will be through political intrigue resulting in tacit agreements with politicians, masses of illegal catholic immigrants, Catholic increasing in disproportionate numbers on account of Catholic family planning instructions. How powerful the papacy already is can be seen from the info under the following three headings:

 

a.) The Vatican's most important conquest, the U.S. Supreme Court

b.) Examples of the Vatican's political and spiritual coercions

c.) The Rape of Children by an Army of U.S. Priests

 

a.) The Vatican's most important conquest, the U.S. Supreme Court

           "Real power is with those who interpret the law, not those who make it."

The Supreme Court of the United States is now (2011) controlled by a Catholic majority. Although Catholics are only 22 percent of the population, the court is 56 percent, 6 out of 9, filled with Catholics, and some of which openly express Catholic conservatism. It is not known, however, how many are members of Opus Dei or how much of the networking ability of this organization was responsible. Yet, they were nominated by the President of the U.S. who had private talks with the pope and has an ambassador at the Vatican.

     It is significant that the justices are allowed to swear secretly their highest allegiance to their interpretation of God and the Roman Church because unlike other officials, e.g., Congressional lawmakers and Federal judges, they do not have to swear "without mental reservation or purpose of evasion."

     Each Supreme Court Justice takes the following oath according to Title 28, Chapter I, Part 453 of the United States Code:

I, [NAME], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as [TITLE] under the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God.

     The oath by U.S. lawmakers in the Congress

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter (my emphasis).

Since it would be a sin for a Catholic Supreme Court judge to uphold parts of the specifically secular U.S. Constitution that are contrary to Church teachings, Pope Pius XI, for example, suggested for a like situation that the mental and therefore silent reservation "excepting the laws of God and the Church"  may be added. "Excepting" from the noun exception in law means formal objection or reservation.
Hence, oaths taken with mental reservation are justified on the basis that God accepts what is believed inwardly. Thus the justices oath with the silent addition would read:

I, [NAME], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as [TITLE] under the Constitution and laws of the United States "excepting the laws of God and the Church." So help me God.

 

The takeover of the U.S. Supreme Court by the pope's boys means a shift to conservative and religious ideologies. In particular there will be:

• Decisions favoring big business and globalization. Already now, the multitude has to compete with cheap labor in the less-developed world while big business enjoys less and less competitions on account of monopolies shared by fewer and fewer players.

• Roe vs. Wade, a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy, will be overturned on the lame excuse already voiced by Clarence Thomas that the "Constitution says nothing about abortion. And therefore the decision should be left up to the states." If this happens about 40 percent of the states, "red states," will outlaw abortion. The well-to-do pregnant have the means to travel to other states for safe abortions. The poor, however, will have unsafe back-alley abortions of which some will die and many more suffer ill health for the rest of their lives.

• A breakdown of the "wall of separation between church and state" that will have dire consequences as the examples below under the heading "Violations of the First Amendment by the Bush Administration and his Republican Party" already indicate.

Reasons for the "wall of separation between church and state"

The Founders of the U.S. were aware that in Europe the many religious wars and other atrocities were caused by state religions and the alliances between church and state. Hence, they took explicit precautions to prevent this. The Founders created a specifically secular constitution. Article VI. of the U.S. Constitution reads:

This Constitution . . ., shall be the supreme Law of the Land; . . . . and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

And the First Amendment to the Constitution demands that:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; . . . .

Perhaps the most forceful explanation of the First Amendment is in the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court in 1947 in Ever son v. Board of Education:

"The Establishment of Religion Clause of the First Amendment means at least this:

Neither a state nor the Federal government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion over another. Neither can favor or influence a person to go to or remain away from church against his will or force him to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion. No person can be punished for entertaining or professing religious beliefs or disbeliefs, for church attendance or non-attendance.

No tax in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institution, whatever they may be called, or whatever form they adopt to teach or practice religion. Neither a state nor the Federal government can openly or secretly participate in the affairs of any religious organization or group, and vice versa" (my emphases).

It is almost certain that the current U.S. Supreme Court, where George W. Bush nominated three of the five Catholic judges, would uphold current violations, see below, of the First Amendment.

 

 

Violations of the First Amendment by the Bush Administration and the Republican Party

• Federal, that is, taxpayer's money are given to churches that cooperate with Bush. According to the June 13 St. Petersburg Times: "There are now 10 separate federal agencies with offices devoted to directing tax money to faith-based groups. In a report issued in March 2004, the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives boasted that in five of those agencies alone, $ 1.7 billion was awarded to religiously affiliated groups in fiscal year 2003."

• Republicans in Congress are supporting a bill that would allow religious denominations to support candidates: The Safe Harbor for Churches provision would reduce tax penalties for a set number of political endorsements from the pulpit and eliminate them if the endorsement was 'unintentional' (Ibid).

• A report of the Daily Camera of Boulder, CO points out: "The Bush administration issued at least $1.1 billion in grants last year. More than a thousand religious leaders, out for federal money, attended a recent White House conference organized by the White House on faith-based initiatives that Bush has created.... The President on the one hand, is holding out the promise of billions of tax dollars to eager clerics and congregations, but on the other hand enlisting them in his re-election campaign."

• Praise the Lord and vote for Bush. Bush's re-election campaign organized "friendly congregations" to serve as recruiters and advocates for Bush and particularly to arrange voter registration drives.
       Working through the Republican National Committee, President Bush, asked Catholics to give parish directories to him for use in voting campaigns. Moreover, he also asked Southern Baptists and members of some other denominations for similar directories of their church memberships. It is claimed that this is for non-partisan voter registration drives. However, it is obvious that it is a partisan effort to register religious individuals who are likely to vote for a Bush and Republican agenda.

       In June the Bush campaign emailed Pennsylvania churchgoers to get 1,600 "friendly congregations" where people can register to vote and pick up political information.

b.) Examples of the Vatican's political and spiritual coercions

In some of the following examples of coercion, the coerced is given a choice. However, he or she will have a loss no matter what is chosen on account of the coercer's threat. But by obeying, the coerced can minimize the loss. Here are two examples:

1. In the case of a politician running for president, "Promise to appoint Roman Catholics to key positions in your administration and we will not endorse your opponent (or endorse you)."

2. And in the case of a Catholic office holder, "Follow the teachings of your Church as a public official or you face excommunication and most likely eternal damnation."

        Now, if they do not agree, the politician may lose the election and the official holder faces religious damnation. However, if they agree, they lose their integrity because they have to break laws they had sworn to uphold, thus betraying citizens and democratic principles.

     To defend their rotten compromises that will lead to illegal and unethical actions, individuals will often use the "Nazi defense." When after World War II in Germany former highly decorated members of the Nazi party joined the Christian Democratic Party, they were asked about their former activities. They would explain that their actions as Nazis, though appearing as unethical, were in fact highly ethical because the held their posts in order to prevent worse atrocities.

 

The following acts of coercion are taken from an article by John M. Swomley, a social ethics professor, in the July 2000 edition of The Humanist (my headings, bullets, and emphases):

 

Women have no right to control their bodies--mandatory pregnancies

• In 1975 the Vatican began organizing a major political campaign to reverse Roe v. Wade. Few people at the time knew the origin of the campaign to end legal abortion through control of the U.S. presidency, Congress, and Supreme Court. But it has since become only one of many direct interventions by the Vatican over the last quarter century to establish a theocracy in the United States.

• In 1976 sixteen Catholic leaders headed by Archbishop Joseph Bernadin met with presidential candidate Jimmy Carter to press him to appoint Roman Catholics to key positions in his administration in return for not endorsing his opponent, Gerald Ford, in the coming election. Carter agreed and appointed, among others, John J. Gilligan to the cabinet post supervising the Agency for International Development (AID), thus ending the fourteen-year tenure of Dr. R. I. Ravenholt with that agency. It was AID that had provided family planning assistance to people in other countries.

• In 1980 Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Frank Church proposed an amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act, stating, "Catholics ... are requesting that any aid program that we may embark upon in any foreign land include information and services which relate to and support natural family planning methods."

• In 1984 the Reagan administration agreed to the Vatican's request to announce at the United Nations World Conference on Population in Mexico City that the United States was reversing its many years of commitment to international family planning. The administration then withdrew funding from the United States Fund for Population Activities and the International Planned Parenthood Federation.

• In 1985 Mother Teresa came to the United States to lobby Congress against passage of legislation that would require family planning providers to give access to all family planning methods. The following year the U.S. Catholic Conference lobbied Congress to stop funding contraceptive research and to make natural family planning--supported by the Vatican--the preferred method of family planning.

• In March 1987 the Vatican then issued an "Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation," which opposed at least fourteen current medical technologies, including artificial insemination, the freezing of embryos, and prenatal diagnosis, including the use of amniocentesis and ultrasonic techniques. The Vatican defended these restrictions "as subject to the all-holy laws of God: immutable and inviolable laws which must be recognized and observed."

Taxpayer's money for parochial, religious indoctrination, schools

• Ten years later the Catholic bishops decided to launch a major campaign to secure government aid for school choice, including the use of vouchers to provide tax funds for parochial schools. The bishops' plan called for the formation of diocesan, state, and national parents' organizations to lobby for government funds for Catholic schools. Prior to this 1990 decision, the Catholic hierarchy had lobbied successfully for a Minnesota law allowing parents of parochial and private school students to deduct $700 per child in high school and $500 per child in elementary school from their state income tax for tuition, textbook, and transportation expenses.

Against civil rights for the same-sex oriented

• In 1986, when a bill to guarantee civil rights to homosexuals was before the Chicago City Council, "the political consensus was that it would pass with the votes of at least thirty aldermen," wrote Lawrence Lader in his book Politics, Power, and the Church. Lader continues, then Cardinal Bernadin "condemned the bill in violent language, and it was defeated thirty to eighteen."

• Such successes led the Vatican to become even bolder. On June 25, 1992, it released a statement to all U.S. bishops which began, "Recent legislation has been proposed in some American states which would make discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation illegal." The Vatican then provided a list of categories for which discrimination should be legal, including teachers, coaches, tenants, adoption and foster care personnel, and the extension of company health benefits to an employee's homosexual partner.

Direct meddling in U.S. government affairs and a new loyalty oath

• On March 25, 1995, Pope John Paul II intervened directly in U.S. government with his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, which includes explicit instruction to obedient Catholics in Congress, state legislatures, and even the U.S. Supreme Court:

  No circumstances, no purpose, no law whatsoever can ever make licit an act which is intrinsically illicit, since it is contrary to the law of God which is written in every heart, knowable by reason itself, and proclaimed by this church (my emphasis).

• Abortion and euthanasia are thus crimes which no human law can claim to legitimize. There is no obligation in conscience to obey such laws; instead there is a grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection.

• In the case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is never licit to obey it, or to take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or vote for it.

  In addition to numerous direct interventions, the Vatican uses other methods to ensure the pope's ability to intervene in the affairs of the United States and in various Catholic institutions. According to a 1989 report in the National Catholic Reporter, a new fidelity or loyalty oath must be "taken with hands on the Bible, requiring teachers in any universities whatsoever who teach disciplines which deal with faith or morals" to swear obedience to past and future proclamations from the Vatican and bishops. The oath says in part:

  I adhere with religious submission of will and intellect to the teachings which either the Roman pontiff or the College of Bishops enunciate when they exercise the authentic magisterium [the authority and power of the church to teach religious truth], even if they proclaim those teachings in an act that is not definitive.

Against the freedoms of democracy and personal autonomy

• The Vatican also maintains control through the presence of its own representative in Washington, D.C., known as the papal nuncio or legate. Still another method of control is through required visits by U.S. bishops to the Vatican. On one such visit by a group of U.S. bishops on June 27, 1998, the pope told them:

The notion of freedom and personal autonomy is superficially attractive, endorsed by individuals, the media, legislature, and the courts.... Yet it ultimately destroys the personal good of individuals and the common good of society.... As bishops you have to teach that freedom of conscience is never freedom from the truth but always and only freedom in the truth.... The Church is preserved in the truth and it is her duty to give utterance to and authoritatively to teach that truth.

This is a demand that all individuals and institutions, the press, legislature, the courts, the schools, etc., accept the Roman Church's authority and her version of the truth grounded in the Church's tradition and the New Testament, which she self-servingly compiled and modified.  

 

• In its attempts to control U.S. political life, the Vatican is trying to speak not only for obedient Roman Catholics but for others who may or may not agree with Catholic doctrine. The Vatican's attempts to establish a theocracy in the United States are bolstered by a wide range of religious personalities who agree with papal directives on patriarchy, government funding for religious institutions, ending church-state separation, and other issues.

The questions are:

Will they prevail? Wherein is the hope for democracy? It is difficult to predict. However, the upcoming presidential and congressional elections [in the year 2000] are the perfect opportunity for progressive Catholics, Jews, humanists, and others to voice their opinion on the matter.

     In response to the question "Will they prevail?" this writer observes that the Roman Church has indeed prevailed in the last seven years mainly through the actions of President George W. Bush who claims that he gets his advice "from a higher Father" and who declared that his favored philosopher is "Jesus Christ." His appointment of three of the pope's boys to the U.S. Supreme Court alone will ensure for one or two generations to come that the Roman Church will proceed triumphantly on its path to conquer the U.S. in the next two to three generations and the world a little later.

     And lastly, in reply to the question "Wherein is the hope for democracy?"  The answer is genuine education now corrupted by the self-serving interests of the religious and economically powerful. And as U.S. private and public colleges are ever more controlled by these skillful coercers and timid professors, the openness of the World Wide Web offers hope for real education that will eventually bring forth a functional democracy that will facilitate universal freedom and well-being.

 

c.) The Rape of Children by an Army of U.S. Priests

Another indicator of the Church's power in the U.S. can be seen from their ability to cover up serious crimes over decades of transgressions. Moreover, some claim that the mental rape--Catholic indoctrination--of children is as bad or worse then sexual rape. More about this in Egregious Errors in Religions. The transgressions of U.S. priests have probably their counterpart, but quantitatively worse, in predominantly Catholic countries of the less-developed world where the Church has more power to suppress these crimes. Concerning the U.S., the following account is in key parts by the Roman Church herself:

In the early 21st century the American church was shaken by accusations of child molestation on the part of many clergy. A study commissioned by the National Review Board of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops showed that some 4 percent of American priests (more than 4,000) had committed such crimes, in some cases repeatedly and over a period of several decades. More than 10,000 cases of molestation were authenticated, though victims' groups asserted that additional cases went unreported because the victims were ashamed to come forward. It also became evident that some bishops had made a bad situation worse by shielding priests who had sexually abused minors or by transferring them to other pastoral assignments. When faced with the immensity of the problem, the church, after some halting steps, dealt with it publicly and worked to prevent abuse from happening again. By 2004 the Catholic church worldwide had paid out more than $1 billion (U.S.) in jury awards, settlements, and legal fees, leading some dioceses to consider protection under bankruptcy law (my emphasis). (Source: "Roman Catholicism." Encyclopædia Britannica. Ultimate Reference Suite.  Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007.)