Thoughts on Religion
While many people are not interested in religion, or consider its practice a private matter and one of choice, events taking place in the world and decisions made by leaders of churches do have an impact on even those who have no interest in religion, because the actions of religious authorities are frequently the actions of historical figures, have great influence over hundreds of millions, if not billions of people. Hence my discussion of a Netflix film and the real people depicted therein.
Does the Netflix Film Serve an Agenda?
The Netflix film The Two Popes recently aired and still is available from Netflix, although evidently it was not especially popular by Netflix’s own statistics and also in its theatrical release as per the above link to the establishment oligarchy’s approved source, Wikipedia; the film was written by Anthony McCarten, who also wrote the scripts for the Churchill film Darkest Hour, and Bohemian Rhapsody a 2018 biographical drama film about Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of the British rock band Queen directed by the controversial Brian Singer and earlier the screenplay of The Theory of Everything, a film on physicist Stephen Hawking, whom I have criticized on the pages of LewRockwell.com. Therefore, what is clear is McCarten specializes in hagiographies of individuals who are part of the establishment whose actual record is mixed, especially in matters regarding morality and liberty. Consequently, perhaps closer scrutiny should be paid to such cinematic portrayals, given what alternative media has revealed about the failings of these men, especially in the pages of LewRockwell.com as any search will reveal to interested readers, although these films may be entertaining fictional theater when taken with a very large grain of salt.
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Regarding The Two Popes, Wikipedia provides a useful summary of the plot of the film, which from my viewing, while entertaining and professionally produced and wonderfully acted, portrayed Pope Benedict XVI as someone who is a dry academic, uncomfortable with people while Bergoglio was portrayed as the Princess Diana of the Roman Catholic faith: personable, approachable, a man of conscience, a man of feeling and passion and only guilty of misjudgment due to his trusting nature. As to trivia, whether it’s true or not, the film portrays Pope Benedict spending his evenings watching his “favorite” TV show Komisar Rex, an Austrian-Italian production about a German Shepard police dog that solves crimes, which to me diminishes a man who no matters his flaws was gifted with a wonderful, scholarly mind. So viewers will not find any discussions of faith or theology in the film—at least, none that I recall. Regarding Bergoglio, the future Pope Francis, the film, per Wikipedia has him reject the offer of the papacy (again, I don’t know if this “offer” is factually accurate) because of “the perception that he had collaborated with the Argentine military dictatorship, and his failure to protect his friends and confront the junta may have damaged his reputation.”
Who is the Real Bergoglio?
In fact, according to an article on the website Global Research, Bergoglio did far worse than what The Two Popes depicted. In “Who is Pope Francis? Jorge Mario Bergoglio and Argentina’s ‘Dirty War’,” the author writes:
Bergoglio, who at the time was “Provincial” for the Society of Jesus, had ordered the two “Leftist” Jesuit priests and opponents of military rule “to leave their pastoral work” (i.e. they were fired) following divisions within the Society of Jesus regarding the role of the Catholic Church and its relations to the military Junta.
While the two priests Francisco Jalics y Orlando Yorio, kidnapped by the death squads in May 1976 were released five months later, after having been tortured, six other people associated with their parish kidnapped as part of the same operation were “disappeared” (desaparecidos). These included four teachers associated with the parish and two of their husbands.
Upon his release, Priest Orlando Yorio “accused Bergoglio of effectively handing them over [including six other people] to the death squads…Jalics refused to discuss the complaint after moving into seclusion in a German monastery.” (Associated Press, March 13, 2013, emphasis added.)
“During the first trial of leaders of the military junta in 1985, Yorio declared, “I am sure that he himself gave over the list with our names to the Navy.” The two were taken to the notorious Navy School of Mechanics (ESMA) torture center and held for over five months before being drugged and dumped in a town outside the city…
Among those “disappeared” by the death squads were Mónica Candelaria Mignone and María Marta Vázquez Ocampo, respectively daughter of the founder of of the CELS (Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales), Emilio Mignone and daughter of the president of Madres de Plaza de Mayo, Martha Ocampo de Vázquez. (El Periodista Online, March 2013)…
In the course of the trial initiated in 2005:
“Bergoglio [Pope Francis I] twice invoked his right under Argentine law to refuse to appear in open court, and when he eventually did testify in 2010, his answers were evasive”: “At least two cases directly involved Bergoglio. One examined the torture of two of his Jesuit priests — Orlando Yorio and Francisco Jalics — who were kidnapped in 1976 from the slums where they advocated liberation theology. Yorio accused Bergoglio of effectively handing them over to the death squads…by declining to tell the regime that he endorsed their work. Jalics refused to discuss it after moving into seclusion in a German monastery.” (Los Angeles Times, April 1, 2005 emphasis added.)
[And later in the article]:
The military government acknowledged in a Secret Memo (see below) that Father Bergoglio had accused the two priests of having established contacts with the guerilleros, and for having disobeyed the orders of the Church hierarchy (Conflictos de obedecencia). It also stated that the Jesuit order had demanded the dissolution of their group and that they had refused to abide by Bergoglio’s instructions.
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There is more in this article, “‘Change of Skin’, From Argentina’s ‘Dirty War’ to the Vatican: Pope Francis ‘Dissociates Himself’ from Father Bergoglio.” I am not an investigative reporter but if the key charges in these articles are accurate, then what is presented in the film—that Bergoglio was innocently doing his best trying to save lives—is contradicted by other testimony. All this is distressing to say the least.
LewRockwell.com posted a significant article, The Vatican Gorbachev by Jimmie Moglia, who notes:
As for Benedict XVI, there is a consensus that he did not resign out of cowardice or physical impairment. In fact, he still active and regularly writes articles on various theological, ethical and church-related issues. More on this later, using information recently gleaned by some Catholics, dismayed at the current directions and mutations in the Catholic Church.
Many consider the transition from Pope Ratzinger to Pope Bergoglio as a watershed in the Catholic world. Namely, the conversion of the Church from a bastion of resistance against the antichristian powers of capitalist globalism, into an organization that embraces it.
Bergoglio’s message seems to exclude, or at best to marginalize, the sense of the transcendent, which is at the root of Christianity and of Greek inspired philosophy, while opening the church to the nihilistic mentality and mode of being of the current globalist, hyper-capitalistic, market-driven civilization – founded on the principle that there is no happiness but in opulence.
Pope Bergoglio has admitted to have doubted at times the existence of God. It is a doubt that many may have or may have had. But pronouncements by authority influence millions. His words are not likely to ease the doubts of the cautious and the terrors of the fearful. Therefore making both the cautious and the fearful suffer the whips and scorn of time, and rather bear the ills they have than fly to others that they know not of.
Bergoglio Changing the Lord’s Prayer
I was troubled by this news, which was discussed in this article from The Spectator, “Pope Francis is Wrong to Rewrite the Lord’s Prayer” posted, in part, on LewRockwell.com:
“That bit that says ‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil’ is, for Pope Francis, a bad translation. ‘It speaks of a God who induces temptation,’ he told Italian TV. ‘I am the one who falls. It’s not him pushing me into temptation to then see how I have fallen. A father doesn’t do that; A father helps you to get up immediately.’”
Perhaps, if memory serves, this incident was the impetus for me to search on the Internet and finding an Orthodox perspective offered here, “The Lord’s Prayer Interpreted According to Saint Maximos the Confessor, a perspective I, despite my own failings and sins that I acknowledge, I perceived in humility by reason why the prayer says what Bergoglio objects to: God creates what is good, and the devil tempts us to desire something but not for good ends, the obvious, for example, lust for a person whom one finds beautiful superseding love and marriage with that person, thus perceiving a human being instead of being a person created in God’s image but as an object to be used to gratify appetites that result at best in disease and sterility, and worse in death, in other words for that person to sin and to deny it. Saint Maximos writes:
5. Pleasurable and Painful Temptation.
Summarizing what he has previously said in reverse order, Saint Maximos writes that, in order to be free from the Devil and to flee temptation, we must forgive the sins of others. In this struggle to expel the passions we have Christ as our ally, who with love unites and restores nature and moves us to love the bread of life. In living according to the Divine Will we are made like unto the angels, and then with the participation by the grace of the Holy Spirit He makes us “commune with the Divine nature”, He makes us children of God who are clothed by the worker of Grace, Christ, “From Him, through Him and in Him we have and always will have our being, our movement and our life.”[23] The mystery of theosis is the aim of the Lord’s Prayer, which presents to us, from the lowest semblance of faith in the Incarnate Lord, the path to the grace of adoption. We ought to show by our works that that the prayer is realized in us; not to preach that God is “Father” and yet allow it to appear by our passions and vices that the father of our life is the devil. God, on the one hand, is the giver of life, while the devil, on the other hand, is the purveyor of death through the various temptations that he prompts.
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Finishing, Saint Maximos clarifies that there exists two types of temptations; the pleasurable and the painful. The pleasurable temptations are voluntary and freely chosen and are the root of sin. From this form of temptation, we ask God to deliver us saying, “Lead us not into temptation”. [Emphasis added.] Conversely, the painful temptations—pain in other words—are chastisement for sin. By the difficulty caused involuntary suffering, God chastens and corrects the sin-loving disposition. If one endures these painful, involuntary, temptations he is lauded by the Apostle James, who advises us to be glad when tempted by various temptations.[24] The Devil uses both forms of temptations with much villainy. He uses pleasurable temptations to pry the soul away from the love of God by pleasure, but the painful temptations he uses to devastate man through pain and suffering, pushing him to blasphemy and accusation of God. We, however, who know the methods of the Devil and his evil thoughts; we must retreat from the pleasurable temptations so as not to be separated from the love of God, but the painful temptations, the manifold trials which come to us by God’s permission, we must endure with courage showing that we prefer the Creator to creation.
We conclude our presentation of this luminous little work of interpretation, On the Lord’s Prayer, with the final prayer of Saint Maximos: “May all of us who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ be delivered from the present delights and the future afflictions of the evil one by participating in the reality of the blessings held in store and already revealed to us in Christ our Lord Himself, who alone with the Father and the Holy Spirit is praised by all creation.”[25]
23. On the Lord’s Prayer. 304.
24. [T.N.] See James 1:2 -3: ‘My brethren, deem it all joy whenever ye fall into diverse temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith worketh out patience.’
25. On the Lord’s Prayer. 305.
Please note, as I have written in the past, the writings of the Church Fathers are also, in part, posted to the Roman Catholic site The New Advent at this link; its entry on The Lord’s Prayer from The Catholic Encyclopedia does not address the issue of “lead us not into temptation.” However, their post on Cyprian’s interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer explains a great deal:
25. Moreover, the Lord of necessity admonishes us to say in prayer, And suffer us not to be led into temptation. In which words it is shown that the adversary can do nothing against us except God shall have previously permitted it; so that all our fear, and devotion, and obedience may be turned towards God, since in our temptations nothing is permitted to evil unless power is given from Him. This is proved by divine Scripture, which says, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and besieged it; and the Lord delivered it into his hand.2 Kings 24:11 But power is given to evil against us according to our sins, as it is written,Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to those who make a prey of Him? Did not the Lord, against whom they sinned, and would not walk in His ways, nor hear His law? And He has brought upon them the anger of His wrath. Isaiah 13:24 And again, when Solomon sinned, and departed from the Lord’s commandments and ways, it is recorded, And the Lord stirred up Satan against Solomon himself. 1 Kings 11:14
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If I, who is someone not truly formally learned in the study of Scripture, can understand that the Lord’s Prayer is perfect and must not be changed, how can Bergoglio be so ignorant? Or is he?
The Troubling Issue of Pope Francis’s Supporting a “One World Religion” without Jesus Christ
As I wrote, I cannot vouch for the factual accuracy of the Global Research reports and the testimony against Father Bergoglio regarding his time in Argentina. What troubles me more as a Christian is this recent piece in The Remnant titled “Francis Footnote Follies: Why Francis Dropped the Title of Vicar of Christ…” written by Elizabeth Yore. What I read I found astonishing:
Jorge Bergoglio is busy rolling out the Abrahamic Faith Initiative—the New One World Religion…at lightning speed!
Jesus Christ has no role in this new religion.
Here is the most recent timeline of events:
*On February 4, 2019, Francis flew to Abu Dhabi and co-signed the Abu Dhabi Declaration, along with his Islamic collaborator, Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayyeb. Read the Abu Dhabi Declaration, in which Francis declares that “God wills the diversity of all religions.” While this heretical statement has been denounced by Bishop Athanasius Schneider and Cardinal Raymond Burke and a few others, the Declaration is the foundational statement which lays the “theological” groundwork for the new religion, conveniently, but inaccurately described as the “Abrahamic Faith.” No mention of Jesus Christ in the document.
*On February 4, 2019, the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity of the Abrahamic Faith was announced. This group of faith leaders will be comprised of hierarchs from all the faith denominations. All major religions appoint elders, prelates, imams and gurus, so too, the Abrahamic Faith will mimic with its own Higher Committee. No mention of Jesus Christ in the founding documents here.
*On September 22, 2019, the Abrahamic Faith House was unveiled in New York City. This will be the new spiritual headquarters for the new one world religion which will house a mosque, a church and a synagogue. View the Orwellian designed center here. Catholicism has its Vatican, Islam has Mecca, and the new one world religion will have its own headquarters. No mention of Jesus Christ here.
*On December 4th, 2019, The Vatican requested that the United Nations declare a World Day for Human Fraternity on February 4th to celebrate the anniversary date of the signing of the Abu Dhabi Declaration. Conveniently, now the One World Religion will have its own Feast Day! No mention of Jesus Christ by the Vatican in this announcement.
*On October 11-18, 2020, the Vatican will host the Global Education Alliance in Rome. This event was previously scheduled for May 10, 2020, but was postponed because of the Corona Virus. Please watch the Pope’s video announcement of the event and its emphasis on humanism, not Christianity. This will be a global extravaganza, flush with celebrities and elites to celebrate and brainwash young people into the one world religion of humanism and its climate change propaganda.
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The danger of these initiatives is apparent in the alluring and amorphous language employed by the Vatican and Francis to indoctrinate the youth into buying into this socialistic economy and its supporting new Abrahamic faith religion. Read carefully this meaningless, and innocuous sounding blather in the Vatican press release on the Global Education Compact: No mention of Jesus Christ here…
Francis and his Vatican minions are sponsoring and promoting these global events to launch and celebrate the rollout of the new Abrahamic Faith. The title of Vicar of Christ, held by the Catholic Pontiff is not only an anathema, but more importantly, a theological hindrance, to the creation and rollout of the One World Religion.
When I read this I thought I had found a crazy tin foil hat article but The Remnant is reputable and factual: “The Remnant strives to adhere to Catholic teaching in every aspect of its journalism. The name The Remnant is a reference to the remnant of Isaiah and the belief that only a remnant of Catholics holding to the traditional teachings and practice of the Church remain after the sweeping changes brought by the Second Vatican Council.”
Let me state this dangerous and anti-Christian “one world religion” is not a heresy exclusively associated with Bergoglio or Roman Catholics; it is a trend within many religious faiths and Hieromonk Seraphim Rose warned of this heresy in the early 1980s in his book, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future, a heresy which he felt was directed by the evil one. Writing in effect a follow-up to Seraphim Rose’s book, Father Spyridon Bailey’s Orthodoxy and the Kingdom of Satan discusses “ecumenism.”
He writes in Chapter Seven, Ecumenism:
“The establishment of the World Council of Churches was financially supported by the Rockefeller Foundation which first appointed John Foster Dulles to lead the National Council of Churches in America. Dulles was also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and also chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation Trustees. Dulles was sent to the founding conference of the W.C.C. in Amsterdam in 1948 to promote the Rockefeller strategy. It had been recognized that not only Orthodox, but also Roman Catholic and Evangelical Christians were opposed to doctrine being treated as secondary to the idea of outward unity at any cost. And so the Rockefeller plan was to establish a new idea that would speak over theological differences; this was what became known as the ‘social gospel.’ By encouraging Christians to focus primarily on collaboration to help others, it was understood that they would quickly form social and organizational bonds that would become stronger than the content of the faith they professed. Christians were taught to focus on social justice as the primary aim of their response to God, which enabled the replacement of traditional Christian spirituality with a worldly, materialistic version of Christianity. Serving our neighbor has always been a fundamental Christian concept, but now it was to be the main purpose of Christianity. In this way, any objection raised about doctrinal differences could be portrayed as disruptive and creating disunity which threatens the social action of the ecumenists.”
Father Bailey writes later in the chapter: “In January 2016 the Vatican released a video in which Pope Francis denied the essential differences between faiths, stating that all world religions are ‘seeking God or meeting God in different ways.’ The video includes shots of representatives from many different religions, and the Pope went on to describe Christian fundamentalism as a ‘sickness’ which denied the essential similarity of all religions.”
While I myself believe is incumbent upon Christians to have respect and not persecute those of different denominations or other religions, to deny the great difference at the heart of Christianity and other faiths, to deny what is good and special and holy about Christian faith is for the person doing so to deny Jesus Christ.
Ecumenism in the “Government” of “Big” Religion
Not only is the Catholic The Remnant upset with this trend; the site Orthochristian recently posted the following on this new “globalist” religion that will embrace Neo-Nazis:
—The purpose of the creation of the OCU by the Constantinople Patriarchate is the furthering of the ecumenical movement. As you know, in Western Ukraine, besides the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Uniate church headed by an archbishop has been active along with two schismatic structures—the “Kiev Patriarchate” and the “Autocephalous church”.
—What is the goal of the Constantinople Patriarchate in founding the so-called “Autocephalous Church of Ukraine” headed by Epiphany?
—The goal is to weaken the Moscow Patriarchate, in order to enable a union between the Ukrainian Uniates and the so-called “autocephalous church of Ukraine” headed by Epiphany. The goal consists in creating a union, a “Patriarchate”, which will contain Uniates along with Epiphany’s supporters.
—And to whom will they be in subordination?
—Through Constantinople, they will be subordinate to the pope [Francis]. The situation wherein papism differs from Orthodoxy is apparent, because these events are developing along the lines of inter-Christian ecumenism. (There also exists interfaith ecumenism). The unification of Christian groups into one structure. This structure will work upon the basis of a unitary and single politic—the papal one.
This union is being imposed by, besides the European Union, international political and economic entities.
—Is something similar to this planned on the European level for 2025?
—In preparation for that moment, meetings are being planned between papists and Orthodox with the aim of uniting in 2025. Therefore, in June of 2019, in honor of the Roman pope’s patronal feast—Sts. Peter and Paul—Bartholomew sent a letter to the pope of Rome with a call to “complete by November, 2020 the dialogue concerning primacy of the pope of Rome in the first millennia.
I will explain to you how this “union” will be created, because this also relates to Ukraine; because an experiment is being conducted there on the unification of papists with Orthodox. An experiment of unification of the “OCU” with Uniates is already being conducted. The Vatican, through the “Papal Council for the Cooperation of Christian Unity”, has agreed upon a meeting between the archbishop of the Ukrainian Uniates with Bartholomew.
That is precisely where it has been decided to further the ecumenical relations between Epiphany and the Uniates in Ukraine.
Besides joint prayers and the commemoration of Ukrainian Nazis (the schismatics have always sided with the Ukrainian Nazis, and Epiphany has been drawn into this commemoration), thanks to this and other actions in Ukraine, the experimental ecumenical union of papism with the Orthodox of the Autocephalous Churches is being furthered. They are preparing the ground for union.
And on the website Russian-Faith.com, an article titled “A Modern Tower of Babel: Ecumenism—Unity With the Unrepentant”
John Rockefeller Jr. was an ardent supporter of Ecumenism and one might say a co-founder of its ideology. He, together with others, recognized that religion must be molded and used to promote the message and agenda that the world powers desire (as a side note, he also supported Protestant missions because he observed that Protestantism predisposes its recipients to the commercialism and industry of the West). This is not a far-fetched conspiracy theory. One of the official biographies on the Rockefeller family, by Peter Collier and David Horowitz, makes this point very clear. The network of power control “extended … from oil and banking, through foreign policy and education, religion and medicine, politics and art” (pg. 140). They sought to use every means possible, including religion, to consolidate power and to promote the message of the “new” world.
Speaking for the global agenda, John Jr. says, “I see all denominational emphasis set aside … I see the Church molding the thought of the world as it never has before … I see it literally establishing the Kingdom of God on earth” (pg. 151) From this statement we may glean a few insights:
First, all doctrinal value must be deemphasized; all confessions must be decentralized from doctrine (note, I do not condone the confusion of denominationalism, a phenomenon of Protestantism, yet that confusion is used as justification to dismantle, which most likely is its true goal, true Christian doctrine and dogma). Its rallying cry is unity around anti-doctrine.
Second, the “Church” must be weaponized as a conveyor of the new thought which will, in turn, mold the world.
Third, the goal is the “Kingdom of God on earth,” i.e. a Utopian ideal along the lines of chiliasm.
The Rockefellers actively sought to mold Christianity (generally speaking) to their views, the views of globalism. For this to be successful Christianity would need to be gutted of any and all “traditional” teachings. Most of all exclusive Truth claims. To this end, they actively supported and promoted various “modernist” clergy in churches and seminaries.
The Rockefellers were active pioneers in the Ecumenical movement. The Rockefeller vision is exemplified by a special “church” building which they constructed, “On October 5, 1930, six thousand people gathered for the opening service in the massive Gothic edifice of the Riverside Church … to symbolize the interdenominational spirit and its further reconciliation of religion and science, the tympanum arching the main portal contained the figures of non-Christian religious leaders and outstanding heroes of secular history, Confucius and Moses, Hegel and Dante, Mohammad and even the dread Darwin” (pg. 154).
This “church” building images the ultimate goal of ecumenism – the liquidation of unique truth claims and the amalgamation of all religions (together with scientism) into a giant generic world religion which will promote a “new” religious message. Millions of dollars were invested by this family alone into the Ecumenical movement, and they had a major hand in helping to establish the National Council of Churches (in the U.S.A.).
Keep in mind this is but one example of the elite power families which were and are actively involved in promoting globalization. It is vital to understand that a fundamental part of that agenda is Ecumenism. Let it be stressed – the global powers, which are truly antichrist, are some of the greatest proponents and supporters of Ecumenism. In fact through the extensive use of their money and power the ideology of Ecumenism was and is promoted to this day. It is not a grassroots movement, nor is it some grand “move of the Holy Spirit,” although a spirit is definitely involved.
Second – Ecumenism has been persistently promoted and gained traction in the Orthodox Church through very dubious characters and means. (This does not refer to some who participated early on, as noted above, in hope of truly witnessing to the Truth of Orthodoxy, but to those who began to willingly sell out and subsequently became active purveyors of the spirit of Ecumenism in Orthodoxy, even to this day.) An early prominent adherent and promoter of Ecumenism within the Orthodox Church was the Ecumenical Patriarch Meletios IV of ignominious memory. It is abundantly clear that his great support for Ecumenism was rooted in his own alliance to Masonry. It is well documented and established that he was a very ardent Mason. He labored diligently to undermine Orthodoxy and to supplant it with Ecumenism, violating, while he did so, the canons and ethos of the Church.
Another Ecumenist Mason Ecumenical Patriarch was Athenagoras I. He also worked against the Church by preaching the false gospel of Masonic Ecumenism. Both of the above actively work for a diluting of Orthodoxy and a general blending of it with “Western Christendom.” The fact that neither of the above has been officially condemned because of their well-established Masonry is very disturbing. May it be that the EP is now so set upon this agenda that it will not speak a word against it but rather attempt to dress it up in the best possible facade? If so, the sickness in Istanbul is a grave situation which must be addressed by all God-fearing Orthodox.
Here is a well documented source on this issue: https://www.geopolitica.ru/en/article/influence-freemasonry-early-greek-ecumenism
And here is another: http://www.events.orthodoxengland.org.uk/category/the-phanar/
Masonry and Ecumenism go hand in hand. (Masonry is condemned by the Orthodox Church.) In fact, Ecumenism may be called Masonic thought applied on a broader scale. Both envision the destruction of Truth and the establishment of an anti-truth. Both seek to subvert traditional Christian teachings, doctrine, and dogma on every level. Both agree that this is essential for the establishment and advancement of the globalist agenda.
This venom of the devil, introduced through Ecumenism, is at the root of many current “problems” in Orthodoxy. Ultimately, that’s its goal – to agitate and to divide (if possible). Clearly, the Essence of the Church remains inviolate, but this poison may do damage to many souls. The goal of the spirit of Ecumenism is the destruction of Truth; thus it hates Orthodoxy most of all. We should not be surprised that it seeks to destroy It.
I confess in my ignorance—until very recently—and being trusting and naive, I believed that it meant tolerance and respect for those having different denominations; for example, Becky Akers after “Pastor Goat” closed her church due to COVID-19 found a church of a different denomination that accepted her and offered services. I thought of friendships between (Roman) Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants—most of my outlook until recent reading of the Church Fathers, which the site New Advent features, and in books and articles was Western and truly I was ignorant of the differences, not thinking those differences fatal to amity between those who profess Jesus Christ as Savior. While the (Roman) Catholics rightly consider Bergoglio a threat to their faith and the Orthodox consider the heresy promoted as a threat to their faith, to me the issue is that this movement is a danger to Christendom; Catholics have the right to their rituals and their beliefs, the Orthodox to theirs. Individuals should respect the differences, perhaps seek out to understand what they are; but Ecumenism is not the solution; there is nothing of God in it. This is a great danger that affects all who understand what Jesus Christ asks of us, the sinners and the proud as he told in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, which I recently wrote about. Truly, there is nothing of Jesus Christ in this new globalist faith.
Yet as The Remnant noted, and Father Spyridon Bailey wrote, the movement is to create a religion that is not centered around Jesus Christ, hence it is heretical and anti-Christian, if not in fact anti-Christ; it is not an illness that only affects (Roman) Catholics, (Eastern) Orthodox or Protestants; it has the potential spreading to all faiths and will be corrupting.
Why is it corrupting? Because as I discussed in Remembering William Norman Grigg and Questioning the Narrative of the Riots the key to becoming one in Jesus Christ is our seeking and struggling to change ourselves, to repent, to become better human beings through reaching out to the Holy Trinity for strength, to give us the ability to love our enemies, to reject the violent emotions of anger and hatred (other than righteous anger against the devil), to be meek and humble before God, to realize that no one loves us as He does, the ones who are obvious failures and sinners, or the ones who practice the externals of the faith through ritual but lack the humility and love that is necessary to come to Him in humility, to acknowledge our sins and cease committing them. Christians—the true ones, the remnant—don’t believe in collective guilt. We are individual human beings; our sins are our own. We must “go and sin no more.”
And criticizing both Bergoglio and the Ukrainians schismatics, I don’t believe I’m guilty of what Saint Matthew told (7:3): “1 Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. 3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”
I am not a holy enough person to pray for Pope Francis and the others promoting Ecumenism to return to Jesus Christ, for such prayers can only be prayed by the holiest, perhaps in monasteries throughout the world; but my sins, which I acknowledge, only affect me; I cannot change the minds of millions, if not over a billion people, in the obvious evil of leading them into lies and away from Jesus Christ. I can pray for those who hear such things not be deceived but given recent trends in the world, there are many, many godless and deceived human beings.
Ecumenism through globalist religious structures must be called out for the heresy it is; perhaps more dangerous than those Christian Evangelicals who replace the Holy Trinity with the State of Israel, a human construction. A good dialog and cooperation among those having different doctrines (and I do not diminish the differences) is not under the rubric of Ecumenicism, I believe, but in these times of kneeling in abject debasement before other human beings instead of praying together as Christians to God seeking love and mercy, in this time of the “Cult of the Mask,” those who are true followers of Jesus Christ must, despite their differences, come together and resist and call out heresy for what it is; I know this will not be an easy task, but if we are humble and meek and seek out the Holy Spirit for strength, at least we will not be deceived by another lie—from the father of lies.
Indeed, in the past, the Roman Catholic Dom Lorenzo Scupoli’s The Spiritual Combat and a Treatise on the Peace of the Soul was much appreciated by Orthodox Christian scholars, who translated the work, modified to include references to Scripture to provide authority for his core ideas, and only made changes when it affected Orthodox ritual practices; I pray that such good and holy cooperation between these two ancient faiths will not only again become possible but know they are necessary when Christianity is under attack from all sides. (And I hope to write on the Scupoli’s work in the future for LewRockwell.com.) The truly faithful may not have the worldly power of our adversaries, but we have Truth on our side; that I believe with all my heart.
