Timothy Birdnow

The Vatican has given the Chinese Communists the authority to choose Bishops in the People's Republic in violation of two millenia of custom and tradition.

Maureen Mullarkey writes in The Federalist: "The Vatican issued a press release stating that Msgr. Antoine Camilleri, undersecretary for the Holy See’s Relations with States, and Wang Chao, deputy minister for foreign affairs of the People’s Republic of China, signed a "provisional agreement” on the appointment of bishops.

It concludes: "The shared hope is that this agreement may favour a fruitful and forward-looking process of institutional dialogue and may contribute positively to the life of the Catholic Church in China, to the common good of the Chinese people and to peace in the world.”

End excerpt.

This while China has been in full suppression mode of the Christian churches throughout the Chinese empire. The Chicoms have been burning crucifixes, churches, and pastors and religious have been arrested. But the Vatican seems to think these same thugs doing this are capable of choosing Bishops.

Historically, the churches that allowed the government to control their internal affairs have not grown, and indeed have largely failed. Why are so many Orthodox churches so small? Because they were in places where the government had exactly the power that Pope Francis just granted China. In the future the Chinese People will see the Catholic Church as one of their oppressors, and will believe nothing coming from the Church.

BUT

With the Chicoms choosing Bishops and other authorities they can act as allies in Pope Francis' self-chosen mission to make the Catholic Church a champion of socialism and modernism. In fact, a number of Cardinals may well be chosen in China, approved by the Chicoms, and they will vote on the election of Popes in the future.

Francis is essentially doing what the Democrats are doing by promoting illegal alien colonization of the U.S.; creating new voters to cement his power.

The Federalist article makes some other great points:

"Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Pope Francis’ secretary of state, went on air to intone that "today, for the first time, all the bishops in China are in communion with the bishop of Rome, the successor of Peter.” It would be more accurate to state that, for the first time, the Holy See is in communion with the CCP.

Left unsaid is what has been known for some time: that agreement with Beijing allows the regime virtually full control over bishop selections. The Vatican’s right of veto is a fig leaf over the fact that the CCP retains the option of ignoring a veto if it chooses."

End excerpt.

Thy Church is not supposed to be the spiritual underpinning of any regime, but rather is supposed to be the "City of God" . St. Augustine argued something that Jesus said, namely, "render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and render unto God that which is God's". Jesus promoted a split between Church and State. Augustine made the case that the two should separate spheres, with separate powers, duties, and responsibilities. This thinking would be enshrined in the U.S. Constitution with the Establishment Clause preventing the government from making any law concerning the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. In short, separation of Church and State came from Jesus through Augustin.

The Left has always hated that, because it limits their power. The end result of this division has been limited government and an engaged, enlightened citizenry, something that stops them from implementing their plans for the populace, whom they believe need to be led like little children. Rousseau created the idea that the nation should be worshipped rather than God so as to limit the power of the Church to interfere with the plans of the rulers, and Rousseau saw the way to do that as being through government control of the churches and through government intervention at every level of life.

Marx understood the need for this. So did Benito Mussolini, who argued that:

"All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state."

He also said:

"Fascism is a religious concept."

And this is even more true of Communism, which permits nothing outside of the State. Giving the Chicoms the authority to choose Bishops is rather like giving wolves the keys to the sheepfold and telling them to lock up.

Pope Francis is fundamentally altering the Church, and in the end if his plans succeed he will destroy it. The Church is supposed to be independent of the State. This is a marriage made in Hell, and in the end it will lead to people rejecting Catholicism as a harlot, an entity selling itself out to the highest bidder.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 11:11 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
Post contains 788 words, total size 6 kb.