Is anyone else having trouble distinguishing a difference between the Extinction Rebellion activists in London—as well as the rest of the Western world—and the latest goings on in the Roman Catholic Church? Because as The Mocker rightly asks in The Australian, it has become almost impossible to discern just exactly where the climate Catholics and the religious environmentalists differ.
Yep, the Pope has gone woke. For some bizarre reason, he has embraced the spirit of the South American rainforest by including animistic religious rituals in the opening of the recent pan-Amazon Synod. It has many people seriously asking the question, is the Pope Catholic? Or does he represent something else entirely? As Kathy Clubb writes in the conservative catholic publication, The Remnant:
Idol worship was on full display in preparation for the Pan-Amazon synod, with the tacit approval of Pope Francis. Although the Synod hadn’t yet started, the celebration of pagan ceremonies added weight to the concerns being voiced by prominent prelates and laymen that the Synod will be a vehicle for apostasy.
Now, the accusation of the Pope being ‘a vehicle for apostasy’ is not being used lightly. (e.g., 2 John 7-11) What’s more, Eugenio Scalfari, an Italian journalist and founder of La Repubblica, published an article this week claiming that the current Pontiff didn’t believe in the eternal divinity of Jesus as the Son of God. Instead, according to Scalfari:
Pope Francis conceives the Christ as Jesus of Nazareth, a man, not God incarnate. Once he took flesh, Jesus ceased to be a God and became a man until his death on the cross…
Pope Francis told me: ‘There are the proof that Jesus of Nazareth, once he became a man, even a man of exceptional virtue, was in no way a God’.
Apparently, one of the reasons why the Pontiff doubts this core tenant of the historic Christian faith is because of Jesus’ last words on the cross, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani – which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34) However, if Francis read his Bible then he would realise that this was a quote from Psalm 22. A passage that not only predicts the suffering of Israel’s king but ultimately his triumph over sin and death.=
Committed Catholics have been increasingly concerned about many of the Pope’s statements regarding divorce and remarriage, homosexuality (‘Who am I to judge?’), capital punishment, the existence of hell, and even the re-wording of the Lord’s Prayer. But the current document goes even further and comprehensively outlines seven key areas of doctrine, as well as a plethora of public actions, that the current Pontiff has been guilty of committing.
I don’t write any of this because I think that my own particular denomination is without sin. Unfortunately, The Presbyterian Church of Australia has had more than its fair share of false teachers over the years. From Charles Strong to Samuel Angus as well as the more recent heresy trial involving Peter Cameron. So, it’s not like my own denomination is guilt-free in this regard.
But the reason I address this is because it is the responsibilities of leaders to uphold the values of the institutions which employ them. And if they can’t continue to do that then they should have the integrity to resign. As Gillette, have found out the hard way, once you go woke you quickly go broke. Which is precisely the direction the Church of Rome is heading under its current theologically progressive leadership.
Worse than that, if Pope Francis continues to take the Catholic Church down this particular path then he might find that he too will be faced with extinction…