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Can We
Identify
The Antichrist?
The Antichrist in the
Twentieth Century
Chapter 8
The twentieth century has certainly
witnessed the Papacy again as a prominent force in world affairs.
By maneuvering as a world political power, it has affected the
course of world events. One area has been Papacy’s support of
Fascism.
In 1919 Archbishop Pacelli (who
later became Pope Pius XII) gave Hitler Church money to
“help
his small, struggling band of anti-Communists ‘to quell the
devil’s work,’ as Pacelli told Hitler.”[34]
Hitler’s Nazi-ism was born. By the Vatican exerting
international pressure, part of Ukraine was taken from Communist
Soviet Russia and given to Catholic Poland.[35]
Much to the Vatican’s delight, in 1922
Mussolini set up a Fascist dictatorship in Italy. Finally, because
of the Vatican’s political power, any Vatican representative was
forbidden to enter the Soviet Union. Then from 1925 onward,
the real Vatican campaign against the Soviet Union
“began to
flood the whole world.”[36]
Under Vatican pressure, in 1926
Pilsudski set up a Catholic Fascist dictatorship in Poland. For
over 15 years Catholic priests accompanied Polish soldiers in
expeditions to punish the so-called
“rebel Ukrainians”
in parts of the Ukraine previously annexed by Poland. Orthodox
churches were burned and
“thousands upon thousands” were
executed.[37]
Between 1929 and 1942 the
Vatican focused on establishing powerful Fascist political and
military blocks designed to oppose and finally to destroy
Communism and Socialism. First, the Vatican would support Fascist
parties within the various nations of Europe that were devoted to
the destruction of Socialism and Communism within the country.
Second, the Vatican would support the takeover of that government
for the purpose of war against the Soviet Union. Powerful
economic, social and financial forces throughout the world would
assist in this double purpose.[38]
The Vatican even reached out to Japan as
reflected in the Catholic Times (November 23, 1934):
In the event of a war between Japan and
Russia, Catholics would sympathize with Japan, at least in so
far as religion is concerned, so let us beware of any
Anglo-American bloc against Japan involving us on the side of
Russia.
Understandably, the Vatican was not
pleased with the U.S. involvement in the Grand Alliance (Great
Britain, United States and Russia) of World War II. The Vatican in
1929 signed the Lateran Treaty with Mussolini, which
guaranteed the full and independent sovereignty of the Vatican
State in Vatican City. Also Fascist Italy paid the Vatican a vast
sum of money to compensate for the loss of the Papal States in
1870.[39]
In 1933, the Pope had Francz von
Papen persuade President Hindenburg to appoint Hitler to be a
Chancellor of Germany.[40] Fritz Thyssen, a rich
Catholic steel magnate who financed Hitler, wrote an article in
the Swiss Arbeiterzeitung entitled,
“Pius XIII, As Nuncio,
Brought Hitler to Power.”[41] Impressed with the
organization of the Papacy, Hitler is quoted as saying the
following:[42]
I learned much from the Order of the
Jesuits…until now there has never been anything more grandiose
on the earth than the hierarchical organization of the Catholic
Church. I transferred much of this organization into my own
party.
In 1936 the Vatican and Mussolini
backed General Franco’s bloody civil war against the Spanish
Republic and vigorously supported his Fascist regime.[43]
Then between 1939 and 1941 the Vatican pressured Austria,
Czechoslovakia, Poland, Belgium and France to cave in to Germany.[44]
With the fall of Czechoslovakia, the Vatican and Hitler in 1939
set up a Catholic Fascist State in Slovakia headed by a Catholic
Prelate Monsignor Tiso. His regime was brutal towards Jews and
non-Roman Catholics. (After the war he was executed for war
crimes.)[45]
The Pope even collaborated with Hitler
regarding the invasion of Poland:[46]
The Pope had been informed of the war
plans of Hitler to invade Poland. Hitler had told of his grand
strategy and his ultimate aims. He had to risk a European war in
order to achieve them, but they were worth it. The ultimate and
main goal was the invasion of Soviet Russia. To do that Hitler
needed to occupy Poland…. The Pope would have to use all his
influence in persuading the Poles to settle matters with Hitler….
If the Poles refused, Hitler would invade Poland. He asked the
Pope, first not to condemn the invasion, and secondly not to ask
the Catholics in Poland to oppose it, but to rally them to a
crusade against the Soviets. Hitler made two promises: he would,
this time, respect all the privileges of the Church in Poland,
and secondly, the occupation of Poland would be
“temporary”…. Pius XII accepted. He did, however,
put forward three conditions…. Once more Hitler promised all
that the Vatican asked.
The Vatican began to exert pressure on
the Polish Government, through the services of Cardinal Hlond,
and in French Catholic circles, so that, if the worst should
happen, the French would not enter the war against Germany. The
negotiations failed.
France and Great Britain had a mutual
defense pact with Poland against aggression by Germany. The Pope
was feverishly negotiating with the Western Powers to acquiesce to
the occupation of Poland and then join Hitler in a war against the
Soviet Union. Before his invasion of Poland, Hitler gave the Pope
the opportunity to dissuade France from hostilities. General
Pétain, Laval and General Weygand (of Belgium birth) were the
pawns in this ploy. By Papal intrigue Pétain became Premier of
France and Weygand Commander in Chief of the armed forces. Pétain,
Lavan, Weygand and the Papacy had a plot to surrender France to
Hitler without the firing of a shot. Then France would become a
Fascist-Catholic State under the dictatorship of Pétain. This
plan failed the last minute when Mussolini demanded certain
territories in France. Hitler invaded Poland. After bringing
Poland to her knees in less than a month, Germany’s military
might turned to the West. When Belgium was invaded, Weygand of
France and the Vatican induced King Leopold to surrender
prematurely. This threw the Allied timetable off.
Meanwhile, by Papal intrigue in French
affairs, the power of Pétain, Lavan and Weygand consolidated to
the point that they could surrender France long before the
military was ready to cede defeat. Of course, a Fascist-Catholic
State ruled in Belgium and France until the Allied liberation. All
opposition was ruthlessly suppressed.[47]
Hitler promised the Pope that a German
victory in Europe would result in a
“new Christian Europe,
formed by Catholic States and by victorious Germany, who together
would bring about the complete restoration of a Christian Europe,
the prosperity of the Catholic peoples….”[48]
In 1941 the Axis Powers and the
Vatican set up the Catholic Fascist Party, Ustashi, in Croatia
under the dictatorship of Ante Pavelic. Archbishop Stepinac was
the Supreme Military Vicar of the Ustashi Army. Jews were
murdered, Serbian Orthodox churches were destroyed and Serbs were
given the choice to convert to Roman Catholicism or be killed.[49]
Under the headline,
“The
Catholic Church is Accused of Complicity in the killing of
Serbs,” The
New York Times (September 6, 1994), gave the real reasons for
the cancellation of the Pope’s visit to Sarajevo:
Serbian anger, which is evident in the
Bosnian Serbs’ refusal to assure the Pope’s visit, is
essentially rooted in the events of World War II, so a papal
visit might have been greeted with whistles and boos. During the
War, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Zagreb, Alojzije Stepinac,
greeted the installation of the Pavelic regime as
“God’s
hand at work” and never publicly denounced the onslaught on
Serbian civilians. The ferocity of this onslaught, which often
involved conversion of Greek Orthodox Serbs to Roman Catholicism
at gun point or their massacre in churches, was well known in
the Vatican.
The article then described some
executions of masses of Serbs by the Croats. As incredible as it
sounds, Pope John Paul II, during his visit to Croatia in
September of 1994 lauded Cardinal Stephinac as a national hero and
a
“vigilant, true pastor of his flock”—despite his
World War II involvement with the murderous Pavelic regime.
When in 1943 it was known that
Germany would eventually lose the war, the Vatican and Britain
tried to plot the fall of Hitler and then have Germany join forces
with Great Britain and the U.S. in a war against Russia.[50]
In 1945 The Axis
Powers and the Vatican lost World War II and until 1989
Communism swept over one third of the world. But in 1982
through 1989 Pope John Paul and former President Reagan
successfully plotted the downfall of the Communist Empire (Time,
February 24, 1992). Regarding this clandestine campaign,
Archbishop Pio Lashi said to the U.S. diplomat, Vernon Walters,
“It is a very complex situation…listen to the Holy Father
[Pope]. We have 2,000 years experience at this.” It was
further observed,
“Step by reluctant step, the Soviets and
the Communist government of Poland bowed to the pressure imposed
by the Pope and the President.” Finally in 1989 the
Communist Empire fell. A leading newspaper reported that Mikhail
Gorbachev observed,
“Pope John Paul II played a major
political role in the collapse of communism in Eastern
Europe.”[51] The Papacy finally triumphed over her
bitter enemy.
The New Look of Papacy
for an Old Concept
In 1990 the Vatican’s ultimate agenda
is revealed in the following statement the Pope made on April 21:[52]
A united Europe is no longer a dream.
It is not utopian memory from the Middle Ages [emphasis
added]. The events that we are witnessing show that this goal
can be reached.
The Pope wants to revive the Holy Roman
Empire of the Middle (Dark) Ages! …How is this possible? After
World War II, the Papacy’s rapprochement with Protestants began
to intensify. Ecumenism seems the appropriate solution for both
Catholics and Protestants in mutually bolstering up their
credibility—and survival. Although essentially the Papacy has
not changed, a few cosmetic alterations have helped the Roman
Church have a new look. Vatican II has played a significant role
in the face-lift project. Bible studies in the Church—albeit
restricted—are now permitted. Meat on Friday is okay.
Philanthropic activities around the world abound. Services no
longer have to be exclusively in Latin. And the Church of Rome
beckons to its
“separated brethren”—the Protestant
Churches. Have the Protestant Churches forgotten why they
separated?
In November of 1993, Moody Bible
Institute in its periodical said,
“Today, for good or bad,
the lines that separate evangelicals and Roman Catholics are
fading. More and more people from both sides are working together…”
Charles Colson wrote,
“It’s high time that all of us who
are Christians come together regardless of the difference of our
confessions and our tradition…” Today the ministries of
Billy Graham, Luis Palau, World Vision and charismatic groups such
as YWAH involve activities with Catholics.
In 1994 a group of 40 prominent
evangelical and Catholic scholars and leaders agreed that
Christians must stop aggressive proselytizing of one another’s
flocks and work together more closely to
“contend against all
that opposes Christ and His cause.” The statement, signed
March 29 in New York further stated,
“We dare not by needless
and loveless conflict between ourselves give aid and comfort to
the enemies of the cause of Christ.” Finally, the statement
concluded,
“Not since the 16th century have Protestants and
Catholics ‘joined in a declaration so clear in respect to their
common faith and common responsibility.’”
In May of 1995
Pope John Paul II issued an encyclical on Christian unity,
“Ut Unum Sint”
(“That They May be One”). The encyclical was an
unprecedented call for Protestant and Orthodox denominations to
dialogue on a Christian unity that would accept the authority of
the Pope. In response, a prominent group of Orthodox, Roman
Catholic and Protestant scholars and church leaders gathered in
South Carolina to re-examine the road to unity. In spite of much
disagreement, the consensus was to keep open the dialogue at
regular intervals.
On May 12, 1999, the co-chairman
of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission issued the
document
“The Gift of Authority.” It stated,
“the
need for a universal primacy exercised by the Bishop of Rome [the
Pope] as a sign and safeguard of unity within the reunited
Church” (cf. Authority in The Church 11, 9).
On October 31, 1999, the Lutheran
World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church issued the Joint
Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, which they said
ended a conflict that began with Martin Luther in 1517.
The Antichrist is posturing for its
end-time scenario with the image of the beast and false prophet.
[34]
Paul J. Murphy, La Popessa
(New York: Warner Books, 1980), 52.
[35] Avro Manhattan, The Vatican
In World Polics (New York: Horizon Press, Inc. 1949), 272.
[36]
Ibid., 272, 280.
[37]
Ibid., 273-275 (Many references
given for documentation).
[38]
Manhattan, The Vatican In World Politics, 168, 169.
[39]
Murphy, La Popessa, and
Manhattan, The Vatican In World Politics, 22-24.
[40]
Manhattan, The Vatican In World Politics, 168,169.
[41]
Leon Lehmann, Behind The
Dictators (1942), Fritz Thyssen, I Paid Hitler (1941).
[42]
Hermann Rauschning, Hitler
Said To Me (1939), 266-267.
[43]
Manhattan, The Vatican In World Politics, 95-99.
[44]
Ibid., 247-265, 340-341.
[45]
Ibid., 262-263.
[46]
Manhattan, 192-194.
[47]
Ibid., 282-291, 307-322.
[48]
Ibid., 327.
[49] Avro Manhattan, The Terror
Over Yugoslavia, the threat to yugoslavia (London: waters, 1953).
[50]
John Loftus & Mark Aarons, The
Secret War Against The Jews (New York: St. Martin's Press,
1994), 87.
[51]
World, March 6, 1992.
[52]
New York Times, April 23, 1990.
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