The Pope's Apology
 

[Treatise]

Part VI

Pope’s Apology
Does Not Make
Any Reconciliation
to Holocaust Survivors

As part of the pope’s apology, he names the Jews. But does he make any reconciliation to the Holocaust survivors of today? No. He doesn’t even acknowledge the Church’s role in cooperation with the Nazi war machine. He wants to canonize Pius XII of WWII. He is making a general enough statement, "We’re sorry for what’s happened to the Jewish people" – to make it look as if this is an apology. They make it loose enough–he has all sorts of "wiggle" room. You can’t nail it down specifically, but it sounds good if you want to put a positive spin on it.

John Paul II did not apologize for the Catholic church burning the Waldenses or the Huegenots or other specific groups. What would happen if their descendants came forward and said, "We don’t accept your apology." He’d be in a fix, wouldn’t he? It wouldn’t have the desired effect. They say, "We’re apologizing to God before man." That’s rather ethereal. Who can sit here and say, "The Lord doesn’t forgive you." We can’t do that. The Lord is God. The Scriptures are clear.

The world in general doesn’t take it that way. They say, "What can we do?" They think it "purifies the memory" of the Church. That’s a term they use– to get away from condemnation. The condemnation is impeding the ecumenical relations they’re trying to have with the Protestants. We know they’ve been trying to get back together in their statement of Justification with the Lutherans, and various things that are taking place.

Papacy has to make an apology. You know how they word it? "We forgive, and ask forgiveness." That’s how the pope stated it in his homily. Wrongs were done to us, and wrongs were done to you, so let’s forget it and move on from here. Now we can get together. Many of the Protestant leaders are happy to do this, because it’s a major embarrassment to these church leaders who have influence with government leaders when amongst themselves they’re divided. How could you mediate between two countries when you can’t mediate between fellow Christians? That is a major embarrassment. They need this ecumenical spirit to cooperate. This is one of the ploys.

The other thing is that the pope wants to have more influence in what’s going on with the status of Jerusalem. He wants to have Jerusalem an international city. He cooperates with the Palestinians–a very small percentage being Christian–because he wants to have an active role there. The pope is realizing that Israel is not giving up their hold on Jerusalem, so this is just part of his plan to get a grasp on Jerusalem.

The Jewish people were looking for some type of an apology. They wanted more, but this was great for them. But he didn’t apologize for that pope’s role in WWII. He didn’t acknowledge the Church’s role with Germany or Croatia. He just said, "The Church recognizes the wrongs done by some of its sons and daughters of the past." What kind of an apology is it, that has ulterior motives? God’s not mocked. He knows what’s motivating that system. Even if Catholics are sincerely deceived– and we’re not questioning their sincerity–it is the system and the policy.

Those who remain in the system today with all the light now due, and the testimony of past history, and the testimony from the Word of God–they have a great responsibility. They have received the mark of the beast.

Read a couple of things from the church paper that they put out on their web page regarding this. These phrases describe the scene well.

"Wearing the purple vestments of Lenten and mourning, and speaking in the heart of Catholicism at St. Peter’s Basilica, the pope and his cardinals listed the many past sins of their Church, grouped into seven categories. ‘We forgive, and we ask for forgiveness.’ the pope said in his homily in this unprecedented ceremony...The Christians of today are not responsible of the 19^th century nor the 16^th century. We are not responsible for errors we did not commit. We have to find a way to liberate and purify memory without talking about responsibility.’"

One thing must be forcibly stated: The confession for sins made by the pope is addressed to God, who alone can forgive sins; but it is also made before men.