One cannot underestimate the changes made at many levels in the Roman Catholic Church since the election of Pope Francis:
· Simple living, highly educated Jesuit priest turned-archbishop-turned pope with a modest lifestyle. A radical departure from the practices of previous pontiffs. He paid his own hotel bill, carried his own bag when boarding the plane, focusing on the world’s poor, a focus on inclusiveness and tolerance for other religions.
· The new Pope’s influence is being dubbed the ‘Francis effect’, compared to Princess Diana’s effect on the British monarchy.
· In April, the Vatican announced his formation of a group of eight cardinals, hailing from six continents to study a project on the revision of a document on the Roman Curia.
· In July, he formed a commission to help reform the Vatican’s finances and administrative structure, both plagued by scandal, including money laundering and corruption
· He dismissed IOR director Paolo Cipriani and his deputy. Now the bank is led by Ernst von Freyberg, a German baron and former consultant member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.
· He overhauled the laws that govern the Vatican City state, criminalizing leads of Vatican information and specifically listing sexual violence, prostitution and possession of child pornography as crimes against children that can be punished by up to 12 years in prison. The legislation covers clergy and lay people.
· He directly admonished clergy at a personal level when he stated that, ‘it hurts my heart when I see a priest with the latest car model
· Statements from Francis offering olive branches to atheists, Muslims, homosexuals and other groups.
· His first official trip outside Rome was to the small Sicilian island of Lampedusa, which like Malta is known as the stepping-stone for those migrating from Northern Africa to Europe. His visit brought positive comments from many media outlets, humanitarian relief organization UNICEF and from Fouad Aodi, president of the Arab Community in Italy, (Comai).
The changes expounded above show the long-range goals of the Roman Catholic Church are to truly reflect the meaning of its name: The word ‘Catholic’ comes from the Greek Katholicos, which means ‘universal’ as popes have long envisioned the entire world of Christianity being under the Roman Catholic umbrella and various interfaith and ecumenical schemes are unfolding toward that end.
Catholics believe that their religion is the modern ancestor of what started with Jesus Christ and the 12 disciples in Judea nearly 2,000 years ago and that by spreading Catholicism they are spreading the Kingdom of God to quote the phrase used by Christ in the Bible.
But is the Roman Church the same one described in the New Testament?
We need to consider some fundamental facts:
· Christ described Himself as ‘Lord of the Sabbath’, a 24-hour period recognized by His fellow Jews at that time (and even by modern Catholic theologians) as the seventh day of the week (Saturday). Elsewhere, Christ states, “the Sabbath was made for man” (for all mankind not just Jewish people – Mark 2:27). Yet traditional Catholic doctrine upholds Sunday.
· The Roman Church views the apostle Peter as the first pope, or Bishop of Rome. But there is no evidence that Peter was ever stationed at Rome in the first place. In face, in the apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans or Roman congregation he authoritatively instructs the Church members there, never so much as referring to Peter.
· The New Testament makes clear that the Church Jesus founded continued to keep the annual Holy Days (first established in the Old Testament) long after Christ was crucified (1 Corinthians 5:6-8 and Acts 20:6 for references to the Feast (Days) of Unleavened Bread: Acts 2 and 20:16 regarding the Feast of Pentecost; Acts 27:9 and many more). Yet the entirety of Christianity has traded these days for other observances involving such elements as Easter eggs, old men on flying sleighs and carved pumpkins.
· The Pope has to bring back the Roman Church back to its early roots and recognise biblical truths. The Constitution of the Roman Church should be the Bible and not its Catechism because it has moved away from Biblical truths. The word Church comes from the Greek ekklesia, meaning to be ‘called out’– and the Church has to come out of the world. The more it gets into the traditions of men, the greater is the blurring of Christ’s True Message.
· It is no great wonder that the true Church is very difficult to identify because the ‘little flock’ that Jesus referred to is found in many Christian groups and communities that have flourished all over the world in the form of Pentecostal, evangelical, full Gospel groups and movements and the revivals witnessed in them. Jesus declared in Matthew that almost none seems to believe, or even know about Him. “But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matt 15:9). In Mark’s parallel account, He added, “Full well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your own tradition” (7:9).
These small Churches, communities, fellowships of believers who seek God in His pure Word around the world have a message from Jesus Himself, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom” (Luke 12:32).
Perhaps Pope Francis will try to emulate the Pentecostal, evangelical movements of the continent from where he originally comes and which are so vividly clear in Holy Spirit power and biblical pureness as witnessed on God TV, Daystar TV, CBN and many Christian TV networks.
Pope Francis’ election seems to be in keeping with the Catholic Irish writer Malachy’s prophecies as he is being called the Black Pope and Jesuits are described as ‘black’. If the Pope keeps entertaining too much man-made traditions under the sugar-coated changes described in the introduction above and tolerates sin, whether it is too much compassion for the act of abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia and other evils condemned by God, then truly he will be the last Pope before the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus.
Anthony Zarb Dimech
BIRKIRKARA