Religious News Items

Catholic Views on Religion and Politics

Said Jesus to the Roman governor: “My kingdom is no part of this world.” (John 18:36, NW) What does the Roman Catholic Hierarchy say? Pages 37 and 38 of the authoritative Catholic document, The Liberal Illusion, help answer in these words: “Jesus Christ is the King of the world. He speaks to the world through His Priest [the pope], and the decrees of this Priest, being an expression of the royal rights of Jesus Christ, are eternal. They apply not to one time alone, but to all times; not to one society alone, but to all societies; not to some men, but to all men. The children of the Christ, the children of the King are kings. They form an absolutely superior society, whose duty it is to take possession of the earth and reign over it for the purpose of baptizing all men and of raising them to that selfsame supernatural life, that selfsame royalty and that selfsame glory for which Christ has destined them.”

Ambitiously teaching that Jesus gave Peter the commission of supplanting the political power of this world with the authority of a religious hierarchy, the Catholic Cabinet, pages 160-168, under the section “From Peter to Leo”, declares: “He brings a message to the Caesar, and this is what his message means: ‘Caesar, thy work is done . . . I have come to take thine Empire . . . I will wield thy sceptre. Take down thine eagles from the Capitol. In their stead I will set up the Cross. Upon thy palace I will build my Vatican . . . Caesar, thou mayest go. Rome is mine, for I am Peter. What was Rome’s answer? Rome owned the earth . . . Rome declared war on Peter . . . The world was Pagan then . . . But, the Christian revelation being true, and good, and beautiful, conquered.’”

Hindus Shocked by Catholic Idolatry

India is a land covered with Hindu temples and images, erected to the worship of some 330,000,000 gods, so numerous they even outnumber their worshipers. If any people should be used to and tolerant of idolatry, one would think the Hindus would qualify. However, the publication Protestant Action, in its issue of June, 1950, relates an extraordinary reaction on the part of some responsible Hindu sources to a then current Roman Catholic exhibition in South India of a statue of “Our Lady of Fatima” from Portugal. As usual, cities along the statue’s route of travel were first “softened up” with propaganda concerning its many alleged miracles and answers to prayers.

Though to an idol-ridden land like India this should seem quite commonplace, note the report carried in the above-mentioned publication: “The Hindu editor of a large India-language daily newspaper in Travancore, however, called the Roman Catholic celebrations ‘a manifestation of idolatry in its crudest form’. He was joined by other prominent Hindus in warning their people not to be influenced to go back to a form of idolatry which they have been trying to overcome.”