Scripture
Scholars, Ancient and Modern
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From:
The Plot Against The Pope; Coup détat in
the Conclave 1958
©
Copyright 1989 - 2005, by Gary Giuffré
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The
Fathers of the Douay-Rheims Bible
The bloody oppression of Catholics in England―which followed
on the heels of Henry VIIIs schism from the Roman
Church―obliged those who would remain faithful to the
ancient religion either to go underground or seek refuge
on foreign soil. The clergy who had taken charge of
preserving the study of Sacred Scriptures within the
English-speaking world, were among those who were
compelled to forsake their native land for a spiritual
home beyond the shores of Britain. Their escape had
become imperative if their
work,
which would benefit souls for generations to come, was to
continue unencumbered. Among the learned
clerics who were forced to flee were the biblical
scholars of Oxford who eventually settled at Douay, in
Flanders.
After the persecutions in England had subsided
somewhat, the remaining faithful were still fending off
attacks upon pure doctrine, and false interpretations of
Sacred Scripture by the adherents of Anglicanism.
Since expertise with the Latin language was very limited
among the common folk, English Catholics needed a version
of the Holy Bible in their language, accurately
translated from the Latin Vulgate (the only Catholic
Bible available at the time), by which to support the
major tenets of the Faith. How the English
clergy-in-exile responded to this necessity, is recounted
here by The Catholic Encyclopedia:
The
work of preparing such a version was undertaken by
the members of the English College at Douay, in
Flanders, founded by William Allen (afterwards
Cardinal) in 1568. The chief share of the
translating was borne by Dr. Gregory Martin,
formerly of St. John's College, Oxford. His
text was revised by Thomas Worthington, Richard
Bristowe, John Reynolds, and Allen himself
all of them Oxford men. A series of
notes [annotations] was added, designed to
answer the theological arguments of the Reformers;
these were prepared by Allen, assisted by Bristowe
and Worthington.
. . . they translated directly, not from the
original Hebrew or Greek, but from the Latin
Vulgate of St. Jerome. This had been declared
authoritative for Catholics by the Council of
Trent; but it was also commonly admitted that the
text was purer than in any manuscripts at that time
extant in the original languages . .
.
In
the year 1578, owing to political troubles, the
college was temporarily transferred from Douay . .
. to Rheims, and during its sojourn there, in 1582,
the New Testament was published, and became
consequently known as the Rheims Testament.
. . The Old Testament was delayed by want of means,
until the whole Bible was eventually published in
two quarto volumes, in 1609 and 1610 . . . Thus the
New Testament appeared nearly thirty years
before the Anglican Authorized Version, and
although not officially mentioned [by
Protestants], as one of the versions to be
consulted, it is now commonly recognized to have
had a large influence on the King James
Version . . . The Rheims
Testament
was reprinted twice at Antwerp in 1600 and 1621,
and a fourth edition was issued at Rouen in
1633. Then it was allowed to rest for over a
century, before a fifth edition appeared, with some
slight changes, dated 1728, but without any place
of publication stated. It is believed to have
been printed in London and was edited by Dr.
Challoner (afterwards bishop), and Father Blyth, a
Carmelite. The Douay Bible was never, after
this, printed abroad. A sixth edition of the
Rheims Testament was printed at Liverpool in
1788, and a seventh dated Dublin, 1803, which was
the last Catholic edition. Several Protestant
editions have appeared, the best known being a
curious work by Rev. William Fulke, first published
in 1589, with the Rheims text and that of the
Bishops Bible in parallel
columns. A Protestant edition of the
Rheims Testament was also brought out by
Leavitt of New York, in 1834 . . .1
Following this concise
history of the Douay-Rheims (original Catholic,
English-language) Bible, the Catholic Encyclopedia
next provides this significant piece of
information:
Although
the Bibles in use at the present day [1908]
by the Catholics of England and Ireland are
popularly styled the Douay Version, they are most
improperly so called; they are founded, with more
or less alteration, on a series of revisions
undertaken by Bishop Challoner in 1749-52 . . . He
brought out three editions of the New
Testament, in 1749, 1750, and 1752
respectively, and one of the Old Testament
in 1750. The changes introduced by him were
so considerable that, according to Cardinal Newman,
they almost amounted to a new
translation. So also, Cardinal Wiseman
wrote, To call it any longer the Douay or
Rheimish Version is an abuse of terms. It has
been altered and modified until scarcely any verse
remains as it was originally published.
In nearly every case Challoners changes took
the form of approximating to the [Anglican]
Authorized Version, though his three editions of
the New Testament differ from one another in
numerous passages . . .2
Now,
it should be noted that in most cases, what passes today
as the Douay-Rheims Bible is nothing more
than the corrupted and truncated Challoner version, which
is almost completely devoid of the comprehensive
annotations of the Douay Fathers. The Douay
commentaries, which were based largely upon the writings
of the early Church Fathers, were expurgated by
Challoner, for the sake of reducing the size and cost of
Bibles distributed to the faithful. But this
greatly diminished the value of later editions of the
Catholic Bible that were to follow. For, virtually
all versions printed from 1800 to the present day are
lacking the exhaustive explanations of key biblical
passages, which had been included (with the scripture
texts) by the Douay Fathers to assist the
English-speaking faithful in defending the Catholic
religion. The notations in 19th and
20th century editions of the
Catholic Bible are woefully deficient in
content, and the ideas expressed therein differ
significantly from the learned opinions of the church
fathers found in earlier editions. This is
especially true regarding the prophetic works found in
both the Old Testament and New
Testament.
Numerous
commentaries on Sacred Scripture, which were published in
the original 1582 Douay-Rheims New Testament,
specifically and clearly describe the plight of the
Church, the papacy, and the Mass in the last days.
From those writings it is clearly evident that the Church
Fathers of past centuries foresaw the future takeover of
the Vatican by the forces of Antichrist, the overthrow of
the Pope, and the abolition of the Holy Mass in the
latter days.
The eventual suppression of the Holy Sacrifice was
implied by St. Matthew, according to the Churchs
eminent scripture scholars, Doctors William Allen, Thomas
Worthington, and Richard Bristow. In their
comprehensive annotations on Matthew 24:15, regarding the
verse, when you shall see the abomination of
desolation . . . standing in the holy place . . .,
the Oxford Fathers at Douay give the following
interpretation:
. . . the abomination of desolation foretold, was
partly fulfilled in diverse profanations of the
Temple of Jerusalem, when the sacrifice and service
of God was taken away. But specially it shall
be fulfilled by Antichrist and his Precursors,
when they shall abolish the holy Mass, which is
the Sacrifice Of Christs Body and Blood, and
the only sovereign worship due to God in His
Church . . . By which it is plain that the heretics of
those days will be special fore-runners of Antichrist.”3
In
their commentary on II Thessalonians 2:3-4, Fathers
Allen, Worthington, and Bristow interpreted the passage,
the son of perdition . . . sitteth in the temple of
God, to mean that:
“Antichrist . . . shall rule over the whole world, and
specifically prohibit that principal worship instituted by Christ
in His Sacraments . . . by taking away the sacrifice of the altar
. . ."4
As
regards the conditions for the Church in the latter
days, the Douay Fathers stated further
that:
St.
Augustine . . . and St. Jerome . . . think that
this sitting of Antichrist in the temple, doth
signify his sitting in the Church of Christ, rather
than in Solomons temple. Not as though
he should be a chief member of the Church of Christ
. . . But . . . that this Antichristian revolt
here spoken of, is from the Catholic Church:
and Antichrist, if he ever were of or in
the Church, shall be a renegade out of
the Church, and he shall usurp upon it by
tyranny, and by challenging worship, religion, and
government thereof . . . And this is to sit in
the temple or against the Temple of God, as some
interpret. If any Pope did ever this, or
shall do, then let the Adversaries
[Protestants] call him
Antichrist.5
In
the commentaries of the English Fathers at Douay, on the
17th Chapter of the Apocalypse (again, found in the
unabridged annotations from the original
Douay-Rheims Bible), which pertain to the Pope, it is
written that:
. . . in the beginning of the Church, Nero and the
rest of the persecuting Emperors (which were
figures of Antichrist) did principally sit in
Rome, so also the great Antichrist shall have his
seat there, as it may well be (though others
think that Jerusalem rather shall be his principal
city) yet even then shall neither the Church of
Rome, nor the Pope of Rome be Antichrist, but shall
be persecuted by Antichrist, and
driven out of Rome, if it be
possible. For, to Christs Vicar and the
Roman Church he will bear as much good will as the
Protestants now do, and he shall have more power to
persecute him and the Church, than they have.6
Henry
Cardinal Manning
Henry Edward Manning, D.D., once an influential cleric of
the Church of England, converted to the Catholic faith in
1851. He entered the seminary and thereafter
advanced rapidly through the ranks of the priesthood,
having been consecrated as Archbishop of Westminster in
1865, and appointed as cardinal, just ten years
later. Midway between those two promotions, Henry
Manning achieved renown throughout the Catholic world by
his assistance to Pope Pius IX in the drafting of the
dogmatic decree on Papal Infallibility, which was
promulgated at the First Vatican Council, in
1870.
Four years before his reception of episcopal orders,
Manning delivered a series of lectures, which were
published together in London under the title, The
Present Crisis of the Holy See. The year was
1861, and the last remnants of the Popes temporal
realm were being stripped from his hands by the Masonic,
revolutionist movement that had swept across Italy.
Manning recognized in those dire events the foretaste of
far greater perils to come, for the papacy, the Church
and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Drawing
from ecclesiastical sources ancient and modern, Manning
was able to predict with chilling accuracy the then
future tribulations that would threaten to exterminate
the Mystical Body of Christ in the latter
days. Here below is but a sample of
Mannings analysis of the upheavals in his day and
what they would portend for our own time:
. . . those who claim toleration for every form of
opinion, and who teach that the office of the civil
governor is never to enter into controversies of
religion, but that all men should be left free in
their belief, and the conscience of all men be at
liberty before God even they make one
exception, and, in the strangest contradiction to
all their principles or, at least, their
professions, maintain that as the Catholic Church
is not only a form of doctrine, but also a power or
government, it must be excepted from the general
toleration. And this is precisely the point
of future collision. It is the very reason
why the Archbishops of Cologne, Turin, Cagliari,
and the like, went . . . into exile; why nineteen
Sees are . . . vacant in Sardinia. Why, in
Italy, Bishops are, at this day [1861],
cast out from their Episcopal thrones; it is for
this reason that in this land [England] the
Protestant religion is established instead of
Catholic truth, and that thrones once filled by the
Bishops of the universal Church are now occupied by
those whom the royalties of England, and
not the royalties of the Vicar of Jesus Christ,
have chosen and set up. It is the same old
contest, old as Christianity itself, which has been
from the beginning, first with pagan, and then with
heretic, and then with schismatic, and then with
infidel, and will continue to the end. The day is
not far off when the nations of the world, now so
calm and peaceful in the stillness of their
universal indifference, may easily be roused, and
penal laws [against Catholics] once more
may be found in their statute-books.
. . . This leads on
plainly to the marks, which the prophet
[Malachias] gives of the persecution of the
last days. Now, there are three things which
he has recorded. In the foresight of prophecy
he saw and noted these three signs. The
first, that the continual sacrifice shall be
taken away; the next, that the sanctuary
shall be occupied by the abomination which maketh
[it] desolate; the third, that
the strength and the
altars, as he described it,
shall be cast down: and these are the only
three I will notice.
Now, first of all,
what is this taking away of the continual
sacrifice?
It was taken away in
type at the destruction of Jerusalem. The
sacrifice of the Temple, that is of the lamb,
morning and evening, in the Temple of God, was
entirely abolished with the destruction of the
Temple itself. Now, the Prophet Malachias says:
From the rising of the sun even to the going
down, my name is great among the Gentiles; and in
every place there is sacrifice, and there is
offered to My name a clean oblation.
[Malachias, 1:11] This passage
of the prophet has been interpreted by the Fathers
of the Church, beginning with St. Irenæus,
St. Justin Martyr, and I know not how many besides,
to be the sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist, the true
Paschal Lamb which came in the place of the type
namely, the sacrifice of Jesus Himself on
Calvary renewed perpetually and continued forever
in the sacrifice on the altar . . .
The Holy Fathers
who have written upon the subject of Antichrist,
and of these prophecies of Daniel, without a single
exception, as far as I know, and they are
the Fathers both of the East and of the West, the
Greek and the Latin Church all of them
unanimously, say that in the latter end of
the world, during the reign of Antichrist, the holy
sacrifice of the altar will cease.
[Malvenda, Liber VIII, chapter
4.] In the work on the end of the
world, ascribed to St. Hippolytus, after a long
description of the afflictions of the last days, we
read as follows: The Churches shall lament
with a great lamentation, for there shall be
offered no more oblation nor incense, nor worship
acceptable to God. The sacred buildings of
the churches shall be as hovels; and the precious
body and blood of Christ shall not be manifest in
those days; the Liturgy shall be extinct; the
chanting of psalms shall cease; the reading of Holy
Scripture shall be heard no more. But there
shall be upon men darkness, and mourning upon
mourning, and woe upon woe.
[Hippolytus, Liber de Consum. Mundi,
§ 34.] Then, the
Church shall be scattered, driven into the
wilderness, and shall be for a time, as it was in
the beginning, invisible, hidden in catacombs, in
dens, in mountains, in lurking-places; for a time
it shall be swept, as it were, from the face of the
earth. Such is the universal testimony of the
Fathers of the early centuries . . .
The
writers of the Church tell us that in the latter
days the city of Rome will probably become apostate
from the Church and Vicar of Jesus Christ; and
that Rome will again be punished, for he will
depart from it; and the judgment of God will fall
on the place from which he once reigned over the
nations of the world. For what is it that
makes Rome sacred, but the presence of the Vicar of
Jesus Christ? What has it that should be dear in
the sight of God, save only the presence of the
Vicar of His Son? Let the Church of Christ
depart from Rome, and Rome will be no more in the
eyes of God than Jerusalem of old. Jerusalem,
the Holy City, chosen by God, was cast down and
consumed by fire, because it crucified the Lord of
Glory; and the city of Rome, which has been the
seat of the Vicar of Jesus Christ for eighteen
hundred years, if it become apostate, like
Jerusalem of old, will suffer a like condemnation.
And, therefore, the writers of the Church tell us
that the city of Rome has no prerogative except
only that the Vicar of Christ is there; and if it
become unfaithful, the same judgments which fell on
Jerusalem, hallowed though it was by the presence
of the Son of God, of the Master, and not the
disciple only, shall fall likewise upon Rome.
Cardinal
Manning continues . . .
The
apostasy of the city of Rome from the Vicar of
Christ, and its destruction by Antichrist may be
thoughts so new to many Catholics, that I think it
well to recite the text of theologians, of greatest
repute. First, Malvenda, who writes
expressly on the subject, states as the opinion of
Ribera, Gaspar Melus, Viegas, Suarez, Bellarmine,
and Bosius, that Rome shall apostatize from the
faith, drive away the Vicar of Christ, and
return to its ancient paganism.
Malvendas words are: But Rome
itself in the last times of the world will return
to its ancient idolatry, power, and imperial
greatness. It will cast out its
Pontiff, altogether apostatize from the
Christian faith, terribly persecute the Church,
shed the blood of martyrs more cruelly than ever,
and will recover its former state of abundant
wealth, or even greater than it had under its first
rulers. [Melvenda, de Antichristo,
Liber IV, chapter 5.]
Lessius
says: In the time of Antichrist, Rome shall
be destroyed, as we see openly from the thirteenth
chapter of the Apocalypse; and again:
The woman whom thou sawest is the great city,
which hath kingdom over the kings of the earth, in
which is signified Rome in its impiety, such as it
was in the time of St. John, and shall be again at
the end of the world. [Lessius, de
Antichristo, demonstratio XII] And
Bellarmine [says]: In the time
of Antichrist, Rome shall be desolated and burnt,
as we learn from the sixteenth verse of the
seventeenth chapter of the Apocalypse.
[Bellarmine, de Summo Pontifice, Liber
IV, chapter 4.] On which words the
Jesuit Erbermann comments as follows: We all
confess with Bellarmine that the Roman people, a
little before the end of the world, will return to
paganism, and drive out the Roman
Pontiff.
Viegas,
on the eighteenth chapter of the Apocalypse says:
Rome, in the last age of the world, after it
has apostatized from the faith, will attain great
power and splendor of wealth, and its sway will be
widely spread throughout the world, and flourish
greatly. Living in luxury and the abundance
of all things, it will worship idols, and be
steeped in all kinds of superstition, and will pay
honor to false gods. And because of the vast
effusion of the blood of martyrs which was shed
under the emperors, God will most severely and
justly avenge them, and it shall be utterly
destroyed, and burned by a most terrible and
afflicting conflagration.
Finally,
Cornelius à Lapide sums up what may be said
to be the common interpretation of
theologians. Commenting on the same
eighteenth chapter of the Apocalypse, he
says: These things are to be understood
of the city of Rome, not that which is, nor that
which was, but that which shall be at the end of
the world. For then the city of Rome will
return to its former glory, and likewise its
idolatry and other sins, and shall be such as it
was in the time of St. John, under Nero, Domitian,
Decius, etc. For from Christian it shall
again become heathen. It shall cast out the
Christian Pontiff, and the faithful who adhere
to him. It shall persecute and slay them. It
shall rival the persecutions of the heathen
emperors against the Christians. For so we
see Jerusalem was first heathen under the
Canaanites; secondly, faithful under the Jews;
thirdly, Christian under the Apostles; fourthly
heathen again under the Romans; fifthly, Saracen
under the Turks.
Such
they believe will be the history of Rome: pagan
under the emperors, Christian under the Apostles,
faithful under the Pontiffs, apostate under the
Revolution, and pagan under Antichrist. Only
Jerusalem could sin so formally and fall so low;
for only Jerusalem has been so chosen, illumined,
and consecrated. And as no people were ever so
intense in their persecutions of Jesus as the Jews,
so I fear will none ever be more relentless against
the faith than the Romans.7
Father
Sylvester Berry
It was the learned opinion of the eminent,
20th Century scripture scholar, Father E.
Sylvester Berry that the 12th and
13th chapters of the Apocalypse of St.
John foretell a usurpation of the papal see by the false
prophet of Antichrist resulting in great tribulations
befalling the Catholic Church. Fr. Berry points out
that it is the papacy, which is the principal target of
those who seek to establish the reign of
Antichrist. Heresy, schism and the introduction of
false worship upon the altars of Catholic churches are,
thus, to be the direct results of the removal of the true
Pope from the See of Rome, and subsequent occupation of
the Chair of Peter by the forces of
Antichrist.
Here in Sylvester Berrys writings, published 37
years before the pivotal 1958 Conclave, is a scenario
amazingly close to what has actually happened to the
Church and the papacy in our time:
In
the forgoing chapter [12] St. John outlines
the history of the Church from the coming of
Antichrist until the end of the world . . . In this
chapter he shows us the true nature of the
conflict. It shall be a war unto death
between the Church and the powers of darkness in a
final effort to destroy the Church and thus prevent
the universal reign of Christ on earth.
Satan
will first attempt to destroy the power of the
Papacy and bring about the downfall of the Church
through heresies, schisms and persecutions that
must surely follow . . . he will raise up
Antichrist and his prophet to lead the faithful
into error and destroy those who remain steadfast .
. . . . . The Church, the faithful spouse of Jesus
Christ, is represented as a woman clothed in the
glory of divine grace . . .
"
. . . In this passage there is an evident allusion
to some particular son of the Church whose power
and influence shall be such that Satan will seek
his destruction at any cost. This person can
be none other than the Pope to be elected in those
days. The Papacy will be attacked by all the
powers of hell. In consequence the Church
will suffer great trials and afflictions in
securing a successor upon the throne of Peter.
The
words of St. Paul to the Thessalonians may be a
reference to the Papacy as the obstacle to the
coming of Antichrist: You know what
withholdeth, that he may be revealed in his
time. For the mystery of iniquity already
worketh; only that he who now holdeth, do hold
until he be taken out of the way. And then
that wicked one shall be revealed.
. . . St. John . . . sees in heaven a red
dragon with seven heads and ten horns . . . The
dragon is Satan red with the blood of martyrs,
which he will cause to flow. The meaning of the
seven heads and ten horns must be sought in the
description of the beast that represents Antichrist
where they symbolize kings or worldly powers.
(II Thessalonians 2:6-7) . . .
Satans attacks against the Church will be
organized and carried out by the governments and
ruling powers of those days.
With
the beast of Antichrist only the horns have diadems
as symbols of royalty or governing power. The
heads are branded with names of blasphemy.
(Apocalypse, 13:1) Hence they
symbolize the sins and errors that will afflict the
Church . . . in this final struggle to prevent the
universal reign of Christ all forms of sin and
error will be marshaled against the Church . .
. all errors which have afflicted the Church
may be summed up in these seven: Judaism, paganism,
Arianism, Mohammedanism, Protestantism,
rationalism, and atheism.
The
dragon is seen in heaven which is here a symbol of
the Church, the kingdom of heaven on earth.
This indicates that the first troubles of those
days will be inaugurated within the Church by
apostate bishops, priests, and peoples, the
stars dragged down by the tail of the
dragon.
. . . The dragon stands before the woman,
ready to devour the child that is brought
forth. In other words, the powers of hell
seek by all means to destroy the Pope elected in
those days.
.
. . It is now the hour for the powers of
darkness. The new-born Son of the Church is
taken to God and to his throne.
Scarcely has the newly elected Pope been
enthroned when he is snatched away by
martyrdom. The mystery of iniquity
gradually developing through the centuries, cannot
be fully consummated while the power of the Papacy
endures, but now he that withholdeth is taken
out of the way. During the interregnum
that wicked one shall be revealed in
his fury against the Church. [In
his interpretation of the Apocalypse, Fr. Berry
suggests that it will the martyrdom of the Pope,
immediately after his election, that will
precipitate an extended interregnum, causing
manifold tribulations to be visited upon the
faithful. However, the suppression of a true
Pope, and the intense agony suffered by the
rightful Pontiff, who watches helplessly as the
Church is ravaged by demonic powers usurping his
see for a generation, could certainly be compared
to a type of prolonged
martyrdom.]
It
is a matter of history that the most disastrous
periods for the Church were times when the Papal
throne was vacant, or when anti-popes contended
with the legitimate head of the Church.
Thus also shall it be in those evil days to
come.
The
Church deprived of her chief pastor must seek
sanctuary in solitude there to be guided by God
Himself during those trying days . . . In those
days the Church shall . . . find refuge and
consolation in faithful souls, especially in the
seclusion of the religious
life.
. . . Our Divine Savior has a representative on
earth in the person of the Pope upon whom He has
conferred full powers to teach and govern.
Likewise, Antichrist will have his
representative in the false prophet who will be
endowed with the plenitude of satanic powers to
deceive the nations.
. . . As indicated by the resemblance to a lamb,
the prophet will probably set himself up in Rome
as a sort of antipope during the vacancy of the
papal throne . . .
. . . The abomination of desolation
has been wrought in many Catholic churches by
heretics and apostates who have broken altars,
scattered relics of martyrs and desecrated the
Blessed Sacrament. At the time of the
French Revolution a lewd woman was seated upon the
altar of the cathedral in Paris and worshipped as
the goddess of reason. Such things but
faintly foreshadow the abominations that will
desecrate churches in those sorrowful days when
Antichrist will seat himself at the altar to be
adored as God.
.
. .Antichrist and his prophet will introduce
ceremonies to imitate the Sacraments of the
Church. In fact there will be a complete
organization - a church of Satan set up in
opposition to the Church of Christ. Satan
will assume the part of God the Father; Antichrist
will be honored as Savior, and his prophet will
usurp the role of Pope. Their ceremonies will
counterfeit the Sacraments . . .8
Father
Herman Kramer
In 1955, Fr. Herman Bernard Kramer published his
commentaries on The Apocalypse of St. John, under
the title of The Book of Destiny. He arrived
at many of the same conclusions as previous Catholic
scripture scholars, but he provided a specificity within
his interpretations of the last, and most mysterious book
of The Holy Bible, that was unmatched by earlier
literature on the last days. His
book, which was a work to which he devoted his whole
life, was published three years before the fateful
Conclave of 1958. Fr. Kramer could not have had
direct, foreknowledge of the sinister machinations,
already in progress, to overthrow the Pope before he
could leave the secret conclave which would elect
him. Thus, the scholars comments on the
12th Chapter of The Apocalypse, as
shown below, are all the more astounding:
The
sign in heaven is that of a woman with
child crying out in her travail and anguish of
delivery. . . In that travail, she gives birth to
some definite person who is to RULE the
Church with a rod of iron (verse 5). It then
points to a conflict waged within the Church to
elect one who was to rule all nations
in the manner clearly stated. In accord with
the text this is unmistakably a PAPAL
ELECTION, for only Christ and his Vicar have
the divine right to rule ALL NATIONS. . . But at
this time the great powers may take a menacing
attitude to hinder the election of the logical and
expected candidate by threats of a general
apostasy, assassination or imprisonment of this
candidate if elected. This would suppose an
extremely hostile mind in the governments of
Europe towards the Church, because an extended
interregnum in the papacy is always disastrous and
more so in a time of universal persecution.
If Satan would contrive to hinder a papal election,
the Church would suffer great travail.
[The thought that agents of the world
powers, hostile to the Church, would actually
cooperate with the election of the Pope, to
facilitate his secret overthrow while still in the
secluded conclave, seems not to have occurred to
Fr. Kramer, at first, when he wrote these
lines. He speaks only of their
contrivance to hinder the election by
threats of apostasy, assassination or
imprisonment, and worse, which were actually
used to intimidate, paralyze and silence the newly
elected Pope and his cardinals, while the enemy
went about their work of
destruction.]
. . . A second sign appears in heaven
having a hostile relationship to the first.
It is a blood-red dragon and is a horrible contrast
to the first figure of divine beauty . . . This red
dragon . . . brings the Church into
great distress at that time. . . No fiercer
enemy of God and man has appeared in Christian
times than Communism, and strange to say, RED is
its emblematic color. Communism may by
that time have gained control of the governments of
Europe. [Fr. Kramer could have
used the term Judeo-Freemasonry
interchangeably with Communism, since
the former gave life to the latter. Also, the
color red of the Communist flag originated with the
red emblem of the Jewish banking House of
Rothschild, which means red
shield. While the majority of Western
European governments are not formally Communist,
most have been under the tight grip of Freemasonry
for many years, and have thus covertly participated
in the plot to overthrow the Catholic
Church.]
Fr.
Kramer continues:
It
would then erect almost insurmountable difficulties
for the holding of a conclave to elect a pope . . .
Satan knows how extensively an interregnum in the
papacy would favor his success in recovering his
ancient lordship over the world. . . As a
dragon, Satan through the evil world-powers of that
time will enter the Church, interfere with her
liberty and perhaps by stealthy suggestions having
long before directed the choosing of candidates for
the episcopate will now endeavor by threats of
force to hinder the election of the worthiest
candidate for the papacy . . .
In
this context, the writings of Giuseppe Siri, quoted
below, take on special significance:
.
. . The seclusion of the conclave is even more
necessary today; with modern means, with modern
techniques, without complete seclusion, it would
not be possible to gain an election against the
pressures from outside powers. Today some
superpowers (and even some lesser powers) have too
great an interest in owning, for their part,
through either compliance or weakness, the greatest
moral authority in the world. And they would
do everything in their power to accomplish
this. The pressures to overturn the substance
of the law of the conclave would be driven by the
desire to obtain this very result.
(See Appendix: Giuseppe Siri - The Election of
the Roman Rontiff.)9
From the lines
above, it may be inferred that during Siris time,
not only the European powers, but also the
superpowers (the U.S.S.R. and
U.S.A.whose governments were both created by
Freemasonry) were motivated to overturn the
law of the conclave for their own purposes.
Father
Kramer continues:
.
. . Some eminent cardinal may be particularly
outstanding in his efforts to stem the tide of
demoralization of bishops and priests.
Satan will know, and the world-powers will
know, that he is the likely choice for the
papacy, and that if elected, he will . . .
exercise his supreme jurisdiction to inaugurate
measures of reform. Satan knows that his own
hopes of a rich harvest of souls will then be
dashed to the ground. Hence he must avert the
election or have the Pope assassinated when
elected . . . Satans intention is to
subject the newly elected Pope also to the
purposes of the world-powers or to plot his
death. He may contrive an assurance of
safety and immunity from harm for the Cardinals to
convene for the election the more easily to take
the Pope-elect prisoner.
Here,
Fr. Kramer provides, with great precision, the
punch-line to the 1958 Conclave conundrum and
its aftermath. Intimidation, coercion, and trickery
were employed to gain the compliance of the just-elected,
and overthrown Pope, while blackmail and all manner of
deception were carried out against the frightened and
confused old Cardinals, to secure their perpetual
silence.
Fr. Kramer thus concludes his commentary on the12th
chapter of The Apocalypse:
The
dragon will want to intimidate the new Pope into
non-interference - to let affairs run and develop
as heretofore. In that way would he
devour the son absorb the papacy and alone
direct and rule the world.10
Bernard Ward, The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. V,
The Encyclopedia Press, Inc., 1908, page 140.
Bernard Ward, The Catholic Encyclopedia, page
140.
Matthew 24:15 - Annotations, The New
Testament, 1582, The English College of Rheims, John
Fogny, page 71
II Thessalonians 2:3-4 -
Annotations, The New Testament, page
558.
II Thessalonians 2:3-4 -
Annotations, The New Testament, page
558.
The Apocalypse 17:5 -
Annotations, The New Testament, page
731.
Henry Edward Cardinal Manning, The Present Crisis of
the Holy See, 1861, Burns and Lambert, London, pages
79 & 87-90.
Rev. E. Sylvester Berry, The Apocalypse of St.
John, 1921, The Catholic Church Supply House,
Columbus, Ohio, pages 120-138.
Giuseppe Siri, «Renovatio», VII [1972],
fasc. 2, pages. 155-156; as quoted in: Opere Del
Giuseppe Cardinale Siri - Vol. 13; Il Dovere
DellOrtodossia; LElezione Del
Romano Pontifice, 1987, Giardini Editori E
Stampatori, Piza, pages 53-54.
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