Papism and Judaism

by Archimandrite Sergius (Aleksiev)

 

 

One of the most sinister symptoms of our apocalyptic age is the systematic and ever-increasing rapprochement between Papism and Judaism. In essence a monstrous perversion of Christianity, Papism is an anachronistic return from the New Testament to the Old, whereby the meaning of the Old Testament is understood in a perverted way, according to its interpretation by the scribes and Pharisees of the time of Christ (cf. St. Matthew 15:6) and according to the spirit of contemporary Judaism.

The very idea of Papism, with its earthly centralization of the Church and its desire for supremacy over the whole Christian world, brings to mind Judaism, with its globalist tendencies. The establishment in the Old Testament of a single Temple, headed by one High Priest after the order of Aaron (Hebrews 7:11) is to some extent a "personification" of the idea of earthly centralization. During the period of the Old Testament, this personification was merely a foreshadowing of Christ, the only High Priest of the New Testament after the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 5:10; Psalm 109:4), "Who hath passed through the Heavens" (Hebrews 4:14). Through this act, our Lord Jesus Christ, "the Apostle and High Priest of our confession" (Hebrews 3:1), "a High Priest of the good things to come" (Hebrews 9:11), "a High Priest over the house of God" (Hebrews 10:21), that is, over the Church (I Timothy 3:15), by assuming Her together with Himself into the Heavens, abolished forever the earthly centralization of the Church. Thus, the Church of Christ has, here on earth, no abiding city, but seeks the City which is to come (Hebrews 13:14). Thus, it is evident that the idea of some "Vicar" of Christ on earth is unacceptable.

The Christian, that is, Orthodox Bishops here on earth are only multiple reflections, each in his own diocese, of the one and only High Priest and Head of the Church, our Lord Jesus Christ, "Who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things" (Ephesians 4:10). St. Ignatios the God-Bearer writes in precisely this sense in his Epistle to the Trallians (Chapter III): "Let us all reverence the Bishop as Jesus Christ, Who is the Son of God the Father!"

Papism, however, reverts to the earthly centralization of the Old Testament, for it is personified by a single High Priest, who claims to be the "Vicar of Christ," as if he were the sole reflection of Christ here on earth, a deus in terra ("God on earth"), such that the rest of the bishops are regarded as mere vicars or deputies of the Roman Pontiff. Under the pretense of being the "Vicar" of Christ, the Pope aspires to the gradual displacement of the only High Priest of the New Testament, the sole Head of the Church (i.e., Christ). In this way, Papism, as a legacy of Judaism, paves the way for the Antichrist, who will put himself in the place of Christ, since he is incompatible with Christ (I John 4:3).

This gradual process of replacing Christ with one earthly "head" of the Church started as early as the eleventh century, when Papism fell away from the Church of Christ, and has continued without interruption up to the present day, when the anti-Christian essence of Papism is being palpably revealed in its rapprochement with Judaism. Already on September 6,1938, the then Pope Pius XI, himself an Italian Jew, expressed on Vatican Radio the bizarre thought that all Christians are "spiritual Semites"! A rather strange racial assimilation, this assertion, through which the spiritual essence of the Christian Faith is sacrilegiously made materialistic!

A month prior to that event, the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, meeting in council in Belgrade, rang the alarm concerning a "Judaeo-Catholic Rapprochement," as is stated in the title of a report about the council made by M. Stepanov.

Subsequently, this rapprochement progressed steadily, until it reached a new phase at the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). The latter, through its Declaration "Nostra aetate" (October 28,1965), proclaimed, in Article IV, that "Judaism, despite its non-recognition of Jesus Christ as the Messiah, is still dear to the Lord," and also that "the Church is fed from the root of the olive tree, on which the branches of the wild olive were grafted" (cf. Romans 11:17-24)! In order to refute this absurd interpretation of the Holy Apostle Paul's words, it is sufficient to quote what he says about the Jews: although broken off from the olive tree, "God is able to graft them in again," as long as "they abide not still in unbelief [concerning Jesus Christ]" (Romans 11:23). However, Judaism is opposed precisely to this essential condition!

Renewing this Declaration of the Second Vatican Council eight years later, the French episcopate published in April, 1973, on the occasion of the Jewish Passover, a special Declaration consisting of "Pastoral Directions Concerning the Position of Christians in Relation to Judaism." Affirming "The Permanent Call of the Jewish Nation" (the title of the third article), despite its disbelief in Jesus Christ, this Declaration by the French episcopate asserts that "it is not possible to conclude, on the basis of the New Testament, that the Jewish nation is deprived of its elect status" (Article IV). However, at the end of His parable about the wicked husbandmen, the Lord makes the following inference, directed at the chief priests and the Pharisees: "Therefore I say unto you, The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" (St. Matthew 21:43).

The French bishops dare to state, as well, that "the first Testament...was not abolished by the New" (Article V), despite St. Paul’s clear interpretation of Jeremiah's prophecy regarding the New Covenant [Testament] (Jeremiah 38:31-34), which he forcefully concludes with these words: "In that He saith, A new covenant, He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away" (Hebrews 8:13).

Declaration of the French episcopate finishes with a false intimation concerning both Christians and Jews in the form of a rhetorical question: "Does not their common concern relate to the Messianic times?" (Article VII). In other words, the French bishops imply that the "messianic" expectation of the Jews encompasses the true Messianism of the Christians! This calls to mind the sacrilegious innuendo made by Cardinal Etchegaray, at that time Archbishop of Marseilles and one of the authors of the Declaration, as a member of the French episcopal committee for relations with Judaism. In an interview with the magazine La Documentation Catholique, under the heading "The Double Mission of the Church Towards the Jews," Etchegaray posits a rather strange "rivalry" between "one who expects a Messiah who is to come and another who expects his return." Thus, through an absurd mixing of concepts, the true Messiah, Who has come—our Lord Jesus Christ—, is united in His Second Coming with a false messiah, whose advent is being prepared by the Jews.

Meanwhile, in the newly published Catechism of the Catholic Church (French version), in Section 840, under the heading "The Church's Attitude Towards the Jewish Nation," we read that "insofar as the future is concerned, the people of God from the Old Testament and the new People of God aspire towards similar goals: the expectation of the advent (or return) of the Messiah."

The Great Rabbinate of France, however, understood very clearly the treacherous character of the Declaration of the French episcopate. That is why, a laudatory commentary following directly after the Declaration, hastens to stress that "the 'Pastoral Direchons' of the French episcopate coincide with the teaching of the most prominent Jewish theologians, according to whom the religions which came from Judaism have as their mission preparation for the advent of the Messianic age [sic] indicated in the Bible"!

After such a consummate betrayal by the French bishops, which is equivalent to denying Christ in favor of the Antichrist, we should not be amazed that these "bishops" subsequently received a primate worthy of them in the person of the Polish Jew Jean-Marie Lustiger, who was appointed Archbishop of Paris in 1981, and later promoted to Cardinal in 1983. Radio Israel made the following comment on his unexpected appointment: "The new Archbishop of Paris, who does not conceal his Jewish origins, is a Judaizer who will fulfill Judaism in Christianity!" This is why the French believers distrust such a "Cardinal Archbishop" and make a parody of his name: "Lustiger-Lucifer!"

In spite of all this, the Masons have put forth every effort to bend public opinion in favor of their candidate, so as to have him elected Pope. Several years ago, we heard on Radio Paris the following discussion about the ethnicity of the Popes: "If it is not written in stone that the next Pope should be Italian—since the present Pope is a Pole—, what would preclude the next Pope from being...a Jew?" In fact, a eulogizing article, "The Future of Mgr. Lustiger," was printed in the magazine Paris Match. The article contains a photograph of Pope John Paul II exchanging a kiss with Cardinal Lustiger. There follows an enumeration of the political "merits" of Lustiger, who had recently been appointed Minister of European Affairs for the Vatican. The piece ends with a readers' survey: "Do you think that one day Mgr. Lustiger can become Pope?" Such a survey, conducted while the present Pope is still alive, is unheard of! Incidentally, Pope John Paul II, himself, is responsible for Lustiger's appointment!

Indeed, this is not odd, since the present Pope is himself a Mason. In October, 1983, the Italian magazine Oggi published in one of its issues, which was to have been confiscated, a scandalous photograph showing Pope John Paul II clothed in black, in accordance with the strict rule of the Masonic lodges, and participating in a Masonic banquet with his arms folded in the "chain of brothers" made by the guest Masons around the table. A blackboard with a crowned monster depicted on it is visible behind him—obviously the Devil presiding over the meeting! A bit further down in the "chain of brothers," we see the Vicar of Rome, Ugo Cardinal Poletti, a famous Mason from the Vatican.

It is not by accident that Poletti was the one who accompanied the Pope in his official visit to the Chief Synagogue in Rome on April 13, 1986, when the Pope addressed the Jewish rabbis with the friendly words: "You are our elder brothers!" In a recent interview given to the American magazine Parade, the Pope emphatically states that "the attitude of the Church towards the people of God's Old Testament—the Jews—can only be that they are our elder brothers in the Faith." "In what Faith?" we ask.

So the Pope, who claims to be the head of all Christians, suddenly humbles himself in an unusual way; but before whom? Before the rabbis, who do not acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah, but await their own “messiah," the “Antichrist," which means "to be in the place of Christ," or rather, "to replace" Christ!

Several months later, on November 6, 1986, the Pope delivered a speech before the participants in the Second International Judaeo-Christian Dialogue on "The Importance of Salvation and Redemption in the Jewish and Christian Traditions." Avoiding the principal issue of "the Messiah," which separates the Jews from the Christians, the Pope speaks about "the mutual connection between our respective heritages of faith" and about "the bonds that connect us in our understanding of salvation." Afterwards, commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the Declaration "Nostra aetate," the Pope quotes this phrase from Article IV concerning "the spiritual connection between the people of the New Testament and the seed of Abraham," and continues: "We have here a connection which, despite our differences, makes us brethren." Thus, the profound incompatibility between the true Messiah of Christians, Who has already come, and the false messiah, expected by the Jews to come in the future, is reduced by the Pope to certain "differences," which do not preclude the brotherhood of the former and the latter in Abraham.

St. John the Baptist, however, disdaining the self-conceit of the Jews, who bragged that they had Abraham for their father (cf. St. John 8:39), contrasts such conceit to the power of God, Who "is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham" (St. Matthew 3:9). The Holy Apostle Paul, as he speaks of "Abraham our father according to the flesh" (Romans 4:1), emphasizes that he has become "the father of us all" (Romans 4:16), namely of Christians, because of his prophetic faith in Christ. This is exactly Abraham's faith, as Christ points out when He tells the Jews: "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it and was glad" (St. John 8:56).

In violation of this unbroken link of Abraham to Christ, Pope John Paul II, during his visit to Mainz, Germany, in November, 1980, invited the local chief rabbi to the cathedral and greeted him in Hebrew with the words: "May the Jewish people be blessed by our common father Abraham"—without even the slightest mention of Christ!

During his fourth visit to Poland in June, 1991, the Pope had "a cordial meeting" with the rabbis of Warsaw, as can be seen from the photograph on the front cover of La Documentation Catholique. At the very beginning of his speech before the Jewish rabbis, the Pope himself points out that: "The meetings with representatives of the Jewish communities are a constant element cf my Apostolic journeys. This fact speaks for itself and emphasizes in its own way the unique confession of the faith which unifies the sons of Abraham, who confess the religion of Moses and the Prophets, with those who in an identical way [!] confess Abraham as their 'father in the faith' (St. John 8:39)."

Thus, without explicitly mentioning Christians, and without counting himself among them, the Pope ascribes to them "the same" confession of the faith as the Jews and calls Abraham their "father in the faith." Furthermore, the Pope quotes the Gospel text from St. John (8:39), which, however, as we have demonstrated above, concerns those Jews who boasted, "Abraham is our father." The ascription of these words to Christians is a malicious falsification on the part of the "infallible" Pope in favor of the Jews, especially because the expression cited by the Pope in single quotation marks is not contained in the actual text of the Gospel (St. John 8:39)!

Closing this brief review of the relationship between Papism and Judaism, we should emphasize its apocalyptic significance, as it is expressed by the Greek Orthodox Archimandrite Arsenios Kompougias in his article, "The Relationship of the Pope to the Antichrist." The author comments on the recent book by an American Jew, Benjamin Creme, The New Apparition of Christ and the Teachers of Wisdom. According to this book, published by the clergy of the future "messiah," namely the Antichrist, he will soon appear as head of a world government. Among the plans he is to put into effect, there is the abolition of the Christian religion and the establishment of a new universal religion through the mediation of the Masonic lodges. The author stresses the decisive role to be played by the present Pope's successor in the betrayal of Christianity, whereas the mission of the present Pope himself is to level off the ground among religions by "uniting all Christians."

Now it is clear why this present Pope appealed to the Jews, the Moslems, and the Christians in March, 1986, to unite under one "god," and why, on October 27 of the same year, he invited one hundred fifty representatives of different religions, including Orthodox, under his Papal aegis in Assisi. This is why the Pope has been accused of creating a new religion, whose head he proclaims himself to be!

In the light of all that we have said, we understand the analogy invoked by the ever-memorable Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow, who has already been proclaimed a Saint: "Papism resembles a fruit, whose peel of Christian ecclesiality, inherited from the past, cracks up more and more in order to reveal its anti-Christian core."

Similar to the "small horn" mentioned by the Holy Prophet Daniel (Daniel 7:8), the Vatican plays a predominant role among the European countries, anticipating a Common Europe, the "chief architect" (a Masonic term!) of which is supposedly the Pope! The Vatican also resembles the second apocalyptic beast, with two horns like a lamb, but which speaks like a "dragon" and "makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast" (Revelation 13:11-12).

Without anticipating the course of events, we can nevertheless ask ourselves: "Will not the Pope be the forerunner of the coming Antichrist?"

APPENDIX

The concerns and suppositions expressed above are to some extent confirmed in the Accord signed on December 30, 1993, between the Vatican and the State of Israel. The Preamble to this accord follows:

"The Holy See and the State of Israel, aware of the unique character and the universal significance of the Holy Land, conscious of the unique nature and the improving relations between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people; of the historical process of increasing reconciliation and understanding; of the growing mutual friendship between the Catholics and the Jews [emphasis ours], as they decided on July 29, 1992, to establish one working bilateral commission in order to examine and to define together the questions of common interest, and in order to normalize their relations, by acknowledging that the fruit of the work of this commission suffices to conclude a primary fundamental accord, by realizing that such an accord will be a solid and durable base for the continuous development of their present and future relations [emphasis ours] and for the progress of the work of the commission, agree to the following...."

The subsequent fifteen Articles of the Accord, by establishing the mutual obligations between the Vatican and Israel, emphasize that “the Church'' and “the State'' will consult one another and cooperate as circumstances dictate (Article V). In Article XIII, the terms utilized by both parties are specified: in section (a) “the Catholic Church'' is identified with “the Church'' in general; and in section (c), “the State of Israel" is identified with “the State" in general. This terminology implies that in the future, the two negotiating parties will turn into two absolute super-powers of a universal character!

 

About the author: The Very Reverend Sergius, a former assistant professor at the Theological Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria, is the spiritual Father of the Russian Convent of the Holy Protection in Sofia, which is under the omophorion of Bishop Photii of Triaditza. He was dismissed from his academic position when he refused to adopt the revised New, or Papal, Calendar, at its introduction into the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, and is considered a confessor of the Faith by the Bulgarian traditionalists. His important book, Orthodoxy and Ecumenism, co-authored with the late Archimandrite Dr. Seraphim, his longtime colleague, has recently appeared in Bulgarian and Russian editions.

 

Source: Orthodox Tradition, Vol. XII (1995), No. 3, pp. 11-18.