FATHER FRANK’S RANTS Rant Number 649 28 September 2015 THE POPE & THE ANTICHRIST

POPE FRANCIS IS THE VICAR OF CHRIST. NUTS TO BELIEVE HE IS THE ANTICHRIST!
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To get an Oxford theology degree in AD 1625 you might have had to answer the question: ‘Is the Pope Anti-Christ?’ Huh! How could the Vicar of Christ – one of the Roman Pontiff’s titles – be the Antichrist? The prince of Christ’s enemies? The chief of the demonic forces of evil unveiled before the Second Coming? Yet, many wonder about Pope Francis. I have googled the question - I got over a million results in a few seconds.

Back in 1625 Protestant divines were perhaps gunning for the reigning Pope, Urban VIII. More likely, they foamed about the historic institution of the hated Papacy. Insane charge. Because it seems to negate Christ’s prophecy to St Peter: ‘The gates of Hell will not prevail against the Church’. Thus, if the whole Catholic Church was under the sway of Antichrist, Christ would have been wrong. No sane Christian should accept that.

Admittedly, some of Francis’ recent acts and omissions are perplexing. Why, for example, in his speech to the US Congress did he not mention Jesus Christ? He alluded to Moses, ‘the patriarch and lawgiver of the people of Israel’, but said nothing of one infinitely greater than Moses, Jesus the Messiah? (The US Congress ain’t quite Israel’s Knesseth…)

He lashed at unbridled capitalism – good – but why pass over in silence scourges like Communism, atheism and secularism? Helping the poor is essential but isn’t the Eucharist inclusive, for all believers? The rich, too? God’s Sacraments cannot be restricted to one class or underclass of the Faithful.

He warned against the ‘polarization’ that divides the world into ‘the righteous and the sinners’. Er…what else is Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats if not that? And what did Moses do to the Hebrews who had sinned worshipping the Golden Calf?

Francis singled out for praise four eminent Yanks but no canonised woman, like St Elizabeth Seton. Isn’t she good enough as American role model?

His attack on the death penalty will be cheered by beautiful souls. In fact, neither by Scripture nor by Sacred Tradition nor by Right Reason – the firm tripod of Catholic theology - can you rule out the legitimacy of capital punishment. Moses certainly did not.

None of that remotely makes Francis an Antichrist. Oh, is such beast singular or plural? The New Testament at times refers to a single satanic ruler or world demagogue, hell-bent on deceiving mankind into sin and evil. But St John in his First Letter speaks of ‘many Antichrists’, as opposed to a single, grand impostor. Throughout history too many got fingered. Caligula, Nero, Domitian, Simon Magus, Arius, Mahomet, Martin Luther, Pope Leo X, Charles Taze Russell - founder of those pesky nuisances, the Jehova’s Witnesses – Trotsky, Hitler, President Obama…and so on. Safe to infer that antichristian personages, real or imagined, have always existed. And always will.

The deepest modern meditation on the Antichrist is by the Russian Orthodox writer Vladimir Soloviev. Christ’s adversary is young, an acclaimed public celebrity and a great thinker. A person indeed of exceptional genius, beauty and nobility of character. As befits the author of the best-selling book, A Way to Universal Peace and Prosperity, he is a philanthropist, a reformer, a lover of humanity. A radical fellow, endowed with exceptional sympathy for the needy.

Soloviev’s Antichrist is no grotesque medieval devil, showing the clover hood and spitting fire. On the contrary, like in Paolo Signorelli’s painting of the Last Judgment, he physically looks remarkably like Christ. But he is envious: ‘Christ is first, why am I only second?’ So Satan seduces this champion of truth and goodness into rebellion…A story amazingly prophetic about a United States of Europe, with a President looking uncannily like Tony Blair! Only the Jews eventually suss him out. You can’t fool God’s ancient people, can you?

In America Pope Francis has scored exceptionally high. He has become a mega-star, almost universally loved and acclaimed. Conservatives are less enthusiastic but all the bien-pensants adore him. Is that a problem? It can be, because being adored by the dominant Zeitgeist is not always a good sign. (‘He who marries the Zeitgeist will soon find himself a widower’, quipped Dean Inge.) The Western Spirit of the Age is liberal, progressive and permissive. Francis is almost a dream Pope going by that. He has not yet handed out condoms like confetti or blessed abortion clinics or gay bars but…even dreams – or nightmares - must have limits, no?

You cannot really understand Pope Bergoglio unless you remember he is a Jesuit. A member of a formidable religious Order founded by St Ignatius of Loyola. A fiery Basque soldier and sensualist, whose conversion turned him into contemplative and warrior, in both the mystical and the earthly worlds. Jesuits became the Pope’s own crack battalions and entered Protestant demonology after the Reformation. Ignatius’ children were subtly clever, casuistic and scheming. An awesome threat to English mercantile Protestantism. Hundreds were martyred but the Order thrived. Of course, today Jesuits have changed a lot. Embraced Liberation Theology and similar muddled-headed but trendy ideas. So, Moses led the ‘migrant’ Jews from Egyptian slavery to freedom in Canaan, the Promised Land. (Palestine, aargh!) Alas, the migrants quickly morphed into keen exterminating warriors against the pagan natives. A moral there?

No, the Holy Father is not the Antichrist.

Only…how good a Vicar of Christ is he?

Revd Frank Julian Gelli

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