By John-Henry Westen
The most extraordinary new development has been the head of the Roman Catholic Church
- proclaiming "proselytism is the strongest poison against the ecumenical path" and “Proselytism is solemn nonsense, it makes no sense.”
- gradually abandoning Church teaching of a "just war",
- recently proclaiming that “Liberation Theology was a good thing for Latin America,”
- upsetting the traditional applications of Catholic moral teachings
- calling on all "to defend our Sister Mother Earth" while accepting the false claims about climate change alarmism as coming from "a very solid scientific consensus,"
- trashing capitalism, and urging for a Marxist-sounding new international economic order
- strongly urging the opening of borders to millions of undocumented, poorly vetted Islamist immigrants with their radically different culture and religion-based laws.
- proclaiming that “The most serious of the evils that afflict the world these days are youth unemployment and the loneliness of the old"
Pope Francis has also been inviting increasingly virulent, prominent New World Order enemies of Christianity, such as Paul Ehrlich, Professor John Bongaarts,the vice-president of the Population Council, and China's “organ czar,” to speak at Vatican conferences and advise the Church on policies.
VATICAN CITY, March 1, 2007 (LifeSiteNews) - Papal watchers are wondering what message Pope Benedict XVI was giving when he selected retired Bologna archbishop Cardinal Giacomo Biffi to preach the annual Lenten retreat to the Pope and the top members of the Vatican.
(...)This year’s selection when it became known created a stir since Cardinal Biffi, while he is known for orthodox faith and frank words, is most well known, at least in the secular media, for his preaching on the Antichrist. In fact, the Times of London reported in 2004 that the Cardinal described the Antichrist as "walking among us".
The Lenten retreat did not disappoint. Cardinal Biffi picked up on his oft repeated theme of the Antichrist, basing his remarks on the works of Vladimir Soloviev, a Russian religious philosopher who has received praise from Pope Benedict prior to his elevation to the pontificate.
Quoting Soloviev, the Cardinal said "the Antichrist presents himself as pacifist, ecologist and ecumenist."
"He will convoke an ecumenical council and will seek the consensus of all the Christian confessions, granting something to each one. The masses will follow him, with the exception of small groups of Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants," he said according to a Zenit translation of a Vatican Radio summary here: http://www.radiovaticana.org/it1/Articolo.asp?c=120479 . (Feb. 20, 2017 - Translation is no longer available on Zenit and the only Zenit report on the 2007 retreat mentions only the first day's talk and not the later one on the Antichrist)
In his "Tale of the Antichrist" Solovyov foresees that a small group of Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants will resist and will say to the Antichrist: "You give us everything, except what interests us, Jesus Christ". For Cardinal Biffi, this narrative is a warning: "Today, in fact, we run the risk of having a Christianity which puts aside Jesus with his cross and resurrection."
The 78-year-old cardinal added that if Christians "limited themselves to speaking of shared values they would be more accepted on television programs and in social groups. But in this way, they will have renounced Jesus, the overwhelming reality of the resurrection."
The cardinal said he believes that this is "the danger that Christians face in our days … the Son of God cannot be reduced to a series of good projects sanctioned by the prevailing worldly mentality."
The preacher of the Spiritual Exercises added that "there are relative values, such as solidarity, love of peace and respect for nature. If these become absolute, uprooting or even opposing the proclamation of the event of salvation, then these values become an instigation to idolatry and obstacles on the way of salvation."
Cardinal Biffi affirmed that "if Christianity—on opening itself to the world and dialoguing with all—dilutes the salvific event, it closes itself to a personal relationship with Jesus and places itself on the side of the Antichrist."