p. 3 | Jesuitical Vaticanism

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 20, 1908

“Jesuitical Vaticanism”

The leading editorial article in the July issue of the Missionary Review of the World is entitled “Political Plotting at the Vatican.” In these days, when the fear of Rome, or the desire for the favor of Rome, deters most writers from telling the unvarnished truth about the Roman Catholic Church, it is not often that we find an article which presents the facts so fully and so forcibly. It is a very striking summary of the testimony presented in a work entitled, “The History of a Movement to Make the Pope Governor of the World, By a Universal Reconstruction of Society, from the Issue of the Syllabus to the Close of the Vatican Council.”

There are three distinct divisions in the analysis of this movement, each one of which is quite fully elaborated in the editorial article. The first proposition is this: “The Vatican plot aims at the concentration and consolidation of power;” the second feature of this scheme is declared to be, “The method for maintaining this central authority;” and the third division is summarized in these words: “Secularism is a powerful ally of sacerdotalism in furthering the Vatican schemes.”

From that portion of the article which tells of the method employed by Rome in maintaining her central authority, we quote the following paragraphs:—

This Jesuitical Vaticanism which plots to secure power, plans ways for effective control of church and state. There are three recognized courts, or tribunals: the Supreme Tribunal—the pope; the External Tribunal—the church; and the Internal Tribunal—the confessional. But while the last ranks lowest, it is valued highest, and upon it supreme dependence is placed; for it holds the key to the whole situation. In the confessional, the priest gets a hold upon the individual, and the individual is the controlling factor in the family, the church, and the state. Here he unveils the secrets of the heart, otherwise known only to God; and such revelation of these innermost privacies puts into the hands of the priest the iron scepter that sways all else. He can control property, children, and schools; he can prevent or promote marital alliances, commercial schemes, ecclesiastical enterprises; in the box of the confessional, even emperors become suppliants, and, through them, the church can sway armies and navies, courts and councils. A subtle priest, having both capacity and sagacity, can shape events at the point where the springs of action are found, turning the stream as he will; and this Internal Tribunal of the confessional, skilfully managed, may make action in the External and Supreme Tribunals needless.

Hence the masterly ingenuity with which this weapon of power is wielded. The pope is head over the whole church, and the bishop sways the diocese, and may rule the State; but the priest may secretly undermine or establish the authority of both bishop and pope!

Few of us have ever grasped the full significance of sacerdotalism as a papal device. It puts the priest between the soul and all else, even God, at every stage of development, in the most ingenious and subtle system ever imagined. First of all, it controls wedlock, coming between the man and the woman, to determine whom each shall wed, in the interests of the church. Then when offspring come, it puts the priest between the infant and its ingrafting into the church in baptism; subsequently between the child and the Word of God, in catechetical instruction; between the sinner and absolution, in the confessional; between the communicant and the mystic wafer, in the mass; between the candidate and the gift of the Spirit, in confirmation; between the man and the ministry, in ordination; between the dying and his hereafter, in extreme unction; and, even beyond death, follows the soul into purgatory, in masses for the dead. From cradle to grave, and even afterward, there is always a human mediator to interpose; and this alone accounts for the marvelous power of the priesthood, wherever this Internal Tribunal holds sway.

This whole system is the logical result of the development of the central doctrine of the papacy,—that the pope is the vicegerent of the Son of God,—and the more one studies the question, the more deeply he is impressed that a wisdom far beyond the human has been revealed in thus putting man in the place of God. There is certainly good ground for declaring that “all the world wondered after the beast,” and for making the inquiry, “Who is like unto the beast?

who is able to make war with him?”

This is the papacy, whether it be in Catholic Spain or Protestant America; and it is against such a complete perversion of the gospel of Christ that this threefold message provides a warning.