Letter To The Pope June 4, 1994 His Holiness Pope John Paul II Vatican, Rome, Italy Your Holiness: We applaud your admitting (11-1-92) that Galileo, the astronomer, was correct in saying in 1633 that the earth was not the center of the universe. However, a parallel situation exists in the case of Giordano Bruno. History relates that Bruno was burned at the stake on "Campo di Fiori," February 16, 1600, for proclaiming "the infinity of the universe." Would your Holiness urge officials of the Pontifical Academy of Science (Vatican Archives) to make available the inquisitional record of Giordano Bruno to all world scholars? With current scientific space projects ever probing outer space, it was Bruno who first proclaimed the existence of "many worlds." Today we know that Bruno, like Galileo, arrived at his conviction through the power of reason. That alone should be sufficient for an ecclesiastical public recognition. Thank You. Yours, AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM Bolder Landry, President/Life Science International Editor's Note: We are pleased to report the Pope's speedy response to Bolder's letter, as given in the newspaper article on the next page. Some hard-core skeptics might write it off as a coincidence, but not us. Long live Thomas Paine! -WBL It's Time for Church to Confess, Pope Says Reuters Vatican City-Pope John Paul II told his cardinals yesterday that the Roman Catholic Church should have the courage to admit its historical mistakes and that the "legend" of a fabulously rich Vatican should be debunked. He also challenged Islamic countries to accord Christians the same rights of worship that Muslims have in the West. And he said the ordination of women in the Anglican Church is a serious obstacle to reunion. The pope addressed 114 of the world's 139 cardinals to open an extraordinary meeting on how the church will mark the start of the third millennium of Christianity. The year 2000 could be an occasion for the church to discuss "the historic failings and negligence of its sons," the pope said. He said "only the courageous recognition of the faults and omissions of which Christians have in some way been responsible" and the firm resolution to remedy them could help lead the church into the third millennium. The pope did not specify the errors committed in God's name, but a memorandum he sent to cardinals before the meeting said 2000 could be a "particularly propitious" chance for the church to recognize "the dark side of its history." The 25-page memo, which the pope mentioned in his opening speech, was obtained from Vatican sources. "How can one remain silent about the many forms of violence perpetrated in the name of the faith?-wars of religion, tribunals of the Inquisition and other forms of violations of the rights of persons," the memorandum says. During the Inquisition, which reached its height in the 16th century to counter the Reformation, people who were considered heretics were tortured and killed if they did not recant. It says that the church's moral prestige will not suffer but be strengthened by "the courage to recognize the mistakes committed by its men and, in a certain sense, in her name." Referring to finances in his address, the pope said: "The time has arrived to debunk legends that have sometimes circulated on the subject of the fabulous riches hidden in the Vatican. The truth is very different." The Vatican has in the past rejected criticism that it should sell its artistic and historical treasures, saying they were part of a priceless patrimony belonging to all humanity. The pontiff welcomed the fact that church finances were now more transparent after a restructuring of the Vatican Bank, which was embroiled in an embarrassing Italian bank scandal in 1982. As appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune, June 14, 1994 "The Church Fathers Were All Ex-Pagans" by Bolder Landry "There is no wild beast so ferocious as Christians who differ concerning their faith."-Lecky, Rationalism in Europe, ii, 31. Part I This is a series of brief sketches on the Fathers of Christianity. From the Church's own histories and historians, namely, the Migne collection in the British Museum, I am recounting what they wrote, said, and did to advance the honor of God and the salvation of men. It is not known among the laity and the lower clergy that some of the "Fathers" may be characterized as fanatic, heretical, who bitterly persecuted one another, excommunicated one another, and deposed each other. They all believed in pagan miracles, were credulous, were familiar with wonders and impossibilities. Cunning hands of ecclesiastics erased, obliterated or interpolated the records of the past. After reviewing the whole literary output of the first 600 years of Christian history, historian McCabe says: "the testimony of the Fathers is without the slightest value." It was these patres ecclesiastici who laid the foundation of heresies, absurdities, stupidities and superstitions that persist in today's Christian world. All early scientific pagan advances were thrust aside by these misguided luminary missiles who prepared the way for the Dark Ages to come. We now start with the first in our series. Quintus Septimus Florens Tertullian is the earliest church writer of the west. He created the Christian Latin literature. Other Fathers stood on his shoulders. Born at Carthage of a good family, Tertullian was the son of a centurio consularis, and received a good pagan education in Latin and Greek. As a thinker he was not original, and even as a theologian he has produced but few schemes of doctrine, except the doctrine of sin. Tertullian was a somber fanatic with a mighty power for scorn; a learned priest, he remained a heretic until he died. We know a great deal about him through his two thousand pages of most reliable information preserved by the Church. Below are a few samples of his ravings in his own errant credulity. In Christian faith he asserts, "Credo quia incredibilis est." (I believe because it is unbelievable.) Tertullian gives full faith and credit to the pagan gods of which he was aware as "effective witnesses for Christ." He was a forger of holy fables, namely, The Passion of the Holy Martyrs Perpetua and Felicitas, the Church's most celebrated bogus saints. In his "On Adornment of Women," we read: "If your faith were as firm as its eternal rewards, my beloved sisters, not one of you, after learning of the living God and her own condition as a woman, would dare to seek gay apparel, but dress in rags and remain in dirt as a sorrowful and penitent Eve." A few lines further: "thou art the devil's gate, the betrayer of the tree, the first deserter of the divine law." Thus with this man began the degradation of woman in Christendom. Tertullian had a wife. In a letter to her on the glories of the Resurrection morning, he offered her this joyless promise: "There will be at that day no resumption of voluptuous disgrace between us." On the same subject he says: "the race of women is prone to slip and is unstable and low in their thoughts." "Marriage," he says, "is a sort of fornication." Not satisfied in his attack on woman, he turns against Reason and sides in with absurdities. He believes that God "will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." Tertullian is equally blind to Science. "After Jesus Christ no need for speculation, after the Gospels, no need of research. . . My first principle is this: Christ laid down one definite system of truth which the world must believe without qualification." There was no religious toleration then and there is none today. Knowledge of the universe has always been fatal to all clerical bodies. This was especially so in the time of Tertullian when explorers realized that the earth is a globe and that there might be men on the other side of it. With scorn he asks: "Is there anyone so senseless as to believe that there are men whose footsteps are higher than our head or that the crops and trees grow downward?" Tertullian was surrounded by slaves in his time and never raised a word of protest. The encyclopedia gives him three full pages and not one word is said about slavery. A convert to Christianity, Tertullian became embroiled in religious controversy with the majority of the Carthaginian clergy of his time. As a result he was deposed, excommunicated, and bitterly persecuted by his brother priests. He died accursed and separated from the Church. (To be continued) "The Vatican and World War II" by Bolder Landry For several weeks in May, newspapers blared with headlines such as "The Armada," "D-Day," "The Invasion," et cetera, so the 50th anniversary of the Normandy invasion of 1944 was a time to celebrate the event and then reflect. What was won, what was lost and what it all meant was pressed upon the American public through the media. Finally, those who survived the war had their say. But what was not mentioned anywhere was the role that the Vatican played in World War II. That is what sent me to my typewriter. The Vatican, in its struggle for power, has shown no signs of being interested in the happiness of humankind. Its shameful catalogue of crimes is a disgrace to civilization. For example: "The Crusades" (1100); the "Persecution of Heretics," the "Massacre of St. Bartholomew (1572)," the "Thirty Years' War (1618-48)," and a plethora of other crimes. Let us turn to World War II. It was fomented by Popes Pius XI and Pius XII to further their ambition of forming a Roman Catholic bloc of European countries. In 1917, the Communists overthrew the useless "Provisional government," formed after the Czar was out. The Vatican cardinals were delighted, imagining that the communist regime would collapse and their principal enemy, the Orthodox Church-would go with it. This was one of God's agents' worst mistakes. (No divine intervention here!) Papal smiles of 1917 turned sour when the Reds strengthened their people. Briefly, the Roman Catholic Church from 1923 onward turned against the progressive enemy, Communism. In that year the Vatican political cardinals looked around for a politician who might serve their purpose. They spotted an Italian rabble-rouser named Mussolini. It was Pope Pius XI who decided to support this man. For this Pope's action, the Vatican MUST accept very much of the responsibility for causing the Second World War, for nine years later it hoisted Hitler to power by the same methods it had employed in Italy in 1923. In the meantime the sinister papal nuncio, cardinal Pacelli, from 1920 to 1939, was working hand-in-glove with the foxy Von Papen in destroying democracy in Germany. In 1939, Pacelli became Pope Pius XII. Democracy and human happiness were of little concern to the Vatican. Vatican Cold War Crimes The Vatican's only hope of success was in encouraging two progressive rivals-East and West-to dissipate their money and energy by quarreling. The third party in the Vatican was watching the two powerful rivals wasting their strength. The Vatican's policy made certain to prevent any compromise between East and West. The arms race caused a disruption of the economy and high prices which continue to affect all of us today. Pius XI condemned all religions except his own Church. In the German election of 1933, Pius XI ordered Catholics to support Nazism, as he had in 1923 for Mussolini. This Pope helped in destroying millions of Europeans under the jackboot of Nazism. He was one of the greatest disturbers of peace. Pius XII was a pupil of Pius XI. If Pius XI had chastised mankind with the whips of German World War II, Pius XII chastised humanity with the scorpions of the Cold War under which the world shivered. Elected Pope in 1939, Pius XII, to the dismay of the Vatican in 1945, saw the defeat of Germany by the Allies. He was in a delicate position. The speeches and actions of his cardinals all betrayed the Vatican's support for the Axis. Pope Pius XII in 1945 did a political somersault. He went to the microphones to address the world. This man who helped to raise Hitler to power had the gall to tell the Western leaders: "create a better Europe with . . . human dignity . . . and above all, the holy principle of equality of rights of all people." His audacity continued in his Christmas message of 1945, "The totalitarian state is diametrically opposed to the principles of Democracy." Why did Pius XII begin to advocate Democracy in 1945? It was to retrieve the Papal defeat. Papal support of democracy was phony then and still is today. The Pope extricated himself with amazing celerity. In no time, all blame for the Vatican's pro-Axis behavior was forgotten and Pius XII was included as being one of the leaders of the so-called "Free World." Most bizarre is the Vatican's silence on its Hitler-Mussolini war compact which never surfaced during the recent celebration. And so, on the day that I write this-June 6, 1994, D-Day, the suppression of the Vatican's attempt to derail the success of the Allies is a blot on its evil machinations! (As I finish this article, the radio announces that Pope John Paul II has asked his cardinals to admit the Church's past mistakes to the world.)