Question: In spite of your criticism of Roman Catholicism, the Pope did come clean with a fervent ...

Question: In spite of your criticism of Roman Catholicism, the Pope did come clean with a fervent confession of past wrongs, even apologizing to the Jews. I don’t see how you can deny his sincerity. I hope you’ll now update your writings and remove any reference to past persecutions of Jews, the inquisitions, etc.

Response: I have indeed updated A Woman Rides the Beast to include this alleged confession and the Pope’s trip to Israel, etc. The front page of L’Osservatore Romano (official Vatican newspaper) for March 15, 2000 carried this headline: HOLY FATHER CELEBRATES “DAY OF PARDON.” The article said, “On Sunday, 12 March...Pope John Paul II...asked the Lord’s forgiveness for the sins...of the Church’s sons and daughters.”

Said the Pope, “We are all invited to make a profound examination of conscience....” [Emphasis in original] Surely a profound examination of conscience would uncover specific details of wrongful deeds. Yet the Pope’s “confession” gave no specifics.

To make certain that all sins have been enumerated at confession, the priest requires specific details, and he probes the penitent with leading questions which pollute the minds of innocent children with ideas until then unimagined. The official catechism (par 1456) declares, “All mortal sins of which penitents after a diligent self-examination are conscious must be recounted by them in confession, even if they are most secret....” John Paul II, however, spoke only in generalities about—

...infidelities to the Gospel committed by some of our brethren...the divisions which have occurred among Christians ...the violence some have used in the service of the truth...the distrustful and hostile attitudes sometimes taken towards the followers of other religions...ethical relativism, the violations of the right to life, disregard for the poor in many countries. [Emphasis in original]

The Pope gave neither the names of the guilty (brethren) nor an account of their misdeeds. Yet this whitewash of a Church “drunken with the blood...of the martyrs” (Rv 17:6) was hailed by the media and even by many evangelical leaders as an act of great courage, integrity and humility.

This pretended apology mocks the memory of the millions of victims of papal Rome throughout the ages. There was not a word of sympathy or contrition for the victims of her inquisitions, no mention of her crusades against innocent Jews and Christians throughout Europe, or papal wars of extermination against Hussites, Albigensians, Waldensians and Huguenots and of countless other victims of such cruelty as would make even a Hitler blush. Nor was there a word about the crimes of numerous unbelievably villainous popes. John Paul II’s “confession” engaged in hypocrisy of the highest degree; it swept centuries of brutal wickedness under the carpet.

Heinous crimes were committed in obedience to and under the leadership (indeed, at the insistence and urging) of the Church itself through its popes, cardinals, bishops and priests. The Inquisitions were conceived and directed by the popes them- selves and involved diabolic tortures which were forever being ingeniously “improved” to make them more excruciating, the better to exact confession and recantation of alleged heresies of which multitudes were falsely accused. Some of the torture chambers with their cunning instruments for causing the most agonizing suffering are still available for viewing by curious tourists throughout Europe. Eighty supposed vicars of Christ, one succeeding the other, supervised and insisted upon this horror. It was the popes, aided by the bishops, cardinals and priests, who inspired and directed the Crusades which brought about the slaughter of Christians, Jews and Muslims—even offering special indulgences to those who would execute this mayhem.

These horrors are indisputable history. Yet Rome has never admitted to, repented of or asked forgiveness for these crimes. If the popes themselves were innocent of the slaughter, why didn’t John Paul II cite evidence that they, threatening interdicts, excommunication and anathema to the “perpetrators,” ordered it to stop? Though kings and princes trembled under papal edicts, there is no such evidence.

The Pope’s hypocrisy reached new heights in his claim that “a thorough and fruitful reflection” of sins had “led to the publication...of a document [the product of “numerous meetings of the subcommission and...plenary sessions...” held in Rome from 1998 to 1999,¹] of the International Theological Commission, entitled Memory and Reconciliation: The Church and the Faults of the Past. Yet the document’s Introduction declares its purpose is “not to examine particular historical cases....” In all of its 19,000 words not one guilty party is named, nor is one sin described. A confession without a clear recital of sins is a fraud.

The entire document reflects the Pope’s hypocritical avoidance of any culpability on the part of the Church:

...faults committed by the sons and daughters of the Church...acts imputable to the children of the Church...the Church should become ever more fully conscious of the sinfulness of her children....John Paul II’s appeal to...mark the Jubilee Year by an admission of guilt for the sufferings and wrongs committed by her sons and daughters.... ²

The “confession” mourns the “division” in Christendom, implying that the Church of Rome is the one true church and “unity” means rejoining her. Always the Pope and supporting documents distinguish “between the indefectible [sic] fidelity of the Church and the weaknesses of her members....” ³

In Memory and Reconciliation, Pope John Paul II is quoted as offering “hope that the Jubilee of 2000 will be the occasion for a purification of the memory of the Church from all forms of ‘counter-witness and scandal’...of the past millennium.” The Pope seems to have accomplished that “purification of memory” without confessing to anything. The complicity of evangelical leaders in this sham through their praise for the Pope is scandalous.

This document to which the Pope refers with such approval is cunningly crafted to avoid the damning truth. The torture and slaughter of millions of Christians, Jews and Muslims is whitewashed as “the use of force in the interest of truth....” Pretentious phrases such as “historical judgment...historical evaluation...ethical discernment...the principle of conscience...moral responsibility...the principle of historicity” mask cruel reality with a facade of self-serving pharisaical piety.

Reference is made to “the hostility or diffidence of numerous Christians toward Jews...a call to the consciences of all Christians today, so as to require an act of repentance...[for] the injury inflicted on the Jews....” Such platitudes only add insult to injury in light of the centuries of virulent persecution and wholesale murder perpetrated by the Roman Catholic Church against those to whom the Bible refers as God’s chosen people and Christ’s brethren. The Pope has portrayed a spotless and guiltless Church which is sincerely concerned over some undefined guilt attached to her “sons and daughters.” Amazingly, the media buys the delusion, and evangelical leaders, in their eagerness to support ecumenism’s counterfeit unity, credit the Pope with laudable contrition.

Endnotes

1. L'Osservatore Romano weekly edition in English, 15 March 2000, "International Theological Commission—Memory and Reconciliation: The Church and the Faults of the Past," 1.
2. Ibid., 1,2,3, etc.
3. Ibid.