by Brian K. Runau
There is existing prophecy, in the world, that predicts the Catholic Church will be the creator of it’s own downfall. How could such a large powerful, political and wealthy institution cause it’s own destruction? What is there, within the Church that could possibly be the cause of its downfall? Some believe the Catholic Church is tainted with its ownoriginal sin. Evidence will be presented that illustrates that from its beginning the Church has had its own self-interest at heart, instead of the self-interest of its faith, or its followers. Such evidence discusses the history of the church, and the foundation of this original sin within the Church from its very inception.
One piece of prophecy the Catholic Church was unable to suppress was the work of Nostradamus. Nostradamus predicted the downfall of the Catholic Church along with other distorted forms of Christianity. Taken from a work by Henry C. Roberts, The Complete Prophecy’s of Nostradamus, the following is in a letter written by Nostradamus to the King of France Henry II, it is titled ‘Epistle to Henry II.’ His letter speaks to the history Christianity will endure throughout the centuries; how the truth of Christ will be distorted and restored, only to be distorted again. On page 236 he says, “Of the three sects (Lutheran, Catholic, and Mahometan), that which is the middlemost, by the actions of its worshipers, shall be thrown into ruins.” Nostradamus goes on to predict the fall of the other two forms of religions he mentions by their own hands.
This article is written as a new age historical view of the Catholic Church and the situation they find themselves in today; with the self inflicted scandal of pedophilia. Let it be made clear, the opinions express within this article are in no way intended as a commentary on anyone that practices the Catholic faith, are those a non-secular participant in faith. It seems the Catholic Church has placed itself between God and man, as God’s representative. It seems, as many organized religions suggest, if you do not follow their particular precepts, then you will not be able to attain your spiritual connection with God. You can only attain your spiritual connection with God through the Church. They do not allow for the prospect that we each have an individual connection with God within us.
If this is true, and the Catholic Church does represent God on earth, then why would God visit these calamities upon his church? Why would he strike his highest religious representative, the Pope, with Parkinson’s disease? Why would God allow pedophilia within his church? Why would his spiritual guidance, of the church leaders, lead them to put their needs above the healing needs of the victims? If these are virtuous, pious men, motivated by God’s love, and if they are interested in saving the souls of mankind; then how could their decisions be based, first and foremost, on their own self-interest?
The words and actions of the Church leaders are not in balance and harmony. There is a disconnection between their thoughts and actions. Or is there? There is no harmony of body, mind spirit in their thought, speech and action. There is a disconnection between their body, mind, and spirit. Should it be our expectation that “religious men” should act in a pious manner, putting the emotional and spiritual well being our their “flock” before everything? Isn’t this what God would ask of his representatives? That they should put the welfare of others first above their own self interest?
Hasn’t the Catholic Church, and it’s leaders, done the exact opposite? How could they be so unaware of what is right and virtuous? Is it possible that the hierarchy of the Catholic Church does not understand what virtue and self-sacrifice is? Is it possible that the Church is merely a financial political institution with the sole aim of self-perpetuation? Is it possible that the founders of the Church saw an opportunity to fill a void and did so? Is it possible that the founders were not truly men that were “called” and had other motives?
All of this certainly appears to be true and more. Within cults and closed societies there is a tendency to only attract similar thinking people. People with the same issues want the same like-thinking people around them. Those people who do not fit into the “click” do not progress in the hierarchy of the Church. To ascend in the hierarchy of the Church you must fit in with those people already in power, “wrong headedness” is perpetuated in this way. There are many priests within Catholicism that are spiritual, but there is evidence that the hierarchy of the Church is tainted. They are tainted because their forefathers were tainted. Their contamination, or original sin, has permeated the Church throughout the centuries at its highest levels, and this original sin is self-perpetuating because like begets like in a closed society. What is the original sin of the Church?
The discovery of the answers to these questions can be gained by looking at the historical background of the Roman Catholic Church. All of the historical background information presented comes from Martin Alfred Larson, The Essene-Christian faith: a study in the sources of Western religion, 1980. There are many other historical works that document the creation and behavior of the Roman Catholic Church.
“When the pristine message of Jesus, replete with its celibate, communal and Essene-Messianic pronouncements, appeared in the sophisticated Greco-Roman world, which was based on individualism, democracy, and free enterprise, it could hardly have evoked any general reaction except rejection and revulsion. (Due to the pagan culture of the Roman Empire at the time) One element only, that of the sacrificial savior god-so repulsive to the Jews-made the new religion attractive to considerable numbers of Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Thracians, Phrygians, Syrians, etc., for the simple reason that the multifarious pagan cults had already achieved wide popularity among the masses; and, since all the virgin- or divinely born saviors of these mysteries were obviously mythical, the historical Jesus, who embodied the basic characteristics of various pagan predecessors, was readily acceptable in their place.”
This quote is very important for our discussion; but to rephrase it will emphasize what Larson is saying. Christianity, in its Essene form, was unwelcome in the Pagan Roman world, as it existed in its pure form. The concept of the virgin birth, tied to a recent historical figure, Jesus, was “the big draw.” It has been suggested by others, that there was, in fact, no virgin birth; that this was a creation of those people who wrote of Christ, 100 to 200 years after his time. Some believe that one of the initial acts of the Catholic leaders was to create a virgin birth, around Christ, so it would appeal to the masses of pagan worshipers, as Larson suggests here.
Larson begins his discussion with the Roman Catholic Church’s creation of itself. He suggests that Church leaders began adopting existing popular beliefs that allowed them to incorporate large numbers of followers instead of the Church having an established set of beliefs that people chose to believe in. The Church evolved over centuries, but the point is, the Catholic Church set out to purposefully become the one religious institution on earth. They were willing to adopt and incorporate many belief systems into their ‘created faith’ to allow themselves to grow and create more followers.
“The Church gave itself the correct name of catholic: and it became all-inclusive, first by absorbing the principle doctrines and practices of those it was destined to take over; and, second, by compelling all dissidents, after it achieved political power, to come in, on pain of destruction. This process, which began about the year 125 CE, continued for about 400 years.”
“Sometime early in the second century, what was to become the Catholic monolith appeared in vestigial form…Here and there appeared prelates who called themselves bishops and who claimed great and novel authority over their congregations. Since these positions gradually became vested with extraordinary power, wealth, and influence, they attracted a new breed of able men, who, frustrated under the Roman complex, sought elsewhere their place in the sun; most of these men were versed in Greek philosophy and determined to win everything for the church.” Here seems to be the root of the mindset of the men within the inner circle of the hierarchy of the Church, or the “original sin” of the Catholic Church.
“In order to accomplish this objective, three techniques were used: first, the absorption of doctrines and rituals that would attract large numbers of voluntary converts and contributors; second, the adoption of effective methods to aggrandize the power and wealth of the church; and, third, the seizure of the state apparatus to crush every oppositional or deviationist form of thought.”
By their actions, they demonstrated what their hearts truly felt and feel. The Church was interested in “large number of voluntary converts,” “power,” and destruction of the opposition with the blessings of the state. This has been the behavior of the Church over the last two thousand years. Why then should there be surprise now when they behave in the same way they always have?
“The central act of Catholic worship consists of the ritual of the Mass, during which the sacred elements, the bread and the wine, are said to be literally transformed into the flesh and blood of Christ; and when this “sacrifice” is consumed by the communicants or for them by the priest, these are believed to confer divinity and immortality upon the participants. This sacrament is based upon pagan ceremonials which has been celebrated for untold centuries in the cults of Isis, Osiris, Attis, and the Eleusis mysteries, as well as several others.” It can be questioned whether the followers of Catholicism realize they are, in fact, participating in a Pagan ceremony every Sunday? The practice of Paganism in Roman culture was greatly removed from the nature worship culture of the earlier Celtic people and the neo-Pagans of today. The two forms of worship bear nothing in common, other than a name.
“The Catholic prelates found the model for their projected polity principally in the Brahmanic
hierarchy of India. — The word Brahmana means father, and signifies a priest-god; and so the Catholic priests called themselves Fathers, Pappas, Popes, although this was precisely what Jesus had forbidden.” “And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.” (Matthew 23:9) Based on the original Essene beliefs, and Christ’s own teaching, we are to put no one between us, and our relationship with God. This is exactly what the Catholic Church did.
“The Catholic Church adopted from the Manichees (4th & 5th century CE) (see Manichaenism) the doctrines of human depravity, absolute predestination, salvation by prevenient grace, and an absolute metaphysical dualism; these Essene-Pauline tenets had fallen into desuetude among the Greek theologians until it became necessary for the Latin church to re-incorporate them during its struggle with Pelagianism, which developed in the fifth century and which forced the Catholic Church to adopt almost the entire Manichean system of human nature and redemption.” This is another example of the Church, and it’s willingness, to believe whatever is popular to perpetuate itself. The Church has not demonstrated, over time, that they had an established belief system, but rather they flow with the tide of popularity to stay in the forefront of the masses.
The Catholic Church also adopted the concept of purgatory, a principle element in Zoroastrianism, which has no basis in Christianity. The Christianity from the Essenes did not include this concept. This concept of purgatory evolved until it became one of the most important tenets in Catholicism. “Since the Church offered to release souls from purgatory for a price proportionate to the wealth of the dead, many estates were conveyed to her in order to accomplish this objective. This service has always been and still remains a source of enormous revenue.”
So the church has set about systematically destroying every other existing faith within its realm. They have set themselves up as special and above the law. They used their self-appointed place as “God’s representative” to control and extort the people they profess to serve. Even today they do the same thing. If you get divorced you are excommunicated from the Church, but you can purchase and annulment at any point in your marriage. They behavior is about control and money. The Church was one of the main contributors to the Dark Ages. Finally, there were some attempts for the people to move themselves out from under the influence of the Catholic Church.
The Inquisition began in the 12th century when the Church continued to destroy all other forms of faith that were different from their own. This time they formalized the process as though they were acting as God’s representatives. The Cathars were subject to this destruction. In 1208 Pope Innocent III decreed the destruction of the Cathars. The Cathars were a form of Gnosticism; the Church had destroyed the Gnostics during its early years. The Gnostics and Cathars believe we have an individual direct relationship with God, as did Christ, and this takes control away from the “Fathers” of the Catholic Church. Thirty-five thousand Catholic troops were sent to France to kill thousands of men, women, and children over a thirty-five-year period.
There is one specific story, of one individual, and his experience with the Catholic Church, that demonstrates their mindset on a microcosmic individual scale. It is the story of the Jewish mystic, Abraham Abulafia. The Church systemically, over the centuries, suppressed the prophetic works of many people. In the 13th century, a Jewish mystic who founded the practice of ecstatic Kabala, Abraham Abulafia, wrote five works of prophecy. Only one exists today. Based on his history with the Roman Catholic Church at the time, it is believed the church has his works hidden away, because these works predict, and reveal, what the present and future condition of the Church. During his lifetime, Abulafia received a vision, from Metatron, that he was to go to Rome to see the Pope. In 1278 he left for Rome and arrived in Capua in 1279 where he gathered a small group of students. In the summer of 1280 he arrived in Rome and attempted to meet the Pope. The Pope would not meet with him and left to travel to a small castle in Soriano de Cimini.
Abulafia received a message from the Pope that if he tried to follow him he would be burned at the stake. Why would one of the most powerful men in the world, the Pope, not only refuse to talk with another religious man, but go so far as to threaten him, with death by burning at the stake, for asking to speak with him? What was the Pope afraid of, Abulafia was one man? This act signifies the Catholic disdain and arrogance for other faiths. Despite this message, Abulafia traveled to Soria de Cimini in the Jewish New Year of 5041, 1280. Isn’t this an act of a man of faith? His vision told him to go to the Pope and despite threats to his life; Abulafia was compelled to do what, he was directed to by Metatron. When Abulafia arrived, he was informed that the Pope was dead. This is confirmed by documents in the Vatican that Pope Nicholas II died in this manner. In fact his death was so sudden and unexpected that the priests were unable to hear the Pope’s confession and give him the last rites prior to his passing.
Abulafia was arrested and was held in custody in Rome by a small sect of Franciscan monks known as the Minorites. Abulafia was set free two weeks later without explanation. Abulafia spent the next ten years of his life, until his death in 1291, in Sicily. (This information was taken from a work by Moshe Idel: Messianic Mystics, Yale University Press, 1998.) This true story depicts the synchronicity of the universe. Abulafia followed his vision, without question, and the Pope received from the universe exactly what he put forth.
In 1542, the Church made the inquisition a formal part of their activities. To this day, they still have an active council that meets to discuss threats to the Church by other faiths. This council is named, Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. The Pope still has a formal seat on this council, but usually appoints a bishop to sit in his place. The members of this council are drawn from the Dominican order of the Church. The Dominican order is the group responsible for the inquisition, the burnings, and hangings of the heretics. Why does this council exist today? If the Church openly sought forgiveness for these sins why have they not disbanded this council?
“There were some sporadic attempts in France, Hungary, and elsewhere to challenge the Papal power; but these were drowned in blood. The Piedmontese in northern Italy was slaughtered en masse; the Calvinist Huguenots in France were massacred by the scores of thousand, especially on St. Bartholomew’s day in 1571. In Germany and northern Europe, however, the movement known as the Reformation was more determined, popular, and successful. It’s objective was nothing less then to strip from medieval religion it’s principle pagan accretions and to accomplish a restitution of Christianity, not, indeed, in its original Essene-Gospel form, but in the image of its Hellenized reconstitution.”
“From its bastions in Spain, Italy, and Austria, the Catholic Church attempted to destroy this 16th century reconstitution of Christianity and regain its lost territories by launching a series of counter-offensives, of which the most violent was the thirty Years War, which began in Germany in 1616. When it was over, the country lay prostrate; two-thirds of her population, at least twenty million people, had been slain; great and flourishing cities had become the habitations of wolves; and it was 200 years before the land regained the wealth and population it had when the holocaust began.”
The Catholic Church is ultimately responsible for paganizing the Christianity of the Essenes and Christ. The Church is responsible for the persecution and death of millions of people. All this was done in the name of Christ and Christianity, but truly was done to serve their own self-interest of wealth and politics. Does anyone wonder why the Church now puts itself first, instead of tending to the emotional healing of trauma caused by one of its members? The answer appears to be that they really do not have any idea or understanding of what it means to nurture and heal another human being. Their whole history seems to be about control to serve their own ends. This is as a direct result of their original sin.
Why is this pedophilia scandal happening to the Catholic Church? They have controlled and hidden the truth about themselves for centuries. It is time for their reckoning. It is time for their atonement. The Catholic Church is being called to atone for the wrong deeds from the very inception of the religious practice they created that distorted the Christian faith of the Essense’s and Christ.
If this is the time for atonement for the Catholic Church, then this atonement appears to encompass the victims of pedophilia as well as their relatives, friends and lawyers. Some believe they too must have somehow suffered by the actions of the Church throughout the centuries. Perhaps now is the time when the original sin of the Catholic Church, along with its consequential, sins will be expiated.
Such expiation seems to be expedited by the victims themselves. For centuries the Catholic Church acted inconsistently from what people expected, as if, it was above the people. Now the Church can no longer maintain this superior attitude. People through their government, the courts, are admonishing the Church for its past sins. Initially its past transgressions are being revealed, and more may be revealed, which could lead to the Church being responsible for its own downfall.
Contact information:
Brian K. Runau
Sources:
Roberts, Henry C., The Complete Prophecy’s of Nostradamus, Crown Publishers, Inc. New York, 1994
Larson, Martin Alfred, The Essene-Christian faith: a study in the sources of Western religion, New York. Philosophical Library. xxiv, 1980
Idel, Moshe, Messianic Mystics, Yale University Press, 1998