Sophistry 2000:

The Roman Catholic Church Plans to Ask Forgiveness--But Not For Specifics

The Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church has declared a Jubilee for year 2000, and the central focus of the Vatican's interest is to bring the descendants of the Protestant Reformation back into her fold. In order to achieve this, the Papacy will ask forgiveness for "faults committed by representatives of the church, which continue to leave their mark on the collective memory and are an impediment to evangelization," according to a story by the Zenit News Agency on Dec. 1, 1999.

But if anyone is expecting language truly implicating the Roman church itself, they may have to wait until the year 3000. Rome never changes. The language of the Vatican is bereft of terms such as "sin," or "guilt." Not only that, but the language consistently used by the church holds those at "fault" through the ages apart from direct identification with the church. When a Cardinal or Priest speaks, it is the very speaking of the Roman Church itself, just as when a representative of any other church speaks it is that very church speaking by that individual. John Paul wants there to be a "purification of memory" in the religious world so that the whole spectrum of Christendom can express forgiveness for one another and leave behind the impediments to evangelization--and this is in reference to the evangelization of the churches of the Protestant Reformation--not the world in general.

The Vatican International Theological Commission is not "analyzing specific historical events" as it does its work. Specifics "such as the crusades or the inquisition," according to Fr. Bruno Forte, will not be analyzed. Rather, "What we do is identify possible conditions on which these pronouncements [the Vatican's plea for forgiveness] can be fully based." So Rome will ask for specific forgiveness on the basis of a generic admission to faults "committed in the past by her children." Furthermore, the concern that exists within the Catholic community will lead the whole matter to be "carried out with care and responsibility so as not to wound the ecclesial conscience." But we can only identify this as sophistry. What kind of forgiveness follows a confession that refuses to suffer the wounding of "the ecclesial conscience" for the brutality of "specific historical moments" of butchery and persecution and murder of those who refused to surrender their conscience to the power of priests and prelates?!

It must not be ignored that Rome does not change. The article referred to above includes the plain statements that "the church [the Roman Catholic Church] regards herself as a unique subject of history, because we appreciate as our own what our fathers in faith did, and we are in solidarity in the unity of the faith and the spirit with the church at all times in her history." But if this is so--if the Roman Church truly stands in solidarity with the spirit of that church at all times in her history--then her murderous rage against those she slew in years past must still persist, and her seeking for forgiveness must be a lie. Her actions 400 years ago must speak much more loudly to us than her gentle words now.

The Protestant Reformers identified the Roman Catholic Church as the Mother of Harlots mentioned in the book of Revelation; a persecuting power that ultimately causes all who will not worship her to be slain (Revelation 17 and 13). How interested they would be today to see her in operation, seeking a blanket forgiveness apart from acknowledgment of her specific, authorized, genocidal actions down through history. Let her power be once regained, and we will see plainly the truth of Bishop O'Conner's words: "Religious liberty is merely endured until the opposite can be carried into effect without peril to the Catholic world."

Pastor Larry Kirkpatrick

Last Modified 23 March 2000