History is crowded with instances of disasters which have
fallen upon individuals and nations who have sought the Pope's favours. Space
allows us to name only a few.
1851 - Pope Pius IX sent the Golden Rose to the king of the two
Sicilies. In less than a year he lost his crown and kingdom.
1866 - The same Pope sent his blessings to the Austrian
Kaiser. In less than a year he lost Venetia and was defeated at Sadowa.
1867 - The Pope blessed Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico. He was
dethroned and shot. Then the Pope blessed the Emperor's widow. She became a
hopeless maniac, and died in exile.
1868 - The same Pope sent the Golden Rose to Queen Isabella of
Spain. In a short time she lost her crown and died in exile.
1895 - The Archbishop of Damascus, at Vittoria, gave the
Pope's blessings to the Spanish troops and fleet. Spain then lost two fleets and two armies.
1897 - The Papal Nuncio blessed the grand Charity Bazaar in
Paris. Within five minutes it was in flames. Nearly 150 of the aristocracy perished,
including the sister of the Empress of Austria.
1906 - Victoria Eugenie (Ena), daughter of Princess Henry of
Battenburg, married Alphonso X111, king of Spain. She was required to renounce
her Protestant faith, which she did. Within a fortnight afterwards she narrowly
escaped death at the hands of a Romish anarchist, while 13 hapless victims
succumbed, and 80 others were wounded. Her wedding garments were bespattered
with human blood. In 1923 the Pope sent her the Golden Rose, and in 1931 she
and her husband were exiled.
'The Spain they ruled over became a republic under the
Pope's "Christian gentleman," General Franco.
1924 - A rich English landowner, Mr. Edwards, turned Roman
Catholic. In 1926 he went to Rome, was blessed by the Pope, and died in four days.
1928 - The Pope blessed the "Italia" airship and
gave it a "cross" to place on the North Pole. The airship broke in
two, and half the crew were lost.
We recall the rape of Abyssinia; how the Pope praised
Mussolini and his Italian army, as they went about their murderous campaign,
gassing and bombing the helpless natives. God did not delay His punishment for
this fiendish act. Mussolini who could not be restrained by the League of
Nations, was shot dead at the side of his mistress, Petacci, in April, 1945.
Note, also, the significance of a prominent friendship with
"His Holiness." Mr. Winston Churchill called in at the Vatican, and
after that he never regained his authority in Parliament.
This condemnation applied equally to the late President
Roosevelt, who kept a personal representative at the Vatican. For disobedience
even Moses, God's chosen servant, was denied the fruits of conquest in the
Promised Land. Just so has it happened to President Roosevelt, by death, and to
Mr. Churchill by political oblivion.
General McArthur was presented with an autographed
photograph of the Pope, which he considered to be one of his
most treasured possessions. Soon after he was demoted as a
commander-in-chief and never regained his position.
April 13th, 1951, will be remembered as Black Friday amongst
the Protestant people of Britain. A sinister date to the superstitious it was
still more ominous for the welfare of their Empire. On that day the future
Queen visited the Pope in the Vatican, under servile and unconstitutional
conditions.
And Professor Roderick Finlayson, of Edinburgh's Free Church
College, exposed the plot even more incisively. Writing in his church's
magazine he stated: "The tendency of the Royal Family to go out of their
way to visit the Vatican, and do obeisance to the head of the Roman Catholic
hierarchy, is occasioning much distress to many of His Majesty's most loyal
Protestant subjects."
It is very significant that after this visit to the Pope,
England lost the Persian oil-fields, the Suez Canal and the war against
Egypt.
The President of France made a personal visit to the Pope in
1957, the first time in French history. A few months 'later the Fourth French
Republic started to crumble and the French colonial army has suffered one
defeat after another.
Cardinal Stritch of Chicago accepted the invitation of the
Pope to become the first American to head one of the Congregation of the Roman
Church. He left Chicago after Easter 1958 and he died a few days after his
arrival in Rome. The Pope who gave him a blessing for his journey and a
blessing when his arm was amputated, did not even go to see him while he was
dying just a few blocks from the Vatican.
My dear friend, if you seek the favors and the blessings of
men, even if they are priests or the Pope, God will curse your blessing, but if
you seek to follow the Word of God and if you give glory only to God, then you
shall abound with blessings: If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to
heart to give glory unto my name ... I will curse your blessings" (Mal.
2:2). "A faithful man shall abound with blessings" (Proverbs 29:20).
To be happy and prosperous, to have freedom from want and
freedom from fear, a person, and also a nation, must follow King David's
exhortation: "Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children,
whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of
falsehood" (Psalms 144:10). The Pope blesses with his right hand, a 'right
hand of falsehood'. The Bible says: "All these blessings shall come on
thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy
God (Deut. 28:2).Friend, call upon the Lord Jesus,Christ to save you now, for
He said: "Him that cometh to Me 1 will in no wise cast out (St. John
6:37).
- Joseph Zacchello
