The Pope And False Catholicism

By Theodore Shoebat

Islam is a heresy, and not only that, it is an apostate church. In its founding it harloted itself with some of the most major heretical beliefs the Church has ever faced. It is Arianism, for it denies the divinity of Christ; it is Nestorianism, for it denies the Incarnation and rejects that the Word became flesh; it is Pelagianism, for it rejects original sin; and it has a trace of Manichaeanism, in that it affirms that there was no crucifixion of Jesus, but that people only imagined or thought they saw him crucified; in other words, it is the ultimate whore of a religion.

But now, Pope Francis is trying to build stronger ties with this very heresy; he said:

Turning to mutual respect in inter-religious relations, especially between Christians and Muslims, we are called to respect the religion of the other, its teachings, its symbols, its values

is-pope-francis-planning-to-merge-catholic-church-with-islam

I don’t see anywhere in the Scriptures, nor in the teachings of the Church Fathers, respect toward false religions.

What many Christians (both Catholic and non-Catholic) need to understand, is that respect toward Islamic teachings is not a part of the original tenets of the Church in regards to Islam.

In 1376 the Catholic scholar Niocalu Eymeric, wrote that anyone who believed in Muhammad was a heretic:

“Whoever invokes the aid of Mohammed, even if he does nothing else, falls into manifest heresy. So does anyone who in his honor constructs an altar to him. In similar cases the same thing may be said of invoking any demon, building him an altar, sacrificing to him, etc.” (1A)

Pope Calixtus III, in the 15th Century, said:

Further, I vow to deliver the Christians languishing in slavery, to exalt the true Faith, and to extirpate the diabolical sect of the reprobate and faithless Mahomet of the East. For there the light of faith is almost completely extinguished. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten. Let my tongue cleave to my jaws, if I do not remember thee. If I make not Jerusalem the beginning of my joy, God and His holy Gospel help me. Amen. (1)

Pope Francis used the name of Saint Francis of Assisi as his pontifical title, well, lets look at how Francis himself saw Islam.

During St. Louis’ Crusade, the nation’s sultan, Al-Malik al-Kamil, (2) payed his troops to decapitate Christians. When the Crusaders were trying to take the city of Damietta in Egypt, jihadist warriors would enter their camps at night to behead them as they slept. The lord of Courtenay’s sentry was butchered and his body found laying on a table without a head. (3) The Muslims, after beheading so many Christians, hung the heads around the walls of Cairo. When the Egyptian emirs wished to make a truce with the Crusaders, king Louis told them that he would not make any terms of peace unless they first took down all of the hanging heads of the Christians, and give back all of the Christian boys whom they kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam; the demand was fulfilled. (4)

It was to this ruthless sultan that a short, scruffy and zealous Italian named Francis of Assisi confronted. Some of the Crusaders thought him mad, while many looked upon him with admiration. He came to al-Kamil with the intention of converting him to Christianity and thus ending the war. He walked toward the sultan with his companion Illuminato, singing, “Though I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.” Illuminato’s mind was unsettled, and to comfort him Francis cried out joyously, “Courage, brother! …Put your trust in Him who sends us forth like sheep in the midst of wolves.”

The Muslim soldiers seized the saint and Illuminato and beat them. As the Saint received the blows he cried out with the best of his ability to the sultan, “Soldan! Soldan!” They were then chained and brought before the sultan. St. Francis implored al-Kamil to turn to Christ, an act punished by death under Sharia, asking him to “consent to become converted to Christ together with your people.”

St. Francis too was committing a capital offense; for just five months after this meeting five Franciscan friars were put to death in Morocco for proselytizing. St. Francis asked the sultan to bring a sheikh and light up a furnace; whoever survived the flames had the true God. It was a test reminiscent to what occurred to the three Jews in Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace.

“Let a great furnace be lit,” proclaimed the Saint, “Your priests and I will enter it; and you shall judge by what you see which of our two religions is the holiest and truest.”

The sheikh fled, and the sultan replied: “I greatly fear that my priest will refuse to accompany you into the furnace”. “Since that is the way things are,” replied Francis, “I will enter the fire alone. If I perish, you must lay it to my sins. But if God’s power protects me, do you promise to acknowledge Christ as the true God and Savior?” The sultan affirmed that no matter the result he would never leave Islam. But he greatly admired the friar’s courage and offered him gifts before his leaving.

“Take them at least to give to the poor!” urged Saint Francis. As he left, with grief in his heart, seeing that his aspiration was not accomplished, the sultan begged him with these words: “Remember me in your prayers, and may God, by your intercession, reveal to me which belief is more pleasing to Him.” (5)

So, as we can see, respect towards Islamic teachings is not Catholic, it is not Biblical, and it is really a heresy unto itself.

The Catholic Church may not be declaring war on Islam, but Islam is sure declaring war on the Catholic Church. Catholics throughout Pakistan and the rest of Asia are being oppressed and persecuted by Muslims.

It is time for the Catholic Church to revive its crusading spirit and make a fierce stance toward Islam.

Theodore Shoebat is the author of the book, For God or For Tyranny

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(1A) Nicolau Eymeric, The Directorium inquisitorum, in Alan Charles Kors and Edward Peters, Witchcraft in Europe, part 4, p. 126

(1) Carroll, A History of Christendom, vol. iii, ch. xiii, pp. 569-571

(2) Name is learned from Englebert, St. Francis of Assisi, ch. xiii, p. 176

(3) John of Joinville, The Life of Saint Louis, 177; Gui, a household knight of the Viscount of Melun [late in 1249], to Master B. de Chartres, in Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, in Peter Jackson’s Seventh Crusade, ch. 5, document 59, p. 87

(4) John of Joinville, Life of Saint Louis, 469, 518

(5) Englebert, St. Francis of Assisi, ch. xiii, pp. 176-178; Carroll, A History of Christendom, vol. iii, ch. v, p. 197

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