The following is the introduction to The Outcast Eagles series on Pope Francis I, his ascension to the throne of the Papal See of Rome, his plans for handling the enormous crises of faith in the church, and his strategy for making The Vatican in Rome the leader and voice of a new composite world religion that will be a mouthpiece for Antichrist propaganda.

A PBS Frontline, story in March this year: The Vatican in Crisis directly addressed the unresolved worldwide child sex-abuse scandal and the Vatican Bank’s money laundering and corruption allegations that have been leveled against it by the IMF  and other international banking organizations. These are very differing problems and yet at the heart of them both is the danger of a loss of church assets and further erosion of its credibility and authority as the world’s foremost moral leader.

Yet in some ways what was more subtly and indirectly addressed constitutes an even more serious threat to the Vatican powerbase and the Pope’s goal of not only being the ruling influence over the spiritual life of every Catholic soul, but of being the head of a union of all the checkered religions of the world.

The problem is severe, history teaches that the Papacy can weather the assault on its finances. It has gone from the richest government to the poorest more than once and has always recovered nicely. And in the end sex scandals and Papal crimes have been merely gnats fluttering around a rotten banana. The Papacy has recovered after all its outrageous sex scandals, its bribery, simony and indulgences, the murders, betrayals and all its Machiavellian crimes against kings and nations. The Papacy’s crimes are infamous and need not be recounted, so familiar are they to any 21st Century mind which has just a passing knowledge of secular or Christian history.

The current Vatican problems indirectly addressed by Frontline hold more threatening implications to Papal influence. These are problems not of a carnal vein but of spiritual proportions that threaten membership, threaten core belief and threaten whether the shepherd will have the one thing he must have – sheep. The 21st Century is not in a trial period about if it will accept or reject basic modes of operation that have been the mainstay of Roman Catholic organization and operational infrastructure for the last 1700 years. It has rejected them and turned them upside down. If the R.C. church does not do something about them they could very well become irrelevant or worse. Feminism is shouting for change in the setup of clergy. Gays are demanding the same full rights that every heterosexual male or female has in the Church. The clergy need to have celibacy kicked into the sea of things outdated. In brief, the Church must get up to speed with the Modern world or risk being kicked overboard itself.

These were the main things indirectly broached as Frontline conducted in the series of revealing interviews with clergy and lay members of the Catholic Church which were aired over the course of the two hour show.

It also made an effort to expose the Papacy of the last thirty-five years as conservative, suggesting it was the resistance of an out-of-touch regime from a by-gone day. In the process they suggested that Pope Francis could be the reformer needed by the Catholic Church to lead the church into the new age, one free from old religion and suited to the needs and tastes of a more free-thinking, liberal generation.

The Immediate Crisis: Dwindling Membership
Hovering over the pressures on the leadership is how to handle the resulting loss of membership which endangers future revenue and the loss of devoted souls due to the attrition of death of its predominantly aging membership, especially in Europe.

Pope Francis declared upon his election that a primary aim of his would be to bring Pope Francis the faithful back into the fold and to re-evangelize the apostatized population of  Europe under the age of 40.

To accomplish his goals on these matters Francis must deal with the two crisis he was handed by the retired Benedict XVII.

Early in the program, the show established just how complicit Pope John Paul II was in knowingly keeping silent about the rampant child abuse being reported in all sectors of the Church throughout the globe. The leadership in Rome, including John Paul II kept the offending clergy from facing any investigation or prosecution. In one notorious case, he knowingly promoted a high ranking priest, Fr. Marciel Maciel Degollado, head and founder of the Legionaries of Christ. John Paul II celebrated him publicly, while knowing he had been accused of abusing young boys and men in his charge for years. The priest had been very successful in recruiting young men into the service of the church, so John Paul II elected to look the other way ignoring all allegations about his personal friend. This was only one instance cited of a willful denial by the Papacy of the wide reaching scandal that was escalating within the Catholic Church for decades. The response was to consistently move the offending priest to another diocese, or even call them back to Rome. That is exactly what Pope John Paul II did for Archbishop Law of Boston when he was about to be indicted in the scandal. Law was suddenly called to Rome by the Pope before the warrant could be issued in Boston.

A few personal stories brought to light in the piece showed a callousness from the Papacy that will be hard for Francis to explain away. One woman told how she had been raped by her parish priest and then threatened by him that if she told anyone, he had the power to send her parents to Hell.

Another accusation came from an illegitimate son of Fr. Degollado, who convincingly reported that his father had sexually abused him and his brother. This disgrace went on for years and all the while Fr. Marciel Maciel presented himself publicly as a dedicated servant of the Roman Catholic Church and the people. The man was later prosecuted, but for years John Paul II publicly praised and even promoted him though he had been aware of the charges leveled at him by numerous victims.

The Church in Rome has held that kind of power over its followers for centuries and that is how it has been able to do criminal business and to continue to abuse children and others with impunity. When an organization holds that kind of power over an individual, they can do almost anything without fear of the consequences. But once the scandal began to come to the light, the power structure was shaken from the very foundation.

In the Charismatic renewal of the 60s and 70s, the Church became exposed at that time in that God’s Word, the Bible, was once again made available to the masses. When people in the 60s and 70s discovered they could read and understand the scriptures, despite what the Catholic Church had taught them, the followers began to leave the church in droves.

The genie had been let out of the bottle in revealing the Church’s hypocrisy. Once people realized they had been lied to about God’s Word, they could not reconcile it to the teachings they had been given by the Catholic Church. The Church did try to do a reversal to say that they had never tried to keep the Word from people and even encouraged people to open their Bibles, as long as they were approved Catholic Bibles. However, it is no coincidence that so many people had the idea that the Roman Catholic Church frowned on Catholics reading the Bible. In fact, the Bible was not made available to their congregants for better than twelve hundred years.

After the initial fervor of  the Charismatic outpouring, people settled back into some complacency and many returned to the Catholic Church, when it made a concerted effort to offer the counter-charismatic message to its followers. The methods used were pseudo-spiritual like Marriage Encounter, Curcio retreats, and Ecumenical teachings and conferences to satisfy the prescription for Christian unity outlined by John the XXIII’s Vatican II declarations. There are even teachings that declared they had always asserted the doctrine of being “born again” as essential to salvation, though it was expressed in the doctrine of baptism as part of the sacramental system. With these things in mind, where is the Catholic Church headed today and what are its goals and  what is Frontline trying to say about it?

What’s the Agenda?

Celibacy, Women Clergy, Gay Rights, Laity Input, Ecumenism
Frontline alluded to some areas of Church Reform, currently being discussed for the direction of today’s church. The viewer of the program that Frontline presented should be aware that the  producers could very well have a political agenda, and it could have motivated the producers along these lines.

1. Should celibacy continue to be a requirement for the Catholic clergy?

2. Should women be allowed to serve as priests and bishops?

3. Should the church change its stand on homosexuality and openly welcome gay and lesbian membership?

Frontline made the sultry point that it is unlikely that men can remain celibate throughout their natural lives. In fact, they tended to blame the sexual abuse scandal on the requirement that priests do have to forsake the sacrament of marriage, to be married to God exclusively. The present school of thought today is; whether a priest is heterosexual or homosexual, celibacy is unnatural and therefore makes it nearly impossible for a man to keep his vow to the Church and God.

What occurred to the OutCast Eagles was that Frontline was being played by the Vatican. The producers of the show thought they were exposing certain outmoded doctrines and institutions to the embarrassment of the Church and its leaders. Things they were trying to cover-up or keep underling priests and nuns from publicly stating when in fact the things they were exposing were old news to Catholics and the world alike. The whole piece worked out fine for the Vatican. The last four Popes were painted as helpless men from a former generation of conservative fathers who could do nothing to overturn 15 hundred years of tradition left over from a different world. But Francis, the miracle worker could if he will seize the moment and not be stifled by slavery to tradition. It makes him look like a savior. The producers presented that image. The image of a progressive man, humble and a man of the common people who has a chance of being the Papa of all people no matter what their sexual orientation, wealth or poverty, class or education. They let the criminal rapists and thieves and those who covered it up by blaming it on antiquated religious laws off the hook and built up the reformer-to-be as the only hope for making things right.

Francis and his PR department got what they wanted by the whole ‘investigative’ report. The backhanded insinuation was, that he will be the one to revolutionize everything at the Vatican from Papal authority, its use of economics and wealth, its clerical and lay relationships and organization, and influence in world religion and politics.

The Frontline piece never stated that women should be appointed to clerical positions, but eluded to the need for drastic reforms, if it is going to be able to stem the tide of sexual abuse and clean up the corrupt hierarchy and gain any sort of credibility with the new 21st century generation. The Catholic Church has lost many women followers in recent years because they were unable to serve in the Church as lay deacons, ordained deacons, priests, bishops and archbishops. That there can be no female Cardinal voting for the Pope, let alone no woman Pope is no longer acceptable among the Church constituency, which is what the regular Catholic has become more than parishioners and powerless members of a helpless congregation without a voice in church politics. This exclusion has been since the inception of the Catholic Church, but today with the move for more equality for women, these refugees from the Church’s hierarchy have moved to other denominations in increasing numbers.

In an unprecedented move Francis has delivered surveys asking revolutionary questions to the laity in general congregations around the world. It is an expression of an unspoken promise that he not only will listen to the regular folk but it is possible they will someday be vested with grass-root power to have a say in deciding matters of church policy and maybe even its politics.

You will find many women have been vested with authority and power serving as priests and deacons in the Presbyterian, Lutheran, and Episcopal Churches.They are at home with the liturgy which is similar to Roman Catholicism, but without the gender impediments to service and rank within the denomination. The allure of serving as a nun has lost its appeal for Catholic women. Francis knows that the Roman Church stands naked, the last antiquated citadel of chauvinism. He knows if it is to survive as a leading voice in the world, let alone be influential, it must move decisively toward investiture of women. With this political reality in mind it is more than likely the former Pope stepped aside and laid down power. Benedict had no chance to pull off the PR necessary to sell all the changes required of the new Papacy. The powers behind the throne have been grooming Jorge Mario Bergoglio to become Pope Francis I.

Francis’ motivation to reform the church and pilot it into the new millennium is not just power but to be hailed as the man of the hour; to have his name and portrait placed alongside the greatest of the Supreme Pontiffs.

Women, especially in the United States and Western Europe believe they have been oppressed and suppressed by the Church long enough. It would not be difficult to believe that the Roman Catholic Church is preparing to welcome these women and others back into the fold by offering better opportunities for them in the modern church. And it would serve the current Pope’s stated goal to bring their people back who have left the Church.

“We have to work harder to develop a profound theology of women within the church. The feminine genius is needed wherever we make important decisions.” Pope Francis

“A church without women would be like the apostolic college without Mary. The Madonna is more important than the apostles and the church herself is feminine, the spouse of Christ and a mother.” Pope Francis

Homosexuality Unmasks the Fallacy of Celibacy
Pope Francis has already made statements concerning homosexuality, that he would not judge those of the gay persuasion, but even more, that today’s Church needs to move forward with more mercy. It would seem that it is only a matter of a short time before gays and lesbians will be formally accepted as active members, forcing a change in doctrine in the Catholic Church. Some of their “brethren” from the Episcopal and Lutheran churches have already done so by ordaining openly gay clergy. This will remove the current stigma for those clergy that are privately and secretly living a gay lifestyle. Frontline did make a point that those in Rome living a gay lifestyle have not been particularly discreet, but it will remove the need to maintain an image of celibacy or heterosexuality for church membership and clergy alike.“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has goodwill, who am I to judge? We shouldn’t marginalize people for this. They must be integrated into society.” Pope Francis“

A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality? I replied with another question: Tell me; ‘When God looks at a gay person does he endorse the existence of the person with love, or reject and condemn this person?’ We must always consider the person. Pope Francis

These quotes of the Pope are to highlight the potential goals of the Church at large in the United States and Western Europe, as well as the political leanings of Frontline and its reporting. Additionally, it appears that Francis shares some inclination for these areas of reform, as he has not at all taken the traditional stand on these matters publicly. Pope Francis has become the people’s pope, in that he appears to be leading the way for these reforms to be made in the Roman Catholic Church in the very near future.

The personal accounts of the victims shown in the program were very disturbing. In particular, the way the clerical perpetrators manipulated the victims into thinking that they held their souls in their hand and had the power to forgive or condemn them to Hell, and also their parents. That is the weapon the offending clergy used to keep their victims under control, and how they were able to continue the abuse uninhibited for so long. In fact, historically, the Roman Catholic Church has wielded this very powerful weapon for centuries. To cite one very notorious example in the Church’s history, the Inquisition gained momentum and strength through such power.

“And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass;
   I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.
   Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
   And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.
   Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
   And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.
   But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; will I put upon you none other burden.
   But that which ye have already hold fast till I come.
   And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
   And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my own Father.
   And I will give him the morning star. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” Rev 2:18-29

Jesus prescribed the judgement for the Priests involved in these wicked acts as stated in the Bible verses cited. Since the Catholic Church has refused to administer an appropriate judgement for the perpetrators, in nearly every case, God will deal it out to them, unless there is some real repentance by the perpetrators. This provides little comfort to the victims now, and the Catholic Church has failed miserably in providing these children, now adults, any means of consolation or deliverance from the wounds of the past. However, Jesus has promised vindication and deliverance for them ultimately.

“And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.
   But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
   Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!“ Matt 18.5-7

Pope Benedict promised to clean up the corruption at the Vatican Bank. This was supposed to be one of his biggest missions, coupled with cleaning up the Child Abuse scandal. Frontline tended to be sympathetic toward Benedict. He was portrayed as an elderly man, in over his head with the Holy See and the Vatican Bank power structure. It was implied that the Mafia and other corrupt entities are using the Bank as a place to hide assets and launder money. When sensitive documents were leaked to the press, confirming many of these things, in the Vatileaks scandal, the blame came to Benedict’s butler as a flimsy cover story. Frontline’s reporting made it pretty evident that the butler was a convenient scapegoat because the documents purported to be leaked by him, were in languages he couldn’t understand. The butler said he did it to protect Pope Benedict.

With all the controversy surrounding his papacy, it became evident that Benedict could no longer serve effectively as Pope, or so that is how Frontline presented its story. But there is another scenario that has Benedict passing on the baton of power because Francis was the one who had the credentials that could lead the Church into the new millennium and Benedict did not. Benedict’s function was to act as a buffer between the old and the new, to distance the Papacy from the staunch conservatism on modern issues of the post world war II Popes.

In a move that stunned the whole world, but not the Curia, Benedict resigned, stating age and fatigue as the reasons. However, it is not hard to believe that Benedict and Francis (who got the second most votes at the conclave that voted in Cardinal Ratzinger Benedict) had hatched the plan for the transfer of power at the right time. If anything, the Papacy has lasted all these centuries because it knows how to plan for the future.

Frontline tended to make Pope Benedict a sympathetic character in the whole scandalous expose they presented, which is just what the PR strategy of the Vatican was hoping for. The Vatican and its hierarchy was presented as a Church riddled with problems that were far more than this meek and quiet man could manage. An examination of Benedict’s career at the Vatican might paint a different picture as he has long wielded substantial power at the Vatican as the right hand man of John Paul II and arguably the power that got John Paul elected. He has also been actively involved with the Vatican Bank for many of those years. The sympathetic picture of Benedict and his papacy may not be as accurate a picture as Frontline would have you believe.

 

A look at the long term goals of the Roman Catholic Church today may give one a clearer view of why Benedict had to step aside for Pope Francis.

 

 

“And now, we take up this journey:  Bishop and People.  This journey of the Church of Rome which presides in charity over all the Churches.  A journey of fraternity, of love, of trust among us.  Let us always pray for one another.  Let us pray for the whole world, that there may be a great spirit of fraternity.  It is my hope for you that this journey of the Church, which we start today, and in which my Cardinal Vicar, here present, will assist me, will be fruitful for the evangelization of this most beautiful city.” -Quote of Pope Francis at his election speech

The Roman Catholic Church must make major reforms if they are to maintain their place of power in the world. The world’s view of women in service to God and homosexuality have drastically changed in the last generation. The larger cry in Christian or Western nations is to give women more equality, and to receive gay people as those with an alternative lifestyle but deserving equal rights and acceptance. This was not true thirty five years ago when Ratzinger held the post as head of the modern version of The Roman Inquisition. It was believed that it was not appropriate for women to have equal status with men in the church. Moreover, gays had to be discreet about their lifestyle or face discrimination in the church and even excommunication. Today, the belief is that gay people are born that way and should have our acceptance and even approval. With this commonly accepted belief in the Western world, the pressure is on to make these changes to Church doctrine and promote it to the laity.

How can the church best sell these sweeping social changes to its conservative faithful? They must put the best face on the younger generation and all the variety of moral and social reverses that are demanded by their entirely new way of looking at and living in the 21st Century. These amount to new doctrines that are the opposite of the 16 centuries of policy of religion that have defined Catholicism.

What does this mean prophetically? That is the question to be searched out in the scriptures. To believe that these are the last days, then we can be excited to see what is unfolding in Rome as it is a key player in end times prophecy. Rome in its vast institution will serve to help unite the world to back the Antichrist. This powerful move toward ecumenism will serve to unite the world toward one religion that will ultimately be for the worship of Antichrist.

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
   And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
   And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
   And they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
   And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
   And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
   And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
   And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
   If any man have an ear, let him hear.
   He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
   And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
   And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
   And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. Rev 13.1-13

The passage emboldened refers to the false prophet who will perform many miraculous wonders to cause those who are not believers to worship the antichrist. Many Bible scholars believe that the False Prophet of Revelation could easily be the Pope. We can’t know it for a certainty, but the Pope is certainly in a very powerful visible role to assume the leadership of a one world religion dedicated to the Antichrist. No one can deny the power that the institution of the Roman Catholic Church has wielded over vast numbers of souls for centuries and it continues today. It also has great political power that it continues to generate over the world, including the former Roman Empire, which continues today, although not completely unified. Keep your eye on Rome, and this Pope who has great ambition for the Roman Catholic Church of today. Articles to come will explore such possibilities.