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A Man Sent From God Whose Name is Benedict...  

"My child and My children, you are all My children.  I judge you not by color or race, and I do not judge you by your creed; however, should the knowledge of the One True Church be given to you, and the way to Heaven along the narrow road be given to you, you will follow it or you will be rejected." - Our Lady, August 21, 1985

(Editor's Note: The following article was written by Bishop Robert Mercer, CR, an Anglican bishop from Canada.  This article was originally posted on The Anglo-Catholic blog.)

“Leading men and women to God, to the God Who speaks in the Bible: this is the supreme and fundamental priority of the Church.”

Three guesses as to who said this. Billy Graham, John Wesley, Martin Luther, or an evangelical Anglican like John Stott of All Souls, Langham Place, London?

No, Pope Benedict XVI.

It’s no wonder that this Pope appeals more and more to evangelical Christians, to Anglicans and to the Orthodox. Some of us have been deceived by the liberal media or even by liberal Roman Catholics into writing him off as “the rottweiler cardinal” or “the panzer cardinal”. But like another elderly pope who came to office late in life, John XXIII, this man is full of astonishing surprises.

For one thing, he wants us all to know and love the Bible as he himself does. He quotes St. Jerome with approval, the 5th century translator of the Bible. “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ”. And again, “Read the Scriptures frequently; may your hands never set the Holy Book down. Learn here what you must teach”. This Pope’s big book is not a defense of himself and his own denomination but Jesus of Nazareth. His smaller books The Apostles and St. Paul are simple Bible studies which he gave to large crowds in St. Peter’s Square. Church Fathers is simple teaching about those whom our Prayer Book calls “ancient authors” (introduction to the ordination services). The Pope regards the Biblical writers as “our normative theologians”. Among his favorite theologians are St. Paul and St. Augustine of North Africa, a fact which should endear him to all good Protestants. Another favorite is John Henry Newman, the Anglican Vicar who became a Roman Catholic and who loved the Greek Fathers of the ancient Church.

Talk of Church Fathers (or seminal influences) tells us that the next thing to astonish us about this Pope is his commitment to ecumenism. He reveres the Jews. He has been on pilgrimage to Auschwitz; he has visited the Synagogue in Rome. (An earlier Pope had said, “Spiritually we are all Semites”.) Benedict helped forge a document of agreement with Lutherans about “justification by faith”; he has preached in the Lutheran church in Rome. Benedict helped forge a document of agreement with the Coptic church of Egypt. Discreet dialogue with the Orthodox Churches is under way though as the Orthodox tend to be as fissiparous as Anglicans, progress is slow. The Russian Orthodox are especially amiable. The Pope and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople presided together over a joint celebration of St. Paul in St. Paul Outside-the-Walls, Rome, where the Apostle is buried.

The Pope’s understanding of his own limitations as under the authority of Scripture, reassures other Christians. “The Pope is not an absolute monarch whose thoughts and desires are law. On the contrary: the Pope’s ministry is a guarantee of obedience to Christ and His Word. The Pope must not proclaim his own ideas, but rather constantly bind himself and the church to obedience to God’s Word, in the face of every attempt to adapt the Word or to water it down, and in the face of every form of opportunism”. He sees the church as a communion of people united within the relationships within the Trinity, not as an institution for administration. He sees Christian discipleship as a personal living relationship with Jesus, rather than as keeping rules or as knowing all the right answers.

It is Benedict’s generosity to Anglicans which astonishes us most of all. Dialogue about rapprochement between Anglicans and Rome has been going on and off for some 400 years, mostly off. Fr. Michael Rear, a Roman Catholic priest, has summarized this history in articles which appeared in The Catholic Herald and in New Directions. There is a whole book by two Anglicans, Rome and Canterbury Through Four Centuries, by Barnard and Margaret Pawley. The story is too long to repeat here. A hopeful moment was the Malines Conversations held in Belgium between 1921 and 1925. There is a book about these too, called A Brother Knocking at the Door by Bernard Barlow. It was from those conversations that we got the motto United but not Absorbed. Abbot Lambert Beauduin had written, “An Anglican church absorbed by Rome and an Anglican church separated from Rome are equally inadmissible.”

Since 1969 there have been ongoing talks between Rome and the Anglican Communion called ARCIC for short, Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission. Remarkable concord has been established about all sorts of issues. However, at the same time as they were trying to reach unity with Rome, Anglicans were equally busy erecting fresh barriers to unity: the ordination of women, the endorsement of clergypersons who were practicing homosexuals, the invention of gay marriages, the endorsement of abortion. ARCIC is not now going anywhere. However, we of the Traditional Anglican Communion and some members of Forward in Faith have said to Rome, “But we are still here. Why not let ARCIC dialogue pass to us?”

Pope Benedict had written that Catholics can not demand that other churches be disbanded and their members individually incorporated into the Catholic Church. They must remain in existence as churches with only those modifications which unity necessarily requires. The Catholic church has no right to absorb other churches. The Catholic church has not yet prepared for other churches a place of their own. Once the Bishops and Vicar’s General of the Traditional Anglican Communion had signed The Catechism of the Catholic Church and unanimously applied for reconciliation, the Pope set in train among theologians and administrators at the Vatican the two year long process which resulted in the Apostolic Constitution, Anglicanorum coetibus or Groups of Anglicans. He did not make the first move. He is not stealing sheep. It was we who approached him.

Naturally enough, as with engaged couples before they marry, there are some anxieties as we await developments. You will not financially support pederastic clergymen in Ireland or elsewhere. I have known one or two such but they were married Anglican priests. You will not have to eat fish on Fridays even if you dislike it. You will not have to go to confession on Friday. You will not have to write an exam on the Catechism of the Catholic Church. RC laity don’t. Why should you? Your parish council will not have to send donations to Rome. RC parishes don’t. Why should yours? You will not have to submit to a bully. Cardinal Ratzinger and two of his staff gave me over an hour of their time in Rome in 1985 when we talked unity. He is the gentlest, most courteous of men, a skilled listener. Conversely, you can still treasure our Prayer Book catechism which serves a different purpose from the Roman one. Ours is a preparation for those hoping to be confirmed. The Roman one is a fat compendium of theology to be referred to, stuffed full of Bible, ancient authors and quotations from saintly people.

As to “concessions”, so to speak, it is Rome which has made most. We retain our identity and our Anglican heritage or patrimony; our Prayer Book tradition of worship, our hymns and music; our married clergy; our esteemed place for the laity. An editorial in the Catholic weekly, The Tablet, put it like this, “Roman Catholic doctrinally but Anglican culturally” which is not quite how we’d put it, but we know what the editor is trying to say. Our only disappointment is no married bishops. After all, St. Peter the first Pope had a wife (Matthew 8:14. 1 Corinthians 9:5). However, Rome’s reason is impeccable. The rapprochement of Eastern Christianity and Western, the two lungs of the one church, is what matters most, and as yet it is the Orthodox who can not stomach the thought of married bishops. And by the way, the word Ordinary is a Prayer Book one found in the ordination service and there meaning bishop. “Will you reverently obey your Ordinary unto whom is given the charge and government over you?”

We are not asked to repent of being Anglican, to repudiate our past. We shall continue to revere our scholars and saints and to learn from them. (I have heard Handel in St. Peter’s, Rome.) We are not described as converting but as “entering into full and visible communion”. We shall indeed enter into communion with millions and millions more Christians round the world. Think of what this means when we travel; when our own isolated folk can’t find Traditional Anglican groups; when we are with Catholic relatives and friends. However, Rome does require us to assuage their scruples about us. How can they be really sure that we were validly baptized, confirmed, ordained? After all, in the Anglican communion as it now is, people are not necessarily baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Nor are they necessarily confirmed. Laymen claim to celebrate the holy communion. Women claim to be bishops, priests and deacons. How can Rome sort out this confusion, and who can blame Rome for being confused? If at the altar rail we are each anointed, then all Romans will be satisfied that we have indeed been initiated into the body of Christ. If our clergy are ordained, then all Romans will be satisfied that our clergy are indeed bishops, priests and deacons. It was an Anglican bishop in the 1950’s who persuaded me that if our orders were the only thing keeping us apart, we ought to meet Rome’s needs in this regard. I am glad to do so.

“This is the Lord’s doing: and it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made: we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118: 24-25).

+ Robert Mercer CR

As this is not a learned paper I have not cited any of the above quotations, but they and much fascinating information can be obtained from:

Covenant and Communion: The Biblical Theology of Benedict XVI by Scott Hahn

Ratzinger’s Faith: the Theology of Benedict XVI by Mrs Tracey Rowland

The Thought of Benedict XVI by Aidan Nichols OP, an ex Anglican.

"You have been given by your baptism entrance into the only true religion upon earth, the Roman Catholic Church under My Son, Jesus. Though man in his arrogance and pride has forgotten His role and His rule, you must carry it forward. Retain the Faith and the truth in the hearts of mankind." - Our Lady of the Roses, September 7, 1978

"I gave you a simple plan with the construction of My House, My Church, upon earth. But now you want to reform it, until you will split My House asunder with many denominations, many new denominations. I ask that My Church be universal, apostolic, and the saver of souls. However, there are rules to be followed, doctrines to remain unchanged." - Jesus, September 7, 1978

Our Lady of the Roses awesome Bayside Prophecies... https://www.tldm.org/../Bayside/
These prophecies came from Jesus, Mary, and the saints to Veronica Lueken at Bayside, NY, from 1968 to 1995.

ONLY  TRUE  RELIGION
"O My children, I will not go into a long discourse now with you about charity and love for your neighbor, but you must understand: you cannot judge your neighbor. You must pray for them. However, you cannot become weak and permissive. You must stand forth as bearers of the light, carriers of the truth. You have been given by your baptism entrance into the only true religion upon earth, the Roman Catholic Church under My Son, Jesus. Though man in his arrogance and pride has forgotten His role and His rule, you must carry it forward. Retain the Faith and the truth in the hearts of mankind." - Our Lady, September 7, 1978 

YOUR  BIRTHRIGHT
"As in the past, rejection has been the start of a fallen man. Sin has become a way of life with many. You live in a delusion if you believe that you can offend the Eternal Father and then gain eternal life in the Kingdom. No, I say to you: many are called, but few are chosen.
   "Ask and you shall receive, believe and you will be given the way. But you must merit the Kingdom. Your birthright was a start, but you must make your way to the Kingdom. Others may gain these graces for you by prayer and acts of sacrifice, but you will accept or reject the key." - Jesus, May 26, 1976 

ONE TRUE CHURCH
"My child and My children, you are all My children. I judge you not by color or race, and I do not judge you by your creed; however, should the knowledge of the One True Church be given to you, and the way to Heaven along the narrow road be given to you, you will follow it or you will be rejected." - Our Lady, August 21, 1985

RELIGION  OF  THE  CROSS
"There is only one religion that can save your country and all of the countries of the world: the religion of the cross and My Son's sacrifice upon that cross." - Our Lady, November 25, 1978 

SEPARATED  BRETHREN
"O My children, pray much! We do not want to see a division in My Son's House. The Roman Catholic Church must remain one! But this does not mean, as the church of man states, that you will bring all manner of heretics and separated brethren in. No, My children, that is an error, a delusion from satan. You cannot change My Son's House and bring them in and change for them! They must change and come back to the original rule given by My Son and those who were with Him in the building of the foundation.
   "I repeat, My child and My children: separated brethren must change. They have protested in the past; they have taken themselves away from the truth and the one true Church. They must reject the errors they have made in the past and come back and start again. They cannot bring their errors into My Son's House.
   "You are opening the doors now for all manner of heretics, separated brethren. They do not come to unite in good spirit and heart; they come to take over. They seek to change you, O pastors, who are being deluded. And what do I see in My Son's House but separated brethren upon His pulpit! Even from the temples, the synagogues of satan, upon His pulpit! And for what?
   "And who are My pastors now that have joined in this plan of destruction? Who ordained some of them? Not legitimate hands. They come to destroy. They come in like rats, burrowing, undermining My Son's Church! Do you think you are not watched? Are you above your Creator that you think you can deceive the world permanently? No, I say unto you! You are being given your time, for you who have given yourselves to satan are now exposing your true nature to the world." - Our Lady, March 18, 1977 

ESTABLISHED  BY  JESUS CHRIST
"There are many deceptions taking place among you, and one being the falsification of the manner of the salvation of souls. When I was upon earth, I established the rules and I gave you My Church, My House. However, now I watch as many have gone forward with itching ears and novelty, and they are setting upon the world a new religion." - Jesus, May 20, 1978 

WILL  STAND
"Do not be deluded, My children, by the agents of satan among you in human form who preach doctrines of devils. The truth has been given to mankind through the ages. The Holy Roman Catholic Church of My Son will stand. The members shall be reduced to few. Only a remnant, My child, shall carry the banner Faithful and True. But the gates of hell shall fight a heavy battle against My Son's Church, but they shall not succeed." - Our Lady, May 14, 1977 

ONLY  SANCTIFIED  HOUSE
"Your children are wandering into the web of satan, going farther from the House of My Son. The truth is being removed from their hearts. They are setting among themselves groups. They shall not remove from their lives vows of My Son. As the only sanctified House upon earth, their souls will be destroyed when they are not given the Bread of living life. This Bread will only be obtained in the sanctified House of My Son. Satan seeks to remove the tabernacle from among you." - Our Lady, August 5, 1973 

Directives from Heaven... https://www.tldm.org/directives/directives.htm

D85 - Tradition  PDF
D123 - Catholic Church, Part 1  PDF
D124 - Catholic Church, Part 2  PDF
D125 - Ecumenism   PDF

Articles...

Outside the Catholic Church ... no salvation
https://www.tldm.org/News6/Church2.htm

How old is your church?
https://www.tldm.org/News6/Church.htm

Redemption and its effects
https://www.tldm.org/lent/redemption.htm

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