Pope Benedict XVI’s now famous September 12, 2006 speech at Regensburg Germany is profound.  But this has nothing to do with the references to Islam.

 

The Pope condemned Protestantism, particularly that especially nefarious form of it known as “Evangelical Christianity.”

 

“Protestantism” is the name given to the movement that arose after Martin Luther in the early 16^th century.  It signifies, in a nice way, opposition to the Roman Catholic Faith and the Roman Catholic Church.  “Protest” is the root word and goes with this idea of protesting or opposing Roman Catholicism.  Those who protest or oppose Roman Catholicism, but who still hold to Christ as the Son of God, may be called Protestants.

 

So, if Protestants believe Christ is the Son of God, how can there be a problem, you say?  And, since we hear so often of Protestants being “Christians”, and after all Roman Catholics are Christians, we must all be one big family.  Right?  Wrong.

 

Protestants’ beliefs are heretical.  For instance, they believe that Faith alone can save you.  What does that mean?  It doesn’t matter what you do as long as you make Jesus Christ your “personal savior”, whatever that means.  Being a Protestant means never having to say that you are sorry.  It means never having to repent.

 

And then the bulk of them hold to the idea of “sola scriptura” which means that Tradition does not mean a whit, and that only what is in the Bible is what matters.  (A Bible, which, by the way, the Catholics gave them, for the most part.)  But who interprets the meaning of the Bible?  Well, the answer is anybody who wants to.  Hence, the rise of private judgment which means everybody deciding what is best for themselves.  That, folks, is the foundation of relativism, secularism, and all of the other politically-correct ills which so severely afflict so many today.

 

Protestants are schismatic – they do not recognize the Holy Father as their leader.  It is Bishop (or, as with the Anglicans, Bishopette) So-and-so, or it is Dr. Whatshisname or the Reverend Makingyoufeelgood.  As a result, they are separated from us Roman Catholics.  We are not under the same roof regardless of what the Evangelicals, heretical Catholic theologians, or the mainstream USA media says.

 

Heresy and schism are serious things.  They send the unrepentant to an eternity in Hell, and they threaten the souls, and the lives, of so many more with the errors that are engendered by these very great sins.

 

When everything is reduced to your private judgment, to your own take on things, then communications break down between people. This leads to isolation.  This in turn leads to a more easily controlled and manipulated populace, by a government that is, to say the least, godless. 

 

The same result occurs when you break from the Church and deny the authority of the Holy Father.  At that point, you, and whoever is with you, are on your respective owns.  And, let’s face it, there is always someone or something bigger and stronger than you in society. 

 

History reinforces the thesis that Protestantism has either been the tool of the state, or the powerful in any society, or has enhanced the power of those with the means to exercise their will, to their own benefit, over their neighbors.  Remember, it was a powerful secular leader, an Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, who sheltered and helped Martin Luther in his sick quest for “reform.”  Kings, Queens, Princes – all ate at the trough of Protestantism because it gave them the power to more fully rule, or control, or dominate their subjects. 

 

You see, without the Roman Catholic Church, a universal and powerful entity in its own right, the secular rulers were free to do whatever they wanted. Throughout history the Church has stood for the rights of the weak, the oppressed, the righteous against rulers of all types.  With the Church out of the way, the rulers would not face any opposition within their borders, and, most importantly, they would not have to listen to the priests and bishops who would condemn their actions as immoral, thereby informing them of the dangers their own actions posed to their own immortal souls.  The rulers, like Henry VIII of England, really became the leaders of their own churches, they became their own Popes, they became their own gods.  And the gods of the people.  No one – not the Pope in Rome, not the cardinals, not the bishops, not a lowly priest – were going to be allowed to prick their consciences with God’s Truth.

 

Theocracy was revived with Protestantism – when the head of state became the head of the state religion.  Absolute tyranny came about.  No longer could the populace seek the help of the Church.  No longer did the common man have recourse to the Truth.  That was all stopped by the King’s armies, the Prince’s guards, the Queen’s soldiers.    

 

It gets worse.  Protestantism fueled all of this ridiculous talk and the silly notion of  “freedom of religion”. Well, that means anyone can form their own church without the possibility of any physical or material repercussions.  But that also means that the citizens of that society are fragmented.  They grow to have less and less in common.  And let’s be perfectly honest about something—religion is very important, and if you and your neighbor don’t have the same one, if you don’t believe in the same thing, you may be living in a diverse or a multi-cultural society, but you really don’t have much to talk about of any importance.  And so you don’t feel very close to them.  And that means others with cohesion and discipline and resources are stronger than you. And that means tyranny ensues. And that means we lose all real security.

 

People in the USA instinctively sense all of these things today.  Many know they have no one to turn to if things go bad.  Many know they have no protection if the government turns on them.

 

Their “freedom”, their individuality, their Protestant religion, has left them naked.  And they know it.

 

Protestantism, particularly Evangelical Christianity, deracinates people.  What do I mean?  I mean that once the common bond of religion is brutally severed, people can only relate on the lowest level – the racial level.  This is because their community, a community with a culture founded in history and a shared religion, is dismembered.  The Pope detailed the result of it all when he said "The subject then decides, on the basis of his experiences, what he considers tenable in matters of religion, and the subjective conscience becomes the sole arbiter of what is ethical.  In this way...ethics and religion lose their power to create a community and become a completely personal matter."

 

The Holy Father explains how the West got to this point, and he points out that Protestantism is responsible for the current disastrous state of affairs:

 

“The inner rapprochement between Biblical faith and Greek  philosophical inquiry was an event of decisive importance not only from the standpoint of the history of religions, but also from that of world history – it is an event which concerns us even today.  Given this convergence, it is not surprising that Christianity, despite its origins and some significant         developments in the East, finally took on its historically decisive                 character in Europe.  We can also express this the other way around-- this     convergence, with the subsequent addition of the Roman heritage, created       Europe and remains the foundation of what can rightly be called Europe.

 

“The thesis that the critically purified Greek heritage forms an integral part of Christian Faith has been countered by the call for a dehellenization of Christianity – a call which has more and more dominated theological discussions since the beginning of the modern age.

 

"Dehellenization first emerges in connection with the postulates of the Reformation in the sixteenth century....." 

  

Protestants reject Greek philosophical inquiry, and with that rejection they destroy the Christian culture which is the European culture.  And in destroying this life giving society, the Protestants go on to create their own culture – a culture of the powerful, a culture of the state, a culture of domination, a culture that we now know as American.  A culture that serves the Father of Lies, and in ruining countless lives, then sending the despairing souls to Hell. 

 

What are Catholics to do?

 

Work to build authentic Catholic communities while working to convert all non-Catholics.  We have to save our souls, and the souls of our Catholic brothers and sisters.  We have to try and save the souls of those who are not Catholic, even though they have been some of our greatest persecutors and enemies.  We do that by knowing the Faith, by understanding human nature, and by uniting into communities where we help each other to develop and keep good habits and customs that promote virtue and make the realization of eternal life possible.  We do it by building a culture of life which can only be a Roman Catholic society.