Since the publication of his book in 1990, one of those three players, Communism, has been effectively neutralized. The other two, Capitalism and Catholicism, had joined forces to bring about the demise of Communism in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc nations. Today, even in other so-called Communist states, Capitalism remains the engine that drives their economic machinery. For all intents and purposes, there are only two players left of Malachi Martin’s three—Capitalism and Catholicism, as epitomized by President Donald Trump and Pope Francis respectively.
Time Magazine of February 24, 1992 headlined the epic of Capitalism joining forces with Catholicism to defeat Communism. The magazine’s cover glared this headline: HOLY ALLIANCE… How Reagan and the Pope conspired to assist Poland’s Solidarity Movement and hastened the demise of Communism. The ensuing article, written by award winning journalist Carl Bernstein, detailed the actions of the Papacy and the United States in bringing about Communism’s downfall.
However, since his appointment as the supreme head of the Papacy (Catholicism), some four years ago, Pope Francis has launched a frontal attack on Capitalism, decrying its evil influences on the human family and its destructive impact on the environment. Noted Columnist, Paul B. Farrell, made this eye opening observation in a commentary in Market Watch, “Pope Francis’s target is clear: economic inequality is the world’s No. 1 problem. Capitalism is at the center of all problems of inequality. And he speaks with a powerful moral authority — something totally missing from American political leaders who are ideologically guided by atheist Ayn Rand, patron saint of the GOP’s capitalism agenda in this moral war. Without moral grounding, the GOP is no match for Francis’ vision, his principled mandate, his long-game strategy to raise the world’s billions out of poverty, to eliminate inequality, to attack the myopic capitalism driving today’s economy, markets and political system”.
Farrell continued, “Moreover, the pope has the resources: As commander-in-chief of the world’s largest army: 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide who are now motivated to defeat capitalism’s grip on inequality. His army includes 78 million Americans in 17,645 parishes, plus a huge officer corps of 213 cardinals, over 5,000 bishops, 450,000 priests and deacons worldwide, all sworn to carry out his vision. He needs no legislative approvals; popes have authority to act unilaterally, with speed, a dictator whose word is law, commanding allegiance, obedience and action” (Market Watch, November 18, 2014).
The Capitalist camp, of which the United States is undoubtedly the leader, is either totally oblivious or willingly ignorant of the fact that they are in a head on confrontation with Catholicism. The idea that the enemy is in the camp is a most untenable notion. This is evidenced by the remarks of former President Barak Obama, as he welcomed Pope Francis to address the world from the epicenter of Universal Capitalism. The former president expressed his admiration for the pope thus, “I welcome His Holiness Pope Francis’s encyclical, and deeply admire the Pope’s decision to make the case – clearly, powerfully, and with the full moral authority of his position – for action on global climate change”. Obama continued, “ As Pope Francis so eloquently stated this morning, we have a profound responsibility to protect our children, and our children’s children, from the damaging impacts of climate change…I look forward to discussing these issues with Pope Francis when he visits the White House in September. And as we prepare for global climate negotiations in Paris this December, it is my hope that all world leaders–and all God’s children–will reflect on Pope Francis’s call to come together to care for our common home”. It is quite amazing to hear such words from an American president who is also a Constitutional scholar. He must not be aware of the roots of the American experience grounded in its founders abhorrence of papal principles.
Nevertheless, not only is Francis vehemently attacking Capitalism, he is inciting a revolution against it as he casts himself as the champion of the poor whom he pictures as victims of that inhumane and immoral system. The great irony of this is that the pope had chosen Latin America, consisting of some of the poorest countries in the world, where his religion is the largest and is intimately entwined with the people and governments of that region, to launch his poverty revolt (New York Times, July 14, 2015).
Another remarkable irony is that Francis’ Papacy is perhaps the largest beneficiary and supporter of Capitalism. Its investments in banking, real estate, transportation, and the Military/Industrial Complex, the bedrock of capitalism, is very well documented in the best selling volume, Vatican Billions, by Avro Manhattan, an expert on Vatican financial affairs. Avro Manhattan concluded: “The Catholic Church, therefore, once all her assets have been put together, is the most formidable stockbroker in the world. The ‘Wall Street Journal’ said that the Vatican’s financial deals in the U.S. alone were so big that very often it sold or bought gold in lots of a million or more dollars at one time. Therefore, the Vatican was, and still is, the most redoubtable wealth accumulator and property owner in existence. No one knows for certain how much the Catholic Church was, or is worth in terms of dollars and other currencies, not even the pope himself. That is the true situation borne out by a Vatican official who, when asked to make a guess at the Vatican’s wealth today, replied very tellingly, “Only God knows” (Vatican Billions, Ch 26).
This being the case, and if Francis is truly concerned about the poor and disenfranchised, why don’t he begin by divesting his papacy of some of its hoarded wealth to help remedy the situation?
To the casual, uninformed, and somewhat deceived observer, it appears that Pope Francis, as the visible head of Catholicism, is indeed a trailblazing champion of the poor and disenfranchised. Viewed through those lenses, his attack on Capitalism may be justified. But when viewed through the prism of the grand chessboard of geopolitics, a different picture emerges. As Francis advances his charge on Capitalism, he is strengthening his relationship with world leaders of all hues and contours. He is, at the same time, declaring that the Protestant Reformation is now over and urging the separated brethren (formerly heretics) to come back home. And they are answering the call en masse. Additionally, he has positioned himself as the most pious and influential of all religious leaders. Essentially, Francis is not only preparing to be the victor in Martin’s three way competition; but sees himself as the head of the One-World System of government “ that has ever existed in the society of nations”.
Malachi Martin, with no reference to Bible prophecy, was verily elucidating what the God of Creation had revealed to His servant John, almost 2,000 years ago on the mount of Patmos. In the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Revelation, John foretells of the time in which the United States of America will join forces with the Roman Papacy, restoring it to its former position to which it aspires– yea is orchestrating, to rule the world (Revelation, 13;1-18).
Dr John Robins, in his book, Ecclesiastical Megalomania writes, “Ayn Rand was right when she wrote in 1967, ‘The Catholic Church has never given up the hope to re-establish the medieval union of church and state with a global state and global theocracy as its ultimate goal’… The Roman church/state is a hybrid, a monster of ecclesiastical and political power. Its political thought is totalitarian and whenever it has had the opportunity to apply its principles, the result has been bloody repression. If during the last 30 years it has softened its assertions of full, supreme and irresponsible power and has murdered fewer people than before; such changes of behavior are not due to a change in its ideas but to a change in circumstances… it is only when the Roman church/state faced public opinion that disapproved of church/state sanctioned murder, that it slowed its persecutions and attempted to speak with a voice less bloodthirsty. The Roman church/state in the 20th century, however, is an institution recovering from a deadly wound. If and when it regains its full power and authority, it will impose a regime more sinister than any the planet has ever seen”… (E M, page 195).
Ellen G. White, eloquent nineteenth century Bible commentator, whom Smithsonian Magazine recently cited as one of the ten most influential religious leaders in America, is in total agreement with Professor Robins. She wrote in her classic, The Great Controversy, “Let the restraints now imposed by secular governments be removed and Rome be reinstated in her former power, and there would speedily be a revival of her tyranny and persecution” (GC 564).
Top Vatican adviser, Jeffrey Sachs, wrote that when Pope Francis visits the United States, he will directly challenge the “American idea” of God-given rights embodied in the Declaration of Independence. Sachs, a special advisor to the United Nations and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, writes in the Jesuit publication, America, “
True to promise, Francis has done exactly as Sachs foretold. In the pope’s address to the United States congress, he unabashedly decried the evils of Capitalism and in effect proposed that a new model–Papal rule, be implemented in its place. Howard Fineman, Global Editorial Director of the Huffington Post, says it best in his article entitled, Pope Francis Wants To Be The President Of The World. He observes, “But shrewdly, methodically and with a showman’s flair, the soft-spoken, 78-year-old Argentinian Jesuit priest named Jorge Mario Bergoglio — Pope Francis — showed Thursday that he is running to become president of the planet. He did so in a congressional ceremony of secular civic pomp in a massive legislative building that, after all, harks back to ancient Rome. As devout as he is, and as focused on the faith and practice of the Catholic Church, Francis is also campaigning to lead public, secular, political discourse worldwide. He is arguing that the two realms of faith and politics are one, and that the moral and spiritual teachings of faith should inform and guide political decisions for “our common home” (Huffington Post, September 26, 2015)
But statesman and patriot, the late Richard Thompson, Secretary of the Navy and author of The Papacy and the Civil Power, long ago remarked, “Nothing is plainer than that, if the principles of the Church of Rome prevail here, our constitution would necessarily fail. The two cannot exist together. They are in open and direct antagonism with the fundamental theory of our government and of all popular government everywhere.” The late Charles Chiniquy, former Roman Catholic priest concurred with Robins, White and Thompson. He wrote, “The American Constitution assures the absolute independence of civil from the ecclesiastical or church power; but the Church of Rome declares, through all her pontiffs and Councils, that such independence is an impiety and a revolt against God” (Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, pg 478).
The leaders of America, mesmerized by Francis’ presence, coupled with the pomp and circumstance that attended his every move, applauded as he effectively ordered them to repudiate the U.S. Constitution with its solid foundation of separation of church and state. The United States Congress, in its infancy, constructed its founding document as a bulwark against Papal incursion and rule. It is indeed very sad to see, now in its maturity, a little more than two hundred years later, that body assuring the Papacy, the most dangerous foe of Civil and Religious Liberty, that it will follow its lead. Francis’ command for America to abandon its foundational principle of separation of church and state was cleverly couched within the recurring theme of coming together on ‘common ground’. The fox was invited into the chicken pen by the farmer who is supposed to protect them.
In his virtually eye-opening account of his years as a Catholic priest, Charles Chiniquy states, “Another fact, to which the American Protestants do not sufficiently pay attention, is that the Jesuits have been shrewd enough to have a vast majority of Roman Catholic generals and officers to command the army and man the navy of the United States.
Rome is in a constant conspiracy against the rights and liberties of men all over the world; but she is particularly so in the United States. With America conquered, she will openly declare that which is her most earnest desire, governorship of the world; a position she believes is her God-given right. No longer will she then operate under the radar; but she will come out of the closet and all will realize the true nature of the beast. As the longest continuing monarch in the annals of human history, the Roman church is most confident that she has the resources and wherewithal to accomplish that task.
Long before I was ordained a priest, I knew that my church was the most implacable enemy of this Republic. My professors of philosophy, history, and theology had been unanimous in telling me that the principles and laws of the Church of Rome were absolutely antagonistic to the laws and principles which are the foundation-stones of the Constitution of the United States”
(Charles Chiniquy, Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, pg. 477-478).
Stephen D. Mumford, DrPH, in his very insightful article, How far is the Vatican willing to go to ensure its survival? of 17 October 2012 in Church and State magazine, writes, “In the U.S., the Catholic Church is a $200 billion operation, composed of millions of highly organized workers with an intense sense of mission, a long history of political manipulation, and a superb track record of getting their way. Before I began my study, I had a very different idea of what church and religion meant, having been raised as a Methodist. I was completely unprepared for what I found. Many of the tears in America’s social fabric are the result of Vatican attempts to advance its power, control, influence, wealth or security—at the expense of Americans and American institutions. Rarely was there evidence of Vatican involvement in these activities on the surface, but upon probing, the role of the Vatican became evident. Usually it also became evident that considerable effort had been made to mask the fact that the Vatican was a significant actor”.
Though seemingly a happy marriage in the making, a confrontation (as indicated by Malachi Martin) between Capitalism and Catholicism, is inevitable. The two will indeed unite for a short period of time, for the purpose of persecuting those who oppose them; but will ultimately end up in a tectonic struggle of apocalyptic proportions. So says John the Revelator (Revelation 13:15-17, 17:9-15). Find out more.
Insightful, it wont be long