A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing?

On 2008, Father Adolfo Nicolás, a Spanish priest and missionary to Asia, was elected the new Superior General of the Jesuits.

A TIME article notes that Nicolás, also known as the “Black Pope,” holds a “lifetime posting” that “has sway over a network of priests, universities, hospitals and other missionary institutions around the globe.”ⁱ TIME also states that “...the rest of the Church never allowed a Jesuit to be elected to the real papacy for fear of concentrating too much power in the hands of the order.”ⁱⁱ

What TIME doesn’t mention is the incredible global power that the Jesuits already hold. According to historian Dave Hunt, “The Pope has thousands of secret agents worldwide. They include Jesuits, the Knights of Columbus, Knights of Malta, Opus Dei, and others.” Jesuits aim at universal dominion. They have rendered themselves indispensable to the Pope and to U.S. governors. They hold revolutions in their hands, and, as it was written by Luigi Descantis in 1865, “it is they who rule the world.”ⁱⁱⁱ

Given the Jesuits’ dominion, how powerful is their Superior General? In 1720, Michael Angelo Tamburini, then General of the Jesuits, said to the Duke of Brancas, “See, my lord, from this room—from this room I govern not only Paris, but China: not only China, but the whole world, without any one knowing how ‘tis managed.”^iv

A conversation with Father Nicolás shows him open, humble, self-effacing, and approachable.^v However, being a nice guy isn’t the equivalent of being a Christian. Jesus says that not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 7:21).

1. Evangelism

Father Nicolás’ view of evangelism doesn’t involve conversion. Describing the attitude of St. Francis Xavier (a 16^th century Catholic priest) toward a Buddhist monk, Nicolás says, “Xavier did not go there to convince him to become a Christian; he went there to tell him: ‘Look...your life is not good. You have to help people to become better.’ And that’s a tremendous insight into how God works in other people, even in a Buddhist monk.”^vi

Nicolás believes evangelism is more about encouraging people to “be good” than about sharing Jesus with them.

2. Allegiance to the Pope.

Historically, Jesuit Generals support the Pope as father of the faithful. Total commitment to the Pope is exercised through the Jesuits’ use of St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises:

...to take an irrevocable vow of obedience—the obedience of the dead body, which has no will and no motion of its own...The obedience goes...to the Pope; and when the Pope says that black is white, and white black, it is the great moral glory, of the order that it is able to repeat the lie...^vii Submission to human authority separates the Jesuit from the true Protestant. While the Bible believer recognizes the truth in God’s Word, the Jesuit is tied to ecclesiastical traditions.

3. Liberation Theology

This theology, which began in impoverished areas of South America, states that the Church should come alongside the working class to bring social change.^viii

According to BBC, “The movement was caricatured in the phrase ‘If Jesus Christ were on Earth today, he would be a Marxist revolutionary.’”^ix If indeed liberation theology is communist in nature, we should see communism and fascism apparent in its mandates and encyclicals. And indeed we do. In another report, we investigate Roman Catholic economic thought and its parallels with fascism.

In the 1980s, Liberation Theology “was blasted as a ‘fundamental threat’ to the church by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who has now become Pope Benedict XVI.”^x Despite this, Father Nicolás said in an interview that Liberation Theology “is a courageous and creative response to an unbearable situation of injustice in Latin America” and “it needs years to mature.”^xi

So how much of this supposed tension between the opinions of Nicolás and Ratzinger is really just a smoke screen? This is an intriguing contradiction—Jesuits claim to obey the Pope, but the Jesuit Superior General wants to give a Papacy-condemned theology “years to mature.”

Conclusion

Should the free world be concerned over the Jesuit organization? A recent article in the National Catholic Reporter reveals that “...a whopping 52 members of the 111th Congress...are alumni of [Catholic]...institutions...Of the 52 alumni, 34 received graduate or professional degrees from Jesuit universities…”^xii With their allegiance squarely with the Pope, these Jesuit “soldiers” are responsible, at least in part, for shaping the economic and political thought of the United States—one of the mightiest nations in the world.

Like his predecessors, the new Superior General is a powerful [and dangerous] man to whom even the Pope is subject.^xiii The black pope, who today is Father Adolfo Nicolás, is Ratzinger’s confessor. “The Pope’s confessor, an ordinary priest, must be a Jesuit: he must visit the Vatican once a week at a fixed time, and he alone may absolve the Pope of his sins.”^xiv

The next few years will reveal more of the papacy’s plans as they are brought to fruition. “Watch ye therefore, and pray always” Luke 21:36 KJV.

For more information about the Black Pope and the Jesuits see Total Onslaught, #212 Hidden Agendas

i. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1705399,00.html

ii. ibid

iii. Luigi Descantis, Popery, Puseyism and Jesuitism (London:1905) Translated by Maria Betts from the original Italian edition published as Roma Papale in 1865.

iv. Andrew Steinmetz, History of the Jesuits volume 1 (Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1848).

v. http://www.sjweb.info/documents/ansj/20080210AN_Conversation_eng.swf

vi. ibid

vii. http://www.medievalchurch.org.uk/p_loyola.php

viii. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/01/AR2005050100821.html

xi. http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=14395 xii. http://ncronline3.org/drupal/?q=node/3169

xiii. Dave Hunt, A Woman Rides the Beast (Eugene: Harvest House Publishers, 1994). xiv. Nino Lo Bello, The Vatican Empire (New York: Trident Press, 1968).