[continued from previous message]   
      
   Similarly, it is no accident that, for the first time in history, there is a   
   Pope from an East-Bloc country. John Paul II is the first Polish Pope ever and   
   the first non-Italian Pope in more than 450 years. He is also the youngest   
   Pope since 1846; and,    
   curiously, before being elected, he was not very popular among the Cardinals.   
   But, John Paul II has one special qualification that made him the ideal   
   candidate for Pope – he was, and still is, extremely influential in Poland,   
   the most predominantly Roman    
   Catholic country in the entire East Bloc. John Paul II not only knows   
   communism inside out, but also he is the best person to reshape the Church as   
   the ideal state religion in a communist world.   
      
   Like it or not, the Vatican has surely observed that, wherever Roman   
   Catholicism has any significant base of support, so also does Russian-style   
   communism. Whether it be South America, the Philippines, Africa or Continental   
   Europe, everywhere the story    
   is the same. Meanwhile, Moscow has had to realize that it still needs religion   
   as an opiate of the people and that, at least outside of the motherland, Roman   
   Catholicism could be the most convenient and, in many cases, the only   
   practical possibility.    
   Today, behind closed doors, a most treacherous diplomacy is taking place – one   
   which certainly does not bode well for the people of the world and, most   
   particularly, for the people of Poland. Naturally, Russia would rather strike   
   a deal with a weaker    
   Pope, [419] but at present both parties have understood well the mutual   
   advantages each side has to offer. Unquestionably, serious and top-secret   
   negotiations are now well under way.   
      
   Regarding the first aspect of the Vatican strategy for survival, there is no   
   need to say more. Anyone who follows the news can read in between the lines   
   and fill in the details. [420] As for the second aspect of Vatican strategy,   
   this is more of an    
   internal, religious affair. However, that too entails a good amount of   
   diplomacy. And so, both directly and indirectly, these matters are also   
   frequently reported in the news.   
      
   In Rome, a Secretariat for Christian Unity has become active, in the hope of   
   establishing a truly catholic (or universal) Church for all Christians. The   
   Vatican, of course, would insist on maintaining its supremacy over the   
   one-Church. Still, the other    
   Christian denominations are obliged to negotiate; because, in many respects,   
   the Vatican is bargaining from a position of relative strength and, for all   
   parties concerned, a united front could have many advantages – especially as,   
   in its fragmented    
   condition, Christianity is fast becoming a religion whose essential practices   
   and beliefs are being studied not so much in the Churches as in the history   
   books.   
      
   Throughout its two thousand years, Christianity has enjoyed only a brief   
   period of unity, and that during the earliest days of the Church – and even   
   then the unity was relatively unstable. There was always much infighting   
   within the Church, as was    
   apparent even among the apostles. [421] There were Popes and anti-Popes,   
   Schisms and still more schisms. But the most significant split in the Church   
   came in the early 16th Century with the Protestant Reformation. Only since the   
   latter part of the 19th    
   Century, after the development of the Ecumenical Movement, has the Church made   
   any sort of concerted effort to turn the tide of disintegration and   
   reestablish a solidarity among Christians and among the Churches. That   
   “solidarity” is crucial if the    
   Church is to sustain credibility with the public in the future. [422]   
      
   Ironically, the very effort to establish a united theological front could be   
   the one activity which finally destroys public confidence in the Church. At   
   present, a meaningful reconciliation between the Catholics and the Protestants   
   would appear to be as    
   improbable as a joint announcement from Moscow and Washington that capitalism   
   is actually communism, and communism is in fact capitalism. Before any real   
   unity among the Churches can be achieved, there would first have to be quite a   
   lot of fancy    
   theological compromise that, no doubt, all parties would maintain involved   
   absolutely no change in their original position. Eventually we might even   
   learn that Martin Luther really loved the Pope and also supported the Jews.   
      
   Although the Vatican strategy aims at strengthening the Catholic Church,   
   ultimately its real value lies in completing some outstanding aspects of the   
   Christian cycle and, thereby, facilitating the dissolution of Christianity. A   
   political association with    
   the Russian politburo, which is generally viewed not just as materialist but   
   also Godless, must finally expose the spiritual bankruptcy of the Catholic   
   Church. Moreover, despite the high hopes of many persons in Moscow and Rome,   
   there can never be    
   another empire of the old Roman variety, for the days of imperialism are fast   
   fading from this earth. In every nation of the world, the people now   
   understand their right to maintain control over their own economy and their   
   duty to make their economy self-   
   sufficient. Furthermore, even assuming that another empire were a conceivable   
   possibility, before a Russian Empire could be established, a full-scale   
   nuclear confrontation between the U.S.A. and Russia must take place – a highly   
   unlikely eventuality    
   which, should it occur, would most likely destroy this entire planet rather   
   than establish the hegemony of either Moscow or Washington. Of course, the   
   balance of military power could change in the next ten or twenty years; but,   
   even should that happen,    
   it is desirable that the capitalist societies recognize the potent threat that   
   the Catholic Church poses for them. [423] Indeed, in the U.S.A. it is the   
   Catholic Church, not the Communist Party, which stands out as the most   
   dangerous un-American    
   institution.   
      
   Finally, presuming that somehow it were possible for the Catholic and   
   Protestant Churches to come together, they would most probably become   
   affiliated only through some bogus organization like the United Nations. It   
   may be that the Roman Catholic Church    
   will try to adapt its outer and even its inner form to accommodate all of the   
   different Christian sects; but even under those fanciful circumstances,   
   whatever universal Church might arise, still one thing will remain unchanged –   
   that universal Church    
   would be at best an unstable association of robbers, with each party, or each   
   membership body, always on the lookout for ways to steal a march on all the   
   others, and with the entire Church remaining nothing more than the old   
   power-hungry institution.   
      
   Unity   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)