Have Popes Always Been Prone To Being Anti -God ?

Uganda Today: Have Popes Always Been Prone To Being Anti -God ?

By Oweyegha-Afunaduula
25 December 2023

December 25 is the day that the Catholic Church chose as the day of birth of Jesus Christ. It does not matter. What matters is that he was born for the purpose of saving us from our sins and connecting us with our Creator God.

Whoever acknowledges Jesus Christ automatically acknowledges God and whoever acknowledges God acknowledges Jesus Christ as the savour and bridge between humanity and God.
As my commemoration of this day, let me write this article.

I am writing it a few days after Pope Francis issued a new rule directing Priests, Bishops and Cardinals to bless homosexuals in their churches, and may be forgive their sins. As far as God is concerned, he is very clear in his Word. he condemns homosexuality and even destroyed the homosexuals of two cities – Gomorrah and Sodome  – in biblical times.
As far as the Catholic Church is concerned Pope is not just the spiritual, ethical and moral leader but also the link between the Church and Jesus Christ. However, the papacy has not always been led by Popes that completely surrender to the supremacy of God or his Word, the Bible.

It was this that compelled me 11 months ago to write an article titled “Are Popes Always Right?”
Pope Francis had more or less depicted a soft spot for homosexuality. Yet in the Book of Timothy 1:10 homosexuals are included among the ungodly and sinners, or the lawless and rebellious, the others being those who kill their fathers and mothers, and the murderers, kidnappers, liars, perjurers and whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching of God. It is the role of the Church to turn humanity away from ungodliness, sinful lives, unholiness and profanity. There is no doubt that homosexuality is ungodly, sinful, unholy, profane and rebellion against God.

If you bless them instead of dissuading them from their ungodliness, sinfulness, unholiness and profanity, then you are endorsing their behaviour and acts against God. You become an anti-God. You fail the mission of the Church. You participate in the demise of God’s Church.
When Pope Francis depicted his soft spot for homosexuality, the Church straggled to convince the world that the Pope had been misquoted and what he said misinterpreted. Many followers and non-followers of the Church thought something was fishy with the Papacy in Rome.

When the Archbishop of Canterbury tried to coerce protestant churches to endorse homosexuality, and perform holy communion and holy marriages for them, the Church of Uganda and other churches around the world, decided to break away from Canterbury rather than do the abominable.
Even this time round many priests, bishops and cardinals of the Catholic Church have resisted the Pope’s new rule that they bless homosexuals. The resistance has been phenomenal. Resistant church workers are universally distributed and are to be found in Africa, Europe, the Americas Asia and Australia. Countries such as German, Britain and USA, which had legalized what they called same-sex marriages have Bishops that have said No to the Pope.
Interestingly, in March 2011, a papal statement ruled against the church blessing same sex unions saying God cannot bless such abnormality.

When I read E.R. Chamberlain’s “The Bad Pope” I got the explanation that during 6 centuries the papal monarchy rose to its greatest heights as popes attempted to assert not only their spiritual authority but also their temporal power, only for it to come down crushing down like the Tower of Babel.
My Thesis Statement for this article is that Popes have always been prone to being anti-God. Being anti-God is engaging in behaviours and action that God cannot approve of according to his Word.

Today, the global media are awash with reports that Pope Francis approved a new papal rule, which allows priests to bless same-sex couples. If true, then it casts the Pope among “The Bad Popes” if the phrase “Bad Popes” means anti-God Popes. Indeed, the Catholic Church has been led by some Popes that contradicted the mission of the Church: turning humanity away from ungodliness, sinful lives, unholiness and profanity to God. On April 15 2018 Drew Kann of CNN gave a list of 8 of the worst Popes in the history of the Catholic Church. If we take Pope Francis as a pro-homosexuality Pope, then we can add him to the list of the worst Popes to make the total number 9 instead of 8 worst Popes.
The worst Popes mentioned by Drew Kann are the following:
Pope Alexander VI. This one  reigned between 1492 and 1503. He was a wealthy fellow who used bribery to capture the Papal throne. He killed some Cardinals who opposed him and even fathered children.

Pope Stephen VI. This was in Papal power between 896 and 897. He was so bad that he exhumed the body of his predecessor – Formosus – and put it on trial. He ordered that the body be dragged through the streets of Rome the same way the Guerillas of Somalia dragged 18 bodies of slain US soldiers through the streets of Mogadishu some years back in the history of global human conflict. Pope Stephen dumped the body of his predecessor in River Tiber.

Pope Boniface VIII. This occupied the Papal throne from 1294 to 1303. He was always a combative Pope. He was an openly political Pope who place all the armies of Europe under his supreme command. King Phillip got rid of him. Otherwise, he showed the very thin boundary between religion and politics.

Pope Urban VI occupied the Papal throne between 1378 and 1399, During his reign there were three competing Popes. He was a violent Pope who used violence to maintain and sustain his Papacy. He murdered many Cardinals who did not support his Papacy.

Pope Leo X. He reigned between 1513 and 1521. He was a devout supporter of the Renaissance in Europe. He used Church resources to fund some of the most famous artworks. This made the Church to be come bankrupt. To recoup some money for the Church he introduced the practice of people paying for forgiveness of their sins. This is one of the practices of the Church that angered Professor Martin Luther, forcing him to break away from the Catholic Church and forming the Protestant Church.

Pope John XII. He reigned between 955 and 964. This one  made history when he became Pope at the age of 18. He was a renowned womanizer who died when he got a stroke while eloping with a man’s wife.

Pope Benedict IX. He reigned between 1032 and 1044. Other Popes and Cardinals described him as “The Demon from Hell”. He became Pope three times. He sold the papacy to his godfather, Pope Gregory VI, and reclaimed it from him. He loved papal power more than God or Jesus Christ.

Pope Sergius III. He reigned between 904 and 911. He declared others who wanted to be Popes as “The Anti-Popes” and had one of them killed.
Therefore, if we are to answer the question “Have Popes always been prone to being anti-God?” the answer would be yes. It would not be surprising that Pope Francis, with his Pro-homosexual stance, would be the latest inclusion in the chain of anti-God Popes. The question we should ask is : What is the long-term consequence of his pro-homosexual stance on the Church?
When I visited Bonn, in Germany, in the very early millennium, I found many churches were not functioning anymore. Many were under lock and key. One Catholic Church built in 1252 was no longer functioning as a church but as a tourist church in which young and old were making love. I was not so observant to note that some of the lovers were same-sex lovers.
If in history there were three people claiming to be Popes, what would prevent in this era homosexuals claiming their own Pope, and the rest having their own Pope. Already Priests, Bishops and Cardinals who do not agree with Pope Francis on the issue of homosexuals feel let down by the Papacy.

I would not be surprised if they combined their spiritual and moral forces to erect a Pope who is not anti-God and would provide the church with the spiritual and moral leadership to counter the penetration of the church by the homosexual momentum.

All indications are that the papal crusade for homosexuals is likely to wreck the Catholic Church well in the future. For example, the African Catholic Church is not yet soft on homosexuality. It is likely to become even more rigid if it collectively perceives homosexuality as a new form of colonialism from the West. It will be remembered that when Europeans brought Catholicism and Protestantism to Africa, they fronted the Bible as an evangelizing tool yet the aim was to soften the ground for exploitation of the resources of Africa.

The Anglo-American Axis has a soft spot for homosexuality, and now seems to be using the Catholic Church and the Protestant Church to repenetrate the Continent with a new faith of homosexuality! Will it succeed this time round when there is also talk of depopulating the Earth by people who profess being Christians? The first impressions Africans get is that it is our Continent being targeted by depopulationists. All this reflects moral, ethical and spiritual decay being mediated by a new unity between the church and politics.

The question is: Will God allow the new faith of homosexuality to override his own faith that is pro-heterosexuality for the sole purpose of perpetuation of the human species well in the future for his Glory?