Six Degrees of Verification: truth about late Pope John XXIII
November 16, 2015 7:57 AM Subscribe
I am writing in an effort to verify some facts, utilizing the fact that people of all ages and walks of life come to a site such as this. I'm hoping there are some older people who have some personal connection to the Catholic hierarchy and/or the late Pope John XXIII who can help with this, and could be in a position to know if there is any truth behind the things said about him in this piece: http://www.calefactory.org/misc-v2-j23freemasons.htm
Now, I know better than to believe at face value something on a website, (in this case one with sedevacantist sympathies), but this article is so detailed I cannot help but think that there may have been some truth behind it, so I cannot dismiss it.
Now, I know that surely such rumors have appeared in print before, and that the Vatican is supposed to investigate such things as well as they could before giving someone official sainthood, as they did recently in the case of John XXIII. But as I understand the matter, the Vatican no longer has the office of the Devil's Advocate, so I have to wonder how well this and other potentially damaging information about other prospective saints was investigated. This is a larger issue than just one particular previous Pope and where his sympathies may have been. I'm concerned about the present Pope's canonization of Juniperro Serra too, in view of the information about some of the tactics he allegedly used, such as destroying their crops to make the native population economically dependent on the missions, which Native American activists have publicly revealed. I think these issues have come up before, and more prudent Popes and people in the church have previously refrained from from canonizing Serra for this very reason. While I understand that the church may have lowered its standards for sainthood to offer more and more contemporary saints to the faithful, I do not think this would be good for _anyone_ (the church or the secular world) in the long run.
Now, I know that surely such rumors have appeared in print before, and that the Vatican is supposed to investigate such things as well as they could before giving someone official sainthood, as they did recently in the case of John XXIII. But as I understand the matter, the Vatican no longer has the office of the Devil's Advocate, so I have to wonder how well this and other potentially damaging information about other prospective saints was investigated. This is a larger issue than just one particular previous Pope and where his sympathies may have been. I'm concerned about the present Pope's canonization of Juniperro Serra too, in view of the information about some of the tactics he allegedly used, such as destroying their crops to make the native population economically dependent on the missions, which Native American activists have publicly revealed. I think these issues have come up before, and more prudent Popes and people in the church have previously refrained from from canonizing Serra for this very reason. While I understand that the church may have lowered its standards for sainthood to offer more and more contemporary saints to the faithful, I do not think this would be good for _anyone_ (the church or the secular world) in the long run.
This post was deleted for the following reason: This is not a good use of MetaFilter. -- cortex
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