And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders.
2 Thessalonians 2:8-9
It was on March 13, 2013, that Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina was elected Pope, taking the name Francis I. Francis’s election was notable for several reasons. First, his predecessor, Benedict the XVI, had just left office, becoming the first Pope in 600 years to resign.
Second, Bergoglio was the first Pope to take the name Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi. Assisi, according to Pope Francis, “‘was the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects creation, the same created world ‘with which we don’t have such a good relationship.’” This is significant because Francis has aggressively pushed globalism under the aegis of care for the environment. An example of this can be seen in his 2015 encyclical Laudato Siˊ. In this letter, Francis, “commands the nations to confess their collective sins of exploiting the environment with capitalism.” He also noted, “there is an urgent need of a true world political authority,” to ensure conformity with his call for globalist environmentalism.
Third, Francis is the first Jesuit Pope. This is not a small thing, as the Jesuits have a well-earned reputation for dishonesty, subversion, and murder that has gotten the order kicked out of many nations over the centuries and even officially suppressed by Pope Clement XIV. It was Bergoglio’s Jesuit background that caused former Roman Catholic Priest turned Protestant Evangelist Richard Bennett to call Francis the most dangerous Pope we’ve faced in our lifetime.
Many people, both Christian and non-Christian, would agree that the past several years have seen a rise in many dangerous, anti-liberty trends and that those trends seem to be intensifying and not abating. While these trends did not begin with Francis’s pontificate, they have certainly grown stronger since he took office. Is it possible that there is a connection between the pernicious social, political, and economic trends we’ve seen over the past 10 years and the rise of this Jesuit Pope? In my opinion, I believe there is a connection. Let’s look at the evidence.
Evangelii Gaudium and the Rise of Collectivism
In November of 2013, eight months after assuming the papacy, Pope Francis published his first written work, an Apostolic Exhortation titled Evangelii Gaudium (EG), Latin for The Joy of the Gospel. Many leftists, Catholic and non-Catholic cheered the work for its obvious collectivism and its obvious disdain for the Biblical economic system of private property we call capitalism or free markets.
The popular conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh denounced EG as “pure Marxism.” Said Limbaugh,
You know, the pope, Pope Francis -- this is astounding -- has issued an official papal proclamation, and it's sad. It's actually unbelievable. The pope has written, in part, about the utter evils of capitalism. And I have to tell you, I've got parts of it here I can share with you. It's sad because this pope makes it very clear he doesn't know what he's talking about when it comes to capitalism and socialism and so forth. Wait 'til you hear it.
Pope Francis attacked unfettered capitalism as 'a new tyranny' and beseeched global leaders to fight poverty and growing inequality, in a document on Tuesday setting out a platform for his papacy and calling for a renewal of the Catholic Church. ... In it, Francis went further than previous comments criticizing the global economic system, attacking the 'idolatry of money.’
I gotta be very careful. I have been numerous times to the Vatican. It wouldn't exist without tons of money. But regardless, what this is, somebody has either written this for him or gotten to him. This is just pure Marxism coming out of the mouth of the pope. Unfettered capitalism? That doesn't exist anywhere. Unfettered capitalism is a liberal socialist phrase to describe the United States. Unfettered, unregulated.
The Huffington Post, December 2, 2013, accessed on 3/18/2023
According to the Huffington Post article from which I took Limbaugh’s comments, the title of Limbaugh’s show that day was “It’s Sad How Wrong Pope Francis Is (Unless It’s a Deliberate Mistranslation By Leftists).” The “mistranslation” excuse is often brought forward by those who fail to appreciate the depth of the evil of the papacy. The Protestant Reformation held that the popes, all of them, represented the Antichrist, Man of Sin, and Son of Perdition spoken of in the Scriptures. If one properly understands who the pope is, it should come as no surprise that Pope Francis would write such a document. The popes have hated, despised, and detested political and economic liberty for centuries and have done everything in their power to prevent them. It was not his translators who failed Francis. The Church’s evil, unbiblical Social Teaching caused Francis to pen his evil letter.
Francis has gone on to aggressively pursue collectivist ideology at every turn during his the-year-long pontificate. EG was no fluke. This aggressive teaching of collectivism by Rome under Francis is, in my opinion, one of the reasons driving the rise of collectivist economics in the United States and elsewhere around the world during that same time.
Pope Francis Environmentalism
While Francis certainly did not invent the global warming, environmentalist movement, his embrace of it has undoubtedly given the movement an impetus it would not otherwise have.
As was noted above, Francis's 2015 encyclical Laudato Siˊ blames the nations of the world for neglecting the earth, “our common home,” as he calls it, which he likens to a “sister” and a “mother.” It is the evils of capitalism that have violated her and require “a true world political authority” so as “to manage the global economy.”
During his 2015 address to Congress, the Pope lectured the American people about their need to pursue “the common good” with respect to the environment and quoted from his environmentalist, globalist Laudato Siˊ to prove his point.
During Francis’s pontificate, the calls for global action on the environment have become nothing but stronger. For example, it was Roman Catholic and Jesuit-influenced President Joe Biden who put America back in the treasonous, environmentalist Paris Accord as one of his first acts in office. This should come as no surprise, as Biden approvingly cited Laudato Siˊ on his 2020 presidential campaign website and in so many words promised to carry out the Pope’s vision of combatting the invented crisis of “climate change.” During his time in office, Biden has worked tirelessly to withhold from the American people access to the cheap, plentiful sources of energy needed to sustain a modern, first-world economy. In this, Biden is carrying out the Pope’s vision of a poorer and less free world.
In her recent opinion piece in National Catholic Register, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised her boss Pope Francis for, “his relentless and outspoken voice to save the planet.” She specifically cited Laudato Siˊ and praised the Pope for “Writing with crystal clarity and urgency” and for calling “on all of us – governments, industries and individuals – to honor our shared responsibility to care for our common home.” Pelosi wisely left off Francis’ calls for world government, as this would not play well in Peoria, as the saying goes. Don’t forget, it was Pelosi along with fellow Republican Roman Catholic John Boehner who was responsible for bringing the Jesuit Antichrist to lecture Congress in the first place.
Socialist Mass Migration
Since Francis became Pope, the Western world has been inundated by an endless stream of welfare migrants that shows no sign of ending. Europe was the first to experience the flood. Now it’s America’s turn. It is the opinion of this writer that much of the blame for this ongoing disaster is properly laid at the feet of Pope Francis, who has worked tirelessly to weaponize immigration as a means of destabilizing Western nations that otherwise would act as a check on his globalist ambitions.
In 2016, Pope Francis returning from holding mass in Juarez on the Mexican side of the border with the United States lectured then-presidential candidate Donald Trump about his campaign promise to build a wall along America’s southern border. Today, there stands a 20-foot bronze statue of the pope in Juarez commemorating his “Borderland visit.”
It should come as no surprise that seven years later, Juarez and El Paso (El Paso, TX is immediately on the other side of the border from Juarez) is one of the main points of attack used by the Roman Catholic Church to push welfare migrants into the United States.
It was welfare migration that was another of Pope Francis’ lecture topics in his address to Congress. Calling his speech before Congress “historic,” Pelosi wrote approvingly in her paeon to the Pope of his call to champion the refugee and the immigrant. Now America historically has been remarkably generous to refugees and immigrants, but that’s not what the Pope had in mind. The Pope’s idea of championing “the refugee and the immigrant” is the sort of nation-breaking, international socialist refugee and immigration flood of the sort we have witnessed under the Biden regime over the past 2-plus years.
More than any other individual or organization, it is the Antichrist Roman Catholic Church-State that has caused the current migration and humanitarian crisis on our southern border. It is high time the blame for this mess be laid at the feet of Jesuit Pope Francis and his henchmen in the American Catholic Church, including Jesuit-influenced, Roman Catholic Joe Biden, who have done so much to attack the well-being of the American people with their evil mass migration scheme.
Closing
Much more could be said about the evil loosed in this world because of Pope Francis’ Jesuit-inspired economic and political policies. And much more needs to be said. Unfortunately, the state of the Protestant church in our day is such that most Protestants in a position to speak out against Rome would rather remain silent or, what is worse, seek rapprochement with her.
If the gospel of Justification by Belief Alone, if liberty, both economic and political, are to continue, and if globalist tyranny is to be prevented, Protestants once again must find their voice to denounce Antichrist and expose his evil deeds. May the Lord grant us the workers sufficient for this task.