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Pope Gregory XIII: People Must Confess Christ To Be Saved (Translation)
In his Sept. 1, 1584 bull (Sancta Mater Ecclesia), Pope Gregory XIII commanded that Jews who attended a synagogue in a Christian area had to hear Christian preaching once a week – preaching that was designed to convert them to the Catholic faith. No one could force them to believe or be baptized, of course; but the popes, in charity, legislated that Jews must hear the preaching of the word in the hope that it would open their hearts to the truth.
In this powerful document Pope Gregory XIII teaches that the entire Jewish nation (without exception) will be driven out from the heavenly Jerusalem unless it confesses Christ. There are no exceptions, because there’s no other name under Heaven whereby men must be saved (Acts 4:12). This is another example of the Catholic Church’s teaching that explicit faith in Christ is essential for salvation. This bull was written in Latin. To our knowledge only our monastery has presented these passages in English.
Pope Gregory XIII, Sancta Mater Ecclesia, Sept. 1, 1584: “Holy Mother Church, whose head is Christ, in pouring out her innate charity far and wide to all men, never ceases with pious affection to pity the particular remnants of the ancient Israelite nation and people of God, and she is gravely saddened that the nation of Jews formerly endowed with special gifts and graces – possessing the adoption of sons, the glory, the testament, the legislation, the worship and the promises, and from whom even Christ our Savior deigned to be born according to the flesh – and now dispersed for so many centuries throughout various parts of the world and wandering wretchedly like an infected flock through pathless and waterless places, is perishing from hunger for the word of God and thirst for the water of restoration, and is not only being driven out far from the earthly Jerusalem over which Our Lord wept, but, which is far graver, from the heavenly Jerusalem as well unless it confesses Christ whom it has denied. We too, not lightly stirred on a daily basis by this compassion and sorrow, are always seeking to devise something whereby provision may be more opportunely made for their conversion and salvation, and whereby they themselves may, with God’s good graces, reach the path of understanding that they have closed off for themselves.”
This Catholic teaching is denied by countless people in our day (see the video linked below). It’s also interesting that he describes the Jews as “perishing from hunger for the word of God and thirst for the water of restoration”. The water of restoration, of course, refers to the Sacrament of Baptism, which they need – otherwise they will spiritually perish.
Pope Gregory XIII goes on to mention some of the points that preachers should emphasize when trying to convert Jews. Those points include references to the incarnation of Our Lord, His miracles, passion, death, resurrection, descent into Hell, ascension, His spiritual kingdom, the miracles of the Church, etc. He also tells them to emphasize various points that prove the falsity of their Jewish religion, such as:
“… the desolation of the land of these same Jews, their dispersion everywhere on earth at that time, and their captivity, and other dogmas and articles of a similar theme based on the Law and the Prophets; with regard, moreover, to the Jews’ lengthy and vain expectation of the coming of a Messiah and his carnal kingdom; with regard to their vain hope of a return to the land of promise and the restoration of the third temple, which has often if not daily frustrated them; and finally with regard to their manifold various errors and heresies, into which they have most miserably plunged themselves after they refused to recognize Christ the Lord coming in the flesh, and with regard to the false interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures handed down by their rabbis, the letter and sense of which, by distorting with fables, lies and various tricks and techniques, they have corrupted and perverted (and even to this day they do not give up corrupting and perverting them), and with regard to all the other things which might be able to convert them to a recognition of the faith, to the correction of their errors, and to the orthodox faith, they [the preachers] should act prudently with respect to the place, time and theme assumed, and, [armed] with truths and demonstrations taken from Sacred Scripture, they should endeavor to open the light of truth to those people with no disparagement or anger, but with great charity and modesty.”
It’s interesting that the pope describes the hope for a restoration of a third temple to be a vain hope. This further supports our position that the prophesied end-times temple of God is not a rebuilt Jewish temple, which would not be the temple of God at all. That prophecy refers to what has happened in the Vatican during this Vatican II apostasy. The prophecies are about this period, as our videos (such as Apocalypse Now In the Vatican) cover. Another point the pope told preachers to mention (as further evidence of the truth of Christianity) is that Christ’s gospel was preached throughout the whole world. Well, in Matthew 24:14 Jesus says that the gospel will be preached throughout the whole world and after that the end will come.
Hence, the timeline of history that Scripture provides is that the gospel is preached throughout the whole world. That has occurred. Then there is a great apostasy or falling away from it, which we are living through, and then the end comes. The timeline is not: the gospel is preached throughout the world, then it’s rejected, then there’s a restoration, and then it’s rejected again, and then comes the end. No. Thus, the pope’s statement that the gospel was preached throughout the whole world supports the conclusion that the current apostasy is the final apostasy that precedes Christ’s second coming. This is, of course, connected to the prophecies about the beast (i.e. pagan Rome). The beast (i.e. pagan Rome) was replaced by Christian Rome and Christian Europe, but it returns in the last days under the guise or appearance of the Church (by means of a Counter Church).
On May 28, 1581, Pope Gregory XIII published the bull Christianae Nobiscum, which implemented measures to help Christians who were held captive by infidels. Gregory XIII was concerned that Christians in captivity, as a result of the pressures and the hardships, might give up the faith received in baptism.
Pope Gregory XIII, Christianae Nobiscum, May 28, 1581: “... lest – owing to the gradually languishing infirmity of the flesh afflicted by extreme ills, and owing to our enemy the devil insinuating himself into their minds weakened and deprived of the preaching of the Word of God and of the solace of Sacrifices and Sacraments – they, succumbing to desperation, be induced to desert the faith received in baptism…”
This is another example of the Church’s teaching that people receive the saving faith in baptism. That's why only the water baptized are called the faithful. The video below shows how the Catholic Church's official teaching that no one is saved without faith in Jesus Christ is widely denied today by those who claim to be Catholic and even 'traditionalists'.
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