Consolation, August 4, 1943

Download: PDF — Consolation, August 4, 1943

Contents

The "New Order” in Action

~A “New World Order” in Deviltry Shoving the "New Order” into France Ne York Versions of the Advent

■ Maginot Line Plowed Up

J Airplanes That Were Inactive ’ Germans Moved like Lightning When the Fighting Was Over World-wide Food Rationing “Sepulchres Whitewashed”

5 6

Clerical Confusion .

The Mystery Woman (Rev. 17) • , TO

Vatican Intimidates Democracies

W arid* Confusion the Result of Religious

Propaganda

The Gains in Population

“Thy Word Is Truth”

“Behold, the Man!”

Watchtower Bible College Graduates First Class 19

A “Call to Action”

America’s Next-Door Neighbor, Cuba

Says Common Council for American Unity

A New America

Preserving Shoes ■

Presenting “This Gospel of the Kingdom”

Gathering Material

Proper Source for Proof

Hierarchy Always Encourages Violence

President Secretary* Editor

J1.25

Published every other Wednesday by WATCHTOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY, INC. 117 Adams St., Brooklyn, N. Y., U. S. A.

OFFICERS

N. H. Knorr W. 51. Van AmbUrgh Clayton J, Woodworth

Five Cents a Copy a year in the United States to Canada and ail other countries

NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS

Remittances: For your own safety, remit by postal or express money order. When coin or currency is lost in tho ordinary mails, there is no redress. Remittances from countries other than those named below may be made to the Brooklyn office, but only by international postal money order. Receipt of a new or renewal subscription will be acknowledged only when requested. Notice of Expiration is sent with the Journal one month before subscription expires. Please renew promptly to avoid Loss of copies. Send change of address direct to us rather than to the post office. Your reQiiost should reach us at least two ■weeks before the date of issue with which it is to take effect. Send your old as well as the new address. Copies will not be forwarded by the poet office to your new address unless extra postage is provided by you.

Published also in Greek, Portuguese, Spanish, and Ukrainian. '

OFFICES FOR OTHER COUNTRIES

England 34 Craven Terrace, London, W. 2

Australia 7 Beresford Road, Strathfteld, N. S. W.

South Africa 623 Boston House, Cape Town

Mexico Calzada de Melchor Ocampo 71, Mexico, D. F. Brazil Caixa Postal 1319, Rio de Janeiro

Argentina Calle Honduras 5646-48, Buenos Aires

Entered us second’Class matter at Brooklyn, N. Y.» under the Act of March 3, 187&.

Notanda

The Heavens Declare God’s Glory

♦ Astronomers in various observatories have been watching a star since Septem-ber»which registered an explosion just about that time and then faded from its temporarily brilliant display to its accustomed faintness. The star was Nova

ygni, which can be seen only with the

VV^LUj VYllXl.'Jl kCiJl uu Mill J will! 1X10

larger telescopes. Incidentally, the show which it put on for a few weeks, and which the astronomers watched with interest, actually took place some three thousand years ago, for its light takes that long to reach the little corner of the universe where the earth spins on its axis. And so the heavens declare the glory of Jehovah.

Minerals Identified Electronically

♦ Now comes the report from Boston that a newly discovered electron-ray causes rocks to speak for themselves. This ray has already detected the presence of manganese, copper, tungsten, gold, arsenic and phosphorus in laboratory tests in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and it is confidently predicted that a new method of prospecting is at hand. Sample rocks are placed close to a machine so constructed that if there are any manganese or certain other valuable components in it the rock begins to emit electronic rays. Photographic and other processes follow and shortly the mineral is identified.

The Horsetail Grass Prospector

♦ Horsetail grass has the peculiar characteristic of taking into itself all the minute quantities of gold in its vicinity. Every ore body betrays its presence by minute quantities scattered in its vicinity. So the electrochemists discovered that by subjecting horsetail grass to examination they are now often able to locate gold deposits with remarkable accuracy. The same principle is now used in the locating of bodies of oil.

CONSOLATION

“And in His name shall the nations hope.”—Matthew 12:21, A.R.V.

Volume XXIV Brooklyn, N. Y% JA/ednesday, August 4, 1943 Number 923

The “New Order” in Action

THE New York Journal American, in_ never anything on the earth more units issue of September 21, 1942, had iHQy. Speaking of those halcyon days, as the headline of a news dispatch the the famous Roman Catholic historian,

words “ ‘New Order’ Old, Pope Declares”. Oddly enough, there is some truth in this, but not in the way that either the pope or the Journal American imagines to be the case.

The pope went on to say that the new order in the world is that spoken of in Virgil’s time “when the arrival of the Messiah was forecast”. This use of Virgil’s name deftly draws the mind in the direction of Rome, and with a little assistance and encouragement one can see the Messiah himself fleetingly, then Peter less fleetingly, and' at length “Peter’s successor”, the pope, the past and future ruler of the “Holy” Roman Empire. ,

The pope’s and Hitler’s “New Order” started just outside of the Garden of Eden, when Cain killed Abel; got under headway when Nimrod considered himself more important than Almighty God; speeded up when Alexander wept because he had licked the world and knew not what to do next; got well into its stride in the days of Caesar, when Christians were broiled at the stake; and came down the home stretch when the present pope made his concordat with Hitler, and the first act of the pair was the incarceration of Jehovah’s witnesses.

The popes, however, get their greatest satisfaction when they consider the days of what they call the “Holy” Roman Empire, when they were the absolute masters of “Christendom”, and concerning which times there certainly was

AUGUSTA, 1943

Lord Acton, said thoughtfully, and it is true now also, that:

The Papacy contrived murder and massacre on the largest and also on the most cruel and inhuman scale. They made the principle of assassination a law of the Christian “church” and a condition of salvation.

The idea that Pacelli’s and Hitler’s “New Order” is a good thing to be taught to the common people at this exciting moment found an immediate response in Japan. The words of the pope about his “New Order” being old had been out of his mouth only five days when the Japanese foreign minister, Masayuki Tani, in his first official address, praised the “dazzling victories” of Japan, Germany and Italy (not so dazzling recently), which, said he, contributed “to the swift progress of the new world order” of which the pope is elected to be the boss. He concluded with the statement:

When the three Powers concentrate their total power, there is no doubt that Britain and the United States will be annihilated, and the construction of a new world order will be successfully accomplished.

A "New World Order” in Deviltry

There is no doubt that the agreement between Hitler and the pope marked a “new order” in deviltry, even though at the moment it is showing signs of wear and tear. There is nothing in history like the way Hitler raced around Europe, with the pope’s “blessing” and encourage-

meat, and the way the Japanese galloped Great armies did not do it. Only 230,000 ” ” mechanized troops, plus corruption,

treachery, sloth, vanity.” The subheads

' all over the Far East

which includes, among other things, that jbarbarian. It fell by surprise, by treachery charming booklet End of Axis Powers; pGram within, by treachery from without. It Comfort All Uiat Mourn, J»#yas not beaten in battle. It died with the

Among the new weapons believed t&V bulk of its armies intact. It was not destroyed

have been formed is a German giant

New weapons were formed and new methods used, and it looked for a time as if these sons of the Devil were going to have their own way all over the planet. About the only comfort the common people were able to get was that contained in the Kingdom message, submarine, carrying 6,000 tons, which would explain how the Axis powers were able to send such large armies into Africa. The first direct knowledge, and possibly the only knowledge, of this huge boat is contained in a diary of Sergeant Mechanic Ball of the Twentieth Grennan Afrika Korps. The diary was found on a Libyan battlefield. Referring to the work of spies, Sergeant Ball wrote in German:

The same thing happened in Bardia harbor. As soon as the 6,000-ton supply-carrying U-boat came in, the Tommies bombarded the harbor.

If the Germans have U-boats as large as this one seems to be, what is to hinder their sending men or supplies , of any sort whatever to any point to which they wish to send them?

Shoving the "New Order” into France

Now that France, the French people and the French Empire are in the crucible, it is a good time to consider some of the pertinent facts about how it was done. People on the ground would necessarily have a better grasp of the facts than others.

The London Sunday Express, June 30, 1940, contained almost a full page on this subject by George Sloeombe, the last British journalist to leave France. The caption was, “Here is the inside story of how France fell, and why. And as you read it remember it can happen here. were “Paralysis”; “Idle armies”; “Nazi audacity”; “Well equipped”; “Panic spreads”; "Peasant spy”; and, “Worse to eome.” Some of the stirring sentences in the story are as follows:

France fell as Rome must have fallen to the by hunger. It fell with overflowing warehouses, with great stocks of war material. . . .

The corrupt were not many, but they were influential. . . . Faced by a great army of young men as desperate and fanatical as the Arab tribesmen of Mohammed, threatened with the new Nazi technique of mechanical and psychological warfare, the leaders of the French army clung blindly to their great classic traditions, to the proud examples of their military past. . . .

Above all, they believed in the impregnability of the Maginot Line and its more recent but still redoubtable prolongation northward to the sea. Well protected from air and artillery bombardment in their underground pastes de commandement, built to shelter divisional, corps, and even army headquarters in an emergency, they did not foresee a day when the general staff of an army, miles behind a supposedly intangible front line, would be trapped like rabbits in a hole by enemy tanks, motorcyclists and parachutists.

France was not defeated in battle. It was stricken with paralysis. It was overcome as by a great cataclysm of nature, and it fell gasping, open-mouthed, stupefied, a prey to unreasoning panic and terror. . . . The revenge taken by Germany for the defeat of 1918 was planned with mathematical precision. But it was only possible because France herself was mined from within, a ready victim to the audacious aggressor, a State already threatened with disruption and decadence. ...

France was conquered, not by six or eight million Germans, but by 100,000 or 200,000 motorized troops. A small mechanized column,

composed - of a couple of motorcyclists, two light tanks and a heavy tank, would advance several hundred miles behind the theoretical French front, destroying communications as they went, rounding up and disarming French troops, retaliating ruthlessly wherever they met with resistance, and halting for the assistance of their aerial escort when they met with serious artillery opposition. They did not stop to take prisoners, unless the captured Frenchmen were of high rank. They told, infantrymen to break the stocks of their rifles and go home. *■

There was an element of farce as well as tragedy in their advance through France. Civilian refugees, stranded in cars with empty petrol tanks on the crowded roads, were accosted by grinning Germans who offered to sell them French petrol at one sou the litre. Other Germans derisively showered looted cigarettes and chocolates on the fleeing streams of civilians. ;

Never has any country been more thoroughly permeated by spies and enemy agents. The highest quarters, like the humblest, were spy-ridden. The mistresses of eminent politicians were in German or Italian pay. German agents were everywhere. The failure to blow up the bridges on the Meuse was due to treachery. The stationmaster in one of the most vital railheads on the eastern front was found to have a secret telephone wire in his cellar, and to be in hourly communication with the enemy. .' . .

During the Battle of Flanders a British tank column stationed in a Belgian village noticed that it was bombed every night with a precision which betrayed intimate knowledge of its camouflaged positions, and after inquiry these bombings were found to follow the daily visit of an old peasant woman to a chicken coop in her farmyard. The farm was searched and a secret wireless transmitter was found in the chicken coop. The ‘‘old peasant woman” was in reality a German youth. ...

The secret of the long reconnaisance flights of solitary German machines over French territory during the first nine months of the war has now been discovered. These machines were actually sent out to pick up the feeble signals emitted by tiny wireless transmitters, AUGUST 4, 1943 small enough to be hidden in a cigar box. Such signals were detected in many large French towns, but their intensity was so low that exact location was difficult. . . .

I have heard young conscripts plead in self-defense, when bitterly reproached for cowardice, by the veterans of 1914-1918, that they were betrayed, sold to the enemy, led like sheep to the slaughter. "What could we do against tanks with a rifle?” they said over and over again. “The Germans were everywhere. We did not know friend from enemy. We could not trust even our own comrades.”

New York Versions of the Advent

New York had its versions of why the advent of the 1940 “messiah” of the Devil’s “New Order”, Hitler, was so immediately and so stupendously successful. In the third of four reports on this subject by Colonel William J. Donovan, at that time special envoy attached to the navy department, Colonel Donovan said of Hitler:

He did not strike until he was in touch with certain important Frenchmen who were ready to treat with him. He needed but one swift blow. He terrified the soldiers by his noisemaking engines, he demoralized the officers by the surprise and power of his daring attacks, he bewildered the generals by the daring of his strategic conceptions. He troubled the entire population by his radio propaganda that insisted that France was being betrayed by Britain and by the French “warmongers”. He spread horrible rumors through villages, issued fearsome reports by wireless, and then, when the populations had congested the roads in their flight, machine-gunned them to heighten their panic.

A hesitant officer class brought about sheer defeat for the army; the army's defeat frightened the army leaders lest the soldiers seek scapegoats among the generals [as was afterwards done in the Riom trials]. And a majority of cynical and cowardly politicians rushed their country into one of the most contemptible surrenders on record. Just as Adolf Hitler had said they would.

The capable columnist Anne O’Hare

McCormick lays more of the blame upon the French people themselves. The way she put it (New York Times, June 24, .1940) was:

They were licked because they demanded of their political representatives only personal ■ benefits—a local bridge, a subsidy for wheat, i bigger pensions, paid vacations, the forty -hour week; they exerted pressure for social security but none for the sole basis of that security, the safety of France. They were licked because the politicians were afraid to tell them the truth. Hitler does not have to tell his subjects the truth, because he has power to act on the facts as he sees them without consulting anybody. But democratic governments are lost if for the sake of votes they withhold from the people the hard facts on which democratic judgments must be made.

Under the title “The Fifth Column in France”, published in this magazine in its issue of January 22, 1941, appear about a dozen other instances showing the way France was honeycombed with enemies of the French Republic. Two of the paragraphs were: '

An R.A.F. officer was forced down behind the German lines and hid in the loft of a bam when the Germans entered a French town near the border. As he watched, a German intelligence major walked up to a French civilian and patted him on the shoulder. “Well done,” he said.

Headquarters after headquarters were bombed. Troops moving silently and by night were machine-gunned. Columns of refugees suddenly appeared on military roads. They had been directed there by “French” officers from side roads allotted to them.—Manchester Guardian.

Maginot Line Plowed Up

The Maginot Line, supposed to be the most elaborate fort ever constructed in the earth, has been plowed up and might as well have never been built. Five years were spent in its construction, and about $4,000,000,000. Pages on pages were written in description of the Maginot Line, its galleries, arteries, bombproof chambers, storehouses, elevators, steel doors, various floors, observation posts, ventilation systems, underground telephone lines, underground hangars, underground garages, and what was called, the “super army’' (in April, 1938) when it was discussed what would happen if the French army found it necessary to European peace for them to invade Germany. It sounds like a joke, but it isn’t. rChe Maginot Line even had its own hospitals and cemeteries. Also, there was supposed to be a secret underground chamber, known only to a few public officials, in which was a single button that could be pressed, if the Line were to be captured, and blow the whole 600 miles to smithereens. In its issue of November 26, 1939, the New York Times had a two-column article by Sir Philip Gibbs, British war correspondent, bearing the titles “French reveal 35-mile range guns as part of Maginot Line defenses; weapon awaits Nazi attack for its baptism; rabbits kept as guard against sudden gas raid; Poilus are confident.” Seven months later the Maginot Line was as though it had never been.

Airplanes That Were Inactive

At the Riom trial of the last premiers of France, the fact was established that prior to the armistice there were many squadrons of aviators on the Riviera and at Bordeaux and in North Africa that were never called into action. A military writer made this statement:

One spectacle I shall never forget was the daredevil stunting done over Bordeaux on the day of the armistice by pilots who took up their brand-new planes, which had never been used in combat. The fliers worked off steam by skimming at top speed to within a few inches of rooftops or making sharp banks around flagpoles and tall chimneys. After the armistice a large number pf planes were flown to France from North Africa, where they had remained inactive throughout the blitzkrieg period.

As showing that there was manifestly a conspiracy on foot, this same writer, W(tverley Root, in his column “Backstage of the War”, published in the Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Daily News, March 24, 1942, has this interesting and suggestive paragraph:

In one aviation unit, shortly after the war began, two officers from the intelligence service appeared, and without reporting to the officers or presenting any orders establishing’ their right to make an investigation, questioned private soldiers about the political opinions of their officers. A few days later, all officers except Rightists were ordered transferred to non-combatant assignments. Whether this was done throughout the air corps or not, this column cannot say. But if it happened in one case, it is very probable that it happened elsewhere.

In other words, the Jesuitical crowd, Pacelli, Petain, Laval and other traitors, were even then making preparations to see that France should lose the war and be reduced to present beggary and slavery, and so return to the papal fold.

That something was radically wrong with the army was shown at the Riom trial of Pierre Jacomet, of the French war ministry, when, referring to danger years of 1934 and 1935, he said that the army did not utilize to the full extent the credits that were placed at its disposal In the first of these years 30 percent were not used; in the second, 59 percent.

Germans Moved like Lightning *

The Germans, in their 45-day offensive in the spring of 1940, went through France like a tidal wave, taking captive 1,800,000 prisoners and 130 of the 234 French generals. About 80,000 soldiers were killed, 120,000 were wounded and listed in the hospitals, and 20,000 were reported missing.

They did the same thing when they overran Vichy France, after the American armada landed in Northwest Africa.

The subways of Paris, which had been provided with airproof doors and air AUGUST 4,1M3

compressors, with the idea of having bombproof and gasproof shelters when the war began, were never needed. When the German troops marched into the city on June 15, 1940, they were unopposed. It was the ninth surrender of the city since 52 B.C., the last previous one having also been to the Germans on January 28, 1871.

They came in such a hurry, and the populace left in such a hurry, that an unknown physician advised four French nurses to kill eight patients they could not move. They complied, without even asking the doctor’s name. The lethal doses failed to finish one of the sick men, and the next morning he rose from his coffin, shrieking as he threw off his shroud. He died a few weeks later, but not until he had let the guilty nurses and the unknown doctor into unfavorable publicity they would have been glad to avoid. At the trial of the nurses, who were found guilty of murder, but were not punished, one medical witness declared interestingly and ominously:

The nurses were justified in taking the course they did. It was nothing more than the decision which doctors and nurses are obliged to take frequently in the hospitals.

There were fights in the Paris streets subsequently, and some shooting of German officers and men, with terrible reprisals therefor, but a French journalist who was in the city at the time, and who escaped to Britain, expressed the opinion that the shootings were not the work of Frenchmen at all, but of Germans who had been drinking heavily, and who wanted a fight, and got what they were looking for, from men of their own nationality.

When the Fighting Was Over

When the fighting was over, the dictators of Germany and Italy, Hitler and Mussolini, met at Munich, Germany, with a ruffle of drums, a clash of arms in salute, and a joyful clanging of “church” bells in the station square. The looting of France was the next thing in order.

The German soldiers had been living hard lives before Paris surrendered. But a great change in their status came im. mediately. Butter was such an unusual thing to them that the men bought it everywhere and ate it as they walked - along the streets, without bread, like * ice-cream cones.

Nothing like the systematic looting of France has ever before been done. The French people, by a new and peculiarly successful financial device, are being made to finance their own destruction. There has been no levy of reparations. A “better” way has been found. The French merely have to pay the “costs” of the army of occupation. The “costs” are figured on the basis of an army of occupation of 8,000,000 men, but only 3,000,000 have been quartered in France.

With the difference, i.e., the “costs” of maintaining 5,000,000 in France that are not there at all, the Germans are buying control of French factories from the French shareholders and most of these French factories now not only are working on German orders but are under German control.

The French property owners, who are parting with everything they owned, can find no outlet for the occupation francs but to buy government bonds, and, says the New York Times,

This in turn puts the government in funds again to continue its payments to Germany. So the cycle is complete: The Bank of France grinds out loans, the Vichy Government turns the money over to Germany. Germany buys up French property and securities, the former French owners use the funds to buy Government bonds and the Government turns the money over to Germany again. Thus the French are made to finance their own destruction.

The cleaning out of the Paris stores was done in the same efficient manner. A few months after the German occupation of the city, Mrs. von Ribbentrop, the wife of the German foreign minister, came to town and paid a visit to one of the highest-class stores on the, famous Rue de Rivoli. For two hours the doors were locked while the lady spent the money of the pope’s “New Order” on things she thought she and her friends would like to have. Among the things purchased were fifteen fur coats, with dresses, stockings, hats, and other things to match. All together the lady spent 500,000 ■ francs of “New Order” money in the two hours. This is the largest single sale in the history of the store.

The pope, you see, is quite right in his claim that the “New Order” is old. Just how old it really is will be clear to every Frenchman and every French woman and child by the time all the occupation francs have been cashed out of their savings.

World-wide Food Rationing

AMERICA is such a vast granary that it seems odd to find it included with Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South America in a plan of world-wide food rationing, but the fact came home quickly enough when the coffee rationing went into effect. For the moment the farming business in the United States seems to be in good shape. This is the usual situation in wartime.

For the United States as a whole there was an increase of 69.4 percent in cash 8

income from farm marketings in the first six months of 1942 over the same period in 1940. Delaware was at the top, with an increase of 197.1 percent, and Connecticut at the bottom, with only 17.3 percent, but all the states showed an increase. The topnotehers, in the order named, were Delaware, Arkansas, Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Kansas, Idaho, Missouri, Wisconsin, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, and Indiana, all showing an increase of over 80 percent.

“Sepulchres Whitewashed”

THE title is suggested by the words of

Jesus denouncing the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees, the religious preachers who persecuted Him. It was a practice among these ‘"better than thou” sects to make public and well* advertised demonstrations of virtue, while engaged in all manner of wickedness privately. The twenty-third chapter of Matthew records the most terrible scourging of hypocrisy ever delivered; and, among other things, Jesus said: “Alas for you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because ye make yourselves like sepulchres whitewashed, which outside indeed appear beautiful, but within are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.” (Matthew 23:27, Rotherham translation) Jehovah inspired His beloved Son to utter this cutting rebuke to the “holy cheats” of all time, and had it recorded in His Word for our particular admonition today. (1 Corinthians 10:11) It therefore follows that we may look for a manifestation of the same sort of deceit among the religionists of our time; and applying these words of Jesus to their deeds and utterances, it is observed that the modern clergy fit the description of the Pharisees with amazing accuracy.

Why not examine some of the clerical statements heard every day over the radio, and given prominence in the daily press? Such examination follows, together with an analysis of the confusion betrayed by the religious leaders; and, it is hoped, from this study some may be able to distinguish the features of the ancient Pharisees in modern dress. Particular consideration is given the sly practice, anciently rebuked by Jesus, of hiding wickedness behind a “whitewashed” front of virtue, as the title suggests. God’s Word is the great Revealer; so let all men who desire enlightenment peruse the next few pages with care; for man’s steps are no true^ than the guide he follows. (Psalms AUGUST 4,1#43

119:105; 25:9) The false and true appear as distinctly as actors in the spotlight, when scrutinized by the illumination of God’s Word.—John 17:17.

Clerical Confusion

The world prominence of Catholicism is brought to our attention by the press. None disputes the claim that it has the largest, number of members upon earth, perhaps more than 300,000,000. It goes without question that such power, directed upon the settlement of. the international conflict, could have incalculable results. Therefore many eyes are turned Rome-ward, and many hearts are lifted at the prospect of the peace said to be forthcoming through the pope’s efforts. It would be no less than amazing if the press dispatches reiterating the “unceasing prayers” for peace by the papal head of the greatest religious system did not carry hope to war-torn homes in every clime and country. It is natural that such pronouncements carry weight with the people.

No less true is the fact that many would reach for any hope that is offered in a world that seems devoid of hope. Desperate men are not prone to question ways and means with the same degree of caution exercised by those in less urgent need. The human mind shuns the contemplation of disaster, and fear frequently drives the people to shelter, any shelter. The defects, inadequacies, and lack of protection or shelter may often be learned with sad bitterness afterward.—Proverbs 14:12.

Besides those who seek the salvation and protection promised by the temporal ruler of Catholicism, because of the dejection from the present outlook, others are impressed by her claims to divine power and authority. The Papacy thus receives further prominence and a revered position among the nations. Great political powers vie for her favor by sending rival emissaries. (Note how

America has relied on Spellman to offset the peace proposals of Mussolini’s Ciano, Associated Press dispatch February 20, . 1943.) The Roman Catholic Church, with its colossal membership and international influence, can be looked to, it is . thought, for outstanding results. Addi-' | tionally, one of the claimed titles of the pope is ‘Vicar of Christ”; and to many it therefore seems reasonable that the Lord himself would favor ‘so worthy a cause’, sponsored by so “majestic” a dignitary.

It becomes a vital matter, therefore, to evaluate the papal claims, in the light of God’s Word. This article -will not deal with the pope’s peace plans, which were considered so powerfully in the speech “Peace—Can It Last?" and now available in booklet form. It is limited to other claims, a comparison of words versus facts, newspaper prestige versus the uncensored record of action, with particular attention to the “Roman Church” in the role of “martyr to Nazi persecutions”.

The Mystery Woman (Revelation 17)

Mystery and confusion have always enveloped the movements and maneuvers of Rome. But faithful men are counseled by Jesus to “seek, and ye shall find”. (Matthew 7:7; Psalms 119:105, 130; 97:11) He declared also: “There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.” (Matthew 10: 26) The Bible is “sharper than any two-edged sword”, “piercing,” “and is a discerher of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12) When the deeds of men and institutions are dissected by means of the ‘piercing weapon of truth’ not even the mystery of Rome can escape detection. Furthermore, as the pope claims to be the “Vicar” or “Deputy” of Christ, Jesus’ words cannot be "dismissed as irrelevant. It must therefore be admitted that the only way to determine whether the pope speaks for Christ is by comparison of his words with truths from this only authoritative

Source of true knowledge .—John 17:17.

Inquiry is now focused on the position and sympathies of rulers of this religious system, whose present head is Pope Pius XII, residing at Vatican City, suburb of Rome, Italy. Queries on this point often include the following: Who possesses her favor and allegiance? To whom does she give her hand? Whose cause does she support? What enemies seek her downfall? Enlightenment on these questions is often sought, and seldom found.

Examination of statements by the Papacy, and the words of many authoritative spokesmen for the Roman Catholic Church, produces much confusion. The daily press gives these abundant space but attempts no explanation. What one priest avers, another denies; what a bishop favors, an archbishop denounces ; “Archbishop Beckman attacked Bishop Hurley for endorsing aid to Russia”; “Catholics constitute a bloc in the Axis spiritual forces” (said by Fari-naeei in praise of Cardinal O’Connell, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 7, 1941), is offset by “Priest rebukes statements aligning Church with Axis” (Ryan, in Herald Statesman, Yonkers, N. Y., February 12, 1941).

Deepening the apparent mystery are the following facts: Two German priests, “Father” Odo (Duke Charles Alexander Wurttemburg, a German army officer) and “Father” Paul (Bernard Strasser, whose Fascist activity is recorded by his own brother, Otto Strasser, in the antiSemitic book Hitler and I), were known to be recently living at St. Anselm’s Priory, 673 Tinton Ave., Bronx, N. Y. Friday magazine, March 14,1941, reporting on the two Nazi priests, says that “Father” Odo, whose secular title is Duke of Wurttemburg, states that the British Broadcasting Company “charged that Father Odo, formerly Duke of Wurttemburg, a German army officer, had been sent here as a ‘special peace emissary’ to persuade American Catholics that Fascism is fighting for Chris-

CONSOLATlON

tianity [Catholicism is the only ‘Christianity’ recognized by such]”; but, adds Friday, these priests “no more represent the Catholic Church than our'own American Fascist priest, Father Charles E. Coughlin, of Royal Oak, Michigan”. Again comes the manifesto of Catholic bishops pledging themselves to the war effort entitled “Crisis of Christianity" (November 1941). On the other hand, Jesuit priest John O’Brien, of Notre Dame, opposing America’s entrance into the war, says: “Our duty is crystal clear. Stay out . . . Why crucify the youth of America on the cross of hate and insanity? . . . Why plunge America into national suicide?” (New York Daily News, June 12, 1941)

Another shock to Catholics among the United Nations has been the position of the Vatican toward the Christ-hating Japanese. No one has ever contended that these treacherous animals were anything but pagans. Yet the pope embraces the emissary from Japan, recognized only since Pearl Harbor, bespeaking terms of endearment. It has also been reported in Australia—and this undoubtedly gave “Aussies” of the Catholic faith quite a turn—that the first to congratulate the Japanese conqueror of that strategic port was the Roman Catholic bishop of Singapore! (See Yearbook of Jehovah's . witnesses, 1943, “Australasia.”) Another little item depicting the love between the pope and Hirohito is carried by The Converted Catholic, February 1943, page 33:

The Pope sends $40,000.00 for the comfort of Japanese troops in recognition of our righteous mission. [United Press report from Chungking to New York Times, November 21, 1942] ■

The world is again baffled by another contradiction or anomaly: The Hierarchy vaunts her strength and pleads sympathy for her weakness. It is understandable when a dispatch from Vatican City, Italy, official headquarters of the Roman Catholic system, tells the world that the pope’s authority is greater than other rulers’ because he is supreme head of 400 million Catholics, who recognize him above all other loyalties. There is no confusion in these fairly well established facts. The perplexing mystery appears when one of the many accounts like the following is read: “This is what Fascism has meant to Catholics. . . . Youth regimented, priests humiliated, edifices closed and societies abolished. ... It happened in Italy. It happened in Germany.” (PM, May 1, 1941) For the incredulous and unbelievers the theme of Catholic persecution is decorated by many pictures in Look magazine and the Saturday Evening Post; and a book has been written anonymously, entitled “The Persecution of the Catholic Church in the Third Reich” (565 pages, illustrations, appendixes, index). (Longmans, Green, New York) Newsweek of April 8, 1941, remarks: “As long as the Nazis rule Germany the full story of their attacks on religion in general and Roman Catholicism in particular must remain unwritten.” First the world is told of the power of Roman Catholicism, and then, * in the same breath, that it is prostrate under the heel of Nazism.

But many will ask: The Bible show’s that Christians will always be persecuted in this world (Matthew 24:9); so is not this persecution of the Catholic Church a part of the affliction prophesied to fall on Christ’s follow’ers? In answer to such question it is freely admitted that the stories of outrages to Catholicism in Nazi Germany are cast to give precisely that impression: Catholic Christians, downtrodden by “godless Nazis”. In the role of martyr to the fuehrer's hatchetmen, the Roman Catholic Church has certainly gained popularity and sympathy in the United States. Those who are content to eulogize all religion take up the chant of praise, blinding themselves to a great deal of conflicting evidence.

Americans have, as a result, come to believe that there is a life-and-death

struggle going on between the Roman Catholic Church and the Nazi dictator. Suspicion of Rome, even in Protestant circles, has largely disappeared under • the barrage of testimony that Hitler is in reality crushing Popery, as well as all other forms of religion; and that hence * Catholicism is a fellow sufferer. Also in i the all-out war on Nazism it seems expedient to fan religious hatred against Germany in the minds of the religious of all creeds. The Roman Catholic Church is therefore officially abetted in one of the most outrageous deceptions of a history replete with intrigue. If, for the sake of argument, the theory of Roman Church persecution be accepted, how, then, are the following facts to be explained, that since the power of the Catholic Church is not denied, why then is not a little pressure exerted upon Hitler, since he is a Catholic himself? Why are not the forty million Catholics of Germany and Austria advised to renounce Nazism as the enemy of their faith? Stranger still, when the president of the United States asked the pope to • declare the war against Nazism a “just war”, why did the pontiff refuse with “a . polite, ‘No* ” ? Why were the Franco government of Spain and the Vichy government of France so carefully carved out to the pope’s publicly-declared approval by his “enemies”, Hitler and Mussolini! Why was Hitler’s war on Russia hallowed by Catholic Church bells,1 and pronounced a “crusade”, a “holy war”! Why were Catholic priests educated to follow in the wake of Hitler’s desolation of Russia! and why was he encouraged in this venture if not to destroy the rival of Roman Catholicism, the Greek Orthodox Church, whose chief strongholds were Greece and Russia?

Zn Fact, a pamphlet publication edited by George Seldes (author of the expose of Hierarchical aggressions in America,

1 Managing editor James of the New York Times stated in the issue of June 29, 1941, that “the Catholic Church bells rang in Germany when Hitler started Moscow-ward”. entitled “Catholic Crisis”), carried an article in its October 27, 1941, issue by Anna L, Strong, “who has spent many years in the Soviet Union and is recognized as one of the most competent authorities on the subject.” She said that the “whole pother about religious freedom [in Russia] covers the desire of the Vatican to take over the Orthodox Church, lock, stock and barrel”. Miss Strong must have hit the nail on the head, because it brought a howl from the Catholic-dominated Alberta Register (November 9, 1941). The Register itself made a neat summary of the truth about Russia, which is quoted: “[The Vatican] wants the Soviet law of property abrogated, and then it wants foreign priests, with foreign funds, to move in and take over the Orthodox properties.” She confesses that the Orthodox would welcome them. But, according to her, “the Soviets are asked to let a well-financed and hostile machine into their land, backed by world-wide pressures, and to give it propaganda rights in every village.” This clarifies one reason why the pope has so long howled against Communism.

Why are Catholic countries, such as Quebec, Irish Free State, Argentina, Spain, and Portugal, so cool or hostile to the cause of the Allied Nations? Surely the pope could muster a little support, which might, at least as represented on this hemisphere, back up the war on Nazism. Failing all this, since Hitler is a Catholic, why not ex-communicate him, as the pope did Queen Elizabeth of England when the Spanish Armada of Catholic King Philip II failed and met disaster as the punitive weapon of the Roman Catholic Church?

Look magazine of March 9, 1943, gives further report of the supposed “struggle” between Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church. As a sequel to two articles entitled “Hitler’s War Against the Catholics” this is entitled “The Catholics’ War Against Hitler”. Konrad Count von Preysing, bishop of Berlin, is represented as the chief enemy of

Hitler, “Indicting the Nazi regime, point by point, as a menace to Christian civilization.” Unintentionally the same writer exposes the very un-Christian methods of the Hierarchy in such statements as the following: “The Bishop of Berlin is an intelligent man of the world. [Compare James 4:4.] He was a diplomat before he was a priest, resigning the foreign service in 1905. His episcopate is politically the most important in all Germany.” “Von Preysing saw that, to destroy the Church, the Nazis would first have to muzzle her leaders. Though the 1933 Concordat [business agreement between Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church] specifically forbade it, the Gestapo began to interfere with exchange of church information. ... To meet this threat von Preysing organized his own underground communications. Now perfected, this secret service enables the Church to hold together and function despite the Gestapo.” Compare John 18:20 with Preysing’s methods: “Jesus answered him, I spake openly to the world; I even taught in the synagogues and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing.”

It is more than likely that the fight between Hitler and von Preysing is “manufactured”; because all information from Germany passes through Nazi censorship. But even if true, it relates to one minute part of the vast organization which emanates from Vatican City. The concordat between Hitler and the pope still remains intact, while no such agreement has ever been made with the United States of America. The “conflict” between “church” and state might be compared to shadow boxing, intended for release only in America, and calculated to popularize Catholicism in this country.

It is well known that the Nazis have cruelly persecuted Jews, Masons, Jehovah’s witnesses, and all liberals, and the exception of the Catholic Church from such wholesale slaughter made explana-AUGUST4, 19+3 tion embarrassing, particularly since America has joined forces wuth the United Nations. To offset any criticism German Catholicism is nowT depicted as “a persecuted martyr”. Vaunting her strength the Hierarchy now pitifully bewails her weakness. Sympathy is asked for her pathetic struggle against the ruthless and overpowering dictator.

The answers to two questions, suggested above, have not emerged from consideration of the material furnished by the press, namely, Is the mighty persecuted! Is the Catholic Church powerless against Hitler?

Confusion Explained

Some understanding of the Roman Catholic Church system is required in order to properly consider her actual position in world affairs. This organization of vast proportions is in reality directed by a few men, known as the Hierarchy, of whom the pope is head. It is highly autocratic, and the will of a member is not tolerated to oppose the central authority. For instance, the appointment of priests does not come by recommendation of the people in any of the countries to which they are assigned. Specifically Catholic clergy in America are selected by a Hierarchy recognizing no master except the Roman pontiff (pope). For expediency these prelates are often moved about, particularly when involved in some scandal, but they are never chosen by popular vote, nor removed to suit the desires of the Catholic population.

The Hierarchy has had no difficulties with dictators. On the contrary, it is only with dictators that contracts or agreements, called concordats, are possible, because the terms of such agreements are of such nature as to render their publication hateful to the people. To this day the United States has never had a concordat with the Papacy, because public discussion in Congress required for ratification would arouse the people to great resentment. Consideration for

the people is the least concern of the greatest religious organization on the earth. Since the exploitation of the ■ people is also the chief business of totalitarians, common ground is easily found for. Papacy and Corporate State । (dictatorship) to engage in illicit friend* ship.

Such illicit relationship has been the practice for 1500 years. The Catholic organization is therefore not a “virgin prostrate under the Nazi heel”, but a “woman” of much “experience” with governments, and skilled in the diplomatic art of forging agreements to for-s ward her own interests. It is well known and admitted that the Hierarchy will make agreements with any government. Found in the Congressional Record, under “Extension of Remarks of Honorable James Murray, Senator of Montana, (Sept. 22, 1941)”, the statement of Professor Theodore Maynard, “one of America’s most erudite writers on Catholic themes,” confirms this fact: “Even under present conditions, the Holy See [pope] has several times attempted to arrange a concordat, a modus vivendi [literally, mode of living; hence a temporary arrangement, pending settlement of a dispute—JFebsier’s], with the Kremlin [Communist Russia] as it has made concordats with Hitlet and Mussolini and Franco. For the Church is always ready to make what terms it can with any government.” It is thus seen that the “virgin” has learned to find her way around even in a world full of dictators.

Professor Maynard makes clear also the absolute authority of the head of the Roman Catholic Church: “The policy of the Church is decided by one man, the Pope, though of course he works in consultation with his advisers. . . . Yet as a matter of practical necessity, his policy has to be accepted by loyal Catholics. Still more—and in this case as a matter of absolute necessity—the principles he lays down have to be accepted.” — Congressional Record, Appendix, 1941, A4605.

Vatican Intimidates Democracies

Nor can the power of this politicoreligious institution be denied. The same institution, which is said to be suffering untold woes under Hitler, continues to bulldoze the United States government, and also to frighten the British Lion. As regards America, when an attempt to withhold brass “needed for the casting of religious medals” from the Catholic Holy Society by 0PM the Society protested loudly and received its metal. Such government control was referred to insultingly in the Gaelic American (October 25,1941) as “New Deal Brass”.

Frequently, too, the Hierarchy threatens with the solid Catholic vote opponents that incur her animosity. Bishop Hurley, in his speech in St, Augustine, Florida, had the audacity to recommend that Roosevelt alone decide on America’s entrance into war. (July, 1941) Her hat is in every political ring, and the “loyal” are counseled regarding the “acceptable candidate”.

The British fear of the Catholic Church to date has safeguarded the capital city, Rome, of her Italian enemy. The inhabitants of that city have come to taunt the British with the expression, “The pope is our best air raid insurance.” Another fact bespeaks English fear of the Vatican: the silence and censorship for all exposure of the link between the pope, Hitler and Japan.

Censorship, boycott, mob violence, national invasion, tactics freely employed by the Hierarchy, are not the weapons of the persecuted. With these she has struck fear into the hearts of the strongest. The preaching of God’s Word, which is the only proper business of any representing Him, does not require the protection of Rome’s arsenal. “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal.” (2 Corinthians 10:4) Throughout the earth the message of God’s Word has been censored at the instance of the Catholic Hierarchy in order to protect her religious practices. The testimony of the 1943 Yearbook of Jehovah's witnesses discloses with terrible clarity that the punitive arm of the Vatican has struck heavily upon the righteous in almost every hamlet throughout the world.

‘Tty their fruits ye shall know them.” (Matthew 7:20) With the record, not the perjured evidence, before us, it is apparent that this organization is in reality the “utensil” of Satan. Why? Because she follows precisely the customs of the Pharisees, and therefore qualifies herself as a “female” offspring of the Devil. (John 8:44; Revelation 17: 5) Religion is Satan’s deceptive tool, lent the cunning he has acquired by six thousand years’ experience.

World Confusion the Result

of Religious Propaganda

Study of the Hierarchy thus reveals many changes of costume. Today she dons the garb of “persecuted” victim of Nazi atrocities. This dress is exhibited only in America, because in Europe she demands of her subjects full collaboration with the dictators. Failure to understand that religion is a snare keeps many deceived by her tricks. Some discount the extravagant claims of the Hierarchy, but few realize that the whole institution is nought but a mountain of lies.—Isaiah 28.

For those who wish to look, the Scriptures rip the cover off religion and disclose its villainous death-entrapment. The befuddled statements are intended to cause the confusion best adapted to hide dark deeds. In darkness Rome operates to best advantage.

Prayers and chanting have been used before to obscure the cries of the victims. While Franco, Mussolini and Hitler were hacking to death the Spanish Republic, with a merciless slaughter of Catholics on both sides, the Catholic Hierarchy in America kept up a continual chant of. praise for Franco’s fight against “godless Communism”. The din raised by Papal agents in the United States deafened most ear$ to the screams of a AUGUST 4, 1#43 sister republic in her death throes. Outwardly Rome’s champions “fought for a chivalrous cause”; but inwardly her armies were drunk on the blood of the sheep of her own Catholic fold. “Ye are . . . full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness.” (Matthew 23:27; Jeremiah 5: 26, 27) Comparing such conduct to that of a cruel shepherd Jehovah warns of coming disaster to Rome: “Woe be to the shepherds. . . . Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed [on religious propaganda, not God’s Word].” “Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock [such as Franco, Mussolini, all Catholics, and “principal” men] : for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished; and ye shall fall like a vessel of desire.” (Jeremiah 25: 34, margin) Armageddon will abolish the chanting hypocrites.

Stories of Catholic persecution are but another device to obscure evil. If Americans can be made to believe that the Nazi dictator is crushing the Cathj olic Church in Germany, then the Vatican may continue to conspire with him for the Catholic subjugation of the world, without loss to American prestige. This propaganda scheme was well designed and has convinced practically everybody. On the other hand, men experienced in Vatican methods have learned to scrutinize papal utterances with a vifew to determining the purpose and motive, well knowing that regard for truthfulness will be the least consideration of unscrupulous Rome.

This unscrupulousness must be conceded. No other organization would advise its members to kill each other in the manner done by Roman priests in every land. Because of the large percentage of Catholics in the countries at war, of necessity more Catholics will be slain' than any other groups. Yet with this knowledge in advance, and merely for selfish gain, the Roman pope, who has concordats with every dictator, fo-

mented this present war, doubtless next to the greatest in destruction. The greatest will be Armageddon, in which the Papacy will no longer be a director of slaughter, but among the slaughtered. -—Psalm 145:20. _ _

Well do the Scriptures describe her tricks: “As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich.” —•Jeremiah 5: 27.

Conclusion

Jehovah “is not the author of confusion, but of peace”. (1 Corinthians 14: 33) The mastery of deception is not from Jehovah, the “God of truth”, but proceeds from His adversary. This article may not have proved to many that the Papacy is in league with all totalitarians, including Hirohito. It may have failed to convince that “persecutions” of the Catholic Church are phoney, and intended to ‘"whitewash” her partnership with Hitler, foreshadowed by the tricks of the Pharisees. Even those convinced may be swayed by “new evidence” that is bound to appear in the Hierarchy-ridden press, to bolster up the claim of Catholic sufferings in the Nazi realm. (Matthew 24: 24) Conceivable, it may be, that the “church” might even stage a few slayings of some in priestly costume to give color to the stories, except for the fact that American newspapers relieve the necessity by willingly publishing anything stated by the Hierarchy. So anxious to please Home are the newspapers generally that they will peddle any lie or swindle that has a Vatican label. “Approved by Rome” seems to be the password to editorial staffs to wink both eyes at the distortion of fact. Consequently, a few cries in the wilderness, such as Consolation, may not carry far.

But one fact should be crystal clear to all who read. The methods of the Hierarchy are as far from Jehovah’s ways as night is from day. This should be sufficient warning to men of good-will. Let such consideration turn men who can see no safety, in the ways of death, so abundant in all the world, to seek Jehovah’s kingdom, which brings life. “H appy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.”—Proverbs 3:13,16,17.

The Gains in Population

THE largest gains in population from 1930 to 1940 were, in the order named, the District of Columbia, Florida, New Mexico, California, Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, Oregon, North Carolina, Louisiana, Delaware, Maryland, Tennessee, Washington, Wyoming, Virginia, Texas, and West Virginia. Each of these states gained 10 percent or more in the ten years. The only states that lost in population were Vermont, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. '

The baby crop in the United States fell off sharply in the ten years ending 16

April 1, 1940. The gain of births over deaths was 8,634,835, bringing the population up to 131,409,881, and was the smallest, in proportion to the total, of any decade in American history. Kansas actually lost 81,862 of its population.

In the years between 1930 and 1940 the annual average number of babies born in the United States was 2,319,000, but in the year 1941 the number suddenly went up to 2,728,000; so the pop- ' ulation of the country7 at the end of the year was some 400,000 more than the statisticians had figured it would be. Cupid laughs at statistics.

consolation

—John 17:17

“Behold, the Man!”

WHEN God, by His mediator Moses, . gave the law to Israel at Mount Sinai He indicated by the promise of that law that the only means by which fallen man could be redeemed or ransomed would be by the giving of a perfect human life of equal value to the life which Adam had forfeited in Eden by his disobedience. That law required an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a foot for a foot, a life for a life; that is to say, a price exactly corresponding to that which had been lost. Thus the law pointed out that the great Ransomer would correspond exactly with the perfect man Adam, The apostle Paul assures us that this law was a ‘shadow of better things to come’.—^See Exodus 21: 23-25; Leviticus 24:17-21; Deuteronomy 19:21; Colossians 2:16,17; Hebrews 10:1,

Who in all the earth was able to bear this burden or meet the requirements of the divine law? All of Adam’s offspring have been born imperfect, and God could not accept an imperfect human creature as a ransom. “None of them [no creature on earth, no matter how rich] can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him,” (Psalm 49: 7) For this reason, then, it seemed hopeless for man ever to expect-to be released from sin and death.

Thus is presented to the human race a condition of absolute helplessness, Mankind was wholly without power to release itself from the condition of death, and there never could be any hope of anyone of the human family enjoying life everlasting in a state of happiness unless God, in the exercise of His loving-kindness, should make some provision. He had promised to make such provision; His great purpose provided for such. It is first necessary, however, for us to see man’s absolute extremity in order that we may appreciate God’s opportunity for blessing humankind, and the great debt which we owe to Jehovah God and His Son for the provision made.

The apostle Paul, having in mind these things, wrote: ‘We were children in bondage under the elements of the world: but when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law.’ (Galatians 4:3,4) How did God send His Son? Since a perfect man had sinned and the life of a perfect man must be given as a sin-offering, it is now important to see how the Son of God, whom He sent, was qualified to meet the requirements of the law and be the ransomer or redeemer.

It is easy to see that Jesus, when on earth, could not have been merely an incarnated spirit creature, because that would constitute a fraud, and God would not sanction anything wrong. The redeemer must be a man, perfect in every respect, equal and corresponding to the perfect man Adam while in Eden. It is also easy to see that Jesus could not be part God and part man, because that would be more than God’s law required; hence divine justice could not accept such a dual thing as a ransom. The divine law definitely shows that the ransomer must be exactly corresponding to the perfect human creature Adam. How, then, did Almighty God send His Son? And when sent, was He part man and part God?

The inspired Scriptures answer that prior to His coming to earth He was a spirit creature, God’s Word, or Logos; and that His life was transferred to the human realm and He was born a human creature. In heaven He was rich; and for our sakes He became poor. (2 Corinthians 8: 9) That is to say, He was rich in heavenly glory and power possessed by Him as the great active agent of

Jehovah in the creating of all other things, and He became poor by becoming a man. It was absolutely necessary for Him to be a perfect man on earth. Hence He must be born holy, harmless, separate from sinners and without defilement; and He met this requirement. —Hebrews 7: 26.

…