Friday, March 29, AD 2024 1:49am

PopeWatch: Bilge

VATICAN-POPE-AUDIENCE

 

In closely examining the words and actions of Pope Francis, PopeWatch has been struck by the sheer amount of bilge about the Pope that comes forth each day.  Here is a typical example, which, to their credit, the Seventh Day Adventists have debunked:

A former Adventist pastor with roots in Argentina says the recently elected Pope Francis I, who was a Roman Catholic Archbishop in Argentina, has told confidants that he wishes to punish the Adventist Church because the pontiff’s older brother was a long-time member of that denomination.

Hugo R. Gambetta, once an ordained minister in the Adventist Church who lost his credentials in 2005 amidst allegations of financial improprieties, appears in a widely circulated 17-minute video in which he says that Francis I has sworn to give top priority to implementing an international Sunday law, in retaliation against the denomination that stole his brother away from the Catholic faith. Gambetta does not give the first name of the brother, nor does he provide any dates, locations, or circumstances under which such a conversion might have taken place.

The video program came to the attention of Adventist Today when a pastor in the United States asked for help in determining if the allegation had any validity. Adventist Today has determined that the story has no foundation in fact, and this assessment has been confirmed by sources at the General Conference and in South America.

Go here to Adventist Today to read the rest.  Of course none of this is sui generis to Pope Francis.  All popes are subject to unsubstantiated allegations and baseless rumor mongering.  Separating the wheat from the chaff is an essential duty for anyone attempting to chronicle the reign of a pope.

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Stephen E Dalton
Wednesday, June 4, AD 2014 6:02am

I heard about this nonsense a year ago. The Adventist are prone to sensational stories about us Catholics. The SDA swallowed the traditional Anti-Catholicism of Protestantism hook, line, and sinker, thanks to the false prophecies of Ellen H. White. So, when someone like this defrocked minister comes along, it’s easy for them to accept garbage like this.

Phillip
Phillip
Wednesday, June 4, AD 2014 6:54am

“…PopeWatch has been struck by the sheer amount of bilge about the Pope that comes forth each day.”

To paraphrase Tevye, “For a man who talks about actions and not using words, he talks a lot.”

TomD
TomD
Wednesday, June 4, AD 2014 10:05am

An “international Sunday law”. What a hoot!

Alphatron Shinyskullus
Alphatron Shinyskullus
Wednesday, June 4, AD 2014 8:32pm

This is typical of Adventists. My wife was an Adventist when we married, converting to Catholicism after thirteen years of marriage. It’s not an honest religion. They instill a lot of fear into their members. They have a short book called “National Sunday Law” that they like to hand out. I researched its historical claims and once engaged the author on an internet forum around ten or twelve years ago, and he wasn’t interested in truth. They will include one verifiable factoid and match it to a section of the Book of Daniel regardless of the event’s actual significance. For example, they point to a particular Pope as the start of some sinister rise to power of the Papacy as prophesied in Daniel. If you look up what they reference, you’ll find it’s true. But if you read further that Pope, and his successor, end up as slaves in Roman mines. So much for the papacy wielding political power in a timeline that matches their interpretation of Daniel. If you look at their interpretation of Daniel, that too requires a lot of bending of both history and scripture. Rather, the prophesies in Daniel that they reference actually describe the lead up to Antiochus Epiphanes, especially the details in the description of the horns on the beast. But you can’t get a serious Adventist to address this. At least I couldn’t.

trackback
Wednesday, June 11, AD 2014 9:16pm

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SouthCoast
SouthCoast
Thursday, June 12, AD 2014 12:15pm

This accusation reminds me of the “fact” that was whispered, with fear and trembling, in my elementary school so many years ago: “If Kennedy is elected, we’ll all have to become Catholics and….go to school on Saturday!!!!” AIEEEEEEE! (Actually, it wasn’t the first part of the threat that terrified us, as most of us Protestant kids had absolutely no knowledge of Catholicism; it was the school on Saturday that gave us the cold grues.)

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