"Two vast movements that involved millions of non-Catholic Americans set the stage for the rapid acquisition of power in America by the Vatican.
The first, which began in earnest more than two decades ago, is the ecumenical movement."
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From ............. AMERICAN DEMOCRACY & THE VATICAN:
POPULATION GROWTH & NATIONAL SECURITY
By Dr. [Phd.] Stephen Mumford
Page 207 .......... American Conservatism vs. the Radical Religious
Two vast movements that involved millions of non-Catholic Americans set the stage for the rapid acquisition of power in America by the Vatican.
The first, which began in earnest more than two decades ago, is the ecumenical movement. This movement has pretty much ceased to make any forward advances. Many of the earlier leaders have dropped out, recognizing that the Protestant groups made virtually all the compromises. Some have dropped out in disappointment, fully recognizing that they have been completely duped by their Catholic counterparts.
The ecumenical movement was exceedingly important, if not absolutely essential, to the Vatican's march toward unrestrained power in America. It halted, then blocked, criticism of the Catholic Church by all leading Protestant denominations. This no doubt contributed to the Catholic Church's success in silencing all criticism of the hierarchy's actions in the lay press.
For the past two decades, all over the country, the call by Protestants has been, "Let's not say anything negative about acts of the [Roman] Catholic Church. Otherwise, we will jeopardize this important movement of reconciliation among all Christian sects." No doubt, the Vatican carefully nurtured this sentiment and was thereby able to advance its agenda under the cloak of secrecy with the help of Protestants bent on ecumenism.
The second vast movement involved the political mobilization of fundamentalists by the Vatican. According to Paige, the Reverend Edward Bryce, National Conference of Catholic Bishops' director of right-to-life activities, has presided over the transformation of the [Roman Catholic] Church into a right-too-life politicai machine. Bryce admits that the expenditures on abortion are much larger than the records show and that most of this is buried in bishops" discretionary funds and individual diocesan ledgers. No doubt, much of this "hidden" money of which Father Bryce speaks goes into the election campaigns of both Catholics and non-Catholics who cater too the needs of the Vatican.
"The Pastoral Plan was a brilliant blueprint," states Paige.
The message of the plan was absolutely clear: the Roman Catholic Church was getting into the business of electoral campaigns in a big way. It was as if the bishops had switched on an enormously powerful political engine that then appeared too run on its own. But the perpetual-motion machine is a thing of the imagination. A closer look at the right-too-life machine revealed that fuel and labor costs, maintenance, body work, lubrication, and replacement parts right down too the last screw all remained very much under firm pastoral guidance.
The machine went into high gear, NCHLA organizers created and developed grass-roots right-to-life PACs, which they called "congressional district action committees," in almost half of the country"s 435 congressional districts. The CDACs involved thousands of sympathetic Catholics in right-to-life activity, including letter-writing, meeting with elected officials, conducting candidate and voter education projects, and developing efficient phone networks.17
The New Right, which is dominated by [Roman] Catholics such as Richard Viguerie and which answers to the Vatican, drew the fundamentalists in under the guise of religion - but for explicitly political purposes.
"However heartfelt, opposition to abortion was simply part of the plan."18
With sufficient wealth at its disposal, the hierarchy of the [Roman Catholic] Church started right-to-life organizations and dominated their early growth, fashioning their philosophy, political base, and strategy and paying their way. 19
In 1975, Roy White, then executive director of the National Right to Life Committee, asserted,
"The only reason we have a pro-life movement in this country is because of the [Roman] Catholic people and the [Roman] Catholic Church."20
Connie Paige"s extensive investigation led her to state:
The Roman Catholic Church created the right-to-life movement. Without the Church, the movement would not exist as such today. The Church provided from the start the organizational infrastructure, the communications network, the logistical support, the resources, the ideology, and the people, as well as a ready-made nationwide political machine otherwise impoosible to duplicate. Always, the Church contributed money, a great deal of it, either through its own organizations or through direct grants to independent but related groups...... What made the Church's right-too-life effort significant was that this was the first time in American history that Catholics had made that kind of all-out bid too influence national policy. In force in almost every state, and everywhere well organized, the Church made it possible for this compelling single issue too dominate for a time the democratic process.21
The hierarchy recognized the necessity of the mobilization of funda- mentalists prior to the bishops' 1975 pastoral plan. It simply used the abortion issue to accomplish this goal. Now it uses the Moral Majority and other "fundamentalist" organizations to accomplish other items on its agenda, such as breaking down the principle of separation of church and state, enforcing support by taxpayers of the Catholic school system, and the election of obedient [Roman] Catholics to Congress and state legislatures.
Most Americans have the mistaken perception that at least half of the anti-abortion movement is fundamentalist. Nothing could be further from the truth.
My own state of North Carolina is Jesse Helms country. The very heart of Moral Majority land, it has a population of six million. Yet, according to the Moral Majority leadership in North Carolina, there are only twenty-five thousand Moral Majority members in this State.
That means that only 0.4 percent of the residents of this state belong to the "Majority." Almost ten times this number belong to the Catholic Church, although this is one of the least Catholic states in America. The reason why the Moral Majority............
[end page 208] -END QUOTE-
AMERICAN DEMOCRACY & THE VATICAN:
POPULATION GROWTH & NATIONAL SECURITY
By Dr. [Phd.] Stephen Mumford
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 84-72500
Pub.by- Humanist Press PO Box 146 Amherst, NY
Availible [about $10] from-
Center for Research on Population and Security
PO Box 13067
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709