Letter to Hindus I– Beware of Popery!
My first contribution to Indiafacts deals with the worst, the most persistent and the most cunning institutional enemy of Pagan, that is Dharmic, religions in the entire known history of humankind – Catholic church (official name: Sancta Ecclesia Catholica et Apostolica). It is a well-known fact that all so called Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) are more or less intolerant and violent. American Hindu acharya Dharma Pravartaka writes: “Dharma represents cultural normality, psychological health and living in concert with reality. Dharma has historically been the norm in human behavior and inter-relational dynamics. The birth of the Abrahamic world-view (circa 1800 BCE) marked a stark and very distinct break from this long-standing reality … Abrahamism represents an artificial imposition on reality, an attempt to build a manmade (paurusheya) ladder to the Transcendent by consciously rejecting the very principles and culture of Transcendence itself.”[i] Within the diabolical nest of Abrahamism, Catholicism (or papism) is definitely the most violent and domineering bird, which wants to suffocate all other birds, both within and outside the nest.
One has to be aware that Catholicism in reality has almost nothing in common with original teachings of mythological founder of Christianity – Joshua from Nazaret (Jesus from Nazaret). Furthermore, it is even improbable that this enigmatic personality existed at all.[ii] But, if he did exist, then he was definitely a Dharmic teacher, because the principles and practices of early, original Christians (Gnostics and Essens) were in complete accordance with teachings and precepts of Sanatana Dharma (karma, reincarnation, meditation, vegetarianism etc.) Ideological predecessor of Catholicism (and of Orthodoxy and of numerous Protestant denominations) was Pauline “Christianity” (named after Saul of Tarsus/St. Paul), a very much distorted, warped version of original Christianity, already in cahoots with Roman imperial power. Catholicism took over from Roman empire not just its official language (Latin), many rituals and titles (e. g. one of official titles of Roman pontiffs is pontifex maximus which was also a honorific title of Roman emperors in their function as supreme priests of old Roman Pagan religion), but above all its relentless desire to subjugate and dominate the whole world, the entire humankind.
Of course, Roman popes soon realized that they are far from being able to conquer the world in a military-political sense (which was an overwhelming ambition of Roman imperial elite, thwarted mainly by mighty Persian empire in the east). So, they embarked on the religious conquest of the world; in this context I have to add that in Catholicism there has never been a real division between sacred and profane, divine and secular. Papacy had been forced to acknowledge and respect this division – to its horrible and still-lasting chagrin – by secular political forces in the West in the last two centuries. So, papacy has since the proclamation of Catholicism for the official religion of Roman empire in 380 (in the so called Thessaloniki edict, issued by emperor Theodosius I.) mingled politics and religion, always shamelessly interfering in the political affairs of the states, Catholic and non-Catholic alike. Territorial-political basis for this papal religious-political imperialism was Papal state (Latin: Status Pontificus), which was established in 754 by pope Stephen II. It lasted for more than a millennium until 1870, when its territory was forcibly incorporated in the newly-founded united Italy. Papal state encompassed majority of central Italy.
As almost everything connected with Catholic church Papal state was based on fraud/lie: namely, for centuries Roman popes claimed that emperor Constantine I. who legalized Christianity in Roman empire and stopped persecutions of Christians, on his death-bed in March 337 granted total temporal power in the western part of the Empire to the Catholic church. The so called Constantine Donation (Donatio Constantini) decreed: “In imitation of our own power, in order that for that cause the supreme pontificate may not deteriorate, but may rather be adorned with power and glory even more than is the dignity of an earthly rule, behold we giving over to the oft-mentioned most blessed pontiff, our father Sylvester the universal pope, as well our palace, as has been said, as also the cityof Rome and all the provinces, districts and cities of Italy or of the western regions; and relinquishing them, by our inviolable gift, to the power and sway of himself or the pontiffs his successors-do decree, by this our godlike charter and imperial constitution.”[iii]
Well, Lorenzo Valla, an Italian priest and Renaissance humanist, is credited with first exposing the forgery with sound philological and historical arguments in 1439–1440: he presented solid evidence that Constantine Donation was forged by unscrupulous scribes of pope Stephen II. in 752 in order to assist the pope in his negotiations with Frankish king Pepin the Short and generally to provide (correct expression: to fabricate) a legal and historical basis for ever-expanding secular ambitions (hunger for power, influence and wealth) of Roman pontiffs. Even though the Constantine Donation had not been employed to any significant degree since the middle of 11th century, the Vatican chose to ignore Valla’s work and the Donation continued to be regarded as authentic until cardinal Caesar Baronius finally admitted it was a forgery in his Ecclesiastical Annals (written between 1588-1607). The Donation of Constantine became one of focal points for leaders of Protestant reformation like Martin Luther and Jean Calvin who, like the earlier Cathars and Waldensians, correctly pointed to the document to prove that Catholic church had completely compromised itself and fallen into abominable sin and corruption.
Religious-political imperialism of Catholic church reached its zenith with papacy of Gregory VII. (1073-1085). This deranged Catholic fanatic, who was obsessed with the idea that all power in the world (spiritual and secular) should be vested in Roman popes, wrote in 1075 Dictate of Pope (Dictatus papae), a compilation of 27 statements of power and privileges, allegedly bestowed on the popes by God. Since I believe that a vast majority of Indian leaders are not familiar with ravings of this bigot, let me quote just several of above-mentioned statements to demonstrate their extremism and utter arrogance, which bordered on insanity:
- “The Roman Church was founded solely by God”;
- “Only the Pope can with right be called universal”;
- “He alone may use the Imperial insignia”;
- “All princes shall kiss the feet of the Pope alone”;
- “It may be permitted to him to depose emperors”;
- “A sentence passed by him may be retracted by no one. He alone may retract it”;
- “He himself may be judged by no one”;
- “The Roman Church has never erred. Nor will it err, to all eternity–Scripture being witness”.
These statements of pope Gregory VII. should be understood in the context of the so called investiture dispute (who is entitled to appoint bishops) with a stubborn German emperor Henry IV. During the pontificate of Innocent III. in the beginning of 13th century the papal inquisition was established, tasked with merciless persecution and punishment of “all heretics” (all who disagreed with Catholic dogmas and contested the supreme power of Roman popes). With this extremely ruthless and highly effective instrument of terror Catholic church in fact became the first totalitarian organization in the known history of humankind. It is known that two the most murderous dictators in the 20th century (Adolf Hitler of Germany and Joseph Stalin of Soviet Union) privately admired Catholic church and its vast apparatus of persecution, punishment and intimidation.[iv] Not to forget to mention that their bloodthirsty henchmen from Gestapo and KGB learned from the torture manuals of papal and Spanish inquisitions.
Despite of all repression and propaganda we have witnessed gradual, but inexorable decline of Catholic power and influence in the Western countries in the last 500 years. This trend has gained scope and speed in the last century and half due to variety of reasons (progress of science and technology, increasing literacy and education, rise of anti-Christian ideologies, Catholic collaboration with rightwing totalitarian regimes, growing presence of Dharmic religions in the West, appalling sexual and financial scandals of Catholic clergy etc.) Personal secretary of pope-emeritus Benedict XVI., archbishop Georg Gänswein, last year lamented over desperate situation in the Church: “The number of people turning their back on the Church is dramatic. Even more dramatic, however, is another statistic: According to the most recent surveys, of the Catholics who have not yet left the Church in Germany, only 9.8 percent still meet on Sunday in their places of worship to celebrate the Blessed Eucharist together.”[v] I must be objective and add that position of Catholic church is better in those European countries, where Catholicism had been woven into the fabric of national identity (Poland, Croatia, Ireland …), but even there winds of disenchantment with this violent and corrupt institution are blowing strongly.
Taking into account this, the Catholic hierarchy in Vatican has tried – if I may use business terminology – for decades to shift the bulk of its operations/machinations to the developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The rationale of this shift is clear: these are mostly still poor countries, their populations are not (yet) educated and pampered like in the West and are therefore more inclined to believe in a sheer nonsense called Catholic dogmatics, there are many ruthless and corrupt dictators that will gladly cooperate with Church, pedophile priests and monks can roam freely there … It is no secret that Vatican hierarchy is, above all, eager to see a large scale conversion of Indian Hindus into Catholicism. In order to achieve this objective, Catholic clergy has endeavored for centuries – sending in missionaries, building churches and monasteries in India, setting up kindergartens, schools and orphanages and producing all sorts of machinations and lies to promote the spread of Catholic version of Christianity in India/Bharat (myth of St. Thomas, fabrication of “fifth Veda”, promotion of “Dravidian Christianity”, appropriation of Hindu arts etc.)[vi]
Few years ago I was told by an ex-Jesuit (he is of French origin and he left the ranks of Catholic clergy, because he experienced amply from the inside how corrupt and depraved Catholic church is) that there are several Catholic institutes around the globe studying and planning mainly how to “abundantly harvest souls in India”. Right now there are around 20 million of Catholics in India/Bharat, but Vatican hopes that this number could rise to 130-150 million by 2050, provided that well-planned and assertive missionary activities are carried out all over the country and especially in southern states (Telengana, Andra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Goa). According to him, Vatican regards India/Bharat (contrary to totalitarian China) as quite conducive to missionary efforts of the Church (open and vibrant democracy with religious freedom, free media, many cleavages between castes, ethnic, linguistic and religious groups, fragmentation of Hindu religion, general admiration of everything Western among Indians, predominantly negative attitude of domestic left-liberal elite toward Hindu religious and cultural heritage etc.) If necessary, in order to facilitate its agenda, Vatican is even willing to covertly provide adequate support to separatist forces, especially in the southern part of India/Bharat (spectre of “good Christian Dravidians” fighting “evil Hindu Aryans”).
India/Bharat is also of paramount importance to Vatican (and to Protestant and Islamic fundamentalists as well) due to the fact that it remains the last grand Pagan civilization in the world. Aggressive Abrahamisms (Christianity and Islam) managed to almost totally obliterate brilliant Pagan civilizations of antiquity (Rome, Greece, Egypt, Persia, Mayas, Aztecs, Incas …), but Vedic Bharat still defies them, standing proudly and even conquering minds and hearts of people all over the world with its unsurpassable spiritual wisdom. Vedic spirituality that is spreading in the West like a wild fire, is a painful thorn in the side of Catholic clergy, which is aware (at least on the subconcious level) that its fake theology and dubious “spiritual” practices cannot really in the long term compete with profound divine wisdom of Vedic rishis.
So, dear Hindu brothers and sisters in India/Bharat and elsewhere in the world, be proud of your/our spritual and cultural heritage and guard it, because it is the most valuable treasure imaginable! And keep a close eye on nefarious proselytizing activities of Catholics and other Abrahamic offshoots (Protestants and, of course, Moslems). In carrying out this sacred duty, be bold and fearless; namely, Abrahamists are afraid of those who are fearless and determined. Work tirelessly for the unity of Sanatana Dharma and that India/Bharat finally becomes again Hindu Rashtra in the full meaning of this expression. And, of course, you can always count on a wholehearted support of us, Pagans in the West!
Occidental Pagan
European student and admirer of Sanatana Dharma and other Pagan religions
[i] Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya, Sanatana Dharma – The Eternal Natural Way (Omaha 2015), 256-257.
[ii] More in: Luigi Cascioli, La favola di Cristo (Viterbo 2009).
[iii] https://www.ancient.eu/Donation_of_Constantine/, 5.
[iv] We can say – without any exaggeration – that Catholicism has been a forerunner and role-model of secular totalitarianisms of 20th century.
[v] https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/resources/politics/issues/the-nine-eleven-of-the-catholic-church, 3.
[vi] More in: Rajiv Malhotra, Aravindan Neelakandan, Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines (New Delhi 2011), 88-150.
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