Why Pope Benedict XVI Really Resigned: The Insidious Relationship Between the Vatican and Islam

By Geri Ungurean

Remember when Pope Benedict resigned and how the world was so shocked?  No pope had resigned since the year 1400. It certainly was a hush hush matter at the Vatican. Not much was said or explained except that this was the choice of Pope Benedict.  I think not.  I think that this was the choice of the powers that be inside the Vatican – they made the decision that this man should step down; and the reason will shock you.

I knew what Pope Benedict had done before his resignation, but I didn’t know the impact it would have, or how the Vatican’s relationship with the Muslim world would be a key factor in the changes which came to fruition when Pope Francis took the papal throne.

I wrote a piece which published entitled:

An Unholy Alliance: Islam & The Vatican | Religion

In the the article for raptureready.com, I spoke briefly on a speech given by Pope Benedict at a commencement at a University in Regensburg, Bavaria.  The pope spoke words which although very true, Muslim clerics found to be offensive and disparaging to Islam.

The Washington Post did a piece on this topic in 2014, entitled:

“Regensburg Redux: Was Pope Benedict XVI right about Islam?” (ANALYSIS)

From the Washington Post piece:

Eight years ago this Friday, Sept. 12, Pope Benedict XVI delivered a lecture at the University of Regensburg in Bavaria in which he seemed to diagnose Islam as a religion inherently flawed by fanaticism.

It was an undiplomatic assertion, to say the least — especially coming a day after the 9/11 anniversary — and it sparked an enormous outcry among Muslims and came to be seen as one of a series of missteps that would plague Benedict’s papacy until he resigned last year.

Now, with the Islamic State on the march in the Middle East, leaving a trail of horrifying brutality and bloodshed that has shocked the world, some of Benedict’s allies on the Catholic right are saying, in effect, “He told you so.”

“Regensburg was not so much the work of a professor or even a pope,” wrote the Rev. Raymond de Souza in a column for the National Catholic Register, a conservative publication. “It was the work of a prophet.”

Eight years later “we have ISIS” — an acronym for the Islamic State — “And beheadings. And persecution. And hatred. And war,” added Elise Hilton in a blog post for the Acton Institute, a libertarian Catholic think tank.

“It appears that the world owes Pope Benedict an apology,” she wrote. – [1]

One of the quotes from Pope Benedict’s speech triggered an angry response from the Muslim world:

“Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”    (Emphasis mine)

The Muslim Response to Pope Benedict’s words

From Arabnews.com  (March 3, 2013)

Pope Benedict’s Resignation and Interfaith Dialogues

WHEN Pope Benedict XVI formally resigned last Thursday (Feb. 28), it was a dramatic moment. No pope had resigned since 1400, historians said. However, what I would like to address here is how Benedict’s papacy tried to reverse advances made in Catholic dialogue with other religions, especially Muslims, and what to expect from the new pope.

Early in his tenure, Pope Benedict XVI set the tone in his relationship with Islam and Muslims. In a speech he gave in Regensburg, Germany, in September 2006, he demonstrated poor understanding of Islam’s history and teachings.

The pope cited a 14th-century Byzantine emperor’s offensive remarks about Islam and the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). He then went on to accuse Muslims of spreading their faith by the sword, of intolerance toward those who differed with them, and that those attitudes were deeply rooted in their faith. None of these claims were true, of course, as many historians have since taken the pope to task for being so cavalier about the facts of history.

Muslims were deeply offended. There were uproar and widespread public protests throughout the Muslim world, as well as condemnations by scores of heads of state and religious leaders.

Many took the pope’s 2006 remarks not as an academic faux pas, but as an expression of deep hostility toward Muslims and their faith, calculated to reverse decades of Muslim-Christian dialogue that had led to significant achievements in improving their relationship.

It was especially ironic that the head of the Catholic church was critical of what he claimed to be Muslims’ intolerance toward non-Muslims, and their hostility to science and reason during their history. He could not have been unaware of the church’s bloody wars against non-Catholics, Muslims included, the Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades, burning at the stake of scientists and heretics. All of those events took place during a time when Muslims encouraged scientific innovation and tolerated heretics and non-Muslims, including many Christian churches that have survived until today, while they were made extinct in regions under the papacy’s influence.

Although Pope Benedict has since apologized for the Regensburg offensive remarks, the Vatican under his leadership continued to undo the work undertaken by his predecessors to improve dialogue within the Catholic Church and with other faiths.

It turned out that undermining dialogue with Muslims was just a small part of a greater project to unravel reforms undertaken under the Second Vatican Council 1962-1965 (Vatican II, for short), the most significant conclave in the Church’s modern history that has in many ways changed its character, direction and relations with the modern world. – [2]   (Emphasis mine)

Read rest of article from Arabnews.com

The Second Vatican Council and Changes Towards Islam

Number 841 in the book of Catechism  was added during the Second Vatican Council. It reads:

841 “The Church’s relationship with the Muslims. “The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day.” - [3]

I have written numerous articles on Islam Vs. Christianity.  The quote above from the Book of Catechism would have one believe that the Muslims and Christians worship the same God.  This is a lie from the pit of hell.  I have chosen two articles I have written to support the fact that the God of Christianity is in no way the same as the god of Islam – Allah:

The God of the Bible and Allah

The Real Jesus is NOT Isa from the Qur’an

I do hope that this article has brought clarity to why Pope Benedict had to step down from his position.  I sincerely do not believe that this was a decision he made on his own.

Now we see Pope Francis bring Muslim clerics to pray with him into the Vatican. This pope seems to be striving for a One World Religion.  According to Francis – even atheists can go to heaven!

Brethren, these times are wicked and they are such as we’ve not seen in our lifetimes. I pray right along with all of you that our Lord Jesus is coming soon to get His own!

This place is certainly not our home!

MARANATHA!

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[1]https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/regensburg-redux-was-pope-benedict-xvi-right-about-islam-analysis/2014/09/10/d14f0080-391c-11e4-a023-1d61f7f31a05_story.html 

[2]http://www.arabnews.com/columns/pope-benedict’s-resignation-and-interfaith-dialogue#

[3]https://carm.org/catholic-catechisms-view-muslim-god-wrong