An Address By L. H. Lehmann

Delivered in Toronto, Lindsay, Brantford, London, and Hamilton, Ont., Canada, in connection with the Annual Meetings of The Canadian Protestant League, October 22 to 28, 1946.

[Webmaster's introduction: "Protestantism" is a word hardly in use today. The Catholic Church doesn't attack Protestant churches anymore. And why not? Because the Vatican feels Protestantism as a movement is dead! The Jesuits killed it. What remains are only individual researchers and former Catholic priests who are exposing the devices of the Pope, the Vatican, the Jesuits, and other Catholic orders in the geopolitical realm.

One of my friends accused me of "beating a dead horse." Ha! The horse is very much alive and mean as ever! Just look at the American government today. Biden's cabinet is filled with Catholics. Don't be deceived by smiling Roman Catholic clerics.

Psalms 55:21 The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.

The most fascinating thing for me about Leo Lehmann's speech is we can see what he said in 1946 being applied today in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine!]

THERE IS NO DOUBT that the time has come when Protestants must take definite action to defend the heritage of their faith against the aggressions of the Roman Catholic church. Protestant leaders are becoming aware of this fact, and warn of the need for definite action. Dr. W. W. Ayer, Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, New York City, for example, in a recent series of articles on the future of Protestantism, declares:

“Protestantism, as a religious and social force in America is rapidly being driven into a corner, and soon will be fighting for its very life if the present trend will continue.”

Of Roman Catholicism in America, Dr. Ayer says:

“We have noted the growth of the Roman Catholic church — its powerful personnel, its ever- expanding institutions, its alertness and efficiency, its ability to get tremendous publicity for its causes and religious pageantry… all of which is shoving Protestant Christianity out of the pub-licity picture, making the religious public feel that the faith on which our nation was largely founded is now passé”

Dr. Ayer speaks truly when he points out:

“It was Protestantism largely that gave this world the greatest and freest country on earth. It was the centrality of Protestant belief and Protestant institutions that made for our greatness.”

Never before, in our times, has the Vatican made so clear its determination to seize world control Pope Pius XII took advantage of the most solemn occasion last February 20, before his entire College of Cardinals gathered in Rome, to issue a call to the Catholic church throughout the world to mobilize for war. Herbert L. Matthews, noted New York Times correspondent, styled the Pope’s speech “the mobilization of world Catholicism” and a call to “open war.” He agreed with other correspondents in Rome that at last the Roman Catholic church had openly and officially declared its aims for worldwide political power. Even the conservative New York Herald Tribune, second largest of New York’s morning newspapers, in an editorial on February 23, stated that “it is the deliberate intention of the Catholic church to move more actively into mundane affairs.”

The Pope, himself, passionately declared:

“The church must reject, more emphatically than ever, that false and narrow concept of her spirituality, which would confine her, blind and mute, in the retirement of the sanctuary.”

How much the secular press publicizes the Pope’s bid for power, may be seen from the following quotation in the Saturday Evening Post, of September 21, which says:

“Under Pope Pius’ leadership the Catholic church has emerged as the most successful force in politics this side of the ‘iron curtain.’”

Roman Catholic newspapers have taken up the cue, and hail this open declaration of war by the Pope. The Catholic Register, popular Catholic paper published in 43 States, had banner headlines recently (Sept. 22): “Pope Pius XII World’s Greatest Man.” “Magazine Editor Sees Pius XII as Top Statesman and Church Leader in World Crisis.”

Roman Catholic Bishop Henry J. Grimmelsman, of Evansville, Ill., urging a group of Catholic businessmen “to active participation in politics,” told them, according to the Chicago Tribune of last May 5: “The Pope wishes the clergy to enter politics, and not to confine themselves to the sanctuary. The idea that the church is not in politics is dangerous.”

A sample of what the Roman Catholic church in America is doing to line up its forces under the banner of “militant Catholic action” was contained in a speech by Bishop John F. Noll, of Fort Wayne, Ind., before 1,000 delegates to the National Council of Catholic Women in Kansas City, Mo., last September 23. This Roman Catholic women’s organization claims 5,000,000 members, and Bishop Noll’s crusading speech, according to the New York Times’ report, was intended to rally these 5,000,000 women to fight on every front in American life — “for militant action in professional, educational, trade union, and political fields.” Bishop Noll called upon the following for aggressive action: Catholic members of Congress, the thousands of Catholic industrialists, bankers, Catholic lawyers, physicians, and graduates of Catholic colleges. He also called upon Catholics in organized labor, claiming that Catholics constitute from forty to fifty percent of Labor Union memberships. In the field of politics, Bishop Noll declared:

“The time has arrived when Catholics should not be blind voters in keeping with their long-time Democratic or Republican faith. Before voting they should consider the candidate’s fitness, and the measures he proposes to support.”

The strategy of the Catholic church therefore is obvious:

To cross all lines — in politics, business, religion, labor, and the professions — in order to gather under its banner every conceivable force in the Protestant democratic world. It will then be ready to launch us all into its frightful “holy war” against Russia.

The aim of the Vatican is to crush the English-speaking democratic countries by means of this annihilating war against Russia. And what should rouse us to action is the fact that in doing so, the Pope is merely carrying on where Hitler left off. The Pope first beat the war drums for Hitler; now he is beating the drums for war against Soviet Russia. [Webmaster's note: Do you think this applies today to the Russian-Ukrainian war? I sure do! If Russia actually does win and defeats the Vatican led Western powers, I think it may be a possible fulfillment of the prophecy in Revelation chapter 18 of the destruction of Babylon the Great.] Very few people were aware how much the Vatican was involved in the rise of Mussolini and Hitler to power. Even the keenest observers in the United States were not aware of this fact until it was almost too late. In 1940, when Hitler’s legions had already broken through Belgium and the Netherlands, and were over-running France, and threatening England, American people were still unaware of the threat to their own safety, and totally ignorant of the part which the Vatican had played in the Nazi-Fascist war against Christian civilization. Louis Munford, noted author, wrote a book at that time entitled: Faith for Living, and on page 160 he says:

“Political interpreters have set various dates for the beginning of the Fascist uprising against civilization; but most of them go back no farther than 1931. This is a curious blindness; for the beginning of the betrayal of the Christian world, very plainly, took place in 1929, in the Concordat that was made between Mussolini and the Pope.”

The same was the case with regard to Hitler, who would have been a complete failure had it not been for the support given to him by the Vatican. In his book on Franz Von Papen, Satan in Top Hat, Tibor Koeves, (page 215), says of the Vatican’s Concordat with Hitler which was signed by Pope Pius XII and Von Papen:

“The Concordat was a great victory for Hitler. It gave him the first moral support he received from the outer world, and this from the most exalted source. Upon Von Papen was conferred the highest papal decoration and… the man who caused the downfall of Bruening was now feted as Defender of the Faith.”

Having failed to establish world dominion in alliance with Mussolini and Hitler, the Vatican is now using their slogans to lead a crusade, under the guise of democracy, for a holy war against Russia, and thereby to force English-speaking Protestant democratic countries under its banner.

This places the great body of Protestant and non-Catholic people in a dilemma. Protestants of the United States, Canada and England, abhor the philosophy of Marxist Communism as much as they detest the teachings and intrigues of the Roman Catholic church. But the strategy of the Vatican is to try to force this great body of Protestant people to believe that they must take refuge under the Pope’s cloak, as the only way to save their Christian faith. But is Communism more of a threat to us than Roman Catholicism? In the whole of the United States there are very few Communists.¹ They can scarcely muster 50,000 votes all told in a national election. The Roman Catliolic church, however, has a voting bloc of many millions of votes in the United States alone. It claims close to 30,000,000 followers in Canada and United States combined. There are close to 6,000 well-trained Jesuits in the United States, the largest group of Jesuits in any country. England has over 4,000 of them. Already the Roman Catholic church, to a great extent, controls business, the movies, education, and influences politics in all the largest cities of the North American Continent. Local politicians in New York, for example, will never dare to undertake anything without consultation first with the “power house” — the Cardinal’s residence on Madison Avenue. You have the same condition here in Canada, I expect. I will not mention South America, Argentina especially, and the treatment of Protestants in those cointries where the Roman Catholic church has control of the Government. Nor will I mention Franco Spain, Salazar’s Portugal, two definitely Fascist courtries, completely under the sway of the Roman Catholic church, and where freedoms are unknown — where Protestantism has no legal existence, where the masses of the people live in fear, ignorance and economic slavery.

There is no real, immediate danger of Communism getting control in the United States, Canada or the British Empire. But not only is there the danger of Roman Catholicism getting control; it already is firmly entrenched in all those countries. The Federal Council of Churches recently issued a statement regarding our relations with Russia, and wisely declared:

“War with Russia can be avoided, and it must be avoided, without compromise of basic convictions.”

Mr. Sumner Welles, speaking at Convocation Hall here in Toronto a few days ago, categorically declared:

“I regard it as a delusion, and a dangerous one, that democracy and communism cannot exist simultaneously in the same world.”

President Truman likewise, in his speech at the opening of the United Nations this week in New York, expressed himself in like manner. None of these top statesmen, however, will dare tell the public that it is the Roman Catholic church who is the war monger whom we must resist.

The real object of attack by the Catholic church is not Communism, but Protestantism. For the past 400 years, since the Reformation, the Jesuits and the Catholic church have tried every means to destroy the work of the Reformation — by fire and sword, by intrigue and political maneuvers. They look upon Communism, in fact, merely as a by-product of Protestantism, because it was Protestantism that first destroyed the political power of the Pope over all the nations of Europe in the 16th century. Its present attack on Russia is an oblique kind of blitzkrieg on Protestantism.

The result of this papal strategy is the fact that two totalitarian forces — Rome to the right of us, and Russia to the left of us — are rising up like two giants to battle for the possession of the great mass of Protestant and democratic nations in between. Most dangerous to us is the idea being propagated that we must choose either one or the other to rule us. An inferiority complex is being bred into Protestant people, that they no longer have the power themselves to find a way out of this dilemma, and that they must choose either to run for protection under the Pope’s coat tails, or allow themselves to be swallowed up by the Red Dragon of Russia. It all tends to make Protestants forget that they have a greater power than that of Rome and Russia combined — the very power of God in the Gospel of Christ.

Protestants need scarcely be reminded of what happens when the Roman Catholic church gains dominion over any country. They would do well, however, to recall what happened in the past in England and Europe. I have only to mention the massacre of St. Bartholomew’s night of August 24, 1572, and of the torture and killings in England under Bloody Mary. You know of the attempts of the Pope’s agents to assassinate Queen Elizabeth even after the power of Rome was destroyed in England.

A recent edition of the Saturday Review of Literature (July 23, 1946), reviewing Evelyn Waugh’s book on Edmund Campion, one of a band of Jesuit saboteurs who invaded England to stir up rebellion against the Queen, quotes the public orders of the Pope’s Secretary of State to kill Queen Elizabeth as follows:

“Since that guilty woman of England rules over two such noble kingdoms of Christendom and is the cause of so much injury to the Catholic faith and loss of so many million souls, there is no doubt that whosoever sends her out of the world with the pious intention of doing God service, does not sin but gains merit.”

The recent news of what happened in Yugoslavia is a sample of what must be expected when the Catholic church gets into power in any country. When Hitler and Mussolini, with the direct help of the Vatican, took over Yugoslavia, they set up the puppet regime of the assassin Ante Pavelitch, head of the Ustashi. The Duke of Spoleto, cousin of the King of Italy, was made King of Croatia and his appointment was confirmed by the Pope who received the new king in private audience in April, 1941. Pavelitch was also received in audience by the Pope the following day and then set out fo Yugoslavia to carry out the plan of murder and forced conversion of the Serbians to the Roman Catholic church.

The part taken by Archbishop Stepinac in these murders and forced conversions is given in detail by Sime Balen in the New York Times last week (October 15, 1946). This Sime Balen is at present Counselor of the Yugoslav Emassy in Washington, D. C., and describes himself as “a Croat and a Catholic, and an eye-witness to the tragic events in Croatia from 1941 to 1945… The Ustashi torturers of the Pavelitch regime, with which Archbishop Stepinac was so closely allied under Hitler’s protection” he says, murdered during those years approximately 50,000 Croatian and Bosnian Jews, or over two-thirds of Yugoslavia’s pre-war population of 70,000.”

As to the murder and forced conversion of the two million Orthodox Serbs in Croatia, this Roman Catholic official and eye-witness declares:

“There were two million Serbs in Croatia when Hitler set up the Pavelitch puppet regime in April, 1941, and the policy then officially proclaimed was that a third of these were to be forcibly converted from the Orthodox to the Catholic faith, a third were to be driven back to Serbia, and a third were to be killed. Dr. Stepinac, a member of Pavelitch’s parliament (Sabor), Apostolic Vicar in Pavelitch’s army, and a member of the Committee for the Conversion of Serbs to Catholicism, made no effort to save these priests and did not even intervene on behalf of his colleague, Dr. Dositej, the Metropolitan of Zagreb who was barbarously tortured before being put to death… I am told that it is hard for Americans to comprehend the enormity of these crimes. For us who lived through them it is hard to forget.”

Remember, this is not taken from some medieval history, but is an eyewitness’ account in the New York Times of last week.

As a result of the trial and conviction of Archbishop Stepinac, the Vatican solemnly excommunicated Marshal Tito and his government on October 14th. Herbert Matthews, the New York Times’ reliable correspondent in Rome, cabled the following on that date:

“The Vatican’s step is without precedent in recent history, though communications even of royalty were not unknown as late as the last century. Although Adolf Hitler was a Catholic, he was not excommunicated for his persecution of religion.”

Here we have a proof that the Roman Catholic church has not changed its medieval method of destroying its enemies. When persuasion fails, it uses fire and sword to kill out all who will not forcibly be converted to Roman Catholic beliefs. Heads of governments are excommunicated if they dare to interfere in the cause of justice.

A solution must be found at once in order to extricate Protestants from the dilemma in which the Roman Catholics have placed them. The first thing to remember is that there is no need for Protestants to make a choice between Rome and Russia. They must remember that there is a third side to this question — the Protestant side. There is no need for Protestants to be stampeded into making a choice between the power of the Pope and the power of Communist Russia. Protestants have in their possession a power greater than both of these combined, namely, the very power of God in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. With St. Paul they must declare, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to them that believe.” Protestants will lose their freedoms only after they have first lost their religious convictions which have made their freedoms possible. Freedom, as we know it, came out of the Protestant Reformation. The basis of this freedom was deep religious conviction. If we are losing this freedom we had better ask ourselves are we not first of all losing the religious convictions of the early Protestants that made this freedom possible. The greatest need today is for a revival of the power of God in the hearts of true believers, and an outpouring of this spiritual power upon the world to counteract the destructive power of material inventions.

Military alliances, balances of power, leagues of nations, all in turn have failed. The problems facing us today, like all others in the past, have a spiritual basis. Today, as never before, is there need for a spiritual revival that will synchronize with the rapid advance in the destructive power of science. This revival must be of the spirit, if we are to save the flesh.

Incitement to war against Russia must be avoided. We must listen to the wise counsels of those who tell us that everything will be lost if we are stampeded into an unnecessary war with the Soviet power. Such a war would benefit only the Roman Catholic church, who would then have obtained its objective of so weakening the English-speaking Protestant Democratic nations that it would be an easy matter for the Church of Rome to take over world control. Not Rome, not Russia, but Christ, must rule the world.

1. The exact number of votes received by Earl Browder, Communist Presi- dential candidate in 1940, was 46,251.↩