Billy Graham, The Catholic Church, and Halley’s Bible Handbook
This is a section from Dr. Cathy Burn’s book, Billy Graham and His Friends, from the section, MARY IS THE CENTER. All emphasis in bold font are from the author.
Vatican II, however, was the instrument that helped the Vatican open up the door to the ecumenical movement. New Ager and occultist, Robert Muller, bragged: “There is no doubt that Paul VI, together with John XXIII and John Paul II, will be remembered as the three great Popes of Peace, pioneers of a momentous transcendence of the Catholic Church into the New Age.”
In spite of this, the Billy Graham organization recommended the biography of John XXIII which “contained hundreds of pages of the Pope’s devotion to Mary and the saints, worship of the Eucharistic wafer, and his trust in the sacraments for salvation….” Graham “commended it in ads as ‘a classic in devotion.’”
Pope John XXIII remarked: “Mary is the center of all things in the sight of God.” He also said: “Mary is the center and light of all theology. Without Mary’s light, theology is in darkness, in heresy. Without Mary, and if it were not for Mary, God would not have made the world.’”
Graham himself said in 1966: “I find myself closer to Catholics than the radical Protestants.”
Cardinal Cushing, a Roman Catholic from Boston, made an interesting comment to the press in the early 1950’s that “if he had half a dozen Billy Grahams, he would not worry about the future of his [Catholic] church!” In fact, Graham bragged: “No ranking member of the Catholic hierarchy spoke out against the [1957 New York Madison Square Garden] Crusade, and I suspect many Catholics knew of my friendship with various Catholic leaders.”
Graham confessed: “My goal, I always made clear, was not to preach against Catholic beliefs or to proselytize people who were already committed to Christ within the Catholic Church.”
He added: “I was grateful for the statement one U. S. Catholic newspaper made as it reviewed our first South American trip: ‘Never once, at least in our memory, has [Billy Graham—B.G.] attacked the Catholic Church.’”
The July 1972 issue of The Catholic Digest,
In 1978 Graham stated: “I found that my beliefs are essentially the same as those of orthodox Catholics.”
“The Detroit Free Press for Sept. 29, 1991, quoted Graham as saying, ‘The Roman Catholics know that I’m not against them, and in my thinking, rightly or wrongly, I represent all the churches.’”
Not only does Graham not attack the falseness in the Catholic Church but he even protects the wrong. For instance,
“around 1961, Billy Graham bought the rights to Halley’s Pocket Bible Handbook. The original Halley’s, up until the 22nd edition (1959), warned about the Jesuits. There are chapters about the Roman Papacy and the Jesuits. According to Mrs. Halley, Mr. Halley spent years working on those chapters and never would have permitted the book to be changed. However, when he died, Billy Graham bought the rights, and removed all the research and warning about the Jesuits in the editions Billy Graham printed.”
(End of the section.)
This article post really is shocking! It seems apparent Billy Graham made his connections publicly displayed with Catholic church hierarchy, most notable being Pope John, in order to make himself appealing to the huge numbers of people within the Catholic faith and beyond:
Billy Graham 1978 – “…my beliefs are essentially the same as those of orthodox Catholics.”
BG quote in The Detroit Free Press Sept.29,1991 -“The Roman Catholics know that I’m not against them, and in my thinking, rightly or wrongly, I represent all the churches.”
Obviously, Mr. Graham’s self-importance and arrogance was something I would bet millions of people, like myself!, never knew at the time!
The reverence, the wold-wide high-level notoriety, and the many millions of dollars he brought in to his organization did indeed put BG on a very very high pedestal.
I don’t want to be condemning but I do think he got carried away in his fame (and his fortune that resulted) that he was filled with self-importance and great pride. After all, the crowds he brought in looked as if the world revered him.
And then removing the research and information warming about the Jesuits in Halley’s Bible Handbook is amazing – buying the rights to the Handbook so that he could eliminate anything negative, but truthful, about the Jesuits is also shocking!
Billy Graham was a monument to Pride in himself, and we all know what God thinks of Pride.
Thank you James for this eye-opening post!! Good information we all should know to get more of the real story behind the story of Billy Graham.
Thank you Jackie for your encouragement and insightful comment!
no doubt about billy. he was a total fraud. he was in it for money and status.he will be judged for going along with the son of perdition.
Thank you for the tip on Halley’s Bible Handbook, James, I will be looking for an early edition!