USA Jurisprudence in the lap of the Vatican

 

Koot van Wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

 

The Vatican is an independent country with the pope as its king. It rules 1.2 million Catholics worldwide. They are submissive to the pope if they are catholic serious. As the Vicarius filii dei actor replacing the Holy Spirit in this role, the papacy and his clerics controls the salvation of all their dependents or members. Unless they receive the superstitiously real body of Christ in the Eucharist and real blood in the wine becoming blood, they are not saved. Someone said: they do not use the vicarius filii dei any longer, it is vicarius Christi. What is the difference? Theologically in the Bible and catholic theology both are the same.

But that is not the point here.

How can one say that the USA is in the lap of the Vatican? In 2018?

No. Already in 1888.

The book by Justin D. Fulton on the same subject called all to wake up that Rome has taken over the USA.

He wrote that “Fifteen thousand department clerks are under the surveillance of Rome. If it be not true, as is charged, that a private wire runs from the White House, in Washington, to the Cardinal s Palace, in Baltimore, and that every important question touching the interests of Romanism in America is placed before his eye, before it becomes a public act, it is true that the Cardinal is a factor in politics. Romanism is the dominant power in the Capitol of the United States. Lincoln, Grant, and Arthur withstood it, and suffered the consequences. The power is unseen. It is shadowy. It inhabits the air and infects it. Romanism is the malaria of the spiritual world. It stupefies the brain, deadens the heart, and sears the conscience as with a hot iron. It comes, as did the tempter, with gifts in its hands, of rule, of power, and of wealth, to all who will fall down and worship it. They who yield have peace and praise. They who refuse must fight a terrible foe.” (Fulton 1888, Preface page VIII).

This writing is not to dispute that or confirm it. The year is 2018 and this time it is an article by E. Livni on the 11th of July trying to apologetically calm the fears of many that religion and politics will from the 6th of October 2018 mixed in the Supreme Court of the USA.

Livni in her article provided the facts though:

1.   Judge Kavanaugh is a religious Catholic. “Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is religious—just like all the sitting justices” (Livni, 2018).

2.   Kavanaugh placed this point upfront in his nomination speech: “Kavanaugh put his faith front and center while accepting the nomination on July 9. ‘I am a Catholic,’ he told the audience in  the White House East Room, explaining that he’s active in the Washington, DC, Catholic community and engaged in church volunteer work like feeding the homeless” (Livni, 2018).

3.   He went to a Jesuit preparatory school “Kavanaugh professes to follow the creed ‘Men for others,’ which is the motto of his Jesuit high school, Georgetown Preparatory School” (Livni, 2018).

4.   Nearly all the judges are catholic except one who was raised a catholic but are now attending a progressive Episcopalain Church in Denver Colorado. Some are Jewish. No Protestant. “The bench’s Catholic contingent includes chief justice John Roberts as well as justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Sonia Sotomayor. Anthony Kennedy, whom Kavanaugh would be replacing, is also Catholic, while Neil Gorsuch was raised as Catholic but most recently attended a progressive Episcopalian church in Denver, Colorado. Meanwhile, justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Elena Kagan are all Jewish” (Livni, 2018). Six Catholics, three Jewish, one Episcopalian and none Protestant.

5.   What is happening now is a departure of what happened earlier in American history: “This religious makeup is a striking departure from most of the court’s history. For the first 180 years of the Supreme Court, Protestant justices dominated” (Livni, 2018).

6.   “Catholics were few—the first was appointed in 1836—and there were no Jews at all until 1916, with the appointment of Louis Brandeis” (Livni, 2018).

7.   Statistics of change/healing of the ‘deadly wound’: “Since the court’s inception in 1789, there have been 91 Protestant judges named out of 113 total justices” (Livni, 2018).

8.   A shift happened towards Catholics and Jews: “The recent shift from a Protestant court to a bench with none—or maybe one, if Gorsuch counts—has been attributed to the fact that Jews and  Catholics have overcome much of the discrimination those groups previously faced in the US” (Livni, 2018).

9.   Religion is still important in the Supreme Court: “The public pays attention to the justices’ religions in part because they face cases about faith every term. In the past year, for example, the Supreme Court has weighed in on Trump’s ban on travel for citizens of six mostly-Muslim nations, and a baker’s faith-based

9.decision not to create a wedding cake for a gay couple” (Livni, 2018).

 

10.             About Kavanaugh Liberals are scared that he will break down their abortion rights and gay rights: “Liberals are worried that Kavanugh’s presence on the bench could lead to decisions that erode abortion rights and even overturn Roe v. Wade altogether” (Livni, 2018).

 

11.             Judges makes decisions against their conviction sometimes: “William Brennan, the justice who convinced the majority of  the Supreme Court to legalize abortion in 1972, was a Catholic who personally opposed the practice” (Livni, 2018). And Sunday Laws maybe?

Sources:

1) E. Livni (2018, July 11). Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is religious—just like all the sitting justices. Downloaded on the 8th of October 2018 from https://qz.com/1324757/supreme-court-nominee-brett-kavanaugh-is-religious-just-like-all-the-sitting-justices/

 

2) Justin Fulton, (1888). Washington in the Lap of Rome. Boston: Published by W. Kellaway. Downloaded on the 8th of October 2018 from

https://ia902609.us.archive.org/30/items/washingtoninthel00fultuoft/washingtoninthel00fultuoft.pdf