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Review by Dr Pravin Thevathasan
Hostile Witnesses Martin Luther was quite happy to consider The Book of Maccabees as part of scripture until he debated the Catholic theologian Johann Von Eck, who demonstrated that Maccabees promoted prayers for the dead. Luther then proclaimed Maccabees to be non-canonical! Luther also had to admit that his faith alone doctrine led to a decline in moral behaviour. Some of his followers held that people who continue to sin without repentance are saved so long as they trusted Jesus. Such was the logic of the Lutheran heresy. Scripture alone meant that every Protestant could interpret scripture as they saw fit. Calvin had to admit that the "pious and holy bishops" of the early Church in the East and in Africa sought refuge in Rome when driven out by heretics. He concluded that the early Christians uniformly gave honour to Rome. It was the centre of orthodoxy. In the nineteenth century, the famous French author
Emile Zola wrote about Lourdes. As an anti-Catholic, he intended to
mock it. However, even he had to admit that some of the cures he came
across could not be explained by science alone. Zola suggested that
these people had been wrongly diagnosed. But in his book, he has a
character based on Marie Labranchu. She most certainly had tuberculosis
which was described in detail and she was cured of this at Lourdes. The
author also examines a Portuguese anti-clerical newspaper that had to
admit the truth of the miracle of the sun at Fatima in October, 1917. According to the anti-Catholic writer John Cornwell,
Pope Pius XII was "Hitler's Pope." The author quotes the Nazis as well
as Hitler himself to demonstrate that Pope Pius and the Catholic Church
were hated by them. Rather like the liberals of today, the Nazis
despised the Catholic clergy who were "interfering" in government
affairs. Goering and others were especially angry when the papal
encyclical against Nazism was read out from the pulpit. This encyclical
was co-authored by Cardinal Pacelli, soon to be Pope Pius XII. Hitler
hated the Catholic Church. Apparently, he would have even preferred a
Muslim Germany. The author has done a fine job in reminding us that
the enemies of the Church have unwittingly proved the truths of the
Catholic faith.
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