Completion of Passion-Arousing Wine

"In his Pastoral Letter of the 19th of October [1935], the Bishop of Udine [Italy] wrote, 'It is neither timely nor fitting for us to pronounce on the rights and wrongs of the case. Our duty as Italians, and still more as Christians is to contribute to the success of our arms.' The Bishop of Padua wrote on the 21st of October, 'In the difficult hours through which we are passing,we ask you to have faith in our statesmen and armed forces.' On the 24th of October, the Bishop of Cremona consecrated a number of regimental flags and said: "The blessing of God be upon these soldiers who, on African soil, will conquer new and fertile lands for the Italian genius, thereby bringing to them Roman and Christian culture. May Italy stand once again as the Christian mentor to the whole world.' "

Abyssinia was raped, with the blessing of the Roman Catholic clergy. Could any of these claim, in any sense, that they were like the apostle Paul in being "clean from the blood of all men"? -Acts 20:26.

Add to Germany, Italy and Abyssinia another nation that has fallen victim to the fornication of Babylon the Great-Spain. The Civil War of 1936-39 in that land was sparked, in part, by the democratic government's taking steps to reduce the huge power of the Roman Catholic Fascist leader of the revolutionary forces, Franco, described himself as "the Christian Generalissimo of the Holy Crusade," a title that he later dropped. Several hundred thousand Spaniards died in the fighting . Apart from this, according to a conservative estimate, Franco's Nationalists had murdered 40,000 popular Front members, while the latter had murdered 80,000 clerics-monks, priests, nuns and novices. Such is the horror and tragedy of civil war. Illustrating the wisdom of heeding Jesus' words: "Return your sword to its place, for all those who take the sword will perish by the sword." (Matthew 26:52) How disgusting that Christendom gets involved in such massive bloodshed! Her clergy have indeed failed utterly to "beat their swords into plowshares."! - Isaiah 2:4.

Next time: The Traveling Merchants.