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January 12, 2006 AD

Just when you thought you'd seen and heard it all, the Vatican drops another bombshell. This time, the head of the so-called "Pontifical Committee for Historical Science," one "Msgr." Walter Brandmuller, has launched a campaign to rehabilitate the man the Blessed Lord Jesus Christ called "the Son of Perdition," Judas Iscariot. Brandmuller is supported by Vittorio Messori, a well-known "Catholic" writer with ties to "Pope" Benedict XVI and, formerly, John Paul II.

Here are two official news reports of this case:

"Judas the Misunderstood" by the London Times

"Vatican moves to clear Judas' Name" by Ynetnews

Purported Correction: Msgr. Brandmuller Misquoted?

Related to that, you can view pictures of A Novus Ordo Church's "Requiem for a Friend" exhibition in honor of Judas.

 

Novus Ordo Watch commentary:

Apparently the Revolution of the current Vatican Establishment has not yet gone far enough. They are not content with their destruction of the Catholic Faith up until this point. It appears they are hellbent to go even further, until virtually nothing that was believed until the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958 remains standing. They have laid impious hands on just about everything that is holy. Their latest work of destruction now focuses on Judas Iscariot. Though God Himself has made it clear in His Written Word that Judas was possessed by the devil and freely and deliberately betrayed Christ, the people running the New Church now want to move to rehabilitate that "Son of Perdition," as he was called by God Himself (John 17:12), since the truth about Judas Iscariot does not fit well with their new, "everybody-goes-to-Heaven" religion of "peace and love."

For all those who up until this point were still not convinced that the Vatican Establishment is not the Catholic Church but a new religion whose purpose it is to destroy Catholicism and send people to hell, this is hopefully the last piece of evidence they were waiting for. It is really out in the open now, in plain sight for all to see. The Lord said, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear" (Matthew 11:15). Likewise, he who has eyes to see, let him see! They are about to rehabilitate the Son of Perdition! What more do you need to see what's going on?

Novus Ordo Watch received an email with the following lines. It sums up recent events very well. Take a look:

They have repealed the excommunication of Luther and said he was not a heretic.
Repeal[ed] the excommunication of the Eastern Orthodox.
They claim that Jews were not responsible for putting Christ to death.
Now no need for a limbo, all infants go to heaven.
Judas will soon be a patron saint for the suicide victims.
It all make prefect sense to me now.
Nobody goes to Hell anymore.
Heaven and Hell are not real places.
Next, it will be the bad thief on the cross; [he] will be the next patron saint of the criminals.

Anyone who reads the Holy Gospels even once knows that Judas is lost. He is eternally in hell. This is no cause for joy, to be sure; it is greatly to be deplored and given us as an example that if we, having been faithful disciplies of Christ, fall away, we too shall be eternally lost, like Judas. Now, Christ would have forgiven him, if Judas had only not despaired. All Judas needed to do was repent of his evil and beg for forgiveness. Alas, though he regretted what he had done (see Matthew 27:3-4), he fell into the sin of despair, the sin against the Holy Ghost, which is unforgivable because it make repentance impossible (cf. Matthew 12:32). And so Judas committed suicide, and thus, not asking for forgiveness for his betrayal but committing yet another mortal sin (suicide), he made it impossible to be forgiven. This is a great tragedy, but it is true, and the Catholic Church has affirmed this truth from day one.

Looking at the "arguments" put forth by the Judas Rehabilitators, we find them to be nothing but amateurish and uneducated. But this can surely not be attributed to "sincere" or even "inculpable" ignorance on the part of these Rehabilitators, who must know these fundamental truths in which they were once educated. No, they are surely driven by an impious desire for novelty, wishing to change what God has revealed and what we have received from the Apostles. The Holy Scriptures and Church Tradition are crystal-clear, and so we cannot but presume malicious intent in those who put forth a rehabiliation of the "misunderstood" Judas. Ah well. Apparently even God misunderstood? Here are some pertinent passages of Holy Writ:

Matthew 26:24
"The Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him. But woe to that man by whom the Son of man shall be betrayed. It were better for him, if that man had not been born."

Luke 22:3
"And Satan entered into Judas, who was surnamed Iscariot, one of the twelve."

John 13:2
"And when supper was done (the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray him)..."

John 17:12
"While I was with them, I kept them in thy name. Those whom thou gavest me have I kept: and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition: that the scripture may be fulfilled."

These are the words of God Himself in inspired Scripture. This settles the question for any and every real Catholic.

So, what do the Judas Rehabilitators argue? According to the news reports, Messori suggests that a Judas in hell poses the problem of "an apparent lack of mercy by Jesus toward one of his closest collaborators" -- a very impious thing to say, easily refuted by recalling that Christ wanted to forgive Judas, as He desperately wants to forgive everyone, but this cannot happen unless the sinner actually repent and ask for forgiveness. Judas, instead, despaired and killed himself--thus making all forgiveness impossible.

One Fr. Allen Morris asks: "If Christ died for all — is it possible that Judas too was redeemed through the Master he betrayed?" This question betrays (no pun intended) either an entirely ignorant mind or a very disingenuous one. Of course Christ redeemed all -- that is, He made it possible for all to be saved. But though Christ's Redemption makes it possible for all to be saved, does not mean that therefore everyone will be saved, but only those who, having repented of their sins and having been reconciled to God before the end of their lives, die in a state of grace. This is fundamental Catholic dogma.

That Judas was sinister and betrayed Christ for money is not something that has been "read into" the sacred text but is plainly stated therein:

Luke 22:3-6
And Satan entered into Judas, who was surnamed Iscariot, one of the twelve. And he went and discoursed with the chief priests and the magistrates, how he might betray him to them. And they were glad and covenanted to give him money. And he promised. And he sought opportunity to betray him in the absence of the multitude.

More on Judas can be found in the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1914.

Perhaps the most blasphemous attempt to rehabilitate Judas comes in the form of the argument that Judas was "only fulfilling prophecy" and therefore was actually aiding in bringing about the Redemption. This impiety, if true, would make Judas Iscariot a co-redeemer with Christ, similar in a way that the Blessed Virgin Mary is truly the Co-Redemptrix with Christ. This argument that Judas did not betray Christ of his own free will but was compelled to do so by divine direction is easily shot down. Thus, for instance, the commentary on John 17:12 in the Haydock Douay-Rheims Bible makes clear:

How did the devil enter into the heart of Judas? he could not have entered; had not he given him place. Wi.--That the Scripture may befulfilled: this does not any ways shew, that it was the will of God that Judas should be lost; but only that what happened to Judas was conformable to the prophecies, and not occasioned by them. Who will doubt, says S. Aug. (lib. de Unit. Eccl. c. ix.) but that Judas might, if he pleased, have abstained from betraying Christ. But God foretold it, because he foresaw clearly the future perversity of his disposition.

Likewise, the Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture by Dom Bernard Orchard (London, 1953) says on John 17:12:

Up to the present, Jesus has kept them [His disciples], so that none of them fell into such temptation as brought permanent rejection (cf. 18:9), except 'the son of perdition' -- a Semitism of metaphorical relation denoting destiny, like 'son of gehenna', 'son of death'. Judas was destined to perish, but by his own fault. The Scripture had foretold it, Ps 40(41):8. The treason of Judas, foreseen as the result of the traitor's own malice, was an element in the plan of redemption.

And -- drum roll -- even the modernistic post-Vatican II New Jerome Biblical Commentary by Fr. Raymond Brown et al., does not attempt to dispute Judas' guilt and loss of eternal salvation: "One, however, Judas, has perished" (Pheme Perkins, "The Gospel According to John," in New Jerome Biblical Commentary [Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990], par. 202, p. 978).

The allegation that Judas "couldn't help" but betray Christ seems to rest on the general philosophical error of determinism, which states that there is no free will, that all actions, all events, no matter how free they might appear, are predetermined (by God or nature). If the Rehabilitators want to argue that Judas betrayed Christ because he was required to fulfill prophecy (which is nothing but God foretelling what will happen because He foreknows it), then this same argument can be applied to all people and all events, since God foreknows everything, not just the betrayal of Judas. Since whether or not God foretells what he foreknows is simply an accidental thing and entirely irrelevant, the "Judas only fulfilled prophecy" argument, to be consistent, would have to apply to all people and all events--and thus destroy the dogma and fact of free will.

Finally, the objection of "Anti-Semitism" is ridiculous. Of course Judas was Jewish, but so were the faithful disciples, like SS. Peter, Andrew, Bartholomew, Simon, and so on.

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