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The Priest Who Found Christ |
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Author: Joseph Zacchello |
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I was born in Venice, in northern Italy, on March 22,
1917. At the age of ten, I was sent to a Roman Catholic seminary in
Piacenza, and ordained a priest, after 12 years of study, on October
22, 1939.
Two months later Cardinal R. Bossi, my superior, sent me to America
as assistant pastor of the new Italian Church of Blessed Mother
Cabrini, in Chicago. For four years I preached in Chicago, and later
in New York. I never questioned if my sermons or instructions were
against the Bible. My only worry and ambition was to please the
pope.
It was on a Sunday, February 1944, when I turned on the radio and
accidentally tuned in on a Protestant church program. The pastor was
giving his message. I was going to change the program because I was
not allowed to listen to Protestant sermons, but interested, I do
not know why-I kept listening.
My old theology was shaken by one text from the Bible I heard over
the radio: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved." Therefore, it was not a sin against the Holy Spirit to
believe that one was saved.
I was not yet converted, but my mind was full of doubts about the
Roman religion. I was beginning to worry about the teachings of the
Bible more than about the dogmas and decrees of my pope.
Poor people were giving me, every day, from $5 to $30 for twenty
minutes of ceremony called Mass, because I promised them to free the
souls of their relatives from the fires of purgatory. But every time
I looked at the big crucifix upon the altar it seemed to me that
Christ was rebuking me, saying, "You are stealing money from poor,
hard-working people by false promises. You teach doctrines against
my teaching. Souls of believers do not go to a place of torment,
because I have said, 'Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord
from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from
their labours.' (Rev. 14:13). I do not need a repetition of the
sacrifices of the cross, because my sacrifice was complete. My work
of salvation was perfect and God has sanctioned it by raising me
from the dead. 'For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them
that are sanctified.' (Heb. 10:14). If you priests and the pope have
the power of liberating souls from purgatory with masses and
indulgences, why do you wait for an offering? If you see a dog
burning in the fire you do not wait for the owner to give you $5 to
take the dog away from it."
I could no longer face the Christ on the altar. When I was preaching
that the pope is the vicar of Christ, the successor of Peter, the
infallible rock upon which Christ's Church was built, a voice seemed
to rebuke me again: "You saw the pope in Rome; his large, rich
palace; his guards; men kissing his foot. Do you really believe that
he represents me?" I came to serve the people; I washed men's feet;
I had nowhere to lay my head. Look at me upon the cross. Do you
really believe that God has built His Church upon a man when the
Bible clearly says that Christ's vicar on earth is the Holy Spirit,
and not a man? (John 14:26). And that rock was Christ. If the Roman
church is built upon a man then it is not my Church."
I was still preaching that the Bible is not a sufficient rule of
faith, but that we need tradition and dogmas of the church to
understand the Scriptures.
But again a voice within me was saying, "You preach against the
Bible teaching; you preach nonsense. If Christians need a pope to
understand the Scriptures, what do they need to understand the pope?
I have condemned tradition because everyone can understand what is
necessary to know for personal salvation. 'But these are written,
that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and
that believing ye might have life through his name.' " John 20:31.
I was teaching my people to go to Mary, to the saints, instead of
going directly to Christ. But a voice within me was asking, "Who has
saved you upon the cross? Who paid your debt by shedding His blood?
Mary, the saints, or I, Jesus? You, and many other priests do not
believe in scapulars, novenas, rosaries, statutes, candles; but you
continue to keep them in your churches because you say simple people
need simple things to remind them of God. You keep them in your
churches because they are a good source of income. But I do not want
any merchandising in my Church. My believers should adore me-in
Spirit and in truth. Destroy these idols; teach your people to pray,
to come to me only."
Where my doubts were really tormenting me was inside the
confessional box.
People were coming to me, kneeling before me, confessing their sins
to me. And I, with a sign of the cross, was promising that I had the
power to forgive their sins. I, a sinner, a man, was taking God's
place, God's right.
That terrible voice was penetrating me, saying, "You are depriving
God of His glory. If sinners want to obtain forgiveness of their
sins they must go to God and not to you. It is God's law they have
broken. To God, therefore, they must make confession; to God alone
they must pray for forgiveness. No man can forgive sins, but Jesus
can, and does forgive sins. 'Thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he
shall save his people from their sins.' (Matt. 1:21). 'There is none
other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.'
(Acts 4:12). 'For there is one God and one mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus.' " I Tim. 2:5.
Every time I see a priest walking in the street, it seems
impossible, unbelievable-a dream-that I once, myself, had been a
Roman Catholic priest; that I had to believe what he has to believe;
that I had to teach what he has to teach. I clearly know why I left
the church of Rome, but what I cannot fully understand is why
priests stay in the priesthood.
I could not stay any longer in the Roman Catholic church because I
could not continue to serve two masters, the pope and Christ. I
could not believe two contradictory teachings, tradition and the
Bible. I had to choose between Christ and the pope; between
tradition and the Bible; and I have chosen Christ and the Bible.
I left the Roman priesthood and the Roman religion in 1944 and was
led by the Holy Spirit to evangelize Roman Catholics and urge
Christians to witness to them without fear. |
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Printed By: Faith Publishing House,
P.O. Box 518, Guthrie, OK 73044 |
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