As far as "mystery" is concerned, "mysterium fide" is pronounced at the what they refer to as the transformation of the bread and wine into the literal body and blood of Christ, with Rome's new Catechism explaining that liturgy "aims to initiate souls into the mystery of Christ (called 'mystagogy')," and all of the Church's liturgy being a "mystery."
Now the "whore" which the holy scriptures is talking about is engaged in spiritual fornication, of which the Vatican has been doing for many centuries. The Vatican has claimed since it's beginnings and maintains to this day that she is the worldwide headquarters of Christianity, with her pope claiming to be the one, true and exclusive representative of Elohim, refered to as "the vicar of Christ." Rome has been the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church for fifteen centuries, with the popes having long claimed their dominion over the world and its Peoples.
And according to Dave Hunt's book, Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503) claimed that all undiscovered lands belonged to the pope, with King John II of Portugal convinced that the pope had granted all that Columbus discovered exclusively to him and his country, while Ferdinand and Isabel of Spain thinking the pope had given the same lands to them.
And turning to Hunt's book again, Pope Alexander VI drew a north-south line down the global map of that day and gave everything on the east to Portugal and everything on the west to Spain. Thus "out of the plenitude of apostolic power" Africa went to Portugal and the Americas went to Spain, with the condition "to the intent to bring the inhabitants ... to profess the Catholic Faith."
Thus Roman Catholicism was forced upon Central and South America them by the sword and remain Catholic to this day, while North America (but not Quebec and Louisiana) was settled mostly by Protestants.
Keep in mind that the words "Vatican" and "Rome" are universally used interchangeably, with the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) exercising both religious and civil control over the entire city of Rome and its surroundings for a thousand years . Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) even abolished the Roman Senate, placing the administration of Rome directly under his command. And according to the 'Pocket Catholic Dictionary,' Rome is now the designation of "the whole ensemble of administrative and judicial offices through which the Pope directs the operations of the Catholic Church."
And turning to Hunt's book again, "The most definitive Catholic encyclopedia since Vatican II" declares:
"...hence, one understands the central place of Rome in the life of the Church today and the significance of the title, Roman Catholic Church, the Church that is universal, yet focused upon the ministry of the Bishop of Rome. Since the founding of the Church there by St. Peter, Rome has been the center of all Christendom."
According to the prophecy of the book of Revelation, the woman was dressed "in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication" (Rev. 17:4). Purple and scarlet were the colors of the Roman Caesars, and are the colors of the Catholic clergy. The Catholic Encyclopedia states:
"A cloak with a long train and a hooded shoulder cape ... [it] was purple wool for bishops; for cardinals, it was scarlet watered silk (for Advent, Lent, Good Friday, and the conclave, purple wool); and rose watered silk for Gaudete and Lactate Sundays; and for the pope, it was red velvet for Christmas Matins, red serge at other times.”
Turning again to Revelation, the “golden cup in her hand” also identifies with the RCC, with The Catholic Encyclopedia declaring:
“[It is] the most important of the sacred vessels…. [It] may be of gold or silver, and if the latter, then the inside must be surfaced with gold.” The Roman Catholic Church possesses many thousands of solid gold chalices kept in its churches around the world. Even the bloodstained cross of Christ has been turned to gold and studded with gems in reflection of Rome’s great wealth. The Catholic Encyclopedia says: “The pectoral cross [suspended by a chain around the neck and worn over the breast by abbots, bishops, archbishops, cardinals, and the pope] should be made of gold and…decorated with gems…”
Remember that much of the wealth of the RCC was stolen from the victims of its Inquisitions (which we will cover later), with even the dead exhumed to face trial and their property taken from their heirs by the Church. One historian writes:
“The punishments of the Inquisition did not cease when the victim was burned to ashes, or immured for life in the Inquisition dungeons. His relatives were reduced to beggary by the law that all his possessions were forfeited. The system offered unlimited opportunities for loot….
This source of gain largely accounts for the revolting practice of what has been called ‘corpse-trials.’… That the practice of confiscating the property of condemned heretics was productive of many acts of extortion, rapacity and corruption will be doubted by no one who has any knowledge either of human nature or of the historical documents…. no man was safe whose wealth might arouse cupidity, or whose independence might provoke revenge.”
Also, billions of dollars have been paid to the RCC by individual thinking they were purchasing their place in heaven on the installment plan for themselves or loved ones, with Cardinal Cajetan complaining about the sale of dispensations and indulgences, and Church hierarchy accused him of wanting “to turn Rome into an uninhabited desert, to reduce the Papacy to impotence, to deprive the pope… of the pecuniary resources indispensable for the discharge of his office.”
And Nino Lo Bello, who was a correspondent in Rome for Business Week, wrote that the Vatican is so closely allied with the Mafia in Italy that “many people … believe that Sicily … is nothing more than a Vatican holding.”
Also, don’t forget the value of its many sculptures, paintings and other art treasures and ancient documents of the Vatican and inside its cathedrals around the world.
Now turning to Revelation again, the Great Whore was seen drunken with ”the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Yahusha…”
The Inquisitions (Roman, Medieval, and Spanish) were perpetrated upon the Peoples of Europe, with an estimated 3 million murdered and about 300,000 burned at the stake in Spain alone.
A Catholic historian commenting on the Spanish Inquisition wrote:
“When Napoleon conquered Spain in 1808, a Polish officer in his army, Colonel Lemanouski, reported that the Dominicans [in charge of the Inquisition] blockaded themselves in their monastery…the inquisitors denied the existence of any torture chambers. The soldiers searched the monastery and discovered them under the floors. The chambers were full of prisoners, all naked, many insane. The French troops, used to cruelty and blood, could not stomach the sight. They emptied the torture-chambers, laid gunpowder to the monastery and blew the place up.”
And Church historian Bishop William Shaw Kerr writes:
“The most ghastly abomination of all was the system of torture. The accounts of its cold-blooded operations make one shudder at the capacity of human beings for cruelty. And it was decreed and regulated by the popes who claim to represent Christ on earth…
“Careful notes were taken not only of all that was confessed by the victim, but of his shrieks, cries, lamentations, broken interjections and appeals for mercy. The most moving things in the literature of the Inquisition are not the accounts of their sufferings left by the victims but the sober memoranda kept by the officers of the tribunals…there is no intention to shock us.”
Also, Emelio Martinez writes in a book published in 1909: “To these three million victims [documented by Llorente] should be added the thousands upon thousands of Jews and Moors deported from their homeland…In just one year, 1481, and just in Seville, the Holy Office [of the Inquisition] burned 2000 persons; the bones and effigies of another 2000…and another 16,000 were condemned to varying sentences.”
Even Peter de Rosa acknowledges that the RCC “was responsible for persecuting Jews, for the Inquisition, for slaughtering heretics by the thousand, for reintroducing torture into Europe as part of the judicial process.”
In 1096, Pope Urban II was the impetus of the first crusade to retake Jerusalem from the Muslims, with one of the Crudaders’ first acts upon taking Jerusalem “for Holy Mother Church” was to put the Jews into a synagogue and set it on fire.
