‘No Pope Here’ by Joe McVeigh

The announcement that Pope Francis may visit the north during his visit to Dublin in 2018 was greeted mainly with approval except from some die-hards in the Free Presbyterian church. It would seem that we have a long way to go in the north of Ireland before the Free Presbyterians see the light. The Free Presbyterian Minister in Enniskillen writes to the papers regularly. This is one of his recent letters which appeared in the Belfast Telegraph two days ago (Dec 2,):

Editor, The main reason why we don’t need Pope Francis in Ulster is because of the claims of the papacy, which are unscriptural and blasphemous.Pope Leo XIII declared that the Pope holds “upon this Earth the place of God Almighty”. Therefore, the Roman Catholic Church holds that the Pope, as the Vicar of Christ on Earth, is ruler of the world, supreme not only over the Roman Church, but over all kings, presidents and civil rulers.

The New York Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “The Pope takes the place of Jesus Christ on Earth … By divine right, the Pope has supreme and full power in faith and morals over every pastor and his flock. He is the true Vicar of Christ, the head of the entire Church, father and teacher of all Christians …”

Pope Pius IX said of himself: “Alone, I am the successor of the apostles, the Vicar of Jesus Christ, I am the way the truth and the life. “I am not surprised that the main so-called ‘Protestant’ churches in Ireland have welcomed this proposed visit. For years now, the Church of Ireland, the Irish Presbyterian Church and the Methodist Church have been courting the Church of Rome, treating her as a Christian church.

It is sad that they have forgotten what their forefathers believed – and, more importantly, what the Bible teaches. REV JOHN GRAY, Free Presbyterian Church Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh

The Free Ps used to make a big thing of presenting Catholics who ‘left’ the Catholic Church at their services. Rev Paisley used to do it. One Catholic from my part of the world joined him and became a preacher. It’s not often you hear from someone who left the Free Ps in disgust and joined a different more open and tolerant church. This is what happened to Joan McFadden who was once in the Free Presbyterian church in Scotland. She recently recounted her story in the Guardian (10 September 2016). Joan told of how she grew up a Free P, the restrictions on her and her family and how she came to reject the FP’s and married a Catholic! This is from her account of life growing up in a Free Presbyterian family:

“I didn’t know we were different until I started school. On the day of the Christmas party my dad took me and my brother and sister home, so we missed the party. My frantic questions were answered with a quiet “We don’t celebrate Christmas.” Next day everyone brought their toys from the party to school and I asked my friend if I could play with her and her lovely little dolls’ house but she refused and I sat miserably alone and desolate, while my teacher tried to cheer me up. Years later my mum told me that the teacher offered to bring our gifts round but my parents had to refuse in case they got into trouble.

The trouble would have come from the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland where my dad was a minister. Every move was scrutinised and accepting Christmas presents could have put his job in jeopardy. My cousins at another school accepted Christmas gifts even though they weren’t at the party, but their minister ordered their parents to return them, which they did.

Many people suffer from Sunday blues, dreading the thought of work on Mondays. I adore Sundays, ridiculously happy at being free to do as I please because I grew up dreading Sundays, which were a misery. No work was done on the Sabbath and shopping, television, sport and even going for a walk were all banned, with the day spent going to church, eating vast amounts of food and reading religious books or the Bible.

We would make bets about which “perversion”, such as homosexuality or living in sin, would feature in the sermons.

As a small child, the restrictions and obsessions of the faith only upset me through incidents such as the Christmas party, endless church services and the stifling Sundays. I was loved and secure and part of a large close family but, as we grew older, my four siblings and I constantly questioned the religion we lived by. We listened to ministers thundering from the pulpit, with Catholics in particular coming in for abuse and the Pope regularly described both verbally and in the church magazines as the antichrist.

The range of potential sins meant we were banned from dancing, the cinema, music, Guides, Scouts, sport and youth clubs as practically anything was considered potentially wicked. Family worship was mandatory, morning and night, and consisted of singing a psalm, reading the Bible and praying on our knees. This could never be missed, though it was actually a minor routine compared to Sundays.

Joan continues in the article to describe life as a teenager in the Free Presbyterians and how eventually her parents and her siblings left it. I will give you a summary of the other half of her article next time.