Here's a meme by the Hugot Seminarista fromthe Philippines. It's just downright funny that this photo of the incumbent Pope Leo XIV (Robert Prevost, the current papal antichrist, 1 John 2:18). There are many antichrists and the dynasty of Popes is just one fulfillment of the prophecy, aside from people like those who claim to be Jesus Christ on Earth (like the late Jim Jones or Apollo C. Quiboloy). This is utterly funny given the well-documented. It's not just anti-Catholic propaganda; it's the hard truth that the Vatican once forbade the reading of the Bible!
Here are some disturbing quotes that can be taken from Catholic writers themselves, further showign the contradiction:
‘In early times, the Bible was read freely by the lay people, and the Fathers constantly encourage them to do so, although they also insist on the obscurity of the sacred text. No prohibitions were issued against the popular reading of the Bible. New dangers came during the Middle Ages. When the heresy of the Albigenses arose there was a danger from corrupt translations, and also from the fact that the heretics tried to make the faithful judge the Church by their own interpretation of the Bible. To meet these evils, the Council of Toulouse (1229) and Tarragona (1234) forbade the laity to read the vernacular translations of the Bible. Pius IV required the bishops to refuse lay persons leave to read even Catholic versions of the Scripture, unless their confessors or parish priests judged that such readings was likely to prove beneficial.’ (Addis and Arnold, Catholic Dictionary, The Catholic Publications Society Co., N.Y., 1887, p. 82).
‘We prohibit also that the laity should be permitted to have the books of the Old and the New Testament; unless anyone from the motives of devotion should wish to have the Psalter or the Breviary for divine offices or the hours of the blessed Virgin; but we most strictly forbid their having any translation of these books.’ (Edward Peters. Heresy and Authority in Medieval Europe, Council of Toulouse, 1229, Canon 14, p 195.)
‘Since it is clear from experience that if the Sacred Books are permitted everywhere and without discrimination in the vernacular, there will by reason of the boldness of men arise therefrom more harm than good, the matter is in this respect left to the judgment of the bishop or inquisitor, who may with the advice of the pastor or confessor permit the reading of the Sacred Books translated into the vernacular by Catholic authors to those who they know will derive from such reading no harm but rather an increase of faith and piety, which permission they must have in writing. Those, however, who presume to read or possess them without such permission may not receive absolution from their sins till they have handed them over to the ordinary. Bookdealers who sell or in any other way supply Bibles written in the vernacular to anyone who has not this permission, shall lose the price of the books, which is to be applied by the bishop to pious purposes, and in keeping with the nature of the crime they shall be subject to other penalties which are left to the judgment of the same bishop. Regulars who have not the permission of their superiors may not read or purchase them.’ (Council of Trent: Rules on Prohibited Books, approved by Pope Pius IV, 1564).
This is rather problematic. The Bible has never given a mandate that only the church's authority should read the Bible. The Apostles never had such measure. The Council of Toulouse and Tarragona were acting like overprotective parents who were hiding the truth from the children. Not even the Catholic Bible was to be read by the pulpit? That alone has caused centuries of ignorance of Scriptures unless someone during those centuries intervened such as the pre-Reformation Christians who gave copies of the Holy Scriptures to the laymen. The reality was that it was always explosive! The authority of the Papal Antichrist dissipated every time the Bible came out! God's Word is never bound (1 Timothy 2:9).
Centuries of one successor to the office of the Papal Antichrist after another, the Council of Trent decided to ban the Bible, sometime after Martin Luther died. Luther died, but the legacyw as left on. Luther was once a Roman Catholic priest who soon opened the Scriptures to himself, and by God's intervention, saw the beauty of the Scriptures hidden from Rome.
I meditated night and day on those words until at last, by the mercy of God, I paid attention to their context: "The justice of God is revealed in it, as it is written: 'The just person lives by faith.'" I began to understand that in this verse the justice of God is that by which the just person lives by a gift of God, that is by faith. I began to understand that this verse means that the justice of God is revealed through the Gospel, but it is a passive justice, i.e. that by which the merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written: "The just person lives by faith." All at once I felt that I had been born again and entered into paradise itself through open gates. Immediately I saw the whole of Scripture in a different light. I ran through the Scriptures from memory and found that other terms had analogous meanings, e.g., the work of God, that is, what God works in us; the power of God, by which he makes us powerful; the wisdom of God, by which he makes us wise; the strength of God, the salvation of God, the glory of God.
I exalted this sweetest word of mine, "the justice of God," with as much love as before I had hated it with hate. This phrase of Paul was for me the very gate of paradise. Afterward I read Augustine's "On the Spirit and the Letter," in which I found what I had not dared hope for. I discovered that he too interpreted "the justice of God" in a similar way, namely, as that with which God clothes us when he justifies us. Although Augustine had said it imperfectly and did not explain in detail how God imputes justice to us, still it pleased me that he taught the justice of God by which we are justified.
The ignorance of Scriptures was what kept Rome going. Now, this page Hugot Seminarista dares to give that quote? This reminds me of how Balaam and Caiaphas both prophesied, not because they were true prophets, but because God allowed them to speak the truth in some way. Once again, the principle of Sola Scriptura isn't the Scripture alone as the only authority but the final authority.
Then again, having become a Calvinist after many years, 1 Corinthians 2:14 reveals that the Scriptures make no sense to the natural man. They can understand "Don't judge!" but only in a carnal way. They say, "You were initially saved by grace but maintaned by works." without even understanding the full context of Ephesians 2:8-10. The only way that Totally Depraved people can understand the Scriptures, is if they are born again not of water baptism, but by the supernatural work of God (John 3). That's why there's the need to be born again. A person makes the decision to follow Jesus, because they have been born again or born from above spiritually!