April 15, 2004
Dear Richard,
Of course, I was pleasantly surprised to hear from you and
even more painfully surprised to see how you and Dr. Pak have
been, frankly, duped into accepting a false Messiah and his
false religion.
First, some positive remarks: The Video on the "Little
Angels" Dance Troupe was charming and made me recall my own
Army experience in Korea (my unit moved into Seoul
immediately after the North Korean Communists were driven
out). I have two young Korean granddaughters who were adopted
by one of my girls. Some years ago, her entire family was
invited to spend two weeks in Seoul at the invitation of
South Korea’s First Lady. The Unification
Church’s anti-communism was admirable as well as
the stated criticisms of atheistic humanism, materialism and
consumerism, the breakdown of the family, and the consequent
sexual promiscuity marking the collapse of moral norms in
Western nations. These are matters which would make and have
made Moon’s "Godism" attractive to young idealists
seeking some kind of religious mooring in a period of general
religious confusion and even apostasy from Christianity.
I have read carefully Dr. Pak’s 2 volumes and his
impressive career as well as his apologia for Sun Yat Moon
and his Unification Church. The problem with his religious
stance is that our Divine Savior Jesus Christ established his
Unification Church two thousand years ago and it exists today
as the Catholic Church, preserving unerringly "the Catholic
faith that comes to us from the Apostles". Contrary to Moon,
Our Lord Jesus did not fail in His mission. The world-wide
Church He built on the Rock of Peter to "teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the
Holy Spirit" is there – for all to see (despite all the
heresies and schisms that mark the course of her history
– and of which the "Unification Church" is but one of
the latest heretical sects). The "Unification Church" is even
more than a sect; it is a cult which like other cults
witnesses to the failure of critical intelligence on the part
of its devotees. The rhetoric of the "Unification Church" is
filled with traditional Christian language but traditional
Christian teachings suffer the grossest distortion. Moon
teaches the denial of the divinity of Christ, rejection of
the Trinity (to him, also,the Holy Spirit is a female
spirit), distorts the meaning of original sin (he has revived
the absurdity of ancient Gnostics of a sexual sin between Eve
and the archangel Lucifer!), and denies among yet other key
Christian teachings the bodily Resurrection of Our Savior, as
well as mankind’s future bodily resurrection. The very
notion of "salvation" is skewered.
Add to all the above Moon’s blasphemous claim to be the
Messiah, to be "Jesus Christ returned", and to have "truly
understood the heart of Jesus". You are surely aware that the
beloved disciple St. John wrote at the very beginning of his
Gospel: "The Word was God" and the same "Word was made flesh"
in Jesus Christ. He would add: "Do not believe every
spirit, but test every spirit to see whether they are of God;
because many false prophets have gone forth into the world.
By this is the spirit of God known: every spirit that
confesseth that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is of
God. And every spirit that severs Jesus [from His divinity]
is not of God, but is of Antichrist" (chapter 4 of
his first Epistle). St. Paul stigmatized those
"speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after
them" (Acts 20:30), and St. Peter denounced those
"false teachers bringing in sects of perdition"
(2 Pet. 2:1). The Apostle of the Gentiles declared
unequivocally: "But even if we or an angel from heaven
should preach a gospel to you other than that which we have
preached to you, let him be anathema! And as we have said
before, so now I say again: If anyone preach a gospel to you
other than that which you have received, let him be
anathema!" (Gal. 1:8-9).
"Antichrists", "liars", "false prophets", "deceivers",
"seducers", "grievous wolves" – such are the terms in
which heretics who would draw the faithful from the visible
unity of the Church are described by Our Lord and His
disciples.
Sun Yat Moon and his disciples preach and teach an
Anti-Gospel, and, I am obliged to say, a delusional system of
religious belief. It is disturbing to read of the visions
and revelations and "miracles" (incidentally, there is no new
Revelation with the death of the last Apostle) which are said
to occur with Moon and his disciples. That may well witness
to the presence of the demonic. Certainly, no confidence can
be given to the supporting testimonials of such charlatans
and "seers" as Nostradamus, E. Cayce, and Jeane Dixon.
Sun Yat Moon is a false prophet and an apostate from
historical orthodox Christianity embodied in the Catholic
Church. The contrast is glaring! Whereas Our Divine Lord
lived a life of poverty and did not have a place to lay His
head, Moon is a Billionaire-Messiah who preaches a new Gospel
that blatantly contradicts Christ’s plan of salvation.
I am saddened that you appear to have regrettably abandoned
the Catholic faith you were baptized in and that you are
presently a Moonie. It is my earnest prayer that you will
read and study the "Catechism of the Catholic Church" to be
recatechized and to return to the Catholic Church which is
indeed the Ark of Salvation. The Moonie religion can not be
reconciled with the historical claim of Jesus Christ to be
the Eternal Son of God made man and with the supernatural
truths taught by the one Church He established for the
salvation of all.
I am returning under separate cover your books and tape.You
will be in my prayers.
Sincerely yours,
— James Likoudis,
My Website: www.credobuffalo.com
|