The following is a letter written by Dr. Likoudis replying to Richard, who left the Catholic Church to become a Moonie, a follower of Mr. Sun Yat Moon in the Unification Church, and who believes Mr. Moon to be the Messiah.

 

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.

---