From: db7n+@andrew.cmu.edu (D. Andrew Byler)
Subject: Re: Revelations - BABYLON?
Organization: Freshman, Civil Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 38

Rex (REXLEX@fnal.fnal.gov) writes:

>It is also of interest to note that in 1825, on the occasion of a
jubilee, Pope >Leo the 12th had a medallion cast with his own image on
one side and on >the other side, the Church of Rome symbolized as a
"Woman, holding in >her left hand a cross, and in her right a cup with
legend around her, >'Sedet super universum',  'The whole world is her
seat."

	You read more into the medal than it is worth.  The Woman is the
Church.  Catholics have always called our Church "Holy Mother Church"
and our "Mother."  An example would be from St. Cyprian of Carthage, who
wrote in 251 AD, "Can anyone have God for his Father, who does not have
the Church for his mother?"
	Hence the image of the Church as a woman, holding a Cross and a Cup,
which tell of the Crucifxition of Our Lord, and of the power of His
Blood (the grail legend, but also, more significantly, it shows that
"This is the Cup of the New Covenant in my blood, which shall be shed
for you and for many." (Luke 22.20), the Cup represents the New Covenant
and holds the blood of redemption).  The fact that the woman is holding
both and is said to have the whole world for her seat, is that the
Catholic Church is catholic, that is universal, and is found throughout
the world, and the Church shows the Crucifixtion and applies the blood
of redemption to all mankind by this spread of hers, thorugh which the
Holy Sacrafice of the Mass, can be said and celebrated in all the
nations as Malachi predicted in Malachi 1.11, "From the rising of the
sun to its setting, my name is great among the gentiles, and everywhere
there is sacrafice, and there is offered to my Name a clean oblation,
for my Name is great among the gentiles, says the Lord of hosts."  And
so we acknowledge what St. Paul wrote "For as often as you eat this
bread and drink this cup, you show the Lord's death until he comes." (1
Corinthians 11.26)

	You are quite right about the identification of "Babylon the Great,
Mother of all Harlots" with Rome.  I think we simply disagree as to what
time period of Rome the Apostle John is talking about.

Andy Byler
