‘Gospel of Judas’: an ideological attack against the Church, says Argentinean archbishop

Buenos Aires, Argentina, May 1, 2006 / 22:00 pm

During his television program, “Keys to a Better World,” Archbishop Hector Aguer of La Plata, Argentina, said this week that the controversial “gospel of Judas” is part of an “ideological attack” against the Catholic faith and the Church.

“It seems anti-Catholicism sells well, which shows there is also a commercial venture at work” the archbishop said.  “This is not because of the dynamism of the market, nor is it by coincidence,” he warned.  “It is obvious that the commercial venture—the business—and the ideological venture are very much connected, and we need to remember that and be aware of all this.”

Archbishop Aguer noted that the contents of the “gospel of Judas” “have been known for at least 1800 years” and the text has always been considered part of the apocryphal writings of “a Gnostic sect where Christian truths, philosophical doctrines and, most especially, oriental mysteries were all mixed together, and the Church condemned it rapidly.”

The Gnostic ideology consisted of “an attack on the God of the Bible, with a strong anti-Jewish tendency. Against all of this they exalted the supreme god of the Gnostics and Judas was a key figure in the struggle against that Biblical God who they considered a Semitic God,” the archbishop explained.

“Now the ‘gospel of Judas’ is presented as if it had just been discovered, when in reality St. Iraneus of Lyon, in his work against the heresies in the year 180, had already unmasked this false gospel,” he said in conclusion.