Ganoune Diop Travels the World Elevating the Papacy's Moral Authority and Global Agenda, "Dignitatis Humanae," Portraying it as Universally Beneficial

On May 28, 2025, the South American Division of Seventh-day Adventists published a news report about how Ganoune Diop met with "prominent international leaders," both Adventist and non-Adventist, to promote religious liberty. Church leaders from the division and national leaders from the capital city of Buenos Aires attended the event in Argentina.

The South American Adventist News Agency (ASN), the official news agency of the South American Division, published the following on May 28, 2025:

• "These visits allow us to present the Church, share our message, and build bridges of respect and cooperation." [1]

• "Dr. Diop, with a profound spiritual and academic vision, emphasized that religious freedom is one of the pillars of human rights, along with peace, security, and justice. He defined religious freedom as a complex freedom that encompasses thought, conscience, expression, and choice." [1]

The South American Adventist News Agency (ASN) very conveniently failed to mention that Ganoune Diop publicly promoted the Vatican's teaching "Dignitatis Humanae" to the international group of leaders who came to hear him. In the video clip taken from the religious liberty event, Ganoune Diop expressed the following:

• "Today, there is a new Pope. In 1965, at the Second Vatican Council, the Pope back then-there was a committee that came up with a document. And the document was called Dignitatis Humanae, the Human Dignity. And recently, the Catholic Church has a new version of human dignity-Infinite Dignity. So what I'm saying is that religions have this intuition that human beings are important. But why? Because human beings are habitations of God. There is a consensus on that. So I hope that from today on, when you see a person, remember that person is sacred. The vocation of that person is to really be a habitation of God" [2]

From a prophetic perspective rooted in historicist Seventh-day Adventist understanding of Daniel and Revelation, Ganoune Diop's statement regarding "Dignitatis Humanae" and the concept of "Infinite Dignity" raises significant concerns. While the message on the surface appears compassionate, the underlying theological and prophetic implications must be carefully examined. Dignitatis Humanae-the Vatican II document Diop refers to-does indeed affirm religious liberty, but it does so through a Roman Catholic framework. This framework views the Catholic Church as containing all the truth of Christ and promotes the idea that religious liberty is not absolute but must ultimately serve the "common good"-a concept that, under papal authority, will include enforced Sunday observance and other church-state mandates.

Revelation 13 warns of a future union between the United States and the Papacy, where religious and civil powers will combine to compel worship. Diop's presentation of Catholic ideals as universally beneficial serves Rome's purposes by softening the distinct prophetic warnings Adventists have historically proclaimed. By promoting a chief Vatican doctrine that cunningly redefines religious liberty and elevates the Papacy's moral authority, Diop is merging our Adventist teaching with Rome's global spiritual agenda, rather than upholding the historic principle of proclaiming the Three Angels' Messages as the real foundation for religious liberty and warning that the Papacy is the greatest threat to freedom.

"Protestants have tampered with and patronized popery; they have made compromises and concessions which papists themselves are surprised to see, and fail to understand. Men are closing their eyes to the real character of Romanism, and the dangers to be apprehended from her supremacy. The people need to be aroused to resist the advances of this most dangerous foe to civil and religious liberty" (Great Controversy, p. 566).

The concern with what Ganoune Diop is doing is not with affirming human dignity itself-Scripture clearly teaches that all are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Rather, it is about using "human dignity" as a bridge toward ecumenical unity with Rome, fulfilling the prophecy that "all the world wondered after the beast" (Revelation 13:3). Thus, while Diop's words seem reasonable or even uplifting, from a prophetic standpoint, they reflect a drift toward the very system Revelation warns God's people to lovingly but firmly expose. And thanks to the General Conference, which continues to support Diop's efforts, he is taking a lot of church members with him into the arms of the Papacy.

While Dignitatis Humanae, the Second Vatican Council's declaration on religious freedom, mentions the right to religious liberty, it does not present this freedom as absolute or inalienable. Instead, the Vatican makes it clear that their version of religious freedom is subject to the Catholic understanding of the "common good." This means that religious liberty can be restricted when it conflicts with Catholic social teaching.

• "The right to religious freedom is exercised in human society: hence its exercise is subject to certain regulatory norms" (Dignitatis Humanae, Paragraph 7).

• "In the exercise of their rights, individual men and social groups are bound by the moral law to have respect both for the rights of others and for their own duties toward others and for the common welfare of all. (Dignitatis Humanae, Paragraph 7).

• "The freedom of man is to be respected as far as possible and is not to be curtailed except when and insofar as necessary" (Dignitatis Humanae, Paragraph 7).

Dignitatis Humanae upholds that the Roman Catholic Church possesses the sacred doctrine and truth of Christ and is therefore the divinely ordained custodian to teach and preserve the moral order.

• "In the formation of their consciences, the Christian faithful ought carefully to attend to the sacred and certain doctrine of the Church. For the Church is, by the will of Christ, the teacher of the truth. It is her duty to give utterance to, and authoritatively to teach, that truth which is Christ Himself, and also to declare and confirm by her authority those principles of the moral order" (Dignitatis Humanae, Paragraph 14).

Moreover, Dignitatis Humanae embraces the idea of uniting church with state and says that they should cooperate in promoting shared values.

• "The freedom of the Church is the fundamental principle in what concerns the relations between the Church and governments and the whole civil order" (Dignitatis Humanae, Paragraph 13).

When Ganoune Diop travels the world promoting the Vatican's Dignitatis Humanae, this is something that should raise serious questions about where his loyalties are centered, because it is misleading and intellectually dishonest to equate the Catholic and Protestant versions of religious liberty, because they are fundamentally different in origin, intent, and practice. Protestant religious liberty, born out of the Reformation, upholds the truth that our individual right to worship according to conscience comes from God, not from the church or the state. Protestantism, unlike Catholicism, emphasizes the freedom to interpret scripture individually because the right to freedom and worship is based upon a personal, direct relationship with God, unmediated by church or state. And because God is absolute, His word, the Bible, is also absolute, thereby making the right to worship absolute. These were the principles of religious liberty that were enshrined in our American history and our Bill of Rights.

Our US Declaration of Independence states:

• "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" (US Declaration of Independence).

Inalienable rights are rights that are inherent, God-given, and cannot be justly taken away, suspended, or surrendered-regardless of laws, governments, religious institutions, or public opinion. These rights are not granted by human institutions; they are endowed by our Creator and belong to every individual simply by virtue of being human.

Unlike the Catholic version of religious liberty, inalienable rights are essential to liberty because they form the foundation of true freedom. Without them, rights become revocable-dependent on the sentiments of the state or the state that is under the influence of the church. Whenever governments or churches fail to acknowledge inalienable rights, they become instruments of oppression, no matter how noble their intentions may sound. In short, liberty cannot exist where inalienable rights are not upheld.

If freedoms are not absolute and can be canceled or overridden at the discretion of those in power-whether in the name of the "common good," national security, Sunday laws, or COVID pandemics-then they cease to be true freedoms. Conditional liberties are not liberties at all but privileges granted and withdrawn by those in authority, subject to the shifting values and agendas of the ruling class. Genuine liberty must be rooted in immutable principles, especially when it comes to the freedom of conscience and worship. The moment those freedoms can be suspended, the foundation of a truly free society is gone, and what remains is a system of control masked as liberty.

It would be a tremendous blessing if we actually had religious liberty leaders who stood firmly upon the principles of true Protestantism-the very foundation upon which the Advent movement was built-instead of promoting the doctrines of Rome under the banner of Adventism. Yet, we have leaders pushing Vatican teachings, Dignitatis Humanae-their version of religious liberty that is subject to the "common good." By doing this, they compromise the distinct mission entrusted to us. The cause of religious freedom would actually mean something if we had leaders who actually believed in boldly proclaiming the Three Angels' Messages, rather than blending Adventist identity with the very apostate system prophecy warns us about.

"I saw the nominal church and nominal Adventists, like Judas, would betray us to the Catholics to obtain their influence to come against the truth. The saints then will be an obscure people, little known to the Catholics" (Spalding and Magan Collection, p. 1).

Sources

[1] https://noticias.adventistas.org/es/la-iglesia-adventista-lleva-su-mensaje-de-libertad-religiosa-a-las-autoridades-argentinas/

[2] h https://youtu.be/tKgLjNm03do?si=h1XkR_lO0Bb0vAD0

Contact: Andy Roman, Publisher
Address: Advent Messenger, PO Box 96, Dover, OK 73734
Phone: (888) 299-2119
Website: www.adventmessenger.org
Email: adventmessengers@gmail.com

About: Advent Messenger provides news and commentary on current events, top stories, social trends and political and religious events. For more news visit www.adventmessenger.org

This release was published on openPR.