The following article is a submission by noted author, Michael Lofton.
A War is Taking Place
As the Church’s captivity in Babylon continues, the Modernists are attempting to launch an all-out war on anything faithful to the Catholic faith and tradition. Here are just a few examples:
- Since 2013, Fr. Fidenzio Volpi, an Apostolic commissioner of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, has launched an attack on the Tridentine Mass, under the guise that the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate are “crypto-lefebvrian” and have a “traditionalist drift”. (source)
- In late 2014, Archbishop Bruno Forte has launched an attack on the Church’s morals by sneaking the sodomite agenda in the mid-term Relatio report, issued by the Extraordinary Synod on the Family. (source)
- In the middle of February, 2015, Fr. Thomas Rosica launched an attack on the faithful by threatening to sue a lay Catholic blogger who exposed the fact that Fr. Rosica is using his position in the Vatican to promote the Kasperian proposal. (source)
- In late 2014, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldiserri launched an attack on the Church’s morals, particularly concerning the Sacrament of Marriage, when he sabotaged the Extraordinary Synod on the Family by tampering with the mail sent to all of the Synod Fathers, mail that included a refutation of the Kasperian Proposal. (source)
Why Is This Happening?
The Church is reliving the passion of Christ. There is a teaching in the Catholic Church which states that what is done to the head of the Church is done to the body of the Church. This teaching is illustrated by the following papal documents:
Miserentissimus Redemptor, Pope Pius XI
“the expiatory passion of Christ is renewed and in a manner continued and fulfilled in His mystical body, which is the Church. For, to use once more the words of St. Augustine, “Christ suffered whatever it behoved Him to suffer; now nothing is wanting of the measure of the sufferings. Therefore the sufferings were fulfilled, but in the head; there were yet remaining the sufferings of Christ in His body” (In Psalm lxxxvi). This, indeed, Our Lord Jesus Himself vouchsafed to explain when, speaking to Saul, “as yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter” (Acts ix, 1), He said, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest” (Acts ix, 5), clearly signifying that when persecutions are stirred up against the Church, the Divine Head of the Church is Himself attacked and troubled. Rightly, therefore, does Christ, still suffering in His mystical body, desire to have us partakers of His expiation, and this is also demanded by our intimate union with Him, for since we are “the body of Christ and members of member” (1 Corinthians xii, 27), whatever the head suffers, all the members must suffer with it (Cf. 1 Corinthians xii, 26).”[1]
Salvifici Doloris, Pope John Paul II
“Christ has in a sense opened his own redemptive suffering to all human suffering. . . . Christ has accomplished the world’s redemption through his own suffering. For, at the same time, this redemption, even though it was completely achieved by Christ’s suffering, lives on and in its own special way develops in the history of man. It lives and develops as the body of Christ, the Church, and in this dimension every human suffering, by reason of the loving union with Christ, completes the suffering of Christ. It completes that suffering just as the Church completes the redemptive work of Christ.“[2]
“Christ does not answer directly and he does not answer in the abstract this human questioning about the meaning of suffering. Man hears Christ’s saving answer as he himself gradually becomes a sharer in the sufferings of Christ. The answer that comes through this sharing, by way of the interior encounter with the Master, is in itself something more than the mere abstract answer to the question about the meaning of suffering. For it is above all a call. It is a vocation. Christ does not explain in the abstract the reasons for suffering, but before all else he says: “Follow me!” Come! Take part through your suffering in this work of saving the world, a salvation achieved through my suffering! Through my cross. Gradually, as the individual takes up his cross, spiritually uniting himself to the cross of Christ, the salvific meaning of suffering is revealed before him.”[3]
Thus, as Christ had to suffer on the cross, so does His mystical Body. Likewise as Peter doubted Christ, so too the Church militant, in part, is doubting the claims of Christ. Pope Pius XII spoke of this when he said:
“A day will come when the civilized world will deny its God, when the Church will doubt as Peter doubted.” [4]
Lastly, as Christ was betrayed by Judas, so too His mystical Body is being betrayed by many of her clerics. In light of this, none of these recent scandals should come as a surprise.
The Wrong solution to the War
Instead of suffering alongside of Christ on the cross, as did the Blessed Virgin Mary, many in the Church today are becoming scandalized, even to the point that they have left, or plan to leave, Holy Mother Church. This is no more legitimate of an option than when the Apostles abandoned Christ during His crucifixion. Period.
The Right solution to the War
As the Blessed Virgin Mary remained with Christ during His crucifixion, so should we remain in the mystical Body of Christ, during its crucifixion. It is especially in these most turbulent times that we must remain faithful by remaining in the bosom of the Catholic Church.
What can a faithful Catholic do, other than remain in the Catholic Church? Our Blessed Mother gave us a solution to these dark and dreary times in the life of the Church. When she prophesied, in the Third Secret of Fatima, about the mass apostasy that would take place in the Church, even by those in the hierarchy, she didn’t leave us without hope. What is this hope? It is the daily Rosary! In fact, the last visionary of Fatima, Sister Lucia explicitly told us:
“Let people say the rosary every day. Our Lady stated that repeatedly in all her apparitions, as if to fortify us against these times of diabolical disorientation, so that we would not allow ourselves to be deceived by false doctrines.”
“The Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Holy Rosary. She has given this efficacy to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all, spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families, of the families of the world, or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples and nations that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary.”
Thus, brothers, let us take up our arms in battle against the wickedness and snares of the Devil by the daily recitation of the Holy Rosary!
Michael Lofton is a Latin Rite Catholic in the Diocese of Shreveport, Louisiana and is also a member of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, in full communion with the Bishop of Rome. He is a Catholic convert from Protestantism (his conversion story can be found here) and is an author of over a dozen books on Sacred Scripture, Catholic Theology and Apologetics as well as the editor of the St. Jerome Study Bible, found here. He is occasionally a guest on Radio Maria and is the author of the website www.consolamini.org
[1] Pius XI, Miserentissimus Redemptor, 14.
[2] John Paul II, Salvifici Doloris, 24.
[3] Ibid, 26.
[4] Pope Pius XII, quoted in the book Pius XII Devant L’Histoire, pp. 52-53, by Msgr. Georges Roche
Praying the rosary is, no doubt, beneficial and Saint Dominic is to be thanked and praised for obeying our Lady and giving us the fifteen decades. However, praying alone isn’t enough in the face of the evil that is packaged as a ‘good’ by most of today’s priests and bishops. True Catholics must loudly and persistently call them out as the heterodox apostates that most of them are.
Regarding John Paul II and the quote from Salvici Doloris above: “Come! TAKE PART through YOUR suffering in this WORK OF SAVING THE WORLD, a salvation achieved through my suffering!” (Caps are mine.)
I find it odd that John Paul II often intimated that man could save the world or that man is divine. He often quoted Gaudium et Spes #22 “For by His incarnation the Son of God has united Himself in some fashion with every man.” And he used the same language in Redemptor Hominis #13: “….as the Council [Second Vatican Council] teaches, “by his Incarnation, he, the Son of God, in a certain way united himself with each man.”
But that same thought was the reason Nestorius was anathematized by the Council of Chalcedon 451 A.D. since Nestorius claimed that God had united Himself in the Second Person of the Holy Trinity with a man named Jesus and had retained 2 separate persons, and 2 separate wills. This would devolve into the worship of 2 Sons. The Second Council of Constantinople, 553 A.D. also held this to be a heresy which would introduce to both heaven and earth, the offense of the worship of man.
Saint John identified this doctrine as the doctrine of the anti-Christ or the dissolving of Jesus;
1 John 4:2-3
Hello! I don’t understand your apparent problem with St. John Paul II’s comment about Jesus, by His Incarnation, uniting Himself with every man.” As I understand it (& granted, I have plenty of “senior moments” 🙂 ), JPII is stating a basic teaching of the Church. Jesus had to become man like us in every way but sin in order to gain our salvation. Jesus is truly God & truly man. Since we are all part of humanity, He united Himself with every human being. It’s up to each individual to accept Jesus’ Gift, though. You correctly defined the heresy of Nestorius. But that is not at all what JPII said. God bless you, my friend! Please correct me if I misunderstood your comment.