When contemplating the trouble and confusion spreading throughout the Church today, many good Catholics wonder what is going on. The origin of this battle harks back to the Garden of Eden but we don’t have to retrace it from its very origin. In our age, the troubles began in earnest after the Second Vatican Council. And they worsened after many bishops and priests decided to ignore the encyclical Humanae Vitae of Pope Paul VI. Modernism was in the ascent in the Church regardless of the warnings sounded off by many Popes and saintly scholars of the previous centuries.
The true objective of the Modernists was the destruction of the Church. Some of them were fooled into believing that they were merely updating the old edifice to make it better. They were used as tools in a destructive project.
The first step of that operation was to reform the Church. What the Reformers of the 16th century could not do from the outside, the Modernists intended to accomplish working from the inside. Once infiltrated they gradually climbed to the top of the hierarchy. In the early 20th century they allied with Communists and Homosexualists and initiated the final attack.
To achieve their goal of changing the Catholic faith they needed to alter the practice of the faith, the Catholic religion. They set up to convince the Catholic faithful to abandon those things that the Reformers of the 16th century had abandoned, and then some. The first changes were almost timid, minimal. Allowing ladies to wear pants to Mass was one of the early moves. It caused a mild stir but it was accepted. Some religious orders changed their garb; others were allowed to live outside convents and monasteries. There were alterations in the Catholic calendar, some prayers, etc. Those minor modifications gradually prepared the faithful for the changes in the Holy Mass that followed. The Novus Ordo Liturgy was born and it was quickly imposed universally. The Modernists were shaping the peripheries of the Catholic religion at first, but eventually they were ready to go after some important things: the Mass, the moral precepts, and the principles underlying it all.
The new morality of the Modernists is no morality at all. It was injected first in the minds of seminarians and among those faithful who were already debilitated by decades of bland homilies, bad catechesis, and the acceptance of the sexual mores that flooded the western world after 1968. Their insidious work progressed until we arrived at the decisive hour. The infiltration in the hierarchy is now almost complete.
The dark flowers of Modernism are in full bloom. If it were not for the heavy homosexual component that got out of control, the Modernist would have completed the demolition of the Catholic Church in a matter of a few more decades. They reached the top of the hill only to find out they were surrounded. The disclosures of Monsignor Viganò came first. The prosecution of thousands of cases of homosexual abuse of minors and others are now threatening the Modernist project from all sides. These are momentous times.
“So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination causing desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— then let those in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.” Matthew 24:15-21
Are we living in the times described by Jesus in his “Little Apocalypse” registered in Matthew 24-25? I do not know for certain, but if this is not the time, it surely looks like the final dress rehearsal. Jesus calls us to use our understanding. Remember the words of the prophet Daniel himself: “Many shall be chosen, and purified, and shall be tried as fire: and the wicked shall deal wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand, but the learned shall understand.” (Daniel 12:10) The difference between wicked and faithful resides in the understanding. Jesus repeats the words of Daniel for good reason: “let the reader understand” means that we have to discern the situation carefully, knowing that the wicked will be blind to their impending doom. While they remain in darkness we have to be wise to seek refuge and “flee to the mountains.”
The Fathers of the Church believed the mountains Jesus is referring to, are the eternal truths we have learned from Christ. That makes a lot of sense. In a time of apostasy and heresy, it is in our best interest to seek refuge in the familiar truths, the everlasting doctrine of the Church. We have a treasure of twenty centuries of teachings. That is available to most people at the click of a button in these technological times. Whatever contradicts that treasure needs to be compared carefully with what we know is true.
The battle may extend for years. Families will be formed, children will be born, and sinners may repent and seek instruction in the ways of God. While the world rages, our duty is to live and teach the truth we have received. Mind the counsel of Christ in Matthew 24:45-51…
“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Do your best to be counted among the blessed.
your view are right on. but not complete. the source of modernism is Vatican2. Many bishops and lay have been duped as it claims, but is not orthodox.
the Vat. 2 religion is not true catholicism. One major heresy. Every man has a god given right to his own religion. including catholicism which permists contraception and sodomy. the catholic faithful are just too backward and uptight to accept the modern version of catholicism which the holy spirit and jesus have update for the true saints. Larry
Modernism precedes Vatican II. Pope Pius X, Pascendi Dominici Gregis (September 8, 1907) is about the errors of the modernists and was not even the first condemnation of their errors. Modernists have been around since at least 1617. Vatican II initiated what I call the apotheosis of Modernism.
Modernism existed long before Vatican II.
I believe the uncovering of women’s heads predated the wearing of pants and is actually the more egregious act.
If I remember well, they came about the same time but I am going by memory and I can’t quite recall exactly which one came first.
“For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Your reward will not fail.
The rhetoric here seems to me eminently Catholic and would be recognised as such by any sincere Catholic going back to the very beginning of the Church. Now we have many cardinals and bishops indulging in sodomy and covering up for the indulgers of such sins. Some openly promote same-sex marriage. Some consider pronouncements about plastic in the sea as more urgent than the occurrence and continued cover-up of clerical male-on-male and of male-on-female sexual predation, of minors and adults. Is this what stands for Catholicism nowadays? Should we do as we are told and shut up?
It is good and right to speak up for the church but first a person must know the basics. Reflect on the creed because those are the basic beliefs of the church. Just as St. Peter momentarily turned his back on Christ, so do many people within the church. But Christ does not abandon us. Even cardinals and popes are capable of terrible sin but that is not the church of Christ. Jesus specifically told us that the church he founded would always survive and “the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”
The saints of the church have provided models for us: they worshiped one God, honored Mary, believed in the Trinity, forgiveness, salvation and transubstantiation. They treated the “lepers” of our society as children of God. They fed the hungry, tended the sick and offered refuge for the homeless. They NEVER judged other people or called them out for their “sins.” Yes, they recognized sins but monitored their own imperfections while leaving God to judge the wrongs of others. This is a teaching of Jesus Christ.
So what does the practicing Catholic do when he disapproves of practices in the church? He prays, models righteous behavior and helps those who have fallen into sin. He spreads the Gospels of Christ, without pointing to specific people. For example, instead of calling out homosexuals for their “sins,” a follower of Christ would show that person kindness, pray for him and help him on the path to salvation. Basically, we do what Christ asked us to do.
As for covering your head in church, that is a cultural preference and has absolutely NOTHING to do with being Catholic. It’s OK to say, “I wish women would cover their heads in church the way they used to” but not OK to say “The church’s decline started with women baring their heads in church.” Being Catholic does not mean being stupid.
To summarize: Know the teachings of Jesus and follow them. Defend the basic precepts of the church. The computer gives us the opportunity to check our understanding of almost everything. Before writing something that is inaccurate, take a minute to see if your words are based on the Truth that Jesus revealed to us.
“It must be observed, however, that if the faith were endangered, a subject ought to rebuke his prelate even publicly.” — St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II, II, q. 33, a. 45
“Augustine says in his Rule: ‘Show mercy not only to yourselves, but also to him who, being in the higher position among you, is therefore in greater danger.’ But fraternal correction is a work of mercy. Therefore even prelates ought to be corrected.” — St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II, II, q. 33, a. 4, Sed Contra.
“It is better that scandals arise than the truth be suppressed.” — Pope St. Gregory the Great
“But, when necessity compels, not those only who are invested with power of rule are bound to safeguard the integrity of faith, but, as St. Thomas maintains: ‘Each one is under obligation to show forth his faith, either to instruct and encourage others of the faithful, or to repel the attacks of unbelievers.’” — Pope Leo XIII
The practicing Catholic takes counsel from the saints but follows the teachings of Jesus.
zzz … another Internet Pope (yawn)
The proximate cause of the religion of the age is Marxist in origin. In Marx we find the counterfeiting of Christian morals and values. Finding that Marx’s call for violent revolution along warlike and economic lines, forcibly seizing of property, etc., did not sit well with the English speaking world, socialists in America changed their name to Progressive, just another name for Modernism.
They quickly realized that mere change of government and economic systems were not enough. They must change the culture. Enter the Frankfurt School, imported to Columbia University. Hitchhiking on death-dealing movements already in place, like Margaret Sanger’s Birth Control League, the first name of the more innocent sounding Planned Parenthood. These cultural Marxists infiltrated and took over America’s education system—already corrupted by the likes of John Dewey.
Politically Culural Marxists now occupy the moral high ground with their phony ideologies of ‘helping the poor,’ ‘saving the planet'(from capitalism) and ‘honoring’ all lifestyles, self-decided sexual identity. Using modern means of mass communication and forcing their views on everybody they have since nearly completely destroyed the American Christian, constitutional and intellectual culture—one empty mind at a time.
The takeover of the Church was almost just the icing on the poisonous cake, as the American Church hierarchy had long ago begun to sell out to government— demanding money to provide ‘alternatives’ to strongly Protestant government schools!
Then, as early as 1917, the year from hell, the American bishops were already clamoring for socialized medicine. Thus, the greatest opportunity the Church ever had for evangelization in the United States began to be turned against it as government has replaced nearly all genuine charity towards the ignorant, the poor and the sick with the Welfare State handouts that are now sinking us financially, culturally and morally.
By Vatican II the Church was already dominated by communists and a sodomic sub culture determined to destroy the Church. Now it is the dominant culture in the Church as it is in our society at large.
It must be stomped out as We The Few Faithful, lay and brave clergy, demand the Church dump at least 90 percent of her bishops and today’s pope. The pope will have to step down. They can go to the Chinese above ground “church,” the Patriotic Association where they will be welcome until terminated by the communists!
As then Fr. Ratzinger predicted at least half a century ago, the Church will shrink drastically before being rebuilt by Christ through a handful of the faithful lay and clergy.
As Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen said even earlier, it is up to we the faithful lay people to rid God’s Church of the twin evils, the filth of sodomy and the worship of mammon.
God love you,
Mike Smith,
Diocese of Richmond,
where we don’t have a bishop because the man in the chancery pretends we don’t exist!
I have seen young women in church wearing skinny jeans, or other types of pants that follow her “contours,” and I agree that this is immodest. I have seen much older ladies wearing knit pants that seem to be rather baggy in some places, but are much too tightly-fitting in certain other (unfortunate) places. I’m sure that the latter aren’t being intentionally immodest, but only a bit careless. (A nice long jacket, vest, or cardigan would help!) I think if the female wearer has on a pair of pants that most people would consider “two sizes too big!” and really don’t fall along any of her “contours” at all, then these are not immodest at all.
I know the opinion of many here is that women shouldn’t wear pants – any kind of pants – no matter how generously cut – because they’re “immodest,” but where is that written in Sacred Scripture or Tradition? I know some of the modern saints have spoken against it, but that is just their opinion. (And the opinion of a saint is certainly worthy of respect, but it can’t be taken as “Gospel,” after all. And the opinion of good lay people is certainly worthy of respect, too, but still can’t be taken as “Gospel.”)
And pants really aren’t just “mens’ clothing” anymore; a majority of Western women have been wearing women’s pants for several generations now, and doing so has become an established custom in the West. I doubt that anyone today, upon seeing a woman dressed in typical womens’ wear, including womens’ pants, would imagine that she’s attempting to masquerade as a man.
My observation was merely pointing at the changes that started the whole process. I agree with you that dressing modestly and in a dignified manner is essential. The changes started with “no mantilla” then “women can wear pants” and continued on to gross disrespect from there. I saw a young man at St Thomas Aquinas (UVA Campus) wearing a baseball cap, flip-flops, and finishing his McDonald’s meal minutes before Mass. From that rain, this mud.