A Strategy of Satanic Brilliance

I am not a "thoughtful person" in the sense of making little gestures and always knowing when to show up with supportive words and chocolates.  But I do think a lot, when I'm not busy emoting about the state of the World. Most people who read this Blog know that one of the things I think is that political and economic conditions, environmental conditions such as disease, hunger and violence are expressions of spiritual conditions, the manifestation of an on -going war between good and evil.  In short, I believe in Spiritual Warfare, and think that it's the root cause of the things we see on Earth.

Right now the Church is under pressure to an extent it hasn't really known since the days before Constantine.  In North Africa and the Middle East we are faced with persecution on the level of arson, murder, rape and kidnap with the connivance of Government and popular political movements.  In Africa, we are the victims of open warfare in some regions, aimed at our extermination or expulsion.  In Europe, we are so marginalized as to be a remnant, and considered either laughable or a sign of mental instability among our adherents.  In Latin America, we are simply not important, a cultural feature that most people ignore in their quest form affluence or pleasure.  In Asia we are seen as a threat to Governmental dominance of human ideology.

In the United States we are seen by a significant portion of the population as an obstacle to social progress through governmental decree and social engineering, one who must be marginalized and removed from public discourse, despite our numbers, or the feelings of the majority of Americans about this.

We are at war, in a spiritual sense.  The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services has made this explicitly clear, using the word war in reference to our opposition to abortion and contraception.  And the key to any war is strategy.  Since this is a spiritual war, the strategy devised against us is a long term one.  And it is absolutely a product of and angelic order of intelligence, breathtaking in ti's brilliance.  Our Enemy is aware that the end game of this war is his utter, final and eternal defeat, so he is fighting a scorched earth campaign, trying his best to deny the Victor the fruits of victory.  Our Lord Himself asked if, upon his return, he would find faith on Earth.  This is a very long term strategy, born of a hatred of humanity that makes the Nazi's hatred of what they termed "untermenschen" look like mild distaste.

The current phase of this scorched earth campaign has it's roots in the rise of "Higher Criticism" in scriptural studies among the academics of northern German Universities in the first quarter of the 19th century.  This oozed it's way into Christian academic circles through out Europe and north America during the course of tat century, eventually giving rise to the heresy of modernism, a heresy one of the hallmarks of which was framing attempts to undermine the faith in terms of questions that were presented not as challenges to the faith, but as 'puzzles' to be considered, and statements about customs and practices that might be changed.  By the early 20th century, this heresy had been condemned, yet did not die, it simply went underground among the theologians and faculties of universities and seminaries. Nurtured, as all  all evil is nurtured, in the dark of secrecy and denial it spread thorugh the ranks of the "Catholic" intelligentsia, to break out in the 1960s.

The match that started the current spree of burning was, ironically, a Papal Encyclical  That upheld Tradition, morality and Catholic teaching.  That Encyclical was Humanae Vitae.  Immediately, a tool of Satan spoke out, and got his compatriots in the Modernist Underground to speak out too.  Charlie Curran, and his fellow travelers in various theological circles publicly and in writing opposed the Teaching of the Church on Birth Control.  He was silenced, but unfortunately, for reasons that seem obscure to me but can only be related tot he Satanic Fifth Column within the Church reaching into the Roman Curia, this was reversed, and Bishops quit speaking against the theologians who were promoting what is objectively a mortal sin.  The Smoke of Satan had indeed entered the Church.  Curran and his ilk went onto question virtually every aspect of sexual morality, and it wasn't until 1986 that he was removed as a Catholic Theologian.  In the coarse of these years, the Catholic faithful were confused by a lack of catechesis on birth control and morality, or by outright false catechesis.

This has been so effective that 90% of Catholics contracept, and 98% have at some point.  More than that, these false theologians taught, and spread through out the catechal community, the idea that people could faithfully dissent from the teachings and traditions we received, and that the individual conscience was the supreme moral guide.  Not, as is actually the case, a conscience formed in accordance with Scripture, Traditions and the Teachings we have received from the Apostles   This fire has smouldered for forty-five years.  And now it has burst into flame, and will lead not only many deceived and unfaithful souls to perdition, but to the restriction of the Church as a whole in it's freedom to witness and to function as The Mystical Body of Christ in the world.  Chesterton, it seems, was right: Sex is the final heresy.

Although most Catholics know the Church forbids contraception, they have no idea why, and the ministrations of feminist nuns have predisposed many of them to see it as a form of control more than a moral issue. Going hand in hand with this confusion has been an outright negligence on the part of most priests to preach against fornication, sodomy and lesbianism.  At this point, we are the largest denomination in which the faithful are likely to support gay rights, contraception and abortion.  Compound this with the confusion we have had since the days of Bernardin concerning the relative importance of social justice issues and life issues and we supported the very regime that now attacks our freedom to live out the Faith as received, without materially participating in acts that are objectively evil.  We are a sinful flock. perhaps now more than ever before in the history of the the Church, and being in such a state has weakened us for the spiritual battle which this is a reflection of. 

A measure of our weakness is that 90 bishops are publicly speaking out against the so called "contraception mandate"--an inaccurate term that hides the requirement to finance not just contraception, but sterilization and abortion--90, out of over 271 active and over 180 retired bishops in the US.  That's much less than 50%.  The USCCB can issue statements, but it takes bishops, acting as individuals, speaking out to make things happen. 

But suppose the bishops do wake up, what are they likely to see?  Well, since 90% of Catholics are contracepting, we will not see anything like 100% support for this.  And since we can't get a large percentage of us even to go to Mass on Sunday, I doubt that we will get as much as 40% of the "faithful" to see this as an issue of religious freedom.  Quite simply, the "Church Militant" will largely desert the service, as it were. 

The Enemy has planned well.  He has sewn doubt and confusion, assisted by the Ego of theologians who forgot that priestly service isn't given it's highest expression in a classroom, or that they have no magisterial authority.  Through this mechanism, and that of Religious Sisters (and Brothers) he has enabled the confusion of the faithful, to the extent they have chosen their own desires and gratification above the commandments of the Lord in this matter, and so has weakened not only their spirits, but sapped the strength of the Church.  Then he has arraigned the most significant external attack to come upon the exact weakest point in the Mystical Body.  By attacking on this issue, he has picked the spot where we are least likely to unite, to offer effective resistance. 

He was worked very hard, to marginalize the Church in Social Services, in Health Care, in Teaching and Education, and now he will attack, at the same time with one action, the financial patrimony of the Church, our ability to hire and staff outreaches and services and our unity. 

The brightest ray of light i see in this, is quite frankly Catholics will be presented with a clear choice--Our Lord and His Church, or secularism and the power of the State.  I expect most, 60% or more, to chose secularism and the State, but those remaining will, like Gideon's Band, be those who have passed a test, a selection, that winnowed the wheat from the chaff, the lukewarm from the passionate.  And even among the ashes of a scorched earth, we will endure, grow and become holy. 

I say we.  I include myself in that number, but actually, I pray that I will in fact endure and not fall to the temptation of an unchristian way of resistance.