One of the most important things we have gained through the crisis is an increased opportunity to fight, and sacrifice, for the true Catholic Faith. Indeed, many saints would have yearned to live in these times so that they could fight more valiantly for the Faith. We do not know how God will resolve this crisis, but these considerations help us better understand how His loving Providence draws good from evil.
Bishop LaRavoire Morrow’s classic catechism from 1954, My Catholic Faith, provides the following answer to the question of “Why did Jesus Christ found the Church?”:
“Jesus Christ founded the Church to bring all men to eternal salvation. Our Lord Jesus Christ established the Church in order to lead all men to heaven by: (a) Continuing His teaching and example; and (b) Applying the fruits of His Sacrifice on the cross to all men until the end of the world. Our Lord gave to the Church a three-fold office: the office of teacher, the office of priest or sanctifier, and the office of pastor or ruler. By these offices Christ intended His Church to accomplish the purpose for which He founded it.” (p. 95)
The purpose for which Our Lord established the Catholic Church is to lead souls to heaven, and this is the primary reason Catholics belong to the Church: we are Catholic because we want to please God and save our souls.
If we can can reflect on what has transpired since Vatican II, we can see not only what we have lost and what we have retained, but also what God has allowed us to gain through the crisis.
Bishop Morrow’s answer indicates that the Catholic Church will continue its mission until the end of the world, which corresponds with the indefectibility of the Church. However, we know that this reality has become more doubtful to many observers than it would have been, for instance, in the 1950’s. Since Vatican II, most people looking at the Church have seen something that scarcely looks indefectible, which is surely a key contributor to the mass apostasy that has taken place for the past sixty years.
But, despite these appearances, the Catholic Church remains indefectible. Moreover, if we can can reflect on what has transpired since Vatican II, we can see not only what we have lost and what we have retained, but also what God has allowed us to gain through the crisis.
What we have lost
One of the simplest ways to appreciate what we have lost since the 1950s is to think about the plight of a non-Catholic seeking to learn more about the Catholic Church. For example, a young man living in a big city might reasonably imagine that he could walk into any Catholic Church on Sunday and get a fairly good idea about what the Church is. And yet most serious Catholics would want to dissuade such a young man from trying to learn about the Church that way — perhaps he would find a conservative or traditional Catholic parish, but the odds are that he would find an atmosphere that no Catholic in the 1950s would recognize as Catholic.
If, instead of walking into a church on Sunday, the young man wanted to talk with other Catholics to learn about the Church, he might get an even more misleading picture. He would likely encounter several cafeteria Catholics before he found one that actually believed what the Church teaches. This would be the case whether he spoke with laity, priests, religious, or bishops.
So we have lost a world in which most people identifying as Catholic (including members of the hierarchy) are actually Catholic, and the consequences of that loss are immeasurably disastrous. These non-Catholics masquerading as Catholics now run the majority of entities representing the Church, meaning that instead of helping carry out the Great Commission of leading souls to the true Faith they are conducting the biggest fraud since Satan tempted Eve. Consequently, most observers no longer see the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, but rather something resembling the prophetic warning of Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (the future Pope Pius XII):
“I am worried by the Blessed Virgin’s messages to little Lucia of Fatima. This persistence of Mary about the dangers which menace the Church is a divine warning against the suicide of altering the faith, in her liturgy, her theology and her soul . . . I hear all around me innovators who wish to dismantle the Sacred Chapel, destroy the universal flame of the Church, reject her ornaments and make her feel remorse for her historical past.” (quoted in Christopher Ferrara’s The Secret Still Hidden, p. 31)
Not surprisingly, then, countless souls have lost the Faith, and the world has seemingly lost the truth and graces that should be flowing from the Church.
While it is true that most parishes no longer promote (or even tolerate) the unadulterated Catholic Faith, many cities have at least one Catholic church that Catholics from the 1950s would have readily recognized as Catholic in its liturgical practices, and the beliefs of the clergy and laity.
What we have retained
Despite all of this, we know that the Church still fulfills its mission to lead souls to heaven. While it is true that most parishes no longer promote (or even tolerate) the unadulterated Catholic Faith, many cities have at least one Catholic church that Catholics from the 1950s would have readily recognized as Catholic in its liturgical practices, and the beliefs of the clergy and laity. It generally takes far more work to find and attend such a church, but that effort is often rewarded by finding not only the true Catholic Faith but also like-minded souls who have made similar sacrifices to keep that Faith.
Another way to appreciate what we have retained is to consider that God still offers us everything we need to please Him and save our souls. If we reflect on the various petitions of Pope Clement XI’s “Universal Prayer” — in which we ask God for all of the things necessary for our salvation — we can see that the Church’s enemies are powerless to prevent us from asking God to give us the graces to become great saints:
“O My God, I believe in Thee; do Thou strengthen my faith. All my hopes are in Thee; do Thou secure them. I love Thee with my whole heart; teach me to love Thee daily more and more. I am sorry that I have offended Thee; do Thou increase my sorrow.
I adore Thee as my first beginning. I aspire after Thee as my last end. I give Thee thanks as my constant benefactor. I call upon Thee as my sovereign protector. Deign, O My God, to conduct me by Thy wisdom, to restrain me by Thy justice, to comfort me by Thy mercy, and to defend me by Thy power.
To Thee, I desire to consecrate all my thoughts, words, actions and sufferings; that hence forward, I may think of Thee, speak of Thee, willingly refer all my actions to Thy greater glory, and suffer willingly whatever Thou shalt appoint.
Lord, I desire that in all things Thy will may be done, because it is Thy will, and in the manner that Thou wilt.
I beg of Thee to enlighten my understanding, to inflame my will, to purify my body, and to sanctify my soul.
Give me strength, O My God, to expiate my offenses, to overcome my temptations, to subdue my passions, and to acquire the virtues proper for my state.
Fill my heart with tender affection for Thy goodness, hatred for my faults, love for my neighbor, and contempt of the world.
Let me always remember to be submissive to my superiors, charitable to my inferiors, faithful to my friends, and indulgent to my enemies.
Assist me to overcome sensuality by mortification, avarice by alms-deeds, anger by meekness, and tepidity by devotion.
O My God, make me prudent in my undertakings, courageous in danger, patient in afflictions, and humble in prosperity.
Grant that I may be ever attentive at my prayers, temperate at my meals, diligent at my employments, and constant in my resolutions.
Let my conscience be ever upright and pure, my exterior modest, my conversation edifying, and my comportment regular.
Assist me, that I may continually labor to overcome nature, to correspond with Thy grace, to keep Thy commandments and to work out my salvation.
Discover to me, O My God, the nothingness of this world, the greatness of Heaven, the shortness of time, and the length of eternity.
Grant that I may prepare for death, that I may fear Thy judgments, that I may escape hell, and in the end obtain Heaven, through the merits of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.”
Try as they might, the enemies of the Catholic Faith can never dampen God’s desire to grant us all of these graces we need to please Him and save our souls. If we truly want to find and practice the immutable Catholic Faith so evident in Clement XI’s prayer, God will give us the grace to do so. No matter how much Catholics have lost in the current crisis, God will never allow the Church to fail in its purpose of leading souls to heaven.
When we see the openly anti-Catholic machinations of Cardinals Cupich, Gregory, McElroy, Hollerich, Grech, “Tucho,” etc., we are seeing the devil’s tail in action. We have thus gained an increased ability to identify Satan’s work, which should allow us to defend against it more than in times when that diabolical work was hidden, but no less lethal.
What we have gained
We know from St. Paul that God can draw good from evil:
“And we know that to them that love God, all things work together unto good, to such as, according to his purpose, are called to be saints.” (Romans 8:28)
Acknowledging the good that has come from the ongoing crisis in the Church does not in any way excuse the evils we see from Rome, but it does allow us to properly consider God’s loving Providence.
One of the most important things we have gained through the crisis is an increased opportunity to fight, and sacrifice, for the true Catholic Faith. Indeed, many saints would have yearned to live in these times so that they could fight more valiantly for the Faith. If we cooperate with God’s graces to fight well, we can better serve Him and merit heavenly rewards that might have eluded us in saner times.
The current crisis also provides one of the clearest possible demonstrations of the complete incompatibility between truth and error. The pre-Vatican II popes consistently warned about what would happen if Catholics accepted the errors that have prevailed since the Council: if you accept these errors, they told us, you will lose the Faith. At the time, their holy wisdom was credible based on the weight of papal authority and common sense; but today these warnings have been proven prophetic, so we have gained greater certainty that God wants us to completely reject the errors condemned by the pre-Vatican II popes.
Francis’s unique contributions to the ongoing crisis have made it abundantly clear that the most evil actors in the world despise and fear Traditional Catholicism. Francis and his collaborators have even established a formal counter-church — the Synodal Church — as a blasphemous inversion of the Catholic Church.
A corresponding effect of the worsening crisis has been the progressive exposure of those enemies of Catholicism who have infiltrated the Church. Whereas the theological battle was largely hidden from the laity during the papacy of Pius XII, it is almost fully transparent today for those with eyes to see. When we see the openly anti-Catholic machinations of Cardinals Cupich, Gregory, McElroy, Hollerich, Grech, “Tucho,” etc., we are seeing the devil’s tail in action. We have thus gained an increased ability to identify Satan’s work, which should allow us to defend against it more than in times when that diabolical work was hidden, but no less lethal.
Additionally, Francis’s unique contributions to the ongoing crisis have made it abundantly clear that the most evil actors in the world despise and fear Traditional Catholicism. Francis and his collaborators have even established a formal counter-church — the Synodal Church — as a blasphemous inversion of the Catholic Church. Perhaps never before in the history of Christianity have we seen such an obvious demonstration that Satan and his minions want to destroy the Catholic Church. Because Satan detests that which is of God, we have gained even greater certainty that we must follow the unadulterated Catholic Faith if we wish to serve God.
Finally, all of this has allowed us to gain a far greater appreciation for the Catholic Faith. When we have to make meaningful sacrifices to adhere to the religion of the saints, we draw closer to God and His Church. As a result, the Traditional Catholic movement has produced bountiful and holy fruits at the same time that we have seen such disastrous fruits from those who have obeyed their way into cafeteria Catholicism and ultimately apostasy. In absence of the crisis, we might have taken the Faith for granted; but today we know that it truly is the precious pearl.
We do not know how God will resolve this crisis, but these considerations help us better understand how His loving Providence draws good from evil. If, as Our Lady of Fatima foretold, Her Immaculate Heart will triumph in the end, surely those Catholics who have made sacrifices, and endured persecution, to retain the unadulterated Faith will be the most likely instruments of that triumph. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!
