In one of the most valuable books dedicated to the art of meditation, Religious Meditations,^[i] Father Pierre Chaignon S.J. (1791–1883) emphasizes one of the essential aspects of how a Christian can effectively change his life by drawing closer to the demands of holiness. How? Certainly not through general, vague, and non-committal resolutions. The effectiveness of a good meditation depends on specific decisions applied with wisdom to our personal lives. Thus, Father Chaignon proposes an eloquent example:

“Let’s assume you have decided: ‘I will be patient in adversities.’ It is too vague a resolution and therefore sterile. (…) Try, therefore, to change and narrow down this general resolution. Two means are available to you for this. You could say: ‘I will be patient in such and such a situation;’ or: ‘If I am given some suffering to endure, I will think that it is too small compared to the hell I deserved.’ (…) In one way or another, your decision will be limited and therefore very good.”

If we wanted to compile a list quotations which could encapsulate the crisis in the Catholic Church and world today, we would do well to include the following from Archbishop Hélder Câmara (signer of the Catacombs Pact and a crucial influence on Klaus Schwab):

“It would shock many people if the Church came along giving the impression that I am the solution to every problem — I have the solution to every problem. No, we come only to try to collaborate with the world, not by throwing our weight around but by shedding a bit of light here and there” (Archbishop Hélder Câmara, quoted in the Archbishop Lefebvre Documentary, 39:00)

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What’s past is prologue.  —Shakespeare

In his classic The Spiritual Combat and a Treatise on Peace of Soul, Dom Lorenzo Scupoli wrote of the absolute necessity of striving to discard the “old man” in ourselves if we want to overcome evil:

“The most effective remedy against evil is purity of heart. Everyone engaged in the spiritual combat must be armed with it, discarding the old man and putting on the new. The remedy is applied in this way. In everything that we undertake, pursue, or reject, we divest ourselves of all human considerations, and do only what is conformable to the will of God.”

The fake communist world

In Romania under the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu, the concepts of “surrogate” or “substitute” had become commonplace. The lack of basic goods – especially food and clothing – was something ordinary. The long lines in front of the stores were the only constant thing you would see everywhere. Against widespread poverty, the only defense ordinary people had at their disposal was humor. That’s all that remained for them. One of the most well-known jokes from that period goes like this:

As one indication, among many, that Francis has convinced most rational observers of his heterodoxy, it is worth noting that he has developed quite a following with the Babylon Bee, a Christian satirical website, as we can see from recent articles:

December 11, 2023: “The Catholic Church announced this week Pope Francis has excommunicated the Apostle Paul over the latter's outdated views on women, families, and social issues.”

November 12, 2023: “Pope Francis has officially sacked Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas for being ‘way too Catholic.’”

October 3, 2023: “Pope Francis today released a papal decree warning Christians against going through the narrow gate, and instead encouraging everyone to take the broad road.”

These satirical observations demonstrate that the Babylon Bee has a far greater grasp of Catholic teaching — and the extent to which Francis opposes it — than Francis’s professional Catholic defenders. Should we Catholics therefore take all of this to heart and leave the Church so that we can “sleep soundly” like the Protestant man in the Babylon Bee’s December 19, 2023 article mocking Fiducia Supplicans?:

“As controversy continues to swirl following Pope Francis's pronouncement that Catholic priests are free to bless people who are in same-sex relationships, a local protestant man slept soundly due to the knowledge that he doesn't need to pay any attention to what some guy who wears a funny hat in Rome says about anything theologically.” 

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“It is Satan who has been introduced into the bosom of the Church and within a very short time will come to rule a false Church.’’ (St. Padre Pio to Fr. Gabriel Amorth)