One of the unexpected consolations that sneaks up on soldiers of Christ living through the worst pontificate in history is the happy acquaintance of brothers in arms who seem to appear out of nowhere. Every few days lately, another well met fellow calls out to us as he picks his way through the rubble of these muddied trenches: “Love live Christ the King, brother, and Merry Christmas.”

He might hail from England, Ireland, Australia, Germany, France, it doesn’t matter. His purpose for stopping by our part of the trench is just to let us know he’s still awake, still on watch, still keeping the faith at the far end of the trench. Like us, he has not surrendered, and this Christmas his clan will be warming themselves with memories of happier times he’s confident will return after the war ends.

This is war, of course – worldwide civil war like no other history – but our Christmas in the trenches is not without hope, and the growing worldwide fraternal remnant is the human consolation that helps keep despair well at bay.

For five hundred years, the Revolution has been trying to destroy the Faith of our Fathers, sustained for millennia by the Latin Mass, touchstone of our Faith. The Revolution was confident that if that could be destroyed, the Old Faith would follow soon thereafter. What they did not count on was us -- a remnant of believers.

I can honestly say that I have never had more friends in all my life than I do right now. Yes, the shepherd has been struck. Yes, the sheep are scattered. But “scattered” no longer means “isolated and alone,” as it once did. God has not abandoned us. He is right here with us, manifesting Himself in the light of faith of a band of Catholic brothers that grows stronger and more determined with every new scandal out of Rome, or Washington, or Brussels, or wherever the forces of evil gather to plot their latest non serviam. 

So, welcome to the crowded trenches on the front line of this the last crusade.

I was reminded of this the other day when one of those trench mates, Robert Morrison, sent me a bit of Christmas consolation he’d dug up from five centuries ago. Turns out, in his De Controversies: Tomus II, On The Church Vol. I, On The Authority of Councils, Ch XIX, Protestant Responses are Refuted, the great Italian Doctor of the Church, St. Robert Bellarmine, left us a message that is now being passed down the line, from trench to trench – our resistance is nothing less than the Catholic thing to do. The Doctors of the Church are telling us to continue.

St. Robert Bellarmine was answering the following objection: “But they will say, therefore, the Church is without remedy if it has a bad Pope, and the Pope can disturb all things unpunished, and destroy and no one will be able to resist.”

And the sainted doctor responds:

“No wonder, if the Church remains without an efficacious human remedy, seeing that its safety does not rest principally upon human industry, but divine protection, since God is its king. Therefore, even if the Church could not depose a Pope, still, it may and must beg the Lord that He would apply the remedy, and it is certain that God has care of its safety, that He would either convert the Pope or abolish him from the midst before he destroys the Church. Nevertheless, it does not follow from here that it is not lawful to resist a Pope destroying the Church: for it is lawful to admonish him while preserving all reverence, and to modestly correct him, even to oppose him with force and arms if he means to destroy the Church.”

We knew this to be true all along, of course, but it is good to have it reiterated. During a recent interview in Rome, His Excellency Bishop Athanasius Schneider, said something similar to me, that God will provide the solution and that, in the interim, we have a duty to keep the faith and resist.

This Christmas, let’s take comfort from the fact that bishops all over the world are standing with us, preparing for the battle of our lives.

I remember hearing Archbishop Lefebvre say something similar forty years ago, and it is the foundation for something Cardinal Muller said last year in reference to the Syond on Synodality: “This is a hostile takeover of the Catholic Church. And if they succeed, it will be the end of the Catholic Church. And we must resist!”

This Christmas, let’s take comfort from the fact that bishops all over the world are standing with us, preparing for the battle of our lives. As a result, our trenches are becoming crowded. We have the great consolation of knowing we fight on the side of righteousness and will, therefore, be able to look God in the face when our time comes. Why? Because bishops, cardinals, and Doctors of the Church – successors of the Apostles from yesterday and today – are giving us these orders: Trust God to save His Church, and resist those who attempt to destroy the Church, even if they happen to be popes.

I have never seen to many bishops stand against a Modernist pope as we’re seeing right now. Finally, God is waking His Church, and this is the great consolation that we never had in the long years after the close of Vatican II. I believe with all my heart that God is intervening on behalf of His Church.

As foot shoulders in a war that’s been raging between God and Satan all our lives, we should not be surprised by Francis. We always knew his arrival was inevitable. Why? Because having tried for millennia to vanquish Christ the King from outside the Church, it only stands to reason that eventually the forces of hell would attempt to breach the wall and attack the Mystical Body of Christ from within. 

Well, here we are, facing hell’s last desperate push to destroy the Catholic Church. Desperate? Yes, because they failed to kill the Faith of our Fathers. We’re still here, and they are growing desperate. Not surprisingly, this betrayal of Christ is also the doing of yet another bishop. Like Bishop Judas, Francis is attempting to betray Christ and thus “destroy the Church,” which is an eventuality that great saints such as Bellarmine foresaw. And because he’d foreseen it, he was able to tell us what to do about it: “Resist, admonish, correct, and oppose such a pope with every means at your disposal.”

It’s Christmastime again, and like our fathers and mothers did for a thousand years, we celebrate the Birth of Christ but perhaps with even more fervor. Why? Because we have experienced the diabolical nature and agenda of the anti-Christians whose war on Christmas is not without purpose.

Some will object: “That’s impossible. We can’t do it. We have no power over such matters!”

Don’t we? For five hundred years, the Revolution has been trying to destroy the Faith of our Fathers, sustained for millennia by the Latin Mass, touchstone of our Faith. The Revolution was confident that if that could be destroyed, the Old Faith would follow soon thereafter. What they did not count on was us -- a remnant of believers who, through the grace of God, would not comply, and whose mission even today could not be less complicated: No matter what Rome does, we strive to know, love, and serve God in this life so that we can be happy with Him forever in the next. In other words, do what all Catholics have been asked to do, all the way back to the martyrs of the Colosseum: Keep the Faith, or die trying.

There is no great mystery here. It’s Christmastime again, and like our fathers and mothers did for a thousand years, we celebrate the Birth of Christ but perhaps with even more fervor. Why? Because we have experienced the diabolical nature and agenda of the anti-Christians whose war on Christmas is not without purpose. It’s not a matter of speculation anymore. We know what they want, and we know they cannot be defeated without the intervention of Jesus Christ, without Tradition, without the Church, and without each other.

In other words, we are awake and ready to fight like never before. The war is in the open now, and the clans can clearly identify the enemy. You don’t have to be a hero to know what to do – you have only to be a human, to love your family and to love your God. Enlisting in this army of God is something millions living in this post-Covid new normal are, finally, eager to do. Why? Because the lives and souls of our children depend on it.

But it was not always so easy to see. Fifty years ago, pioneer traditional Catholics kept the faith under a pontificate much worse than the current one. In the span of a few months, my father’s generation saw marauding Modernists destroy the old Mass (or try to), bulldoze the sanctuaries, hack up the high altars, put pantsuits on the nuns, and drive tens of thousands of priests into the arms of their new wives.

Yes, the war rages on, but there is much cause for hope in these Christmas trenches. We’re not leaving the Church. We’re united in her worldwide defense, especially since with the passing of every new day, Team Francis makes hero prophets and freedom fighters out of traditional Catholics.

And what was the pope’s response? Pope Paul VI uncrowned himself and then told the United Nations that only a brotherhood of man could save the world.

In other words, our fathers and mothers survived the first blitzkrieg, a massive surprise (for many) attack which was met with minimal organized resistance. Francis is a disaster, yes, but a predictable one. He’s on the continuum, and his passe agenda is part of what Paul VI called the “auto-demolition of the Church.”

This was the same pope, by the way, who lived out the last days of his pontificate wringing his hands and lamenting the diabolical madness he’d unleashed on the world: “… It was thought that, after the Council, sunny days would come for the history of the Church. Nevertheless, what came were days of clouds, of storms, of darkness, of searching, of uncertainty … We tried to dig abysses instead of covering them …”

Compared to all that, what is happening today under Francis is dumbed-down bush league. I came of age with Paul VI’s “Smoke of Satan” wafting down the aisles of our parish churches and up the hallways of our Catholic schools. We’re used to it by now, which is why Francis fails to either surprise or shock.

Two years before he died, Michael Davies, at a Remnant Forum here in St. Paul, observed the following: “It is no longer a crisis in the Church. A crisis in medical terms is the point at which the patient can recover, or after which he’ll die. We’ve now passed the point in the Church in the English-speaking world where it can recover. So, the mainstream Church is going to continue to decline but we are going to continue to grow slowly, and there will literally be only a vestigial Catholic presence in the world in twenty to thirty years’ time. But a majority of that will be Traditional Catholics. And in the end, the Church will rise again.”   

Herod will die like tyrants always do. Ceasar will become another one of history’s forgotten madmen. The Roman legions will ride off into history. All the characters in the Christmas story are dead, gone, and buried beneath the sands of time. All but one – the Child of Bethlehem. He’s still here – the King of Kings.

I often spoke to Michael about this, and I remember him to be absolutely confident that the Modernist Revolution was doomed to fail. It turns out he was right. As Francis oversees the collapse of the Revolution of Vatican II, he’s forced to resort to raw power to try to block Tradition from becoming the future of the Church, exactly as Michael predicted.

Francis has become increasingly isolated and alone, while his own turn on him and the ranks of Tradition are swelling with new recruits. Merry Christmas? You better believe it!

Yes, the war rages on, but there is much cause for hope in these Christmas trenches. We’re not leaving the Church. We’re united in her worldwide defense, especially since with the passing of every new day, Team Francis makes hero prophets and freedom fighters out of the first traditional Catholics, i.e., Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Michael Davies, Walter Matt, etc. They were right! History will devote entire chapters to the telling of their story while, please God, our children will finish it.

And Francis? Just another one of history’s villains who, like Herod, will die in disgrace.  Why? Because Francis and his Global-Homo Elites have tried everything to crush the Faith of our fathers, only to discover that it is the Faith of our Fathers that will crush them. They are the ones growing old and bloated this Christmas, finding themselves running out of time, while the remnant of believers is bursting with new life, teeming with young families and young priests who will not comply.

And what answer does Francis have for any of this? He has none, and so must resort to ranting and raving like a warped, frustrated old Mr. Potter, spending his last Christmas lamenting his failure to crush the George Baileys of the world and all their little children.

God is back, friends, and this war is far from over!

The indominable spirit of Catholic Tradition is rising out of the ashes of the Revolution of Vatican II, while traditional Catholics are proud to walk the footsteps of the first Christians, men and women who witnessed the first pope deny Christ three times, who looked on as the Son of God died on a Cross, who watched their own sons become food for the lions -- and yet who not only kept the faith but died for it, their blood watering the mighty tree of Christendom.

We cannot let Francis cause us to lose sight of this – we will keep the faith, with him or without him. On the first Christmas, there was no pope at all when the shepherds went over to Bethlehem to see God reset the world.

We cannot let Francis cause us to lose sight of this – we will keep the faith, with him or without him. On the first Christmas, there was no pope at all when the shepherds went over to Bethlehem to see God reset the world. We don’t know their names, but we know they were insignificant little people, just like us, whose willingness to believe in angels and seek out God in unlikely places led to the collapse of the mighty Roman Empire. And this will happen again.

If you’ve ever been to Bethlehem, you know that one has to stoop down and become quite little just to get through the opening of the cave where Christ was born. It’s a lowly place for lowly people who don’t have all the answers but who are willing to become like children and lowly shepherds to find God in the darkness of an evil world. And oh, how God rewarded them for it! They were the ones who were there when it all started. They got to see Him first, they were allowed to hold Him, and they were among the privileged few who heard the infant voice of the Redeemer.  

Imagine that!

And what was happening in mighty Rome on that first silent night? The shepherds didn’t know, and the sheep didn’t care. The Son of God was born, and that’s all that mattered.

And what is happening in Rome today? God knows! That’s His problem. What matters most is that we walk with the shepherds who listen to Angels and lead the flock back to Bethlehem.

Herod will die like tyrants always do. Ceasar will become another one of history’s forgotten madmen. The Roman legions will ride off into history. All the characters in the Christmas story are dead, gone, and buried beneath the sands of time. All but one – the Child of Bethlehem. He’s still here – the King of Kings, the King of our hearts, the King of heaven and earth … and there is nothing that poor, benighted Francis can do about that.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to the clans of good will. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Christ is born! Cantate Domino canticum novum, quia mirabilia fecit.

Christmas at RTV — KEEP HOPE ALIVE: A Christmas Reminder from Michael J. Matt