On This Rock I Will Build My Church

I have spent a great deal of time absorbing, praying about, and reflecting on this unprecedented time in the history of the Catholic Church. What is clear at this point is that there are two churches: the “official” Catholic Church fraught with heretical leaders and followers, and an underground church comprised of faithful people, upholding traditional Catholic values, who are astonished that they appear to be in the process of being pushed out of the fold. Many feel as though they are in a dwindling minority, watching their pope, bishops, and priests leading the faithful down the broad road of destruction.

During the lockdowns, we watched helplessly as the pope and bishops forced good priests to deny us the sacraments, declared war on faithful Catholics and priests, closed down churches and schools, disrupted faith formation, refused to visit the sick and dying, and recklessly pushed a dangerous political and medical agenda in association with corrupt governments and corporations. The pope turned into a politician and attacked the entire global church, driving countless faithful away. Though most Catholics were refused entry to church and could not receive the sacraments they so desperately needed, there were, nevertheless, mostly secret gatherings where the sacraments were administered and people gathered in prayer under threat of arrest. When churches reopened, we witnessed the gamut of liturgies, some of which were blessed with reverence, while others were grotesque shows run by politicians and money changers posing as priests.

Now we are witnessing Germany (and arguably the global church) on the brink of schism, the pope insanely endorsing homosexual behavior and idol worship while at the same time facilitating the complete destruction of the ministries of good bishops and priests who uphold the true faith of the church, and bishops who would indeed suspend John the Baptist himself from ministry for causing “division” in their congregations! In fact, they would suspend Jesus if they could, as He said “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law — man’s enemies will be the members of his own household” (Matthew 10:34-35).

The true separation of sheep and goats is on full display.

But let’s recall that the early church saw persecution and scattering, which drove the disciples out of their local region and across the world, thus facilitating Jesus’ plan to baptize people from all nations in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The more people are driven away from the problematic, schismatic, heretical loci within the Catholic Church, the more they are driven toward the realization of God’s ultimate plan to unite the faithful in His eternal love. How that will ultimately be manifested remains to be seen, but it is clear that those calling themselves “Catholic” today are recognizing divergent meanings of that term, and Christ’s true Church will emerge from the wilderness. Let’s pray for consecrated leaders of the Apostolic Succession who are guided by the Holy Spirit into mercifully feeding Christ’s sheep, and for the faithful to never lose heart.