Is This the Worst Time Ever…

 

…for the Church.

Taken from a clip of a longer discussion with Ralph Martin at Pints With Aquinas.  The entire clip is six minutes, and it is taken from a much longer conversation which I may treat in the future.

Matt Fradd, the host of the channel, begins by offering: There have been many times in Church history where there has been confusion and sin in the Church, even the pope.  What does Martin say?

Is this the worst time ever?  I don’t know, but we do have some unique things right now.  We have confusion in the Church happening at the same time as we have this incredible array of the powers of this world against Christ and His Church. 

Confusion in the Church has happened often.  It hasn’t happened often at the same time as society also wanting to crush the Church.

Martin then goes to Psalms 2: 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed….

All the levers of power, culture, entertainment, even professional sports going woke and persecuting people for not going along with the global elite agenda.  Education….

He speaks to public schools.  Of course, we cannot forget the universities.

I don’t think you can explain how quick and how thorough it’s been without supernatural power.

Ephesians 6:12 is offered, a verse I have leaned on many times when considering our situation today: For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Those are instruments of spiritual powers which are incredibly intelligent and incredibly hate filled toward Christ.

This is exactly the theme I have written on here.  We are governed by evil men doing the work of Satan.  By governed, I don’t refer to only state actors.  Church leaders are also featured, and Jesus warned us of such as these.

Martin then takes aim at his own Catholic Church; he is concerned that the Church is being lured into one that is useful to and supportive of this earthly agenda: “lured into a chaplain to the U.N. or a chaplain to the global reset.”  He is, of course, speaking about the current pope and many in the Church who support his agenda. 

Martin then cites Pope Benedict – who seems to be the go-to pope for those less-than-enamored with the current pope:

One hundred years ago, everyone would have considered it absurd to speak of a homosexual marriage.  Today, one is being excommunicated by society if one opposes it.  The same applies to abortion or the creation of human beings in the laboratory.

He then offers that there was recently an announcement about blending mouse cells and human cells.  The Abolition of Man….

Returning to Benedict:

Modern society is in the middle of formulating an anti-Christian creed.  If one opposes it, one is being punished by society with excommunication. 

Benedict concludes: This must be countered by prayer.  What a lovely happenstance that Benedict was exchanged for Francis just in time….

Benedict’s words remind me of the examination by Jonathan Pageau of a speech given by Tim Cook when he won some award from the ADL, which I have written about here.  Pageau titled his video, The Apple CEO, 666, and the Garden of Eden.  This title tells you about everything you need to know of the video, but I offer one snippet from my earlier writing:

Pageau notes: the speech had a moralistic, crusading tone; it was extremely aggressive; Cook spoke with a moral certainty.  He is presenting his moral vision. … Cook is offering a vision of the desired ethic: the only values that matter are 1) inclusion, and 2) don’t oppose the system – including the system of inclusion.  It is a problem if you oppose yourself to this.  It is unethical to be outside of this desired ethic.

Cook goes on to offer Judaism and Islam as examples of teaching to follow, with no mention of Christianity.  As Pageau noted: if you reject the system, you will be the one excluded – or, in Martin’s words, excommunicated.

Then Martin offers something from Archbishop Gomez, head of the Bishop’s Conference, who said something similar to what Benedict said.  He said this, knowing that the bishops are divided, knowing that he would take flack for saying it.

He said that these movements of global reset, and he mentions Black Lives Matter and other things, are in the process of forming an alternate worldview and an alternate religion that has no place for Christ and the Church.  He said that we really need to be honest about this; that’s what we are dealing with now.  We aren’t dealing with a Christian culture now; we are dealing with an alternate religion. 

I am not familiar with Gomez, but a quick look at some of his positions reveals a bit of a mixed bag.  In any case…the text of Gomez’s speech can be found here; Martin does an video examination of it here.  In the speech, he aims at Cultural Marxism, Critical Theories, etc.  According to Martin, the archbishop “hits a homerun,” and asks, “who is next up to bat?”

A snippet from the speech:

An elite leadership class has risen in our countries that has little interest in religion and no real attachments to the nations they live in or to local traditions or cultures. This group, which is in charge in corporations, governments, universities, the media, and in the cultural and professional establishments, wants to establish what we might call a global civilization, built on a consumer economy and guided by science, technology, humanitarian values, and technocratic ideas about organizing society.

In this elite worldview, there is no need for old-fashioned belief systems and religions. In fact, as they see it, religion, especially Christianity, only gets in the way of the society they hope to build.

It is the political strategy of Antonio Gramsci put into action.

Conclusion

During the video, Fradd introduces the St. Michael prayer:

St. Michael the Archangel,

defend us in battle.

Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.

May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,

and do thou,

O Prince of the heavenly hosts,

by the power of God,

thrust into hell Satan,

and all the evil spirits,

who prowl about the world

seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.