PRIOR POST:
UPDATES:
More Updates Added August 6, 2019
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/former-prof-laments-destruction-of-romes-john-paul-ii-institute
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pope-benedict-meets-privately-with-dismissed-jp-ii-institute-prof
What might happen?
Cardinal Zen recently called on the hidden Catholic Church of China to “FIGHT.” This is not a word we usually hear within the Church, but the escalation by the Vatican-facilitated Chinese government and the victimization of its underground church leave very few alternatives.
Now the work of a canonized Pope is being destroyed. And a man who commissioned an erotic orgy scene of himself has found a power base. There is little doubt that, had Pope Saint John Paul II been canonized or not, he is deeply loved by faithful Catholics. We are much more in a ‘Communion of Saints’ kind of relationship to our beleaguered brothers and sisters in China than we are today to those who are working to belittle and undermine the work of Pope Saint John Paul II and to ‘remake’ the Catholic Church in someone else’s image and likeness.
It may seem to be an odd point at which to attack the Faith, given the laity’s loyalty to our former pontiff. But it is eminently logical. Unless the Teaching of JP II is destroyed, it will be a constant reminder of what has been and is being lost. It will be fragmented, one piece at a time, until the fabric is rent completely. The holiness of Pope Saint John Paul II’s writings and teachings are a great bulwark against attacks by those with power to affect the Faith internally. Why would we not suspect a deep and abiding spiritual jealousy against his work, a measure of his papal influence?
Quite frankly, it does make sense that JP II is a likely point of attack since his position is so strong! And so fresh in people’s minds. And such a contrast! Why would he have been canonized at all, then? Because the fall then is much greater and decisive? To touch and destroy the holy is even more significant than to merely ignore it.
The seriousness of responding to despoilers is suggested in the mysterious words of Psalm 137:9, when the Edomites joined the Chaldaean besiegers of Jerusalem’s walls: “Happy shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!” Do we not see how so many have breached the walls of the Deposit of the Faith? And who has abetted them? Also, little ones need not only be children, for whom abuse has been clearly shown, and who stand as illumination to the abuse of power. “Little ones” may also be seen in the broader sense of souls; in that way we are all little ones, growing in faith. We hear echoes of the abuse of children, and even of our own souls (remembering that we must become like children), in all three Synoptic Gospels, reading, essentially: ” … but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” Matt. 18:6. These are admittedly difficult passages, with more than one interpretation, but perhaps do include understanding the need for defense against (or God’s retribution to) those who despoil the faithful. Is it not also a call to “Fight?”
What does it mean?
What does this all mean and why is it happening now, when the faithful are reeling from so many horrific abuses? Perhaps it means that the unfaithful part of the Church now thinks it has enough strength to attack and/or now has so much to lose in its life of sexual depravity and hunger for power that it cannot afford NOT to breach the walls? Lepanto was just a skirmish compared to the war being unleashed on souls, and it is seeming that the most vulnerable and faithful are receiving the brunt.
If I were to indulge for a moment the fantasy of being a strategist for the JP II Institute, now virtually disbanded, with courses discontinued, all profs removed, with division among members by requiring reapplication one by one (with many cowering and cringing promises demanded, in order to be able to return to their students), I would think the only reasonable strategy would be to set up an new and faithful institute, replicating insofar as possible the loyalty and faithfulness to the vision of Pope Saint John Paul II, and to all the Church’s teachings, especially on moral issues and on the family, the points of Satan’s major attack.
It is actually a wonderful opportunity to turn over a significant part of a current major institute of higher education for the immediate work of keeping the student body and professors of the JP II Institute together and continuing to build on JP II’s base. The strength is in the togetherness of a united position against anything which contradicts Christ’s Teaching or the Deposit of Faith. The world desperately needs a model; so does the Catholic in the pew. Until martyrs are led to death, there is still much work to be done. In John 12:35: “Jesus said to them, ‘The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, lest the darkness overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes.'” As Cardinal Zen said, “Fight.” Not in disobedience, and not in hopelessness, but in faith and truth.
In Luke 18:8 we read: “… when the Son of man comes, will He find faith on earth?” There is a reason that Christ asks us that question. Who among us can go to the ‘barricades’?
https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/its-high-noon-for-the-church-who-will-stand-and-defend-her
