By FR. NICHOLAS GRUNER, S.T.L., S.T.D. [Canada]
Taken from the Summer, 2006 Issue, THE FATIMA CRUSADER
NOTE: The term “Diabolical Disorientation” comes up in conversation more and more frequently. What is it? What does it mean? What does it have to do with me? Father Gruner answers your questions about this epidemic that has been slowly infecting large segments of the Catholic Church collectively as well as many individual souls of the Faithful.
WHEN a person is disoriented, he is in a state of confusion and loses his bearings. He does not understand things clearly. It’s similar to being away and sleeping in a room where the bed, the window, the door are all different from your own room at home. And upon waking up suddenly in the middle of the night, you are at first disoriented, confused—-Where am I? Where’s the door, where’s the window? So most people have actually experienced disorientation.
Diabolical disorientation, on the other hand, is when a person is when a person is disoriented by various tricks of the devil. These diabolical tricks are not simply a kind of possession portrayed on television and in the movies. The devil, the purveyor of diabolical disorientation, manages often to give the targeted person a perception quite different from reality and yet, the person so diabolically disorientated is convinced what he thinks is the truth when it is actually a lie.
Individuals and Society are Affected!
The devil disorients individuals by making them think that because of their wealth and successes, they are being blessed by God, when, at the same time, they are committing sin, cheating and lying, and are hurling themselves headlong into Hell.
Even worse than diabolical disorientation of an individual, is the disorientation of a whole society, which insults and ignores God and His Mother.
The devil has so many running after power, money, illicit pleasure, false ambition, killing their own babies in their wombs. The most precious gift in the world is children, yet the devil obviously tricks them into thinking they are doing a good thing by aborting them.
Doctors, nurses, politicians, even the general public who support abortion, are disoriented—-and it is having deadly effects, killing 50 million babies per year, plus sending the perpetrators to Hell for all eternity if they do not repent.
Even Some Catholic Networks are Disoriented
Disorientation on a larger scale is described in EWTN: A Network Gone Wrong. This book exposes how EWTN, a so-called Catholic television network, leads even practicing Catholics astray by broadcasting their heresies and their own brand of disorientation as if it were all “gospel truth”.
The disoriented leadership of EWTN is deceiving many Catholics who have received the truth of the Faith by Baptism. These Catholics at EWTN acknowledge the true Church of Christ. Yet, they go ahead and, at least implicitly, deny one or more articles of the Faith, which makes them material heretics.
Once a Catholic becomes aware that his error is directly contrary to the Catholic Faith and becomes stubborn in not rejecting the error, he becomes a formal heretic, not just a material heretic.
A material heretic is a person who believes a heresy but does not know that it is a heresy; for example, if a person thinks that he can be good without the help of God’s supernatural grace, and does not realize that this is the heresy of Pelagianism (Naturalism).
Thus, in good faith, being unaware that his theory is heretical (because no one ever points it out to him) we have to assume that he is not a formal heretic. He is not refusing to accept what the Catholic Church teaches, but he, apparently, is just ignorant of what the Catholic Church teaches.
A formal heretic, on the other hand, is a person who knows that what he believes is contrary to what is defined by the Catholic Church. Following our above example, the Catholic Church solemnly teaches that in order to be good, we must have supernatural grace, but despite knowing that, the formal heretic refuses to accept that doctrine and still claims he is a Catholic.
A formal heretic cannot be a Catholic because a formal heretic ipso facto (that is, by the act of committing formal heresy), cuts himself off from the Church and, therefore, is no longer a Catholic. Not every sin cuts a person off from the Church, but the sin of heresy does.
The diabolical disorientation that we are experiencing today is not only that most non-Catholics are disoriented, it’s also that they are unaware that what they are doing—-refusing to enter the Catholic Church—-is seriously sinful; and also that they are unaware of why God created them and unaware of what they must do to get to Heaven.
The diabolical disorientation we are talking about here is the disorientation of Catholics who think they are serving God, but embrace beliefs and practices which are gravely contrary to what the Church always taught and practiced. This disorientation has been produced in individuals and in large segments of the Catholic population, by the devil.
The Blind are Leading the Blind
Our Lord spoke of this when He said of the Pharisees: “They are blind, and leaders of the blind . . . and both fall into the pit. ” (Matt. 15:14)
If a blind person allows himself to be led by another blind person, chances are that both of them, the leader and the led, will fall into a ditch or deep well. What would happen to a man who is physically blind would also happen to one who is spiritually blind. He loses his way, doesn’t know where he’s going, and following a blind leader, will most certainly end up in the wrong place—-Hell.
That is what is happening today. The diabolical disorientation is not only among simple people, not only among the sinners who do not try to keep God’s law, but this diabolical disorientation has affected the leadership as well.
In fact, it seems that it is the leadership in the Church, most of all, that is suffering this diabolical disorientation.
Sister Lucy talked about this in her various letters which are quoted by Frère Michel. She also spoke about it in her interview with Father Fuentes, when she said:
“The devil knows what it is that most offends God and which in a short space of time will gain for him the greatest number of souls.”
“Thus the devil does everything to overcome souls consecrated to God because in this way, the devil will succeed in leaving the souls of the faithful abandoned by their leaders, thereby the more easily will he seize them.”
There are a number of pious Catholics who go to church on Sunday and say their prayers, but who also are infected by this disorientation. That is because they are trusting these blind leaders, contrary to the graces of their Baptism and the graces of their Confirmation. They are trusting them when they say, “Follow us, we’re orthodox, conservative, true Catholics . . . follow us!”
A large number of disoriented people in the Church are spending a lot of time claiming to be living their religion when, in fact, they’re serving the devil. That is quite a feat for the devil to get those who serve his ends to make them think and really believe they are serving God, when they are serving Satan. This is the epitome of diabolical disorientation.
Where Did the Phrase “Diabolical Disorientation” Originate?
We can thank Sister Lucy of Fatima for coining the term. You will find it in her writing, especially between 1969 and 1971. Time and again, she comes back to this statement.
With so many changes going on in the Church since Vatican II, faithful Catholics and friends reported to Sister Lucy, strange activities of various clergymen, bishops and priests. The Catholic faithful knew that something was wrong. And so they asked Sister Lucy for her advice on this. She explained that it is diabolical disorientation. The devil is behind it, she said, and the devil has misled many people, surprisingly even bishops and Cardinals; and although she has not said it, maybe even the Pope himself.
Why Haven’t We Heard of This Threat Before Now?
It may be that it wasn’t Sister Lucy that came up with the term but rather the Blessed Virgin Herself, in the Third Secret of Fatima. The Third Secret was supposed to be released by 1960, but to date, it still has not been fully released.
The Third Secret foretells our time of apostasy in the Church. We know this because Cardinal Ciappi says: “In the Third Secret, it is foretold, among other things, that the Great Apostasy in the Church begins at the top.” This means a number of Cardinals and bishops and priests in the Vatican are misleading the faithful and leading them into apostasy.
That is, many faithful are being led into heresy, schism and rebellion against the doctrinal teachings and the moral teachings of God as taught by the Catholic Church for 2000 years. If you look around today, so much of what goes on in the Church is contrary to what the Church consistently believed and practiced for centuries.
We were warned in the Third Secret to be on our guard against this diabolical disorientation and its purveyors and promoters. Especially, it warns us to be on guard against bad shepherds. We say bad, not in the sense as to whether they are guilty or not, but bad in the sense that they are misleading the sheep towards Hell instead of towards Heaven.
Since Pope Pius XII chose not to release the text of the Secret before his death, it was left in the hands of some disorientated people, Cardinals and bishops, who, in turn, apparently recognized that it was they, themselves, and their heresies and apostasies and schisms, that were being described in the Third Secret.
On the one hand, they told themselves that they don’t have to believe this Message of Fatima because it’s only a “private revelation”. On the other hand, they were committed in their hearts and minds and public positions to embrace the errors that their disorientation had given them, so they used all their power of influence, their position and power of persuasion to see that the Third Secret was never released.
So, in general, the faithful have gone on believing these diabolically disorientated priests, bishops and Cardinals, while those same churchmen in high authority, through their own private access to the Secret, were able to be forewarned and able to recognize the primary opponents of their errors.
Those who promote the full Fatima Message are the very ones the diabolically disoriented clergy have most to fear from. Therefore, they put the brunt of their attacks on those who are Marian and promoting the full Fatima Message, as well as to attack those who uphold traditional beliefs and practices, because that is where the devil, through diabolical disorientation leads his assault against souls. If he can cut souls off from the Faith and from channels of grace then he is certain to drag them to Hell.
Fatima Warning Buried With the Third Secret
The leaders of apostasy have silenced much of the warning and advice coming from Heaven in the Fatima Secret which was meant to be given to the faithful.
Instead, they have intercepted the Third Secret and used it against the defenders of the Church and the Faith.
They buried the Third Secret in 1960 and are still burying it; this is why you have not heard the full Third Secret before now; and why, while they pretend to be promoting Fatima, they are, in fact, fighting Fatima.
We saw this diabolical disorientation in Fatima itself, when the Fatima Shrine authorities allowed Hindu worship in that Catholic Sanctuary in the Spring of 2004.
They presented this to the general public, claiming it to be a holy and good thing. But even if the leadership of the Sanctuary, such as Father Guerra, does not recognize this as an act of apostasy, it is heartening to note that many (some of whom don’t even go to church that often) recognize this as an act of apostasy, sacrilege and blasphemy.
Defend Yourself and Your Family
[1] The first line of defense against this diabolical disorientation is to pray, especially the Rosary. Our Lady promises that if you pray the Rosary every day, you will not fall into heresy. And if you’ve already fallen into heresy, by praying the Rosary every day, the Blessed Virgin will pull you out of it.
[2] Catholics must pray the Rosary every day, especially since they are almost completely surrounded by a leadership that is diabolically disoriented, as well as by peers and colleagues who are following the bad leaders into apostasy. You need to pray at least five decades of the Rosary each day, to keep your senses and head about you and not become infected by this disorientation yourself.
Sister Lucy explained:
“People must recite the Rosary every day. Our Lady repeated this in all Her apparitions, as if to arm us in advance against these times of diabolical disorientation, so that we would not let ourselves be fooled by false doctrines, and that through prayers, the elevation of our soul to God would not be diminished.”
[3] Know your Faith better by reading and studying a good Catholic catechism, one published before 1960, such as the Catechism of the Council of Trent or the Catechisms of St. Pius X, or the original version of the Baltimore Catechism published in 1880.
[4] Defend yourself by learning the tricks and techniques of the devil and his followers.
Be informed about some of the players who may believe themselves to be Catholic, but who are promoting apostasy and immorality. Read EWTN: A Network Gone Wrong, which provides a prime example of the diabolical disorientation being peddled out to you by various channels which claim to be Catholic but are not. They may be in good faith but are not teaching the Catholic Faith.
EWTN: A Network Gone Wrong catalogs some of the leading heresies being taught today by disoriented priests, Cardinals, bishops, Brothers, Sisters and so-called Catholic institutions.
Infallible Definitions Cannot Fail
The beauty of the book is that it refers you back to solemn definitions which the Roman Catholic Church guarantees to us are infallible. That is, as long as we are faithful to the sense and the meaning of the words of dogmatic decrees of the Pope and Councils, (not Vatican II, since there are no formal explicit infallible definitions in Vatican II, but all the previous Councils), we are on absolutely safe ground.
Adhere—-hold on—-to that dogma. Regarding the Faith, we are certain to be on the side of the Angels and of God if we hold on to the Catholic Faith as defined by these infallible definitions. We will thus recognize diabolical disorientation and error if someone, (be he a priest, bishop, Cardinal, Pope, or lay person), contradicts those definitions. We must believe the definitions and spurn the erroneous teachings of those blind leaders of whatever clerical rank. The infallible definitions are paramount.
They are called infallible because the Church tells us these definitions can’t fail and that no one, not even a Pope, can contradict them. As long as we believe the infallible definitions we are Catholic and are believing what God, Himself, has taught us through the Gospel, Tradition, Jesus Christ, Himself, and the Bible.
[5] You should also read The Devil’s Final Battle which explains to you in even greater detail why we know the Third Secret is about apostasy and why we know it refers to Catholic priests, bishops and Cardinals who are promoting heresy.
This book will also help you to understand their motivation (taken from their own writings) so you can recognize at a higher level what is going on; who really is a friend of God and the Catholic Church and who really is an enemy, even when they believe themselves to be the ones upholding the Faith.
These above five points are things you can do to protect your own salvation. In charity and justice for others, we are also obligated to do something about the diabolical disorientation. You must educate your children, teach them Catholic dogma yourself, because many so-called Catholic schools are teaching heresy. You have to explain to them in detail and at length what the true Church teaches and what the true Church is, and how to identify those who appear to be Catholic but are not really Catholic.
You should also be passing on the word to your husbands, wives, and adult brothers and sisters, as well as to neighbors and anyone you know who is trying to serve God.
We must oppose the present-day diabolical disorientation. Sister Lucy said:
“This is a diabolical disorientation invading the world and misleading souls! It is necessary to stand up to it; and for this purpose you can use what I tell you here. . . ”
How To Recognize Diabolical Disorientation
We can recognize an error as something that goes directly contrary to what the Catholic Church has solemnly and explicitly taught, or what the Saints have taught.
Let me give you an example. The Arians were a group of heretics who followed Arius, the heretic, and in 325 A.D. the Arian heresy was condemned by the Council of Nicea. The Arians taught that Jesus is not a Divine person, not equal to God the Father, but that He is considered Divine in some lesser way than God the Father is.
So the Council of Nicea defined for all time that Jesus is God, “God of God, Light of Light, True God of True God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father.”
The key word is consubstantial! Consubstantial means that Jesus is of the same substance as the Father. There is only one God. God the Father possesses the one Godhead in one way and Jesus Christ possesses the same one Godhead in another way. Both are of the same one substance. God the Holy Ghost is also consubstantial with the Father and the Son.
The Arians, even after it was defined by the Council of Nicea, went underground for about ten years and took that time to remove bishops who were not Arian but orthodox. They maneuvered to have these true Catholic bishops removed from office by one pretext or another, using the laws of the Church and the State to achieve their purposes. They urged some to resign from their office by making life miserable for them.
The Attack Against Christ
In 336 A.D., the Arians changed one letter of one word. Homousion is the Greek word for consubstantial, which is the word used in the solemn definition of the Council of Nicea. The Arians added an “e” to the word to make it read Homoeusion—-which means “like in substance”. The Arians thus changed the meaning of the definition from “the same substance as the Father” to a mere “like the Father”.
By this linguistic gymnastic [similar to what Modernists use today], they were able to cause enough confusion and disorder and get the secular power of the Emperor to promote bishops who were Arian, and not Catholic, to positions of authority in the Catholic Church.
To get the faithful to go along with their heresy, they introduced new practices into the Mass such as Communion in the hand. The purpose of this was to reinforce the belief in the new doctrine that Jesus is not equal to God the Father, so that instead of receiving the Host on the tongue as taught by the Apostles, they treated the Sacred Host as if It were not that important. Thus they encouraged lay people and religious to take the Host themselves.
Catholic reverence and adoration of the Sacred Host was destroyed by the Arians who taught their followers and confused Catholics to not adore Jesus as God, and to not treat Him with the profound reverences He deserves.
So in the Catholic Church many faithful were misled by approximately 90% of the Catholic bishops between 336 and 381 A.D. In 359 and 361 A.D., they even had false Councils.
They also persecuted faithful bishops and clergy, such as St. Athanasius, who was Bishop of Alexandria in Egypt from 326 A.D. to 371 A.D. The other bishops of Egypt, who were Arian, forced St. Athanasius into exile five different times. Thus he was in exile for 17 of those 45 years. At times, he had to flee for his life.
The Arian bishops stopped at nothing. They even accused St. Athanasius of sinning with a prostitute and put him on trial with the prostitute as chief witness. St. Athanasius, familiar with the Gospel, “you must be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matt. 10:16) defeated his enemies at their own game. He was innocent and wise as a serpent. He dressed his own Vicar General in his bishop’s robes and went to court dressed as a simple priest. In the courtroom, the prostitute witness pointed her finger at Athanasius’ Vicar General and said, “There is Athanasius. He is the one.” She was proven to be the liar as it wasn’t Athanasius.
How to Identify Today’s Errors
I am telling this story of the Arians for a simple reason. In 540 A.D., approximately 150 years after the Arian heresy was over (as a social force in the Church), St. Vincent of Lerins answers a simple question of the faithful: “How are we to recognize, as a man in the pew, heresy and heretical groups and movements?”
As I recall, St. Vincent poses this problem: “What if some new teaching is introduced in one country or diocese, how is a member of the faithful to react?” St. Vincent says that the Catholic should look to other parts of the Catholic world to see what contemporary Catholics are doing elsewhere.
For example, if Henry the VIII introduces a new communion service into the Catholic churches in England—-Catholics in England can get reports of what Catholics are doing in France and thus realize that Catholics there are still attending the same Mass as their forefathers, and not be taken in by the lying novelty taking place in England.
“What then” says St. Vincent, “if the novel practices are introduced all over the Catholic world at the same time?” Following our above example, what if a Catholic in England cannot find any contemporaries of his in other countries that are not so affected at the same time?
St. Vincent then answers his own question by stating that Catholics who wish to remain Catholic need to refer to what their forefathers did. And thus by following the example of their forefathers they will not be taken in by any lying novelty.
To quote St. Vincent of Lerins, he says:
“What other choice can a Catholic make if some new contagion attempts to poison no longer a small part of the Church but the whole Church at once, then his great conceit will be to attach himself to antiquity (tradition) which can no longer be led astray by any lying novelty.”
This is what Catholics today should do—-hold on to Tradition of all time and not allow themselves to be fooled by the lying novelties introduced into the whole Church since Vatican Council II.
So, how do we recognize what is true? The answer is, what the Church has always done, always said, always taught. All this is spelled out more thoroughly in the book, EWTN: A Network Gone Wrong.
This is why it is so important for you to read sound traditional Catholic books. This is why we provide Our Lady’s Book Service, so you can have a resource to learn the true Faith taught by our forefathers and the Saints of all previous ages, as well as by the Apostles.
The opponents of true Catholicism know that the Faith comes by hearing it. That is, the Faith is transmitted by words, and to attack the true Faith, they attack the precise terms and distinctions as taught for many centuries in scholastic philosophy and theology. These terms are the building blocks of Catholic dogmatic, infallible definitions. It is through dogmatic definitions that the Catholic Faith is transmitted to us infallibly for 2000 years.
The Modernists, the heretics of our days, slip something new into their loose language and claim it is what the Church has always taught. They attack the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Baltimore Catechism, the Council of Trent, the Dogmatic Councils, or they pass them over in silence.
You can identify many of the Modernists by how they attack the substance of the doctrines’ words, how they speak about it. Are they promoting piety, respect and honor for Jesus, Mary and the Saints or are they acting and speaking disrespectfully and callously about holy doctrines and the Saints? By their novel practices and attitudes, how they act at Mass, and say their prayers, gives you signals to be on your guard. What the Church has taught and practiced for centuries is safe. But you must be cautious of anything that is novel or changed, even if it comes from a Council or a Pope or a Cardinal, if it goes contrary to what the Church has always taught or done. In the face of novel teachings, you must be willing to stand up—-or at least maintain an open mind—-and recognize that maybe one of the priests, bishops, Cardinals or even the Pope could be misleading you in your Faith by promoting a false doctrine, even if the one misleading believes that what he is doing is for a good reason.
For example, today’s practice of ecumenism, that seeks not to convert non-Catholics to the one true Church, but seeks rather a convergence with them, is contrary to what the Church always taught, what the Church infallibly defined. It must thus be resisted. Another example, if you encounter a priest in the confessional who tells you that what the Church has always taught are sins, are, according to him, not sins, then this priest must be avoided!
Everyone is Affected
Diabolical disorientation affects everyone in different ways. We are talking now about Catholics living since Vatican Council II. Most Catholics, for example, think that they don’t have to do penance on Friday and so, in a very practical way, they are disoriented. They are misled because Our Lord, Himself, said in Scripture, “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:3)
Each of us has Original Sin. Even though it is taken away in Baptism, some effects are left in the soul. Those effects must be fought against and one of the necessary weapons in fighting against them is penance.
Do Penance on Friday
Our Lord’s words will not pass away and what He tells us is absolutely true. Those people who think they don’t have to do penance on Friday are falling into the trap of the devil, even if their ignorance is not entirely their own fault.
Christ suffered for our salvation on a Friday and we should give public recognition of that fact. The act of doing penance on Friday is not simply a private act but is a social act of giving witness to our penance publicly. It is logical we should do it on Friday in public reparation for our own sins. (We should offer up to God our acts of penance in union with the Crucifixion of Our Lord.) That is why the Catholic Church, to this day, contrary to the disinformation surrounding us, insists that we must do penance every Friday.
Don’t Miss Mass on Sunday
How is it that before Vatican II, 75% of Catholics in North America went to Mass every Sunday and now only 25% go to Mass on Sunday? Obviously, 50% more Catholics in North America are affected by the ideas that are prevalent around them so that they don’t know (and don’t feel) the need to go to Mass and worship God every Sunday. Perhaps they think that they do not need the graces that they get only by going to Mass. In fact, it is a mortal sin not to go to Mass on Sunday unless one has a grave reason not to do so. We need the graces that God gives us at Mass. Without grace we shall certainly fall into other mortal sins.
Divorce “Annulments”
Before Vatican Council II, the amount of Catholic couples that were separated and divorced was very small. I suspect of those practicing the Faith, less than 1%. Prior to Vatican II, approximately 100 annulments took place in North America in a year. Since that Council, the Vatican dispenses very many thousands of annulments per year to North American couples. These are errors which are based on diabolical disorientation.
The new “theology” and new theories have caused many present-day” annulments” to be turned into a kind of Catholic “divorce”. A true annulment is a legitimate term that means there never was a marriage, even though the man and woman went through a marriage ceremony, because of some true impediment that prevented the marriage from taking place (for example, if one of the parties was secretly married already). But the word “divorce” means something that says, yes, we were married, yet even though we promised each other and we exchanged marriage vows before God, now we claim to have a right to separate from our first marriage partner and marry someone else.
Divorce is forbidden by Our Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 19:3-12) and by the teaching of the Catholic Church. Yet by tampering with the rules of what a marriage is and what informed consent is, they’ve been able to find a false loophole and salve the consciences of many thousands of couples a year. (This is not to say that every annulment is not valid.) The times in which we live are so radically disoriented that we should be on our guard against errors that are portrayed to us as if they are new discoveries or as if our forefathers were dummies and knew nothing.
Tridentine Mass and its Faithful Are Persecuted
The apostasy and the diabolical disorientation are affecting many people. Does it affect you personally in those ways? Maybe not, but on the other side, if you are holding on to the traditional Catholic Faith and attending the Tridentine Mass, you are affected because people who claim to be Catholic ridicule you or accuse you of being disobedient or heretical or a false Catholic, when, in fact, you are being faithful. Nevertheless, you are enduring persecution from false brethren, who, ironically, claim to be holy, obedient and exemplary Catholics. It is a trial to put up with this, but if we offer this up in union with Our Lord’s suffering, we should get many merits in Heaven.
The Tridentine Mass, the Mass of All Ages
The diabolical disorientation has spread the falsehood for more than thirty years that the Latin Tridentine Mass is forbidden, that anyone who goes to it is disobedient, and that any priest who says the Tridentine Mass is some sort of rebel.
The truth of the matter is that the Tridentine Mass has never been forbidden. Nine Cardinals appointed to the Special Commission in 1986 by Pope John Paul II, answered the question, “Did Pope Paul VI, or any other competent authority, ever forbid the Tridentine Mass?” The answer was “No!” The nine Cardinals were asked if any priest (in good standing before God) of the Latin Rite was able to be forbidden by a priest, bishop, Cardinal or Pope from saying the Tridentine Mass and the answer from all nine was, “nobody can command a priest to not say the Tridentine Mass.”
Even this year, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos continues to say in public that the Tridentine Mass is not forbidden and Cardinal Estevan also confirms that. There is much more on this subject that we have written about in past Crusaders to prove that the Tridentine Mass has never been forbidden.
Obviously, the vast majority of Catholics are not going to the Tridentine Mass today even though the decrees and creeds of the Council of Trent and First Vatican Council tell us that Catholics have the obligation to embrace and hold on to the traditional rites of the Church.
The Creeds of the Council of Trent and the First Vatican Council (1870) state: “I also accept and admit the received and approved rites of the Catholic Church in the solemn administration of the Sacraments.” And the Council of Trent infallibly decrees that:
“If anyone shall say that the received and approved rites of the Catholic Church accustomed to be used in the solemn administration of the Sacraments may be disdained or omitted by the minister without sin and at pleasure, or may be changed to other new ones by any pastor of the churches, whomsoever (quemcumque) let him be anathema.” (Session 7, Canon 13, Dz 856; D.S. 1613) Today, it is also obvious that a vast majority of priests are not saying the Tridentine Mass when they should be.
Many Today Are Being Deceived
Thus, on a daily basis, Catholics everywhere are being deceived by a false Catholicism. Examples include so-called Catholic television networks (EWTN for example), modernized catechisms, a false notion of Christian unity, marriage preparation courses which tell you it’s okay to use contraception, or say it’s okay to use Natural Family Planning (NFP) under any circumstances, etc. The list goes on endlessly. Married couples who practice contraception and unlawful NFP are prime candidates for diabolical disorientation, for “over them the devil has power.” (Tobias 6:17)
The average Catholic layman (and laywoman) is a target of deception at every turn. Many Catholics are surrounded by false Catholicism and each of us needs to react and get some spiritual vigor and fervor. We must inoculate ourselves with prayer and our minds with good Catholic teaching of the ages. We must inoculate our social contacts by associating with true traditional Catholics. Otherwise we might be affected enough to be dragged to Hell.
Fatima Attacked
Even on the question of Fatima, you are told you don’t have to believe in Fatima, that it is only a “private revelation”. This is false. Father Joseph de Sainte Marie, a great Carmelite theologian who worked with Pope John Paul II, explained that Fatima is in a higher category than “private revelation” and may not be ignored. The learned Bishop Rudolph Graber of Germany said that Fatima is not merely a “private revelation” but is in the category of public prophetic revelation and that we are all bound to take seriously Our Lady of Fatima.
It is very simple. St. Paul tells us, “Extinguish not the spirit. Despise not prophecies. But test all things; hold fast that which is good.” (1 Thes. 5:19-21) The Fatima Message has been tested by the Catholic Church and is found to be good and, therefore, we are bound to hold fast to it.
The true Fatima Message is the antidote to the daily diabolical disorientation. The false Catholics protecting their “new religion”, counter-attack Fatima because it is a defense of the Catholic Faith. They attack Fatima by serving up a “new version” of Fatima which is obviously a lie. Again, much of this is documented in The Devil’s Final Battle.
Can We Expect Heaven’s Help?
Certainly! In fact, in the Message of Fatima, Our Lady promises, “In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph, the Holy Father will consecrate Russia to Me, Russia will be converted and a period of peace will be given to mankind.”
We know that in the end, the heresy of Modernism, “the synthesis of all heresies”, will be overcome with the means that the Blessed Virgin has told us at Fatima to use.
But We, Too, Must Do Our Part
Heaven will certainly help us if we do our part. The Blessed Virgin insisted we do our duty day by day, pray the Rosary every day, wear the Brown Scapular of Mount Carmel, and make Communions of Reparation on the First Saturdays—-that is Confession, Communion, 15 minutes meditating on the Mysteries of the Rosary, as well as praying five decades of the Rosary with the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
We must do our part to inform others. We must not wait for our priests, our bishops and our Pope to lead the call to penance. As Sister Lucy said:
“We should not wait for an appeal to the world to come from Rome on the part of the Holy Father, to do penance. Nor should we wait for the call to penance to come from our bishops in our dioceses, nor from the religious congregations.
“No! Our Lord has already very often used these means, and the world has not paid attention. That is why now, it is necessary for each one of us to begin to reform himself spiritually. Each person must not only save his own soul but also help all the souls that God has placed on our path.”
Depending on the grace of God, we can do all that God and the Blessed Virgin asks of us. We must be a good example to those who are near and dear to us, and teach them the truth in all charity and kindness. We must not be disturbed by those who ignore and ridicule us.
Seek out from sources that are authentic what the Church has always taught.
The Holy Rosary Overcomes All Problems
Sister Lucy tells us: “There is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all, spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families or the families of the world, or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples and nations that cannot be solved by the Rosary.”
Start your own Rosary Crusade, yourself personally; then with your family, friends and neighbors.
Promote the Rosary everywhere and get others to do the same, to overcome the diabolical disorientation and bring true peace to the world and to the Church.
In these dangerous times, let us follow the advice of St. Paul:
“I charge thee, before God and Jesus, Who shall judge the living and the dead by His coming and by His kingdom. Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke with all patience and doctrine. For there will come a time when they will not endure sound doctrine; but according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, and turn aside rather to fables. But be thou vigilant in all things, bear with tribulation patiently . . .” (2 Tim. 4:1-5)
I pray that you and I will remain faithful and be able to say with St. Paul in the end:
“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the Faith.”
VIRGÓ SACRÁTA is a Christian mission-driven online resource and shop inspired from the beauty of Catholic faith, tradition, and arts. Our mission is to “Restore All Things to Christ!”, in continuing the legacy of Pope St. Pius X under the patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary. “Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in battle array?” O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee.
