CIT Y OF MAN VS CIT Y OF GOD
FINDING HOPE
in the midst of the revolution BY JOHN- HE NRY W EST EN
The following talk was delivered at the Rome Life Forum, held at the Angelicum, 16-17 May 2019.
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e seem to have come to a height of the revolution if not the height of the revolution – the revolution against God. Christian persecution is at an all time high with even the not so Christian friendly BBC reporting this month on a study finding that Christianity faced being “wiped out” from parts of the Middle East. It warned the religion “is at risk of disappearing” in some parts of the world, pointing to figures which claimed Christians in Palestine represent less than 1.5 per cent of the population, while in Iraq they had fallen from 1.5 million before 2003 to less than 120,000. “Evidence shows not only the geographic spread of anti-Christian persecution, but also its increasing severity.” The secular persecution of the Church is every bit as intolerant in the west with ridicule against Christians being the only acceptable prejudice in the western nations. And the Church is riddled with the crimes of its clergy which have brought its reputation and moral authority to an all-time low in public opinion such that clergy are ashamed or afraid to wear their clerical clothing in public due to the overt hostility coming from passers-by with epithets of pedophile and the like. But for men and women of faith, the most devastating reality of our day is the crisis of faith in the Church, SUM ME R 2 0 1 9
where many in the hierarchy including the Holy Father himself are gravely confusing the faithful with failure to preach the truth and at times statements both official and unofficial contradicting doctrine. The dismantling of orthodox liturgy, architecture and music in the 60s and 70s persists and is exacerbated with the dismantling of orthodox doctrine in our day to give us a church which neither looks, sounds, nor feels any more like the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church born of the blood of Christ and the martyrs that followed in His footsteps. The most nefarious plans of the diabolical sects have come to fruition in the most uncanny fashion, not with a bloody persecution but by a seductive slow and deliberate progress which has brought the Catechism’s no. 675 to life warning of a “religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth.” As the late Carlo Cardinal Caffarra of blessed memory told us here a short two years ago, reading from the letter he received from the Fatima seer Sr Lucia: “the final battle between the Lord and the kingdom of Satan will be about marriage and the family.” He said he felt “what Sister Lucia said in those days is being fulfilled in these days of ours,” with the battle in the Church over marriage and the family. But what did Our Lady reveal in that same message that came via Sr Lucia to Cardinal Caffarra?
JOHN-HENRY WESTEN
“Don’t be afraid, because anyone who works for the sanctity of marriage and the family will always be fought and opposed in every way, because this is the decisive issue.” This battle was known and envisioned in the plan of Our Lord. More importantly your participation in this battle was known and you were and are the chosen instruments of Our Lord and Our Lady in this great battle. As Sr Lucia concluded: “Our Lady has already crushed its head.” This is exactly where we find our hope as the revolution against God and His Church comes to a fever pitch. It is in Our Lady Herself – as the mystics called Her – the City of God. Why did the greatest saints pray to have lived in these times – the time of the decisive battle between Our Lord and the reign of Satan? Here is what we must do to not only survive but thrive in the struggle which has only started. As the greatest promoter of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary St 31
