I pray we are ready – the persecution is here April 10, 2015
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, disaster, episcopate, error, foolishness, General Catholic, Holy suffering, martyrdom, paganism, persecution, scandals, secularism, self-serving, sexual depravity, Society, unadulterated evil.trackback
Reader skeinster tipped me to this important piece at One Peter Five regarding the coming persecution. But I have to disagree with the notion that it is coming. It’s here. It’s actually been here for a while, furtive and tentative, but here. But now it is here in all its terrible ferocity. I will remind readers of the prophetic words of Fr. Michael Rodriguez from several years back, when he appeared on my radio show. I am paraphrasing, but Fr. Rodriguez had confronted the sexular pagan sodomite lobby as fully as a pastor of souls can and has been made to suffer the consequences for doing so. What he said was that this rainbow-absconding radical sodomite movement would be THE vehicle of the persecution, and he has turned out to be as right as rain. I knew he was right 3 years ago, but I didn’t want to think it would happen this fast. Even then, he was predicting that we would have redefined perverse marriage within 3 or 4 years – he was spot on – and that a persecution even to blood would follow not within years, but within months or even days of that. What rough beast, it’s hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Most of the words below are from Steve Skojec, but I do also excerpt a bit of his quoting of Ann Barnhardt, as well, because it encapsulates my own struggles over the past several months:
But something I’ve become suddenly and alarmingly convinced of is this: this is the way the new persecution of the faithful will come to pass in the Western world. You’re looking at it, in its nascent stages. When I say “suddenly and alarmingly convinced,” I mean this is not just the fruit of reason. Our beliefs have been under attack for a very long time, in many ways, and the homosexual agenda is nothing new. I was fighting my health teacher about her promotion of homosexual experimentation among my peers back in the eighth grade.
But this is something different. Visceral. It’s a gut feeling that sends little waves of panic through me. [I know just how he feels] People are definitely going to lose their livelihoods over this. But I suspect many will also lose their freedom, and some may even lose their lives over it. Soon. And as with all the seductive, slowly-advancing evils of the world, most people won’t wake up until it’s at least a week too late. What powers they might have mustered to stop the growling, guttural advance of the demonic hordes foisting sins that cry out for vengeance upon the world, they will not invoke. Because there’s stuff to watch on the tee-vee. And did you see that one weird trick to lose stubborn belly fat? BTdubs, these cat videos are hilarious.
…….It’s coming, friends. Sooner than you think. Do you honestly believe this will stay contained to the realm of bakers and florists and pizza shops and weddings? The scent of blood is in the air, and they’re coming for more victories. [I have had a premonition that I will lose my job over my writings here. I do work for a private company, but that won’t provide much protection in the near future]
What I’m writing here, right now, will very soon be considered hate speech. Laws will be passed. Rights will be trampled. This pestilence has been given a wide berth for too long, and it has grown to epidemic proportions.
Get ready.
And now the words from Ann Barnhardt that struck me:
Writing about current events has become almost impossible. I sit down at my computer, and nothing happens. Oh, I have plenty to say, but you can only say stuff so many times over and over before you just start to feel like a hack, luxuriating in the act of screaming. And that’s no good.
Yep, that’s exactly the case. I struggle with that, myself. I do feel a bit like my writing has become hackneyed, because I do find myself saying the same things over and over again. But I haven’t felt it quite as strongly as Barnhardt, apparently, because I still feel the motivation to write. I don’t just stare, mouth agape, at the coming terror. I want to fight! But I do carry a fear that covering all this advancing tragedy does take a toll on one’s spiritual life. It is easy to become cynical and hardened in this process. Pray for me.
There is a lot more at the link, including more copious excerpts from the NYT op-ed I quoted from 2 days ago. These additional quotations only fill me with more dread and terror, because I believe what is written is actually a program to further subvert the human element of the Church that has already proved far too susceptible to such efforts over the past several decades. To wit:
And it elevates unthinking obeisance above intelligent observance, above the evidence in front of you, because to look honestly at gay, lesbian and bisexual people is to see that we’re the same magnificent riddles as everyone else: no more or less flawed, no more or less dignified.
Most parents of gay children realize this. So do most children of gay parents. It’s a truth less ambiguous than any Scripture, less complicated than any creed.
So our debate about religious freedom should include a conversation about freeing religions and religious people from prejudices that they needn’t cling to and can indeed jettison, much as they’ve jettisoned other aspects of their faith’s history, rightly bowing to the enlightenments of modernity.
Please. This same man wrote that adhering to 2000 years of belief and practice is a choice. And if he means by that, an act of the will, it is. But so is the decision to reject that 2000 years of belief and practice. And he has absolutely nothing he can hold up that could possibly represent a stronger argument than the fact that these aren’t just obscure, made up ancient texts, as he calls them, but the revealed Word of God. This is absolute Truth, not the constantly changing, will to power, materialist truthiness of the world and its master. What he is saying is that observant Christians should just put the sexular pagan blinders on along with everyone else, and enjoy the swift ride into both an earthly and the literal hell. Can’t we see it would just be so much easier that way, at least in the short term? Sure, the sexular pagan ethos demands rivers of blood and mountains of broken lives to sustain it, but the left has shown us it is so very, very easy to just keep the blinders on and ignore all that, and “enjoy” the utterly empty, banal, rationalistic ride over the 1000 foot waterfall of societal collapse.
That’s exactly what this prince of darkness is calling for. I fear – I know – far too many Christians, and even important personages in the Church, will be more than willing to heed his advice, and are doing so already.
Eloi, eloi lama sabacthani? Because we forsook You first.
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A Blog for Dallas Area Catholics 
Just maybe we need a new word to describe these people.
Vulgarsexual:
Person who professes, practices, and/or promotes unrestricted promiscuity accepting only absolute acquiescence from society, demanding rights based on behavior, that supersede the rights, needs or beliefs of others.
I have noted that the Centers for Disease Control’s comprehensive study on sexuality in America found that just 1.6 percent of Americans (adults) are homosexual.
Are we to believe that nearly 98 percent of Americans will be dictated to and cowered by the miniscule homosexual mafia?
That is difficult for me to believe.
Pax.
Steve
The homosexuals that comprise the mafia may be miniscule, but they have the support of a large populace of fellow travelers. The straights who support the homosexuals do so because they correctly see if homosexuality is immoral, so is adultery, fornication, masturbation and contraception. If SSM is wrong, so is divorce and remarriage. And they are right. Thus, they correctly perceive, vis-a-vis homosexuality and SSM, a “one hang, we all hang” connection. And this second group is MASSIVE.
c matt, even though we are on the same page, I disagree that our political opponents see that contraception is wrong. God gave them over to blindness, to paraphrase Steve Skojec’s passage from Romans. If we fast, as I wrote elsewhere here, maybe we can turn the tide.
Hello Steve,
I encourage you to view the Reuters poll on the question of whether “Businesses should have the right to refuse services to certain people or groups based on religious beliefs.”
Click on the Catholic filter in the left pane: as of yesterday, only 33% of Catholics believe that businesses have the right to decline to provide services based on religious beliefs. (50% disagree, 18% uncertain.) That’s pretty close to the overall surveyed population at 28% agree, 53% disagree, 19% uncertain.
When Reuters reworded as “Businesses should not be allowed to discriminate (by refusing services or a job) because of their religious beliefs”, 58% of Catholics agreed.
That is to say, most Catholics are in favor (whether explicitly or implicitly) of forcing business owners to violate their religious beliefs.
What about other groups? Well, 71% of registered Democrats would happily violate your religious freedom (80% of likely primary voters), while only 50% of registered Republicans would protect you. And of the two groups, whose partisans have the louder megaphone? Who controls the education system? What about the permanent bureaucracy? Or the judiciary?
To your argument, I’ve noticed that you often cite an isolated or exceptional example in order to dismiss a contrary argument, no matter how well-founded. In this case, while you’re correct that the same-sex attracted make up a very small proportion of the population, you disregard the fact that our society’s opinion-formers have conducted a massive and highly effective propaganda campaign on behalf of homosexuals over the past few decades, and it has been growing sharply in intensity. Faced with this kind of barrage, most people will go along to get along, and not give it a second thought.
How long before it comes to bloodshed? It’s impossible to say, but the numbers will shift a little further each time the media goes on a feeding frenzy like the one over the Indiana RFRA last week. But if the opinion-formers over at the NYT are already calling for Christians to be compelled to abandon doctrine, it won’t be long before they demand sterner measures, and the mob will follow their lead. Once again, democracy transforms into tyranny.
Steve, you often seem naive or foolish – no offense. The homosexual lobby is powerful because they have the ardent backing of at least 40% of this country’s voters – a percentage that will dramatically increase in the coming years, because young adults almost fanatically support immorality, and because those who support chastity dramatically skew to the old side of the population. As Miley Cyrus put it, we ‘dinosaurs’ are dying out. Hard and simple truth.
Well said.
Thank you. Sometimes I wish I had my own blog, but I can’t imagine being anything like as prolific as Tantum.
“Intelligent observance” would lead you to realize that people who sodomize each other are destructive perverts. And “enlightened modernity” in actuality is narcissistic stupidity. It will be the abused children of these evil people who will either a) rise up and kill us all out of their insanity and rage b) wake up and seek the truth i.e. Traditional Catholicism. In the meantime, let us pray for mercy on these lost people and for our courage and perseverance. God bless~
“Because we forsook You first”
RIGHT. ON. THE. MONEY.
Amen. You read my mind.
I’d like to point out that fasting could, maybe only in an alternate universe though, lead us out of this mess. I can’t do it because of a medical issue, but if I could, I would. One of my regrets in life is that I am not able to do so.
Imagine someone (or dozens) showing up at the Cathedral of Hope with a sign bearing the words “On a hunger strike for the truth about perversion” etc. Another sign’s message: “The rainbow belongs to God, not queers [or you]”. It is hard to overstate how powerful fasting can be. Easter, of course, is not the season to fast, but after Pentecost, one can fast again. If one does it in the heat of the summer, it is all the more powerful. Besides, homosexuals probably go on hunger strikes often. Gandhi did it, and it (in conjunction, admittedly, with a lot of other things) brought down British rule in India.
In the Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton meets some kind of Eastern guru I believe in Chicago. The guru says to Merton something to the effect that Christianity is hard to believe because it has no ascetics, at least in America. With fasting, one immediately gains the upper hand in the public square.
Sodomites are a plague permitted by God. The Divine King is no doubt angry over our sins.
Don’t forget that Advent is a penitential season.
Since we have no courageous religious leaders to look to, and those “religious leaders” that silence those that do speak out–what can you expect?Our religious are more interested in being POLITICAL and POPULAR (as in Dolan). Those that do make a stand–are made fun of and hidden away, or even sent for therapy (to accept perversion). I think that the HAND OF GOD will have to intervene–in my opinion. And although the number of homosexuals may be small—they have the POWERFUL, brain washing media promoting them. I believe Russia was overthrown by a small group
of radicals. It can happen.
In other posts, you mention backlash. The way I see this playing out is homosexuals and pagan fellow travelers crush the Christians, but leave Muslims alone because (1) they are the minority other and therefore untouchable, and (2) they will kill you if you try (mostly because of 2; 1 is simply a way to rationalize away that you are really afraid of 2). Then, when the Christians are subdued or crushed, and the homosexuals and their enablers drunk on power, the Muslims will take over and grind them into the ground.
The majority of Catholics have lost the Faith, and this includes most of the clergy. How else explain the immodest and irreverence among those who still bother to attend Mass (Novus Ordo)? If there is no faith, of course anything goes! When the prayers of the Mass were tampered with, the faith of the people was also damaged. Lex orandi, lex credendi. By the way, what gives with asking if one is a Traditional Catholic? Are those asking acknowledging it is a different religion from theirs? Didn’t St.Paul write that we should hang on to Tradition? It has always been the teaching of the Church that homosexual actions are sinful. Well, Our Lord did say that His followers would be persecuted, so … nothing unexpected. Let us just pray for the grace to persevere as His faithful followers.
Today at the abortion mill, the mill paid an older couple to come out to welcome victims to the killing center. They had a large wooden stand that held four signs and it was about 10 or 12 feet long. They also had two large sandwich boards and the old man carried a sign about religious bullies. One sandwich board said “God is pro-choice”. Their hearts were hard! The policeman made them move a large sandwich board twice as it blocked the sidewalk. But I thought about how the mood of our state favors the killing. In the past few months there have been instances where unborn children were killed because of violence to the mother but in one case only a misdemeanor was charged. Abortion, blood sacrifice to the demons, is the ‘sacred cow’. And the other one is sodomy. For either one, a person of true moral conviction needs to be ready to pay a price to hold on to it. I already have lost my medical career so I know a little of price to be paid.
I remember hearing about a study when I was Protestant that studied 88 major civilizations and found that all went through a similar cycle, though I don’t remember many details. One detail, IIRC, was that they all end in sodomy and low birth rates. I also know something about Roman history, having read The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Gibbon. There was a mention of sodomy in Carthage IIRC in the late 4th century, but the main mention of sodomy was about the Emperor Elagabalus, who called himself an empress [sic] and declared himself to be married to a man.
“Since we have no courageous religious leaders to look to, and those “religious leaders” that silence those that do speak out–what can you expect?”
Pope Francis is a courageous religious leader.
His Holiness is the most prominent promoter on earth of the Culture of Life.
I believe that within Holy Mother Church, for example, there are many outstanding religious leaders who promote holiness. Whether a person heeds said leaders is another matter.
But the leadership is there for people who are interested in being led by holy men and women of God.
Again, Pope Francis is the most prominent religious leader on earth in regard to the promotion of holiness. How many people will heed his message (actually, God’s message) of holiness?
Pax.
Steve
To C Matt, Murray and Camper, I realize that the majority of Catholics, for example, favor sodomite “marriage”.
I have witnessed since the 1960s the erosion of the Faith.
The most disturbing aspect to the above is that one survey after another has found that the above applies even to Catholics who assist regularly at Mass (Novus Ordo).
We know that the majority of Mass-going Catholics favor abortion and artificial birth control.
Secular surveys and surveys commissioned by the Church have acknowledged the above.
The Pope, Cardinals, bishops and priests have acknowledged that all of the above is correct.
Yes…about 55 to 60 percent of Catholics who assist regularly at Mass and receive Holy Communion support openly Satan’s Culture of Death.
Okay…we all know that.
But 40 to 45 percent of Catholics favor the Culture of Life. That is a formidable percentage of Catholics who defend life.
But when we consider the horrific collapse of Catholic liturgy and Faith, at least within the Latin Church, the fact that 40 to 45 percent of Catholics have held fast to the Culture of Life is a very hopeful sign.
I guess that my “foolishness” (according to Camper) stems from the fact that I am not 100 percent doom and gloom when it comes to the future.
Again, I understand that while the percentage of sodomites is miniscule, their fellow-travelers who promote sodomy and the Culture of Life abound.
But there is among Catholics formidable resistance to the Culture of Death.
We also have millions of Protestants are on our side when it comes to opposing at last certain planks to the Culture of Death.
Therefore, let us have at least some hope that sodomites and their fellow-travelers won’t trample the vast amount of Americans who reject the Culture of Death.
Pax.
Steve
Here is additional reason as to why I am “foolish” in regard to the topic at hand:
The Catholic Religion has the track record to bring about mass conversions.
The Holy Catholic Church can convert continents to the Faith.
I realize that as Pope Benedict XVI declared, the Catholic Church, in vast areas of the world, faces virtual death.
However, as the Novus Ordo continues to collapse, signs of hope abound, for example, within the Latin Church.
We know that our Churchmen’s party line, that we have been treated to a Novus Ordo-led liturgical and spiritual “renewal”, is nonsense.
Young Catholics in particular continue to walk away from the Faith.
But among young Catholics are plenty who embrace the Faith, particularly via the Traditional Roman Mass.
Despite the best efforts of a great many Churchmen, they have not stemmed the growth of the TLM.
Someday, soon I hope and pray, the Pope (or a Pope) and a great many Cardinals, bishops and priests will accept the obvious:
The time has arrived to promote to the hilt the Traditional Roman Mass.
They will “clean up” the Novus Ordo (said Mass won’t go away…at least not for decades, if ever) as they promote again and again the TLM.
The emptiness of the liturgical and spiritual “renewals” is undeniable.
Holy Tradition will revive the (Latin) Church and generate many conversions.
My hope in the above scenario fuels my “foolishness”.
Pax.
Steve
Obviously there are a handful of reasons for optimism, but an accurate and realistic assessment of the situation must be gloomy. That’s why I urge people to buy precious metals, store them outside the U.S. in a sound jurisdiction, and emigrate, because unless there is mass fasting and conversion in America, we will be crushed.
steve – I am glad you are optimistic. It is a miracle of sorts that even 40% of Catholics in this day and age hold on to any traditional beliefs, given the atrocious Catholic formation of the last 50 years and the onslaught by the pagan culture in which we marinate from cradle to grave. How much longer that portion can cling to tradition I don’t know, and we have God’s promise that at least some will. However, the trajectory is not favorable for the foreseeable future.
Not that hope is lost. In the end, yes, Catholicism will triumph because God has triumphed. But the road to victory is a very rough ride. It is, no less, Calvary. The mob is already calling for our crucifixion before Pilate.
I’m told that “Gomorrah” means business in Hebrew. “Sodom” is San Francisco and “Gomorrah” is New York. We live in the land of Sodom and Gomorrah.
C matt, yes, it’s amazing (miraculous) that perhaps 40 percent of Catholics hold fast to any traditional beliefs.
Conversely, it is horrific that 60 or so percent of Catholics who assist regularly at Novus Ordo Masses have thrown in undeniably with the Satanic Culture of Death.
Again, we’re not talking about 60 percent of Catholics who have left the Church.
We are talking about 60 percent of Catholics who assist regularly at Novus Ordo Masses, receive Holy Communion, but support artificial birth control, abortion, sodomy…the Culture of Death.
That is horrific.
Speaking humanly, that should spur any of us to throw in the towel on the future of the Church.
After all, if the majority of Mass-going, Communion-receiving Catholics have thrown in with Satan’s Culture of Death, then what hope is there for Catholicism’s future?
But I hold at hope in that about 40 percent of Catholics still hold fast to the Culture of Life.
That is a formidable amount of Catholics upon whom the rebuilding of the Faith could be accomplished.
Could be.
Pope Francis’ agenda is to spur Catholics to seek God’s Mercy…to flee Satan, go to Confession, perform penances, accept the Church’s teachings, then go and sin no more.
Pope Francis seemingly each day from Rome…
1. Affirms God’s Mercy.
2. Affirms Satan’s existence.
3. Affirms that hell is real.
4. Affirms that we must go to Confession.
5. Affirms that we must go and sin no more.
In a powerful way, Pope Francis’ agenda will be displayed later this year (in December) when we begin the Extraordinary Jubilee — The Year of Mercy.
During the Year of Mercy, the Church will pound home the message…go to Confession, go to Confession, go to Confession, obtain God’s Mercy, then live God’s message of mercy.
Some 40 percent of the People of God are on board with the above.
With that foundation in place, the true “New Springtime” of the Church could be on the way.
Pax.
Steve
Wow.
I need to add to my above comment that the renewal of liturgy is a vital component to the “New Springtime”.
Pope Francis’ appointment of Cardinal Sarah to CDW is a positive sign in that regard.
Pope Francis has stated that liturgical reverence must be recovered within the (Latin) Church.
Pope Francis has declared that the Traditional Roman Mass is a “treasure” for the whole Church.
Pope Francis pledged that he will promote the Traditional Roman Mass.
I have been bashed by several persons on this blog for having noted that Pope Francis is open to the TLM and, in particular, is very friendly to the SSPX.
Certain folks here have dismissed the above and labeled me “foolish” and “on drugs” for having, in particular, noted Pope Francis’ friendly attitude toward the SSPX.
I noted here months ago that even back in Argentina, then-Cardinal Bergoglio labeled the SSPX as “Catholic” and helped them every time that they had requested his assistance.
As late as last September, just prior to the Rome-Bishop Fellay meeting, the Traditional Catholic Blogosphere predicted that Pope Francis, the supposed “modernist”, would smash the SSPX…”here comes the excommunication!”
Well, news had broken last night that at Cardinal Poli’s (Buenos Aires) request, the Argentinian government had recognized the SSPX as part of the Catholic Church.
Hmmm…so much for “Team Bergoglio’s” supposed hatred of the SSPX.
It is official. The Society of Saint Pius X is part of the Catholic Church…the SSPX is not “Protestant”…is not “heretical”…is Catholic.
The restoration of the liturgy and Traditional Roman Mass continues under Pope Francis.
Authentic liturgical renewal is in the works. The Extraordinary Jubliee (Year of Mercy) is on the way.
Let us hope and pray that the authentic “New Springtime” may arrive soon.
Pax.
Steve
Um, not exactly.
This is nice, but it’s complicated.
The Cardinal put the local SSPX on the STATE list of
Catholic groups- this does not mean that they all are
reconciled to the Vatican.
Important to be accurate here.
Some good explanotory comment at Fr. Z’s.
Clarification from the SSPX itself:
http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2015/04/important-sspx-clarification-on.html
Yes indeed.
wlindsaywheeler…”I’m told that “Gomorrah” means business in Hebrew. “Sodom” is San Francisco and “Gomorrah” is New York. We live in the land of Sodom and Gomorrah.”
In that sense, when have Catholics almost everywhere at anytime not lived in the land of Sodom and Gomorrah?
Rejection of God’s Holy teachings and Church will surround us. But if there are plenty of us, we can at least reduce the amount of evil within our communities.
Therefore, let us hope and pray that Pope Francis may be the Pope (among our past few Pontiffs) whom God employs as His servant to return millions of lapsed Catholics to His Church…while also spurring mass conversions to the True Church.
May the “New Springtime” arrive.
Pax.
Steve
Elizabeth, I hope that your “wow” was uttered in the positive sense. 🙂
After all, I have posted similar comments here that some folks labeled as “foolish” and as proof that I’m on “drugs”.
I have watched since the 1960s the horrific collapse of the Catholic Faith.
The past few Popes failed to have stemmed said collapse. But in fairness to them, they placed things into motion that could someday lead to the Church’s revival.
Perhaps their plans with Pope Francis’ plans to revive Catholicism will result in the Church’s long anticipated “New Springtime”.
I am hopeful that Pope Francis’ Extraordinary Jubliee — The Year of Mercy, and such positive developments as the breaking news in regard to Cardinal Poli and the SSPX, will at least lead to the beginning of the end to the Church’s current crisis of Faith.
Let us pray for Pope Francis.
Pax.
Steve
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