Paganism Threatens Your Salvation
Note: The primary purpose of this website is to guide you to heaven. The previous sections were written to provide evidence that there is a God interested in the salvation of your soul. Jesus Christ is that God and he established the Catholic Church to lead you to a moral life and heaven. This section gives an overview of Christian history to the present pagan age, so you will be prepared for the headwinds hindering your path to heaven.
Posted: 2/9/2020 12/13/2020
Table of Contents for this Section
Paganism in Ancient Rome
Christendom
Christendom Descends Back to Paganism
Catholicism Surrenders to Pagan Liberalism
Decline of Liberal Catholic & Protestant Churches
Salvation in the New World Order
If you have read the foregoing pages on the moral teachings of the Catholic Church and accepted them as true, salvation is within reach for you and your loved ones.
However, the path to heaven is narrow and difficult, especially in our day. This was not always the case.
There was an era of Western history called Christendom (4th through 19th centuries, peaking in the 12th century), characterized by almost universal Catholic religious belief. During that era, life itself was hard, but living a Christian moral life was achievable because of the support of family, friends, the community and the priests. Faith was part of the fabric of daily life.
Today the situation is dire because the Western world is transitioning from Christendom to post-modern paganism. This is not a return to the Roman gods and goddesses, but the ultimate paganism of radical autonomy, where each individual is his own god, defining reality for himself. You need to understand this transition to equip yourself for the battle to come – the battle for your soul.
Paganism in Ancient Rome
Paganism was a pejorative term first used in the fourth century by early Christians, referring to people in the Roman Empire and others who practiced polytheism, a belief in many gods. Paganism in that era also included belief in the divinity of nature and female gods, in contrast to the male God of the Jews.
Christians saw pagans as hedonistic, “representing those who are sensual, materialistic, self-indulgent, [and] unconcerned with the future.” G. K. Chesterton concluded:
“The pagan set out, with admirable sense, to enjoy himself. By the end of his civilization he had discovered that a man cannot enjoy himself and continue to enjoy anything else.”
The Roman Empire and its pagan rulers were tolerant of and actually promoted a number of barbaric and perverted practices including slavery, crucifixion, gladiator contests and sexual debauchery. Roman citizens were often complicit in their emperor’s perversion and commonly engaged in violence and licentiousness. Examples include euthanasia, infanticide, abortion, contraception, divorce, homosexuality, and adultery.
All these acts were condemned by the early Church not only in the New Testament writings, but also in The Didache, The Lord’s teaching to the heathen by the Twelve Apostles. This latter document was probably written in Apostolic times (50-100 AD). It specifically prohibited lust, adultery, sodomy, fornication, contraception, abortion and infanticide. No doubt Christian morality played a role in the persecutions that were to follow, because Roman authorities and citizens didn’t want to be judged by the moral teachings of a crucified Jew and his followers. But, in the 4th century, Christianity brought about “the single greatest transformation not only of conscience, but of public morality and law, in the world’s history.” (Benjamin Wiker, Worshiping the State, p. 68) Thus began the spread of Christendom.
Christendom
As Christianity grew in numbers and influence, some Romans emperors used Christians as scapegoats, while others viewed them as a threat to their power. Intermittent persecutions ebbed and flowed during the first three centuries, until the time of Emperor Constantine. After experiencing a Christian miracle that delivered to him a crucial military victory, he instituted religious freedom in 313 AD with the Edict of Milan. Emperor Theodosius I made Catholicism the empire’s state religion in 380 AD with the Edict of Thessalonica. This began the 1500-year reign of Christendom in the West.
Within Christendom, Western rulers often shared an uneasy alliance with the Catholic Church. The power base of these rulers was military might; that of the Catholic Church was the threat of excommunication, i.e., banishment from membership in the Church. Those with the post-modern mindset don’t understand why a powerful king would care about excommunication from an organization without an army. This true story from the 11th century illustrates the strong belief in the Christian God that held sway with both kings and vassals alike.
“Conflicts between the medieval Christian church, led by the Pope, and nations, ruled by kings, occurred throughout the Middle Ages. One great clash between a pope and a king took place between Pope Gregory VII and King Henry IV of the Holy Roman Empire. The [Investiture] conflict between Henry IV and Gregory VII [resulted in Henry’s excommunication].”
“Fearing the rebellion of his vassals, Henry sought the Pope’s mercy. During the harsh winter of 1077, Henry and his servants made a long and dangerous journey through the snowy mountains of northern Italy to meet the Pope. They met in a small town called Canossa in the mountains of northern Italy. Then when he arrived, the Pope made the humiliated Henry wait in the bitter cold for three days before finally agreeing to see him. Contemporary accounts report that when Henry was finally permitted to enter the gates, he walked barefoot [and bare-headed] through the snow and knelt at the feet of the pope to beg forgiveness. As a result, the Pope revoked Henry’s excommunication.”
Whether or not Henry feared excommunication, he believed that his Christian subjects had an allegiance to a spiritual authority greater than his own, and he couldn’t risk ignoring it. Even outside Christendom, autocratic leaders exerted control over their subjects not only using fear, but faith as well. Faith provided spiritual legitimacy to the ruler’s reign. Initially, the ruler attempted to pressure religious leaders to accept his authority. If that didn’t work, he declared himself a god. The chart below shows some examples of this from ancient times to the present.
Power Politics: Rulers and Religion
| Rulers & Empires | Era | Commentary on Historical God-Kings |
|---|---|---|
| Egyptian pharaohs | 3150 – 30 BC | “Egyptian pharaohs were kings of Ancient Egypt, and were considered gods by their culture.” |
| Chinese emperors | 221 BC – 1911 AD | “Deified as ‘Sons of Heaven’" |
| Roman emperors | 42 BC – 363 AD | “Following Julius Caesar … deified as ‘the Divine Julius’, and Caesar Augustus … ‘Son of the Divine One’, some (not all) Roman Emperors of the 1st to 4th centuries claimed divinity …” |
| Aztec kings | 1375 – 1521 AD | “Aztec kings were considered descendants of gods and thus their rule was thought to possess divine sanction.” |
| Incan emperors | 1438 – 1533 AD | “The Inca Emperors had a status very similar to that of the Pharaohs of Egypt.” |
| King Henry VIII of England | 1531 – 1547 AD | “Henry VIII became ‘head of the Church in England and Wales as far as the word of God allows.’” |
| Kim dynasty of No. Korea | 1948 AD – present | “They are trained to worship their dictator and his father and grandfather before him as being the Lord God.” |
| Chinese Communists | 2018 – present | “[The Vatican-China deal] will secure for the Communist government a freedom in naming bishops that would have been the envy of centuries of lay rulers in the European Middle Ages who attempted to arrogate for themselves authority over investitures.” |
The recent Vatican-China deal is a good illustration of (1) how a secular ruler recognizes that the Church must not be allowed to become a spiritual power base that will someday threaten his control, and (2) the shifting balance of power between secular rulers and the Catholic Church.
1. During Christendom, the 11th-century Investiture conflict between Pope Gregory VII and King Henry IV went in favor of the Catholic Church. The king was forced to return the power to appoint bishops back to the pope.
2. In the recent Vatican-China deal, the Communist leader now has the right to assemble a list of approved candidates for bishop, and the pope must make his selection for investiture from that list.
From Christendom to Paganism
The transition from Christendom to present-day liberal paganism has taken about 500 years to complete.
“[The history of the Western liberal worldview] has at its heart the worship of other things besides God – of nature, of ourselves, of the state. Thus, liberalism is more than a political persuasion. It’s a religion with its own doctrines about cosmology and morality.” (Wiker, p. 11)
The following summary shows how the moral transition evolved, as seen in the ideas of Western philosophers and thinkers, interspersed by key events in Western history. It shows that Liberalism and its cousins (Marxism, Communism, Socialism, Progressivism and Leftism) inevitably transition to immoral paganism, and the worship of the self and/or the state.
500 Years – A Return to Pagan Immorality
| Year | Person/Book or Event | |
|---|---|---|
| 1513 | Machiavelli/The Prince | The physical world is the only reality (Materialism). The ruler is no longer restrained by the moral laws of God (Wiker, p. 107). |
| 1517 | Protestant reformation (Luther) | The moral authority of Jesus’ Catholic Church is undermined by fragmentation of the Faith. The revolt Luther started has led to more than 300 Christian churches today. |
| 1534 | King Henry VIII | Henry became the Head of the Church of England. His self-proclaimed authority to interpret the bible led to his having 6 wives; he divorced 2 & executed 2 others. |
| 1651 | Hobbes/Leviathan | Materialism implies totalitarianism, since there is nothing beyond the state. Materialism implies moral relativism, so there is no objective right & wrong. Natural rights granted by the state replace God’s natural law. (Wiker, pp.127-31) |
| 1677 | Spinoza | The founder of modern liberalism & the liberal church advocated for tolerance of religious diversity, assuring religious disunity & secular state control. (Wiker, p. 159). |
| 1690 | Locke/Second Treatise | He advocated for a secular state that protected property rights, but without common virtues provided by a robust church (classical liberalism). Ultimately, radical atheistic liberalism emerged from a society without a soul. (Wiker, pp. 223-28) |
| 1754 | Rousseau/Second Discourse | Christianity is incompatible with the new world secular order because God and his moral code regarding marriage & family cause inequality. (Wiker, pp.166-68) |
| 1789 | French Revolution | This bloody reaction against the monarchy & the Catholic Church in France led to the Napoleonic Wars. The 19th century “throne & altar” policy temporarily restored order. |
| 1848 | Marx/Communist Manifesto | He claimed that class struggle defines the history of all societies, ignoring the more important clash between good & evil. |
| 1857 | Comte/Course in Positive Philosophy | Historical progress moves from a primitive theological stage to a final stage of scientific materialism, where we worship ourselves and/or the state. (Wiker, pp.201-2) |
| 1917 | WWI/Communist Revolution | WWI ends Christendom. The first of several atheist Marxist states is born. Ultimately, more than 100 million killed in Russia, China & other Communist states (Wiker, p. 323) |
| 1960 | Cultural revolution in the West | Birth control legalized in US. The war on children accelerates with the sexual revolution & feminism. US Catholics co-opted by the pagan “culture of death.” 60 million babies die. Many souls lost. |
The change in worldview in the past 500 years from Christendom to paganism can be reduced to how these two questions are answered: 1. Is there a moral and judging creator God? and 2. Are people basically good?
Traditional Christian believers answer “yes” to the first question and “no” to the second question. We believe mankind was created good by God, but fell into original sin, a condition under which everyone is capable of evil. The understanding that there will a final judgment is a necessary precondition to overcoming sin and doing good, regardless of the political system.
Leftist philosophers and elites in government, politics, education, media, science, the arts and the judiciary tend to answer “no” to the first question and “yes” to the second question. Since there is no God and men are naturally good, they conclude that traditional social institutions (religion, marriage & family, capitalism) have created the conditions that cause societal division and injustice. Ultimately, they believe, only a liberal government can create the conditions that bring about a utopia (heaven on earth).
Many elites concede that some liberal experiments have been catastrophic failures (e.g., Communist regimes in Russia, Cuba and North Korea). Instead, they point to left-leaning countries in Western Europe as models of socialist success stories. What they fail to understand is that those countries will eventually descend into chaos or authoritarian rule once their Christian moral energy is dissipated and unbelief has eliminated any alternative spiritual authority.
Whatever the future may bring, you and I will need to be prepared to live in a society where true Catholic moral principles are mocked and ignored, and pagan morality has triumphed. Roman pagan culture has made a comeback, this time under the guise of today’s predominant world culture of Western liberalism.
The following chart lists Roman pagan practices that were common at the time of Christ (Wiker, pp. 31-32), most of which have again become acceptable in Western societies today. They are arranged according to the year of legalization and/or the beginning of their widespread acceptance in the adult US population. Pederasty, killing deformed infants, euthanasia and infanticide were also practiced by ancient Romans, but are not yet widely practiced and/or legal in the US.
Post-modern Liberalism & Pagan Immorality (United States)
| Roman Practice | Year | Description | US Prevalence Today |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contraception | 1960 | Contraceptive pill approved by FDA | 76% of ♀ in any year |
| Cohabitation | 1965 | Starts climb at 2.5% | 70% |
| Divorce | 1970 | No-fault divorce; 70% ♀ initiated | 45% of all marriages |
| Prostitution (client) | 1971 | Illegal in US, except Nevada | 15-20% of ♂ |
| Abortion | 1973 | Legalized in US | 25% of ♀ |
| Habitual pornography | 1993 | Legal in US; available on the Internet | 70% ♂; 20% ♀ |
| Homosexuality | 2003 | Legalized in US | 1.6% |
| Adultery | ? | Illegal in 23 states, but rarely prosecuted | 20% of ♂; 13% of ♀ |
So, the future is already upon us, in large part because a false Christianity, and especially a false Catholicism, has emerged, and surrendered to pagan liberalism.
Catholics Surrender to Pagan Liberalism
The true Catholic Church still exists in her constant doctrinal and moral teachings, particularly as detailed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. However, a false Catholic Church has surfaced in recent decades, aligned in many respects with post-modern pagan liberalism. It emerged in the 1940s and became known as the nouvelle théologie (new theology).
The nouvelle théologie was condemned by Pope Pius XII in 1950, but was nevertheless highly influential during Vatican II (the Second Vatican Council, 1962-65). In the wake of the council, and in the midst of the sexual revolution of the 1960s, an army of Catholic clergy, laymen and laywomen sold the unsuspecting sheep on the concept of the “Spirit of Vatican II,” which was the pretext for dismantling the Catholic faith and endangering millions of souls.
The theologians behind this movement wanted to de-emphasize sin and its consequences. Instead, they wished to dialogue with the contemporary world on issues of moral theology. Ultimately, they broke into two camps, each publishing its own theological journal. Communio, the more Catholic of the two, was in sync with all the subsequent popes through Benedict XVI; Concilium, the more radical of the two, provided a blueprint for Pope Francis and, possibly, those who follow him.
David Carlin, in his book The Decline and Fall of the Catholic Church in America (pp. ix-x), published in 2003, describes the fruits of their efforts to compromise with the devil:
“The Great Catholic Sex Scandal of 2002 … was in more ways than one the tip of the iceberg. … The root problem is that the Catholic Church in the United States has largely ceased to be Catholic. … For American Catholics to embrace [liberal Christianity in the ‘spirit of Vatican II’ was] to embrace gradual institutional suicide.”
Before exploring the depth of the US Catholic decline, the primary reason behind it, and why it matters for the salvation of souls, let’s look at the history of Catholics in America, according to Carlin.
Since its founding, America has had a national religion. Although some of the founding fathers were deists (there is a creator, but he does not intervene in the universe), the national religion of the nation had a decidedly Protestant flavor. When Catholics started arriving in large numbers in the mid-19th century, they weren’t fully welcomed, because American Protestants had inherited the anti-Catholic bias of their European ancestors. Over the next century, as Catholics assimilated into the culture, the national religion came to accept them. The national religion became a generic Christianity.
At about the same time (post-WWII), Jews were also assimilated. The national religion became Judeo-Christianity, which was light on theological dogma, but generally in agreement on biblical morality, especially sexual morality.
This set the stage for the entry of paganism as the national religion, beginning in the 1960s. Secularist pagans were able to do this because, by then, they controlled the levers of power in the universities, the media and, especially, the judiciary. They also had allies in mainline Protestant churches and the Catholic Church after Vatican II. Working together, they gradually replaced biblical morality with the PLP morality described previously, almost as if it were part of an epic plan!
This chart demonstrates that Secularist Paganism is indeed a religion in the same sense that Traditional Catholicism is, since it satisfies both the functionalist (what the religion does) and substantivist (what is essential about the religion) definitions of religion offered by scholars (Wiker, p. 307).
Comparison of Catholic & Secularist Religions
| Beliefs | Traditional Catholicism (Culture of Life) | Secularist Paganism (Culture of Death) |
|---|---|---|
| Object of worship | God | The Self or the State |
| Reality | Spiritual & material | Material only |
| Human beings | Created in God’s image | Intelligent apes |
| Original state of man | Capable of evil due to original sin | Good, but corrupted by society |
| Meaning of life | Given by God | Each person creates his own meaning |
| Goal of life | Salvation (heaven) | Earthly happiness & pleasure-seeking |
| Means to salvation | Grace & works of (agape) love | Earthly progress through human effort |
| Freedom | Opportunity to do what I ought | License to do what I want |
| Moral philosophy | Submit to God’s will | Seek pleasure (good) & avoid pain (evil) |
| Source of rights | God (unalienable) | The state (rights given or taken away) |
| Truth | Absolute & unchanging, like God | Each individual creates his own truth |
| Unforgivable sin(s) | Rejection of God to the end | Intolerance & judgmentalism |
| The Enemy | World, flesh & devil | Christianity |
With the rise of liberal paganism as the national religion came an inevitable decline in the liberal branch of Christianity.
Decline of Liberal Catholic & Protestant Churches
The decline in liberal Christianity may seem counter-intuitive, since they have aligned themselves with the dominant secular elites in government, politics, education, media, science, the arts and the judiciary. But the reality is that the secular left has been using liberal Christians to help destroy Christianity, its mortal enemy. It is astonishing that after more than fifty years of this, the mainline Protestants and Catholics don’t see what is happening.
First, let’s see just how serious the decline has become. The graph below shows the historical church attendance trendlines for the liberal mainline and conservative evangelical Protestant churches (as a share of adult Americans). While the Evangelicals have maintained their numbers in the past forty years, the mainline churches have experienced a steady decline, trending to zero by 2040! (Note: These data have not been adjusted downward for the well-known over-reporting of religious attendance in face-to-face interviews, the methodology of the GSS survey.)
The trendline for US Catholicism matches that for mainline Protestantism, predicting that weekly mass attendance of self-identified Catholics will approach zero by 2045! (Note: Since there is consistent over-reporting of attendance, Gallup values are adjusted downward by 15%, based on more reliable time diary results. CARA data are more reliable because they use self-administered surveys that minimize over-reporting of attendance.)
There are many reasons why liberal Christianity declines in a secular culture, but the main explanation has to do with belief in salvation for all (Universalism). Christian denominations who hold this belief reject the concept of eternal punishment for sin (hell) and reject the commandments as manmade laws. To them, Christianity is only doing good works of “social justice.” Their members then face a choice:
• Many middle-aged and older members retain a strong Christian heritage and stay in the church. They may still work for social justice on the local level, but also support government re-distribution of wealth, enhancing the strength of liberal secular institutions trying to destroy Christianity.
• Younger members fall into two categories:
1. Members who need strong incentives to maintain their religiosity (i.e., the loss of heaven and the pains of hell), instead take the path of least resistance and become “nones,” that is, those who claim no religious affiliation. They see no risk in doing so, since they believe everyone is saved.
2. Members who still believe in the traditional notion of God as judge and in his moral laws join Evangelical churches. This explains why the latter have maintained their numbers in an increasingly secular society.
The great majority of US Catholics, no matter their political preferences, are morally liberal and universalist, like other liberal Christians, despite the very orthodox moral teachings of the Catholic Church. This has been the case since the 1960s. These post-Vatican II Catholics have either not been taught the moral truths of the faith and/or have been taught error. Their attitudes and practices on the ten commandments hardly differ from those of the US population as a whole. Therefore, most Catholics behave in a manner similar to that of other liberal Christians.
Of the many dozens of priests and nuns I have encountered in diocesan churches, not one was orthodox. I’ve talked to several of them at length about their lack of concern for the souls of their parishioners, using the analogy of a doctor who never tells his patient that he/she is dying from a disease, but could be cured with an easily available therapy. Typically, their responses are ambiguous, indirect and lack cogency. I can only assume they don’t believe that the disease (sin) exists, so their patients (flock) will never die (be damned).
A small minority of Catholics, like myself, are orthodox and believe all Catholic moral teaching. We probably represent less than 5% of the people in conventional “Novus Ordo” mass (NOM) parishes. It is rare that the average parishioner would ever hear an orthodox priest celebrate mass. These priests are considered too disruptive by bishops and laity alike, because they are not afraid to teach the hard truths of the faith. Instead, they are sidelined, or occasionally sent “to be ‘evaluated’ at one of these psych clinics for clergy.”
Then there are about 500 “Latin Mass” (TLM) Catholic churches (< 3% of the total) which celebrate the Tridentine rite (ritual) that was normative for 400 years. You’re likely to find very orthodox priests and congregants at these churches.
A survey was done a few years ago comparing the practices of the people attending the NOM and TLM masses. As you can see in the chart, the TLM members believe the moral teachings of the Church, attend mass much more frequently and contribute money at much higher rates than the NOM members. One might think that the bishops would see these results and bring back orthodoxy for the sake of the Church’s survival, but it seems they are heavily invested in the status quo.
Traditional Latin Mass National Survey
Therefore, the near-term future of American Christianity looks like this:
• As the Western moral culture has moved headlong into immorality, most Catholics have moved with it. They are under the impression that God’s laws can change in different times and places. Liberal Catholics are more in agreement with mainline Protestants than they are with orthodox Catholics; they are Protestants with a Catholic veneer. As such, they will follow liberal Protestants into oblivion by mid-century.
• Evangelical Protestants have evolved into a form of Christianity that presently upholds most of Catholic moral teaching. Unlike the American Catholic Church, most of whose leaders have been co-opted and corrupted by the “Spirit of Vatican II,” they have maintained most of their beliefs in the face of the liberal onslaught starting in the 1960s. However, as the liberal Protestants and Catholics decline in numbers, they will have fewer converts from those sources. It is unclear how they can hold out without a robust Catholic Church as an ally.
• Traditional (orthodox) Catholics understand that God, his Catholic Church and the natural moral law are immutable. But we are too small in number to staunch the bleeding of members and vitality in the establishment Catholic Church. However, we need the Church and will not leave it. With God’s grace, our children may form the nucleus of a revitalized people of God, if there is the emergence of a charismatic Catholic leader who can lead us out of the wilderness.
Salvation in the New World Order
How does the ascendency of the “new world order” of liberal paganism affect your personal salvation? True to Christ’s prediction (Mt 7:13-14), it makes salvation unlikely, not because people want to do evil, but because they have become convinced that evil is good. Gradually, they become oblivious to the fact that they are swimming in a moral cesspool. This moral blindness often occurs through desensitization, conformity and scandal.
Desensitization
“Imagine a group of activists so powerful that they could beam their propaganda directly into your brain. Now, also imagine that they are so sophisticated they actually get you to pay them to do it.” Ben Shapiro.
Brainwashing is “the process of pressuring someone into adopting radically different beliefs by using systematic and often forcible means.” Since 1905, the media have engaged in what appears to have been an orchestrated campaign of brainwashing through movies, TV, music and the Internet. Rather than using “forcible means,” this campaign actually uses means that cause the unwitting victims to voluntarily seek out the tools of their own destruction. This is accomplished through subliminal messages conveyed by images and sounds that enter directly into the brain. These messages are crafted by the world’s most creative storytellers, using the latest technology and sold by the industry’s most talented marketing geniuses.
The process works like an addiction, not to ingested chemicals, but to famous personalities, on-screen characters and their behaviors. We form attachments to them, and often accept their behavior, even when they engage in acts we may have considered immoral. After all, it’s only play-acting. So, we are exposed to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of simulated sins performed by our favorite characters. Over time, if we fail to engage our higher faculties in the evaluation of these experiences, the addiction overrides our previous views and we accept evil as good.
Conformity
“Conformity is a type of social influence involving a change in belief or behavior in order to fit in with a group.”
Moral blindness is also often the result of conformity, and we’re especially susceptible if our family, friends and spiritual leaders adopt an attitude of indifference to sin. Because of the desensitization to sin in the culture, large fractions of the population approve of behaviors that are gravely sinful. So, if you want to get to heaven and believe that the Catholic Church has the authority to speak authoritatively on morals, you will be fighting an uphill battle, even with those closest to you.
Scandal
“Unseemly conduct [or advice] of a religious person that discredits religion or causes moral lapse in another.”
Worse yet, you will be fighting against most priests and religious (sisters, nuns or brothers) who claim to speak for the Catholic Church. One simple example I have used elsewhere on this website will show why I believe this is true.
According to Church teaching, missing mass on Sunday (1st and 3rd commandments) and using birth control (6th commandment) are grave and intrinsically evil sins, respectively. As such, those who commit these sins and fail to repent risk the loss of salvation. Eighty percent of Catholics don’t attend mass regularly, and at least seventy-five percent of mass-goers tell pollsters they believe birth control isn’t sinful. Therefore, at minimum, ninety-five percent of Catholics are in an objective state of mortal sin, presuming knowledge and consent.
Priests and religious know these church teachings on moral theology and can add two plus two. Yet, in the more than thirty years that I have paid attention to these things, not one bishop, priest or religious has clearly told Catholics what I outlined in the preceding paragraph, a concept that would take less than five minutes to explain in a sermon or church bulletin. Are these people so callous, fearful and/or indifferent that they would risk the souls of their flock and remain silent? No, I think not. The reason they have never spoken out is because they don’t believe the moral teachings of their church either. They too have been compromised by the zeitgeist, the spirit of this age, and the conformity of their own communities.
Worse yet, “the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God” at the highest level. The election of Pope Francis is the culmination of the tireless work of liberal priests and religious since Vatican II. The efforts of previous popes to fight off the liberal assault have come to naught. Those who want to know the timeless moral truths taught by the Catholic Church no longer have a friend in the papacy.
Evidence for Francis’ apparent attempt to change the moral teachings of the Church can be found in Amoris Laetitia, published by the Vatican in 2016. Shortly thereafter, four Catholic cardinals sent a letter to the pope (dubia) asking for clarification on sections 300-305. Taken together, these sections appear to contradict traditional teaching and throw the Church into moral chaos, as seen in the chart.
Amoris Laetitia: Moral Chaos in the Catholic Church
| Dubia No. | VS No. | Traditional Teaching | AL No. | AL Teaching |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 79 | There are intrinsically evil acts that are against God’s will without exceptions. | 304 | “… a general law or rule [against evil actions] is not enough to discern and ensure full fidelity to God. … truth or [correct moral behavior is] not the same for all …” |
| 4 | 81 | Circumstances or intentions can never transform an intrinsically evil act into a good or defensible choice. | 302 | “Under certain circumstances people find it very difficult to act differently. Therefore … it is necessary to recognize that responsibility with respect to certain [evil] actions or decisions is not the same in all cases.” |
| 5 | 56 | Conscience can never be used to approve exceptions to absolute prohibitions against evil actions. | 303 | “Yet conscience can do more than recognize that a [evil act] does not correspond objectively to the overall demands of [God’s will]. It can also recognize with sincerity and honesty what for now is the most generous response which can be given to God, and come to see with a certain moral security that it is what God himself is asking ….” |
| Summary of Francis’ teaching: Despite the previous teaching of Christ and his Catholic Church, God’s laws against evil are not the same for every individual (304). Each person can decide his own morality, based on his own circumstances and intentions (302), because each person’s conscience has direct access to the will of the Holy Spirit (303). | ||||
AL – Amoris Laetitia (2016); Pope Francis; VS – Veritatis Splendor (1993); Saint Pope John Paul II
Of all the scandalous teachings of this pope, the worst to date is his apparent reversal of the Catholic Catechism’s teaching on the death penalty in 2018 – from grudging acceptance to inadmissibility. There are several reasons for this.
• First, unlike the exhortations and encyclicals popes occasionally write, the Catechism of the Catholic Church is a book even casual Catholics know about. So, when a change is made to it, that fact becomes well known.
• Second, although knowledgeable orthodox Catholics assure us that there is no contradiction with the previous teachings, that is probably not what the average Catholic now believes.
• Third, the dissident elements in the Church have been pushing liberal ideas like this for many decades. So, this change is potentially a Trojan Horse, acting to subvert the Catholic Church and her moral teachings, especially in the realm of sexual ethics.
As one commentator put it,
“By selecting a teaching a majority of people — including many in the hierarchy — are at least prudentially opposed to, and then changing it in the Catechism, Francis has signaled something extremely significant:
We can change this teaching, because the Church was wrong about it in the past. And if the Church could be wrong about this moral issue, she can be wrong about any of them. That means we can change those, too.”
In short, the pope is undermining his own authority!
This has happened several times in the history of the Catholic Church. One notorious example is that of Pope Honorius I (625-638 AD). More than forty years after his death, Honorius was anathematized (condemned) by two of his successors. It remains to be seen how Francis will be viewed by future Church leaders.
In the meantime, those who are serious about salvation will need to see through the scandalous teachings of this pontiff and remain faithful to the perennial truths taught by the Catholic Church for two thousand years. This, in fact, is the key to discerning the truth and is actually written into an official document of the Catholic Church defining papal infallibility.
“For the holy Spirit was promised to the successors of Peter not so that they might, by his revelation, make known some new doctrine, but that, by his assistance, they might religiously guard and faithfully expound the revelation or deposit of faith transmitted by the apostles.” (Vatican I, Session 4, Chap. 4, No. 6.)
Therefore, if you want to attain salvation, you’ll need to have the determination to go it alone, if necessary. You can also seek out like-minded individuals and organizations that will help you on your journey. Finally, you can avail yourself of solid Catholic resources, some of which are listed below.
Top 10 Catholic News, Opinion & Apologetics Websites
1. How to Get to Heaven – A complete guide to salvation, based on the unchangeable teachings of the Catholic Church
2. Renewal Ministries – Faithful Catholic apostolate that seeks to “foster renewal in the Catholic Church through the power of the Holy Spirit for the salvation of souls.”
3. LifeSiteNews – News service that provides “balance and more accurate coverage on culture, life and family matters than is usually given by other media”
4. Credible Catholic – Scientifically-based defense of Catholicism “at the intersection of faith and reason”
5. EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) – Extensive orthodox Catholic programming
6. Catholic Answers – “A media ministry that serves Christ by explaining and defending the Catholic faith”
7. National Catholic Register – “To provide a perspective on the news of the day as seen through the eyes of the [Catholic] Magisterium”
8. OnePeterFive – Timely essays by hundreds of orthodox Catholic authors designed to help “restore the beauty, majesty and glory of the Catholic Church”
9. The Catholic Thing – “Wide-ranging and solid Catholic commentary” on current events intended to be “a Catholic light on what is otherwise a superficial and dull world”
10. Taylor Marshall –An orthodox Catholic convert, Taylor Marshall’s blogs, podcasts and videos are known for their advocacy of traditionalist Catholicism.
Recommended Books on the Keys to Salvation
1. The Holy Bible (RSV-CE)
2. The Catechism of the Catholic Church – 1994 Ed. (Pope Saint John Paul II)
3. The Map of Life (Frank Sheed)
4. Mere Christianity (C. S. Lewis)
5. Five Proofs of the Existence of God (Edward Feser)
6. Who Designed the Designer – A Rediscovered Path to God’s Existence (Michael Augros)
7. New Proofs for the Existence of God – Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy (Robert Spitzer)
8. The Soul’s Upward Yearning – Clues to Our Transcendent Nature from Experience and Reason (Robert Spitzer)
9. The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus (Gary Habermas & Michael Licona)
10. The Shroud of Turin – A Critical Summary of Observations, Data and Hypotheses (John Jackson)
11. Worshipping the State – How Liberalism Became our State Religion (Benjamin Wiker)
12. The Decline and Fall of the Catholic Church in America (David Carlin)
13. Militant – Resurrecting Authentic Catholicism (Michael Voris)
14. The Urgency of the New Evangelization: Answering the Call (Ralph Martin)
15. Will Many be Saved – What Vatican II Actually Teaches and its Implications for the New Evangelization (Ralph Martin)
16. Both a Servant and Free – A Primer in Fundamental Moral Theology (Fr. Brian Mullady)
17. A Daily Defense – 365 Days (plus one) to Becoming a Better Apologist (Jimmy Akin)
Since this website is heavily dependent on the original 1994 version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which itself may contain taints of liberal moral theology, you can check its veracity against older and probably more reliable catechisms. At least twenty are available for downloading on the Whispers of Restoration website.