The Chastisement Comes… Part I

 

For it is time for the judgment to begin with the household of God;
if it begins with us, how will it end for those
who fail to obey the gospel of God?
(1 Peter 4:17)

 

WE are, without question, beginning to live through some of the most extraordinary and serious moments in the life of the Catholic Church. So much of what I’ve been warning about for years is coming to fruition before our very eyes: a great apostasy, a coming schism, and of course, the fruition of the “seven seals of Revelation”, etc.. It can all be summed up in the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers… The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection. —CCC, n. 672, 677

What would shake the faith of many believers more than perhaps witnessing their shepherds betray the flock?

 

The Great Apostasy

The words of Our Lady of Akita are unfolding before us:

The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops… the Church will be full of those who accept compromises… 

To this vision of the future, Our Lady adds:

The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sorrow. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them. —Our Lady to Sr. Agnes Sasagawa of Akita, Japan, October 13th, 1973

The sins of the Church will become so frequent, so grave in nature, that the Lord of the harvest will be forced to begin the decisive sifting of the weeds from the wheat. When the former head of the Vatican’s highest doctrinal office begins to warn of a “hostile takeover of the Church of Jesus Christ,” then you know that we have crossed a certain Rubicon. ^[1]Cardinal Gerhard Müller, The World Over, October 6th, 2022

Cardinal Gerhard Müller is referring to the Synod on Synodality, an initiative of Pope Francis in 2021 that is supposedly about “listening” in the Church. It involves gathering the opinions of lay Catholics – and even non-Catholics – in every diocese in the world, ahead of the Synod of Bishops in Rome next October (2023). But when you have the relator general of the Synod, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, claiming that Catholic teaching on the sinfulness of homosexual acts is “no longer correct” and needs “revision”, this is shaping to be a synod on relativizing sin.^[2]catholicnews.com Cardinal Mario Grech, the secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, recently broached the “complicated issues” such as divorced and remarried people receiving Holy Communion and the blessing of same-sex couples. “These are not to be understood simply in terms of doctrine,” Grech reasoned, “but in terms of God’s ongoing encounter with human beings. What has the Church to fear if these two groups within the faithful are given the opportunity to express their intimate sense of spiritual realities, which they experience.”^[3]September 27th, 2022; cruxnow.com When asked by EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo to respond to Grech’s remarks, Cardinal Müller was blunt:

Here is a hermeneutic of the old cultural Protestantism and of modernism, that individual experience has the same level as objective Revelation of God, and God is only all to you which you can project your proper ideas, and to make a certain populism in the Church. And surely everybody outside of the Church who wants to destroy the Catholic Church and the fundaments, they are very glad about these declarations. But it’s obvious that is absolutely against Catholic doctrine… How is it possible that Cardinal Grech is more intelligent than Jesus Christ? —The World Over, October 6th, 2022; cf. lifesitnews.com

Here again, the prophecy of St. John Henry Newman is sadly proving more true by the hour:

Satan may adopt the more alarming weapons of deceit—he may hide himself—he may attempt to seduce us in little things, and so to move the Church, not all at once, but by little and little from her true position. I do believe he has done much in this way in the course of the last few centuries… It is his policy to split us up and divide us, to dislodge us gradually from our rock of strength. And if there is to be a persecution, perhaps it will be then; then, perhaps, when we are all of us in all parts of Christendom so divided, and so reduced, so full of schism, so close upon heresy. When we have cast ourselves upon the world and depend for protection upon it, and have given up our independence and our strength, then [Antichrist] will burst upon us in fury as far as God allows him.  —St. John Henry Newman, Lecture IV: The Persecution of Antichrist; newmanreader.org

Moreover, how could we fail to read these words in light of the past three years when prelates “cast” themselves upon the opinions of a few unelected health officials who, with the bishop’s support, proceeded to impose the most bizarre and unscientific mandates that included the silencing of singing in many places, the separation of the “vaxxed from the unvaxxed”, and withholding the Sacraments to the dying? If you no longer recognize the Catholic Church in these days of shadow, who can blame you? 

In fact, perhaps never before have we seen such strong indictments of the hierarchy of the Church in private revelation as in the past month. To Valeria Copponi, Our Lord allegedly said recently:

Your Jesus suffers especially because of My Church, which no longer respects My commandments. Little children, I wish to have prayers from you for My Church, which unfortunately is no longer Catholic, nor Roman Apostolic [in its conduct]. Pray and fast for My Church to return as I want it to. Always have recourse to My Body to keep you obedient to My Church. —October 5th, 2022; Note: this message is obviously not a statement of the inviolable nature of the Church — One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostlic — that will remain until the end of time, but an indictment of “all apperances” of a Church presently in disorder, division, and doctrinal confusion. Hence, Our Lord commands obedience to His Church in the last sentence, particularly recourse to the Holy Eucharist.

To Gisella Cardia, Our Lady allegedly said on September 24th:

Pray for priests: the stench of Satan’s house reaches as far as the Church of Peter. —countdowntothekingdom.com

And in an enigmatic message to Pedro Regis, who enjoys the support of his bishop, Our Lady says:

Courage! My Jesus walks with you. Peter is not Peter; Peter will not be Peter. You cannot understand now what I am telling you, but all will be revealed to you. Be faithful to My Jesus and to the true Magisterium of His Church. —June 29th, 2022, countdowntothekingdom.com

This emerging prophetic consensus points to some kind of colossal failure in discernment at the very summit of the Church. If you take into consideration the past nine years of controversial ambiguities; confusing pastoral directives on the distribution of the Holy Eucharist; the silence in the face of puzzling appointments, filial corrections and claimed heterodox statements; the appearance of idolatry in the Vatican Gardens; the seeming abandonment of the faithful underground Church in China; the endorsement of UN initiatives that also promote abortion and gender ideology; the blatant endorsement of man-made “global warming”; the repeated promotion of a killer “vaccine” (that is now proven beyond a doubt to be maiming or killing millions); the reversal of Benedict’s Motu Proprio that more easily allowed the Latin rite; the joint statements on religion that border indifferentism… it is hard to imagine that Heaven would not have something to say at this hour.   

Asked on whether the Synod on Synodality is shaping up to be “an attempt to destroy the Church,” Cardinal Müller flatly stated:

Yes, if they will succeed, that will be the end of the Catholic Church. [The synodal process is a] Marxistic form of creating the truth… It’s like the old heresies of Arianism, when Arius thought according to his ideas what God can do and what God cannot do. The human intellect wants to decide what is true and what is wrong… They want to abuse this process for shifting the Catholic Church and not only in another direction, but in the destruction of the Catholic Church. —The World Over, October 6th, 2022; cf. lifesitnews.com; Nb. Cardinal Müller obviously is aware of Matthew 16:18: “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.” However, this does not mean that the Catholic Church, as we know it, cannot be destroyed and only subsist as a remnant. 

None of the above is hyperbole when you have the bishops of Belgium Flander’s region recently announcing permission to bless same-sex unions. ^[4]September 20th, 2022; euronews.com In other words, we have gone from a synodal process of “listening” to one of apostatizing. 

For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity, will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to myths… darkened in understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance, because of their hardness of heart. (2 Tim 4:3-4; Eph 4:18)

 

The Judgment Comes

Brothers and sisters, what you have just read is truly extraordinary in that these doctrinal divisions are coming from the highest members of the Church — “Cardinal opposing cardinal.” Moreover, they are unfolding under the watch of the Chief Shepherd of the Church, Pope Francis, who remains oddly silent as heresy abounds. Why is this calling down the discipline of God upon the Church, ie. judgment? Because it is about souls. It’s about souls! I’ve heard from priest’s and laity alike who say that, because of the doctrinal ambiguity of Francis and his appointed band of liberal Cardinals, some Catholics have begun to excuse or enter into mortal sin claiming that they “have the Pope’s blessing.” I have heard this firsthand, such as from a priest who said a women living in adultery demanded the Eucharist, citing Amoris Laetitia. Another man entered into a gay marriage claiming that, he too, had the Pope’s support. 

How difficult it is to write these things! And yet, it is not without precedent. When Peter fled Jesus in the Garden and openly denied him, how did the other Apostles feel? There must have been terrible disorientation… a diabolical disorientation when the Apostles scattered leaving Christ’s other disciples without a compass (but read what St. John did here). ^[5]cf. The Anti-Mercy You could say that it “shook the faith of many believers.” And yet, we cannot forget the most important truth: we have a King, and his name is not Francis, Benedict, John Paul, or any other: He is Jesus Christ. It is to Him and His eternal teachings that we are bound to not only obey but to proclaim to the world!

Hence, what are we doing convening synods to listen to people tell the Church what to teach? As Our Lady said to Pedro Regis:

You are heading towards a future in which many will walk like the blind leading the blind. Many who are fervent in faith will be contaminated and will go against the truth. —September 23rd, 2022; countdowntothekingdom.com

Rather, it is the flock who must listen to the Apostles and their successors, who 2000 years ago were handed both the mandate and the teachings to spread the Word of God! 

The doctrine of the Apostles is a reflection and manifestation of the Revelation of the Word of God. We have to listen to the Word of God, but in the authority of the Holy Bible, of the Apostolic Tradition, and of the Magisterium, and all the councils said before that is not possible to substitute the Revelation given once and forever in Jesus Christ by another revelation. —Cardinal Müller, The World Over, October 6th, 2022; cf. lifesitnews.com

 To these Apostles, and their successors, Jesus said:

Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me. (Luke 10:16)

There you have the essence of authentic synodality: listening together to the Word of God. But now we are watching entire bishop’s conferences begin to depart from this Word, and as such, we have arrived at the end of this age, according to all the signs, warnings, and evidence all around us. 

There is a great uneasiness at this time in the world and in the Church, and that which is in question is the faith. It so happens now that I repeat to myself the obscure phrase of Jesus in the Gospel of St. Luke: ‘When the Son of Man returns, will He still find faith on the earth?’…I sometimes read the Gospel passage of the end times and I attest that, at this time, some signs of this end are emerging. —POPE PAUL VI, The Secret Paul VI, Jean Guitton, p. 152-153, Reference (7), p. ix.

When the Israelites of old were disobedient to God, in particular giving entrance to idolatry in the sanctuary, they were Putting the Branch to God’s Nose. It was then that God turned His People over to their enemies in order that they would be chastised and, ultimately, saved from their wickedness. Today, it seems that we are on the verge of a similar chastisement upon the Church, first of all, and then the world. 

The spiritual crisis involves the entire world. But its source is in Europe. People in the West are guilty of rejecting God… The spiritual collapse thus has a very Western character.  
—Cardinal Robert Sarah, Catholic Herald, April 5th, 2019; cf. The African Now Word

It is in the West, of course, where Christianity truly blossomed before spreading to the rest of the globe. The eldest daughter of the Church, France, is to this day a landscape indelibly marked by the influence of Christianity. But it has been reduced to moss-covered crosses and empty churches. Nearly the entire Western World has now abandoned their Judeo-Christian roots as godless leaders move toward a global system of governance that is nothing short of neo-Communism: a twisted blend of capitalism and Marxism that is rapidly rising as an unstoppable “beast.”^[6]cf. The New Beast Rising As such, the judgment of the Church and the West is upon us. 

The threat of judgment also concerns us, the Church in Europe, Europe and the West in general… the Lord is also crying out to our ears… “If you do not repent I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” Light can also be taken away from us and we do well to let this warning ring out with its full seriousness in our hearts, while crying to the Lord: “Help us to repent!” —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Opening Homily, Synod of Bishops, October 2nd, 2005, Rome

To the naked eye, the instrument of this chastisement may very well be Vladimir Putin and his allies (China, North Korea, Iran, etc.). In a somewhat stunning speech, one that echoes in parts the warnings of the popes over several decades, Putin — no matter what one thinks of him — lays bare the sins of the West… 

To be continued…

 

Today the Church is living with Christ through the outrages of the Passion. The sins of her members come back to her like strikes on the face… The Apostles themselves turned tail in the Garden of Olives. They abandoned Christ in His most difficult hour… Yes, there are unfaithful priests, bishops, and even cardinals who fail to observe chastity. But also, and this is also very grave, they fail to hold fast to doctrinal truth! They disorient the Christian faithful by their confusing and ambiguous language. They adulterate and falsify the Word of God, willing to twist and bend it to gain the world’s approval. They are the Judas Iscariots of our time.—Cardinal Robert Sarah, Catholic Herald, April 5th, 2019; cf. The African Now Word

 

Related Reading

The Chastisement Comes… Part II

Support Mark’s full-time ministry:

 

To journey with Mark in The Now Word,
click on the banner below to subscribe.
Your email will not be shared with anyone.

Now on Telegram. Click:

Follow Mark and the daily “signs of the times” on MeWe:

Follow Mark’s writings here:

Listen on the following: