On Recognizing and Overcoming the New Age Infiltration of the Church.
From Catholic Family News - February 1998
Every now and then artists step back from their paintings and study them from a distance. This gives a feel for the picture as a whole and shows what to do next.
Well, I've been studying the New Age for about twelve years, assembling a picture, so to speak. So when I was asked to speak on "Catechesis and the New Age", I thought now's a good time to step back and survey the whole picture. So this is a reality check: for the Church, and for us as individuals ---where do we stand with respect to the New Age? Should we be doing anything about it?
The first thing that struck me when I stood back and looked at the New Age picture was: we're living in George Orwell's 1984! Most of the world is enslaved as Orwell predicted. We're victims of doublethink, manipulation of language, rewriting of books and history, and cowed by thought police who are ever ready to pounce on those guilty of "though crime" or "hate crime", even if the so-called "guilty" are dead and gone---look at all the public apologizing going on today.
What I like to concentrate on is double think, because it has infiltrated the Church. It's found in the ranks of good Catholics and this worries me. Doublethink means holding two contradictory ideas at the same time without realizing it. It leads to doublespeak. Let me give you some examples:
Of course, there are many more examples of doublethink. Doublethink has some serious ramifications. What I'd like to concentrate on, from the point of view of the New Age, is that the holding of a true and false idea at the same time is actually a manifestation of a heresy about the natures of God.
God is Truth. Christ said, "I am the Truth" ---one hundred percent truth. There can be no error existing in, or coming from, God. But pantheism denies this. Pantheism says everything in the universe is united with God, forming one God-force. Pope Pius IX pointed out what this means. In his Syllabus of Errors, he said: "If God is one and the same as the worlds, then the true is one and the same with the false, the good is one and the same with the evil.">(7)> In another words, doublethink, which holds a true and false idea at the same time, is a form of pantheism, a heresy condemned by Pius IX.
Pantheism is the chief heresy of the New Age Movement. Most of its ideologies or tenets are pantheistic ---such as Communism, evolution, environmentalism, earth worship, humanism, the one-world government, false ecumenism, syncretism, the one-world religion, the global civilization. One of the quickest and easiest ways to fall into the New Age Movement, without even realizing it is to practice doublethink.
Now the modern New Age Movement started to gel early in the last century and Cardinal Newman could see the end result. He predicted " the spread of pantheism . . . the great deceit which awaits the age to come.">(8) >That's OUR age. Interestingly, Sr. Lucy of Fatima used similar language in 1970. She said Our Lady made clear that we must recite the Rosary every day if we were not to suffer a diabolical disorientation and be fooled by false doctrines. >(9)> Great deceit---diabolical disorientation.
The greatest disorientation resulting from doublethink is religious indifferentism, also condemned by Pius IX. It's the error which teaches that all religions are equal and provide salvation. Just practice your religion well and you'll be saved. The door to indifferentism was thrown open at the first Assisi interfaith meeting in 1986, where the Pope gave his blessing to the practice of false religions, which St. Paul classified as worshipping demons (cf. 1 Cor. 10:20-21)
The great Mother Teresa was at Assisi and said it was "the most beautiful gift to God.">(10)> Many people think the recent earthquakes in Assisi were God's reply. Long before Assisi, Mother Teresa openly taught that if one becomes "a better Hindu, Muslim, Catholic, whatever, one becomes closer to God. What God is in your mind, you must accept." These are her words.>(11)> This is doublethink.
As for Christian unity, the Church teaches it necessitates the return of heretical and schismatic religions to the Catholic Church. Leo XIII, Pius XI and Pius XII reiterated this traditional doctrine. False ecumenism believes that all Christian denominations are equal; and we dialogue to discover our common points; and we show unity by sharing churches and pulpits and praying together, even though all Protestants do not believe in our God. Obviously indifferentism is the first step towards false ecumenism and it leads to the attitude of non-proselytizing.
The next step is syncretism, which is the pantheistic union of all religions, forming the one-world religion or one-world church. Ecumenism is actually a Protestant term. It means the union of Christians, but not under the Pope. Around 1974, the World Council of Churches re-defined ecumenism as world ecumenism, to include non-Christians, i.e., Jews, pagans, atheists, even witches. From that time, under the generic name, "ecumenism," Catholics became involved in interfaith conferences and ceremonies. "Ecumenism" and "interfaith" became euphemisms for syncretism. Bearing in mind that St. Paul said what worship of idols is worship of devils, all syncretic ceremonies are devil worshipping ceremonies.
Many Catholics ---even high-ranking prelates ---are involved in the setting up of the one-world church, which was actually born last June (1997). Even Mother Teresa supported it enthusiastically, even though I twice wrote to warn her that it would be the religion of the Antichrist. The church is called the United Religions Organization. It's headquartered in San Francisco. >(12)
According to Chesterton, two thousand years ago, Christians were "invited to set up the image of Jesus side by side with the image" of other gods "by the shores of the Mediterranean." He called it a "pantheon for pantheists." It was the refusal of the Christians that was the turning point of history[said Chesterton]. If the Christians had accepted, they and the whole world . . . would have been boiled down to one lukewarm liquid in that great pot of cosmopolitan corruption in which all the other myths and mysteries were already melting. It was an awful and an appalling escape... the whole world once very nearly died of broadmindedness and the brotherhood of all religions [i.e., the one-world religion].>(13)
Cardinal Newman said that "putting all forms of religion together" means having no religion in the end, and he predicted our age would be one of irreligion and a "general apostasy" from the Catholic Church. >(14) > Well, the apostasy is here, and the New World Order is meant to be one of total irreligion. It's impossible for those following Satan, a murderer from the beginning, to produce a civilization of love and life in the next millennium; it cannot be anything else than a civilization of hate and death. In fact, you can't use the world "civilization" ---it will be total barbarism.
The leaders of the world and of several religions ware openly talking of killing off ninety percent of the world's population because of the supposed ecological crisis.> (15>) They blame Christianity for the "crisis" because it condemns contraception, sex ed, abortion, etc. They also blame Christianity for causing wars>(16)>---some even call Hitler, who was deep in the occult, a Christian, and blamed Christianity for his atrocities. This is a warm up to open physical persecution.
Newman saw this coming. He based his thinking on the Fathers of the Church. He said that first we would have a non-bloody persecution. Satan would use deceit to get Catholics to apostasize and lose their souls:
[The] powers of human skill[will be] in the hands of the devil. . . .[Satan] may attempt to seduce us in little things, and so to move the Church . . . little by little from her true position. . .It is his policy . . .to divide us, to dislodge us gradually from off our rock of strength. And if there is to be a[bloody] persecution, perhaps it will be then; . . .when . . .all parts of Christendom [are] 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[as we have with the UN], then he may bust upon us in fury . . .[using Antichrist and] barbarous nations . . . We're certainly suffering the non-bloody persecution ---the politically correct thought police in the Church have been moving us little by little into doublethink, which has led to the acceptance of rewritten Scriptures, and dumbed-down Mass, the corruption of our children in Catholic schools, and the feminist destruction of families. We're not allowed to proselytize and we can't even proclaim Our lady as Mediatrix of all Graces or Co-redemptrix, thanks to false ecumenism. Interestingly, as though signaling that his hands are tied, in a recent weekly general audience, the Pope reiterated the Church's traditional belief in these roles of Our Lady, but without mentioning the now-forbidden titles. >(17)
Besides the persecution of the Pope by subtle and not-so-subtle means, there is a persecution of Catholics who are aware of the problems. Most of them don't speak out because of well-founded fear of being ostracized. Not merely will your family and friends dump you, but you'll be blacklisted and slandered, your writings won't get published, your talks will be canceled, and if you're a priest, you'll be sent to your diocese's version of Siberia or a re-education camp. And the persecutors are fellow-Catholics.
As Cardinal Newman predicted, we've been divided and dislodged bit by bit from the Rock. All parts of Christendom are full of schism and heresy. Divide and conquer. We've lost the strength of the Rock and we look to the world for protection---i.e., to governments and the UN. So we can expect the Antichrist any time; the New Agers are getting ready for him. St. Paul said first comes the great apostasy and then the Antichrist (cf. 2 Thess. 2:3-4) ---and the bloodiest persecution the Church has ever experienced.
We have heavenly confirmation that what we're experiencing is extraordinary. In an approved apparition at Quito, Ecuador, in 1634, Our Lady told a holy nun, . . . at the end of the 19th Century and for a large part of the 20th, various heresies will flourish on this earth . . .The precious light of the Faith will go out in souls because of the almost total moral corruption. . . . The little number of souls keeping the Faith . . . will undergo . . . [a] long-drawn out martyrdom . . . To escape from being enslaved by these heresies will call for great strength of will, constancy, courage and great trust in God, all of which are gifts from the merciful love of my Divine Son to those He will have chosen for the work of restoration. To [test] these just souls, there will come moments when everything seems lost. . .>(18)
The complete prophecy is a frighteningly accurate description of our century. Now Our Lady of Good Fortune, as she was called, appeared to this nun in Quito as she was attempting to light the sanctuary lamp that had suddenly gone out. Our Lady said one of the reasons for its extinction was to show that the light of the Faith would go out in souls in our century ---that means a great darkness enveloping the Church. Well, in 1972, Pope Paul VI lamented, "The smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God. . . It was believed that after the Council there would be a day of sunshine in the history of the Church . . . There came instead a day of clouds, storms, and darkness, of searching and uncertainty ... through an adverse power . . . the devil.">(19)> St. Alphonsus Liguori and St. Jude mention that the smoke of hell forms a "storm of darkness,">(20)> and so Pope Paul appropriately said the smoke of Satan had brought the storms and darkness into the Church after the Council. This is the darkness predicted by Our Lady in 1634.
Jesus said, "You are either with Me or against Me"(cf. Matt. 12:30). If you're against Jesus, against God, you can only be for Satan. There are only two camps in this spiritual battle. So, if one doesn't accept everything Jesus teaches through His Church, one is in the camp of Satan. We cannot pick and choose what we fell is right and still be Catholics. Jesus is absolute Truth and it's doublethink to believe he can be splint into thirty-three degrees of truth: conservative, liberal, right, left, far right, far left, center, right of center, left of center, orthodox, traditional, progressive, etc.
The term "liberal Catholic" is an oxymoron. Further, Liberal Catholicism has been condemned as a heresy by Pius IX. >(21)> The phrase "conservative Catholic" is meaningless, because what then is "ultra-conservative"? Scratch a Conservative and you will often find some shade of Liberalism, for instance, doublethink and some denial of Truth. I know of "conservative" Catholic papers which dilute the truth for fear of lawsuits or losing readers. This is a liberal attitude. The only adjective possible for a Catholics is orthodox, meaning one who adheres to the traditional Faith, sacrificing all human respect in the service of God, the Truth, and the rights of the Church. >(22)
You don't have to join convens to follow Satan. You just have to stray in your thinking. As Newman warned, "Satan my hide himself, he may attempt to seduce us in little things and move us little by little" away from orthodoxy, one loses the light of Christ and encounters the smokey darkness of Satan. It's easy for Catholics who have turned their backs on Tradition, whether in doctrine, morals, liturgy or devotions, to be incorporated into the New Age Movement, which is the kingdom of Satan on earth, set up in opposition to the Catholic Church, the kingdom of God on earth. All the naturalisticisms of the New Age ---feminism, humanism, environmentalism, Communism, pantheism, gnosticism, paganism, false ecumenism, syncretism ---as well as Theosophy, Masonry and evolution, have their philosophical roots in the occult, the religion of Satan. The new Age Movement is the culmination of the Masonic plan for a totalitarian world state. The biggest stumbling block today preventing Catholics from recognizing the New Age is disbelief in a Masonic conspiracy. But far wiser people like Pope Leo XIII, and in fact, two centuries' worth of popes, warned us about the conspiracy. Cardinal Newman saw the strands of the Masonic New Age starting in his time (evolution, feminism, Communism, ecumenism, syncretism) and he warned of a conspiracy uniting these strands. He would have known about Masonry from the teachings of the popes, and this is what he said:
"Surely, there is at this day a confederacy of evil, marshaling its hosts from all parts of the world, organizing itself, . . . enclosing the Church of Christ as in a net, and preparing the way for a general apostasy from it."
Newman thought this might be a great apostasy that would give rise to the Antichrist, but he said that wasn't the point. What was the point was that an apostasy was coming. He continued:
"Far be it from any of us to be[one] of those simple ones, who are taken in that snare which is circling around us! Far be it from us to be seduced with the fair promises in which Satan is sure to hide his poison! Do you think he is so unskillful. . .as to ask you openly. . .to join him in his warfare against the Truth? "
Now Newman refers to a battle of the mind, which is precisely what I've been describing as an entry point into the New Age. He says:
" [Satan] offers you baits to tempt you. He promises you civil liberty [democracy, which has produced many bad governments]; he promises you equality [feminism, childrens' rights]; he promises you trade and wealth; he promises you a remission of taxes [how many wicked rulers have Catholics elected on the basis of economic promises?]; he promises you reform [just about every bad change in civil affairs, education and the Church has been made in the name of "reform]. " Newman continues:
"This is the way in which he conceals from you the kinds of work to which he is putting you; he tempts you to rail against your rulers and superiors; . . . or he promises you illumination ---he offers you knowledge, science, philosophy, enlargement of the mind." That's the greatest and oldest of Satan's temptations: illumination. It appeals to pride he used it on Eve and he's using it today. The second major heresy of the New Age Movement is gnosticism. Rather than obtaining knowledge in the normal manner, people want to tap into the pantheistic god within, using Eastern meditation and occult techniques like guided imagery and visualization. Chesterton said, "Of all horrible religions the most horrible is the worship of the god within. . . . That Jones shall worship the god within him turns out ultimately to mean that Jones shall worship Jones.">(23)> Precisely. And in worshipping oneself, one is worshipping the devil.
Doublethink is very necessary in a world that idolizes knowledge (remember, Newman said Satan offers knowledge). This is the age of the expert. If you can accept the errors of an expert merely because he's classified as an expert, then you'll believe anything, and you can be moved from the Rock. Experts have been called upon for everything from Vatican II, liturgical changes and rewriting the Bible to parenting, education, and teaching children how to cross the road safely.
Experts say it's bad to spank; experts have removed logical, systematic teaching from schools; experts claim memorization is bad. Without logic and memory, and the ability to think, we can't pass on the Faith.
And just like Orwell's 1984, just in case a few thinking people survive, the New Age though-controllers are making sure no material from the past is around to remind these people of the truth. Scripture, literature, history are being rewritten and the old books destroyed. Whole chunks of history are censored, i.e., not taught. Priests have told me how whole seminary libraries were destroyed after Vatican II. In other words, we---and especially our children---are being systematically and deliberately deprived of our Catholic heritage and culture. Thank God that some wonderful Catholic companies have sprung up and started a counter-revolutionary cultural movement, reprinting long-lost treasures.
Well, things are very bad, but it isn't game over yet. We're not yet completely controlled. We can still fight, and many people are ---those who acknowledge we are in a war. But to win you have to know everything about the enemy, including strengths and weaknesses. One of his strengths at the moment is that he has infiltrated the Church. Remember the parable about the farmer who, sometime after planting good wheat, saw that he had wheat and cockle growing together and he said, "An enemy hath done this"? (Mt. 13:24-28). In order to distinguish weeds from good plants, you need to let them grow together for a while. So it was for the farmer. And so it is for the Church today. According to several ex-Communists, the Communists started infiltrating thousands of men into the priesthood in the 1930s. How many became bishops and cardinals and heads of seminaries? What we observe today, after a period of growth, is that the errors of Russia are all through the Church, just as Our Lady of Fatima warned would happen if that country were not consecrated according to Her instructions.
Bearing in mind that Communism is a Masonic tool and that Malachi Martin has said there is a "Superforce" surrounding the Pope,>(24)> lets examine what seems like infiltration and control. The 1986 Assisi conference, which gave the green light to indifferentism and syncretism, was funded by the anti-Christian environmental group, the World Wildlife Fund.>(25) >He who pays the piper calls the tune.
In November 1994, the Church hosted, in the Vatican, an Assembly of a major syncretic group called the World Conference on Religion and peace. One of the groups funding this conference was the anti-life, anti-Christian Rockefeller Foundation. >(26)
Now, an absolute coup by the world controllers, that to my knowledge hasn't been reported anywhere, for obvious reasons, is that the maintenance and upkeep of the cultural and religious treasures of Vatican City are under the control not of the Church, but of the UN. I have here a document called the "World Heritage." It contains a huge map of what are called World Heritage sites. These are natural wonders or beautiful scenery, like the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, or the Everglades. They are also man-made monuments or architectural beauties, like the Taj Mahal, Pyramids, Stonehenge and the State of Liberty. The common factor is that these sites further the New Age concept of "universal ideas" that unite people, either by exemplifying evolution or a past way of life of some culture, pagan or Christian. In another words, they promote the pantheistic one-world culture.
According to this document, in 1972 UNESCO ---the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ---drew up a World Heritage Convention, which postulates that there are natural and man-made sites which are not the national heritage of some country, but of the World, because they have "universal value." Hence, "their protection is the responsibility of all mankind". Countries that sign the convention "pledge to conserve" all such sites "for future generations." In return, "the international community helps them to protect these marvels."(This is international "Mafia" protection.)
A World Heritage Fund receives "obligatory contributions" from States that sign the Convention, "fixed at 1% of their contribution to . . . UNESCO." The Holy See signed on October 7, 1982 ---the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, which commemorates the victory of Christendom over the Turks in 1571 and 1716. UNESCO is bringing the occult world core curriculum into schools. Russia (formerly the USSR) is one of its largest financial contributors. Its director promotes the occult and is a chairman of Gorbachev's State of the World Forum, which is coordinating the final details of world governance. UNESCO is at the forefront of the environmental movement and, of course, is anti-life. >(27)
Yet the Holy See contributes financially to it and now the entire site is under the control of UNESCO. That means that even if Rome wanted to destroy its pagan art collection or re-cover the nudes in the Sistine Chapel, it cannot, as these are now world properties. The original covering-up was done following the instruction of the Council of Trent. The uncovering is clearly associated with the World Heritage Convention.
The restoration of the "Last Judgment" was filmed by Japanese TV. At the celebrations, the President of the TV station said, "I am firmly convinced that the extraordinary frescoes by Michelangelo must not be considered the patrimony of a nation, a people or a religion, but as a cultural heritage which must be protected and cared for by all of humanity. It is in this spirit that we...have contributed our support to the ambitious project of freeing this precious heritage from the damages of time in order to benefit future generations.">(28)> This is exact World Heritage terminology. By the way, what was freed was not only nudity, but also pagan themes. Most shocking is the face of Jesus, which Michelangelo modeled on a statue of Apollo, which is in the Vatican collection. >(29) > The combination of sacred and profane art is sheer pantheism. No wonder the world rejoiced at the restoration! Besides Vatican City, other Church properties, like the Cathedral at Chartres, are under control of the World Heritage Convention. I presume the pagan contents of the shops around St. Peter's Square also have this Convention to thank. It makes one wonder about the phrase "pagan Rome" in the prophecy of La Salette.
These are only three examples of a fifth column at work in the Church. Whenever it looks like the Pope is saying or doing something strange, rather than attempting some time of spin doctoring ---which leads to doublethink ---we should suspect sabotage. For instance, it's now known that the Pope's statement on evolution (in 1996) was written by one of the theistic evolutionist in the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, which is loaded with evolutionists.>(30)> Our Lady of Fatima said the Holy Father would have much to suffer, and little Jacinta had a vision of a Pope weeping because of the persecution directed against him. It so affected the children that from that day they prayed and sacrificed unceasingly for the Holy Father, Everything was for the Holy Father, the Holy Father, the Holy Father.>(31)
Cardinal Newman remarked, "I thank God that I live in a day when the enemy is outside the Church, and I know where he is and what he is up to. But I foresee a day when the enemy will be both outside and inside the Church. . .and I pray now for the poor faithful who will be caught in the crossfire.">(32) We're encircled as he foretold, but we're the Church Militant. We FIGHT.
Our main weapons in this battle of the mind are exposure of the enemy, and Tradition. Truth and Grace will topple the devil. Tradition, of course, goes back to Jesus Himself. It's 2,000 years old. Fr. John Hardon recently wrote, >(33)> "Either the Catholic Church remains constant in her fundamental articles of faith over the centuries or she is no longer the Church Founded by Christ." He continues, "What leaders of the Church need to do," in this "veritable emergence of faith," [is] to hold on literally for dear life to what Christ has revealed, to what has been defended for us by the champions of orthodoxy like Athanasius, Augustine, Jerome and Gregory the Great, lived out before us by saints and mystics like Benedict, Francis and Ignatius Loyola, like . . . Teresa . . . and Thomas More. . . . It is tragic that those fighting for Tradition are accused of being nostalgic. No, they're fighting for orthodoxy, a return to the true path. Fr. Hardon says, "The present crisis is really a challenge or, better, a glorious opportunity to prove our loyalty to Christ the Truth. . . ." Loyalty ---not nostalgia.
Many of those fighting for tradition were born after Vatican II or are too young to remember the Faith practiced before it. They can't be accused of nostalgia. The Church went through a terrible crisis during the Arian heresy in the Fourth Century. The vas majority of the hierarchy fell into this heresy. St. Athanasius, who is called the Champion of Orthodoxy, stood virtually alone against the teachings ravaging the Church. He was even unjustly excommunicated by the Pope, who was under Arian influence. Cardinal Newman said that after the Apostles, Athanasius was the "principal instrument by which the sacred truths of Christianity were passed on. The faithful suffered like us today. St. Basil described it thus: Religious people keep silence, but every blaspheming tongue is let loose. Sacred things are profaned; those of the laity who are sound in the faith avoid the places of worship as schools of impiety, and raise their hands in solitude, with groans and tears to the Lord. . . . Only one offense is now vigorously punished ---an accurate observance of our fathers' traditions.
St. Athanasius told the faithful that only those "who hold firmly to the foundations of the Faith which has come down to [us] from Apostolic Tradition" were true Catholics He added, "Even if Catholics faithful to Tradition are reduced to a handful, there are the ones who are the true Church of Jesus Christ.">(34)> He was urging loyalty, not nostalgia.
Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever (cf. Heb. 13:8), and St. Paul condemned anyone ---even an angel--- who might try to change the teachings of the Church (cf. Gal. 1:8-9). So it's our duty to remain faithful to the unchangeable teaching and Sacred Traditions of Holy Mother Church, and never to compromise the Faith for some temporal diplomatic or political advantage, like a supposed détente with Communists, or a false peace and unity, or to increase membership in the pro-life movement.
Further; we also have the duty to pass on the Faith intact to the next generation, which is under such great attack. We're reminded of this duty in Psalm 77:7-5. "How great things he commanded our fathers, that they should make the same known to their children; that another generation might know them. The children that should be born and should rise up, and declare them to their children. That they may put their hope in God, and may not forget the works of God; and may seek His commandments."
Of course, before we can hand on the Faith, we ourselves must know, love, and practice it, thus fulfilling the reason for our creation; to know, love and serve God in this life so we can be happy with Him forever in the next. Over and above faithfully carrying out our daily duties, this involves continuous study, prayer and sacrifices, especially for the pope, daily Christian meditation (not yoga), frequent Confession and Communion, daily mass if possible, good works and a virtuous life. And mothers, you must stay home and school your children for the salvation of their souls and yours, and for the good of the Church.
If we return to Tradition and everyone, including the pope and bishops, does what God commanded through Our Lady of Fatima, the Church will pull through this crisis, which has been caused by Masonry and Communism. Chesterton once said, "The Church has gone to the dogs at least five times ---but each time it was the dog that died!" >(35) Expressing the same idea in more elegant language Christ promised that the gates of hell will never prevail against the Church and she will survive till the last day. But how many members will she have at that time? "When the Son of Man comes again, will He find faith on earth?" (cf. Lk. 18:8). Obviously, Jesus expects only a few practitioners of the Faith He established or else why ask the question. Remember, only eight people held on to the faith in Noah's day (cf. Gen. 7:13).
So let us pray as Cardinal Newman did; "O God, give me . . . eyes to see what is right, and a heart to follow it, and strength to perform it; and grant that I may in all things press forward in the work of sanctification and ever do Your will, and at the length through Your mercy attain to the glories of Your everlasting Kingdom through Jesus Christ, Our Lord." >(36) And let us often and fervently recall to mind that wonderful refrain, "Faith of our Fathers, Holy Faith, we will be true to thee till death".