WHERE IS HOLY MOTHER CHURCH HEADING AS WE NEAR THE MILLENNIUM?

INTRODUCTION
      The Feature Article, begun in the inaugural issue two years ago, deals with the state of the Church. We continue probing the question that has perplexed the Magisterium and the laity for the past 30 years as the liberal element has left its mark, effecting changes that have seemingly watered down the "Roman Catholic" traditions. Yet, God in His Infinite Wisdom, has allowed this to happen for a specific purpose. He has been preparing us in a special way by sending His very Own Blessed Mother to guide us and remind us of our roots. Through perseverance, prayer and loyalty to Holy Mother Church headed by the Holy Father John Paul II and adhered to by the faithful who will not compromise, the pendulum is beginning to swing back toward the conservative side. In the seventy-fifth installment of this on-going feature series, we continue to sound the clarion as a wake-up call to all Catholics, especially bringing to the attention of all Catholics the necessity to mobilize the laity for the sake of Holy Mother Church. If we don't pay attention, we shall pay dearly as the third millennium dawns. We continue to alert the reader to what is happening and sound the call to arms, to enlist in Mary's army and take up the battle cry. God said it, we believe it, that settles it! Too many Catholics are going their own way with little regard to what their spiritual shepherd - the Vicar of Christ says. Sin is whitewashed. If we're not careful there will be a tremendous backwash and who among us wants to get caught in the vortex of that swirling whirlpool of Justice? With this chapter we conclude our multi-installments on loyalty - Loyalty to the Holy Father and the Magisterium and therefore loyalty to Jesus. This series is a set blueprint for Catholics everywhere to take up the banner of truth in defending Christ's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church as we prepare for this glorious event.

      Recall with prayerful discernment what the Blessed Mother imparted to noted locutionist Father Don Stefano Gobbi regarding the number of the beast 666 on June 17, 1989 in Milan (and which we first printed in 1991 in Volume 2, no. 4 of A Call to Peace):

"Lucifer, the ancient serpent, the devil or Satan, the Red Dragon, becomes, in these last times, the Antichrist. The Apostle John already affirmed that whoever denies that Jesus Christ is God, that person is the Antichrist. The statue, or idol, built in honor of the beast to be adored by all men, is the Antichrist.

      "Calculate now its number, 666, to understand how it indicates the name of a man. The number 333, indicates the divinity. Lucifer rebels against God through pride, because he wants to put himself above God. 333 is the number which indicates the mystery of God. He who wants to put himself above God bears the sign, 666, and consequently this number indicates the name of Lucifer, Satan, that is to say, of him who sets himself against Christ, of the Antichrist.

      "333 indicated once, that is to say, for the first time, expresses the mystery of the unity of God. 333 indicated twice, that is to say, for the second time, indicates the two natures, that of the divine and that of the human, united in the divine Person of Jesus Christ. 333 indicated thrice, that is to say, for the third time, indicates the mystery of the Three Divine Persons, that is to say, it expresses the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. Thus the number, 333, expressed one, two and three times, expresses the principal mysteries of the Catholic Faith, which are: (1) the Unity and the Trinity of God, (2) the Incarnation, the passion and death, the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

      "If 333 is the number which indicates the divinity, he who wants to put himself above God himself is referred to by the number 666.

      "666 indicated once, that is to say, for the first time, expresses the year 666, six hundred and sixty-six. In this period of history, the Antichrist is manifested through the phenomenon of Islam, which denies the mystery of the divine Trinity and the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Islamism, with its military force, breaks loose everywhere, destroying all the ancient christian communities, and invades Europe and it is only through my extraordinary motherly intervention, begged for powerfully by the Holy Father, that it does not succeed in destroying Christianity completely.

      "666 indicated twice, that is to say, for the second time, expresses the year 1332, thirteen hundred and thirty two. In this period of history, the Antichrist is manifested through a radical attack on the faith in the world (Parola) of God. Through the philosophers who begin to give exclusive value to science and then to reason, there is a gradual tendency to constitute human intelligence alone as the sole criterion of truth. There come to birth the great philosophical errors which continue through the centuries down to your days. The exaggerated importance given to reason, as an exclusive criterion of truth, necessarily leads to the destruction of faith in the word (Parola) of God. Indeed, with the protestant Reformation, Tradition is rejected as a source of divine revelation, and only Sacred Scripture is accepted. But even this must be interpreted by means of the reason, and the authentic Magisterium of the hierarchic Church, to which Christ has entrusted the guardianship of the deposit of faith, is obstinately rejected. Each one is free to read and to understand Sacred Scripture according to one's personal interpretation. In this way, faith in the word (Parola) of God is destroyed. The work of the Antichrist, in this period of history, is the division of the Church and the consequent formation of new and numerous christian confessions which gradually become driven to a more and more extensive loss of the true faith in the word (Parola) of God.

      "666 indicated thrice, that is to say, for the third time, expresses the year 1998, nineteen hundred and ninety-eight. In this period of history, Freemasonry, assisted by its ecclesiastical form, will succeed in its great design: that of setting up an idol to put in the place of Christ and of His Church. A false christ and a false church. Consequently, the statue built in honor of the first beat, to be adored by all the inhabitants of the earth and which will seal with its mark all those who want to buy or sell, is that of the Antichrist. You have thus arrived at the peak of the purification, of the great tribulation and of the apostasy. The apostasy will be, as of then, generalized because almost all will follow the false christ and false church. Then the door will be open for the appearance of the man or of the very person of the Antichrist.

      "This is why, beloved children, I have wanted to enlighten you concerning the pages of the Apocalypse which refer to the times you are living through. This is to prepare you with me, for the most painful and decisive part of the great struggle which is on the point of being fought out between your heavenly Mother and all the forces of evil which have been let loose.

      "Take courage! Be strong, my little children. To you befalls the duty, in these difficult years, of remaining faithful to Christ and to His Church, putting up with hostility, struggle and persecution. But you are a precious part of the little flock, which has the task of fighting against, and in the end of conquering, the powerful force of the Antichrist. "I am forming you all, defending you and blessing you."

      Our Lady is exhorting us to remain loyal to her Divine Son and to His Vicar on earth. We can do that only through the Sacraments and frequent attendance of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, obedience to the Commandments and the Magisterium of the Church, and prayerful discernment of Sacred Scripture. These then are the foundation for the road to Heaven; the messages of private revelation are mere signposts on that road. Though they are important, they are only one of the many means to the end, not the end in itself and we must be careful that we don'' interpret this message of that one, but rather pray for the gift of discernment that will help guide us.

      Time is shorter than we may realize. Do we have our lamps lit (cf. Matthew 25: 1-13)? It's important not to hide our talents and gifts God's give us under a bushel basket (cf. Matthew 5:15), Mark 4:21, and Luke 11:33) but to emulate St. John the Baptist in our own time and shout from the rooftops of cities from the desert to the mountain tops that Christ is coming again. "Prepare ye the Way of the Lord, make straight His paths" (Matthew 3:3).

      Fr. Gobbi also received a profound message from Our Lady on September 18, 1988 in which she revealed that the next ten years would be pivotal in the history of man for we "are entering into the final period of the second Advent, which will lead you to the triumph of my Immaculate Heart in the glorious coming of my Son Jesus." She also said "there will come to completion that fullness of time which was pointed out to you by me, beginning with LaSalette all the way to my most recent and present apparitions." That ten-year period began in 1988 and culminates this year: 1998.

      Yes, folks, we have arrived at the end of that ten year period - at least just months away when gaging it against the time of the message on September 18. We are now almost to July. Two and a half months away. Do we have our priorities straight? Are we ready for the times Our Lord and Our Lady foretell? Are we ready, no matter the cost, to be counted among Mary's army - her Apostles of the End Times? Do we truly want Mary's Immaculate Heart to triumph and usher in the glorious Reign of her Divine Son's Sacred Heart?

      This can be accomplished only if we pray as she asks and remain totally loyal in all things to God and His chosen emissary here on earth: the successor of Peter - Pope John Paul II.