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-second 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 begin a segment of 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.

      Is loyalty a thing of the past? If you take our present society as a barometer, then the answer would have to be a resounding "yes!" If you consider the liberal factions that have arisen since Vatican II, then the answer in ecclesiastical circles would also have to be an unequivocal "yes!" But this lack of loyalty is not generic just to this generation, it goes back to the beginning of time when our first parents Adam and Eve were disloyal to the Father; throughout the Old Testament subversion to God's Will was rampant. In the New Testament, those who praised Jesus on Palm Sunday crucified Him on Good Friday. Not the epitome of loyalty!!

      Saint Paul says in his Epistle to Titus, 2:9-10, "Exhort servants to be obedient to their masters, in all things pleasing, not contradicting, Not defrauding, but in all things showing good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior in all things." Yet we've forgotten those wise words and challenge everything. As Americans we think we have the right to question everything and do it the way we want to do things. Mental anarchy! We misquote the Constitution and hide behind it to proclaim our freedoms that we think are our right. But there is a greater order that was laid down by a higher Power long ago and it still holds true today.

      Our loyalty is misplaced because we don't know what to be loyal to and why we must be loyal to being with. Blame it on the great false prophet of or day - the media, blame it on complacency within the Magisterium of the Church in not passing on the doctrines of the Church to younger generations, blame it on satan! But blame is an excuse, blame is for losers and we're winners for man is God's greatest creation.

      Loyalty begins with God. It ends with God. In the middle is our life on this earth, and that life must constitute man-made laws because we were all born with original Sin and therefore are a weak, selfish, sinful people. In the Old Testament, God told the people what was His Will, what was right, detailing everything from the Ten Commandments to specific Jewish rituals and specifications in Exodus, Numbers and Leviticus, and expected them to obey. When they didn't, God punished His people then and there. No ifs, ands, or buts. His Justice came and the people were wiped out.

      In the New Testament, the New Law given by Jesus Christ fulfilled the Old Law, brought it to a completeness manifested in the two great commands, "Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself" (cf. Matthew 22:37-40, Mark 12:31, and Luke 10:27). In this great commandment, Loyalty is essential. Loyalty to God, loyalty to our neighbor and to ourselves as God created us to be in His image and likeness; that is loyalty, that is obedience.

      When we take God out of the picture, loyalty goes out the window - and the world's done a pretty god job of that! When we can't even agree about the life and teachings of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and must argue vehemently every point of Scripture, then we've lost the whole meaning of why God sent His Only-begotten Son to live among us, to teach us, to live and die for us, and to be raised from the dead for us as proof of Life Everlasting. Without God at the helm, it's too easy to dissent with the teachings of the Church.

      History proves this theory fact as documented in this month's installment of The History of the Mass on the causes and effects that led to the Protestant Revolt. Why? Because man had a better idea than God and the Magisterium of the Church failed to convey the true teachings to all. It was too easy for men like Martin Luther, John Calvin, Huldreich Zwingli, Lefevre d'Etaples, John Wycliffe, John Huss, Henry VIII, et al to dismiss the words of the Vicar of Christ, the Pope, and to rationalize that the pontiff was out of touch with the populace and the times. Sound familiar? Replace the above names with people like Andrew Greeley, Richard McBrien, Francis Kissling, Karen Armstrong, and also Cardinal Martini of Milan (and his horde of like-minded ecclesiae including a too vocal block of "the-Pope's-out-of-touch", liberal, humanistic pro-women-priests-soft-on-abortion-and-homosexuals faction of U.S. bishops who strongly favor the all-inclusive language and back ICEL by pushing for the New Revised Standard Version Bible and the New American Bible which the Canadian bishops have already installed and which Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger representing the Vatican, REJECTED strongly a few years ago! Yet, many bishops and laity blatantly foist the NRSV and NAB liturgy on us. Check your parish missalettes and see if your pastor is being loyal. If not, ask him why in a loving, but firm manner. It's not majority rule. Parish Councils do not dictate the liturgy, Sacraments, or teachings of the Church. The Bishops through their appointed pastors do. We must be loyal to them as representatives appointed by the Pope, who was appointed by Christ! We cannot veer from this hierarchical order or we're in big, big trouble! The modernists have tried to sabotage everything the Holy Father has proclaimed - from his encyclicals to the translation of the Catechism to his health - or not proclaimed, such as altar girls and all-inclusive language!

      You get the idea! The same atmosphere that permeated the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is prevalent today with almost the same conditions which makes it ripe for another great schism in the Church. The only difference is that the man the Holy Spirit has placed on the Throne of Peter in this critical day and age is strong and holy and will not compromise with those who would coerce and sabotage him. And as much as the false prophets cry out that Pope John Paul II is out of touch, the remnant grows in loyalty to him (witness the record throngs in the Philippines two years ago at World Youth Day or the massive crowds last year in Paris or South America, even Cuba) because they know he is Christ's true Vicar on earth! There are no questions. The Pope says it; it's Catholic doctrine, end of discussion!

Next installment: part two on loyalty.