Pope Francis: The Church is in "very grave danger"

“We are in very grave danger. We are in danger of worldliness.” 

Pope Francis

You won't be reading this in the headline news, you won't be seeing this splashed across various Twitter accounts, you won't see this even in your local diocesan newspaper, and you won't see much of it on Catholic blogs. The silence is already deafening. Our Twitter feed carries the full report from Rome.

A cursory scan of the web this morning, showed that only The Guardian had any news to the keywords: "Pope Francis Assisi worldliness". and they too, to no ones surprise twisted the papal words to mean that he was concerned with material means and ends. Simply, the Pope's words do not fit the narrative.

We are indeed in very grave danger. The spirit of the world pervades everywhere. And it also pervades into Catholic family life, the parishes, the schools leaving decimation in its path. Allow me the liberty to give you an example. Have you ever reviewed the Facebook pages of parishioners? I have. My motivation certainly did not prepare me for what I found. I have been shocked. So-called conservative parishes offer for the future of the Church, young women, who, it could could best be described as displaying themselves like cheap tarts. Is this the "new" religion and its bitter fruit that a number of churchmen have spoken and written about over the past few years? 

Obviously, these parishes have failed in imparting doctrine to these young people. They are not so much as "conservative", as they have conserved very little or nothing; rather, it seems that the results have been more akin to  liturgical fetishism -  de facto supplanting union with God with theatre (c.f. John of the Cross, The Ascent to Mount Carmel). This is not denying that liturgy needs to be reverent! it is saying that the primary objective of attending the liturgy is union with God. The fruit of the liturgy will be the type of life a Catholic leads after Mass. Lest I be considered too harsh, I readily admit that one hour exposure to Mass and a sermon will not usually have much influence upon a person, especially a young person, if their parents and schools have been seduced by worldiness (including private, parochial "Catholic" ones). 

Priests truly have a grave duty to avoid scandal, even the slightest hint of scandal; Facebook, with its myriad of "friends" can easily open a priest up to being linked with an unsavory, unrepentant character. Woe to priests who do not preach the Gospel with power; woe to priests who sit in ignorance and inaction when confronted with such new dangers seducing our people, especially our young people. Though we at Toronto Catholic Witness have just opened a Facebook page, I am carefully considering closing, or at least becoming inactive on this extremely sinister mode of social communication. I have seen far greater evil, than good on Facebook. 

The worldly spirit is "a cancer of society, and the cancer of the revelation of God and the enemy of Jesus" Pope Francis

The effect of this worldliness upon the Body of Christ is horrendous. Worldly Catholics are but cancer cells: at times self-mutilating, at times infecting.... and this worldliness is more than individual, it is also institutional. And it became institutional, because it was individual. You will note - especially Toronto readers - the worldliness of the Pastoral Plan. Yes, there is a bit thrown towards the "new evangelization" etc., but a real true return to repentance, to doctrine, to a change in life; a  building up of community, where (e.g.) the elderly will be loved, cared for, and revered, and not looked upon in a sick, macabre manner as a cash cow, to supplement the grotesque $ 195,000,000 million dollar cash garb that is planned. 

"The worldly spirit kills; it kills people, it kills the Church" Pope Francis

Friends, there is no future for a local church, if there are are no young Catholic people. And from what I am seeing, there are very, very few Catholic women who are truly marriageable. We have to come to grips with the reality that the Church in North America and Europe is dying, and dying fast. We have to come to the realization that our parishes are rotten, corrupt and the bitter fruit of the "new" religion. This religion is not Catholic. It is a counterfeit Catholicism, just as an egg with the yoke removed is a counterfeit egg - the life source has been removed - and there is nothing left. 

This monstrous worldliness manifests itself in a special way in a lack of the sense of sin; it is a Church that is embracing the world, the flesh and the devil. It follows the path laid out by satan: non serviam. Our youth are behaving trashily because they no longer know what sin is, our bishops and priests are failing the Church because they have become lukewarm and compromising; perhaps even blind, or denying the sin that is surrounding them. 

Speaking about my own diocese, I foresee a massive implosion over the next 25 years here in the Archdiocese of Toronto. Yes, there presently is a lot of bricks and mortar, a lot of silly noise being made (but of no substance); every sign points to the Archdiocese of Toronto collapsing. One does not build a church on the world, the flesh and the devil.  One builds a church on Christ crucified.