Church's Apostasy
            QUESTION from Charles on November 30, 2003

I know that this will be long e-mail but can you comment on the e-mail I received regarding the Church's Apostasy. I just can't believe that any of the Cardinals especially Cardinal Ratzinger would say that the formula for the consecration that is being said every day in every mass is not necessary. It is things like this that bother me about some who are supposedly defending the faith, yet may actually be sowing dissent. Sorry again for the length and may God continue to bless this website........ Marianna, will this do as examples of the Church at Critical Mass? I can't believe the stuff I've been digging into lately! And the center-stage "neo-Catholics" aren't calling ANYONE to account for ANYTHING!!! "Peace at any price", is that it? Methinks the neo-Catholics have truly lost their minds entirely. They've sold their souls for 30 pieces of silver'd "peace" with the Pharisaical Hierarchy currently in power. Woe to those who listen to them, and actually believe them. "And when all are saying, "Peace, peace", then will come the chastisements..." Anyway, found this article (among about a million great ones) on Robert Sungenis' incredible site. Connie ======== The Church's Apostasy in Light of Jesus' Promise that the Gates of Hell Will Not Prevail In recent weeks, I'm sure you've all heard that the bishops of the United States have decided to drop the historic Filioque clause (viz., the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son) for the sake of ecumenism with the Eastern Orthodox. I'm sure you've all heard that the bishops of Europe, with Vatican approval, have organized pagan prayer gatherings at the Fatima shrine in Portugal. I'm sure you've all heard that Cardinal Ratzinger and Cardinal Kasper recently signed a document saying that the consecration formula ("This is my body...") does not need to be said at the Mass in order to confect the Eucharist. I could list a dozen other blasphemies that have occurred in the last year, but for brevity's sake, I won't belabor the point. Almost everyday, now, we hear of one abomination or another. Still, the neo-Catholic world fails to react, choosing either to ignore these blasphemous incidents and/or convince themselves that modern ecumenism is indeed superior to truth. We never hear from Scott Hahn, Patrick Madrid, Mark Shea, Karl Keating, Peter Vere, Tim Staples, Johnette Benckovic, Deal Hudson, Mitchell Pacwa, Paul or Jim Likoudis and a host of other lesser known figures, that these abominations are occurring in our very midst and are directly or indirectly condoned by the Vatican itself. Why is this the case? Frankly, because they are all afraid to admit what has become painfully obvious to those of us who refuse to stick our heads in the sand - that many in the upper hierarchy of the Church have gone deep into apostasy. Whether they are reticent to speak out because they fear persecution, monetary loss, the wrath of bishops, their own position and prestige, I don't know. I'm sure many things are involved. It is indeed a very big step to admit that the present d! ay Catholic Church is not all that we imagined it to be when we came back to its arms a few years ago. Ironically, many of my former colleagues have told me in private conversations and letters that they know there are major doctrinal and moral problems in the modern Catholic Church. Some of them admit quite candidly that the pope himself is to blame for many of these problems. But somehow they convince themselves the problems are eventually going to go away on their own, or that it's not really as bad as it seems, or that they are under compulsion to keep giving a positive message to the Catholic populace. In fact, some think that these problems are not really of any concern at all, since, as they claim, "Jesus promised in Matthew 16:18 that the gates of hell would not prevail." I can't tell you how many times that excuse has been given for their silence. Unfortunately, they have a distorted concept of Matthew 16:18. The verse does not say that the gates of hell will not infiltrate, deceive, or cause apostasy. It says only that the gates of hell will not "prevail," that is, hell will not win the final war, no matter how many battles it seems to win at present. The Greek verb for "prevail" is katischuo. It appears only one other time in the New Testament, in Luke 23:23: "But they were instant with loud voices, requiring that he might be crucified. And their voices prevailed. 24 And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required." Notice that this usage of prevail is in the passion of Jesus, the time in which the Father handed Jesus over to the Jewish priests and Gentile rulers in order to have him crucified. It is a word indicating that the people have finally accomplished the demise of Jesus. Once the voices of the chief priests and people "prevailed," Pilate sentenced Jesus to death. But we have the promise of Jesus in Matthew 16:18-20 that only He, not the Church, would suffer the divine death-sentence, for He is our Savior. The Church herself, no matter how bad she becomes, will survive until the coming of Christ in glory. She may end up bloodied and beaten, but she will survive. Accordingly, the promise of Matthew 16:18 does not mean that many, or even most, of those in the Church cannot be deceived, become immoral, or apostasize. If this weren't true, then the New Testament would be contradicting itself, for it is clear that, with its full knowledge of Jesus' promise in Matthew 16:18, Scripture nevertheless predicts a time of great apostasy that will come upon the Church. One cannot say the gates of hell will not prevail, except when the great apostasy comes. No, both the indefectibility of the Church and the Church's apostasy can exist together. The answer to this seeming contradiction is that the Church will survive in the remnant of Catholics who ! will adhere to its infallible and irreformable dogmas. According to our great saints, doctors, visionaries and Scripture itself, the apostasy will affect the hierarchy as well as the Catholic populace. The apostasy will be so intense that, not only will false teaching and immorality infiltrate the Church, but "the man of sin will take his seat in the temple of God, showing himself as God" (2 Thess 2:3-11). According to the New Testament, we, the Church, are the temple of God, and we are warned to be very careful how we build in that temple, otherwise "God will destroy us" (cf., 1 Cor 3:10-17). Hence, if my former colleagues insist that Matthew 16:18 forces one to interpret all the Vatican's recent actions as having the approval of God, then how could St. Paul say in 2 Thess 2:3-11 that there will be a great apostasy in the Church? Evidently, Matthew 16:18 cannot mean that those in the Church (including its pope and bishops) are immune from apostasy, but only that, when we see such an apostasy occur, in the end, hell will not be able to prevail against the Church at large. Obviously, Christ will intervene directly before that ever happens (e.g., Matthew 24:22: "for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened"). And, of course, that is why 2 Thess 2:8-11 tells us that Judgment Day follows immediately on the heels of the great apostasy, for Christ will not let his Church be totally overrun by Satan. But alas, I'm almost sure the above mentioned colleagues of mine will slander me and ridicule my warnings. Some of them will write scathing columns against me and write me off as some pessimistic, doomsday crack pot. My only hope and prayer is that soon, with the grace of God, they will discover the illogic of their position, for according to the New Testament's testimony, they cannot hide behind Matthew 16:18 in order to keep silent. Unless they recognize and speak out against the abominations occurring all around them, then I'm afraid they will be guilty of letting the apostasy perpetuate, and God will judge them accordingly. To fail to speak out when one has the opportunity to speak out, is tantamount to condoning the abomination and becoming part of it. Robert Sungenis