Christ or Chaos

Empty Faith Leads to the "Repurposing" of Catholic Churches in Europe

Once Catholic Europe arose from the ruins of pagan idolatry and barbarian hedonism over the course of the First Millennium. The Christ-centered world of Christendom provided glories to God through the ministrations of His true Church that were summarized by Pope Leo XIII in Immortale Dei, November 1, 1885:

There was once a time when States were governed by the philosophy of the Gospel. Then it was that the power and divine virtue of Christian wisdom had diffused itself throughout the laws, institutions, and morals of the people, permeating all ranks and relations of civil society. Then, too, the religion instituted by Jesus Christ, established firmly in befitting dignity, flourished everywhere, by the favor of princes and the legitimate protection of magistrates; and Church and State were happily united in concord and friendly interchange of good offices. The State, constituted in this wise, bore fruits important beyond all expectation, whose remembrance is still, and always will be, in renown, witnessed to as they are by countless proofs which can never be blotted out or ever obscured by any craft of any enemies. Christian Europe has subdued barbarous nations, and changed them from a savage to a civilized condition, from superstition to true worship. It victoriously rolled back the tide of Mohammedan conquest; retained the headship of civilization; stood forth in the front rank as the leader and teacher of all, in every branch of national culture; bestowed on the world the gift of true and many-sided liberty; and most wisely founded very numerous institutions for the solace of human suffering. And if we inquire how it was able to bring about so altered a condition of things, the answer is -- beyond all question, in large measure, through religion, under whose auspices so many great undertakings were set on foot, through whose aid they were brought to completion.

A similar state of things would certainly have continued had the agreement of the two powers been lasting. More important results even might have been justly looked for, had obedience waited upon the authority, teaching, and counsels of the Church, and had this submission been specially marked by greater and more unswerving loyalty. For that should be regarded in the light of an ever-changeless law which Ivo of Chartres wrote to Pope Paschal II: "When kingdom and priesthood are at one, in complete accord, the world is well ruled, and the Church flourishes, and brings forth abundant fruit. But when they are at variance, not only smaller interests prosper not, but even things of greatest moment fall into deplorable decay."

But that harmful and deplorable passion for innovation which was aroused in the sixteenth century threw first of all into confusion the Christian religion, and next, by natural sequence, invaded the pecincts of philosophy, whence it spread amongst all classes of society. From this source, as from a fountain-head, burst forth all those later tenets of unbridled license which, in the midst of the terrible upheavals of the last century, were wildly conceived and boldly proclaimed as the principles and foundation of that new conception of law which was not merely previously unknown, but was at variance on many points with not only the Christian, but even the natural law. (Pope Leo the Great, Immortale Dei, November 1, 1885.)

Although Pope Leo XIII summarized the history of Christendom very succinctly in this passage from Immortale Dei, his belief that this history could not be blotted out turned out to be shortsighted as the very Judeo-Masonic and naturalistic forces that he critiqued and condemned in his encyclical letters have been very successful in not only blotting out the conversion of pagan lands and barbaric tribes away from wanton murder, idol worship, cruelty, hedonism and heathenism to the true Faith but have been responsible for restoring wanton murder, idol worship, cruelty, hedonism and heathenism in recent decades, and they have done so with the full support of the Modernists within the counterfeit church of conciliarism.

Perhaps His Holiness did get a glimpse of what was to come when he had his famous vision of Saint Michael the Archangel. However, the decline of Western civilization back into the abyss from which it was rescued by Catholic missionaries in the First Millennium has expedited precisely because of the paucity of the superabundance of Sanctifying and Actual Graces that the invalid liturgical rites of the conciliar sect have dried up. It is very easy for souls that are not fortified by the vivifying effects of Sanctifying Grace to return to the paganism and barbarism of their ancient ancestors of long ago, and it is even easier for non-Catholics, including the unbaptized among them, to fall under the sway of the adversary when the clarion voice of Holy Mother Church is not present in the world and when, quite indeed, those who appear to be her popes, bishops, and priests celebrate the world of debauchery in which we live and refer to it as “civilization of love” and/or an example of “healthy secularity.”

There is even a conciliar “bishop” in Belgium, whose Parliament enacted legislation nine years ago to permit children to request to be euthanized if they were terminally or chronically ill, who believes that a “return to the past is not possible” and is thus glad that empty Catholic churches are being turned into hotels, restaurants, discotheques, clothes stores, and apartment buildings:

MECHELEN, Belgium (AP) — The confessionals where generations of Belgians admitted their sins stood stacked in a corner of what was once Sacred Heart Church, proof the stalls — as well as the Roman Catholic house of worship — had outlived their purpose.

The building is to close down for two years while a cafe and concert stage are added, with plans to turn the church into “a new cultural hot spot in the heart of Mechelen,” almost within earshot of where Belgium’s archbishop lives. Around the corner, a former Franciscan church is now a luxury hotel where music star Stromae spent his wedding night amid the stained-glass windows.

Across Europe, the continent that nurtured Christianity for most of two millennia, churches, convents and chapels stand empty and increasingly derelict as faith and church attendance shriveled over the past half century.

“That is painful. I will not hide it. On the other hand, there is no return to the past possible,” Mgr. Johan Bonny, bishop of Antwerp, told the Associated Press. Something needs to be done and now, ever more of the once sacred structures are repurposed for anything from clothes shops and climbing walls to night clubs. (In Europe's empty churches, prayer and confessions make way for drinking and dancing.)

Brief Interjection Number One:

“There is no return to the past possible.”

Oh, how the conciliar revolutionaries hate everything about the Catholic Faith, which is why even those within the conciliar structures who give even a hint of the true Faith must be ridiculed, reviled and, if necessary, given an “apostolic visitation,” which is what is happening at this time with the conciliar “bishop” of Tyler, Texas, Joseph Strickland, about whom the next commentary on this site will be focused. (And earlier commentary, Nota Bene: "Bishop" Joseph Strickland: "Whoever is Holy Does Not Dissent from the Pope" (Pope Saint Pius X), tried to explain to “Bishop” Strickland that one who accepts a claimant as a legitimate Duccessor of Saint Peter must obey him. Period.)

Moreover, these sacrilegious revolutionaries and vile propagators of perversity believe that the emptying of Catholic churches, which has been caused, of course, by the sterility of the conciliar liturgical rites and the falsity of the false religious sect’s doctrines, is good in and of itself as it provides the “enlightened” barbarians of the present time an opportunity to use church buildings for their own thoroughly secular and even hedonistic purposes.

I return now to the news story about this travesty:

It is a phenomenon seen over much of Europe’s Christian heartland from Germany to Italy and many nations in between. It really stands out in Flanders, in northern Belgium, which has some of the greatest cathedrals on the continent and the finest art to fill them. If only it had enough faithful. A 2018 study from the PEW research group showed, in Belgium, that of the 83% that say they were raised Christian, only 55% still consider themselves so. Only 10% of Belgians still attended church regularly.+

Nowadays, visiting international choirs may find that their singers outnumber the congregation.

On average, every one of the 300 towns in Flanders has about six churches and often not enough faithful to fill a single one. Some become eyesores in city centers, their maintenance a constant drain on finances. (In Europe's empty churches, prayer and confessions make way for drinking and dancing.)

“Bishop” Bonny does not care that only ten percent of Belgians still attend some kind of religious service regularly as “secularity” reflects the “maturation” of “modern men” who are “evolving” in their understanding of themselves and their place in the “cosmos,: which is why it is “good” that Catholic churches wherein true priests offered in the ineffable Sacrifice of the Cross in an unbloody manner, thereby providing glory to God and grace to the world, have been “repurposed” to become “cultural centers,” libraries, hotels, and places for atheists to think:

Mechelen, a town of 85,000 just north of Brussels is the Roman Catholic center of Belgium. It has two dozen churches, several huddled close to St. Rumbold’s cathedral with its UNESCO World Heritage belfry tower. Mayor Bart Somers has been working for years to give many of the buildings a different purpose.

“In my city we have a brewery in a church, we have a hotel in a church, we have a cultural center in a church, we have a library in a church. So we have a lot of new destinations for the churches,” said Somers, who as Flemish regional minister is also involved in repurposing some 350 churches spread across the densely populated region of 6.7 million.

reflection is also still present in society, whether one is religious, agnostic or atheist. And the aura of tranquility emanating from a church is hard to match. So for Bonny, there is no reason to turn churches into supermarkets or discos.

“Those are places for contemplation. And is that not exactly that the care of the church should be about?” he said. Bonny thinks the most successful and gratifying repurposing has been the handing over to other Christian communities, be they Coptic or Eastern European.

At his office, though, he can get weary just looking at the procession of suitors for empty Roman Catholic buildings. His heart is heavy when a real estate agent shows up. “They see possibilities. And you cannot believe, suddenly, how pious they can become when a financial opportunity presents itself. Suddenly they are more devout than a nun.”

Knowing the winding history of Christianity over centuries, Bonny takes the long view, since the near future does not look bright. “Every 300 years we nearly had to start again,” he said. “Something new, I’m sure, will happen. But it takes time.”

At the Martin’s Patershof, there is even is a condition that the church can reclaim the building if it is needed again, said De Preter. The hotel elements were built on steel beams and could be totally disassembled and taken out again. “If the church, at a certain point, wants the building back — which holds a very small chance, probably — it is possible.” (In Europe's empty churches, prayer and confessions make way for drinking and dancing.)

This is all but the rotten fruit of a false religion and its sterile liturgical rites and false doctrines that have made their peace the world that, taking its cue from the instability of conciliarism’s inherent contradictions and abject hatred of the Catholic past, has returned to the barbarism from which Christendom arose.

Everything about the conciliar religion has been but a warfare against all that preceded the crapulous Rosicrucian who started the current line of antipopes, Angelo Roncalli/John XXIII. Here is but a reminder of the falsehoods at work in this warfare:

The claim that dogmatic truth can be understood in different ways at different times as the vagaries of historical circumstances and the limits of human speech to express the meaning of dogma accurately require constant re-evaluation. This is nothing other than Modernism’s dogmatic evolutionism, the concept of which has been condemned by Pope Pius IX (Syllabus of Errors, December 8, 1864; Vatican Council, Session III: Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith, Chapter 4, On Faith and Reason, April 24, 1870; Pope Saint Pius X, Lamentabili Sane, July 1, 1907; Pascendi Dominici Gregis, September 8. 1907; Praestentia Scripturae, November 18, 1907, and The Oath Against Modernism, September 1, 1910, and by Pope Pius XII in Humani Generis, August 12, 1950.)
The belief that the Church of Christ “subsists” in the Catholic Church but is not limited to her. Contrary to the very Divine Constitution of the Church and condemned through her history, most recently by: the Vatican Council, Session IV, Dogmatic Constitution of the Church; Pope Leo XIII, Praeclara Gratulationis Publicae, June 29, 1894, Satis Cognitum, June 29, 1896; Pope Pius XI, Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis, June 29, 1943.)
The belief that Protestant and other non-Catholic Christian denominations have elements and truth and sanctification. Condemned as in number 2.
The belief that it is necessary to conduct inter-religious “dialogue” to effect that which is said to be “lacking,” namely, Christian unity. Heretical, condemned in the Syllabus of Errors, Praeclara Gratulationis Publicae, Satis Cogntium, and by Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos, January 6, 1929.
The belief that “inter-religious prayer services” with non-Catholics is pleasing to God. Contrary to Sacred Scripture, Apostolic Tradition and condemned by Pope Pius XI in Mortalium Animos, January 6, 1928.
The belief the Judaism is a valid religion that enjoys the favor of the true God of Divine Revelation, the Most Blessed Trinity, and that the Mosaic Covenant has never been abolished. Heretical, contrary to the words of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the consistent teaching of the Church Fathers and condemned by Pope Eugene IV and the Council of Florence in Cantate Domino, February 4, 1442, and most recently by Pope Pius XII in Mystici Corporis, June 29, 1943.)
The teaching that false religions have a “right from God” to propagate themselves and to be given ample public space to spread their errors in the name of “religious liberty.” Heretical. Contrary to the First Commandment and condemned consistently by our true popes since its spread in the late-Eighteenth Century. Among these condemnations have been: Pope Pius VI, Brief Quod aliquantum, March 10, 1791; Religious Liberty, a “Monstrous Right", Pope Pius VII, Post Tam Diuturnas; April 29, 1814, POST TAM DIUTURNAS, Pope Gregory XVI, Mirari Vos, August 15, 1832; Pope Pius IX, The Syllabus of Errors, and Quanta Cura, December 8, 1864; Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, November 1, 1885, and Libertas Praestantissimum, June 20, 1888; Pope Pius XII, Ci Riesce, December 6, 1953, who reiterated that error has no rights but that toleration, which had been discussed by Pope Leo XIII in Libertas Praestantissimum, is necessary in today’s world to advance the common good.
The belief in separation of church and state. Heretical. Condemned by Pope Gregory XVI, Mirari Vos, August 15, 1832; Pope Pius IX, Pope Pius IX, The Syllabus of Errors, and Quanta Cura, December 8, 1864; Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, November 1, 1885, Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus, November 1, 1900, A Review of His Pontificate, March 19, 1902; Pope Saint Pius X, Vehementer Nos, February 11, 1906, Pascendi Dominci Gregis, September 8, 1907, and Iamdudum, May 24, 1911; Pope Benedict XVI, Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum. November 1, 1914; and Pope Pius XI, Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio. December 23, 1922, Quas Primas, December 11, 1925, and Mit Brennender Sorge, March 17, 1937.)
Episcopal collegiality. Contrary to the Divine Constitution of Holy Mother Church. The primacy of the Roman Pontiff was reiterated dogmatically in Pope Pius IX, Vatican Council, First Dogmatic Constitution of the Church of Christ, July 18, 1870.
The inversion of the ends of marriage and “natural family planning.” Contrary to Divine Revelation and the Natural Law and specifically condemned by Pope Pius XII on April 1, 1944, and in his Address to Italian Midwives on the Nature of Their Profession, October 29, 1951.)

Mind you, this is just a partial listing of all that believing Catholics have had to accept as the conciliar revolutionaries keep pushing the envelope, expanding the boundaries and moving the goalposts to get to the point that rank pantheism will be accepted as Catholicism. Most Catholics in the conciliar structures, however, have swallowed all the doctrinal rubbish, all the burning of incense to false idols in temples of false worship, all the elegies of praise in behalf of religious liberty and separation of Church and state, all the liturgical outrages and abominations, all the “papal” warnings about “global warming” and the need to protect the environment, all the “papal” sellouts to Red China, all the “papal” endorsements of “open borders” and socialism—in other words, everything—churned out by their counterfeit church of conciliarism—hook, line and sinker. As I wrote in 2009, they like it!.

Although the process of European degeneration began during certain phases of the Renaissance with the recrudescence of sophism and even calls by some for the “separation of Church and State” in the city-state of Florence, Martin Luther’s revolution against the Divine Plan that God Himself instituted to effect man’s return to Him through His Catholic Church separated millions of baptized and confirmed Catholics from the maternal direction offered by Holy Mother Church and from the life-giving wellspring of her Sacraments.

The Protestant Revolution let loose such furious debauchery that even Erasmus, who had been a supporter of Martin Luther’s “restoration,” recoiled in horror, something that Father Edward Cahill pointed out in The Framework of a Christian State:

The assumption that Protestantism brought a higher and purer moral life to the nations that came under its influence does not need elaborate refutation. It is a fact of uncontroverted history that "public morality did at once deteriorate to an appalling degree wherever Protestantism was introduced. Not to mention robberies of church goods, brutal treatment meted out to the clergy, secular and regular, who remained faithful, and the horrors of so many wars of religion," we have the express testimony of [Martin] Luther himself and several other leaders of the revolt, such as [Martin] Bucer and [Philip] Melancthon, as to the evil effects of their teaching; and this testimony is confirmed by contemporaries. Luther's own avowals on this matter are numberless. Thus he writes:"There is not one of our Evangelicals, who is not seven times worse than before he belonged to us, stealing the goods of others, lying, deceiving, eating, getting drunk, and indulging in every vice, as if he had not received the Holy Word. If we have been delivered from one spirit of evil, seven others worse than the first have come to take its place."

And again:

“Men who live under the Gospel are more uncharitable, more irascible, more greedy, more avaricious than they were before as Papists."

Even Erasmus, who had at first favoured Luther's movement, was soon disillusioned. Thus he writes:

"The New Gospel has at least the advantage of showing us a new race of men, haughty, impudent, cunning, blasphemous . . . quarrellers, seditious, furious, to whom I have, to say truth, so great an antipathy that if I knew a place in the world free of them, I would not hesitate to take refuge therein."

That these evil effects of Protestantism were not merely temporary—the accidental the accidental results of the excitement and confusion which are peculiar to a stage of transition (although they were no doubt intensified thereby)—is shown from present-day [1932] statistics. The condition of domestic morality is usually best indicated by the statistics of divorce, and of illegitimate births, and by the proportion of legitimate children to the number of marriages; while statistics of general criminality, where they can be had, would convey a fair idea of the individual and public morality in any given place. According to these tests Protestant countries are at the present day much inferior to Catholic countries in domestic and public morality. (Father Edward Cahill, S.J., The Framework of a Christian State, first published in 1932, republished by Roman Catholic Books, pp. 102-104.)

Father Felix Sarda y Salvany’s What is Liberalism? Explained how Protestantism begot Liberalis, which is but a species of an entire range of Judeo-Masonic naturalist belief systems:

Protestantism naturally begets toleration of error. Rejecting the principle of authority in religion, it has neither criterion nor definition of faith. On the principle that every individual or sect may interpret the deposit of Revelation according to the dictates of private judgment, it gives birth to endless differences and contradictions. Impelled by the law of its own impotence, through lack of any decisive voice of authority in matters of faith, it is forced to recognize as valid and orthodox any belief that springs from the exercise of private judgment. Therefore does it finally arrive, by force of its own premises, at the conclusion that one creed is as good as another; it then seeks to shelter its inconsistency under the false plea of liberty of conscience. Belief is not imposed by a legitimately and divinely constituted authority, but springs directly and freely from the unrestricted exercise of the individual’s reason or caprice upon the subject-matter of Revelation. The individual or the sect interprets as it pleases–rejecting or accepting what it chooses. This is popularly called liberty of conscience. Accepting this principle, Infidelity, on the same plea, rejects all Revelation, and Protestantism, which handed over the premise, is powerless to protest against the conclusion; for it is clearer that one who, under the plea of rational liberty, has the right to repudiate any part of Revelation that may displease him, cannot logically quarrel with one who, on the plea of rational liberty, on the same plea, no creed is as good as any. Taking the field with this fatal weapon of Rationalism, Infidelity has stormed and taken the very citadel of Protestantism, helpless against the foe of its own making.

As a result, we find amongst the people of this country [Spain] (excepting well formed Catholics, of course) that authoritative and positive religion has met with utter disaster and that religious beliefs or unbeliefs have come to be mere matters of opinion, wherein there are always essential differences, each one being free to make or unmake his own creed–or to accept no creed.

Such is the mainspring of the heresy constantly dinned into our ears, flooding our current literature and our press. It is against this that we have to be perpetually vigilant, the more so because it insidiously attacks us on the grounds of a false charity and in the name of a false liberty. Nor does it appeal to us only on the ground of religious toleration.

The principle ramifies in many directions, striking root into our domestic, civil, and political life, whose vigor and health depend upon the nourishing and sustaining power of religion. For religion is the bond which unites us to God, the Source and the End of all good; and Infidelity, whether virtual, as in Protestantism, or explicit, as in Agnosticism, severs the bond which binds men to God and seeks to build human society on the foundations of man’s absolute independence. Hence we find Liberalism laying down as the basis of its propaganda the following principles:

1. The absolute sovereignty of the individual in his entire independence of God and God’s authority.

2. The absolute sovereignty of society in its entire independence of everything which does not proceed from itself.

3. Absolute civil sovereignty in the implied right of the people to make their own laws in entire independence and utter disregard of any other criterion than the popular will expressed at the polls and in parliamentary majorities.

4. Absolute freedom of thought in politics, morals, or in religion. The unrestrained liberty of the press.

Such are the radical principles of Liberalism. In the assumption of the absolute sovereignty of the individual, that is, his entire independence of God, we find the common source of all others. To express them all in one term, they are, in the order of ideas, Rationalism, or the doctrine of the absolute sovereignty of human reason. Here human reason is made the measure and sum of truth. Hence we have individual, social, and political Rationalism, the corrupt fountainhead of liberalist principles [which are]: absolute worship, the supremacy of the State, secular education repudiating any connection with religion, marriage sanctioned and legitimatized by the State alone, etc; in one word, which synthesizes all, we have Secularization, which denies religion any active intervention in the concerns of public and of private life, whatever they be. This is veritable social atheism.

Such is the source of liberalism in the order of ideas; such in consequences of our Protestant and infidel surroundings, is the intellectual atmosphere which we are perpetually breathing into our souls. Nor do these principles remain simply in the speculative order, poised forever in the region of thought. Men are not mere contemplatives. Doctrines and beliefs inevitably precipitate themselves into action. The speculation of today becomes the deed of tomorrow, for men, by force of the law of their nature, are ever acting out what they think. Rationalism, therefore, takes concrete shape in the order of facts. It finds palpable expression and action in the press, in legislation, and in social life. The secular press reeks with it, proclaiming with almost unanimous vociferation, absolute division between public life and religion. It has become the shibboleth of journalism, and the editor who will not recognize it in his daily screed soon feels the dagger of popular disapproval. In secularized marriage and in our divorce laws, it cleaves the very roots of domestic society; in secularized education, the cardinal principle of our public school system, it propagates itself in the hearts of the future citizens and the future parents; in compulsory school laws, it forces in the entering wedge of socialism; in the speech and intercourse of social life, it is constantly asserting itself with growing reiteration; in secret societies, organized in a spirit destructive of religion and often for the express purpose of exterminating Catholicity, it menaces our institutions and places the country in the hands of conspirators, whose methods and designs, beyond the reach of the public eye, constitute a tyranny of darkness.

In a thousand ways does the principle of Rationalism find its action and expression in social and civil life, and however diversified be its manifestation, there is in it always a unity and a system of opposition to Catholicity. Whether concerted or not, it ever acts in the same direction, and whatever special school within the genus of Liberalism professes it or puts it into action–be it in society, in domestic life, or in politics–the same essential characteristics will be found in all its protean shapes–opposition to the Church–and it will ever be found stigmatizing the most ardent defenders of the Faith as reactionaries, clericals, Ultramntanes [See p. 92, par. 1], etc.

Wherever found, whatever its uniform, Liberalism in its practical action is ever a systematic warfare against the Church. Whether it intrigue, whether it legislate, whether it orate or assassinate, whether it call itself Liberty or Government or the State of Humanity or Reason, or whatnot, its fundamental characteristic is an uncompromising opposition to the Church.

Liberalism is a world complete in itself; it has its maxims, its fashions, its art, its literature, its diplomacy, its laws, its conspiracies, its ambuscades. It is the world of Lucifer, disguised in our times under the name of Liberalism, in radical opposition and in perpetual warfare against that society composed of the Children of God, the Church of Jesus Christ. (Father Felix Sarda y Salvany, Liberalism Is A Sin, republished by TAN Books and Publishers, pp. 8-13; translated and adapted by Conde B. Pallen, Ph.D., LL.D., and published originally by B. Herder Book Company, St. Louis, Missouri, in 1899 under the title of What Is Liberalism?)

This describes both the letter and the "spirit" of the "Second" Vatican Council and the "magisterium" of the conciliar "popes," including Jorge Mario Bergoglio and his band of Jacobin/Bolshevik comrades. The sole determinant for morality and pastoral "action" is a false sense of "mercy" based upon doing nothing to disturb the "delicate consciences" of those steeped in sins against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments, something that makes perfect logic when one considers the fact that the conciliar revolutionaries violate the first three Commandments with impunity on a regular basis.

The conciliar revolution against the Catholic Faith has had similar effects by alienating millions upon millions of Catholics from the any semblance of Catholicism and into the waiting arms of Protestant “evangelicals” or “fundamentalists,” especially in Latin America, or into becoming rank unbelievers living accord to worldly and carnal desires. Baptized Catholics who are deprived of true Catholic doctrine and starved of the supernatural nourishment offered them in the true Sacraments become ready prey for the devil and his minions, who do indeed prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.

One formerly Catholic country after another in Europe has long ago endorsed almost a panoply of moral evils while embracing materialistic socialism, if not outright Marxism-Leninism, as the conciliar “popes” have celebrated that mythic “civilization of love” and, especially under Jorge Mario Bergoglio, have seen their pro-abort, pro-sodomite, anti-family, anti-freedom globalist leaders indemnified by the conciliar Vatican and its nuncios at almost every turn.

Flushed down the Orwellian memory hole, therefore, are the prophetic words of Pope Saint Pius X in Notre Charge Apostolique, August 15, 1910, and of Pope Pius XI in Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922:

And now, overwhelmed with the deepest sadness, We ask Ourselves, Venerable Brethren, what has become of the Catholicism of the Sillon? Alas! this organization which formerly afforded such promising expectations, this limpid and impetuous stream, has been harnessed in its course by the modern enemies of the Church, and is now no more than a miserable affluent of the great movement of apostasy being organized in every country for the establishment of a One-World Church which shall have neither dogmas, nor hierarchy, neither discipline for the mind, nor curb for the passions, and which, under the pretext of freedom and human dignity, would bring back to the world (if such a Church could overcome) the reign of legalized cunning and force, and the oppression of the weak, and of all those who toil and suffer. (Pope Saint Pius X, Notre Charge Apostolique, August 15, 1910.)

42. Because the Church is by divine institution the sole depository and interpreter of the ideals and teachings of Christ, she alone possesses in any complete and true sense the power effectively to combat that materialistic philosophy which has already done and, still threatens, such tremendous harm to the home and to the state. The Church alone can introduce into society and maintain therein the prestige of a true, sound spiritualism, the spiritualism of Christianity which both from the point of view of truth and of its practical value is quite superior to any exclusively philosophical theory. The Church is the teacher and an example of world good-will, for she is able to inculcate and develop in mankind the “true spirit of brotherly love” (St. Augustine, De Moribus Ecclesiae Catholicae, i, 30) and by raising the public estimation of the value and dignity of the individual’s soul help thereby to lift us even unto God.

43. Finally, the Church is able to set both public and private life on the road to righteousness by demanding that everything and all men become obedient to God “Who beholdeth the heart,” to His commands, to His laws, to His sanctions. If the teachings of the Church could only penetrate in some such manner as We have described the inner recesses of the consciences of mankind, be they rulers or be they subjects, all eventually would be so apprised of their personal and civic duties and their mutual responsibilities that in a short time “Christ would be all, and in all.” (Colossians iii, 11)

44. Since the Church is the safe and sure guide to conscience, for to her safe-keeping alone there has been confided the doctrines and the promise of the assistance of Christ, she is able not only to bring about at the present hour a peace that is truly the peace of Christ, but can, better than any other agency which We know of, contribute greatly to the securing of the same peace for the future, to the making impossible of war in the future. For the Church teaches (she alone has been given by God the mandate and the right to teach with authority) that not only our acts as individuals but also as groups and as nations must conform to the eternal law of God. In fact, it is much more important that the acts of a nation follow God’s law, since on the nation rests a much greater responsibility for the consequences of its acts than on the individual.

45. When, therefore, governments and nations follow in all their activities, whether they be national or international, the dictates of conscience grounded in the teachings, precepts, and example of Jesus Christ, and which are binding on each and every individual, then only can we have faith in one another’s word and trust in the peaceful solution of the difficulties and controversies which may grow out of differences in point of view or from clash of interests. An attempt in this direction has already and is now being made; its results, however, are almost negligible and, especially so, as far as they can be said to affect those major questions which divide seriously and serve to arouse nations one against the other. No merely human institution of today can be as successful in devising a set of international laws which will be in harmony with world conditions as the Middle Ages were in the possession of that true League of Nations, Christianity. It cannot be denied that in the Middle Ages this law was often violated; still it always existed as an ideal, according to which one might judge the acts of nations, and a beacon light calling those who had lost their way back to the safe road.

No merely human institution of today can be as successful in devising a set of international laws which will be in harmony with world conditions as the Middle Ages were in the possession of that true League of Nations, Christianity. It cannot be denied that in the Middle Ages this law was often violated; still it always existed as an ideal, according to which one might judge the acts of nations, and a beacon light calling those who had lost their way back to the safe road.

There exists an institution able to safeguard the sanctity of the law of nations. This institution is a part of every nation; at the same time it is above all nations. She enjoys, too, the highest authority, the fullness of the teaching power of the Apostles. Such an institution is the Church of Christ. She alone is adapted to do this great work, for she is not only divinely commissioned to lead mankind, but moreover, because of her very make-up and the constitution which she possesses, by reason of her age-old traditions and her great prestige, which has not been lessened but has been greatly increased since the close of the War, cannot but succeed in such a venture where others assuredly will fail.

It is apparent from these considerations that true peace, the peace of Christ, is impossible unless we are willing and ready to accept the fundamental principles of Christianity, unless we are willing to observe the teachings and obey the law of Christ, both in public and private life. If this were done, then society being placed at last on a sound foundation, the Church would be able, in the exercise of its divinely given ministry and by means of the teaching authority which results therefrom, to protect all the rights of God over men and nations.

It is possible to sum up all We have said in one word, "the Kingdom of Christ." For Jesus Christ reigns over the minds of individuals by His teachings, in their hearts by His love, in each one's life by the living according to His law and the imitating of His example. Jesus reigns over the family when it, modeled after the holy ideals of the sacrament of matrimony instituted by Christ, maintains unspotted its true character of sanctuary. In such a sanctuary of love, parental authority is fashioned after the authority of God, the Father, from Whom, as a matter of fact, it originates and after which even it is named. (Ephesians iii, 15) The obedience of the children imitates that of the Divine Child of Nazareth, and the whole family life is inspired by the sacred ideals of the Holy Family. Finally, Jesus Christ reigns over society when men recognize and reverence the sovereignty of Christ, when they accept the divine origin and control over all social forces, a recognition which is the basis of the right to command for those in authority and of the duty to obey for those who are subjects, a duty which cannot but ennoble all who live up to its demands. Christ reigns where the position in society which He Himself has assigned to His Church is recognized, for He bestowed on the Church the status and the constitution of a society which, by reason of the perfect ends which it is called upon to attain, must be held to be supreme in its own sphere; He also made her the depository and interpreter of His divine teachings, and, by consequence, the teacher and guide of every other society whatsoever, not of course in the sense that she should abstract in the least from their authority, each in its own sphere supreme, but that she should really perfect their authority, just as divine grace perfects human nature, and should give to them the assistance necessary for men to attain their true final end, eternal happiness, and by that very fact make them the more deserving and certain promoters of their happiness here below.

It is, therefore, a fact which cannot be questioned that the true peace of Christ can only exist in the Kingdom of Christ -- "the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ." It is no less unquestionable that, in doing all we can to bring about the re-establishment of Christ's kingdom, we will be working most effectively toward a lasting world peace. (Pope Pius XI, Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922.)

The ”repurposing” of Catholic churches in Europe is occurring because the lords of conciliarism believe that Christendom was a time that has come and gone, a time that was to be pitied for its backwardness and refusal to accept “the world,” and that the world of today is the one where men have finally achieved the “freedom” to live as “adults” without being having “rules” “imposed” on them by ecclesiastics of one sort or another. The faith has thus fallen through the floor of the once solid rock foundation upon which it stood in Europe for over fifteen hundred years, and conciliarism has helped to release the trap door so that the “enlightened” pagans and barbarians of today can more easily fall into the pit of hell for all eternity.

As always, we must remember that this is all happening within the Providence of God, Who will execute a public judgment on the circumstances in which we live in His good time, not ours.

However, it is important to note that there will be a restoration, a restoration for which Pope Saint Pius X exhorted us to pray. Holy Mother Church will rise up from the underground to which the conciliar revolutionaries have consigned her, which is why the following vignette of Pope Pius IX falling through a church floor carries great significance for the restoration that is to come:

On the 12th of April, 1855, the fifth anniversary of his return from Gaeta, Pius IX drove by the Via Nomentana, the beautiful Church of Saint Agnes and the Porta Pia, ta a spot five miles from the city, where on grounds belonging to the congregation of Propaganda, catacombs had been found, among the other venerated tombs, that which contained the relics of Saint Alexander I, Pope and Martyr and those of the companions who shared his sufferings. The professors and students of Propaganda had assembled at the place in honor of the Pope's visit. They descended with him to the Crypt, where the Holy Father, as soon as he entered, knelt in prayer beside the remains of his sainted predecessor, who, more than seventeen centuries ago, had sealed his faith with his blood. After examining the long corridors of the catacomb, the Holy Father took his seat on the ancient throne of the chapel, which no doubt in the dark days of heathen persecution, several of his predecessors had filled. So place, he delivered to the pupils of Propaganda a feeling allocution on the high career which lay before them as preachers of the true Faith. He then addressed a few words to the eminent persons who surrounded him, and proceeded back to the Church of Saint Agnes. Having adored the Blessed Sacrament, and venerated the relics of the Virgin Martyr, he entered the neighboring convent of canons regular of Saint John Lateran, where a suitable repast awaited the august visitor. This was followed by a conversazione in the parlor, in which the distinguished parties who had accompanied the Pope took part. Almost every Catholic country was represented there: and among the rest, were Archbishop Cullen of Dublin (long since a Cardinal), and Bishop de Goesbriand of Burlington. The Pope was on the point of departing, when the Superiors of Propaganda prayed him to grant an audience to the students. Pius IX graciously complied and resumed his seat in the chair of state which was appropriately canopied. A hundred young ecclesiastics now rapidly entered the room. All of a sudden the floor gave way with a loud crash, and the whole assembly disappeared in a confused mass of furniture, stones, plaster, and a blinding cloud of dust. The joists had given way, and the whole flooring fell to a depth of nearly twenty feet. The voice of the Pope was first heard, intimating that he was safe and uninjured. As a few inmates of the convent had remained outside, assistance speedily came, and the Holy Father was promptly extricated from the ruins. Solicitous only for the safety of the company, he urgently ordered that they should all be withdrawn as rapidly as possible from their perilous position: and he waited in the garden till every one of them was rescued. Not so much as one was dangerously injured.

"It is a miracle," said the Pope, who was greatly rejoiced. "Let us go and thank God." Followed by the whole company, as well as those who had come to rescue them, he entered the church where, deeply affected, he intoned the Te Deum, and concluded with the solemn benediction of the most Holy Sacrament.

The news of the accident spread rapidly through the city. The people flocked to the churches. At Saint Agnes, the wonderful deliverance was commemorated by a special service. the interior of this church has been since restored at great cost by Pius IX. a fresco in the open speace in front represents the scene at the convent. The 12th of April is now a holiday at Rome, and it is observed every year with piety and gratitude. Twenty years later -- 12th of April, 1875 -- the Romans held a magnificent celebration of the anniversary of the accident at Saint Agnes. It was also the day of the Pope's return from Gaeta, in 1850. In reply to the address, expressive of duty and devotedness, which was presented to him on that occasion, the Holy Father alluded, in the language of an apostle, to the mysterious ways of Providence. "Our fall at Saint Agnes," said he, "appeared at first to a catastrophe. It struck us all with fear. Its only result however, was to cause the works by which the ancient Basilica was renewed and embellished to be more vigorously prosecuted. The same will be the case in regard to the moral ruins which the powers of darkness are constantly heaping up against us and around us. the church will emerge from the confused mass more vigorous and more beautiful than ever." (The Rev. Æneas MacDonell Dawson, Pius IX. And His Time, London: Thos. Coffey, Catholic Record Printing House. 1880, pp. 138-140.)

Do not be agitated as Holy Mother Church will “emerge from the confused mass more vigorous and more beautiful than” ever as the moral ruins which the powers of darkness, among which are number the conciliar revolutionaries, of course, will be exposed for all to see for what they have been: smokescreens of the adversary to enslave souls on earth so as to enslave and torture them for all eternity in hell.

The restoration of Holy Mother Church will be the fruit of the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Every Rosary we pray helps makes it possible for this Triumph to occur if we are properly disposed to meditate of the Sacred Mysteries contained there in and then to penance for our sins by offering everything that we have to the Throne of the Most Holy Trinity as the consecrated slaves of Christ the King through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.