Devotion to Our Lady |
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CONSECRATION OF THE UNITED STATES TO MARY
In 1792, Bishop Carroll of Baltimore, consecrated the United States to Mary under the title of the Immaculate Conception. In 1846, bishops attending the Sixth Provincial Council in Baltimore chose Mary under that title as the country's patroness. On November 19th, 1959, Bishop Patrick O'Boyle of Washington, D.C. consecrated the United States to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It was renewed by the U.S. bishops November 11th, 2006. Like the Canadian bishops, on May 1st, 2000, Archbishop José Horacio Gómez, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, led a “Renewal of the Consecration of the United States of America to the Blessed Virgin Mary” under the title “Mary, Mother of the Church” at Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral in Los Angeles. That same day, a rite of consecration was similarly held by Archbishop Gregory at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.
PRAYERS FOR THE NOVENA
THE LITANY TO OUR LADY
FOR AMERICA Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us. God the Father of Heaven, Have mercy on us. God the Son, Redeemer of the world, Have mercy on us. God the Holy Ghost, Have mercy on us. Holy Trinity, One God, Have mercy on us. Holy Mary, pray for us. Holy Mother of God, pray for us. Holy Virgin of virgins, pray for us. O Immaculate Heart, triumph over our enemies! O Immaculate Heart, expose the snares of Satan! O Immaculate Heart, expose the plots of our enemies! O Immaculate Heart, paralyze the plans of our enemies! O Immaculate Heart, protect the true children of Holy Mother Church! O Immaculate Heart, convert or destroy the enemies of the Church and Mankind! O Immaculate Heart, crush the head of Satan and his stooges, instruments and minions! O Immaculate Heart, strengthen us in this persecution! O Immaculate Heart, obtain for us the courage to fight for the Faith! O Immaculate Heart, increase in us fervor in prayer! O Immaculate Heart, lead us to penance! O Immaculate Heart, obtain for us the zeal to make many sacrifice in this battle with Satan and the world! O Immaculate Heart, help us to overcome our worldliness! O Immaculate Heart, help us to overcome our indifference! O Immaculate Heart, help us repair the damage caused by our sins! O Immaculate Heart, obtain for us a sorrow for our negligence and sins! O Immaculate Heart, help us repair the damges caused by our negligences and sins. O Mother of Mercy, have mercy on the sins of America! O Mother of Mercy, intercede for sinners in America! O Mother of Mercy, convert the sinners of America! O Mother of Mercy, uproot the spirit of blasphemy and irreligion! O Mother of Mercy, help us repair the grievous sin of abortion! O Mother of Mercy, bring to an end the spirit and practice of contraception! O Mother of Mercy, stamp out the spirit of lust and impurity! O Mother of Mercy, destroy the spirit of adultery and fornication! O Mother of Mercy, overcome the spirit of homosexuality! O Mother of Mercy, bring to an end the abuse of children! O Mother of Mercy, overcome the hypocrisy of racism! O Mother of Mercy, cast out all alcoholism and drug abuse! O Mother of Mercy, remove from us a desire for riches and wealth! O Mother of Mercy, remove from us a spirit of greed and avarice! O Mother of Mercy, replace our materialism with a true spirituality! O Virgin Most Powerful, help us to put God before country! O Virgin Most Powerful, help us to put the Faith before our politics! O Virgin Most Powerful, convert America to the Catholic Faith! O Virgin Most Powerful, convert or destroy the enemies of God and the Faith! O Virgin Most Powerful, obtain for us a Catholic government! O Virgin Most Powerful, replace pagan schools with truly Catholic schools! O Virgin Most Powerful, grant that the laws of the Nation comply with the laws of God! O Virgin Most Powerful, replace our secular sinful culture with a religious Catholic culture! O Virgin Most Powerful, make us value grace more than money! O Virgin Most Powerful, replace our vices with virtues! O Virgin Most Powerful, bring about the Social Reign of Christ the King! Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, Spare us, O Lord. Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, Graciously hear us, O Lord. Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, Have mercy on us. V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God, R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Let us pray: O Most powerful Mother of God, bring America to repentance and reconciliation with God. Grant America the humility to see her innumerable sins, offenses and negligences against God and the grace to do worthy penance and make sufficient reparation for them. Crush Satan’s empire of sin and erect the social reign of Christ the King―so that throughout the land we may witness a hatred of sin and a true love of God. Though our sins be like scarlet, make them white as snow! We ask this through Christ thy Son, Who lives and reigns with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen. An Act of Consecration
Most Holy Trinity: Our Father in Heaven, Who chose Mary as the fairest of Your daughters; Holy Spirit, Who chose Mary as Your Spouse; God of Son, Who chose Mary as Your Mother; in union with Mary, we adore Your Majesty and acknowledge Your supreme, eternal dominion and authority.
Most Holy Trinity, we put the United States of America into the hands of Mary Immaculate, in order that she may present the country to You. Through her we wish to thank for You the great resources of this land and for the freedom, which has been its heritage. Through the intercession of Mary, have mercy on the Catholic Church in America. Grant us peace. Have mercy on our president and all the officers of our government. Grant us a fruitful economy born of justice and charity. Have mercy on capital and industry and labor. Protect the family life of the nation. Guard the precious gift of many religious vocations. Through the intercession of our Mother, have mercy on the sick, the poor, the tempted, sinners ― on all who are in need. Mary, Immaculate Virgin, our Mother, Patroness of our land, we praise you and honor you and give our country and ourselves to your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pierced by the sword of sorrow prophesied by Simeon, save us from degeneration, disaster and war. Protect us from all harm. O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, who bore the sufferings of your Son in the depths of your heart, be our advocate. Pray for us, that acting always according to your will and the will of your divine Son, we may live and die pleasing to God. Amen. Prayer to the Precious Blood for
the Conversion of Our Country (Based on Prayer No. 54 from the Raccolta) O good Jesus, prostrate at Thy feet, we humbly implore Thee, by Thy most sacred wounds and by the Precious Blood, which Thou didst shed for the salvation of the whole world, that Thou wouldst deign to cast a look of pity on the people of this country, starved or seduced from the Faith for so many centuries, and plunged in the darkness of heresy, separated from Thy Church, deprived of the participation of the adorable Sacrament of Thy Body and Blood, and of the other Sacraments instituted by Thee, as the refuge of souls in life and in death.
Remember, O Redeemer of the world, that for these souls too Thou didst suffer bitter death, with the loss of all Thy Precious Blood. Bring back, O good Shepherd, these wandering sheep of Thine to the one fold and to the healthy pastures of Thy Church, so that they may form with us one flock, tended by Thee, and by Thy Vicar on earth, the supreme Pontiff, whom, in the person of the Apostle St. Peter, Thou didst commission to feed Thy sheep and Thy lambs. Graciously hear, O good Jesus, the prayers which we offer Thee with the most lively trust in the love of Thy Sacred Heart and the power of Thy Precious Blood. May praise, glory, and honor be given to Thy most Holy Name and Thy Precious Blood, world without end. Amen. Prayer for the Preservation of Faith
(Based on Prayer No. 58 from the Raccolta) O my Redeemer, will that terrible moment ever come, when but few Christians will be found animated with a spirit of Faith? That frightening moment when, provoked to indignation, Thou wilt remove from us Thy paternal protection? The vices, the evil habits of our children, have perhaps irrevocably moved Thy justice this very day to vengeance!
O Thou who art the Author and Goal of our Faith, by the power of Thy Precious Blood, we implore Thee, in the bitterness of our hearts, humbled and contrite, not to permit the beautiful light of Faith to be extinguished in us. Be mindful of Thy mercies of old; cast a compassionate regard upon that vine which Thou hast planted with Thy right hand—which was bedewed with the sweat of the Apostles; watered with the precious blood of thousands upon thousands of martyrs and the tears of so many generous penitents; and made fruitful by the prayers of so many confessors and innocent virgins. O divine Mediator, by the power of Thy Precious Blood, have regard for those zealous souls who incessantly raise their hearts to Thee and pray for the maintenance of that most precious treasure, the true Faith. Suspend, O most just God, the decree of our reprobation; turn away Thine eyes from our sins, and fix them on the adorable Blood, shed upon the Cross as the price of salvation, and daily pleading for it, on our behalf, upon our altars. O, preserve us in the true Catholic Roman Faith. Infirmities afflict us, annoyances wear us down, misfortunes oppress us: but maintain for us Thy Holy Faith; for, endowed with this precious gift, we shall willingly bear every sorrow, and nothing can affect our happiness. On the other hand, without this supreme treasure of the Faith, our misfortunes will be unspeakable and immense. O good Jesus, Author of our Faith, by the power of Thy Precious Blood, keep it pure; keep us safe within the bark of Peter, faithful and obedient to his successor, Thy Vicar here on earth, that so the unity of Holy Church may be preserved, holiness fostered, the Holy See kept free and protected, and the universal Church extended, to the advantage of souls. O Jesus, Author of our Faith, by the power of Thy Precious Blood, humble and convert the enemies of Thy Church; bestow on all Kings and Christian Princes, and on all the faithful, peace and true unity; strengthen and maintain all in Thy holy service, to the end that we may live by Thee and die in Thee. Ah, my Jesus, Author of our Faith, in Thee I wish to live, and in Thee I wish to die. Amen. |
ONE HELL OF A BATTLE IN WASHINGTON!
The latest article is the one below. Scroll down for the earlier articles. Article 15
Politics and the Antichrist Could You Call Politics “Antichrist”?
If you look over the list of proven corrupt politicians and judges in the United States, over the last 50 years (since 1970), you will find over 400 names listed. You can reasonably assume that for every one who is “caught”, there are quite a few more who manage to “pass under the radar” and escape detection. In a Gallup poll, 75% of American respondents said that corruption was “widespread” in the country’s government. Nevertheless, is it not a gross exaggeration to label politics as being “Antichrist”? Surely that is going overboard! Or is it? ► Christ Himself said: “He that is not with Me, is against Me!” (Matthew 12:30) and being against Christ is anti-Christ, is it not? Today’s politics is certainly not with Christ, but largely against Christ in much of its policies and laws. Is abortion, contraception, same-sex marriage, divorce and remarriage, homosexuality, transgenderism, etc. according to the mind of Christ and the laws of God? Of course not! It is totally opposed to them! Hence it is anti-Christ. ► Furthermore, since Christ is the truth―“I am the truth” (John 14:6)―and since politics is filled with so many lies, deceits, misrepresentations, misinformation, exaggerations and twisted half-truths―it therefore stands to reason, as anyone with common sense can see, that the preferred path of politics is the path of untruths or lies, which diametrically opposes the way of truth, which is the way of Christ―hence it is anti-Christ. ► Furthermore, when you look at the hatred, animosity, vitriol, anger and character assassination that takes place in politics, anyone with common sense can see that this opposes God, who is Charity itself: “God is charity” (1 John 4:8). Christ even said: “By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another” (John 13:35)―to which Holy Scripture adds: “If any man say: ‘I love God!’ and hates his brother―then he is a liar! For he that does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God Whom he sees not?” (1 John 4:20). Hence all this hatred, animosity, vitriol, anger and character assassination is anti-Christ. ► Furthermore, politics has become so accusatory and unforgiving, with one political party accusing the other and showing a total lack of mercy in the process―whereas Christ said: “With what judgment you judge, you shall be judged: and with what measure you give to others, it shall be measured to you again! Why seest thou the splinter that is in thy brother’s eye; and seest not the plank that is in thy own eye? Or how sayest thou to thy brother: ‘Let me cast the splinter out of thy eye!’ and behold a plank is in thy own eye? Thou hypocrite! Cast out first the plank in thy own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast out the splinter out of thy brother’s eye!” (Matthew 7:2-5). “For if you will forgive men their offences, your heavenly Father will forgive you also your offences. But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your offences!” (Matthew 6:14-15). All these merciless political accusations and muck-raking are not according to the mind of Christ and are thus anti-Christ. Archbishop Fulton Sheen put things into perspective when he once said, “[Satan’s] logic is simple: if there is no Heaven there is no Hell; if there is no Hell, then there is no sin; if there is no sin, then there is no judge, and if there is no judgment, then evil is good and good is evil.” That logic epitomizes the logic of many politicians today. It is not for nothing that Our Lady of Good Success and La Salette warned: “From the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects … During this epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect … These years, during which the evil sect of Masonry will take control of the civil government, will see a cruel persecution of all religious communities … All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds. They will abolish civil rights, as well as ecclesiastical rights. All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and dissension will be seen, without love for country or family ... They will focus particularly on the children, in order to achieve this general corruption.” For the last thirty years, the secularization of culture and the banishing of God from the public forum have created a great religious void. More and more Americans have been abandoning the practice of religion. Since 1990, the number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation has almost tripled from 8% to 29%. It would be foolish to close our eyes to the unmistakable increase of the devil’s activity in our society. Lack of civility. Hate speech. The tearing down of people’s good name. The bloodshed on our streets. The breakdown of family life. The widespread extolling of vices contrary to the Gospel. The delight in exposing the sins of others. Abuse in all its forms. Abortion. The persecution of the Church. All these are born of anger, hatred, envy, pride, greed and lust. They cause division and are the fingerprints of the Evil One. All of these vices are presented as something “good” and “acceptable”―which is an outright lie! “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isaias 5:20). Yet that is what politics does! It is politic of untruth, a politic of deception, a politic of lies―which is ultimately a politic of Satan. Thus the words of Our Lord as just as applicable to modern-day politics as it was back in His time, when He said to the Scribes and Pharisees: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do! He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth―because truth is not in him! When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own―for he is a liar, and the father of lies!” (John 8:44). Article 14
Would Christ Defeat Trump or Harris? Would Jesus defeat Trump and Harris? Tough question! Jesus once found Himself as a candidate in an election during His Passion―and He lost the vote! All the “Newspapers” of the day (the four Evangelists―Matthew, Mark, Luke and John―reported on Jesus’ election defeat, where the populace chose to vote for rebel and a murderer, rather than vote for Jesus!
THE MATTHEW MORNING NEWS reports: “Now upon the solemn day the governor was accustomed to release to the people one prisoner, whom they would. And he had then a notorious prisoner, that was called Barabbas. They therefore being gathered together, Pilate said: ‘Whom will you that I release to you, Barabbas, or Jesus that is called Christ?’ ― for he knew that for envy they had delivered Him. But the chief priests and ancients persuaded the people, that they should ask for Barabbas, and take Jesus away. And the governor answering, said to them: ‘Which of the two do you wish to be released unto you?’ But they said: ‘Barabbas!’ Pilate said to them: ‘What shall I do then with Jesus, that is called Christ?’ They all said: ‘Let Him be crucified!’ The governor said to them: ‘Why? What evil has He done?’ But they cried out the more, saying: ‘Let Him be crucified!’ And Pilate seeing that he prevailed nothing, but that rather a tumult was made; taking water washed his hands before the people, saying: ‘I am innocent of the blood of this just Man―look you to it!’ And the whole people answering, said: ‘His blood be upon us and our children!’ Then he released to them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered Him unto them to be crucified” (Matthew 27:15-26). THE MARK MONITOR reports: “Now on the festival day he was wont to release unto them one of the prisoners, whomsoever they demanded. And there was one called Barabbas, who was put in prison with some seditious men, who in the sedition had committed murder. And when the multitude was come up, they began to desire that he would do, as he had ever done unto them. And Pilate answered them, and said: ‘Will you that I release to you the king of the Jews?’ For he knew that the chief priests had delivered Him up out of envy. But the chief priests moved the people, that he should rather release Barabbas to them. And Pilate again answering, said to them: ‘What will you then that I do to the king of the Jews?’ But they again cried out: ‘Crucify Him!’ And Pilate said to them: ‘Why! What evil has He done?’ But they cried out the more: ‘Crucify Him!’ And so Pilate, being willing to satisfy the people, released to them Barabbas, and delivered up Jesus, when he had scourged Him, to be crucified” (Mark 15:6-15). THE LUKE LEADER reports: “And Pilate, calling together the chief priests, and the magistrates, and the people, said to them: ‘You have presented unto me this Man, as one that perverts the people; and behold I, having examined Him before you, find no cause in this Man, in those things wherein you accuse Him! No―nor Herod neither! For I sent you to him, and behold, nothing worthy of death is done to Him! I will chastise Him therefore, and release Him!’ Now of necessity he was to release unto them one upon the feast day. But the whole multitude together cried out, saying: ‘Away with this Man, and release unto us Barabbas!’ ― who, for a certain sedition made in the city, and for a murder, was cast into prison. And Pilate again spoke to them, desiring to release Jesus. But they cried again, saying: ‘Crucify Him! Crucify Him!’ And he said to them the third time: ‘Why? What evil has this Man done? I find no cause of death in Him. I will chastise Him therefore, and let Him go!’ But they were instant with loud voices, requiring that He might be crucified―and their voices prevailed. And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required. And he released unto them him, who for murder and sedition, had been cast into prison, whom they had desired―but Jesus he delivered up to their will” (Luke 23:13-25). THE JOHN JOURNAL reports: “Pilate therefore went into the hall again, and called Jesus, and said to Him: ‘Art Thou the king of the Jews?’ Jesus answered: ‘Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or have others told it thee of Me?’ Pilate answered: ‘Am I a Jew? Thy own nation and the chief priests have delivered Thee up to me! What hast Thou done?’ Jesus answered: ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would certainly strive that I should not be delivered to the Jews―but now My kingdom is not from hence!’ Pilate therefore said to Him: ‘Art Thou a king then?’ Jesus answered: ‘Thou sayest that I am a king! For this was I born, and for this came I into the world; that I should give testimony to the truth. Every one that is of the truth, hears My voice!’ Pilate said to Him: ‘What is truth?’ And when he said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them: ‘I find no cause in Him! But you have a custom that I should release one unto you at the Pasch! Will you, therefore, that I release unto you the king of the Jews?’ Then cried they all again, saying: ‘Not this Man, but Barabbas!’ Now Barabbas was a robber. “Then therefore, Pilate took Jesus, and scourged Him. And the soldiers platting a crown of thorns, put it upon His head; and they put on Him a purple garment. And they came to Him, and said: ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ and they gave Him blows. Pilate therefore went forth again, and said to them: ‘Behold, I bring Him forth unto you, that you may know that I find no cause in Him!’ Jesus therefore came forth, bearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment. And he said to them: ‘Behold the Man!’ When the chief priests, therefore, and the servants, had seen Him, they cried out, saying: ‘Crucify Him! Crucify Him!’ Pilate saith to them: ‘Take Him you and crucify Him―for I find no cause in Him!’ The Jews answered him: ‘We have a law; and according to the law He ought to die, because He made himself the Son of God!’ When Pilate therefore had heard this saying, he feared the more. “And he entered into the hall again, and he said to Jesus: ‘Whence art Thou?’ But Jesus gave him no answer. Pilate therefore saith to Him: ‘Speakest Thou not to me? Knowest Thou not that I have power to crucify Thee, and I have power to release Thee?’ Jesus answered: ‘Thou shouldst not have any power against Me, unless it were given thee from above! Therefore, he that hath delivered Me to thee, hath the greater sin!’ And from henceforth Pilate sought to release Him. But the Jews cried out, saying: ‘If thou release this Man, thou art not Caesar’s friend! For whosoever maketh himself a king, speaketh against Caesar!’ Now when Pilate had heard these words, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat, and he said to the Jews: ‘Behold your king!’ But they cried out: ‘Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him!’ Pilate said to them: ‘Shall I crucify your king?’ The chief priests answered: ‘We have no king but Caesar!’ Then therefore he delivered him to them to be crucified” (John 18:33-40; 19:1-16). Ah! The power of politics! Ah! The power of behind the scenes manipulation! Ah! The fickleness and stupidity of voters! Christ the miracle worker loses the vote to Barabbas the seditionist and rebel. Christ, Who raised people from the dead, loses the vote to Barabbas the murderer! Christ, Who takes nothing, loses the vote to Barabbas the robber! The people who admired and cheered for Christ, now seek to crucify Christ and cry for His Blood! Christ, Who was loved, is now hated! Would Christ today defeat Trump and Harris? Probably not! Why not? Because very few people would “buy-into” the manifesto that Christ would be preaching. His message would be unpopular with the populace. If miracles counted for nothing in that vote before Pilate almost 2,000 years ago―then any miracles Christ might perform now, would count for little in 2024. The following words of Holy Scripture are uncannily applicable to our day and age: “The Lord has looked down from Heaven upon the children of men―to see if there be any that understand and seek God. They are all gone aside! They are become unprofitable together! There is none that does good―no, not one! Their throat is an open sepulcher! With their tongues they acted deceitfully! The poison of asps is under their lips! Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness! Their feet are swift to shed blood! Destruction and unhappiness in their ways and the way of peace they have not known! There is no fear of God before their eyes! Shall not all they know that work iniquity, who devour My people as they eat bread? They have not called upon the Lord―there have they trembled for fear, where there was no fear!” (Psalm 13:2-5). As Our Lord said in to Sister Mary Ephrem in the 1940s (to whom Our Lady of America appeared): “I am not loved in the homes of men. And because I am not loved, the Divine Trinity refuses to dwell therein ... Their hearts are being drawn farther and farther away from Me. They will not even listen to My Mother, because they have never been taught to listen ... Children are not taught to love Me, because those who have charge over them have no time or patience to do so … If the world is dying, it is because it will not let Me give it life. I am the resurrection and the life, and unless souls seek their life in Me, they will find only death and destruction … My Heart beats with compassion for the sorrows of man. Oh, how gladly would I help him bear the weight of his terrible cross, fashioned, for the most part, by his own guilt! But alas, he will have none of My help. So I am forced to stand by the side of the road and watch him struggle hopelessly in his agony. O man, what have I done to you that you should refuse My aid? Do you know what I find most lacking in the world today? It is FAITH. There are so few souls that believe in Me and My love. They profess their belief and their love, but they do not live this belief. Their hearts are cold, for without Faith there can be no love.” “Ain’t that the truth!!!” Now whether or not you accept and believe the Our Lady of America apparitions (and the additional apparitions by Our Lord that came with them)―you have still got to admit the truth of the above words. Don’t try and fool yourself that Our Lord is loved in the homes! People―even “good” Catholics―spend far more time on their electronic devices, or other pet hobbies, than they do with Our Lord. For the meager 2% to 3% who still “say” (but don’t really “pray”) the Rosary daily―there is little or no meditation on its mysteries, merely an announcing of the title of the mystery and perhaps the fruit of the mystery and that’s it! Just about everyone says the Rosary at a pace that they would never use in talking to other people―unless they were angry! Children are not really taught to love Our Lord (or Our Lady)―everything is so superficial, exterior, ready manufactured, on “auto-pilot” and “micro-waved.” As the children grow, they grow into addicts of social media, television, internet, music―but not Our Lord. Is it a surprise then that they would love and think more of earthly people―television and movie personalities, musicians and music bands, sports stars, etc. ― more than they love and think of Christ? Sure! Our Lord would win some votes―for there are still decent people and faithful Catholics around here and there―but the majority of voters would not be voting for Christ. Article 13
How to Rig an Election in God's Favor Elections do get “rigged”. What do we mean by “rigging” an election? Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election fraud, election manipulation or vote rigging, is illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a particular candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates, or both.
Since the 1990s, there have been around 200 controversial national elections throughout the world―with various kinds of accusations of fraud, rigging and illegal interference being raised. Even the papal elections have come under the shadowy sinister suspicion of being rigged! In the 2018 book, How to Rig an Election, by Nic Cheeseman (Professor and International Development at the University of Birmingham, UK) and Brian Klaas (a Fellow in Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics), you can read about the 1998 St. Petersburg local assembly elections, where Oleg Sergeyev was running for re-election. In power, he had proved to be quite a thorn in the side of the city’s governor, Vladimir Yakovlev. So much so that some expected Sergeyev could even run for the governor’s position in the future, or at least challenge his authority by campaigning for reform. Yakovlev did not take opposition lightly, and so he allegedly used his political influence to take Sergeyev out of the game, before he became a real threat. Thus, when Oleg Sergeyev launched his bid to retain his seat, he was surprised to learn the names of two of his opponents: Oleg Sergeyev and Oleg Sergeyev ― both having the identical same name to the Oleg Sergeyev who was seeking re-election. The former namesake was a pensioner, the latter namesake an unemployed man. Neither of the two new Olegs had any qualifications for the office they were seeking. But they had been handpicked (and no doubt well-rewarded) for one key characteristic―their names. When voters arrived in the polling booth, they were unsure which of the three Oleg Sergeyev was their candidate of choice―because all they saw printed was the name. Many cast ballots for the “wrong” Sergeyev, which split the vote and contributed to Sergeyev’s downfall, exactly as Yakovlev had intended. The problem, of course, is that everyone realized the game that Yakovlev was playing. Voters aren’t stupid, and when they see three Oleg Sergeyevs on one ballot, they know the election is being rigged. Another case was Ukraine’s 2004 presidential election, which had masses of voters who were opposed to the incumbent, Viktor Yanukovych, turning up at the voting locations in the hope of voting him out. Upon arrival at their assigned polling stations, they received ballot papers and pens to mark them with. Many voted against the ruling regime, and placed their ballot papers into the ballot box to be counted. Four minutes later, their ballots were blank. Although the opposition voters didn’t know it, they had been given pens that were filled with disappearing ink. The ballot boxes were filled with stacks of unmarked ballots giving the impression that many voters chose to abstain from voting. Despite such dirty tricks, the incumbent, Yanukovych, eventually lost. Election observers noticed the disappearing ink trick — and many others — leading to the election being re-run. Nevertheless, say Cheeseman and Klaas, it must be said that Yanukovych’s defeat was unusual―because incumbents usually win most elections these days for two reasons. First, they enjoy many legitimate advantages, such as the ability to set the political agenda. Second, a remarkably high proportion of elections are rigged. Most incumbents have learned to transform elections from a threat to their grip on power, into something that can instead be used to tighten it. They’ve figured out how to rig an election, leading to the greatest political paradox of our time: There are more elections than ever before, and yet the world is becoming less democratic. Cheeseman and Klaas then say that if you want to take a master class in subtle and legal pre-election rigging, you might want to travel to the United States. The 2016 presidential election will be remembered for many things, but one of the most unusual was the repeated claims, by leaders in both parties, that the election was “rigged.” Many of these accusations were promoted by Russian hackers, who were intent on aggravating divisions between and within the political parties and fomenting distrust in the democratic system. Nevertheless, despite being seen as the world’s most powerful democracy, America is where many of the rigging techniques used today were perfected and continue to exert a powerful legacy. This is particularly true of two of the most tried and tested methods for establishing a pre-electoral advantage: gerrymandering and voter suppression. Distorted electoral boundaries loom large in every U.S. congressional election. Opinion polls consistently show that Congress is viewed favorably by just 10 to 20 percent of Americans. That is about the same favorability rating as cockroaches. But even with that dismal approval rating, only eight incumbents out of a body of 435 representatives lost their re-election bids in 2016. This is one of the lowest turnover rates in the world. Some of these uncompetitive elections are caused by demographic clustering, where like-minded voters self-select into districts. But gerrymandering―the manipulation of the boundaries of an electoral constituency, so as to favor one party or class―also plays a role. Across the United States, self-interested politicians get to choose their voters rather than the other way around. The worst offenders have been clustered in North Carolina, Michigan, and — until a recent decision by the state’s Supreme Court to redraw electoral boundaries — Pennsylvania. And there are offenders on both sides of the aisle: Democratic gerrymandering happens in Massachusetts, Maryland, and to a lesser extent Illinois; while Republican gerrymandering happens in Florida, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia. In net terms, Republicans have secured a significant seat advantage in the House of Representatives, thanks to the cynical and self-interested way in which congressional districts are drawn. Nowadays, elections are held almost everywhere. The vast majority of governments at least go through the motions of election campaigns and are rhetorically committed to allowing citizens to cast ballots to choose the leaders who will govern them. However, in many places, that choice is little more than an illusion; the contest is rigged from the start. If you think that poor-quality elections like the 2004 vote in Ukraine are an exception, think again: On a scale of 1 to 10, in which 10 reflects a perfect election and 1 reflects the worst possible, the average election around the world scores just 6 according to data collected by the Electoral Integrity Project. In Asia, Africa, post-communist Europe, and the Middle East, the figure is closer to 5. Globally, only about 30 percent of elections result in a transfer of power. In other words, incumbents win seven times out of 10. Since the turn of the century, there has been a gradual decline in the quality of democracy in the world. In 2017, according to Freedom House, 71 countries suffered net declines in political rights and civil liberties, with only 35 registering gains. The world has become more authoritarian every year since 2006, and the pace of democratic decline seems to be accelerating. Today, nearly 2 in 3 citizens in the world live under a system of government that is not fully democratic. In other words, we are in the middle of a serious democratic recession. The recent Coronavirus Plannedemic [read more on that here] only serves to underline this worldwide stifling of democracy, liberties and rights. One does not have to be cynical―only truthful―in stating that, for the most part, politics is becoming increasingly godless and corrupt. Do we really want to put our lives in the hands of godless and corrupt people? “But”, you will protest, “many of these politicians are not godless―they are Christians! Look at Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence! Biden himself is a practicing Catholic! Trump speaks of Jesus and holds up Bibles! Harris, Biden’s running mate, claims to be a Baptist!” Our Lord would reply to your protests with these words: “: “Not everyone that saith to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me!’” (Matthew 7:21-23). “Why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth Me … If anyone love Me, he will keep My word … He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words” (John 14:15, 14:21-24). “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honoureth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me!’” (Mark 7:6). This religious hypocrisy is especially seen in today’s politicians―regardless of which party, which race, which religion they belong to. The US national motto, found also on US currency, says “In God we trust” while the Pledge of Allegiance adds: “One nation under God” ― and many still use the phrase from the song: “God Bless America” ― yet that one nation does not trust in the ways of God, preferring to go its own way; that one nation under God now undermines God and His laws, refusing to carry the yoke of His commandments; that desire that God bless America will not be fulfilled in a godless America. The modern day notion of independence has degenerated more and more over the years from the initial false idea of independence. Today, nations seek independence not only a material and political level―they have also declared an independence from God. That “Declaration of Independence from God” is clearly seen by the laws legislated by those independent nations, just as a tree can be recognized by its fruits. As Our Lord said: “By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire” (Matthew 7:16-19). “Either make the tree good and its fruit good―or make the tree evil, and its fruit evil. For by the fruit the tree is known” (Matthew 12:33). You could rephrase that to read: “Either make the nation good by making its laws good―or make the nation evil, by making its laws evil. For by its laws a nation is known.” So how do US laws measure up? US laws do not uphold the One True God in whom the Nation apparently trusts and under Whom it states that it stands: “In God we trust” and “One nation under God.” Yet its secular Constitution allows any old religion to exist and for its citizens to believe in whatever god them want. Not only that, but in April 2019, Satanists were acknowledged as being a religion and were given tax-exempt status by the IRS (Inland Revenue Service). Being granted tax-exempt status essentially means that the Satanic Temple has the same legal protections that other religions do, including “access to public spaces as other religious organizations; affirming its standing in court when battling religious discrimination; and enabling The Satanic Temple to apply for faith-based government grants,” according to a press release by the IRS. The taking of God’s Name in vain―blasphemy―is widespread and popular. Some people can’t say a sentence without including the word “Jesus!” or “My God!” Yet it is not out of devotion that they use those words! Far from it! The “Lord’s Day”―Sunday―is not just another day of the week. Very little holiness permeates the day―making a mockery of the Commandment: “Remember thou keep holy the Lord’s day!” Honoring of parents is a hit and miss affair―as is the honoring of all other authorities. “Thou shalt not kill” has changed to “Kill the innocent, but spare the guilty” ― as in the case of innocent babies being slaughtered by abortion, and murderers escaping the death penalty. “Thou shalt not commit adultery” has become pretty much “Thou shalt enjoy adultery, but just don’t get caught!” With regard to “Thou shall not steal”, nowadays it is a case of “Steal if you can disguise the theft in some way!” as in disproportionate and exorbitant charges, add-ons, taxes, levies, fines, penalties, etc. “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor” has become “Dig up as much dirt as you can on neighbor―regardless of whether it is all true or not!” Election time is the harvest time for doing this! “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife [or husband]” is a joke as we see so much impurity, immodesty, provocativeness, innuendo, nudity or semi-nudity plastered all over the place in movies, on television, on the internet, in books, magazines and newspapers, in advertisements―and nobody really gives a damn anymore, whereas in the past days of living memory, the police would warn or even arrest you for such kinds of behavior. The laws of Nations and States no longer care to promote or enforce the Commandments of God, for they have divorced themselves from God and have become mere secular states. Yes―by their fruits [or laws, or lack of laws] you will know them! “By their fruits you shall know them. Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire” (Matthew 7:16-19). “Either make the tree good and its fruit good―or make the tree evil, and its fruit evil. For by the fruit the tree is known” (Matthew 12:33). So “Either make the nation good by making its laws good―or make the nation evil, by making its laws evil. For by its laws a nation is known.” Right now―many of the fruits or laws are evil. Abortion, divorce and remarriage, contraception, cohabitation, same-sex marriages and sexual relationships, homosexuality, transgenderism, etc. ― and these are just the tip of the iceberg. Already in 1956, Our Lady said to Blessed Elena Aiello: ““People are offending God too much! If I were to show you all the sins committed on a single day, you would surely die of grief! These are grave times! The world is in total turmoil because it is in a worse condition than at the time of the deluge! All is hanging on a slender thread! When that thread shall snap, Divine Justice shall pounce upon the world and execute its dreadful, purging designs! All the nations shall be punished because sins, like a muddy river, are now covering all the Earth!” So, coming to the theme of this article―does God “rig” elections or “rig” rulers? That would seem to be dishonest! Yet that is what God does and He is not being dishonest or a cheat in doing so. We actually need God to “rig” our elections―to dispose of those who refuse to use God’s ways in governing nations. God is the supreme authority―the rulers of nations have merely been wanted (if they are good rulers) or allowed (if they are bad rulers) for God’s own designs in either rewarding or punishing those nations. There is no authority except from God, and those authorities which exist are established by God: “There is no power but from God: and those that are, are ordained of God” (Romans 13:1). Ultimately, God is the ruler of the Earth, God is its king, its president, its governor. Our Lord confirms this truth when He tells Pontius Pilate that Pilate would have no authority over Him, unless it had been given to Pilate by God: “Thou shouldst not have any power against Me, unless it were given thee from above” (John 19:11). “He taketh away kingdoms and establisheth them” (Daniel 2:21). Good or bad governors are sent by God [“rigged” if you like] to either punish people for their sins or as reward for those who do what is right: “Governors sent by Him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of the good” (1 Peter 2:14). “Princes are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good―and thou shalt have praise from the same. For the prince is God’s minister to thee, for good. But if thou do that which is evil, then fear―for he beareth not the sword in vain. For he is God’s minister―an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil” (Romans 13:3-4). God, in speaking of King Cyrus of Persia―a figure or symbol of the future Christ―says: “Thus saith the Lord to My anointed Cyrus, whose right hand I have taken hold of, to subdue nations before his face, and to turn the backs of kings, and to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut. I will go before thee, and will humble the great ones of the Earth! I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and will burst the bars of iron!” (Isaias 45:1-2). “In the first year of Cyrus king of the Persians, to fulfill the word of the Lord, which he had spoken by the mouth of Jeremias, the Lord stirred up the heart of Cyrus king of the Persians who commanded it to be proclaimed through all his kingdom, and by writing also, saying: ‘Thus saith Cyrus king of the Persians: “All the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord the God of heaven given to me, and he hath charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judea: who is there among you of all his people? The Lord his God be with him, and let him go up”‘“ (2 Paralipomenon 36:22-23). If God can depose―in one fell swoop―all the kings of the Earth and eliminate all the sinners of the Earth, as He already did in the time of Noe and the Great Flood; then the elimination of a ruler or two, or a few nations is “a piece of cake” in comparison. “All nations are before Him as if they had no being at all, and are counted to Him as nothing and vanity!” (Isaias 40:17). Civilizations come and go, and governments rise and fall―but God remains in charge, ruling the whole universe. God will bless nations only in proportion to how faithfully they adhere to God and His Laws. But this blessing ends when a nation becomes degenerate, rebellious, and unfit for self-rule. When God determines that His patient waiting and extended mercy for any particular nation has no redeeming effect, God then marginalizes, impoverishes or destroys that nation. “The Lord is the true God: He is the living God, and the everlasting king, at His wrath the Earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide His threatening” (Jeremias 10:10) “And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ‘Son of man, when a land shall sin against Me, so as to transgress grievously, I will stretch forth My hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof: and I will send famine upon it, and will destroy man and beast out of it. And if these three men―Noe, Daniel and Job, shall be in it [meaning, people who are just and holy like Noe, Daniel and Job]―then they shall deliver their own souls by their justice, saith the Lord of hosts. And if I shall bring mischievous beasts also upon the land to waste it, and it be desolate, so that there is none that can pass because of the beasts―if these three men shall be in it―as I live, saith the Lord, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered, and the land shall be made desolate. Or if I bring the sword upon that land, and say to the sword: “Pass through the land!” and I destroy man and beast out of it―and these three men be in the midst thereof―as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they themselves alone shall be delivered. Or if I also send the pestilence upon that land, and pour out My indignation upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast―and Noe, and Daniel and Job be in the midst thereof―as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter, but they shall only deliver their own souls by their justice. For thus saith the Lord: Although I shall send in upon Jerusalem My four grievous judgments, the sword, and the famine, and the mischievous beasts, and the pestilence, to destroy out of it man and beast, yet there shall still be left in it some that shall be saved’” (Ezekiel 14:13-22). If we want sanity in politics, humility in politics, truth in politics, justice in politics, charity in politics―then we need God in politics. Not just a “lip-served” God, but a “heart-served” God, where God is truly in the hearts of politicians and not just on the lips. If God is in the heart, then God is loved―and if God is loved, then His Commandments are kept: “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth Me … If anyone love Me, he will keep My word … He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words” (John 14:15, 14:21-24). “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord … The Lord hath looked from heaven: he hath beheld all the sons of men. From His habitation which H e hath prepared, he hath looked upon all that dwell on the earth. He who hath made the hearts of every one of them: who understandeth all their works. The king is not saved by a great army; nor shall the giant be saved by his own great strength. Vain is the horse for safety; neither shall he be saved by the abundance of his strength. Behold the eyes of the Lord are on them that fear Him and on them that hope in His mercy. To deliver their souls from death; and feed them in famine. Our soul waiteth for the Lord―for he is our helper and protector. For in Him our heart shall rejoice; and in His Holy Name we have trusted. Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us―as we have hoped in thee!” (Psalm 32:12-22). We need to pray MUCH and do MUCH penance in order to reform the current corrupt, and, in many cases, Satanic political stranglehold not only on America, but the entire world. It of such that God says: “They have reigned, but not by me: they have been princes, and I knew not!” (Osee 8:4). If we don’t or won’t pray and do penance, then, as the saying goes: “You get the leaders that you deserve!” For a long time now we have been getting what we deserve―and that is going to get a helluva lot worse very soon! Article 12
The Kind of Politician and President that God Would Like In the early 1600s, Our Lady of Good Success, how appeared many times at the end of the 16th and during the 17th centuries, in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, prophesied the following: “In the 19th Century there will be a truly Catholic president, a man of character whom God Our Lord will give the palm of martyrdom on the square adjoining this Convent. He will consecrate the Republic to the Sacred Heart of My Most Holy Son, and this consecration will sustain the Catholic Religion in the years that will follow, which will be ill-fated ones for the Church.”
The man of whom Our Lady was speaking was to be Garcia Moreno of Ecuador in South America, who was President of Ecuador on two occasions (1861–1865 and 1869–1875) and, after being elected to a third term, was assassinated during his before he could start his third term as President of Ecuador. He is noted for his Conservatism, Catholic religious perspective and rivalry with Liberal strongman Eloy Alfaro. Under his administration, Ecuador became a leader in science and higher education within Latin America. In addition to the advances in education and science, he was noted for economically and agriculturally advancing the country, as well as for his staunch opposition to corruption, even giving his own salary to charity. Gabriel Garcia Moreno was born in 1821, the son of Gabriel García-Yangüas y Gómez de Tama, a Spanish nobleman, and María de las Mercedes Moreno y Morán de Butrón, a member of a wealthy aristocratic criollo family in Ecuador’s main port, Guayaquil. His father died when Garcia Moreno was a boy, leading his upbringing to his devoutly Catholic mother. This rearing instilled in the young Garcia Moreno a devout sense of Catholic piety which would influence his later political activity as well as his private life. Garcia Moreno studied theology and law in the University of Quito. Thinking he had a vocation to the priesthood, he received minor orders and the tonsure; but his closest friends and his own interests convinced him to pursue a secular career. Graduating in 1844, he was admitted to the bar. Starting his career as both lawyer and journalist (opposed to the Liberal government in power) he made little headway. In 1849, he embarked on a two-year visit to Europe to see first-hand the effects of the 1848 revolution. He returned home to find his country in the grip of strident anti-clericals (against the Church, priests and religious); he was elected a senator and joined the opposition to Liberalism and anti-clericalism. Although himself a monarchist (he would have liked to have seen a Spanish prince on the throne) he bowed to circumstances and allowed himself to be made president after a civil war, the year after his return to Ecuador from Europe―so great had his stint as a senator made his reputation. In 1861, his presidential position was confirmed in a popular election for a four-year term. His successor was deposed by the Liberals in 1867. But two years later he was reelected, and then again in 1875. During his period in office, he propelled his nation forward, all the while uniting him more closely to Catholicism. Ecuador After Independence The coming of independence to Latin America saw the formation of two parties in every country: Liberal and Conservative. Conservatives looked toward Europe, and particularly Spain, for social and political inspiration. They wished to retain the Catholic Church in the position which she had from the first settlement; furthermore, they wanted the great estates to remain like those of Europe—self-contained communities which, despite failing to make a great deal of money for their owners, did build social stability. The Liberals looked to the United States as a guide, wanted separation of Church and State, and wished to turn the great estates into money-making concerns, like factories. These two groups had clashed since independence. The Conservatives produced some notable leaders, like Mexico’s Agustín de Iturbide and Guatemala’s Rafael Carrera. As the 19th century progressed, both parties were faced with the impact of such inventions as the railroad. From 1845 to 1860 Ecuador was in a position of near anarchy, barely ruled by a series of fleeting regimes, mostly Liberal; it was from this precarious, nearly anarchistic situation which Garcia Moreno saved the country. Personally pious―he attended Mass daily, as well as visiting the Blessed Sacrament; he received Holy Communion every Sunday (a rare practice before Pope St. Pius X advocated frequent Communion) and was active member in a religious sodality―he made it one of the first duties of his government to promote and support Catholicism. Catholicism was the official religion of Ecuador, but, by the terms of a new Concordat, the State’s power over appointment of bishops (inherited from Spain) was eliminated at García Moreno’s insistence and the appointment of bishops was left exclusively in the hands of the Church. The 1869 constitution made Catholicism the religion of the State and required that both candidates and voters be Catholic. He was the only ruler in the world to protest the Pope’s loss of the Papal States, and two years later had the legislature consecrate Ecuador to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. One of his biographers writes that after this public consecration, he was marked for death by German Freemasons. García Moreno generated some animosity with his friendship toward the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). During a period of exile, he helped some displaced Jesuits from Germany find refuge in Ecuador. He had also advocated legislation which would outlaw secret societies. While the politics of his age were extremely convoluted and murky, that he was elected to a second term clearly indicates his popular appeal, both with the Catholic Church and with the masses. His vigorous support of universal literacy and education based on the French model was both controversial and bold. Economic Climate of Ecuador García Moreno came to the presidency of a country with an empty treasury and an enormous debt. To overcome this, he placed the government on stringent economy and abolished many positions, as well as cutting out the corruption which siphoned off tax money. As a result, he was able to provide Ecuadoreans with more for less. This improved the financial status of the country and attracted foreign investment. The army was reformed, with officers being sent to Prussia to study, and illiterate recruits taught basic skills. Houses of prostitution were closed, and hospitals opened in all the major towns. Railroads and national highways were built, the telegraph extended, and the postal and water systems improved. City streets were paved and local bandits suppressed. These public works projects were accomplished in part through the use of revenues obtained from the trabajo subsidario tax, a tax initially created to aid the funding of local works projects. The trabajo subsidario tax in many ways mirrored the colonial mita labor requirements demanded of Indians by Spaniards. The voluntary contributions law and trabajo subsidario tax, revived in 1854, required that every citizen contribute four days of unpaid work to the State yearly or its monetary equivalent to promote the nation’s public works projects. Like its mita precursor, the trabajo subsidario obligation fell most heavily on Ecuador’s indigenous populations since these groups were unable to pay to avoid labor. Estate-bound peons were able to find protection from these laws through the help of hacendado or essential paternal landlords. In 1862, in a somewhat contentious move, García Moreno demanded control of these revenues of this tax in order to direct funds towards his ambitions for major infrastructural reform. This created a great deal of local discontent, as this meant diverting funds from more locally based public works projects. Using these funds, García Moreno began his famous highway system project, contracting workers from the trabajo subsidario requirement to build these roads. Along with a variety of notable public works programs, García Moreno reformed the universities, established two polytechnic and agricultural colleges and a military school, and increased the number of primary schools from 200 to 500. The number of primary students grew from 8000 to 32,000. To staff the enormously expanded health-care and educational facilities, foreign religious were brought in. All of this was done while expanding the franchise and guaranteeing equal rights under the law to every Ecuadorean. Religious Climate of Ecuador Economic development, however, was only a part of Garcia Moreno’s plan for the new Ecuador; he above all sought to remake the nation into a shining example of a Catholic State. Garcia Moreno, while abroad, had witnessed the violence and chaos, as well as the uprooting of the Church’s spiritual authority, which revolutionary Liberalism brought in the Revolutions of 1848, As a result, he became further committed to Catholic principles. The new constitution Garcia Moreno drafted in 1861 increased presidential power to allow for this, and his 1862 concordat with the Church gave it more power over Ecuador it has ever had before or since. Catholicism, in a new 1869 constitution, was made the State religion as well as the only legal Faith. Garcia Moreno further strengthened the Church’s interests that same year by signing into effect legislation which outlawed secret societies such as the Freemasons, which those on the receiving end saw as a personal attack. Garcia Moreno, however, did not merely leave the Church alone but instead sought to reform the behavior of Ecuador’s clergy. Priests since colonial times, in spite of canon law, frequently had held wives and concubines on the side, and monks frequently were in disciplinary trouble for abandoning their vows and engaging in drunkenness. Garcia Moreno, therefore set into effect laws which enforced rigid monastic and clerical discipline. He further set the Church to work by turning education over to the Jesuits, who were well renowned for their work in the advance of the empirical sciences. Political Climate and Assassination The Liberals hated García Moreno, due to the authoritarian and ultra-Conservative nature of his rule, as well as the fact that he frequently used secret police to silence leftist dissent. In the minds of radicals, Garcia Moreno was a dictator, and the Liberals also were enraged that his policies remained after 1865 when friends of his were elected, and winning the presidency again in 1869. Meanwhile, other politicians, who previously had been free to exert their influence over government for their own personal gain, now were opposed by a man determined to stamp out all corruption within Ecuador. This opposition from the more radical left compelled Juan Montalvo to write the pamphlet La dictadura perpetua (The Perpetual Dictatorship), which inspired the movement to assassinate Garcia Moreno. Therefore, when he was elected a third time in 1875, it was considered to be his death warrant. He wrote immediately to Pope Pius IX asking for his blessing before inauguration day on August 30th: “I wish to obtain your blessing before that day, so that I may have the strength and light which I need so much in order to be unto the end a faithful son of our Redeemer, and a loyal and obedient servant of His Infallible Vicar. Now that the Masonic Lodges of the neighboring countries, instigated by Germany, are vomiting against me all sorts of atrocious insults and horrible calumnies, now that the Lodges are secretly arranging for my assassination, I have more need than ever of the divine protection so that I may live and die in defense of our holy religion and the beloved republic which I am called once more to rule.” García Moreno’s prediction was correct; he was assassinated in the steps of the National Palace in Quito, struck down with knives and revolvers, his last words being: “Dios no muere!” (“God does not die!”). Faustino Rayo assaulted him with several blows of a machete, while three or four others shot him with their revolvers. On August 5th, shortly before his assassination, a priest visited García Moreno and warned him, “You have been warned that your death was decreed by the Freemasons; but you have not been told when. I have just heard that the assassins are going to try and carry out their plot at once. For God’s sake, take your measures accordingly!” García Moreno replied that he had already received similar warnings and after calm reflection concluded that the only measure he could take was to prepare himself to appear before God. “It appears he was assassinated by members of a secret society,” observed a contemporary review of public events. Gabriel Garcia Moreno received Last Rites just before he died. Pope Pius IX declared that Gabriel Garcia Moreno “died a victim for the Faith and Christian Charity for his beloved country.” Article 11
The Fooling of Fools A World of Fools
Holy Scripture tells us: “The number of fools is infinite” (Ecclesiastes 1:15) and that “the heart of fools is in their mouth” (Ecclesiasticus 21:29) adding that “the mouth of a fool is his destruction: and his lips are the ruin of his soul!” (Proverbs 18:7). “A fool will upbraid bitterly” (Ecclesiasticus 18:18). “The fool will speak foolish things, and his heart will work iniquity, practice hypocrisy, and speak deceitfully” (Isaias 32:6). The modernly phrased proverb, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt” is based on the Scriptural proverb: “Even a fool, if he will hold his peace, shall be counted as being wise―and if he close his lips, shall be counted as a man of understanding!” (Proverbs 17:28). “For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools!” (Romans 1:22). But the fool fails to see that he is fool because “A fool shall be filled with his own ways … The way of a fool is right in his own eyes! … Folly is joy to the fool!” (Proverbs 14:14; 12:15; 15:21). Today, even a fool can see the foolishness that is being spewed out―day in, day out―on the various communications platforms available to us, such as the internet and social media. It is often a case of “post before you think” and is based on what Scripture says: “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes!” (Proverbs 12:15). The number of “armchair popes” and “amateur dogmatists” is so great that you could apply to them the quote about fools: “The number of fools is infinite” (Ecclesiastes 1:15). Who is fooling who? Are we being fooled? Are we fooling ourselves? Who is the fool? Are the politicians fools? Are the common people fools? Do you have confidence in politicians? Are politicians trying to “con” us? This brings back to mind the words spoken to President Reagan by the CIA Director, William Casey, in the 1981 initial presidential briefing of President Ronald Reagan, weeks after he took office ― “We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” Barbara Honegger ― Assistant to the Chief Domestic Policy Adviser to President Reagan ― confirms that quote by Casey. Barbara Honegger said: “I am the source for this quote, which was indeed said by CIA Director, William Casey, at an early February 1981 meeting of the newly elected President Reagan with his new cabinet secretaries, to report to him on what they had learned about their agencies in the first couple of weeks of the administration. The meeting was in the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing of the White House, not far from the Cabinet Room. I was present at the meeting as Assistant to the chief domestic policy adviser to the President. Casey first told Reagan that he had been astonished to discover that over 80% of the ‘intelligence’― that the analysis side of the CIA produced ― was based on open public sources like newspapers and magazines. As he did to all the other secretaries of their departments and agencies, Reagan asked [Casey] what he saw as his goal as director for the CIA, to which he [Casey] replied with this quote, which I recorded in my notes of the meeting as he said it [“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false”]. Shortly thereafter I told Senior White House correspondent Sarah McClendon, who was a close friend and colleague, who in turn made it public.” (Barbara Honegger, Assistant to the Chief Domestic Policy Adviser to President Reagan). Not only does Honegger claim he said it, but apparently he said it in response to what he saw as his goal as CIA Director! Are we fools for believing what we are being told by the politicians and the media? Political Puppets and Puppet Masters It is often said that politicians―especially those at the top end of the political ladder―are merely puppets who are controlled by the unseen puppet-masters behind the scenes, the money-men, the elite, or, as some call them “Deep State” or “The Swamp”―but “Deep State” or “The Swamp” is itself in the hands of higher powers. This is the hallmark, trademark, preferred tactic of Satan himself―proud though he is, he prefers to work behind the scenes, subtly, craftily, quietly, allowing the glory of his successes to be given to his human stooges or instruments. Perhaps “puppet-masters” is an appropriate term―for politics is merely a stage, a circus, a game, a distraction that allows those “pulling-the-strings” to quietly, hiddenly, subtly, craftily work behind the scenes of the “smoke-and-mirrors” political stage that they have created and control. Talking of “control”―it seems that never before have been more controllable and malleable that in the present “dumbed-down” era. A Nation of Idiots A Chicago Tribune article, entitled “Political Circus Embarrassing, Not Entertaining” from October 4th, 2018, stated: “America by and large is full of idiots ... boring, pathetic … fat, dumb people, who have no interests except McDonald’s and malls … Many of the cable news networks air the same tired, yet successful formula―give viewers 10% of actual news followed by 90% of pontification from a peanut gallery of self-described experts ... Too many national media outlets focus on the opinions on the latest scandal. And we keep getting stabbed in the eye by our political leaders with help from national media … To the rest of the world, we must appear to be, yes, a nation full of idiots. Deep down, we know this to be true. Yet we don’t do anything about it. It’s an embarrassment!” You could almost call politics as an extension of Hollywood. It claims that it is “a government of the people, by the people and for the people” ― but you would have to say it more of a “theater of people to fool the people” ― a “front”, a “distraction” that is meant to make people focus on the wrong things, secondary things, while they are being pick-pocketed of the rights and freedoms. This is the “magical” world of politics, which follows the stage or theatrical “magician’s” principles of deception. Magically Fooled In theatrical magic, misdirection is a form of deception in which the performer draws audience attention to one thing to distract it from another. Managing audience attention is the aim of all theater, and the foremost requirement of all magic acts. In magic, the performer and the audience share an understanding―feats that appear to be real are actually optical illusions. When executed properly, all magic, deceives observers, tricking them into believing what they see. Magicians pull this off using the art of misdirection. Misdirection—or direction, as some magicians prefer to call it—is the subtle, deceptive art of directing an audience’s attention towards one thing (a magical effect) so it does not notice another (the method or mechanics of a trick). It can refer to both the effect of a spectator’s mind being focused on an unimportant thing, or the action that causes it. Magicians misdirect audience attention in two basic ways. One leads the audience to look away for a fleeting moment, so that they don’t detect some sleight-of-hand or move. The other approach re-frames the audience’s perception, distracting them into thinking that an extraneous factor has much to do with the accomplishment of the feat (trick), when it really has no bearing on the effect at all. The true skill of the magician is in the skill he exhibits in influencing the spectator’s mind. “Misdirection has nothing to do with distraction. It has everything to do with controlling audience attention, at all times” (Gary Kurtz, magician). “Not only shouldn’t they see anything, they shouldn’t suspect anything” (Erdnase, magician). “As a magician, you must learn how magicians use misdirection to make sure your spectators don’t see the things you do not want them to see. It’s not about hiding moves. It’s not about turning your back while you do a suspicious half pass; it’s about controlling audience attention so that when you are going to make a move, the audience is not only focused somewhere else, but they don’t even suspect you are doing anything. It is about making sure that suspicion doesn’t even cross your spectator’s mind” (Merchant of Magic). You would imagine that magicians would make the best politicians! In The Encyclopedia of Magic and Magicians, author T.A. Waters writes that “Misdirection is the cornerstone of nearly all successful magic; without it, even the most skilled Sleight of Hand or mechanical device is unlikely to create an illusion of real magic.” Misdirection uses the limits of the human mind to give the wrong picture and memory. The mind of a typical audience member can only concentrate on one thing at a time. The magician uses this to manipulate the audience’s ideas, or, perceptions of sensory input, leading them to false conclusions. As one magician, Tommy Wonder, says: “When a great magician uses misdirection correctly, the audience doesn’t FEEL distracted at all. Quite opposite, they would swear they’ve been staring at the magician’s hands the entire time—and that they’ve NEVER looked away. That’s what misdirection is all about. We want our spectators to believe that THEY are in control of their attention. In reality, we choose where they look, and what they see, at every moment.” In the book, The Secret Art of Magic, authors Eric Evans and Nowlin Craver state that magic is directly related to warfare, and relies on the same principles for success. They reference the Ancient Chinese military strategist, Sun Tzu’s book, Art of War, to show how deception is essential to any successful campaign. Craver goes on to illustrate, through the 36 strategies, how they form a blueprint for every known method of misdirection. In World War II, British military intelligence employed stage magician Jasper Maskelyne to help devise various forms of misdirection such as ruses, deception, and camouflage. Dumb, Distracted and Deceived Dumbed-down, entertainment stuffed, media-drunk, internet-infested, couch-potato Christian soldiers of Christ have allowed themselves to be distracted, diverted or mesmerized by the cheap theater tricks. These “Hollywood” made spectacles are Shakespearean in their scope. The wall-to-wall media coverage full of sound, fury and fear―stirs the emotions, fools the mind, but signifies little or nothing in comparison to the things they are distracting you from―the more important and more sinister things that are being planned behind the scenes. We’ve been losing our freedoms so incrementally for so long—sold to us in the name of national security and global peace, maintained by way of martial law disguised as law and order, and enforced by a standing army of militarized police and a political elite determined to maintain their powers at all costs—that it’s hard to pinpoint exactly when it all started going downhill, but we’re certainly on that downward trajectory now, and things are moving fast. The Republic has fallen. The “Deep State’s” plot to take over America has succeeded in all but the final icing on the cake. The cake is cooked. The American system of representative government has been overthrown by a profit-driven, militaristic, corporate oligarchy bent on total control and global domination through the imposition of martial law here at home and by fomenting wars abroad. Even now, we are being pushed and prodded towards a civil war, not because the American people are so divided but because that’s how corrupt governments control a populace (i.e., divide and conquer). Article 10
A Lady for President or Our Lady for President? As the years go by, there is more and more talk about who might be the first female President of the United States. In bygone years there have been women who sought to run for the Presidency, but they were usually from “fringe parties” and never got very far. Hilary Clinton came close in 2016 and now Kamala Harris is trying to become President in 2024. Numerous other nations have had a woman in the top ruling position of power―the larger ones including China, India, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, France, Portugal, Austria, Ukraine, Norway, Finland, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Chile, Philippines, Pakistan, Poland, Australia, New Zealand and a lot, lot more. The United States of America is a notable absentee from that list.
Can a woman reign and rule? Normally, according to the designs of God’s creation, a woman is a helper to man: “for Adam there was not found a helper like himself. Then the Lord God cast a deep sleep upon Adam: and when he was fast asleep, he took one of his ribs, and filled up flesh for it. And the Lord God built the rib which he took from Adam into a woman: and brought her to Adam” (Genesis 2:20-22). “Let wives be subject to their husbands” (1 Peter 3:1). “Wives, be subject to your husbands” (Colossians 3:18). “As the Church is subject to Christ, so also let the wives be to their husbands in all things” (Ephesians 5:24). “Let women be subject to their husbands, as to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:22). Usually the woman’s role is one of assistance to her husband―so, in the case of a queen, one would usually assume and find it to be the case that there is also a king in the picture. Though this is not always the case―as was seen in the long reign of Queen Elizabeth II of England (who ascended to the throne in 1952 and reigned until 2022)―whose husband Philip only had the title “Prince” and not “King”. An ancient English ruling states that the wives of ruling kings are to be called “queens”, whereas husbands of ruling queens are to be called “princes”. Our Lady―whom we call the Queen of Heaven and Earth―is not without her king. That King is, of course, her Son―Our Lord Jesus Christ―to Whom Pontius Pilate asked the question: “‘Art Thou a king then?’ Jesus answered: ‘Thou sayest that I am a king. For this was I born, and for this came I into the world!’” (John 18:37). Our Lady is not there to usurp the throne of Christ and reign in place of Him―she is there to promote the reign of Christ throughout the world. St. Louis de Montfort says: “It was through the most holy Virgin Mary that Jesus came into the world, and it is also through her that He has to reign in the world … It was only through Mary that God the Father gave His Only begotten to the world … The Son of God became man for our salvation; but it was in Mary and by Mary … The conduct which the Three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity have deigned to pursue in the Incarnation and the first coming of Jesus Christ, They still pursue daily, in an invisible manner, throughout the whole Church; and They will still pursue it even to the consummation of ages in the last coming of Jesus Christ … God the Father wishes to have children by Mary till the consummation of the world” (True Devotion to Mary). St. Louis de Montfort continues: “God the Father wishes to have children by Mary till the consummation of the world … All the true children of God, the predestinate, have God for their Father and Mary for their Mother. He who has not Mary for his Mother has not God for his Father. This is the reason why the reprobate, such as heretics, schismatics and others, who hate our Blessed Lady or regard her with contempt and indifference, have not God for their Father, however much they boast of it, simply because they have not Mary for their Mother … Mary has produced, together with the Holy Ghost, the greatest thing which has been or ever will be—a God Man; and she will consequently produce the greatest saints that there will be in the end of time. The formation and the education of the great saints who shall come at the end of the world are reserved for her” (True Devotion to Mary). Never mind about “Making America Great Again!” What about making souls holy again? “For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). God―as revealed by Our Lady of America―expects a holiness from America, saying to them what He once said to His Chosen People, that He wants “to make thee higher than all nations which He hath created, to His own praise, and Name, and glory―so that thou mayest be a holy people of the Lord thy God!” (Deuteronomy 26:19). “Sanctify yourselves, and be ye holy―because I am the Lord your God!” (Leviticus 20:7). In another of his works, The Secret of Mary, St. Louis de Montfort addresses the quest for this holiness: “Chosen soul, living image of God and redeemed by the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, God wants you to become holy like Him in this life, and glorious like Him in the next (Matthew 5:48). It is certain that growth in the holiness of God is your vocation. All your thoughts, words, actions, everything you suffer or undertake, must lead you towards that end. Otherwise you are resisting God, in not doing the work for which He created you and for which He is even now keeping you in being. What a marvelous transformation is possible! Dust into light, uncleanness into purity, sinfulness into holiness, creature into Creator, man into God! A marvelous work, I repeat, so difficult in itself, and even impossible for a mere creature to bring about, for only God can accomplish it by giving His grace abundantly and in an extraordinary manner. The very creation of the universe is not as great an achievement as this. “Chosen soul, how will you bring this about? What steps will you take to reach the high level to which God is calling you? The means of holiness and salvation are known to everybody, since they are found in the Gospel; the masters of the spiritual life have explained them; the saints have practiced them and shown how essential they are for those who wish to be saved and attain perfection. These means are: sincere humility, unceasing prayer, complete self-denial, abandonment to divine Providence, and obedience to the will of God. “The grace and help of God are absolutely necessary for us to practice all these, but we are sure that grace will be given to all, though not in the same measure. I say “not in the same measure,” because God does not give His graces in equal measure to everyone (Romans 12:6), although in His infinite goodness He always gives sufficient grace to each. A person who corresponds to great graces performs great works, and one who corresponds to lesser graces performs lesser works. The value and high standard of our actions corresponds to the value and perfection of the grace given by God and responded to by the faithful soul. No one can contest these principles. “It all comes to this, then. We must discover a simple means to obtain from God the grace needed to become holy. It is precisely this I wish to teach you. My contention is that you must first discover Mary if you would obtain this grace from God” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of Mary). St. Louis then makes ten points on how Mary leads us to holiness and, so to speak, “Makes Our Souls Great Again!” (1) Mary alone found grace with God for herself and for every individual person (Luke 1:30). No patriarch nor prophet nor any other holy person of the Old Law could manage to find this grace; (2) It was Mary who gave existence and life to the author of all grace and, because of this, she is called the “Mother of Grace.” (3) God the Father, from Whom, as from its essential source, every perfect gift and every grace come down to us (James 1:17), gave her every grace when He gave her His Son. Thus, as St. Bernard says, the will of God is manifested to her in Jesus and with Jesus. (4) God chose her to be the treasurer, the administrator and the dispenser of all His graces, so that all His graces and gifts pass through her hands. Such is the power that she has received from Him that, according to St. Bernardine, she gives the graces of the eternal Father, the virtues of Jesus Christ, and the gifts of the Holy Ghost to whom she wills, as and when she wills, and as much as she wills. (5) As in the natural life a child must have a father and a mother, so in the supernatural life of grace a true child of the Church must have God for his Father and Mary for his mother. If he prides himself on having God for his Father, but does not give Mary the tender affection of a true child, he is an imposter and his father is the devil. (6) Since Mary produced the head of the elect, Jesus Christ, she must also produce the members of that head, that is, all true Christians. A mother does not conceive a head without members, nor members without a head. If anyone, then, wishes to become a member of Jesus Christ, and consequently be filled with grace and truth, (John 1:14), he must be formed in Mary through the grace of Jesus Christ, which she possesses with a fullness enabling her to communicate it abundantly to true members of Jesus Christ, her true children. (7) The Holy Ghost espoused Mary and produced His greatest work, the incarnate Word, in her, by her and through her. He has never disowned her and so He continues to produce every day, in a mysterious but very real manner, the souls of the elect in her and through her. (8) Mary received, from God, a unique dominion over souls, enabling her to nourish them and make them more and more godlike. St. Augustine went so far as to say that, even in this world, all the elect are enclosed in the womb of Mary, and that their real birthday is when this good mother brings them forth to eternal life. Consequently, just as an infant draws all its nourishment from its mother, who gives according to its needs, so the elect draw all their spiritual nourishment and all their strength from Mary. (9) It was to Mary that God the Father said, “Dwell in Jacob” (Ecclesiasticus 24:8, 12) that is, dwell in my elect, who are typified by Jacob. It was to Mary that God the Son said, “My dear Mother, your inheritance is in Israel,” that is, in the elect. It was to Mary that the Holy Ghost said, “Place your roots in my elect.” Whoever, then, is of the chosen and predestinate, will have the Blessed Virgin living within him, and he will let her plant in his very soul the roots of every virtue, but especially deep humility and ardent charity. (10) Mary is called by St. Augustine, and is indeed, the “living mold of God.” In her alone the God-man was formed in His human nature without losing any feature of the Godhead. In her alone, by the grace of Jesus Christ, man is made godlike as far as human nature is capable of it” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of Mary). St. Louis de Montfort adds: “When the Holy Ghost, her Spouse, has found Mary in a soul, He flies there. He enters there in His fullness; He communicates Himself to that soul abundantly, and to the full extent to which it makes room for His spouse. Nay, one of the greatest reasons why the Holy Ghost does not now do startling wonders in our souls is because He does not find there a sufficiently great union with His faithful and inseparable spouse.” (True Devotion to Mary). How the Planet would change if Mary were elected “President”!! The following words of Fr. Frederick Faber, from the Preface of his own personal translation, from the original French, of St. Louis de Montfort’s book, True Devotion to Mary, paints a picture of how different the world would be if Mary reigned in our minds and hearts: “All those who are likely to read this book [True Devotion to Mary], love God, and lament that they do not love Him more; all desire something for His glory—the spread of some good work, the success of some devotion, the coming of some good time. One man has been striving for years to overcome a particular fault, and has not succeeded. Another mourns, and almost wonders while he mourns, that so few of his relations and friends have been converted to the Faith. One grieves that he has not devotion enough; another that he has a cross to carry which is a peculiarly impossible cross to him; while a third has domestic troubles and family unhappinesses which feel almost incompatible with his salvation; and for all these things prayer appears to bring so little remedy. “But what is the remedy that is wanted? What is the remedy indicated by God Himself? If we may rely on the disclosures of the saints, it is an immense increase of devotion to our Blessed Lady; but, remember, nothing short of an immense one! Here in England, Mary is not half enough preached! Devotion to her is low and thin and poor! It is frightened out of its wits by the sneers of heresy! It is always invoking human respect and carnal prudence, wishing to make Mary so little of a Mary that Protestants may feel at ease about her! Its ignorance of theology makes it unsubstantial and unworthy! It is not the prominent characteristic of our religion which it ought to be! It has no faith in itself! Hence it is that Jesus is not loved, that heretics are not converted, that the Church is not exalted; that souls which might be saints wither and dwindle; that the Sacraments are not rightly frequented, or souls enthusiastically evangelized! “Jesus is obscured because Mary is kept in the background! Thousands of souls perish because Mary is withheld from them! It is the miserable, unworthy shadow which we call our devotion to the Blessed Virgin that is the cause of all these wants and blights, these evils and omissions and declines! Yet, if we are to believe the revelations of the saints, God is pressing for a greater, a wider, a stronger, quite another devotion to His Blessed Mother! I cannot think of a higher work or a broader vocation for anyone than the simple spreading of this peculiar devotion of the Venerable Grignion de Montfort! Let a man but try it for himself, and his surprise at the graces it brings with it, and the transformations it causes in his soul, will soon convince him of its otherwise almost incredible efficacy as a means for the salvation of men, and for the coming of the kingdom of Christ! Oh, if Mary were but known, there would be no coldness to Jesus then! Oh, if Mary were but known, how much more wonderful would be our Faith, and how different would our Communions be! Oh, if Mary were but known, how much happier, how much holier, how much less worldly should we be, and how much more should we be living images of our sole Lord and Savior, her dearest and most blessed Son!” (Fr. Frederick Faber, from the Preface, True Devotion to Mary,). We need Mary’s rule in our lives. Until we elect Our Lady as Queen of our Hearts, or, if you like, President of our Planet, then we will continue in our ever increasing spiral downwards in sin towards Hell. Just as worldly presidential candidates will say that they are the only ones who can bring the country out of its demise and problems―Our Lady likewise, at her “Fatima Convention” on July 13th, 1917, while referring to herself under the title of “Our Lady of the Rosary”―said: “Only she can help you now!” At her “Akita Convention” in Japan, on October 13th, 1973, Our Lady said the same thing: “I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved!” Article 9
Election Virus of Lies and Falsehood Election Fever Pandemic
When elections come around―be it the U.S. Presidential Elections or any other kind of major election―then it’s time to lie low! Or should it be said: “It’s time to lie and to lie in a low, mean, nasty way!” Isn’t it strange how everyone somehow feels dispensed from the virtue of charity during “Election Season”? You could say that Election time brings with it the “No-Love-Virus” which hits pandemic proportions during “Election Season”. Its symptoms are a raging fever, a racing heart, fits of anger and depression, foggy reasoning, selective hearing, temporary blindness and a host more, especially delirium. Voter Delirium Delirium is defined as an acute, fluctuating syndrome of altered attention, awareness, and cognition. Delirium is a serious disturbance in mental abilities that results in confused thinking and reduced awareness of the environment. Delirium causes an abrupt change in the brain, that leads to mental confusion and emotional disruption. It makes it difficult to think, remember, sleep, pay attention, and more. It is common in older persons. In the long term, delirium can cause permanent damage to cognitive or thinking abilities. An early sign of delirium of delirium may be a sudden confusion about time and often about place, where they are. If delirium is severe, people may not know who they, or who or what other people are. Thinking is confused, and people with delirium tend to ramble, sometimes becoming incoherent. It is interesting how delirium can relate to the political field and the way people see things and think about things politically! Here is a brief medical overview of delirium―you can easily relate it to politics! ► The Medical profession categorizes delirium as follows: ● Reduced awareness of the environment, which may result in: ● An inability to stay focused on a topic or to switch topics ● Getting stuck on an idea rather than responding to questions or conversation ● Being easily distracted by unimportant things ● Being withdrawn, with little or no activity or little response to the environment ► What are the general symptoms of delirium? The general symptoms of delirium usually start suddenly, over a few hours or a few days. They often come and go. The most common symptoms include: ● Changes in alertness (usually more alert in the morning, less at night) ● Changing levels of consciousness ● Confusion ● Disorganized thinking, talking in a way that doesn’t make sense ● Disrupted sleep patterns, sleepiness ● Emotional changes: anger, agitation, depression, irritability, overexcitement ● Hallucinations and delusions ● Incontinence ● Memory problems, especially with short-term memory ● Trouble concentrating ► Poor thinking skills (cognitive impairment) which may appear as: ● Poor memory, particularly of recent events ● Disorientation — for example, not knowing where you are or who you are ● Difficulty speaking or recalling words ● Rambling or nonsense speech ● Trouble understanding speech ● Difficulty reading or writing ►Behavior changes, which may include: ● Seeing things that don’t exist (hallucinations) ● Restlessness, agitation or combative behavior ● Calling out, moaning or making other sounds ● Being quiet and withdrawn — especially in older adults ● Slowed movement or lethargy ● Disturbed sleep habits ● Reversal of night-day sleep-wake cycle ► Emotional disturbances, which may appear as: ● Anxiety, fear or paranoia ● Depression ● Irritability or anger ● A sense of feeling elated (euphoria) ● Apathy ● Rapid and unpredictable mood shifts ● Personality changes ► Types of delirium Experts have identified three types of delirium: ● Hyperactive delirium. Probably the most easily recognized type, this may include restlessness (for example, pacing), agitation, rapid mood changes or hallucinations, and refusal to cooperate with care. ● Hypoactive delirium. This may include inactivity or reduced motor activity, sluggishness, abnormal drowsiness, or seeming to be in a daze. ● Mixed delirium. This includes both hyperactive and hypoactive signs and symptoms. The person may quickly switch back and forth from hyperactive to hypoactive states. Are you beginning to notice more and more cases of delirium around you as we enter “Election Season” or “Election Fever”? The state of delirium is the politicians and media’s dream! Symptom #1: Easily Distracted There is often a great deal going on around us. There can be multiple people doing different things, shows on the TV, and sometimes there are activities going on outside the window. Still, we generally manage to focus on what we are doing and take no notice of the other things that are going on. One of the early signs of delirium is that the patient can become easily distracted. Even trivial things can distract them from what they are supposed to be doing. This can make it very difficult for them to get anything done, even if they do have serious things to be focusing on. Politics is a master of distraction. Politicians will distract you from important truths with trivial matters. Symptom #2: Sticking on Ideas When talking with other people, we will tend to share ideas and thoughts on certain subjects. We’ll say what we have to say, and will then often stay quiet and listen to what other people have to say. People suffering from delirium, however, can find this to be difficult. Instead of sharing and listening, they will often focus on one point and stick to it. Instead of responding accordingly to the input of other people around them, they can continue on their path of talking about the idea that is stuck in their head. At times, it can be as though they are just talking to themselves and nobody else is around them. Have you noticed how many politicians have a theme or a slogan or a point that they keep hammering away at—which is usually some failure, fault, mistake or vice of their opponent. Symptom #3: Disorientation Our brains are very good at letting us know what is happening around us. We can take in various events and process them with ease, making us aware of our surroundings at all times. If all is not well, though, then even knowing what is around us can become very difficult. People suffering from delirium can become very disorientated. They may struggle to understand where they are and how they got there, as well as struggling to make sense of activities around them. It can become very disturbing for them, and they will likely need to be taken to a safe place. Politics loves to disorientate people, to confuse people so as to hide from them what is really going on. Symptom #4: Withdrawn We all have different personalities and some people like to get involved with activities more than others. Even those that do tend to be quite reserved, though, will still enjoy getting involved with close friends and family from time to time. However, if somebody has become more withdrawn than usual, then it can be a sign that all is not well. People that are suffering from delirium will often withdraw completely from activities and socializing with others. They may choose to stay in a room alone, away from everybody else, only speaking with others when absolutely necessary. This can also be a sign of various other problems, some of which can be very serious. Symptom #5: Memory Loss Human beings have impressive memories. We can remember complex calculations and also events that happened to us many years ago. Mostly, these memories will stay tucked away until we need them, at which point they can be recalled with ease. If the brain is not well, though, then recalling these memories can become a great deal harder. Patients with delirium will sometimes find that they begin to lose their memory. They can struggle to remember even simple things, especially things that have occurred recently. This is potentially risky, particularly when it comes to things such as turning off stoves and other appliances. It is amazing how many politicians have selective memory loss when it comes to their own failings—but have a memory as sharp as a tack when it comes to the failings of their opponents! Symptom #6: Rambling Good speakers are able to make themselves well understood. They are able to keep on topic and speak in a way that allows others to understand them with ease. Some people are better at this than others, but if somebody is rambling then it could be a sign of an illness. Patients with delirium will sometimes go from one topic to another when speaking. This can make it difficult to follow what they are saying as they are continually changing track. It is a sign of various mental illnesses and is something that should be checked out as soon as possible. Rambling can be art by which you sedate, hypnotize and drag people along with you. It can also backfire. However, one thing is certain, the “Election Season” is a “Rambling Season”. Symptom #7: Reading Difficulties Reading comes as second nature to most of us. Indeed, many of us even do so for pleasure, and some can read in multiple languages. It is something that we start learning from a young age and that lasts with us until the day that we die. Sometimes, though, even reading can become difficult for people. Delirium can cause people to have trouble reading, even if their eyes are in good working order. This means that they can also struggle to write regardless of their ability to use their hands. Such symptoms are a clear sign that something could be wrong so medical advice should be sought as soon as possible. Symptom #8: Trouble Finding Words Human beings have a very impressive vocabulary. We remember tens of thousands of words and are able to remember those words to use them at a whim. This allows us to speak in complex languages, and some people can even speak in multiple languages. Even people with a relatively limited vocabulary can still remember a surprising number of words. People with delirium, however, can have difficulty finding the words that they need. This can make it very difficult for them to communicate what they are thinking, and this can be very frustrating for them. This is in addition to other speaking problems such as slurred speech. It is no exaggeration to say that Americans (as well as most of the world) have been progressively and consistently “dumbed-down” over the last half-century or so. Part of that “dumbness” comes as a result of technology presenting information in the form of “pictures” ― television images, internet images, smartphone images, etc. In a certain sense we are regressing back to a second childhood or kindergarten―a time when we couldn’t read, nor could we think properly―but we loved pictures. That is why you have the predominance of pictures in early childhood books. Pictures replace words―and too much looking at pictures, where pictures replace words, leads to lack of vocabulary and lack of intellectual skill. People become “sheeple” and politicians just love their “sheeple”. Hence you have a government of the sheeple, by a few people, for the sheeple. Symptom #9: Paranoia It is sensible to keep your guard up to a degree. There is a chance that certain people might try to harm us, but some common sense will reduce the chances of anything bad happening considerably. For some people, though, it can feel like everybody is out to get them, even when nobody is. People with paranoia can feel as though other people are plotting behind their backs to hurt them. This can even include close friends and family, even if those people are only trying to help. Paranoia can occasionally lead to violent behavior as the patient feels they need to protect themselves from others. Is there such a thing as “political paranoia”? You bet there is! In fact, according to Robert Robins and Jerrold Post, experts in political psychology and authors of the book, Political Paranoia: The Psychopolitics of Hatred, paranoia is not an obscure mental state afflicting some individuals, but is a widespread condition of modern societies. Politicians can use the “paranoia tool” in a variety of ways to achieve their ends and goals. The classic political “cover-up” or “smoke-and-mirrors” trick is to label and smear all and any persons who “sniff-out” any corrupt or sinister dealings as being paranoid “conspiracy theorists.” The ridiculing and demonization of the “enemy” ― whether national or international ― is the general default position of American politics. In nearly every aspect of society and across cultures and time, ridicule works. Ridicule leverages the emotions and simplifies the complicated and takes on the powerful, in politics, business, law, entertainment, etc. Ridicule can tear down faster than the other side can rebuild. Many nasty and sinister things are successfully carried out behind the defensive wall of ridicule. Not all “conspiracy theories” are false theories―because there are conspiracies galore, from family, to business, to military matters and politics. The success of the “sinister” guys is to make the gullible public believe that all “conspiracy theories” are false and manifestations of paranoia. Symptom #10: Hallucinations Our sensory organs have evolved to be able to detect certain information around us. This information is then sent to the brain, which paints a picture of what is happening. It’s a system that works very well but it can sometimes go wrong. If the brain is not working properly, then the picture of the world it is painting can become very confused. Delirium can cause hallucinations. This means that the patient can see, hear, and even feel things that are just not there. It can be difficult for the patient to differentiate between what is real and what is not, and this can be made so much worse when accompanied by paranoia. Wow! Can you see the political delirium lurking behind those symptoms? We are about to enter a delirium pandemic as this 2020 U.S. Presidential Election takes off! That delirium is about to be fueled by the mainstream media which loves to make a mountain out of a molehill―and reduce a mountain to a mere molehill. The media―aided by the delirium merchants of politics―are about to launch the “delirium virus” on the gullible public and the symptoms are about to explode: distraction, rambling, sticking to ideas, disorientation, selective memory loss, seeing things that don’t exist, changing the reality of things, trouble concentrating on important things, trouble understanding things, hallucinations, etc. In this atmosphere, the bug of lies finds a most favorable platform to confuse the truth, hide the truth, twist the truth, deny the truth and destroy the truth. Political Delirium is a Patsy for Political Lies What is a “patsy”? A “patsy” is American slang for a gullible and weak-minded person. A “patsy” is a fool, usually a person that has good intentions but is deceived easily. That is what the mass of American voters are―manipulable patsies. The few who can and do think deeply, and can see past the political “smoke-and-mirrors” are just that―a few, very few―and a few votes matters little. The gullibility and naivety of the American masses has long been a talking point―there is no smoke without a fire. The progressive and relentless “dumbing-down” process of America has created a people that increasingly “think” with their emotions and feelings instead of thinking logically with their minds. More technically put―objectivity has been replaced by subjectivity, actual truth has been replaced by what an individual “feels” is the truth. Thus―if you can control and manipulate a person’s emotions and feelings, then you manipulate that person’s perceptions of truth. Or to put it another way, you can make that person believe that the truth is a lie, and then replace that real truth with your own lie, which you make out to be the “truth”. Thus truths become lies and lies become truth―good becomes evil and evil becomes good. “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isaias 5:20). Yet that is what much of today’s politics does. Hence William Casey, CIA Director from 1981 to 1987, was able to say: “We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” The Scientific American, in a June 15th 2017 article entitled “How to Address the Epidemic of Lies in Politics”, states: “Lying proved a very successful strategy for political causes and individual candidates in the U.K. and U.S. elections in 2016 … As such, it might seem ludicrous to many that we can solve the problem of lies in politics … The traditional mechanisms for identifying the truth about politics come from mainstream media and its fact checking. Polling shows, however, that trust in the mainstream media has dropped from around 50% to 32% from 2000 to 2016, and only 29% trust fact checking. No wonder fewer and fewer Americans are getting their news from mainstream media and engaging with fact checkers … Given the crumbling trust in traditional media and our vulnerability to lies on social media, we should not be surprised that politicians on both sides try to manipulate voters into believing lies. After all, the incentive for politicians is to get elected―not tell the truth. To be elected, politicians need to convey the appearance of trustworthiness—what talk show host Stephen Colbert infamously called “truthiness”―as opposed to being actually trustworthy.” Ultimately, when you reject Christ―Who said of Himself: “I am the Truth!”―then you automatically fall into the camp of Christ’s enemy, who is Satan or the devil, whom Christ called a liar. Thus, if politics rejects Christ or marginalizes Christ, or closets Christ―then it also rejects Christ’s love of truth, it marginalizes truth, it closets truth and begins to imitate the opposite of Christ, the devil, taking up the lying ways of the devil. Thus, Christ could justifiably say of most politicians today: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of lies!” (John 8:44). The “dumber” we are, the more easily we fall for the lies. There is a growing and disturbing trend of anti-intellectual elitism in American culture. It’s the dismissal of science, the arts, and humanities and their replacement by entertainment, self-righteousness, ignorance, and deliberate gullibility. Many universities in the United States are known more for their athletics than their academics. Mainly, this is because the average person is more likely to watch or attend college sports than to read books. People prefer to play rather than study; they prefer being entertained more than being educated; having fun supersedes having knowledge. This overspills into the spiritual life―where people prefer to play rather than pray. Susan Jacoby, author of The Age of American Unreason, says in an article in the Washington Post, “Dumbness, to paraphrase the late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, has been steadily defined downward for several decades, by a combination of heretofore irresistible forces. These include the triumph of video culture over print culture; a disjunction between Americans’ rising level of formal education and their shaky grasp of basic geography, science and history; and the fusion of anti-rationalism with anti-intellectualism.” There has been a long tradition of anti-intellectualism in America, unlike most other Western countries. Richard Hofstadter, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1964 for his book, Anti-Intellectualism In American Life, describes how the vast underlying foundations of anti-elite, anti-reason and anti-science have been infused into America’s political and social fabric. Famous science fiction writer Isaac Asimov once said: “There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” Mark Bauerlein, in his book, The Dumbest Generation, reveals how a whole generation of youth is being dumbed down by their aversion to reading anything of substance and their addiction to digital “crap” via social media. Journalist Charles Pierce, author of Idiot America, adds another perspective: “The rise of idiot America today represents ― for profit mainly, but also and more cynically, for political advantage in the pursuit of power ― the breakdown of a consensus that the pursuit of knowledge is a good. It also represents the ascendancy of the notion that the people whom we should trust the least are the people who best know what they are talking about. In the new media age, everybody is an expert.” “There’s a pervasive suspicion of rights, privileges, knowledge and specialization,” says Catherine Liu, the author of American Idyll: Academic Anti-Elitism as Cultural Critique and a film and media studies professor at University of California. The very mission of universities has changed, argues Liu. “We don’t educate people anymore. We train them to get jobs.” Such a scenario is a perfect scenario for political manipulation through lies, half-truths, exaggerations, misrepresentations, obfuscations and constitutional deviations. Having exchanged thinking and study for fun and entertainment―the “sheeple” are on the verge of being corralled and confined by increasingly totalitarian governments, whom the “sheeple” willingly and ignorantly elect to be their “shepherds”. When you reject Christ as shepherd, the only other options are found at the “low-end” of the market. When you reject the truth (that Christ is and teaches), then you automatically slither down the slope of lies in trying to justify your rejection of truth. Article 8
What Should True Catholics Do In This Election? Holy Scripture tells that whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is a sin: “To him, therefore, who knoweth to do good, and doth it not, to him it is sin” (James 4:17). Being a true Catholic means more than just saying: “Lord! Lord!” ― “Why call you Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “Everyone therefore that hears these My words, and does them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock! And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock. And everyone that hears these My words, and does them not, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof!” (Matthew 7:24-27).
Catholics must remember that having the Faith is not enough―Hell is full of those who had the Faith! “Faith, if it has not works, is dead in itself. But some man will say: ‘You have Faith, and I have works!’ Show me your Faith without works; and I will show theeyou, by works, my Faith! You believe that there is one God. You do well―but the devils also believe and tremble. But will you know, O vain man, that Faith without works is dead? … For even as the body without the spirit is dead; so also Faith without works is dead!” (James 2:17-26). As the electoral wheels of theatrical propaganda began to churn once again, seeking to simultaneously entertain and bewitch the intellectually sleepy shallow minds of the manipulable masses, sucking them into a whirlpool of unchristian jibes, accusations, scandals, lies, false promises, etc. ― making the whole electoral process look like a humanized “Pavlov’s Dog Experiment” ― what can the Catholic do? What “works” can you do in preparation for this 2024 Presidential Election (providing that it takes place and there is no distracting and postponing event that suddenly breaks out―such as a war, civil unrest, civil war, or another super-pandemic created by men)? What “works” will work? Every Catholic will have their own subjective opinion and will follow their own subjective tendencies and predisposed preferences or biases. ► The Combative-Computer-Catholic will be guaranteed to scour the news and blogs, to make multiple opinionated posts, to forward lots of videos/articles/posts telling his or her e-mail list of contacts to “pass it on and make it go viral” ― as if there weren’t enough viruses floating around! This kind of Catholic is all-humanistic with little or no supernatural acumen or tactics. That humanistic zeal and self-confidence forgets that Our Lord said: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5) ― and so only human means and methods are used, while the supernatural means and methods are left aside and untried. Failure is inevitable―it always has been in the past, and always will be in the future. A lot of effort with very little or no real results. ► The Collecting-Catholic will also scour the news and blogs, collecting as much information about as many election related items as possible. This kind of Catholic becomes the proverbial “Jack of all trades, but master of none!” In other words, he ends up know a little about a lot of things―but knows a lot about very little. He ends up being the “two-bit” Catholic on election matters, full of “two-bit-phrases” and sensational superficial stories. Such a Catholic rarely digs beneath the surface of things and remains on the level of superficiality. Often the knowledge is isolated without “joining any dots” ― more a parrot than a thinker. They have no real ideas of their own, since they cannot penetrate and analyze things―they just repeat what is written by other or said by others. They collect the opinions of others. ► The Cerebral-Catholic is the reader, thinker, analyzer who thinks that the Faith is all about knowing the Faith and little else. The more they know, the better the Catholic they imagine themselves to be. Knowledge is power for them. They will fervently “talk the talk” but rarely will they “walk the walk”. The following words of Holy Scripture are especially applicable to them: “Faith, if it has not works, is dead in itself. But some man will say: ‘You have Faith, and I have works!’ Show me your Faith without works; and I will show you, by works, my Faith! You believe that there is one God. You dost well―but the devils also believe and tremble. But willl you know, O vain man, that Faith without works is dead? … For even as the body without the spirit is dead; so also Faith without works is dead!” (James 2:17-26). ► The Constipated-Catholic bears a close resemblance to the “Cerebral Catholic” in that much reading, study, thinking and analysis takes place―but nothing comes out from all this. It all stays “in the head” ― constipated, so to speak. These constipated Catholics and full of all kinds of knowledge but do nothing with it. It is almost like doing tons of research for an essay―and then never writing that essay. Or studying mechanics to understand how your car works―but then never fixing anything that goes wrong. To such a Catholic you can also apply the above quoted words of Scripture: “Faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself ... etc.” (James 2:17-26). ► The Conned-Catholic will gullibly gulp down all the official mainstream media fodder that is fed to gullible GOPS, or retard Republicans, or Demented Democrats. To these easily conned Catholics, the words of the media are like the Gospel, all of which is accepted blindly and without question. As William Casey, CIA Director from 1981 to 1987, said in 1982 to President Reagan: “We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” Investigative journalist Jack Anderson, wrote in the September 22nd, 1981, Santa Cruz Sentinel discussing the troubling CIA disinformation campaign being waged against Americans. Anderson pointed out the CIA’s “triple assault on the public’s right to know” included (1) trying to shut-off channels of information to the electorate, (2) seeking criminal penalties against reporters whose stories might identify CIA operatives, and the third which Anderson called most troubling, (3) spreading “disinformation” to news agencies. ► The Clueless-Catholic never really thinks―he or she just votes. That is the “be-all and end-all” of the matter. They don’t really follow the issues, they will never penetrate the “smoke and mirrors” of politics, they just don’t understand or don’t want to understand. Talk to them about the politics in the election and they will just stare blankly and you will draw a blank for an answer―the only thing they know is how fill in the ballot card or voting card. That is as far as it goes. The words of Pope St. Pius X, in his encyclical, Acerbo Nimis, on the lamentable dangers of ignorance in matters of Faith, could be equally applied to the ignorance of most people about politics which leads to a failure to take correct measures to remedy the evils within politics. The Pope writes: “The enemy has long been prowling about the fold and attacking it with such subtle cunning …. The chief cause of the present serious evils is to be found above all in ignorance of things divine … There are large numbers of Christians in our own time who are entirely ignorant … A great number of those who are condemned to eternal punishment, suffer that everlasting calamity because of ignorance …” ► The Couldn’t-Care-Catholic basically is so immersed in the world or his or her own personal life with its obligations, hobbies, pastimes, socializing, etc., that there is no time and no inclination to “waste time” on the political field. Family life, work duties, social life and a bunch of other things are far more pressing or exciting than trying to get involved in the political sphere. The bottom-line attitude is one of “What can I do anyway?” and so they do nothing and care nothing about it. ► The Capitulating-Catholic may well care about what is happening in the political field, but he or she has a similar final attitude as the one above ― “What can I do anyway?” They are aware of the evils and agendas within politics. They are perhaps even well-read and very knowledgeable on many points ― but they are low on Faith and Hope, and easily fall into despair and hopelessness in their feelings of helplessness. Our Lady mentions this kind of person, saying: “There will be occasions when all will seem lost and paralyzed. People will believe that all is lost!” They are discouraged, demoralized and depressed―which is exactly how Satan wants them to be―for discouraged, demoralized and depressed will not look for and will not use the weapons that could defeat Satan and his human minions in the political arena. ► The Cynical-Catholic believing that people are motivated by self-interest; distrustful of human sincerity or integrity, is likely to be of the opinion that “all politicians are crooks” and has no trust for anyone. The cynical Catholic cannot believe that the political field is reformable and has written it all off as irredeemable. This cynicism leads to a kind of fatalism, which reasons that there is no way out of the evil stranglehold that current day politics has on the events in the world. Ultimately the cynical Catholic will end up being a capitulating Catholic. ► The Cowardly-Catholic might be a devout Catholic, even a fervent Catholic, or, on the contrary, a lukewarm Catholic. The cowardly Catholic knows what should be done―but does not want to suffer in any way by actually doing it. The cowardly Catholic would seek to “win the war” from the comfort of his or her armchair. They say―sarcastically―that best quarterbacks in football are the “armchair quarterbacks” sitting in front of their TV screens, who see all, know all, tell you all―but have done nothing. You could call them “Couch-Potato-Catholics” ― all talk, no action. They are quick to pontificate about the pope, pick-to-pieces political plans, paddywhack presidents and pound politicians―but they are afraid to put into practice the solutions that Heaven has provided, because extra prayers, penances and sacrifices call for too much effort. They do not want to get out the armchair, enter the fight and be in the “line of fire” or on the “front-line” ― at best, they might become timorous back-seat drivers, whose fearfulness will never inspire courage in others. ► The Chameleon-Catholic is the “please everyone” type of Catholic, who is the bad version of the Old Testament Joseph with his coat of many colors. The chameleon Catholic, like all true Liberals, will change his tune often and whistle what others like to hear, or will change his coat to suit the company he finds himself―like the proverbial “turncoat” or traitor, who shifts allegiance from one loyalty or ideal to another, betraying or deserting an original cause by switching to the opposing side or party. Too much human respect and not enough respect for God is the problem. ► The Complacent-Catholic is the eternal optimist who fails to realize that Hell is full of eternal optimists who are no longer very optimistic. The complacent Catholic imagines a lot of things―and the key word is “imagines”, for imagination is not reality. The complacent Catholic imagines that since Our Lady has promised that her Immaculate Heart will triumph―then there is nothing for the complacent Catholic to do except sit on bleachers (grandstand seats) and happily watch the spectacle. The complacent Catholic forgets to “Fight the good fight of Faith” (1 Timothy 6:12) because “the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away” (Matthew 11:12). Forgetting too that Sister Lucia of Fatima said: “the devil is engaging in a battle with the Virgin―a decisive battle. It is a final battle where one party will be victorious and the other will suffer defeat. So, from now on, we are either with God or we are with the Devil―there is no middle ground” (Sr. Lucia of Fatima to Fr. Fuentes, December 26th, 1957). There is no “middle-ground”―meaning there can be no spectators. Yes―Mary will win―but she needs fighters, as she said at La Salette: “I make an urgent appeal to the Earth! I call on the true disciples of the living God! I call on the true followers of Christ! I call on my children, the true faithful! I call on the Apostles of the Last Days! It is time they came out and filled the world with light! Go and reveal yourselves to be my cherished children! I am at your side and within you, provided that your Faith is the light which shines upon you in these unhappy days! May your zeal make you famished for the glory and the honor of Jesus Christ! Fight, children of light, you, the few who can see! For now is the time of all times, the end of all ends!” ► The Cocksure-Catholic is not short on courage, but is short of common sense. As the proverb says: “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread!” The courage of the cocksure Catholic is more often than not based on his or her own power, knowledge, skills and experience. They rely more on their human abilities than upon God’s help―which becomes secondary or superficial. They almost seem to say: “Hey, Lord! Why don’t you sit down and take a back seat! We don’t want you to get in the way or to get hurt! Leave this to us!” They either forget or ignore Our Lord’s words: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). They boldly march into battle with their sword of pride, but having left behind their shield of humility. St. Peter shows this trait in Garden of Gethsemane, when, at the arrest of Jesus, he confidently draws out his sword―even though he is heavily outnumbered―and is ready to fight it out. Yet the cocksure Peter would later deny Christ three times before the cock would crow three times. “Jesus said to him: ‘Amen I say to thee, that in this night, before the cock crows twice, thou wilt deny Me thrice!’ Peter said to Him: ‘Yea, though I should die with Thee, I will not deny Thee!” (Matthew 26:34-25). That cocky attitude would turn to humility at cockcrow. “And Peter remembered the word of Jesus which He had said: ‘Before the cock crow, thou wilt deny Me thrice!’ And going forth, he wept bitterly!” (Matthew 26:75). In these current battles of Church and State, of nation with nation, of patriot with traitor―if we rely upon ourselves, our own knowledge, power, skill and experience―then, as in the case of Peter, it will all end in tears. ► The Conquering-Catholic is the humble Soldier of Christ, who knows that without the help of Heaven and grace―all will be lost. The conquering Catholics trusts in the words of God in Holy Scripture: “For whatsoever is born of God, overcomes the world! And this is the victory which overcomes the world―our Faith!” (1 John 5:4). “Fear them not―for the Lord your God will fight for you!” (Deuteronomy 3:22). “They shall be as mighty men, treading underfoot the mire of the ways in battle. And they shall fight because the Lord is with them” (Zacharias 10:5). “Put not your trust in princes” (Psalm 145:2). “Trust not thyself!” (Ecclesiasticus 7:28). “I will not trust in my bow; neither shall my sword save me!” (Psalm 43:7). “In God I have put my trust! I will not fear what flesh can do against me!” (Psalm 55:5). “In Thee, O my God, I put my trust! Let me not be brought to shame!” (Psalm 24:2). The conquering Catholic will realize that in the many crises that surround us, “our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places” (Ephesians 6:12). “This kind can go out by nothing, but by prayer and fasting” (Mark 9:28). Realizing these things, the Conquering Catholic heartily takes up the cross of Christ to follow Him on the road to victory over self and the world―which is the Road of the Cross, or the Way of Cross, the narrow way, or narrow gate that leads to Heaven and triumph. “And Jesus said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!” (Luke 9:23). “And whosoever does not carry his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27). “And he that takes not up his cross to follow Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38). The cross of Christ encompasses the fasting, the penances, the sacrifices and the proof of love that is required to overcome this world and reach Heaven. It is that cross of Christ that requires separation from the world and a renunciation of friendship with the world―for the world is an enemy to God: “My kingdom is not of this world ... My kingdom is not from hence!” (John 18:36). To the worldlings He says: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). To His followers He says: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, for I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you!” (John 15:19). “If the world hates you, know ye, that it has hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “The world hates Me because I give testimony of it, that the works of the world are evil!” (John 7:7). “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth, but lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:19-24). “Adulterers! Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4). “We have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; so that we may know the things that are given us from God! … Use this world, as if [you] used it not: for the fashion of this world passes away!” (1 Corinthians 2:12; 7:31). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Bear not the yoke with unbelievers! What fellowship has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part have the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God! As God says: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’ Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ says the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17). Christ came into the world to save the world from the world. He has compassion on the world: “For God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son; that whosoever believes in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent not His Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by Him” (John 3:16-17). “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). “I came not to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12:47), so that “all the world may be made subject to God” (Romans 3:19). Yet, even though Christ had compassion for the world, He did not have compassion for the spirit of worldliness. He came to extract us from the world, not to cement us in the world. “This is the judgment―because the light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light―for their works were evil” (John 3:19). “Jesus spoke to them, saying: ‘I am the light of the world! He that follows Me, walks not in darkness!’” (John 8:12). “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not … He came unto His own, and His own received Him not … the light shone in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” (John 1:5-11). God loved the world, but the world hated God and preferred evil pleasures: “The world cannot hate you; but Me it hates―because I give testimony of it, that the works of the world are evil” (John 7:7). “If the world hates you, know ye, that it has hated Me before you … If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, and because I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19). “Blessed are they that suffer persecution for the sake of justice―for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for My sake! Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in Heaven! For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you!” (Matthew 5:10-12). The Conquering Catholic feeds upon such words of Holy Scripture, knowing full well that “Not in bread alone does man live, but in every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4) and he finds his weapons in those words of God, since “the word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12), therefore “take unto you the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit―which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17). “And out of His mouth proceeds a sharp two-edged sword―so that with it He may strike the nations” (Apocalypse 19:15). The world is a lying world, an untruthful world, a fake world―just like its prince, the devil, the father of lies. The Conquering Catholic goes into battle against the world armed with words and truths of Christ ringing in his ears: “Be not afraid of them who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you Whom you shall fear! Fear ye Him, Who, after He has killed, has the power to cast into Hell. Yea, I say to you, fear Him!” (Luke 12:4-5). “Without Me, you can do nothing! … Teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you … He that hears you, hears Me; and he that despises you, despises Me; and he that despises Me, despises Him that sent Me” (John 15:5; Matthew 28:19-20; Luke 10:16). “Follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that does good, is of God! He that does evil, has not seen God” (3 John 1:11). “Hating that which is evil, cleaving to that which is good … Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good!” (Romans 12:9, 21). “Let no man deceive you! He that does justice, is just―even as Christ is just. He that commits sin, is of the devil―for the devil sinned from the beginning” (1 John 3:7-8). Article 7
Presidents or Puppets? Election or Selection? Political Chess or Satanic Chess? Are Politicians Wolves or Sheep―Serpents or Doves?
Are Presidents Puppets? Elected or Selected? The problem with most good people is that they are too trusting. Normally, that would be a good thing and a normal thing―for we are inherently born to trust. We trust our parents from the very beginning―we have no reason to distrust them. Children of Protestant parents trust and believe that what their parents tell them about their Protestantism being the right religion and Catholicism being, in effect, the Whore of Babylon and a work of the devil―and God allows that to happen! We are made by God to trust, we like to trust and we do trust―but sometimes our trust brings terrible consequences. Even though we were made to trust―we also have to be discerning and prudent. As Our Lord says: “Behold―I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye, therefore, wise as serpents and simple as doves!” (Matthew 10:16). “Beware of false prophets―who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Matthew 7:15). You could as well say: “Behold―I send you as sheep in the midst of political wolves. Be ye, therefore, wise as serpents and simple as doves!” (Matthew 10:16). “Beware of false politicians―who come to you in the clothing of a shepherd, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Matthew 7:15). Personally, there is someone more believable than any or many a politician (or wolf, or serpent)―and that is Our Lady. While this or that politician might tell us one thing or another―Our Lady tells us: “From the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects [and take note that Scripture backs this up: “Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go forth, and seduce the nations, which are over the four quarters of the Earth” (Apocalypse 20:7)] ... During this epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect … These years, during which the evil sect of Masonry will take control of the civil government, will see a cruel persecution of all religious communities … All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds. They will abolish civil rights, as well as ecclesiastical rights. All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and dissension will be seen, without love for country or family.” We are now in the 21st century and it certainly looks that Our Lady was right―even though the Masons do not walk around wearing a T-Shirt saying: “I am a Freemason and I want you to know it!” The unbelievable worldwide coordination and evil manipulation of people and organizations in the recent Con-all-a-virus Plannedemic by all governments, by medical authorities and many other organizations within each nation, would be near impossible without a Masonic substrata and its interconnecting roots and branches―for their tentacles reach into all the major positions of authority and influence throughout the chief nations. Let it be said, though, that Masonry is still merely a puppet that is under control of the “higher-ups” or “puppet-masters” in Satan’s recruited hierarchy. On that point, it is well worth quoting the recently deceased former chief exorcist of Rome, Fr. Gabriele Amorth, on the connection between Satan and those in positions of authority, such as politicians and business leaders: “The smoke of Satan has entered everywhere. Everywhere! Satanism is on the increase. Today Satan rules the world. The masses no longer believe in God. Evil exists in politics―quite often in fact! And, yes, Satan is in the Vatican! The devil resides in the Vatican. I have no doubt about the fact that the demon tempts the authorities of the Church especially―just as he tempts every authority, those of politics and industry. Everybody is vulnerable to the work of Satan! The devil loves to take over business leaders and those who hold political office!” What’s the Goal? What’s the “End-Game”? The stooges of Satan recently came out of the woodwork before our own very eyes―the recent Pandemic (with promises of more to come), the Pandemic regulations, the lockdowns, the loss of life, the job losses, the wounded and soon to be crashing economy, the arm-twisting mandatory Covid vaccinations, the threat of mandatory electronic ID implementations on the body of everyone, the push for a digitized money cashless society, the contentious 2020 Presidential Election, the accusations of fraud and treason, the polarization of people over a variety of issues, the provocation of civil unrest, the riots, the looting, the burning of buildings and cars, the violence, the killings―all of these are not the ultimate “Goal” nor the “End Game” of those who are in the process of creating and manipulating these scenarios. All of the above are merely chess-moves that are leading to the proverbial “checkmate”. Chess Over Souls We are not playing “chess” against mere humans―but we are playing “chess” against Satan. You could take Sister Lucia of Fatima’s words about Satan fighting a final battle against the Blessed Virgin Mary and put it into a “chess” context. Our Lady (being white) has her “pieces” in this world ― Satan (being black) has his “pieces” in this world. We should be “moved” by Our Lady just as evil men are “moved” by Satan. Since the “chess masters” ― Our Lady and Satan ― are way beyond us in power, intelligence and skill, we should not proudly presume to move ourselves, but humbly wait to moved when and where Our Lady wants us moved. The “Goal” or the “End Game” is to either “checkmate” Christ the King, or to “checkmate” Satan. Just as in a game of chess, the more pieces of your opponent that you capture, the more exposed and weaker your opponent’s king becomes―so too in the “Spiritual Chess Game”. The more souls that Satan can capture, the weaker and more fragile becomes the Social Reign of Christ the King. As Fr. Amorth said above: “The demon tempts the authorities of the Church especially [which we could compare to the Queen and Bishops in chess]―just as he tempts every authority, those of politics and industry [which we could compare to the Rooks (crooks?) and Knights in chess]. Everybody is vulnerable to the work of Satan! The devil loves to take over business leaders and those who hold political office!” Satan wants all the “pieces” so the “King” on the chessboard (Christ) is left all alone. On the other hand, Our Lady wants all of Satan’s pieces in order to convert them to Christ. Satan, knowing that he cannot destroy Christ (even though he would wish to do so if he could), satisfies himself with destroying and dragging down to Hell as many souls as he possibly can―regardless of whether are Catholics, Protestants, Pagans, Atheists or whatever. Satan wants them all. That is the “Goal” or the “End-Game” ― and everything else is merely a “chess-move” that he hopes will lead to a “checkmate” on every single soul. Chess and Deception Just because all the chess pieces visible and in full view, leads to a common misconception that chess does not contain deception. On the contrary, chess is essentially a game of deception and trickery―you do not win by making your intentions obvious―instead you disguise your intentions, create distractions with some pieces, and deliberately sacrifice other pieces. It is a game of deception and decoy; of contrivances to convince your opponent to believe you intend to do X, while all the while planning to do Y. All this is done with the intention of fooling your opponent into thinking that you are going to do one thing―whereas you really intend to do something different. The possibility for deception arises by preying on the beliefs of your opponent and presenting them with the opportunity of deceiving themselves. Satan is the ultimate deceiver―he deceived Eve into eating the forbidden fruit and thus disobeying God―and he has continued his deceptive moves ever since then, “checkmating” most souls by his deceptions, decoys and distractions. If you could say such a thing, then Satan has found a paradise on Earth in politics. It has come to the point where you almost have to have deception built into your DNA in order to get into politics―or at least in order to rise to the higher levels of politics. Here, we need to remind ourselves of the boastful words of William Casey, CIA Director from 1981 to 1987, allegedly boasted to the newly elected President Reagan in February of 1981: “We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” That deceptive political and governmental trait reflects Satan―the ultimate deceiver. The deceptive “chess moves” of Satan are far beyond the meager and ever-weakening intelligence of modern man. To face Satan at the “chessboard of life”, all alone and without assistance and coaching, is like an 8-year-old child trying to play against a world Chess Master. No contest! A pushover! That is where we need to remember the humbling and blunt words of Holy Scripture and Our Lord: “Be sober and watch―because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour!” (1 Peter 5:8). “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). “The things that are impossible with men, are possible with God!” (Luke 18:27). The deceptive “chess moves” of Satan are far beyond the meager and ever-weakening intelligence of modern man. To face Satan at the “chessboard of life”, all alone and without assistance and coaching, is like an 8-year-old child trying to play against a world Chess Master. No contest! A pushover! That is where we need to remember the humbling and blunt words of Holy Scripture and Our Lord: “Be sober and watch―because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour!” (1 Peter 5:8). “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). “The things that are impossible with men, are possible with God!” (Luke 18:27). On the other hand, one could also say: “The deceptions that are impossible with men, are possible with Satan!” and you could also have Satan saying: “Without me, your deceptions will be like nothing!” With his evil angelic intellect, Satan can come up with ploys, decoys, distractions and deceptions that are way beyond our imaginative powers. If St. Paul writes of God: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9) ― then we could also say: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what deceptions Satan is prepared to create for those that work for him.” It would not be a far-fetched statement to say that Satan has had a great part to play in the creation of modern technology. Why? How can you say that? Well, because, as Our Lord says: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves! By their fruits you shall know them! Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit … Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them!” (Matthew 7:15-18). The fruits of most of modern technology are pulling people away from God, away from prayer, away from spiritual exercises, away from a spirit of mortification and sacrifice―instead they spend precious hours in front of their various idols―television screen, computer screen, tablet screen, smartphone screen―but in church or at prayer they are rarely seen! Let us turn for a moment from the deceptions of Satan to the deceptions of that hidden Catholic of the Protestant Reformation, William Shakespeare―who, besides deceiving the authorities as to his adherence to Catholicism, also wrote of deception in some of his many famous and celebrated plays. In one such play―Hamlet― Shakespeare has Queen Gertrude say the line: “The lady doth protest too much, methinks!” The play―Hamlet― depicts Prince Hamlet seeking revenge against his uncle, Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet’s father in order to seize his throne and marry Hamlet’s mother―Queen Gertrude. Hamlet―believing that his father, the king, was murdered by his uncle Claudius―decides to stage a play, the Murder of Gonzago, that follows a very similar sequence of events that led to the murder of his father, in order to test whether viewing the play will trigger a guilty conscience on the part of Claudius. As Hamlet, Gertrude, Claudius and others watch the ‘play-within-the-play’, the Player Queen, representing Queen Gertrude, declares in flowery language that she will never remarry if her husband dies. Hamlet then turns to his mother and asks her: “Madam, how like you this play?”, to which Queen Gertrude replies ironically: “The lady doth protest too much, methinks!” ― meaning that the Player Queen’s protestations of love and fidelity are too excessive to be believed. Is that what could be said of the political leaders and the media in the current Presidential Election turmoil and crisis―or could it be said “Presidential Play Acting Crisis”? Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction! Is there too much “protestation” going on from both sides? “The candidates doth protest too much, methinks!” A little too much of the theatrical? A little too much of the hyperbole? A little too much of stirring-up the watching audience? Are they putting on a show―a “play-within-a-play”? Perhaps. If so, then why? For what purpose? To what goal? It’s Not About Trump and Harris Trump and Harris, with their Presidential Election Sideshow, are just that and no more―a sideshow, or, as in the play Hamlet, merely a “play-within-a-play”. It is highly likely―and you may find this highly contentious―that Trump and Harris are merely the supporting cast, chosen to play-out this dramatic scene that is merely a tiny part of the bigger play that is going on. Do you really imagine and think that Trump and Harris are key players on the world’s political scene? The uncanny, unprecedented, previously unimaginable seamless worldwide unity in recently locking down the world in the face of the over-exaggerated and largely falsified and falsely represented Covid-19 virus―shows that most of the world high ranking politicians are in the “back-pocket” of the “higher-ups” or whatever other name you wish to give them. Ultimately, there are only two chief Globalists operating in the world―and they are not who you think they are! The first Globalist is Christ and other Globalist is Satan―both want to establish a “one world government” and rule over all peoples and nations. Anyone else and everyone else merely is an ‘employee’ of Christ or Satan. Of Christ―the Son of man―Holy Scripture says: “In the days of those kingdoms, the God of Heaven will set up a Kingdom that shall never be destroyed, and His Kingdom shall not be delivered up to another people, and it shall break in pieces, and shall consume all these kingdoms, and itself shall stand for ever! … The Son of man came … and He [God] gave Him [the Son of man] power, and glory, and a Kingdom―and all peoples, tribes and tongues shall serve Him. His power is an everlasting power that shall not be taken away; and His Kingdom shall not be destroyed.” (Daniel 2:44; 7:13-14). Our Lord Himself claimed power over all the Earth: “And Jesus spoke to them, saying: ‘All power is given to Me in Heaven and in Earth. Going, therefore, teach ye all nations―baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost―teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:18-20). “Other sheep I have, that are not of this fold―them also I must bring―and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd” (John 10:16). Concerning Satan, Holy Scripture says: “That great dragon, that old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan―who seduceth the whole world―was cast unto the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him” (Apocalypse 12:9). Earth is his “princedom” and Our Lord calls Satan the “prince of this world” ― “The prince of this world cometh, and in Me he hath not anything … The prince of this world is already judged ... Now shall the prince of this world be cast out!” (John 12:31; 16:11; 14:30). Satan now prowls about the world seeking its damnation―as an act of revenge in order to prevent gaining the Heaven that Satan had lost: “Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour!” (1 Peter 5:8) ― and he prefers do “devour” or possess those who are in authority, because their power and influence will be useful in capturing the common people beneath them―just as in the Catholic principle: “Convert the king and you will convert the people!” As the former chief exorcist of Rome, Fr. Gabriele Amorth said: “The demon tempts the authorities of the Church especially―just as he tempts every authority, those of politics and industry. Everybody is vulnerable to the work of Satan! The devil loves to take over business leaders and those who hold political office!” The devil even tried to tempt and recruit Jesus during the forty day and nights of fasting and prayer by Jesus in the desert, after which “the devil took Him [Jesus] up into a very high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and said to Him: ‘All these will I give Thee, if, falling down, Thou wilt adore me!’ Then Jesus said to him: ‘Begone, Satan! For it is written: ‘The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and Him only shalt thou serve!’” (Matthew 4:8-10). Though Satan failed to recruit Jesus, he has, nevertheless, recruited most kings, princes, presidents, rulers and governors. Holy Scripture says: “The kings of the Earth stood up, and the princes met together, against the Lord and against His Christ, [saying]: Let us break their bonds asunder: and let us cast away their yoke from us!” (Psalm 2:2-3) ― today, the Holy Ghost―the author of those words, just as He the author of all of Holy Scripture―today, He would be called a “Conspiracy Theorist” for saying that, and the “Fact Checkers” would try to prove Him wrong. Wild Unsubstantiated Crazy Conspiracy Theory? The “New World Order” is no conspiracy theory―President George H. Bush openly spoke of it before the Senate in his speech about the Persian Gulf Crisis, on September 11th, 1990: “The crisis in the Persian Gulf, as grave as it is, also offers a rare opportunity to move toward an historic period of cooperation. Out of these troubled times, our fifth objective — a New World Order — can emerge: a new era!” Already back in 19th century, the British Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, stated: “So you see, my dear Coningsby, that the world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes” (Benjamin Disraeli, 1804-1881, British Prime Minister from 1874 to 1880). Around the same time, it was Baron Nathan Mayer de Rothschild (1840-1915) who said: “I care not what puppet is placed on the throne of England to rule the British Empire on which the sun never sets. The man that controls Britain’s money supply controls the British Empire, and I control the British money supply.” What was true of the British Empire is equally true of the U.S. Empire, controlled remotely by the London based Elite through the Federal Reserve System. A little later, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson stated: “Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men’s views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it” (Woodrow Wilson, 1856-1924, 28th President of the United States from 1913 to 1921). Around the same time, Winston Churchill, who was eventually “bored by it all,” wrote around 1920: “From the days of Spartacus-Weishaupt to those of Karl Marx, to those of Trotsky, Bela Kun, Rosa Luxembourg, and Emma Goldman, this world wide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization and reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence and impossible equality, has been steadily growing. It played a definitely recognizable role in the tragedy of French Revolution. It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the nineteenth century, and now at last, this band of extraordinary personalities from the underworld of the great cities of Europe and America have gripped the Russian people by the hair of their heads, and have become practically the undisputed masters of that enormous empire.” (Winston Churchill, 1874-1965, twice British Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945, and from 1951 to 1955). Over 20 years later, when he was the British Prime Minister during World War II, Churchill referred to the existence of a “High Cabal” that had brought about unprecedented bloodshed in human history. Churchill is also said to have remarked about the Elite: “They have transported Lenin in a sealed truck like a plague bacillus from Switzerland into Russia…” (quoted by John Coleman in The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, Global Publications 2006). In 1961 the U.S. President John F. Kennedy (JFK) announced in front of the media: “The word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society, and we are as a people, inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, secret oaths and secret proceedings. For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy, that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence. It depends on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific, and political operations. Its preparations are concealed, not published, its mistakes are buried, not headlined, and its dissenters are silenced, not praised, no expenditure is questioned, no secret revealed… I am asking your help in the tremendous task of informing and alerting the American people.” Secret societies, secret oaths, secret proceedings, infiltration, subversion, intimidation ― these are the words used by JFK! On June 4th, 1963, JFK ordered the printing of Treasury dollar bills instead of Federal Reserve notes (Executive Order 11110). He also ordered that once these had been printed, the Federal Reserve notes would be withdrawn, and the Treasury bills put into circulation. A few months later (November 22nd, 1963) he was killed in broad daylight in front of the whole world ― his brains blown out. Upon assumption of power, his successor, President Lyndon Johnson, immediately reversed the order to switch to Treasury bills―showing very clearly one of the reasons why JFK was murdered. Another order of JFK, to militarily disengage from the Far East by withdrawing U.S. “advisors” from Vietnam, was also immediately reversed after his death. After the Cuban crisis, JFK wanted peaceful non-confrontational co-existence with the Soviet Union―and that meant no wars in the world. He knew the next war would be nuclear and there would be no winners. The defense industry and the banks―that make money from war―belong to the Elite. The Elite subscribes to a dialectical Hegelian philosophy, as pointed out by Antony Sutton, under which they bring about ‘controlled conflict’. The two World Wars were ‘controlled conflicts’! Their arrogance, their ceaseless energy, their focus, their utter disregard for human life, their ability to plan decades in advance, to act on that planning, and their continual success are staggering and faith-shaking. Statements by men like Disraeli, Wilson, Churchill, JFK and others should not leave any doubt in the mind of the reader about who controls the world. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt wrote in November 1933 to Colonel Edward House: “The real truth of the matter is―as you and I know―that a financial element, in the larger centers, has owned the government since the days of Andrew Jackson.” It may be recalled that Andrew Jackson, U.S. President from 1829-1837, was so enraged by the tactics of bankers (Rothschilds) that he said: “You are a den of vipers. I intend to rout you out and by the Eternal God I will rout you out! If the people only understood the rank injustice of our money and banking system, there would be a revolution before morning!” Article 6
Are You Caught-Up in the Hype? They say that whoever controls the money, also controls the world. The German Jewish banker and the founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty, often referred to as a “founding father of international finance,” Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812), once said: “Let me issue and control a nation’s money and I care not who writes the laws!” Many years later, Henry Kissinger, a friend of the Rothschild’s, and former U.S. Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presidents Nixon and Ford, also said: “Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world!” As they say, “Money talks!” He who has the most money, gets to talk the most. People tend to “listen” to money. Those with the most money have the strongest influence on the actions and decisions of people in politics.
Similarly, you may have heard it said that “Knowledge is power!” ― but money has more power, for it can buy knowledge, control knowledge, reformat knowledge, change knowledge (that is to say, change truth) and then re-sell that knowledge (changed truth, or call it what it really is―a lie) to all the unwitting ignorant dupes who indiscriminately crave that knowledge―without really knowing what it is that they know! He who controls the money, controls the media―and the mainstream media (MSM) is the modern-day “supermarket” of knowledge. There are still some “mom-and-pop” “corner-stores” media outlets―but they are a minor minority, not many people “shop” there for their knowledge, and the MSM (mainstream media) label such “corner-store” news outlets as being “dangerous” “conspiracy theorists” and seek to isolate, discredit and even drive them out of the knowledge “business”. Psychologists tell you that people have more and more trust in a message or statement the more and more times they hear it. Hence, the words of the media quickly become like the Gospel, all of which is accepted blindly and without question. As William Casey, CIA Director from 1981 to 1987, said in 1982 to President Reagan: “We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” Investigative journalist Jack Anderson―a contemporary of CIA Director William Casey―wrote are article in the September 22nd, 1981, Santa Cruz Sentinel, discussing the troubling CIA disinformation campaign being waged against Americans. Anderson pointed out the CIA’s “triple assault on the public’s right to know” included (1) trying to shut-off channels of information to the electorate, (2) seeking criminal penalties against reporters whose stories might identify CIA operatives, and the third which Anderson called most troubling, (3) spreading “disinformation” to news agencies. The Scientific American, in a June 15th 2017 article entitled “How to Address the Epidemic of Lies in Politics”, states: “Lying proved a very successful strategy for political causes and individual candidates in the U.K. and U.S. elections in 2016 … As such, it might seem ludicrous to many that we can solve the problem of lies in politics … The traditional mechanisms for identifying the truth about politics come from mainstream media and its fact checking. Polling shows, however, that trust in the mainstream media has dropped from around 50% to 32% from 2000 to 2016, and only 29% trust fact checking. No wonder fewer and fewer Americans are getting their news from mainstream media and engaging with fact checkers … Given the crumbling trust in traditional media and our vulnerability to lies on social media, we should not be surprised that politicians on both sides try to manipulate voters into believing lies. After all, the incentive for politicians is to get elected―not tell the truth. To be elected, politicians need to convey the appearance of trustworthiness—what talk show host Stephen Colbert infamously called “truthiness”―as opposed to being actually trustworthy.” A Gallup Poll conducted in 2023 reported that only 32% of Americans say they trust the mass media “a great deal” or “a fair amount” to report the news in a full, fair and accurate way―which ties Gallup’s lowest historical reading, previously recorded in 2016. Another 29% of U.S. adults have “not very much” trust in the mainstream media. While a record-high 39% registered “none at all.” Do not for one minute think that the lies, misinformation, disinformation or “fake news”―as the latest fashion tends to call it―rests solely in the lap of the politicians. No sirrreee! The politicians, for the most part, are mere puppets (witting or unwitting) of “higher-ups” who “call the shots” and “write the scripts”. It is, once again, money that talks. The money men are not only the puppet masters of most politicians, they are also the ventriloquists of the politicians. The politicians often open the mouth and look to be talking―but the words come from the ventriloquists. “What?” you say, “Do you really believe that? That’s just conspiracy theory garbage!” Discrediting truth is easy if you label truth as being a “conspiracy theory”. Perhaps we should distinguish―which the mainstream media refuses to distinguish―the difference between “conspiracy theories” and “conspiracy facts”. Not all “conspiracy theories” are true―but neither are all “conspiracy theories” untrue. Some are true and some are false. When we buy something or “buy-into” something―we tend to follow the success percentage in deciding what to buy. If a product works for you―you will buy it again; but if the product does not do what the label claims it will do, then you will not buy it again. Advertisers know this―and so they make sure that there are heaps of good reviews that accompany a product. Create an outlandish, crazy, whacko, far-fetched conspiracy theory and make it patently unbelievable and you have introduced “crazy cockle” among the “sane seed” that is planted in the minds of people. Now―if you keep creating more and more outlandish, crazy, whacko, far-fetched conspiracy theories and planting them in the minds of people―to the point where the crazy conspiracy theories outnumber the sane conspiracy theories by 100 to 1―then suddenly the likelihood of there being truth to these theories is 100 to 1. That is a clever way to discredit the truth―make truth guilty by the association of truth with the crazy conspiracy theories created just for that purpose. If 99 out of a 100 people have lied to you about their real name―then you are automatically going to presume that the 100th person will also lie to you―even though he is going to tell you the truth. Create and publish as many crazy conspiracy theories as possible, then make sure everyone hears about them, ridicule and mock them to scorn―and then even the true theories will be presumed to be crazy and will be rejected, or at least doubted. Article 5
How Can You Let Yourself Be So Fooled? A World of Fools
We live in a world of fools. A foolish world where the insignificant becomes important and the important becomes insignificant. A foolish world that lives for the present whilst foolishly ignoring the eternal. “The heart of fools where there is mirth” (Ecclesiastes 7:5). “The mouth of fools feeds on foolishness” (Proverbs 15:14). “Fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7). “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes” (Proverbs 12:15). “The instruction of fools is foolishness” (Proverbs 16:22). “For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:22). “Folly is joy to the fool” (Proverbs 15:21). “A fool will laugh at sin” (Proverbs 14:9). “The thought of a fool is sin” (Proverbs 24:9). “A friend of fools shall become like to them” (Proverbs 13:20). “Weep for the fool, for his understanding fails” (Ecclesiasticus 22:10). “The number of fools is infinite” (Ecclesiastes 1:15). There is a general consensus in the opinion that people have been “dumbed-down” considerably over that last 50 years or so. There is a growing and disturbing trend of anti-intellectual elitism in American culture. It’s the dismissal of science, the arts, and humanities and their replacement by entertainment, self-righteousness, ignorance, and deliberate gullibility. Susan Jacoby, author of The Age of American Unreason, says in an article in the Washington Post, “Dumbness, to paraphrase the late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, has been steadily defined downward for several decades, by a combination of heretofore irresistible forces. These include the triumph of video culture over print culture; a disjunction between Americans’ rising level of formal education and their shaky grasp of basic geography, science and history; and the fusion of anti-rationalism with anti-intellectualism.” There has been a long tradition of anti-intellectualism in America, unlike most other Western countries. Richard Hofstadter, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1964 for his book, Anti-Intellectualism In American Life, describes how the vast underlying foundations of anti-elite, anti-reason and anti-science have been infused into America’s political and social fabric. Famous science fiction writer Isaac Asimov once said: “There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” Mark Bauerlein, in his book, The Dumbest Generation, reveals how a whole generation of youth is being dumbed down by their aversion to reading anything of substance and their addiction to digital “crap” via social media. Journalist Charles Pierce, author of Idiot America, adds another perspective: “The rise of idiot America today represents ― for profit mainly, but also and more cynically, for political advantage in the pursuit of power ― the breakdown of a consensus that the pursuit of knowledge is a good. It also represents the ascendancy of the notion that the people whom we should trust the least, are the people who best know what they are talking about. In the new media age, everybody is an expert.” “There’s a pervasive suspicion of rights, privileges, knowledge and specialization,” says Catherine Liu, the author of American Idyll: Academic Anti-Elitism as Cultural Critique and a film and media studies professor at University of California. The very mission of universities has changed, argues Liu. “We don’t educate people anymore. We train them to get jobs.” Ultimately, we are witnessing a drifting away from a pursuit for truth, which is being replaced by a politically correct acceptance of the lie. Once again, we need to quote William Casey, CIA Director from 1981 to 1987, who told President Reagan shortly after his election: “We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” With each successive year―due to our being “dumbed-down”―we are letting ourselves be fooled by more and more lies masquerading as truth. The recent Conallwithavirus Plannedemic was a case in point―whereby we believed falsified death statistics; we wore homemade masks stupidly believing they would filter out the virus; we washed the skin off our hands; sanitized everything we could see, and believed that only a vaccine would save the world from destruction and that our God-given immune system was powerless to do anything―when for any sane person there was overwhelming SCIENTIFIC evidence that disproved those propaganda lies and narratives. Stupid is as stupid does! And there are a lot of stupid people doing stupid things because they believe stupid things! Emperor’s New Clothes―King With No Clothes―Invisible Suit of Clothes We would do well to read and ponder upon Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale about the [Stupid] Emperor’s New Clothes―also known as The King With No Clothes―The Invisible Suit of Clothes. It is especially applicable for our own day and age! Many years ago there was an Emperor so exceedingly fond of new clothes that he spent all his money on being well dressed. He cared nothing about reviewing his soldiers, going to the theatre, or going for a ride in his carriage, except to show off his new clothes. He had a coat for every hour of the day, and instead of saying, as one might, about any other ruler, “The King’s in council,” here they always said. “The Emperor’s in his dressing room.” In the great city where he lived, life was always joyful and entertaining. Every day many strangers came to town, and among them one day came two swindlers. They let it be known they were weavers, and they said they could weave the most magnificent fabrics imaginable. Not only were their colors and patterns uncommonly fine, but clothes made of this cloth had a wonderful way of becoming invisible to anyone who was unfit for his office, or who was unusually stupid. “Those would be just the clothes for me,” thought the Emperor. “If I wore them I would be able to discover which men in my empire are unfit for their posts. And I could tell the wise men from the fools. Yes, I certainly must get some of the stuff woven for me right away.” He paid the two swindlers a large sum of money to start work at once. They set up two looms and pretended to weave, though there was nothing on the looms. All the finest silk and the purest old thread which they demanded went into their traveling bags, while they worked the empty looms far into the night. “I’d like to know how those weavers are getting on with the cloth,” the Emperor thought, but he felt slightly uncomfortable when he remembered that those who were unfit for their position would not be able to see the fabric. It couldn’t have been that he doubted himself, yet he thought he’d rather send someone else to see how things were going. The whole town knew about the cloth’s peculiar power, and all were impatient to find out how stupid their neighbors were. “I’ll send my honest old minister to the weavers,” the Emperor decided. “He’ll be the best one to tell me how the material looks, for he’s a sensible man and no one does his duty better.” So the honest old minister went to the room where the two swindlers sat working away at their empty looms. “Heaven help me!” he thought as his eyes flew wide open, “I can’t see anything at all!” But he did not say so. Both the swindlers begged him to be so kind as to come near to approve the excellent pattern, the beautiful colors. They pointed to the empty looms, and the poor old minister stared as hard as he dared. He couldn’t see anything, because there was nothing to see. “Heaven have mercy!” he thought. “Can it be that I’m a fool? I’d have never guessed it, and not a soul must know. Am I unfit to be the minister? It would never do to let on that I can’t see the cloth.” “Don’t hesitate to tell us what you think of it,” said one of the weavers. “Oh, it’s beautiful! It’s enchanting!” The old minister peered through his spectacles. “Such a pattern, what colors! I’ll be sure to tell the Emperor how delighted I am with it.” “We’re pleased to hear that!” the swindlers said. They proceeded to name all the colors and to explain the intricate pattern. The old minister paid the closest attention, so that he could tell it all to the Emperor. And so he did. The swindlers at once asked for more money, more silk and gold thread, to get on with the weaving. But it all went into their pockets. Not a thread went into the looms, though they worked at their weaving as hard as ever. The Emperor presently sent another trustworthy official to see how the work progressed and how soon it would be ready. The same thing happened to him that had happened to the minister. He looked and he looked, but as there was nothing to see in the looms he couldn’t see anything. “Isn’t it a beautiful piece of cloth?” the swindlers asked him, as they displayed and described their imaginary pattern. “I know I’m not stupid,” the man thought, “so it must be that I’m unworthy of my good office. That’s strange. I mustn’t let anyone find it out, though.” So he praised the material which he could not see. He declared he was delighted with the beautiful colors and the exquisite pattern. To the Emperor he said, “It held me spellbound!” All the town was talking of this splendid cloth, and the Emperor wanted to see it for himself while it was still in the looms. Attended by a band of chosen men, among whom were his two old trusted officials―the ones who had been to the weavers―he set out to see the two swindlers. He found them weaving with might and main, but without a thread in their looms. “Magnificent!” said the two officials already duped. “Just look, Your Majesty, what colors! What a design!” They pointed to the empty looms, each supposing that the others could see the stuff. “What’s this?” thought the Emperor. “I can’t see anything. This is terrible! Am I a fool? Am I unfit to be the Emperor? What a thing to happen to me of all people!” … “Oh! It’s very pretty!” he said. “It has my highest approval!” And he nodded approbation at the empty loom. Nothing could make him say that he couldn’t see anything. His whole retinue stared and stared. One saw no more than another, but they all joined the Emperor in exclaiming, “Oh! It’s very pretty!” and they advised him to wear clothes made of this wonderful cloth especially for the great procession he was soon to lead. “Magnificent! Excellent! Unsurpassed!” were words bandied from mouth to mouth, and everyone did his best to seem well pleased. The Emperor gave each of the swindlers a cross to wear in his buttonhole, and the title of “Sir Weaver.” Before the procession the swindlers sat up all night and burned more than six candles, to show how busy they were finishing the Emperor’s new clothes. They pretended to take the cloth off the loom. They made cuts in the air with huge scissors. And at last they said, “Now the Emperor’s new clothes are ready for him!” Then the Emperor himself came with his noblest noblemen, and the swindlers each raised an arm as if they were holding something. They said, “These are the trousers, here’s the coat, and this is the mantle,” naming each garment. “All of them are as light as a spider web. One would almost think he had nothing on, but that’s what makes them so fine.” “Exactly!” all the noblemen agreed, though they could see nothing, for there was nothing to see. “If Your Imperial Majesty will condescend to take your clothes off,” said the swindlers, “we will help you on with your new ones here in front of the long mirror.” The Emperor undressed, and the swindlers pretended to put his new clothes on him, one garment after another. They took him around the waist and seemed to be fastening something ―that was his train―as the Emperor turned round and round before the looking glass. “How well Your Majesty’s new clothes look! Aren’t they becoming!” He heard on all sides, “That pattern, so perfect! Those colors, so suitable! It is a magnificent outfit.” Then the minister of public processions announced: “Your Majesty’s canopy is waiting outside!” “Well, I’m supposed to be ready,” the Emperor said, and turned again for one last look in the mirror. “It is a remarkable fit, isn’t it?” He seemed to regard his costume with the greatest interest. The noblemen who were to carry his train stooped low and reached for the floor as if they were picking up his mantle. Then they pretended to lift and hold it high. They didn’t dare admit they had nothing to hold. So off went the Emperor in procession under his splendid canopy. Everyone in the streets and the windows said, “Oh, how fine are the Emperor’s new clothes! Don’t they fit him to perfection? And see his long train!” Nobody would confess that he couldn’t see anything, for that would prove him either unfit for his position, or a fool. No costume the Emperor had worn before was ever such a complete success. “But he hasn’t got anything on!” a little child said. “Did you ever hear such innocent prattle?” said its father. And one person whispered to another what the child had said, “He hasn’t anything on! A child says he hasn’t anything on!” “But he HASN’T got anything on!” the whole town cried out at last. The Emperor shivered, for he suspected they were right. But he thought, “This procession has got to go on!” So he walked more proudly than ever, as his noblemen held high the train that wasn’t there at all. That is what modern-day politics has become! Almost everyone believes the political lies―but the reality is different. It is just that most people are scared to see the reality and speak the reality! Politics has become a charade, a theater, fiction―and everyone laps it up as though it was real. Presidents do not rule! There are higher powers that rule presidents. The rulers of nations are for the most part puppets on a string. They are not elected so much as selected―people just play the dumb part of casting votes and imagining that they “elect” someone, whereas it is the “elite” that “selects” the person. We are pacified by being allowed to cast a vote. Article 4
A Universal Lack of Suitable Candidates? “Provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, in whom there is truth, and that hate avarice, and appoint of them rulers of thousands, and of hundreds, and of fifties, and of tens” (Exodus 18:21).
“I desire that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for kings, and for all that are in high station” (1 Timothy 2:1-2). “The ancients therefore that are among you … feed the flock of God which is among you, taking care of it, not by constraint, but willingly, according to God―not for filthy lucre’s sake, but voluntarily. Neither as lording it over them” (1 Peter 5:1-3). Lord John Acton, (1834–1902) was an English Catholic historian, politician, and writer. He is perhaps best known for the remark, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men...”, which he made in a letter to an Anglican bishop. Politicians aspire to power, are elected to powerful positions and this power brings its own temptations ― especially if you are not in a state of sanctifying grace (and most of the world is not in a state of grace), which can then very easily lead you down the slippery slopes of corruption. On this point, it is well worth remembering the words of the recently deceased (2016) former chief-exorcist of Rome, Fr. Gabriele Amorth, on the topic of politicians and leaders in general (business and otherwise). Fr. Amorth said: “Satanism is spreading enormously! The loss of a sense of sin―that characterizes our era―helps Satan to act nearly undisturbed and, inducing man to sin, takes man progressively away from the love of God, weakens the consciences of men and women and leads them toward egoism, closing their hearts, lack of forgiveness, and doing everything for money, power, and sex. The smoke of Satan has entered everywhere. Everywhere! Satanism is on the increase. Today Satan rules the world. The masses no longer believe in God. And, yes, Satan is in the Vatican! The devil resides in the Vatican. I have no doubt about the fact that the demon tempts the authorities of the Church especially―just as he tempts every authority, those of politics and industry. Everybody is vulnerable to the work of Satan! Evil exists in politics, quite often in fact! The devil loves to take over business leaders and those who hold political office!” (Fr. Gabriele Amorth). Our Lady, in her revelations to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, adds: “The inestimable treasure of the virtue of divine Faith is hidden to those mortals who have only carnal and earthly eyes. How many men―whom the world has celebrated as great, powerful and wise―on account of the lack of light of Faith, have precipitated themselves from the darkness of their unbelief into most abominable sins, and thence into the eternal darkness of Hell! How many kingdoms and provinces, being blind themselves, follow these still more blind leaders until they together fall into the abyss of eternal pains, and they are followed by the bad Christians, who having received the grace and blessing of Faith, live as if they had it not in their hearts! … There are very few in the world in our days who use well the temporal riches and offer them to their God and Lord … Witness how cruel and avaricious human nature has become … Witness the nobility of the souls so degraded and abased in the service of vile greed of gold with all its evil powers. As if all things had been created for the individual use of the rich, they amass them to themselves and deprive the poor, and denying them even to God, Who created and preserves all things, and Who can give or take at will … Trusting in deceit and in the powerful of this world; those that are not moderate in their desires and greedily covet what is unnecessary for the sustenance of life; they anxiously cling to what they possess, fearing that it may be diminished … There are few who know how to use wealth properly and who can retain it without inordinate greed … It is most lamentable that while the rich might purchase eternal life with their possessions, they abuse them to draw upon themselves damnation!” It is not in vain that Our Lord twice repeated Himself on one occasion about the dangers of riches (and riches buy power): “Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven! And again I say to you―It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 19:23-24). There are very few amongst the top politicians who are not rich. Riches and power seem to be the staple diet of most. Every year, members of US Congress are required to report on the value of their households’ income and assets. The data reveal that the lawmakers are a very rich bunch. Around the time of the previous Presidential Election in 2020, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Democrat for California) had seen her wealth increase to nearly $115 million from $41 million in 2004. Sen. Mitt Romney (Republican for Utah), a former private equity executive, was worth an estimated $174 million. Two-term Representative Paul Mitchell (Republican for Michigan) saw the largest growth in wealth between 2017 and 2018. The former for-profit college executive’s average net worth skyrocketed from $101 million to nearly $180 million. Some longtime members of Congress watched their wealth rise to record levels in 2018. Representative Collin Peterson (Democrat for Minnesota) was worth an estimated $123,500 in 2008. The House Agriculture Committee chairman’s average net assets stood at $4.2 million. Representative Judy Chu (Democrat for California) was worth less than six figures in 2008. One decade later her estimated net worth sat at $7.1 million. Senator Roy Blunt (Republican for Missouri) increased his wealth from $602,000 to $10.7 million over a decade. The median member of the US Congress was worth at least $1.1 million. That is more than 12 times greater than the net wealth of the median US household whom they represent and serve. Yet that doesn’t tell the whole story, since the chambers of congress are not equal in wealth terms. The median net worth of a senator was $3.2 million, versus $900,000 for members of the House of Representatives. These are conservative estimates. Congress members are not required to report on the value of their residence, though many do. And that doesn’t tell the whole story, since the chambers of congress are not equal in wealth terms. The median net worth of a senator was $3.2 million, versus $900,000 for members of the House of Representatives. In a recent public survey, 53% of voters believe political corruption is a crisis in the United States, while another 36% believe it is a significant problem but not a crisis. That is very consistent with other ScottRasmussen.com polling data showing that 87% of voters nationwide believe corruption is widespread in the federal government. Majorities of voters believe there is also corruption in state (70%) and local (57%) government. The belief that the USA has a political corruption crisis is shared by 53% of women, 52% of men, 51% of white voters, 55% of black and Hispanic voters, 54% of rural voters, 53% of suburban voters and 52% of urban voters. This is truly an issue that cuts across partisan and demographic lines. Recognition of political corruption as the nation’s biggest crisis shouldn’t be much of a surprise, considering the ongoing political debates. On one side, many voters believe that President Donald Trump was elected to clean up the swamp. On the other side, many believe the president is more corrupt than other politicians. But the perception of political corruption as a crisis goes deeper than attitudes about the president: ● A majority of voters (54%) believe it’s likely that their own representative in Congress trades votes for cash. ● Just 23% believe their own representative is the best person for the job. ● Two-thirds of voters (67%) believe that big businesses and government regulators often work together to create rules that are harmful and unfair to consumers. ● An overwhelming majority of voters ― 82% ― believe that the top leaders of federal regulatory agencies often use their position to pursue their own personal agenda and impose their standards on the rest of the nation. ● At the federal level, just 21% believe that government contracts are generally issued to the best company for the job. ● 79% believe contracts are awarded to the firms with the best contacts in government. Put it all together and you have a situation where voters find little hope and much cynicism in the political process. Article 3
Can Catholicism Penetrate Politics? Catholicism in politics? Are you mad? That is “mission impossible”! Such would be the initial and understandable reaction of anyone faced with the dilemma of influencing politics with Catholic principles. But why is this so? If God is the Creator of each individual soul that walks this planet―regardless of creed, race or social standing―then why would God not want everyone whom He made to follow His laws and principles? That would only seem logical. “There is one lawgiver and judge, that is able to destroy and to deliver” (James 4:12). “For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king!” (Isaias 33:22). Which is why Holy Scripture commands: “Obey God rather than men!” (Acts 5:29).
While we might believe in the governmental system of a Constitutional Republic, we do not think the government is our ultimate lawgiver, judge, ruler and savior. God alone is the supreme justice, the ultimate lawgiver, and the most righteous king―and Christ is God. He alone is the savior of the universe! “Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under Heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). “For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). “God also hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a Name which is above all names, that in the Name of Jesus every knee should bow―of those that are in Heaven, on Earth, and under the Earth! And that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11). “For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written: ‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God!’ Therefore every one of us shall render account to God for himself!” (Romans 14:10-12). That is the theory―but what is happening in practice? Unfortunately Holy Scripture gives us the answer in two different psalms, both of which essentially say the same thing―man does not care “two hoots” about what God thinks: “The Lord hath looked down from Heaven upon the children of men―to see if there be any that understand and seek God. They are all gone aside! They are become unprofitable together! There is none that doth good―no, not one! Their throat is an open sepulcher! With their tongues they acted deceitfully! The poison of asps is under their lips! Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness! Their feet are swift to shed blood! Destruction and unhappiness in their ways and the way of peace they have not known! There is no fear of God before their eyes! They have not called upon the Lord! There have they trembled for fear, where there was no fear!” (Psalm 13:2-5). Psalm 52 says much the same: “God looked down from Heaven on the children of men―to see if there were any that did understand, or did seek God. All have gone aside! They are become unprofitable together! There is none that doth good―no, not one! Shall not all the workers of iniquity know, who eat up My people as they eat bread? They have not called upon God! There have they trembled for fear, where there was no fear! For God hath scattered the bones of them that please men―they have been confounded, because God hath despised them!” (Psalm 52:3-6). Why does this happen? It happens because earthly rulers make up their minds to divorce themselves from God in what suits and pleases them―making their own laws that contradict or overturn God’s laws: “The kings of the Earth stood up, and the princes met together, against the Lord and against His Christ, [saying]: ‘Let us break Their bonds asunder and let us cast away Their yoke from us!’” (Psalm 2:2-3). The bottom line is that most of the world has voted God out of politics and condemned Him to the closet of Sunday religion. The world has more or less divorced God―even Catholics―whereby they might “worship” God on Sunday, but then they will live pagans from Monday to Saturday. This is true of the spiritual life, social life, cultural life and politics. Everyone can a have a god in their closet―but other than that, no god is invited to the “party.” God is not indifferent to the politics of man―God wants to be at the heart of man’s politics. In a certain sense, that is how God “set things up” in the first place for both angels and men. Yet Lucifer caused the first separation between Church (God) and State (the angels) with his infamous cry of “Non serviam!” ― meaning, “I will not serve!” and a third of the angels followed Lucifer in this separation of Church (God) and State (the angels). The “separation virus” was born and Lucifer next infected Eve, by encouraging her to separate herself from God’s commands and laws―thus achieving a separation of “Church and State” by causing a division between God and man. Lucifer achieved this by seducing Eve with the idea that she and Adam could be like gods unto themselves: “Your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods―knowing good and evil!” (Genesis 3:5) ― an offer Eve found too hard to resist. Lucifer played on Eve’s pride and used that pride to separate her from God through disobedience. She separated herself from God’s law, ate the forbidden fruit, and caught the “non serviam virus”, which she then passed on to Adam by getting him to disobey God also. Adam and Eve, having caught the “separation virus” or “non serviam virus”, then passed it on to their descendents ― we know the virus by the name of “Original Sin” ― which is essentially, as the Church teaches, a sin of pride and disobedience. This pride and disobedience currently oozes from the pores of politicians around the world―their pride leads them to despise the laws of God and they readily and willingly show disobedience to the laws of their Creator. They have lost their way and they are losing their souls―as well as dragging many souls with them into Hell, as the “sheeple” follow those Pied-Piper politicians into the pit. They are the “blind leaders” that Our Lord speaks of: “Leave them alone! They are blind, and leaders of the blind! And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit!” (Matthew 15:14). “O foolish people, and without understanding: who have eyes and see not; and ears and hear not!” (Jeremias 5:21). “Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a provoking house―who have eyes to see and see not; and ears to hear and hear not―for they are a provoking house!” (Ezechiel 12:2). “For the heart of this people is grown gross, and with their ears they have been dull of hearing, and their eyes they have shut―lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them!” (Matthew 13:15). Yet that is what God wishes to do―to heal and to save―despite the unprecedented sinfulness of the world. “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” says Our Lord (Luke 19:10) … “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32) … “Go then and learn what this means: ‘I will have mercy and not sacrifice!’ For I am not come to call the just, but sinners!” (Matthew 9:13). We have an integral and important part to play in penetrating today’s “hearts of stone” and trying to give them a “heart of flesh” ― “I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh” (Ezechiel 36:26) ― and it through our prayers, penances and sacrifices that this can be obtained. This conversion of sinners is not a “freebie”, but has to be paid by prayer, penance and sacrifice―and lots of them. Sin is expensive and costly―therefore conversions are not cheap. It is not “mission impossible”― no matter how evil the world and politics is, for “where sin abounded, grace did more abound!” (Romans 5:20). The problem is that we are not seeking those graces of conversion nor are we paying for them ― even though Our Lady of Fatima asked for that payment, not even exempting young children from the task! She asked a 10-year-old (Lucia), an 8-year-old (Francisco) and a 7-year-old (Jacinta) to pray, sacrifice and suffer for sinners: “Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the conversion of sinners? … Then you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort.” We do not have to be in politics to be able to influence politics. It is the grace of God that influences the entire world―yet that grace is not cheap. We can change the world―but nobody, or very few, are willing to pay the price. Until we reconsider and change our minds, there will be no change in the fatal direction in which the world is being led by its politicians and politics. We have it in our power to do something―but we refuse to do so! In one sense, our guilt is as great if not greater, and our punishment will most likely be greater than that of these neo-pagans: “That servant who knew the will of his lord, and prepared not himself, and did not according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes!” (Luke 12:47). We have not been placed in this world to have fun and enjoy life as much as possible―we have been placed on Earth as Catholics to be the salt of the Earth, the light of the world, and the leaven that raises up the bread. “You are the salt of the Earth. But if the salt loses its savor, with what shall it be salted? It is good for nothing anymore, but to be cast out and to be trodden on by men! You are the light of the world! A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid! Neither do men light a candle and hide it under a table, but put it upon a candlestick, so that it may shine to all that are in the house. So let your light shine before men!” (Matthew 5:13-16). Today―Christianity and Politics seem to be an explosive mixture. For most people, it is prudent and even desirable to keep Christianity out of politics. Such people are always quoting Holy Scripture as proof of their position, where Christ said: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God, the things that are God’s!” (Matthew 22:21) and glue it onto another quote of Christ’s: “My kingdom is not of this world!” … My kingdom is not from hence!” (John 18:36) as well as the Scripture which says: “Let every soul be subject to higher powers: for there is no power but from God: and those that are, are ordained of God. Therefore he that resists the power, resists the ordinance of God. And they that resist, purchase to themselves damnation. For princes are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil” (Romans 13:1-3) ― but what if those rulers, those princes, those higher powers are themselves evil or are proposing evil things, or even legislating evil things? What then? Obedience to authorities is fine and good―if they themselves require and command what is good. But that’s a far cry from the notion that whatever the government does is somehow automatically right, or replacements for God’s will, or irresistible in their power. Daniel rightly disobeys the political edict that he must bow down to the king. The Hebrew midwives are blessed by God for disobeying Pharao. Rahab is heralded as an example of faith in both Hebrews 11 and the book of James for her disobedience to the political authorities in Jericho. For Our Lord is equally clear on who is boss, when He says: “All power is given to Me in Heaven and in Earth!” (Matthew 28:18) and when He tells Pontius Pilate: “Thou shouldst not have any power against Me, unless it were given to thee from above” (John 19:11) ― which is echoed by St. Paul: “There is no power but from God” (Romans 13:1) ― with St. Peter adding: “We ought to obey God, rather than men!” (Acts 5:29) ―especially when those men propose evil or legislate for evil. “For we must ALL (not just believers) be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive according as he has done, whether it be good or evil” (2 Corinthians 5:10). True Christians―not the false Christians who support abortion, divorce and remarriage, same-sex relations and marriage, contraception, LGBTQ and the rest―true Christians have become a minority, both socially and in politics. There is barely a politician anywhere who has not compromised on God’s laws and accepted and voted for legislation supporting sin. It is almost as though entering politics increases you chances of damnation a hundredfold or a thousandfold. It is such politics and such politicians that MUST be resisted by true Christians. Our Lord is clear on the matter: “He that is not with Me, is against Me: and he that gathers not with Me, scatters!” (Matthew 12:30). “But before all these things, they will lay their hands upon you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and into prisons, dragging you before kings and governors, for My Name’s sake. Lay it up therefore into your hearts, not to meditate before how you shall answer―for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to resist and speak against!” (Luke 21:12-15). “For they shall deliver you up to councils, and in the synagogues you shall be beaten, and you shall stand before governors and kings for My sake, for a testimony unto them. And when they shall lead you and deliver you up, be not thoughtful beforehand what you shall speak; but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye. For it is not you that speak―but the Holy Ghost!” (Mark 13:9-11). “You shall be brought before governors, and before kings for My sake―for a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they shall deliver you up, take no thought how or what to speak―for it shall be given you in that hour what to speak. For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaks in you!” (Matthew 10:18-20). There is no simple blueprint or rule that we can apply in all times and cases to get this exactly right. It is our ongoing task as Christians―being firstly citizens of God’s kingdom and only secondly citizens of earthly kingdoms―to live so as to give government its proper respect without seeing it as completely corrupt or evil on the one hand (as if God hasn’t ordained it) or treating it as completely infallible on the other (as if God has made government His infallible representative on Earth). When the government loses sight of God, loses Faith in God, opposes the laws of God―then, in God’s eyes, it becomes an enemy of God. Governments are not exempt from Christ’s command of “SEEK YE FIRST the kingdom of God and HIS justice!” (Luke 12:31), as well as “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the greatest and the first commandment!” (Mark 12:30; Matthew 22:37-38). “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth Me … If anyone love Me, he will keep My word … He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words … If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love … This is My commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you” (John 14:15, 14:21-24; 15:10; 15:12). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4). “Bear not the yoke with unbelievers! What fellowship has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God! As God says: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’ Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ says the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17). “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood―but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places!” (Ephesians 6:12). “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32). The problem is that most Catholics are well and truly integrated into the world―they are at home with the world, comfortable in the world, and loving the world! They have become enemies of God! In that role of enemies of God, they have no problem voting for and electing enemies of God into positions of power on the political stage! God help us! Article 2
God Bless America or Godless America? Not having read the book and thus knowing nothing more about the book than its title―therefore not recommending the book other than for its catchy title―one has to admit the Liberal Democrat author of the book entitled “God’s Politics― Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It” seems to hit the nail squarely on the head! Neither political party seems to “get it” when it comes to God―despite the word “God” being liberally sprinkled throughout the Declaration of Independence, as a national motto (“In God we trust!”) and in patriotic songs such as “God Bless America!” American politics (as well as world politics) might have God on their lips, but sadly not in their hearts. You can sing “God bless America” all you want, but Our Lord will say: “This people honoureth Me with their lips―but their heart is far from Me! And in vain do they worship Me, teaching doctrines and commandments of men!” (Matthew 15:8-9).
It seems as though God is God and Politics is Politics and “never the twain shall meet” ― a phrase that is used to suggest that two things are too different to coexist. Just as God says: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!” (Isaias 55:8-9). Politics seems to reply in the same vein: “Our thoughts are no longer God’s thoughts and God’s ways are no longer our ways, saith politicians. For as the skyscraper towers above the street, so are our thoughts above God’s thoughts and our ways above God’s ways.” Political opinion and political talk―due to the misguided principle of separation of Church and State―has become the Las Vegas of Christianity—an environment in which our sin is excused. Hate is winked at; fear is perpetuated and strife is applauded. “Go wild, Christ-follower! This is the political arena―not the church! Your words have no consequences here! Jesus doesn’t live in Vegas!” Not only are ‘believers’ excused for their political indiscretions, but they are often applauded for committing them. Slander is explained away as righteous anger; winning arguments are esteemed higher than truthful ones (whether or not the “facts” align); and those who stir up dissension are given the pulpit to preach what the hell they want. Has the proverbially “penny dropped” yet? Has the “elevator finally reached the top floor”? Has someone or something finally turned-on the light-bulb in the darkness of your mind? Can you finally see, grasp, understand why Holy Scripture calls the world our “enemy”? “The Gentiles raged, and the people devised vain things. The kings of the Earth stood up and the princes met together, against the Lord and against His Christ [saying]: ‘Let us break Their bonds asunder and let us cast away Their yoke from us!’” (Psalm 2:1-3). “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places!” (Ephesians 6:12). “What fellowship hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God! As God saith: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’ Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ saith the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17). “And Jesus said to them: ‘You are from beneath, I am from above! You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). “Adulterers! Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God!” (James 4:4). “We have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; that we may know the things that are given us from God! … Use this world, as if [you] used it not: for the fashion of this world passeth away!” (1 Corinthians 2:12; 7:31). “For we brought nothing into this world: and certainly we can carry nothing out!” (1 Timothy 6:7). “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written: ‘I will catch the wise in their own craftiness!’” (1 Corinthians 3:19). “Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” (1 Corinthians 1:20). Yet many say the Church should engage in the political process. Why would we do that? The political process is dirty and broken and far from God and Christ. Paranoia and vitriol are hardly attractive accessories for the Bride of Christ. The Christian is not meant to descend to the level of the world―but to elevate the world to the much higher level and ideals of Christianity. Rather than engage in the political process, Christians have a duty to elevate it. Like any other sin, we are called to stand above the partisan political dissension and demonstrate a better way of doing things. Should we have an opinion? Yes. Should we care about our country? Yes. Should we vote? Yes. But it’s time we talk politics in a way that models the teachings of Christ rather than mocks them. We need to transfigure politics and raise its low dirty level. The problem is that when there is little beauty around to be found―then ugliness starts to be thought of as being beautiful. You can eat unhealthy, lousy, chemical laden food for so long that you actually begin to prefer it to healthy, good God-made food―whereby the lab-grown meat is preferred to pasture-raised meat. Similarly, man-made truths, human opinions, man-made morals are preferred to God’s truth, God’s opinion and God’s morality. This constant feeding upon the―for the sake of using a nicer word―garbage that the world feeds us, results in the shocking situation where most Catholics now accept divorce, remarriage, contraception, abortion, same sex marriages and sexual relations, false religions through false ecumenism, and worldliness as a whole. We are no longer the “salt of the earth” nor the “light of the world”―with our taste for morality and light of Faith being ever increasingly diminished and extinguished. We have become the opposite of what Christ commanded: “You are the salt of the Earth. But if the salt lose its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is good for nothing any more but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men. You are the light of the world. A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house. So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in Heaven!” (Matthew 5:13-16). We are no longer “salty” Catholics, but “bland” Catholics―having lost the flavor and savor of Catholicism―we have become “GM―Genetically Modified” Catholics, loaded with “MSG―materialism, sensuality and greed”. Not only the non-Catholic world, but also the Catholic world needs a massive transfiguration, a gigantic transformation, an almost total overhaul and conversion. The problem is that going downhill is easier than going uphill―going downhill requires little or no effort, going uphill requires a lot of effort. God is on the mountain―not in valley or the pit. “In My holy mountain, in the high mountain of Israel, saith the Lord God, there shall all the house of Israel serve Me!” (Ezechiel 20:40). “Great is the Lord, and exceedingly to be praised in the city of our God, in His holy mountain” (Psalm 47:2). “Many people shall go, and say: ‘Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths!’” (Isaias 2:3). “And many nations shall come in haste, and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths” (Micheas 4:2). God will not accept the current state of the world with its increasingly godless politics―that keeps only a hypocritical fraction of God’s Law, while introducing as laws God-condemned sins such as divorce, remarriage, contraception, abortion, same sex marriages and sexual relations, false religions through false ecumenism, and worldliness as a whole. There will be a transformation―without any doubt. Yet there are two ways that it can happen―we can either choose to change on our own part; or God will force us to change on His part. That has been made abundantly clear by the terrible, frightening, brutal revelations of the sweet, loving, kind and merciful Mother of God―who clearly warned: “If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! … Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will strike in an unprecedented way. God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together … Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other. The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God!” (Our Lady of La Salette, 1846). Things had not changed by 1956, when Our Lady said to Blessed Elena Aiello: “People are offending God too much! If I were to show you all the sins committed on a single day, you would surely die of grief! These are grave times! The world is in total turmoil because it is in a worse condition than at the time of the deluge! All is hanging on a slender thread! When that thread shall snap, Divine Justice shall pounce upon the world and execute its dreadful, purging designs! All the nations shall be punished because sins, like a muddy river, are now covering all the Earth!” By 1973 things were no better, which prompted Our Lady of Akita to say: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord. I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I wish, with my Son, for souls who will repair―by their suffering and their poverty―for the sinners and the ungrateful. Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger. In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind. As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them.” Let us not kid ourselves about the “goodness” of today’s politics and politicians―Our Lady hits the final nail in the coffin of current politics when she reveals: “From the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects ... During this epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect … These years, during which the evil sect of Masonry will take control of the civil government, will see a cruel persecution of all religious communities … All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds. They will abolish civil rights, as well as ecclesiastical rights. All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and dissension will be seen, without love for country or family! … Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws, making it easy for everyone to live in sin, encouraging the procreation of illegitimate children born without the blessing of the Church ... The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … Moreover, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women, and in this supreme moment of need of the Church, those who should speak will fall silent!” That is the result of present-day politics, present-day legislation, present-day culture―all of which ultimately comes back to the doors of those who rule and govern―all the way down from presidents and kings, the U.S. Congress with its Senate and House of Representatives, or the U.K. Parliament and House of Lords, down to local state governance, down to city governance and even priests in parishes, teachers in schools and parents in homes. With regard to most of these people, God would say today what He said of old: “The fool hath said in his heart: ‘There is no God!’ They are corrupt, and are become abominable in their ways! There is none that doth good―no, not one! The Lord hath looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there be any that understand and seek God. They are all gone aside! They are become unprofitable together! There is none that doth good―no, not one! Their throat is an open sepulcher―with their tongues they acted deceitfully; the poison of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood! Destruction and unhappiness in their ways: and the way of peace they have not known! There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Psalm 13:1-3). The whole world today―not just the 2024 U.S. Presidential candidates―needs Divine intervention to pull both the U.S. and the world out of the deadly dive that they have entered. Most souls―led by the “Pied Piper” politicians are precipitously plummeting towards Hell―and as Our Lady of Akita says: “The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them!” (Our Lady of Akita, October 13th, 1973). If you think that one man or one woman is going to change the world―then go see a psychiatrist quickly! The only “one man” who can change the world is Jesus Christ―and He is currently not invited to the party! He can change the world gently or violently―the choice is ours. That is the chief choice we should be mulling over in our minds―and not the choice between Trump and Harris. Neither presidential candidate is truly “of God” ― even though they both claim to be ‘Christian’, both Kamala Harris is fully supportive of abortion, while Donald Trump only partially talks against abortion. Kamala Harris is a staunch supporter of LGBTQ rights, while Trump has softened his stance in that area. Neither candidate has the qualifications or viewpoints that would get them elected as the “Holy Monarch” ― subservient to a Holy Pope ― whom God will use to restore godliness to a godless world. It is Christ and His Mother that we should be voting for and casting our ballots (or beads) for them many times a day! As Our Lady said: “Pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, because only she can help you.” (July 13th, 1917) ― which she again echoed at Akita in 1973, saying: “The only weapons which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary … Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary! I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach!” As far as we know, Our Lady made no mention of Trump, Harris or any other politician in this world―though we stand to be corrected if anyone can up with contrary evidence. As usual, the political circus of elections will grab attention of Catholics―or the few that remain worthy of that name, as Our Lady of Good Success said of our times, that there would only be “small number of souls who, hidden, will preserve the treasure of the Faith and practice virtue”―diverting their attention away from the real election that is constantly taking place throughout the world (America included), in which the only two running candidates are God (Heaven’s Party) and Satan (World’s Party, also known as Hell’s Party). Until Catholics start casting their votes (Masses, prayers, penances, sacrifices) in that election―Godless America can keep singing “God Bless America”―but nothing is going to change. Article 1
It's CON Time Again! As the U.S. Presidential Election draws ever closer, it is CON time again! It’s all about the CON ― Congress; Constitution; Conservatives; Conventions; Economics; Conferences; Convictions; Condescension; Contempt; Conflict; Condemnations; etc. We are exposed to and can see “cons” everywhere! It almost seems inevitable that to be a politician, you also have to be a conman!
If you have in any way followed Presidential Elections―or as some would say, Presidential Deceptions―then, at the end of the day, you have to ask if all that you are seeing and are being told is true. Our Lord could well say of most politicians: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth―because truth is not in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own―for he is a liar, and the father of lies!” (John 8:44). If Holy Scripture says: “Every man is a liar!” (Psalm 115:11), then you could also say: “Every politician is a liar!” Adding: “They have taught their tongue to speak lies!” (Jeremias 9:5). Those words of Our Lord take on a more powerful significance in our days, especially in light of the comment made by William Casey, the CIA Director from 1981 to 1987. At an early February 1981 meeting of the newly elected President Reagan and his new cabinet secretaries, to give reports about their agencies at the start of the new President’s administration, the CIA Director, William Casey, said: “We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” Can You Believe Liars? Shocking? Surprising? Not for God―for He tells us in Holy Scripture that “the sons of men are liars” (Psalms 61:10) ... “They have taught their tongue to speak lies” (Jeremias 9:5). “Every man is a liar!” (Psalm 115:11). Coming down to Earth, we find mere human scientists and doctors agreeing with Holy Scripture! Dr. Kang Lee, a professor at the University of Toronto, said that “we explicitly teach our kids to tell white lies,” in areas of life where telling the truth would make others feel uncomfortable ― saying that these lessons on how lie are given from around the age of 6 years of age and above. Thus the child learns that it is socially acceptable to lie. “Dishonesty is contagious,” says Dr. Simon Gaechter of the University of Nottingham. He added that most people would like to be honest, but if they live in a country where the violations of rules are rampant “people say, ‘Well everybody cheats. If I cheat here, then that’s OK!’” Dr. Bella DePaulo, author of “The Hows and Whys of Lies,” found that her students, on average, lied in every third conversation that lasted for 10 minutes or more. For adults, she found they lied once in every five conversations of 10 minutes or more. Some years later, Dr. Robert Feldman from the University of Massachusetts, found that he had similar results. Society rewards people for white lies, Feldman said. “We’re really trained to be deceptive. If we’re not, if we’re totally truthful all the time that’s not a good thing, there’s a price to be paid for that. We don’t like people who tell us the truth all the time.” Another researcher, Dr. Maurice Schweitzer, from the University of Pennsylvania ― who specializes in studying deception and decision-making ― said: “I would say we’re lying constantly! Constantly!” Our Lord said: “The truth shall make you free!” (John 8:32) ― yet most of the world prefers to be chained to lies and are uncomfortable with the truth―especially when it concerns themselves―which is why hardly anyone goes to the Sacrament of Confession anymore, for they do not like to face the truth about themselves. Confession has been replaced by accusation―instead of accusing ourselves in the secrecy of the confessional, we prefer to accuse others publicly―and the internet makes it oh so easy to do that! More often than not, those accusations are exaggerated, colored, enhanced and tailored―just like the view that we have of ourselves is often exaggerated, colored, enhanced and tailored. In both cases, truth suffers and the lie profits. Our Lord condemns this when He says: “Why seest thou the splinter that is in thy brother’s eye; and seest not the plank that is in thy own eye? Or how sayest thou to thy brother: ‘Let me cast the splinter out of thy eye!’ ― and behold there is a plank in thy own eye? Thou hypocrite! Cast out first the plank in thy own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast out the splinter out of thy brother’s eye!” (Matthew 7:3-5). The Truth Shall Make You Feel Uncomfortable As Our Lord said above, “The truth shall make you free!” (John 8:32) ― but, in addition, the truth shall make you see that you are not what you make yourself out to be; the truth shall make you see that the world is not what it pretends to be; the truth shall make you see that you have a God-given role in this life and that you are not here to have fun; the truth shall make you see that you are in part responsible for the mess that the Church and world find themselves in today. The truth is that we are too comfortable in this world and too comfortable with the world―and that leads us to another unpleasant truth, the fact that the world is an enemy of God and, by being a friend, a lover, a partaker of that worldliness of the world, we end up becoming enemies of God―even though we will naturally protest against that truth. Holy Scripture says: “They are of the world—therefore of the world they speak, and the world hears them! We are of God. He that knows God, hears us. He that is not of God, hears us not. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error” (1 John 4:5-6). Our Lord says to the worldlings: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). To His followers He says: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own! But because you are not of the world―for I have chosen you out of the world―therefore the world hates you!” (John 15:19). “If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “The world hates Me because I give testimony of it, that the works thereof are evil!” (John 7:7). To which Holy Scripture adds: “They who are in the flesh, cannot please God.” (Romans 8:8). “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27). “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4). Now that’s the truth! That is also an unpleasant truth for most Catholics! What is Happening Happens to be Our Fault! As St. John Chrysostom―a Father and Doctor of the Church―says, on the Day of Judgment you will be judged for everything that happened in the world while you were alive in this world! Of course―unlike God―you cannot be everywhere at all times and capable of doing all things! However, you are capable of praying for the whole world and all its messes. You are capable of praying far, far, more than you at present and have done to this day. You are capable of recruiting almighty God to the battle by having numerous or countless Masses offered all throughout your life for the intention of the conversion of the many enemies of the Church and mankind (or their destruction if they won’t convert) and the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary―what would it cost you in time or effort? Very little indeed, a few dollars and note or a phone call to a priest once a week, every week―and for that measly sum of money you send Christ into battle―Who is almighty God Himself. There will be no excuse for that great neglect of our supreme weapon and our lack of Faith in it. Which brings us back to the theme of this article ― “Can you believe what you are seeing?” Would all that has been, is and will be unfolding before our very eyes―would it have happened had we, the Soldiers of Christ, been on active duty instead of being AWOL (absent without leave) among the distractions of the world? If you cannot see that Satan is currently ruling the world―then you probably cannot see the tip of your own nose! For those who still are able to see, they probably see less clearly than they imagine! The great big whopping lies that most people swallowed a few years ago with the advent of Covid-19 and whopping lies about the medical, social, business and economic measures that needed to be taken in light of Covid-19―betrays an intellectual blindness that ultimately stems from a spiritual blindness. “Do you not yet know nor understand? Have you still your heart blinded?” (Mark 8:17). The intellectual blindness is a punishment for a deliberate spiritual blindness that neither seeks, nor loves, nor obeys God. “God has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart, that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them” (John 12:40). Blinded by Our Sins and the World “The gods of this world have blinded the minds of unbelievers” (2 Corinthians 4:4). “These things they thought and were deceived―for their own malice blinded them” (Wisdom 2:21). “As it is written: ‘God has given them the spirit of insensibility; eyes that they should not see; and ears that they should not hear, until this present day!’” (Romans 11:8). Way before this present day, Our Lady of Good Success warned without success: “From the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects [cf. “Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go forth, and seduce the nations, which are over the four quarters of the Earth” (Apocalypse 20:7)] ... During this epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect … These years, during which the evil sect of Masonry will take control of the civil government, will see a cruel persecution of all religious communities … All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds. They will abolish civil rights, as well as ecclesiastical rights. All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and dissension will be seen, without love for country or family.” (Our Lady of Good Success). One Big Lie Bubble Just ponder upon those words of Our Lady for a moment! She says that Satan will reign almost completely by the means of the Masonic sects especially in the 20th century. Masonry will control of civil government. All civil governments will have one and the same plan. Can you not see that this has come to be true in front of our own very eyes―it has happened on “our watch” and, like the sowing of the cockle among the wheat in Our Lord’s parable, “while men were asleep, the enemy came and over-sowed cockle among the wheat and went his way” (Matthew 13:25). When Our Lady’s prophecy about Masonry came true with its birth in the early 1700s―around 100 years after Our Lady foretold it―the Church incessantly spoke out against Masonry. Pope Leo XIII, in his encyclical against Freemasonry, points out this opposition of the Church: “The Roman Pontiffs Our predecessors, in their incessant watchfulness over the safety of the Christian people, were prompt in detecting the presence and the purpose of this capital enemy [Masonry] immediately it sprang into the light, instead of hiding as a dark conspiracy; and, moreover, they took occasion with true foresight to give, as it were on their guard, and not allow themselves to be caught by the devices and snares laid out to deceive them. The first warning of the danger was given by Pope Clement XII in the year 1738, and his constitution was confirmed and renewed by Pope Benedict XIV; Pope Pius VII followed the same path; and Pope Leo XII, by his apostolic constitution, Quo Graviora, put together the acts and decrees of former Pontiffs on this subject, and ratified and confirmed them forever. In the same sense spoke Pope Pius VIII, Pope Gregory XVI, and, many times over, Pope Pius IX. “For as soon as the constitution and the spirit of the Masonic sect were clearly discovered―by manifest signs of its actions, by the investigation of its causes, by publication of its laws, and of its rites and commentaries, with the addition often of the personal testimony of those who were in the secret―this Apostolic See denounced the sect of the Freemasons, and publicly declared its constitution, as contrary to law and right, to be pernicious no less to Christendom than to the State … Freemasons grew with a rapidity beyond conception in the course of a century and a half, until it came to be able, by means of fraud or of audacity, to gain such entrance into every rank of the State as to seem to be almost its ruling power … Such a condition has been reached that henceforth there will be grave reason to fear for those States in which prevails the power, either of the Masonic sect of which we are speaking, or of other sects, not dissimilar, which lend themselves to Masonry as disciples and subordinates … Their ultimate purpose forces itself into view ― namely, the utter overthrow of that whole religious and political order of the world which the Christian teaching has produced, and the substitution of a new state of things in accordance with their ideas, of which the foundations and laws shall be drawn from mere naturalism.” Who Do You Believe? The Lie? Or Our Lady? Our Lady of Good Success, already back in the 1600s, prophesied that “From the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century … Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects” fits perfectly with Holy Scripture telling us that “Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go forth, and seduce the nations, which are over the four quarters of the Earth” (Apocalypse 20:7). Her prophecy also fits perfectly with the vision granted to Pope Leo XIII in the 1880s (which is the end of the 19th century, as Our Lady says), wherein Pope Leo heard Satan boasting to Our Lord that he could destroy the Church if he could only have enough time. Our Lord gave Satan the time he requested. The result of this fits in perfectly with Our Lady’s prophecy, wherein she adds: “During this epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect … These years, during which the evil sect of Masonry will take control of the civil government, will see a cruel persecution of all religious communities … All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds. They will abolish civil rights, as well as ecclesiastical rights. All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and dissension will be seen, without love for country or family.” (Our Lady of Good Success). Still blinded? Still unable to focus and see? “All Politicians Are Liars” The New York Times, in an article entitled “Finally, Science Shows That Politicians Are Lying Liars Who Lie”, speaks of politicians and lies, saying: “We watch with fascination as candidates for the world’s most powerful job trade falsehoods and allegations of dishonesty … We’ve come to expect and even joke about office-seekers who seem ‘truth-averse’ ― “How do you know a politician is lying? His lips are moving” ― many of us have given little thought to our own fibs and to how they compare with politicians’ deceits. What if PolitiFact looked at what we say to our spouses, friends and bosses?” The article goes on to say that for several decades, researchers throughout the world have found that “We all stretch the truth. We learned to deceive as toddlers. We rationalize our fabrications that benefit us. We tell little white lies daily that make others feel good. Now magnify that. Politicians distort the truth more often, use more self-justifications and deceive in larger ways, and with more consequences, experts in psychology and political science say.” The article then quotes Dr. Bella DePaulo, the psychology researcher at the University of California, as saying: “I feel more worried about lying in public life―specifically by politicians―than I ever have before!” She added that when lies succeed, they make it “more tempting to lie. Lies can stick. They can have a lingering effect, even if they are debunked.” A professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University, Dr. Dan Ariely, says: “People want their politicians to lie to them. The reason that people want their politicians to lie them is that people care about politics. You understand that Washington is a dirty place and that lying is actually very helpful to get your policies implemented.” Dr. Jennifer Mercieca, a Texas A&M professor of communications, who studies political rhetoric and teaches fact-checking, said politicians “convince themselves that the ends justify the means” and “the reasons they are doing it are more important.” Political scientist and psychologist, Dr. Stanley Renshon, said politicians should be held up to a higher standard, but, over the decades, they and the government have been more deceitful and unwilling to tell the public something that could hurt them politically. When President Dwight Eisenhower misled the public about a spy plane captured by the Soviet Union, lying was a rarity. By the time President Bill Clinton strained the meaning of the word “is” testifying before a grand jury, it was more common. “We’ve become kind of numb to it,” said Pamela Meyer, the author of the book “Lie-Spotting” and chief executive officer of the private firm Calibrate, which that trains people and companies about how to spot deception. “In Washington, deception is the gift that keeps on giving.” Dr. Kang Lee, the professor at the University of Toronto, is working on a video camera that would study people’s heart rate, stress level, blood flow and mood, a kind of video lie detector called transdermal optical imaging. He envisions a future televised political debate, with a camera trained on the candidates showing their heart rates and breathing levels ― “an index of lying.” Who Do You Trust? Do you have confidence in God? Do you have confidence in politicians? Are politicians trying to “con” us? This brings back to mind the words spoken to President Reagan by the CIA Director, William Casey, in the 1981 initial presidential briefing of President Ronald Reagan, weeks after he took office ― “We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” Barbara Honegger ― Assistant to the Chief Domestic Policy Adviser to President Reagan ― confirms that quote by Casey. Barbara Honegger said: “I am the source for this quote, which was indeed said by CIA Director, William Casey, at an early February 1981 meeting of the newly elected President Reagan with his new cabinet secretaries, to report to him on what they had learned about their agencies in the first couple of weeks of the administration. The meeting was in the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing of the White House, not far from the Cabinet Room. I was present at the meeting as Assistant to the chief domestic policy adviser to the President. Casey first told Reagan that he had been astonished to discover that over 80 percent of the ‘intelligence’― that the analysis side of the CIA produced ― was based on open public sources like newspapers and magazines. As he did to all the other secretaries of their departments and agencies, Reagan asked [Casey] what he saw as his goal as director for the CIA, to which he [Casey] replied with this quote, which I recorded in my notes of the meeting as he said it. Shortly thereafter I told Senior White House correspondent Sarah McClendon, who was a close friend and colleague, who in turn made it public.” (Barbara Honegger, Assistant to the Chief Domestic Policy Adviser to President Reagan). Not only does Honegger claim he said it, but apparently he said it in response to what he saw as his goal as CIA Director! Conned Citizens What does all this mean? It means that American public is being conned―they are being made to believe what is a lie, to accept as being true that which is untrue. That is the essence of a “confidence trick” ― you place your confidence in someone and they trick you. A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, irresponsibility, and greed. As Wikipedia summarizes: A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, irresponsibility, and greed. Synonyms for a “confidence trick” include con, confidence game, confidence scheme, rip-off, scam, and stratagem. The perpetrator of a confidence trick (or “con trick”) is often referred to as a confidence (or “con”) man, con-artist, or a “grifter”. Samuel Thompson (1821–1856) was the original “confidence man”. Thompson was arrested in July 1849. Reporting about this arrest, Dr. James Houston, a reporter of the New York Herald, publicized Thompson by naming him the “Confidence Man”. The National Police Gazette coined the term “confidence game” a few weeks after Houston first used the name “confidence man”. A confidence trick is also known as a con game, a con, a scam, a grift, a hustle, a bunko (or bunco), a swindle, a flimflam, a gaffle, or a bamboozle. The intended victims are known as marks, suckers, stooges, mugs, rubes, or gulls (from the word gullible). When accomplices are employed, they are known as shills. Short and Long Cons A short con or “small con” is a fast swindle which takes just minutes. It typically aims to rob the victim of everything in his wallet. A “long con” or “big con” (also, “long game”) is a scam that unfolds over several days, or weeks, or months, or even longer if the stakes are very high. It may involve a team of swindlers, and even props, sets, extras, costumes, and scripted lines. It aims to rob the victim of huge sums of money or valuables, often by getting him or her to empty out banking accounts and borrow from family members. The Stages Of The Con In Confessions of a Confidence Man, the former con-man, Edward H. Smith, lists the “six definite steps or stages of growth” of a confidence game. He notes that some of the following steps can be omitted. ► THE FOUNDATION WORK : Preparations are made in advance of the game, including the hiring of any assistants required and studying the background knowledge needed for the role. ► THE APPROACH : The victim is approached or contacted. ► THE BUILD-UP : The victim is given an opportunity to profit from participating in a scheme. The victim’s greed is encouraged, such that their rational judgment of the situation might be impaired. ► THE PAY-OFF OR CONVINCER : The victim receives a small payout as a demonstration of the scheme’s purported effectiveness. This may be a real amount of money or faked in some way. In a gambling con, the victim is allowed to win several small bets. In a stock market con, the victim is given fake dividends. ► THE “HURRAH” : A sudden manufactured crisis or change of events forces the victim to act or make a decision immediately. This is the point at which the con succeeds or fails. With a financial scam, the con artist may tell the victim that the “window of opportunity” to make a large investment in the scheme is about to suddenly close forever. ► THE IN-AND-IN : A conspirator (in on the con, but assumes the role of an interested bystander) puts an amount of money into the same scheme as the victim, to add an appearance of legitimacy. This can reassure the victim, and give the con man greater control when the deal has been completed. ► THE CORROBORATION : In addition, some games require a “corroboration” step, particularly those involving a fake, but purportedly “rare item” of “great value”. This usually includes the use of an accomplice who plays the part of an uninvolved (initially skeptical) third party, who later confirms the claims made by the con man. Why Do Cons Work? Confidence tricks exploit typical human characteristics such as greed, dishonesty, vanity, opportunism, lust, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility, desperation, and naïvety. As such, there is no consistent profile of a confidence trick victim; the common factor is simply that the victim relies on the good faith of the con artist. Victims of investment scams tend to show an incautious level of greed and gullibility, and many con artists target the elderly and other people thought to be vulnerable, using various forms of confidence tricks. Researchers Huang and Orbach argue: Cons succeed for inducing judgment errors—chiefly, errors arising from imperfect information and cognitive biases. In popular culture and among professional con men, the human vulnerabilities that cons exploit are depicted as ‘dishonesty,’ ‘greed,’ and ‘gullibility’ of the marks. Dishonesty, often represented by the expression ‘you can’t cheat an honest man,’ refers to the willingness of marks (the victims of the con) to participate in unlawful acts, such as rigged gambling and embezzlement. Greed, the desire to “get something for nothing,” is a shorthand expression of marks’ (victime’s) beliefs that “too-good-to-be-true gains” are realistic. Gullibility reflects beliefs that marks (victims of the con) are ‘suckers’ and ‘fools’ for entering into costly voluntary exchanges. Shills on “The Hill” Accomplices, also known as shills, help manipulate the mark into accepting the perpetrator’s plan. A “shill” ― also called a “plant” or a “stooge” ― is a person who publicly helps or gives credibility to a person or organization, without disclosing that they have a close relationship with the person or organization. Thus, you could say Fauci was a “shill” for “Big Pharma” because behind the scenes, he had a vested financial interest in “Big Pharma”. Likewise, you could say certain politicians are “shills” for “Big Pharma” and other big corporations―having being legally “bribed” by the lobbyists that continually work upon the politicians in order to “curry their favor” to vote on legislation that will financially benefit those big corporations. Shills can carry out their operations in the areas of media, journalism, marketing, politics, sports, confidence games, or other business areas. A shill may also act to discredit opponents or critics of the person or organization in which they have a vested interest through character assassination or other means. In most uses, shill refers to someone who purposely gives onlookers, participants or “marks” the impression of an enthusiastic customer independent of the seller, marketer or con artist, for whom they are secretly working. The person or group in league with the shill relies on crowd psychology to encourage other onlookers or audience members to do business with the seller or accept the ideas they are promoting. Shills may be employed by salespeople and professional marketing campaigns. Plant and stooge more commonly refer to a person who is secretly in league with another person or outside organization while pretending to be neutral or a part of the organization in which they are planted, such as a magician’s audience, a political party, or an intelligence organization.
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