Montini's "Pleasant Side of Man"

Although I had been expecting Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV to make as much about the sixtieth anniversaries of the “Second” Vatican Council’s Gaudium et Spes and Dignitatis Humanae, December 7, 1965, as he did about the sixtieth anniversary of Nostra Aetate, October 28, 1965, the seventh in the current line of antipopes to those two documents did not do so. This is something of a relief to me as the thought of having to plow my way through yet another elegy of praise for the “opening to the world” and the “joys” of “religious liberty” was not something that I was looking forward to doing.

Nonetheless, however, I think that it is useful to remind readers of this site that the false belief that all religions have a “right from God” to propagate themselves in public as expressed in Dignitatis Humanae, was condemned repeatedly by our true popes as circumstances required for one hundred seventy years prior to the “Second” Vatican Council:

Man should use his reason first of all to recognize his Sovereign Maker, honoring Him and admiring Him, and submitting his entire person to Him. For, from his childhood, he should be submissive to those who are superior to him in age; he should be governed and instructed by their lessons, order his life according to their laws of reason, society and religion. This inflated equality and liberty, therefore, are for him, from the moment he is born, no more than imaginary dreams and senseless words." (Pope Pius VI, Brief Quod aliquantum, March 10, 1791; Religious Liberty, a “Monstrous Right").

The Catholic Church: For how can We tolerate with equanimity that the Catholic religion, which France received in the first ages of the Church, which was confirmed in that very kingdom by the blood of so many most valiant martyrs, which by far the greatest part of the French race professes, and indeed bravely and constantly defended even among the most grave adversities and persecutions and dangers of recent years, and which, finally, that very dynasty to which the designated king belongs both professes and has defended with much zeal - that this Catholic, this most holy religion, We say, should not only not be declared to be the only one in the whole of France supported by the bulwark of the laws and by the authority of the Government, but should even, in the very restoration of the monarchy, be entirely passed over? But a much more grave, and indeed very bitter, sorrow increased in Our heart - a sorrow by which We confess that We were crushed, overwhelmed and torn in two - from the twenty-second article of the constitution in which We saw, not only that "liberty of religion and of conscience" (to use the same words found in the article) were permitted by the force of the constitution, but also that assistance and patronage were promised both to this liberty and also to the ministers of these different forms of "religion". There is certainly no need of many words, in addressing you, to make you fully recognize by how lethal a wound the Catholic religion in France is struck by this article. For when the liberty of all "religions" is indiscriminately asserted, by this very fact truth is confounded with error and the holy and immaculate Spouse of Christ, the Church, outside of which there can be no salvation, is set on a par with the sects of heretics and with Judaic perfidy itself. For when favour and patronage is promised even to the sects of heretics and their ministers, not only their persons, but also their very errors, are tolerated and fostered: a system of errors in which is contained that fatal and never sufficiently to be deplored HERESY which, as St. Augustine says (de Haeresibus, no.72), "asserts that all heretics proceed correctly and tell the truth: which is so absurd that it seems incredible to me." (Pope Pius VII, Post Tam Diuturnas, April 29, 1814, POST TAM DIUTURNAS)

"This shameful font of indifferentism gives rise to that absurd and erroneous proposition which claims that liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone. It spreads ruin in sacred and civil affairs, though some repeat over and over again with the greatest impudence that some advantage accrues to religion from it. "But the death of the soul is worse than freedom of error," as Augustine was wont to say. When all restraints are removed by which men are kept on the narrow path of truth, their nature, which is already inclined to evil, propels them to ruin. Then truly "the bottomless pit" is open from which John saw smoke ascending which obscured the sun, and out of which locusts flew forth to devastate the earth. Thence comes transformation of minds, corruption of youths, contempt of sacred things and holy laws -- in other words, a pestilence more deadly to the state than any other. Experience shows, even from earliest times, that cities renowned for wealth, dominion, and glory perished as a result of this single evil, namely immoderate freedom of opinion, license of free speech, and desire for novelty.

Here We must include that harmful and never sufficiently denounced freedom to publish any writings whatever and disseminate them to the people, which some dare to demand and promote with so great a clamor. We are horrified to see what monstrous doctrines and prodigious errors are disseminated far and wide in countless books, pamphlets, and other writings which, though small in weight, are very great in malice. We are in tears at the abuse which proceeds from them over the face of the earth. Some are so carried away that they contentiously assert that the flock of errors arising from them is sufficiently compensated by the publication of some book which defends religion and truth. Every law condemns deliberately doing evil simply because there is some hope that good may result. Is there any sane man who would say poison ought to be distributed, sold publicly, stored, and even drunk because some antidote is available and those who use it may be snatched from death again and again? (Pope Gregory XVI, Mirari Vos, August 15, 1832.)

For you well know, venerable brethren, that at this time men are found not a few who, applying to civil society the impious and absurd principle of "naturalism," as they call it, dare to teach that "the best constitution of public society and (also) civil progress altogether require that human society be conducted and governed without regard being had to religion any more than if it did not exist; or, at least, without any distinction being made between the true religion and false ones." And, against the doctrine of Scripture, of the Church, and of the Holy Fathers, they do not hesitate to assert that "that is the best condition of civil society, in which no duty is recognized, as attached to the civil power, of restraining by enacted penalties, offenders against the Catholic religion, except so far as public peace may require." From which totally false idea of social government they do not fear to foster that erroneous opinion, most fatal in its effects on the Catholic Church and the salvation of souls, called by Our Predecessor, Gregory XVI, an "insanity," viz., that "liberty of conscience and worship is each man's personal right, which ought to be legally proclaimed and asserted in every rightly constituted society; and that a right resides in the citizens to an absolute liberty, which should be restrained by no authority whether ecclesiastical or civil, whereby they may be able openly and publicly to manifest and declare any of their ideas whatever, either by word of mouth, by the press, or in any other way." But, while they rashly affirm this, they do not think and consider that they are preaching "liberty of perdition;" and that "if human arguments are always allowed free room for discussion, there will never be wanting men who will dare to resist truth, and to trust in the flowing speech of human wisdom; whereas we know, from the very teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, how carefully Christian faith and wisdom should avoid this most injurious babbling." (Pope Pius IX, Quanta Cura, December 8, 1864.)

So, too, the liberty of thinking, and of publishing, whatsoever each one likes, without any hindrance, is not in itself an advantage over which society can wisely rejoice. On the contrary, it is the fountain-head and origin of many evils. Liberty is a power perfecting man, and hence should have truth and goodness for its object. But the character of goodness and truth cannot be changed at option. These remain ever one and the same, and are no less unchangeable than nature itself. If the mind assents to false opinions, and the will chooses and follows after what is wrong, neither can attain its native fullness, but both must fall from their native dignity into an abyss of corruption. Whatever, therefore, is opposed to virtue and truth may not rightly be brought temptingly before the eye of man, much less sanctioned by the favor and protection of the law. A well-spent life is the only passport to heaven, whither all are bound, and on this account the State is acting against the laws and dictates of nature whenever it permits the license of opinion and of action to lead minds astray from truth and souls away from the practice of virtue. To exclude the Church, founded by God Himself, from the business of life, from the making of laws, from the education of youth, from domestic society is a grave and fatal error. A State from which religion is banished can never be well regulated; and already perhaps more than is desirable is known of the nature and tendency of the so-called civil philosophy of life and morals. The Church of Christ is the true and sole teacher of virtue and guardian of morals. She it is who preserves in their purity the principles from which duties flow, and, by setting forth most urgent reasons for virtuous life, bids us not only to turn away from wicked deeds, but even to curb all movements of the mind that are opposed to reason, even though they be not carried out in action. (Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, November 1, 1885.)

Yet, with the discernment of a true mother, the Church weighs the great burden of human weakness, and well knows the course down which the minds and actions of men are in this our age being borne. For this reason, while not conceding any right to anything save what is true and honest, she does not forbid public authority to tolerate what is at variance with truth and justice, for the sake of avoiding some greater evil, or of obtaining or preserving some greater good. God Himself in His providence, though infinitely good and powerful, permits evil to exist in the world, partly that greater good may not be impeded, and partly that greater evil may not ensue. In the government of States it is not forbidden to imitate the Ruler of the world; and, as the authority of man is powerless to prevent every evil, it has (as St. Augustine says) to overlook and leave unpunished many things which are punished, and rightly, by Divine Providence. But if, in such circumstances, for the sake of the common good (and this is the only legitimate reason), human law may or even should tolerate evil, it may not and should not approve or desire evil for its own sake; for evil of itself, being a privation of good, is opposed to the common welfare which every legislator is bound to desire and defend to the best of his ability. In this, human law must endeavor to imitate God, who, as St. Thomas teaches, in allowing evil to exist in the world, "neither wills evil to be done, nor wills it not to be done, but wills only to permit it to be done; and this is good.'' This saying of the Angelic Doctor contains briefly the whole doctrine of the permission of evil.

But, to judge aright, we must acknowledge that, the more a State is driven to tolerate evil, the further is it from perfection; and that the tolerance of evil which is dictated by political prudence should be strictly confined to the limits which its justifying cause, the public welfare, requires. Wherefore, if such tolerance would be injurious to the public welfare, and entail greater evils on the State, it would not be lawful; for in such case the motive of good is wanting. And although in the extraordinary condition of these times the Church usually acquiesces in certain modern liberties, not because she prefers them in themselves, but because she judges it expedient to permit them, she would in happier times exercise her own liberty; and, by persuasion, exhortation, and entreaty would endeavor, as she is bound, to fulfill the duty assigned to her by God of providing for the eternal salvation of mankind. One thing, however, remains always true -- that the liberty which is claimed for all to do all things is not, as We have often said, of itself desirable, inasmuch as it is contrary to reason that error and truth should have equal rights.

And as to tolerance, it is surprising how far removed from the equity and prudence of the Church are those who profess what is called liberalism. For, in allowing that boundless license of which We have spoken, they exceed all limits, and end at last by making no apparent distinction between truth and error, honesty and dishonesty. And because the Church, the pillar and ground of truth, and the unerring teacher of morals, is forced utterly to reprobate and condemn tolerance of such an abandoned and criminal character, they calumniate her as being wanting in patience and gentleness, and thus fail to see that, in so doing, they impute to her as a fault what is in reality a matter for commendation. But, in spite of all this show of tolerance, it very often happens that, while they profess themselves ready to lavish liberty on all in the greatest profusion, they are utterly intolerant toward the Catholic Church, by refusing to allow her the liberty of being herself free. (Pope Leo XIII, Libertas Praestantissimum, June 20, 1888.)

Thus the two principles are clarified to which recourse must be had in concrete cases for the answer to the serious question concerning the attitude which the jurist, the statesman and the sovereign Catholic state is to adopt in consideration of the community of nations in regard to a formula of religious and moral toleration as described above. First: that which does not correspond to truth or to the norm of morality objectively has no right to exist, to be spread or to be activated. Secondly: failure to impede this with civil laws and coercive measures can nevertheless be justified in the interests of a higher and more general good. . . .

The Church must live among them and with them [the nations and peoples of the world]; she can never declare before anyone that she is "not interested." The mandate imposed upon her by her divine Founder renders it impossible for her to follow a policy of non-interference or laissez-faire. She has the duty of teaching and educating in all the inflexibility of truth and goodness, and with this absolute obligation she must remain and work among men and nations that in mental outlook are completely different from each other.

Let Us return now, however, to the two propositions mentioned above: and in the first place to the one which denies unconditionally everything that is religiously false and morally wrong. With regard to this point there never has been, and there is not now, in the Church any vacillation or any compromise, either in theory or in practice.

Her deportment has not changed in the course of history, nor can it change whenever or wherever, under the most diversified forms, she is confronted with the choice: either incense for idols or blood for Christ. The place where you are now present, Eternal Rome, with the remains of a greatness that was and with the glorious memories of its martyrs, is the most eloquent witness to the answer of the Church. Incense was not burned before the idols, and Christian blood flowed and consecrated the ground. But the temples of the gods lie in the cold devastation of ruins howsoever majestic; while at the tombs of the martyrs the faithful of all nations and all tongues fervently repeat the ancient Creed of the Apostles.

Concerning the second proposition, that is to say, concerning tolerance in determined circumstances, toleration even in cases in which one could proceed to repression, the Church - out of regard for those who in good conscience (though erroneous, but invincibly so) are of different opinion - has been led to act and has acted with that tolerance, after she became the State Church under Constantine the Great and the other Christian emperors, always for higher and more cogent motives. So she acts today, and also in the future she will be faced with the same necessity. In such individual cases the attitude of the Church is determined by what is demanded for safeguarding and considering the bonum commune, on the one hand, the common good of the Church and the State in individual states, and, on the other, the common good of the universal Church, the reign of God over the whole world. In considering the "pro" and "con" for resolving the "question of facts," as well as what concerns the final and supreme judge in these matters, no other norms are valid for the Church except the norms which We have just indicated for the Catholic jurist and statesman. (Pope Pius XII, Ci Riesce, December 6, 1953.)

Our Lady herself explained there is no compromise between her Divine Son and Belial and that the source of every error, deceit and blasphemy none other than the adversary himself, which should teach us that nothing being taught by the conciliar authorities can come from Holy Mother Church, she who is the infallible, inerrant and spotless teacher of Faith and Morals:

229. Guard thyself, therefore, my dearest, against this deplorable error of the children of men, and disengage thy faculties so thou mayest clearly see the difference between the service of Christ and that of Belial. Greater is that difference than the distance between heaven and earth. Christ is the true light, the way, and eternal life (Jn. 14:6); those who follow Him He loves with imperishable love, and He offers them his life and his company, and with it an eternal happiness such as neither eyes have seen, nor ears have heard, nor ever can enter into the heart of man (Is. 64:4). Lucifer is darkness itself, error, deceit, unhappiness and death; he hates his followers and forces them into evil as far as possible, and in the end inflicts upon them eternal fire and horrid torments. Let mortals give testimony whether they are ignorant of these truths, since the holy Church teaches them and calls them to their minds every day. If men give credence to these truths, where is their good sense? Who has made them insane? Who drives from their remembrance the love which they ought to have for themselves? Who makes them so cruel to themselves? O insanity never sufficiently to be bewailed and so little considered by the children of Adam! All their life they labor and exert themselves to become more and more entangled in the snares of their passions, to be consumed in deceitful vanities, and to deliver themselves over to an inextinguishable fire, death, and everlasting perdition, as if all was a mere joke, and as if my most holy Son had not come down from heaven to die on a cross in order to merit for them this rescue! Let them but look upon the price and consider how much God himself paid for this happiness, He who knew the full value of it.

230. The idolaters and heathens are much less to blame for falling into this error, nor is the wrath of the Most High enkindled so much against them as against the faithful of his Church, who have such a clear knowledge of this truth. If the minds of men in our present age have grown forgetful of it, let them understand this happened by their own fault because they have given free reign to their enemy Lucifer. With tireless malice he labors to overthrow the barriers of restraint, so forgetful of the last things and of eternal torment men might give themselves over like brute beasts to sensual pleasures, and unmindful of themselves consume their lives in the pursuit of apparent good until, as Job says (21:13), in a moment they go down to hell, as in truth happens to an infinite number of fools who hate this science and discipline. Do thou, my daughter, allow me to instruct thee. Keep thyself free from such harmful deceit and from this forgetfulness of worldly people. Let the despairing groans of the damned, which begin at the end of their lives and the beginning of their eternal damnation, ever resound in thy ears: O we fools, who esteemed the life of the just as madness! O how are they numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the saints! Therefore we have erred from the way of truth and justice. The sun has not arisen for us. We wearied ourselves in the ways of iniquity and destruction; we have sought difficult paths, ignoring by our own fault the way of the Lord. What hath pride profited us? What advantage hath the boasting of riches brought us? All those things are passed away from us like a shadow. O that we had never been born! This, my daughter, thou must fear and ponder in thy heart, so before thou goest to that land of darkness (as Job said [10:21]) and eternal dungeons, from whence there is no return, thou mayest provide against evil and avoid it by doing good. During thy mortal life and out of love do thou now perform that of which the damned in their despair are forced to warn thee by the excess of their punishment. (New English Edition of The Mystical City of God: Book Five: The Transfixion, Chapter XX.)

Well, behold the “fruit” of conciliarism’s embrace of the very error, religious liberty, that has made it possible for Belial to be worshiped very openly and to have statues erected in his honor:

Plans are underway to build and install a massive 155-foot statue of a Hindu god in North Carolina that, once erected, would be the tallest statue in the United States.

The outlet Indian Eagle recently announced plans in Moncure, North Carolina, about 30 minutes southwest of Raleigh, to build the world’s largest statue of Lord Murugan, a warrior god of Hinduism. The statue will be part of the Carolina Murugan Temple Campus, for which 130 acres of land were purchased in 2019.

The statue will break a record as the largest in the United States, not including a pedestal. The Lord Murugan sculpture just surpasses the Statue of Liberty, which stands 151 feet tall, not including its also massive 154-foot base. Lord Murugan will have only a 35-foot pedestal.

The site plan received approval in late 2018 and now has its design completed and submitted to Chatham County. A Boomi Poojai ritual to honor the Mother Earth goddess was performed on the site in May 2021.

It will be the latest of a batch of Hindu sculptures erected in the U.S. that have recently included an 87-foot Tower of Unity and Prosperity inaugurated in 2022 in the nearby town of Cary on the outskirts of Raleigh and a 90-foot-tall statue of the monkey-headed Hindu god Lord Hanuman installed in 2024 on the outskirts of Houston, Texas.

While Hindus remain a small religious minority in the U.S. – only about 1 percent – its adherents are rapidly growing in the U.S. as are the number of Hindu temples. In 2023, it was reported that the number of Hindus in the U.S. had doubled over the last 15 years, and that the number of Hindu temples increased from 435 to about 1,000 in 20 years.

Both the Old Testament and New Testament Scriptures affirm that the “gods” of pagans are in fact demons:

“For all the gods of the Gentiles are devils: but the Lord made the heavens.” (Psalm 95:5)

“They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger. They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known.” (Deut. 32:16-17)

“What then? Do I say, that what is offered in sacrifice to idols, is any thing? Or, that the idol is any thing? But the things which the heathens sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God. And I would not that you should be made partakers with devils.” (1 Cor 10:19-20) (Massive Hindu idol bigger than Statue of Liberty to be installed in North Carolina.)

The largest Hindu temple in the U.S. opens its doors Sunday in New Jersey. Built in the small township of Robbinsville, the 183-acre BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham, named for its founding Hindu spiritual organization, rivals major Hindu temples on the subcontinent. 

“I wake up every morning and scratch my eyes thinking, ‘Am I still in central New Jersey?’” said Yogi Trivedi, a temple volunteer and a scholar of religion at Columbia University. “It’s like being transported to another world, specifically to India.”

The temple will be officially inaugurated on Oct. 8, and on the 18th, it will be accessible to the general public. For Indian Americans and Hindu Americans, this represents a massive milestone, Trivedi said. 

“This is the American Dream,” he said. “The sacred geography of India and beyond is here in this one place and you can experience, witness and admire it all here in New Jersey. I anticipate, as a scholar of religion, that this will become a popular place of pilgrimage for Hindus from across the world.”

Construction controversy

Built by 12,500 volunteers from all over the world, the Akshardham has been in the works since 2011. But it made headlines a decade later, when a group of immigrant laborers sued global organization Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, known as BAPS, which has temples around the world. The lawsuit alleged “shocking” conditions, including forced labor, grueling work hours, inhospitable living conditions and caste discrimination. 

“For these long and difficult hours of work, the workers were paid an astonishing $450 per month, and even less when Defendants took illegal deductions,” the initial complaint said. “Their hourly pay rate came to approximately $1.20 per hour.”

But a spokesperson for BAPS said there’s a distinction between employment and religious volunteer service, known as seva. 

“The artisans who helped to build our mandir came to the U.S. as volunteers, not as employees,” spokesperson Ronak Patel said in a statement. “...We took care of the artisans’ needs in the U.S., including travel, lodging, food, medical care, and internet and prepaid phone cards so they could stay in touch with their families in India. BAPS India also supported the artisans’ families in India so they did not suffer financial hardship as a result of the artisans’ seva in the U.S.”

Many of the manual laborers involved in the temple’s construction came to New Jersey from India on religious visas and were Dalits, meaning they fell into historically marginalized groups in South Asia’s caste system. The lawsuit alleges temple leadership enforced that caste hierarchy at work. 

But the lawsuit has now been put on hold, with 12 of the original 21 plaintiffs moving to dismiss their claims, and BAPS Akshardham spokespeople assure that the temple will be a place for people of all creeds and castes to gather in community. 

Along the temple walls are carvings of historical figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln, said Trivedi.

“When you come to the mandir, you will see people of all genders ... all castes and social backgrounds living, eating, praying, loving and serving together,” he said. 

Activists say the allegations still raise questions about the line between religious service and work exploitation, which Dalit communities are especially vulnerable to.

As a caste-privileged Hindu, civil rights activist Sunita Viswanath says this fact weighs heavily for her. 

“A place of worship, a temple, is such an important space, especially for an immigrant community who’s making home in a new country,” said Viswanath, a co-founder of the civil rights group Hindus for Human Rights. I would want anybody who goes to the temple to really ask themselves, really do some soul searching, about going to a temple where there are such serious allegations of labor and human rights violations.” (Largest Hindu temple outside Asia opens in New Jersey, built by 12,500 volunteers.)

Yes, yes, yes.

The wonders of religious liberty in the pluralistic West, wonders, however, that are not reciprocated in India itself where Hindus continue to persecute Christians:

 A Christian NGO in India has raised the alarm with a report showing that violent attacks against Christians have increased by 500 percent over the past ten years.

“Between 2014 and 2024, incidents of violence against Christians rose sharply – from 139 to 834 – a staggering 500 percent increase,” A.C. Michael, national convenor of the United Christian Forum (UCF), told UCA News.

The UCF, an inter-denominational organization based in New Delhi, documented almost 5,000 attacks on Christians in the past ten years in India (not all of them were considered “violent attacks”).

The five leading states with the highest number of anti-Christian incidents are: Uttar Pradesh (1,317 incidents), Chhattisgarh (926), Tamil Nadu (322), Karnataka (321), and Madhya Pradesh (319).

Michael said that between January and September of this year, 579 incidents had already been reported nationwide, with only 39 resulting in police cases. He attributed the rise in attacks to false allegations of religious conversion, anti-Christian propaganda, and politically driven hatred.

Christian leaders have reported an uptick in violence against Christians since the victory of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014.

Twelve of India’s 28 states have introduced anti-conversion laws, forbidding Christians to spread the Gospel. Critics have argued that these laws are being used to harass Christians and file false police reports against them.

Earlier this year, the arrest of two Catholic nuns caused a national scandal. The two sisters were assaulted by members of a group closely aligned with the BJP and charged with human trafficking and the alleged forced conversion of Protestant Christians. The Indian Catholic bishops condemned the arrests and said they were based on “false accusations.” Many politicians also spoke out against the religious persecution of Christians at the hands of the Modi-led BJP.

Michael Williams, president of UCF, said accusations of religious conversion are “consistently used as a political weapon before every election by the current government.”

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Christian groups plan to hold a protest march in New Delhi on November 29 against the continuing persecution of Christians. One of the issues the groups want to address is the exclusion of Dalit Christians (those who have converted from Hinduism to Christianity) from state welfare programs. Dalit Christians also face pressure to convert to Hinduism as they are still seen as part of the caste system in Hindu society, one Christian rights activist said. (Attacks on Christians in India up 500% under Hindu nationalist rule: report     .)

Those “peace loving” Hindus sure do take advantage of religious liberty in the West while persecuting Christians in India, and not much needs to be said about the ongoing Mohammedan persecution of Christians in the Middle East and elsewhere, especially in Nigeria, as this persecution has been discussed many times on this website.  Suffice it so say that Mohammedans also take full advantage of “religious “liberty” in the West while remaining faithful to their attacks upon “infidels” in many nations where they control the government and/or are seeking control of a government.

Additionally, of course, conciliarism’s embrace of the world and its “official reconciliation” with the religious indifferentist state of Modernity has resulted in open attacks upon Catholics and churches in Europe not only by Mohammedans but also by madmen who know nothing of First and Last Things and are more most likely in the direct grip of the adversary:\

Anti-Christian violent attacks and arsons against churches have increased in Europe, according to a report issued Monday from the Vienna-based Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe (OIDAC Europe).

Drawing on data from government reports, civil society, media and their own independent verification, OIDAC Europe found that despite a slight overall decline in the number of anti-Christian hate crimes, trends revealed sharp increases in violent personal attacks and arson, suggesting an escalation in hostility toward Christians.

In the calendar year 2024, OIDAC documented 2,211 anti-Christian hate crimes, a decrease from 2,444 in 2023 that the report attributes to a change in methodology for recording such incidents in the UK, and a temporary lull in France that appeared to surge again in early 2025.

Of these incidents, 274 were classified as personal attacks, an increase from 232 in 2023 despite official data on such assaults being unavailable from the UK and France.

Additionally, arson attacks against churches and other Christian properties logged 94, nearly twice the previous year’s figure. Of these, one-third (33) occurred in Germany, where the bishops’ conference recently warned that “all taboos have been broken” regarding attacks upon churches.

Particular severe incidents include a 76-year-old friar being murdered by a 46-year-old man who scaled the fence of his monastery and assaulted him along with six others who survived, shouting “I am Jesus Christ!”

Another incident involved two gunmen entering the Church of Santa Maria in Istanbul in January 2024 and killing one man who was in the process of converting to Christianity.

A third incident highlighted by OIDAC Europe involved the almost complete destruction by arson of the historic Church of the Immaculate Conception in Saint-Omer, France on September 3, 2024.

The watchdog organization also independently documented 516 anti-Christian hate crimes in 2024, and this figure rises to 1,503 incidents when break-ins and thefts from religious properties are included.

OIDAC was able to the establish the perpetrators’ motives or affiliations of in only 93 cases and logged the most common proceeding from a radical Islamist ideology (35), radical left-wing ideology (19), radical right-wing ideology (7), and other political motives (11). The additionally documented 15 incidents which featured satanic symbols or references

Certain silent thoughts ‘illegal in the United Kingdom’

In addition to hate crimes, the report documents growing legal and social restrictions on Christian life and expression, often framed as protecting secularism or equality despite their violation of international rights laws.

For example, several Christians were prosecuted for silently praying near abortion centers. In one case, UK army veteran Adam Smith-Connor was convicted and fined over $11,000 for slightly bowing his head in silent prayer as he stood within 100 meters of the facility.

“Today, the court has decided that certain thoughts – silent thoughts – can be illegal in the United Kingdom,” Smith-Connor said after the ruling at the time. “That cannot be right. All I did was pray to God, in the privacy of my own mind and yet I stand convicted as a criminal?”

Last month Finland’s Supreme Court heard the case of Päivi Räsänen, a member of parliament who has been prosecuted for tweeting a Bible verse criticizing her church’s promotion of LGBT pride events.

The report also highlights the case of a Swiss court withholding public funding from a Catholic girls’ school since the school’s mission discriminates against the admission of boys.

OIDAC Europe also noted two cases in Spain, including a court ruling against a male-only religious brotherhood for discriminating against women, and another where the court prohibited a father from sharing his religious beliefs with his son, including taking him to church and reading the Bible with him. Instead, they granted the secular mother exclusive authority over the child’s religious formation.

By way of recommendation, the watchdog organization calls upon the European Union to appoint a dedicated coordinator to combat rising anti-Christian hated in a way parallel to similar offices that focus on antisemitism and Islamophobia.

Highlighting the overall goal of such anti-Christian aggressions, Marc Eynaud, the French author of Who wants to harm Catholics? Fires, desecration: facts we don’t want to see, told Le Figaro in 2023: “Between the looting, the desecration, the fires, the physical attacks against priests or even the faithful, the media attacks also which contribute to legitimizing in some way the concrete violent acts … all this contributes to the same more or less conscious objective: to eradicate Christianity.” (Europe experiences surge in violent attacks, arsons as anti-Christian hatred intensifies.)

Ah, yes, the dialogue of “encounter,” huh?

“Religious liberty” has also helped to spread abject paganism throughout once Catholic nations, especially in England, which is still suffering the consequences of the Protestant Revolution five hundred years ago:

Paganism might be the obvious choice of religion for post-Covid Britain, where not only places of worship but also in-person voluntary groups of all kinds are suffering from a crisis of commitment and participation. This doesn’t mean that people no longer have an interest in religion. Rather, cultures of religiosity in an increasingly online world are steadily shifting away from the Victorian model of bums on pews; church attendance, for instance, has yet to return to its pre-pandemic level. Understandably, people who select their own communities are drawn to “unorganised religion” — wholly unregulated, self-initiated ways of connecting with the divine.

This may be one reason why Paganism is reportedly the most popular religious choice for Britons leaving Christianity behind — if they don’t simply identify as non-religious, that is. It offers people an opportunity to believe in something and engage in rituals while belonging to a seemingly ancient tradition, but without committing to an organisation or institution that has expectations of its members.

There isn’t just one kind of Paganism. There are many different “paths” rather than hard-and-fast sects and denominations, and most regard all paths as equally valid. Neo-Paganism as most people know it began in Britain in the Forties before spreading to the rest of the world. At first it was a deeply communal religion which emphasised group initiation and participation (and some Pagan paths still stress this), but from the Nineties the “Hedge Witch” movement advocated the possibility of self-initiation and solitary practice. In recent years the idea of the solitary Pagan has been supercharged by online trends such as “WitchTok”, TikTok videos dedicated to spells and rituals of self-realisation.

The number of people openly identifying as Pagans in Britain remains small — only 74,000 respondents to the 2021 Census were prepared to use the label to describe themselves. But to dismiss Paganism as a religion with a tiny number of adherents misses the point. It isn’t just another religion that competes on an equal playing field with the likes of Christianity and Islam. It is a different kind of religion that seeks neither converts nor members. There is no such thing as a Pagan confession of faith, which raises the question of whether it is possible to “convert” to the religion at all. You simply become a Pagan by doing Pagan things. It is a religion of doing rather than believing, and people may start doing those sorts of things long before they identify as being of that sect.

What is most remarkable about the progress of Paganism in modern Britain is not its numerical growth, but its social acceptability. It no longer feels countercultural. The Green Man, instantly recognisable as a modern Pagan icon, appeared on invitations to the coronation of Charles III, while Professor Alice Roberts — a former president of Humanists UK and an avowed atheist — has hinted that she might be open to identifying with the “Pagan” label.

Perhaps because it does not seek converts or make demands on believers, it attracts less hostility than Christianity and Islam from post-Christian and non-religious Britons. It was inevitable that Paganism would become a religion for the post-religious. Archaic scriptures, pesky dogmas that require consistency, confessions of guilt and membership obligations all appear to be rather a big ask in the 21st century. Strip all those specificities away, and maybe Paganism is simply what is left. (Paganism is the obvious religion for post-faith Britain.)

As Pope Leo XIII explained in Immortale Dei, November 1, 1885:

To hold, therefore, that there is no difference in matters of religion between forms that are unlike each other, and even contrary to each other, most clearly leads in the end to the rejection of all religion in both theory and practice. And this is the same thing as atheism, however it may differ from it in name. Men who really believe in the existence of God must, in order to be consistent with themselves and to avoid absurd conclusions, understand that differing modes of divine worship involving dissimilarity and conflict even on most important points cannot all be equally probable, equally good, and equally acceptable to God. (Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, November 1, 1885.)

Behold the madness of the world prophesied by Pope Leo XIII.

Insofar as Gaudium et Spes is concerned, suffice it to say that a recurring error that underlies the conciliar church’s view of Catholic Faith and Morals is a preoccupation with the "dignity of man” and his condition in the world that has lent itself to a naturalistic view of world events and a concept of morality that is based upon “man” and not upon the Divine Positive Law nor even the Natural Law. None other than Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini/Paul VI himself explained the “accomplishments” of the “Second” Vatican Council in terms of her “service” to “man” on the merely natural level without regard for the sanctification and salvation of his immortal soul as a member of the Catholic Church:

But we cannot pass over one important consideration in our analysis of the religious meaning of the council: it has been deeply committed to the study of the modern world. Never before perhaps, so much as on this occasion, has the Church felt the need to know, to draw near to, to understand, to penetrate, serve and evangelize the society in which she lives; and to get to grips with it, almost to run after it, in its rapid and continuous change. This attitude, a response to the distances and divisions we have witnessed over recent centuries, in the last century and in our own especially, between the Church and secular society -- this attitude has been strongly and unceasingly at work in the council; so much so that some have been inclined to suspect that an easy-going and excessive responsiveness to the outside world, to passing events, cultural fashions, temporary needs, an alien way of thinking . . ., may have swayed persons and acts of the ecumenical synod, at the expense of the fidelity which is due to tradition, and this to the detriment of the religious orientation of the council itself. We do not believe that this shortcoming should be imputed to it, to its real and deep intentions, to its authentic manifestations. (Address During The Last General Meeting Of the "Second Vatican Council.)

And what aspect of humanity has this august senate studied? What goal under divine inspiration did it set for itself? It also dwelt upon humanity's ever twofold facet, namely, man's wretchedness and his greatness, his profound weakness -- which is undeniable and cannot be cured by himself -- and the good that survives in him which is ever marked by a hidden beauty and an invincible serenity. But one must realize that this council, which exposed itself to human judgment, insisted very much more upon this pleasant side of man, rather than on his unpleasant one. Its attitude was very much and deliberately optimistic. A wave of affection and admiration flowed from the council over the modem world of humanity. Errors were condemned, indeed, because charity demanded this no less than did truth, but for the persons themselves there was only warming, respect and love. Instead of depressing diagnoses, encouraging remedies; instead of direful prognostics, messages of trust issued from the council to the present-day world. The modern world's values were not only respected but honored, its efforts approved, its aspirations purified and blessed. (Address During The Last General Meeting Of the "Second Vatican Council.)

Yes, the “pleasant side of man” has certainly manifested itself over the past sixty years (see, for example, Florida teen Danika Troy allegedly murdered by teens Kimahri Blevins and Gabriel Williams over online dispute, Swiss founder of controversial assisted suicide clinic dies by euthanasia at 92, and Oscar Solarzano arrested on first-degree attempted murder in Charlotte).

A worldwide genocide, waged by chemical and surgical means, of innocent preborn children.

The worldwide vivisection of living human beings for their vital bodily organs in order to transplant them into those on the point of their natural deaths.

The worldwide starvation and dehydration of disabled human beings.

The worldwide use of “hospice” as a means to expedite the deaths of chronically or terminally ill patients in the name of “compassion.”

Big Pharma’s worldwide control of how human beings are to be overmedicated and used as guinea pigs to refine various formulae for “curing” problems created by Big Ag’s genetic manipulation of our food sources.

The worldwide campaign to institutionalize euthanasia for the sick and suffering and to oppose the imposition of the death penalty upon those adjudged guilty of heinous crimes after the administration of the due process of law.

The worldwide campaign to advance the sin of Sodom and its related vices as “human rights.”

The worldwide campaign to use junk science to promote the ideology of evolutionism and to promote a pantheistic protection of the environment and draconian measures to retard “global warming.”

The worldwide use of telecommunications as a means to attack and undermine the innocence of the young and to promote all manner of sins, both natural and unnatural, against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments by human beings of all ages.

The worldwide control of what is said to be “news” by master illusionists who want to condition, control, manipulate and agitate the masses into accepting uncritically whatever is said to be “reality” because it has been “reported” as such.

The worldwide campaign by national and supranational governmental agencies to institutionalize statism by the issuance of hundreds of thousands of regulations and the imposition of countless taxes, fees, and fines to limit the use of private property and to seek to criminalize speech deemed “hateful” by our caesars.

The worldwide creation and nurturing of a caste of citizens who are dependent upon the state for their very daily needs, thus accustoming entire generations of human beings to become wards of the civil state.

The worldwide use of social engineering to change the demographic composition of neighborhoods and communities.

The dominance of multinational banks and corporations whose only loyalty is to the bottom line and to the promotion of a social agenda that is anti-family and anti-life as they practice usury to enslave those with average or below average incomes in exchange for their being able to finance the purchases of their homes, vehicles, clothing and major appliances.

The systematic warfare against the expression of Christianity in public as a means of protecting “diversity” and of promotion “toleration,” especially for Mohammedans, whose swollen ranks in the once Catholic states of Europe have resulted in one of Talmudism’s long-sought goals: the elimination of the Holy Name of the Divine Redeemer, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, from public view.

An endless procession of wars, many of them waged simultaneously, that have killed and wounded millions upon millions of people and have laid waste entire lands and made refugees of untold millions of people.

Yes, yes, yes.

The “pleasant side of man.”

Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini/Paul VI was steeped in delusions, which have been fostered by the illusion that the work of the “Second” Vatican Council has been that of the Catholic Church and that the “liturgical reform” has enabled men to communicate with God more fully:       

You see, for example, how the countless different languages of peoples existing today were admitted for the liturgical expression of men's communication with God and God's communication with men: to man as such was recognized his fundamental claim to enjoy full possession of his rights and to his transcendental destiny. His supreme aspirations to life, to personal dignity, to his just liberty, to culture, to the renewal of the social order, to Adajustice and peace were purified and promoted; and to all men was addressed the pastoral and missionary invitation to the light of the Gospel.

We can now speak only too briefly on the very many and vast questions, relative to human welfare, with which the council dealt. It did not attempt to resolve all the urgent problems of modem life; some of these have been reserved for a further study which the Church intends to make of them, many of them were presented in very restricted and general terms, and for that reason are open to further investigation and various applications.

But one thing must be noted here, namely, that the teaching authority of the Church, even though not wishing to issue extraordinary dogmatic pronouncements, has made thoroughly known its authoritative teaching on a number of questions which today weigh upon man's conscience and activity, descending, so to speak, into a dialogue with him, but ever preserving its own authority and force; it has spoken with the accommodating friendly voice of pastoral charity; its desire has been to be heard and understood by everyone; it has not merely concentrated on intellectual understanding but has also sought to express itself in simple, up-to-date, conversational style, derived from actual experience and a cordial approach which make it more vital, attractive and persuasive; it has spoken to modern man as he is.

Another point we must stress is this: all this rich teaching is channeled in one direction, the service of mankind, of every condition, in every weakness and need. The Church has, so to say, declared herself the servant of humanity, at the very time when her teaching role and her pastoral government have, by reason of the council's solemnity, assumed greater splendor and vigor: the idea of service has been central. (Address During The Last General Meeting Of the "Second Vatican Council.)

The servant of humanity, not the Mystical Spouse of Christ the King to advance the work of the sanctification and salvation of souls.

Modern man as he is?

Modern man as he “is” is nothing other than the product of Protestantism and Judeo-Masonry with which the lords of conciliarism have made their reconciliation.

Pope Saint Pius X explained the falsity of the naturalistic concept of the concepts of the Sillon that are at the root of  both Dignitatis Humanae and Gaudium et Spes:

We wish to draw your attention, Venerable Brethren, to this distortion of the Gospel and to the sacred character of Our Lord Jesus Christ, God and man, prevailing within the Sillon and elsewhere. As soon as the social question is being approached, it is the fashion in some quarters to first put aside the divinity of Jesus Christ, and then to mention only His unlimited clemency, His compassion for all human miseries, and His pressing exhortations to the love of our neighbor and to the brotherhood of men. True, Jesus has loved us with an immense, infinite love, and He came on earth to suffer and die so that, gathered around Him in justice and love, motivated by the same sentiments of mutual charity, all men might live in peace and happiness. But for the realization of this temporal and eternal happiness, He has laid down with supreme authority the condition that we must belong to His Flock, that we must accept His doctrine, that we must practice virtue, and that we must accept the teaching and guidance of Peter and his successors. Further, whilst Jesus was kind to sinners and to those who went astray, He did not respect their false ideas, however sincere they might have appeared. He loved them all, but He instructed them in order to convert them and save them. Whilst He called to Himself in order to comfort them, those who toiled and suffered, it was not to preach to them the jealousy of a chimerical equality. Whilst He lifted up the lowly, it was not to instill in them the sentiment of a dignity independent from, and rebellious against, the duty of obedience. Whilst His heart overflowed with gentleness for the souls of good-will, He could also arm Himself with holy indignation against the profaners of the House of God, against the wretched men who scandalized the little ones, against the authorities who crush the people with the weight of heavy burdens without putting out a hand to lift them. He was as strong as he was gentle. He reproved, threatened, chastised, knowing, and teaching us that fear is the beginning of wisdom, and that it is sometimes proper for a man to cut off an offending limb to save his body. Finally, He did not announce for future society the reign of an ideal happiness from which suffering would be banished; but, by His lessons and by His example, He traced the path of the happiness which is possible on earth and of the perfect happiness in heaven: the royal way of the Cross. These are teachings that it would be wrong to apply only to one’s personal life in order to win eternal salvation; these are eminently social teachings, and they show in Our Lord Jesus Christ something quite different from an inconsistent and impotent humanitarianism. (Pope Saint Pius X, Notre Charge Apostolique, August 15, 1910.)

Pope Saint Pius X’s condemnation of false philosophy of The Sillon is a condemnation of the false “pontificates” of each of the conciliar “popes,” including that of Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV.

Conciliarism is the very embodiment of the Masonic spirit of “toleration” condemned by numerous popes, including Pope Leo XIII in Custodi di Quella Fede, December 8, 1892:

The road is very short from religious to social ruin. The heart of man is no longer raised to heavenly hopes and loves; capable and needing the infinite, it throws itself insatiably on the goods of this earth. Inevitably there is a perpetual struggle of avid passions to enjoy, become rich, and rise. Then we encounter a large and inexhaustible source of grudges, discords, corruptions, and crimes. In our Italy there was no lack of moral and social disorders before the present events — but what a sorrowful spectacle we see in our days! That loving respect which forms domestic harmony is substantially diminished; paternal authority is too often unrecognized by children and parents alike. Disagreements are frequent, divorce common. Civil discords and resentful anger between the various orders increase every day in the cities. New generations which grew up in a spirit of misunderstood freedom are unleashed in the cities, generations which do not respect anything from above or below. The cities teem with incitements to vice, precocious crimes, and public scandals. The state should be content with the high and noble office of recognizing, protecting, and helping divine and human rights in their harmonious universality. Now, however, the state believes itself almost a judge and disowns these rights or restricts them at will. Finally, the general social order is undermined at its foundations. Books and journals, schools and universities, clubs and theaters, monuments and political discourse, photographs and the fine arts, everything conspires to pervert minds and corrupt hearts. Meanwhile the oppressed and suffering people tremble and the anarchic sects arouse themselves. The working classes raise their heads and go to swell the ranks of socialism, communism, and anarchy. Characters exhaust themselves and many souls, no longer knowing how to suffer nobly nor how to redeem themselves manfully, take their lives with cowardly suicide.

8. Such are the fruits which the masonic sect has borne to us Italians. And after that it yearns to come before you, extolling its merits towards Italy. It likewise yearns to give Us and all those who, heeding Our words, remain faithful to Jesus Christ, the calumnious title of enemies of the state. The facts reveal the merits of this guilty sect toward our peninsula, “merits” which bear repeating. The facts say that masonic patriotism is no less than sectarian egotism which yearns to dominate everything, particularly the modern states which unite and concentrate everything in their hands. The facts say that in the plans of masonry, the names of political independence, equality, civilization, and progress aimed to facilitate the independence of man from God in our country. From them, license of error and vice and union of faction at the expense of other citizens have grown. The easy and delicious enjoyment of life by the world’s fortunate is nurtured in the same source. A people redeemed by divine blood have thus returned to divisions, corruptions, and the shames of paganism.

9. That does not surprise Us. — After nineteen centuries of Christian civilization, this sect tries to overthrow the Catholic Church and to cut off its divine sources. It absolutely denies the supernatural, repudiating every revelation and all the means of salvation which revelation shows us. Through its plans and works, it bases itself solely and entirely on such a weak and corrupt nature as ours. Such a sect cannot be anything other than the height of pride, greed, and sensuality. Now, pride oppresses, greed plunders, and sensuality corrupts. When these three concupiscences are brought to the extreme, the oppressions, greed, and seductive corruptions spread slowly. They take on boundless dimensions and become the oppression, plundering and source of corruption of an entire people.

10. Let Us then show you masonry as an enemy of God, Church, and country. Recognize it as such once and for all, and with all the weapons which reason, conscience, and faith put in your hands, defend yourselves from such a proud foe. Let no one be taken in by its attractive appearance or allured by its promises; do not be seduced by its enticements or frightened by its threats. Remember that Christianity and masonry are essentially irreconcilable, such that to join one is to divorce the other. You can no longer ignore such incompatibility between Catholic and mason, beloved children: you have been warned openly by Our predecessors, and We have loudly repeated the warning.

11. Those who, by some supreme misfortune, have given their name to one of these societies of perdition should know that they are strictly bound to separate themselves from it. Otherwise they must remain separated from Christian communion and lose their soul now and for eternity. Parents, teachers, godparents, and whoever has care of others should also know that a rigorous duty binds them to keep their wards from this guilty sect or to draw them from it if they have already entered.

12. In a matter of such importance and where the seduction is so easy in these times, it is urgent that the Christian watch himself from the beginning. He should fear the least danger, avoid every occasion, and take the greatest precautions. Use all the prudence of the serpent, while keeping in your heart the simplicity of the dove, according to the evangelical counsel. Fathers and mothers should be wary of inviting strangers into their homes or admitting them to domestic intimacy, at least insofar as their faith is not sufficiently known. They should try to first ascertain that an astute recruiter of the sect does not hide himself in the guise of a friend, teacher, doctor or other benefactor. Oh, in how many families has the wolf penetrated in sheep’s clothing!

13. It is beautiful to see the varied groups which arise everywhere today in every order of social life: worker groups, groups of mutual aid and social security, organizations to promote science, arts, letters, and other similar things. When they are inspired by a good moral and religious spirit, these groups certainly prove to be useful and proper. But because the masonic poison has penetrated and continues to penetrate here also, especially here, any groups that remove themselves from religious influence should be generally suspect. They can easily be directed and more or less dominated by masons, becoming the sowingground and the apprenticeship of the sect in addition to providing assistance to it.

14. Women should not join philanthropic societies whose nature and purpose are not well-known without first seeking advice from wise and experienced people. That talkative philanthropy which is opposed to Christian charity with such pomp is often the passport for masonic business.

15. Everyone should avoid familiarity or friendship with anyone suspected of belonging to masonry or to affiliated groups. Know them by their fruits and avoid them. Every familiarity should be avoided, not only with those impious libertines who openly promote the character of the sect, but also with those who hide under the mask of universal tolerance, respect for all religions, and the craving to reconcile the maxims of the Gospel with those of the revolution. These men seek to reconcile Christ and Belial, the Church of God and the state without God

16. Every Christian should shun books and journals which distill the poison of impiety and which stir up the fire of unrestrained desires or sensual passions. Groups and reading clubs where the masonic spirit stalks its prey should be likewise shunned.

17. In addition, since we are dealing with a sect which has pervaded everything, it is not enough to remain on the defensive. We must courageously go out into the battlefield and confront it. That is what you will do, beloved children, opposing press to press, school to school, organization to organization, congress to congress, action to action.

18. Masonry has taken control of the public schools, leaving private schools, paternal schools, and those directed by zealous ecclesiastics and religious of both sexes to compete in the education of Christian youth. Christian parents especially should not entrust the education of their children to uncertain schools. Masonry has confiscated the inheritance of public charity; fill the void, then, with the treasure of private relief. It has placed pious works in the hands of its followers, so you should entrust those that depend on you to Catholic institutions. It opens and maintains houses of vice, leaving you to do what is possible to open and maintain shelters for honesty in danger. An anti-Christian press in religious and secular matters militates at its expense, so that your effort and money are required by the Catholic press. Masonry establishes societies of mutual help and credit unions for its partisans; you should do the same not only for your brothers but for all the indigent. This will show that true and sincere charity is the daughter of the One who makes the sun to rise and the rain to fall on the just man and sinner alike.

19. May this struggle between good and evil extend to everything, and may good prevail. Masonry holds frequent meetings to plan new ways to combat the Church, and you should hold them frequently to better agree on the means and order of defense. It multiplies its lodges, so that you should multiply Catholic clubs and parochial groups, promote charitable associations and prayer organizations, and maintain and increase the splendor of the temple of God. The sect, having nothing to fear, today shows its face to the light of day. You Italian Catholics should also make open profession of your faith and follow the example of your glorious ancestors who confessed their faith bravely before tyrants, torture, and death. What more? Does the sect try to enslave the Church and to put it at the feet of the state as a humble servant? You must then demand and claim for it the freedom and independence due it before the law. Does masonry seek to tear apart Catholic unity, sowing discord even in the clergy itself, arousing quarrels, fomenting strife, and inciting insubordination, revolt, and schism? By tightening the sacred bond of charity and obedience, you can thwart its plans, bring to naught its efforts, and disappoint its hopes. Be all of one heart and one mind, like the first Christians. Gathered around the See of Peter and united to your pastors, protect the supreme interests of Church and papacy, which are just as much the supreme interests of Italy and of all the Christian world. The Apostolic See has always been the inspirer and jealous guardian of Italian glory. Therefore, be Italians and Catholics, free and non-sectarian, faithful to the nation as well as to Christ and His visible Vicar. An anti-Christian and antipapal Italy would truly be opposed to the divine plan, and thus condemned to perish.

20. Beloved children, faith and state speak to you at this time through Us. Listen to their cry, arise together and fight manfully the battles of the Lord. May the number, boldness, and strength of the enemy not frighten you, because God is stronger than they; if God is for you, who can be against you?

21. Redouble your prayers so that God might be with you in a greater abundance of grace, fighting and triumphing with you. Accompany your prayers with the practice of the Christian virtues, especially charity toward the needy. Seek God’s mercies with humility and perseverance, renewing every day the promises of your baptism. (Pope Leo XIII, Custodi di Quella Fede, December 8, 1892.)

It is incumbent upon Catholics all across and up and down the vast expanse of the ecclesiastical divide during this time of apostasy and betrayal recognize and to avoid the evil fruits of a false religious sect that is nothing other than the ape of the Catholic Church.

The conciliar revolutionaries have hidden under their Judeo-Masonic influences under the mask of universal tolerance, respect for all religions, the craving, especially pronounced at this time, to reconcile the Gospel with the precepts of Judeo-Masonic naturalism’s world view as they have attempted to reconcile “Christ and Belial, the Church of God and state without God. These wicked men celebrate sin in the name of a false “mercy”, and they praise the programs of elected officials and unelected apparatchiks whose final goal is the cosmic transhumanism of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

We must view all things through the eyes of the Holy Faith.

We must view all things through the eyes of the Holy Faith at all times.

We must never allow the events of the world to agitate us as agitation is from the devil.

We must rest secure in our absolute trust in Our Lord’s Divine Providence, remembering that we are living at the exact time which He has ordained from all eternity for us to live and thus to give Him honor and glory as His consecrated slaves through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Is it not the case today that most “Catholics work, act, in a word, live as if they had neither a Creator to obey, a Saviour to love, nor a soul to save”?

Well, it cannot be that way with us.

We must think supernaturally at all times, and we must give thanks at all times that we have been given the gratuitous gift of the Catholic Faith so that we can see the world and everything in it clearly through the eyes of the true Faith. Our gratitude must express itself especially in the midst of personal trials and those tragedies in the world as we give thanks to Our Lord and Our Lady that we can rise about naturalism and as we pray for the gift of perseverance to continue doing so.

The conciliar revolutionaries support everything opposed to the sanctification and thus of the souls for whom Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ shed every single drop of His Most Precious Blood to redeem as complete the work of His fearful Passion and Death on the wood of the Holy Cross on Good Friday. The conciliar revolutionaries do not believe, nor do they accept the simple Catholic truth that the entirety of social order is premised upon the right ordering of human souls in light of First and Last Things and in cooperation with the ineffable graces that Our Divine Redeemer has for won us and that flow into our hearts and souls through the loving hands of Our Lady, she who is the Mediatrix of All Graces.

The counterfeit church of conciliarism has not maintained the integrity of the Holy Faith.

The counterfeit church of conciliarism has not maintained in the same sense of the revealed Word of God.

The counterfeit church of conciliarism has destroyed the true Sacraments in favor of bogus rites that have dried the wellsprings of a superabundance of Sanctifying and Actual Grace.

The counterfeit church of conciliarism has been manifestly disobedient and defiant to our true popes and true bishops and to the true general councils of Holy Mother Church.

The counterfeit church of conciliarism is completely subordinated to the service of "man" for purely earthly considerations and is founded on a "conception of a church which replaces the true one."

We must use Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary in our own day today to combat the heresies of the counterfeit church of conciliarism and to pray for the conversion of the conciliar revolutionaries, praying for our own daily conversion away sin and disordered self-love and a belief in our own "virtues" that are more imaginary than real, ever desirous of offering all to the throne of the Most Blessed Trinity through her own Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart.

Viva Cristo Rey! Vivat Christus Rex!

Immaculate Heart of Mary, triumph soon!

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.