The Great Chaos

When natural law and the responsibility it entails are denied,
this dramatically paves the way
to ethical relativism at the individual level
and to totalitarianism of the State
at the political level.
—POPE BENEDICT XVI, General Audience, June 16th, 2010
L’Osservatore Romano, English Edition, June 23, 2010

I feel the United States has to save the world…
—Servant of God Maria Esperanza
The Bridge to Heaven: Interviews with Maria Esperanza of Betania,
by Michael H. Brown, p. 43

Abraham, the father of faith, is by his faith the rock that holds back chaos,
the onrushing primordial flood of destruction, and thus sustains creation.
Simon, the first to confess Jesus as the Christ…
now becomes by virtue of his Abrahamic faith, which is renewed in Christ,
the rock that stands against the impure tide of unbelief
and its destruction of man.
—POPE BENEDICT XVI (Cardinal Ratzinger)
Called to Communion, Understanding the Church Today, Adrian Walker, Tr., p. 55-56

THERE are essentially two things holding back a tide of chaos from engulfing the world. One is political in nature, the other spiritual. First, the political…

THE POLITICAL RESTRAINER

There is a tendency at times for my American friends to see the universe revolving around their country. But if what is written in Mystery Babylon is true, then America and the Western nations are indeed key actors at the end of this age. For St. John speaks of not only how the world is intoxicated with the wealth, perversity, and consumerism of Babylon, but when its system finally collapses, it ushers in a brief period of the kingdom of Satan, a “beast.”

The Book of Revelation includes among the great sins of Babylon – the symbol of the world’s great irreligious cities – the fact that it trades with bodies and souls and treats them as commodities (cf. Rev 18:13). In this context, the problem of drugs also rears its head, and with increasing force extends its octopus tentacles around the entire world – an eloquent expression of the tyranny of mammon which perverts mankind. No pleasure is ever enough, and the excess of deceiving intoxication becomes a violence that tears whole regions apart – and all this in the name of a fatal misunderstanding of freedom which actually undermines man’s freedom and ultimately destroys it. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, On the occasion of Christmas Greetings, December 20th, 2010; http://www.vatican.va/

Since the election of 2016, there is something about the American news that is riveting. Why? Because we are watching the battle for America’s soul, and really, the entire Western world’s.

The U.S. dollar has been the “currency of trade” throughout the world. America’s economic and military might, the commodity of oil, and her demand for goods has played a key role in the prosperity, poverty, wars, and political landscapes that have shaped vast portions of the rest of the world in one way or another, particularly over the past century. The “imperialism” of the West has brought both oppression and democracy, darkness and light. It is true that at this moment—setting aside the controversial personality of President Donald Trump—the last defence of true democracy and authentic freedom of speech and religion in the world is the present administration of the United States (though Russia has made surprising but mixed strides in defending the above: see Russia… Our Refuge?).

I need to let that sentence sink in for a moment.

The reason is that Europe has buried its Christian identity, despite the warnings of the last three popes. Its fatally low birthrate and open border policies have virtually crushed its Christian heritage. In North America, Canada has entered a post-Christian era under its current leadership while Mexico descends into further criminal lawlessness. The Islamic Jihad in Africa and the Middle East continues to displace and empty those lands of Christian families and clergy. And most notably, China is quietly, stealthily rising as a military and technological superpower as it enters into a new era of social experimentation, Christian persecution, and enforced atheism upon its helpless population.

There is arguably no real candidate left to hold the balance of freedom in the world (as we know it) than America. But her present stability is as fragile as a house of cards. The debt of the United States continues to soar, pushing it to the brink of bankruptcy, even as its GDP and job force grows. Economists have been warning for years now that a catastrophic collapse is coming when credit catches up to cash reserve.^[1]cf. 2014 and the Rising Beast

But far more significant is the rise of a “new Communism” in the United States—unthinkable only ten years ago. The babyboomer’s grandchildren—who have been fed revisionist history, leftist propaganda, and the new religion of “tolerance” that tolerates nothing but its own ideas—are beginning to welcome Marxist ideology to fill the vacuum where Capitalism has failed. Indeed, the youth who are the future are always the target:

Thus the Communist ideal wins over many of the better minded members of the community. These in turn become the apostles of the movement among the younger intelligentsia who are still too immature to recognize the intrinsic errors of the system… When religion is banished from the school, from education and from public life, when the representatives of Christianity and its sacred rites are held up to ridicule, are we not really fostering the materialism which is the fertile soil of Communism? —POPE PIUS XI, Divinis Redemptoris, n. 78, 15 78

Why do you think St. John Paul II began World Youth Days? To counter the attack on the family and its children.

Moreover, much was set in motion by former presidents to undermine Christianity, particularly with the overturning of the natural law. As Johnathan Last stated after the redefinition of marriage there:

…last week’s [Supreme Court] decisions weren’t just post-constitutional, they were post-law. Meaning that we no longer live within a system of laws, but under a system governed by the will of men. —editorial, Jonathan V. Last, The Weekly Standard, July 1st, 2015

That is, a time of lawlessness.^[2]cf. The Hour of Lawlessness That’s precisely the warning Pope Benedict gave over and over again until at last comparing our times to the collapse of the Roman Empire:

The disintegration of the key principles of law and of the fundamental moral attitudes underpinning them burst open the dams which until that time had protected peaceful coexistence among peoples. The sun was setting over an entire world. Frequent natural disasters further increased this sense of insecurity. There was no power in sight that could put a stop to this decline. All the more insistent, then, was the invocation of the power of God: the plea that he might come and protect his people from all these threats… For all its new hopes and possibilities, our world is at the same time troubled by the sense that moral consensus is collapsing… In reality, this makes reason blind to what is essential. To resist this eclipse of reason and to preserve its capacity for seeing the essential, for seeing God and man, for seeing what is good and what is true, is the common interest that must unite all people of good will. The very future of the world is at stake. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Address to the Roman Curia, December 20th, 2010; catholicherald.co.uk

It can be said that the political “left” has rapidly become synonymous with anti-gospel ideologies that promote not only abortion on demand, assisted-suicide, gender ideology, gay “marriage”, etc. but now socialism, Communism, and the unabashed suppression of freedom of religion and speech—even encouraging “incivility” to enforce it. Lori Kalner survived Hitler’s regime and had this to say to an America that is now being torn apart along an ideological divide:

There are so few of us left to warn you. I have heard that there are 69 million Catholics in America and 70 million Evangelical Christians. Where are your voices? Where is your outrage? Where is passion and your vote? Do you vote based on an abortionist’s empty promises and economics? Or do you vote according to the Bible? …I have experienced the signs of the politics of Death in my youth. I see them again now… —wicatholicmusings.blogspot.com

Servant of God Maria Esperanza felt that the United States “must save the world.” But now, it must save itself.

The American republic is really an extension of the Roman Empire, which never totally collapsed. But if and when it does collapse, that may be when “the beast” rises to reign.

I do not grant that the Roman empire is gone. Far from it: the Roman empire remains even to this day… And as the horns, or kingdoms, still exist, as a matter of fact, consequently we have not yet seen the end of the Roman empire. —Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890), The Times of Antichrist, Sermon 1

But when that capital of the world shall have fallen, and shall have begun to be a street… who can doubt that the end has now arrived to the affairs of men and the whole world? —Lactantius, Church Father, Divine Institutes, Book VII, Ch. 25, “Of the Last Times, and of the City of Rome”; note: Lactantius goes on to say that the collapse of the Roman Empire is not the end of the world, but marks the beginning of a “thousand year” reign of Christ in His Church, followed by the consummation of all things.

THE SPIRITUAL RESTRAINER

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed… (2 Thessalonians 2:7-8)

The times and seasons, we do not know. But the signs of the times we must. St. Paul VI saw them clearly:

There is a great uneasiness at this time in the world and in the Church, and that which is in question is the faith. It so happens now that I repeat to myself the obscure phrase of Jesus in the Gospel of St. Luke: ‘When the Son of Man returns, will He still find faith on the earth?’…I sometimes read the Gospel passage of the end times and I attest that, at this time, some signs of this end are emerging. —POPE ST. PAUL VI, The Secret Paul VI, Jean Guitton, p. 152-153, Reference (7), p. ix.

The late pontiff places the collapse of faith in God as one of the key signs of the “end times.” For it is Christ’s Church—the “salt and light” of the world—who are to stem the tied of evil.

The Church is always called upon to do what God asked of Abraham, which is to see to it that there are enough righteous men to repress evil and destruction. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Light of the World, A Conversation with Peter Seewald, p. 166

As mentioned at the start, Pope Benedict saw Simon Peter as the first or prime “rock” that plugs the dam of iniquity.

Two things can be said at this hour of the present pontificate. As I revealed in Pope Francis On… he has certainly taught every major tenet of the faith and the moral law. At the same time, the appointment of several progressive advisors, the handing over of Church powers to Communist China,^[3]cf. The Pope Doesn’t Understand China the ambiguities present in Amoris Laetitia and the exploitation of these, not only by individuals but entire bishop’s conferences,^[4]cf. The Anti-Mercy has led to a certain crisis of trust in the Holy Father. Moreover, the sexual abuse scandals and cover-ups that continue to rock the Church and that have begun to engulf Francis himself, are pushing the Church toward schism.

God will permit a great evil against the Church: heretics and tyrants will come suddenly and unexpectedly; they will break into the Church while bishops, prelates, and priests are asleep. —Venerable Bartholomew Holzhauser (1613-1658 A.D.); Ibid. p.30

Be careful to preserve your faith, because in the future, the Church in the U.S.A. will be separated from Rome. —St. Leopold, Antichrist and the End Times, Fr. Joseph Iannuzzi, St. Andrew’s Productions, P. 31

In a word, both democracy and the Church have lost the confidence of a large portion of the populace. It is the fertile soil for a revolution… a Global Revolution. This is the Great Chaos the world is poised to pass through….

In the final analysis, healing can only come from deep faith in God’s reconciling love. Strengthening this faith, nourishing it and causing it to shine forth is the Church’s principal task at this hour… I entrust these prayerful sentiments to the intercession of the Holy Virgin, Mother of the Redeemer. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Address to the Roman Curia, December 20th, 2010

Freedom’s flame may be extinguished for a time… but not hope:

I will free this world darkened by hatred and contaminated by the sulfurous and steaming lava of Satan. The air which gave life to souls has become suffocating and deadly. No dying soul should be damned. My Flame of Love is already lighting up. You know, my little one, the elect will have to fight against the Prince of Darkness. It will be a terrible storm. Rather, it will be a hurricane which will want to destroy the faith and confidence of even the elect. In this terrible turmoil currently brewing up, you will see the brightness of my Flame of Love illuminating Heaven and earth by the effusion of its effect of grace I am passing on to souls in this dark night. —from the approved revelations of Our Lady to Elizabeth Kindelmann, The Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary: The Spiritual Diary (Kindle Locations 2994-2997)

Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1	cf. 2014 and the Rising Beast
↑2	cf. The Hour of Lawlessness
↑3	cf. The Pope Doesn’t Understand China
↑4	cf. The Anti-Mercy