These Times of Antichrist

 

The world at the approach of a new millennium,
for which the whole Church is preparing,
is like a field ready for the harvest. 
—ST. POPE JOHN PAUL II, World Youth Day, homily, August 15th, 1993

 

 

THE Catholic world has been abuzz recently with the release of a letter written by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI essentially stating that the Antichrist is alive. The letter was sent in 2015 to Vladimir Palko, a retired Bratislava statesman who lived through the Cold War. The late pope wrote:

We see how the power of the Antichrist is expanding, and we can only pray that the Lord will give us strong shepherds who will defend his church in this hour of need from the power of evil. —POPE EMERITUS BENEDICT XVI, The American Conservative, January 10th, 2023^[1]The orginal German reads: “Man sieht, wie die Macht des Antichrist sich ausbreitet, und kann nur beten, dass der Herr uns kraftvolle Hirten schenkt, die seine Kirche in dieser Stunde der Not gegen die Macht des Bösen verteidigen.”

This was not the first time, however, that Benedict had raised what is almost a taboo subject among Catholic intellectuals. In volume two of Peter Seewald’s authoritative biography, the retired pope had been even more explicit: 

…the actual threat to the church, and so to the papacy… [comes from] the global dictatorship of ostensibly humanist ideologies. Contradicting them means being excluded from the basic social consensus. A hundred years ago anyone would have found it absurd to speak of homosexual marriage. Today anyone opposing it is socially excommunicated. The same goes for abortion and creating human beings in a laboratory. Modern society is formulating an anti-Christian creed and opposing it is punished with social excommunication. It is only natural to fear this spiritual power of Antichrist and it really needs help from the prayers of a whole diocese and the world church to resist it. —Benedict XVI: A Life Volume Two: Professor and Prefect to Pope and Pope Emeritus 1966–The Present, p. 666; Bloomsbury Publishing – Kindle Edition

That passage just happened to be on page 666. 

 

The Popes of the Past Century

He was hardly the first pope to raise the spectre that Antichrist could be operating in their times — but Benedict states it as a matter of fact. Indeed, any Catholic remotely awake must be aware that, at the very least, the spirit of antichrist has permeated our civilization. 

Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist…  every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist that, as you heard, is to come, but in fact is already in the world. (1 John 2:22, 1 John 4:3)

It would be shortsighted to simply chalk this up as a mere denial of Christ’s historical existence. Rather, the spirit of antichrist is ultimately a denial of revealed and moral truth — for Jesus said, “I am the truth.” ^[2]cf. John 14:6

While there are, to be certain, many antichrists throughout history,^[3]“As far as the antichrist is concerned, we have seen that in the New Testament, he always assumes the lineaments of contemporary history. He cannot be restricted to any single individual. One and the same he wears many masks in each generation.” (Cardinal Ratzinger [POPE BENEDICT XVI], Dogmatic Theology, Eschatology 9, Johann Auer and Joseph Ratzinger, 1988, p. 199-200) Sacred Tradition maintains that there will be an individual toward the end of time^[4]or rather, the end of an era; see The Thousand Years who is identified as the “lawless one”, the “son of perdition”, the “man of sin”, the “beast”, or Antichrist. 

…that Antichrist is one individual man, not a power — not a mere ethical spirit, or a political system, not a dynasty, or succession of rulers — was the universal tradition of the early Church. —St. John Henry Newman, “The Times of Antichrist”, Lecture 1

Long before Vatican II and the subsequent explosion of modernism that all but gutted Christendom in the West, the Holy Pontiffs were keenly aware that something apocalyptic had begun overshadowing the world — so much so, that they were not reticent to label it:

Who can fail to see that society is at the present time, more than in any past age, suffering from a terrible and deep-rooted malady which, developing every day and eating into its inmost being, is dragging it to destruction? You understand, Venerable Brethren, what this disease is — apostasy from God… When all this is considered there is good reason to fear lest this great perversity may be as it were a foretaste, and perhaps the beginning of those evils which are reserved for the last days; and that there may be already in the world the “Son of Perdition” of whom the Apostle speaks. —POPE ST. PIUS X, E Supremi, Encyclical On the Restoration of All Things in Christ, n. 3, 5; October 4th, 1903

His successors would only continue on that theme.^[5]“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 PAUL VI, The Secret Paul VI, Jean Guitton, p. 152-153, Reference (7), p. ix; cf. Why Aren’t the Popes Shouting Benedict XV, admitting that perhaps no other generation on record parallels our blood-lust, could have penned this yesterday:

For what could prevent the soul of the common Father of all being most deeply distressed by the spectacle presented by Europe, nay, by the whole world, perhaps the saddest and most mournful spectacle of which there is any record. Certainly those days would seem to have come upon us of which Christ Our Lord foretold: “You shall hear of wars and rumours of wars — for nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” (Matt. xxiv, 6, 7). —Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum, November 1, 1914; www.vatican.va

Pius XI, like his predecessor, likewise dialled up the Antichrist:

…all rights both human and Divine are confounded… the whole Christian people, sadly disheartened and disrupted, are continually in danger of falling away from the faith, or of suffering the most cruel death. These things in truth are so sad that you might say that such events foreshadow and portend the “beginning of sorrows,” that is to say of those that shall be brought by the man of sin, “who is lifted up above all that is called God or is worshipped” (2 Thessalonians ii, 4). (2 Thes 2:4). —Miserentissimus Redemptor, Encyclical Letter on Reparation to the Sacred Heart, May 8th, 1928; www.vatican.va

St. John Paul II, while still a cardinal, also framed the “final confrontation” with Antichrist as pivoting on human rights. He declared (as Deacon Keith Fournier, who was in attendance, heard it):

We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-church, between the Gospel and the anti-gospel, between Christ and the antichrist. This confrontation lies within the plans of divine Providence; it is a trial which the whole Church, and the Polish Church in particular, must take up. It is a trial of not only our nation and the Church, but in a sense a test of 2,000 years of culture and Christian civilization, with all of its consequences for human dignity, individual rights, human rights and the rights of nations. —Cardinal Karol Wojtyla (JOHN PAUL II ), at the Eucharistic Congress, Philadelphia, PA for the bicentennial celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, August 13, 1976; cf. Catholic Online

Indeed, we have just passed through one of the most appalling global experiments on human rights in the history of mankind with mandates that not only restricted travel, free association in our homes, and even the ability to receive the Sacraments, but the forced injection of the population with experimental mRNA gene therapies^[6]cf. Not a Moral Obligation and Open Letter to the Bishops (in exchange for a droplet of freedom or to keep one’s job). Many of us watched in horror as all of the “consequences for human dignity” became apparent:

Research or experimentation on the human being cannot legitimate acts that are in themselves contrary to the dignity of persons and to the moral law. The subjects’ potential consent does not justify such acts. —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2295

The spirit of Nazi Germany, which is also the spirit of antichrist, is not dead; it is very much alive today, literally, in the historical development of what is known today as “Big Pharma” (see Our 1942 and especially The Pandemic of Control).

…in March 1946 [Fr. Michael] Höck’s fellow prisoner in Dachau the future auxiliary bishop of Munich Johannes Neuhäusler, published an extensive documentation of the Nazis’ attack on Catholicism and the church’s resistance. The title was Kreuz und Hakenkreuz (Cross and Swastika). In it, he described the different measures adopted to dismantle the Catholic faith. He listed them as: ‘Attack on the papacy, attack on the bishops, attack on all the clergy, attack on religious instruction, attack on prayers and the crucifix in schools, attack on all Catholic groups, constraints on church services, constraints on pastoral care, constraints on Catholic religious orders, tendentious portrayals and misrepresentations, diatribes against Christianity, goodbye to the old God.’ He described other measures adopted against the church in the battle to destroy it as ‘Antichrist’s rage against the holy. Antichrist’s rage against “worthless lives”. Antichrist’s rage against Judaism’. —Benedict XVI: A Life Volume One, pp. 194-195, Bloomsbury Publishing – Kindle Edition

Take it from the mouth of Aldous Huxley, apparently a Freemason and the author of Brave New World:

There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the final revolution. —speech at Tavistock Group, California Medical School, 1961 (some attribute the speech to 1962 in Berkely, but the speech itself is not disputed)

 

The Final Revolution: Antichrist in Our Times

It’s interesting that the parents of the young future pope, Joseph Ratzinger, had given him a copy of Der Herr der Welt  — “Lord of the World” — the apocalyptic novel by the English writer and priest Robert Hugh Benson. ‘It is the vision of a modern Antichrist, who becomes ruler of the world under the cover of progress and humanity,’ writes Seewald. But…

The most extraordinary scientific progress, the most astounding technical feats and the most amazing economic growth, unless accompanied by authentic moral and social progress, will in the long run go against man. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Address to FAO on the 25th Anniversary of its Institution, November, 16th, 1970, n. 4

Seewald continues that, ‘After the elimination of Christianity, forced conformity and the installation of a new religion of humanity, he is honoured as a new God.'^[7]Benedict XVI: A Life Volume One (pp. 184-185). Bloomsbury Publishing – Kindle Edition

We are living that reality today in a profound and startling way, which is perhaps why Pope Francis in one of his morning homilies had recommended that the faithful read Lord of the World. It’s “almost as though it were a prophecy, as though [Benson] envisioned what would happen,” Francis warned.^[8]Homily, November 18, 2013; catholicculture.org [Of course, it must be stated that many of the faithful are perplexed, then, why Pope Francis has thrown his political endorsement behind the entire United Nations and even Big Pharma agenda. Confusion, or what Sr. Lucia called “diabolical disorientation,” is very much at the heart of this global revolution.]

For instance, institutionalized euthanasia is a key development in Benson’s novel — something that in 1907, when it was published, was unthinkable. So too was the idea of a culture “advancing” completely without God.

…the reconciliation of the world on a basis other than that of Divine Truth… there was coming into existence a unity unlike anything known in history. This was the more deadly from the fact that it contains so many elements of indubitable good. War, apparently, was now extinct, and it was not Christianity that had done it; union was now seen to be better than disunion, and the lesson had been learned apart from the Church… Friendliness took the place of charity, contentment the place of hope, and knowledge the place of faith. —Lord of the World, Robert Hugh Benson, 1907, p. 120

This is precisely what the United Nations and its subsidiaries, such as the World Economic Forum (WEF), envision: a completely humanistic world devoid of the Holy Trinity. Indeed, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is a transhumanist movement, is intended to make us like gods by fusing our biological, digital and physical identities into one. This is not coming — it is in progress.

It is the fusion of these technologies and their interaction across the physical, digital and biological domains that make the fourth industrial revolution fundamentally different from previous revolutions. —Prof. Klaus Schwab, founder World Economic Forum, “The Fourth Industrial Revolution”, p. 12

Professor Yuval Noah Harari, a top advisor to Schwab and the WEF, declares that Christianity is simply a myth and that Homo sapiens are a “post-truth species.”^[9]cf. lifesitenews.com 

With the help of novel technologies, within a few centuries or even decades, Sapiens will upgrade themselves into completely different beings, enjoying godlike qualities and abilities. —from Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2015); cf. lifesitenews.com

This is precisely what St. Paul said the Antichrist would boast:

…the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. (2 Thess 2:3-4)

But before then, it is necessary that the soil be prepared — which this past century has done in spades. After two World Wars, and now on the brink of a third; after the spread of “the errors of Russia” and the explosion of Marxist ideology that has spawned critical race theory, transgenderism, gay “marriage” and a “vaxxed vs. the unvaxxed” dichotomy, it is clear the antichrist objectives of the Illuminati/Freemasons have been achieved. Their goal, wrote Gerald B. Winrod…

…has always been to stir up strife from secret sources and engender class hatreds.^[10]cf. The Two Camps This was the plan used in bringing about the death of Christ: a mob spirit was created. The same policy is described in Acts 14:2, “But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren.” —Adam Weishaupt, A Human Devil, p. 43, c. 1935; cf. The Growing Mob and Barbarians at the Gates

So too, the Fourth Industrial Revolution or “Great Reset” is only possible if you tear down what exists in order to “build back better.” “Gas-lighting” — to manipulate (someone) using psychological methods into questioning their own sanity or powers of reasoning — is their modus operandi. ^[11]“…the spirit of revolutionary change which has long been disturbing the nations of the world… there are not a few who are imbued with evil principles and eager for revolutionary change, whose main purpose is to stir up disorder and incite their fellows to acts of violence.” —POPE LEO XIII, Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum, n. 1, 38; vatican.va 

Illuminism has for its main purpose the intensifying of human restlessness as a means of tearing down everything that exists, so by long range advance preparation, the way may be paved for the powers behind the scenes to set up their final system of international government… —ibid. p. 50

There was a time when the differences between the so-called “left” and “right” were relatively minor issues on how to manage the economy, health care, investment, and so forth. Not so today. While the thoroughly corrupted media today attempts to paint the so-called “right-wing” as extremist — and there are always extremes on every side — it can be said today that leftist political parties have become the veritable ideological arm of the spirit of antichrist. For it is from the “left” that the dangerous and Church-condemned ideologies of Marxism, Socialism, and Communism are breeding a whole new radicalized generation. They believe that access to abortion, to “gender-affirming” surgery to amputate children’s sexual organs, the dismantling of police forces, the erasure of borders, the dissolution of private property, the destruction of “capitalism”, the redefinition of marriage, the reduction of the human population, and a host of other amoral agendas… are their “rights.” No, we are no longer living in a landscape of “right vs. left” but truly good vs. evil — and that transcends either side of the political spectrum. Moreover, the “good” are simply being outnumbered now.^[12]cf. Enough Good Souls

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. —POPE PIUS XI, Divini Redemptoris, n. 15

I warned of this years ago — that a Great Vacuum has been left not only by the Church’s deafening moral and evangelical silence, particularly on the local level, but ‘by an onslaught of propaganda which centers on self-fulfillment, rather than on God.'^[13]cf. The Great Vacuum We have bred generations now that not only reject Catholicism, but are filling their hearts with violent and godless “entertainment”, hard-core pornography, corrosive social-media, hours of gaming, and narcissistic and lustful music. It’s a junk food diet.^[14]cf. The New Paganism – Part I As such, it is inevitably leaving generations X, Y, and Z longing for something deeper, something greater… someone truly “gifted” who can rise above our relativistic, stereotypical politicians (and scandal-ridden priesthood), and lead our times. The days are ripe for the emergence of the Antichrist — given the right set of crises for him to “solve.”

Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the “mystery of iniquity” in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh. —cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 675-676

The Antichrist will fool many people because he will be viewed as a humanitarian with a fascinating personality, who espouses vegetarianism, pacifism, human rights and environmentalism.  —Cardinal Biffi, London Times, Friday, March 10, 2000, referring to a portrait of the Antichrist in Vladimir Soloviev’s book, War, Progress and the End of History 

One could go on with the clear “signs of the times” of what Benedict calls the “expanding” power of the Antichrist — from the rise of a true antichurch from within the Church herself;^[15]cf. The Black Ship to the imminence of digital ID’s and a cashless system;^[16]cf. The Final Revolution to coming total control over freedom of movement and speech and even one’s health through “vaccine passports”;^[17]cf. Control! Control! and The Great Corralling and to how we are mere inches away from the possibility of a literal “mark of the beast” — the sole means, in such a system,^[18]eg. lifesitenews.com through which one will be able to “buy or sell.”^[19]Rev 13:17; cf. The Final Revolution It is truly the perfect storm — the Great Storm.

But what is God’s antidote to the spectre of Antichrist in our days? What is the Lord’s “solution” to safeguard His people, the Barque of His Church, through the rough waters ahead? That, in the next reflection…

 

 

 

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