The threat in the church
All that we have heard about the Antichrist in the past reflections clearly shows the great danger that antichristian activities bring to people. It is the serious and perhaps even last attempt of the devil to extend his rule globally to the whole earth, to subjugate it and, if possible, to lead it to worship himself.
God allows these trials and integrates them into his plan of salvation, because nothing happens without our Lord knowing and ordering it according to his will.
Since the Son of God is present in his church, the attack of the Antichrist and his disciples will be directed especially at the church, for she stands in the way for him to carry out his dark plans. Also those state orders which serve justice and have not turned into “robber states” hinder the realisation of these plans. That is why the “disciples of Antichrist” are working to destabilise the orders existing on all levels, which have a direct or indirect reference to God, in order to enforce their intentions. This also serves as a preparation for the reign of the Antichrist, who then, according to their plans, is to take over the government over the whole world. Let us remember that the Antichrist will be a man who is under the complete rule of Lucifer, i.e. the devil wants to manifest his kingdom visibly on earth through him.
It is here that the spirit of discernment in particular must take effect, unmasking Lucifer’s attempts at deception.
Vigilant Catholics will be able to easily perceive the antichristian influences in the world and their influence on governments when they enact unjust laws. Therefore I will not focus on this. In the past, there have been enough clear statements in the hierarchy to help believers to do the discernment of spirits well. This has unfortunately changed.
So the focus in our reflections is on the church, with the serious question of whether the “spirit of Antichrist” has become so effective in her that she has lost her direction to a considerable extent in church leadership, unfortunately deceived and in this way even (unknowingly) cooperates with this spirit.
In other words: do the “disciples of the Antichrist” already have control points of church leadership within our church under their influence? Is the terrible structure of a kind of “anti-church” forming in the womb of the church, or has it already come into being?
We must not close our eyes to such questions, which have become particularly pressing in this pontificate. In order to pursue this question in the coming reflections, we should hear two serious statements from past popes.
Paul VI: “The tail of the devil is functioning in the disintegration of the Catholic world. The darkness of Satan has entered and spread throughout the Catholic Church even to its summit. Apostasy, the loss of the faith, is spreading throughout the world and into the highest levels within the Church.” (Pope Paul VI, Oct. 13, 1977 as quoted in Corriere della Sera, Page 7 of its issue dated October 14, 1977)
John Paul II: “We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel. This confrontation lies within the plans of divine Providence; it is trial which the whole Church must take up.”(Cardenal Karol Wojtyla, Eucharistic congress in Philadelphia 1977)
From the prophetic realm, we hear from Our Lady’s message to the priest Don Gobbi, recognised by the Church.
“The beast with two horns like a lamb indicates Freemasonry infiltrated through the whole of the church, that is ecclesiastical Masonry, which has spread especially among the members of the Hierarchy.
This Masonic infiltration, in the Church, was already predicted by Me in Fatima, when I announced to you that Satan would be introduced up to the summit of the Church.
If the task of Masonry is to lead souls to perdition, bringing them to the worship of a false god, the purpose of Ecclesiastical Masonry is instead the destruction of Christ and his Church, building a new idol, namely a false christ and a false church.
The Church will know the hour of her great apostasy. The wicked man will penetrate to her very heart and sit in the Temple of God, while the rest of the true faithful will be exposed to the worst trials and persecutions.
From then on, apostasy will become widespread, because almost all people will follow the false Christ and the false Church. Then the door will be wide open for the appearance of the Antichrist!”
Let us add a prophetic voice from the hierarchy. Bishop Fulton Sheen from the United States said:
“The false prophet will have a religion without a cross. A religion without a future world. A religion to destroy religions. There will be a false church. The true church of Christ [the Catholic Church] will be one. And the false prophet will create another church. The false church will be secular, ecumenical and global. It will be a federation of churches. And the religions will form a kind of global union. A world parliament of churches. Emptied of all divine content, it will be the mystical body of Antichrist. The mystical body on the earth today will have her Judas Iscariot, and he will be the false prophet. Satan will recruit him from among our bishops.”
Other messages and statements could now be added, e.g. from La Salette, the detailed descriptions of Hildegard von Bingen and other credible testimonies like those of Anna Katharina Emmerich.
The core always remains the same.
The church will experience a heavy attack towards the end and will be internally divided. The spirit of the Antichrist will penetrate into the hierarchy, there will be an apostasy and many Christians will follow the Antichrist. There will be an interaction of a false church with the Antichrist.
That is reason enough to take a closer look now, where we see the Spirit of the Antichrist at work in the present confusion in the church. I am aware that this is a very sensitive subject, which needs careful handling. It should not create fear or hopelessness.
There is no reason to do so, for the Lord will never leave His own and will turn everything around for the good. But we must not keep our eyes closed when the enemy sits in the middle of the church and wants to lead her in the wrong direction.
The true bride of Christ remains faithful to her Bridegroom and nothing can separate her from his love (cf. Rom 8,39). But the Bride of Christ must also be vigilant so that she does not succumb to the deceptive and wooing attempts of those who want to lead her away from her only true Bridegroom. For this purpose it is important to be able to distinguish the voice of the Lord well from other voices.
It will be continued!