Saturday, December 12, 2015

Fulton Sheen on the Antichrist

(From Fulton J. Sheen, Communism and the Conscience of the West [Bobbs-Merril Company, Indianapolis, 1948], pp. 24-25)

“The Antichrist will not be so called; otherwise he would have no followers. He will not wear red tights, nor vomit sulphur, nor carry a trident nor wave an arrowed tail as Mephistopheles in Faust. This masquerade has helped the Devil convince men that he does not exist. When no man recognizes, the more power he exercises. God has defined Himself as "I am Who am," and the Devil as "I am who am not."

    Nowhere in Sacred Scripture do we find warrant for the popular myth of the Devil as a buffoon who is dressed like the first "red." Rather is he described as an angel fallen from heaven, as "the Prince of this world," whose business it is to tell us that there is no other world. His logic is simple: if there is no heaven there is no hell; if there is no hell, then there is no sin; if there is no sin, then there is no judge, and if there is no judgment then evil is good and good is evil. But above all these descriptions, Our Lord tells us that he will be so much like Himself that he would deceive even the elect--and certainly no devil ever seen in picture books could deceive even the elect. 


How will he come in this new age to win followers to his religion?

    The pre-Communist Russian belief is that he will come disguised as the Great Humanitarian; he will talk peace, prosperity and plenty not as means to lead us to God, but as ends in themselves. . . .




    . . . The third temptation in which Satan asked Christ to adore him and all the kingdoms of the world would be His, will become the temptation to have a new religion without a Cross, a liturgy without a world to come, a religion to destroy a religion, or a politics which is a religion--one that renders unto Caesar even the things that are God's.





    In the midst of all his seeming love for humanity and his glib talk of freedom and equality, he will have one great secret which he will tell to no one: he will not believe in God. Because his religion will be brotherhood without the fatherhood of God, he will deceive even the elect. He will set up a counterchurch which will be the ape of the Church, because he, the Devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the Antichrist that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ. . . .

    . . . But the twentieth century will join the counterchurch because it claims to be infallible when its visible head speaks ex cathedra from Moscow on the subject of economics and politics, and as chief shepherd of world communism.”

_________________________________________________________________________________
(End Quote by Sheen)



"My mind was not made solely for religious questions. I also had political concerns...I read Our Word and Proposals, a publication by the Communist Party, and I loved every article ever written by LeĆ³nidas Barletta, one of their best-known members and a renowned figure in the world of culture, and that helped me in my political education. But I was never a communist." - Conversations with  Jorge Bergoglio, Sergio Rubin and Francesca Ambrogetti, p. 39



More than 100 years prior...our Supreme Pontiff warned us:

Pope Leo XIII, Custodi di Quella Fede, 1892, #7
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... Disagreements are frequent, divorce common...generations which do not respect anything from above or below...
The working classes raise their heads and go to swell the ranks of socialism, communism, and anarchy. 
...Such are the fruits which the masonic sect has borne to us Italians.




Let us consider a few troubling things about Pope Francis:
1.)   He believes that the greatest evils are oppression of the poor and not aiding the elderly. He speaks nothing about spiritual sins being the most egregious. He claims Argentina was living in sin because it wasn’t properly providing employment (Conversations with Jorge Bergoglio, p. 129), not because people were skipping mass, not going to confession, apostasizing, making sacrilegious communions, etc.
2.)   He said that growing up he loved reading Communist literature…but that he never was a Communist himself (ibid p. 39). As if somebody could say, “growing up I used to read Satanic literature and loved every word…but I never was myself a Satanist!”
3.)   He is openly endorsed and praised by Freemasons
4.)   He thinks Muslims are our brothers
5.)   He respects atheists and thinks they are “men of good will.”
6.)   He respects those who commit suicide (On Heaven and Earth, p. 92-93)
These are frightening notes that CANNOT be taken lightly or just glazed over!

Finally, perhaps most worthy of consideration given our Pope’s namesake, St. Francis of Assisi said the following before his death:
1. The time is fast approaching in which there will be great trials and afflictions; perplexities and dissensions, both spiritual and temporal, will abound; the charity of many will grow cold, and the malice of the wicked will increase.
2. The devils will have unusual power, the immaculate purity of our Order, and of others, will be so much obscured that there will be very few Christians who will obey the true Sovereign Pontiff and the Roman Church with loyal hearts and perfect charity. At the time of this tribulation a man, not canonically elected, will be raised to the Pontificate, who, by his cunning, will endeavour to draw many into error and death.
3. Then scandals will be multipliedour Order will be dividedand many others will be entirely destroyed, because they will consent to error instead of opposing it.
4. There will be such diversity of opinions and schisms among the people, the religious and the clergy, that, except those days were shortened, according to the words of the Gospel, even the elect would be led into error, were they not specially guided, amid such great confusion, by the immense mercy of God.
5. Then our Rule and manner of life will be violently opposed by some, and terrible trials will come upon us. Those who are found faithful will receive the crown of life; but woe to those who, trusting solely in their Order, shall fall into tepidity, for they will not be able to support the temptations permitted for the proving of the elect.
(*note that after Vatican II, Rome issued a mandate that EVERY religious order make certain adjustments to their Constitutions to make them less rigid and more open to the modern world…hence the disappearance of religious attire and overall depletion of religious vocations).
6. Those who preserve their fervour and adhere to virtue with love and zeal for the truth, will suffer injuries and, persecutions as rebels and schismatics; for their persecutors, urged on by the evil spirits, will say they are rendering a great service to God by destroying such pestilent men from the face of the earth, but the Lord will be the refuge of the afflicted, and will save all who trust in Him. And in order to be like their Head [Christ], these, the elect, will act with confidence, and by their death will purchase for themselves eternal life; choosing to obey God rather than man, they will fear nothing, and they will prefer to perish rather than consent to falsehood and perfidy.
(1 Maccabees 1:65 “And many of the people of Israel determined with themselves... chose rather to die than to be defiled.”)
7. Some preachers will keep silence about the truth, and others will trample it under foot and deny it. Sanctity of life will be held in derision even by those who outwardly profess it, for in those days Jesus Christ will send them not a true Pastor, but a destroyer.
(cited from Rev. R. Gerald Culleton, The Reign of Antichrist, p. 130)





Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pray for Us.