A Review Of Church History In 2025

Tonight's episode of the Lepanto Institute featured Michael Hichborn reviewing the accomplishments of the Institute in 2025.  In doing so, he also gave helpful snapshots that reveal the ills that still plague the Church.  Some of these ills are new.

Please take the time to watch this.  Then consider how your donation dollars might be better spent: on diocesan structures or charities that are actually carrying out the mission of Holy Mother Church.  Also consider how you might be more diligent about waking up your fellow Catholics to the problems of the Church.

Mic'd Up - The State Of The Church

From ChurchMilitant.tv

Praying And Fighting For The Church

Fellow faithful Catholics, please listen closely to today's Vortex.  Pay close attention to what Voris says starting at the 4:59 mark.  We must fight for the truth and "we cannot give a hoot about who's offended".

Now buckle your seat belts, boys and girls, have smelling salts at the ready and take deep breaths for I'll now say some things that could be considered controversial.  It's no secret that some things that have issued forth from the Vatican have been, well, baffling, to say the least.  Are we willing to say so - respectfully yet without equivocation?  Closer to home, when we hear left-wing nonsense being promulgated from the pulpit instead of a real homily, are we willing to take issue with the priest afterwards?  And by the way - this should be done publicly, not privately.  That's right!  Matthew 18:15-17 deals with private matters, not public offenses.  Public offenses demand public responses.

We must pray to Our Lord to be made saints.  It is absolutely necessary, but never is it sufficient.  Often the being is found in the doing.  Ora et labora!

Vibrant Church? NOT!

I link now to an article from Radio Vaticana.  It is an account of an interview given by Pope Francis.  It was originally written in Italian and translated into English by the website.  I certainly hope it is a poor translation, for this quote of Pope Francis's is otherwise unbelievable.  It is, "I dare say that the Church has never been so good as today. The Church does not collapse.  I'm sure, I'm sure."  Of course the Church will never collapse; we have Our Lord's promise of that.  But "never so good as today"?  Again, I hope that is not what the Holy Father intended; the choppy style gives me hope that this rendition is simply a faulty translation.

Folks, let's face it.  We have churches closing down, Catholics not attending Mass and those attending not knowing their faith and not caring about their ignorance.  All this and much more greatly diminishes chances of them attaining their eternal salvation.  While the Church won't collapse, there's no gainsaying that she is in rotten shape.  That's not to be a pessimist, but we must be honest if we're going to be able to improve things.

Pope And British Bishop Preach For True Marriage

This past Friday the Pope delivered a "state of the church" address to the Roman Curia.  Among other things he said, "When the freedom to be creative becomes the freedom to create oneself, then necessarily the Maker himself is denied and ultimately man too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God, as the image of God at the core of his being. The defense of the family is about man himself. And it becomes clear that when God is denied, human dignity also disappears. Whoever defends God is defending man."  He's making quite clear that disobedience to God's designs and commands for marriage, sexuality and family life are ultimately assaults upon human dignity.

During his Christmas homily, the Right Reverend Mark Davies, Bishop of Shrewsbury likened the gays' push for marriage perversion to the attacks on Christianity posed by both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.  Both tyrants claimed that they were acting in the name of "progress".  He urged his congregation to take a stand for marriage as their parents and grandparents had stood against the Nazis in the past.  Bravo, Bishop Davies!

The Demonic Today

The Venerable Fulton Sheen passed away in the late 1970s.  I believe he gave this talk long before then.  Listen to him here as he described the operation of the devil in the Church and the world.  At around the 20-minute mark, he draws a rather telling analogy to the temptation of Christ with the siren call of "social justice".  Click here if you can't see embedded video.

Cdl Wuerl: "Reflecting On The State Of The Church"

That is the title of an email that someone sent to me, from Cardinal Wuerl.  In italics below is the text of that email dated January 9th.  Actually, because this is a long read...