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.

Memphis Rescue Update

Another update, courtesy of Will Goodman via his Facebook page.  As of Tuesday December 9, the last man was released.  All rescuers are now out of jail.  Arraignment was on December 8.  No conditions were put on their release, but a court date has not yet been determined. I will advise when I am apprised.  

Seventeen Pro-Life Activists Arrested At Memphis Planned Parenthood Rescue

On Friday morning, December 5 2025, a clinic rescue took place at the Planned Parenthood of Memphis, TN.  It was spearheaded by Rescue Resurrection.  Rescue Resurrection was founded by Randal Terry with the express purpose of reviving the pro-life rescue movement.  Once a vital tactic until the 1990s, rescues were largely stymied by the FACE act.  Now this act has been de-fanged, since President Trump ordered the Department of Justice not to prosecute under FACE. The possibilities of rescues have opened up once again.  The website is rescueresurrection.com.

Joan Andrews Bell Arrested

Abortions in Tennessee are illegal.  The pro-aborts get around this by referring their clients out of state, and that is something that the Memphis Planned Parenthood had been doing.  That means that Planned Parenthood is trafficking minors across state lines.

As part of their inauguration, Rescue Resurrection decided to engage in a rescue there.  Memphis has great significance for the civil rights movement, for there Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated.  The National Civil Rights Museum is built around the Lorraine Motel, where King was shot.  Now let’s get back to the events of December 5^th.  Another important note: much of this information is gleaned from the Facebook page of Will Goodman.  He was there, chronicling the events with words, video clips and pictures.  He is also one of the Garland Nine.

The local deathscorts, along with Memphis Police, had been alerted and were awaiting the pro-life activists.  They had, in fact, created their own blockade of the building entrances.

Rescuers in Place; Deathscorts Are Behind Them

Many activists were already gathered on the sidewalk in front of the mill, praying the Rosary and bearing Crucifixes, banners of Our Lady of Guadalupe, etc.  Soon they were joined by other pro-lifers who assumed positions in front of the deathscorts already blocking the Planned Parenthood entrance.  Randall Terry and Terrisa Bukonivac carried a banner with the name of Rescue Resurrection on it.  They were singing “we shall overcome”, reminiscent of the civil rights marches of over 60 years ago.  Joan Bell and Monica Miller were marching behind them, with many others.

Randall Terry arrested

Minutes after they had assumed their positions, Memphis Police arrived, with squad cars and paddy wagons and sirens blaring.  After some preliminary conversation between Randall Terry and the in-charge officer, the arrests started.  For the most part, the pro-lifers went limp as they were cuffed and hauled away to the paddy wagons and cruisers.  Seventeen activists were arrested.  The detainees include: Randall Terry, Terrisa Bukonivac, John Hinshaw, Joan Bell, Monica Miller, Melanie Salazar, Elise Ketch, Doc Kovaly, Nathan Berning, Cathy Ramey, Emily Mahon, James Carney, Rob Rudnick, Richard Dur, Matthew Connelly, Alan Aversz.

The men and women were taken to separate holding facilities.  As of this writing, all of the women have been released.  Arraignment will take place Monday, Dec 8, Feast of the Immaculate Conceptions.  I will advise of further developments.

Attention MD-DC-VA Catholics And Pro-Lifers

No one can doubt that Satan is the driving force behind the attacks on Holy Mother Church.

Footnote Footsies - In Unitate Fidei's Pinch Of Poison

The body of Unitate Fidei reads as an apologetics exercise for religious indifferentism.  In it, Leo opines, "we must therefore leave behind theological controversies that have lost their raison d'etre in order to develop a common understanding and even more, a common prayer to the Holy Spirit, that He may gather us all together in one faith and one love".  It truly is wondrous how so much error can be crammed into one sentence.  Time does not permit me to unpack this mess completely.

Now go to UT's footnote 10.   It states that the phrase "and proceeds from the Father and Son (filioque) is not found in the text of Constantinople; it was inserted into the Latin Creed by Pope Benedict VIII in 1014 and is the subject of Orthodox-Catholic dialogue."  Italics mine.

Now why, oh why, is it the subject of all this "dialogue"?  The Council of Trent, held in the late 1500s and presided by Pope St Pius V, set the filioque in stone.  Recall please, that unlike Vatican II, Trent was a dogmatic council, convened with the express purpose of correcting various Protestant heresies.  A decree from the third session of that council was issued February 4, 1546.  It set forth, word for word, the creed recited at all Catholic Masses today, both Traditional Latin and Novus Ordo.  "Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son" is very plainly stated.

After the Council of Trent, St Pius V was quite solicitous to put the proceedings of the council into a format that could be taught to the Catholics in the pews at the time.  He, assisted by St. Charles Borromeo and perhaps others, developed a set of instructions to his priests on how to communicate these truths of the Faith.  It is known as the Catechism of the Council of Trent, and is readily available from TAN books.

Part 1 of this Catechism focuses on the Creed, that is, the Nicene Creed as amended by Pope Benedict VIII.  We proceed to Article VIII that deals with the Holy Ghost, and what the true doctrine states about Him.  There is a paragraph entitled "Who Proceedeth from the Father and the Son."  It says, and I quote, "with regard to the words immediately succeeding: who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, the faithful are to be taught that the Holy Ghost proceeds by an eternal procession from the Father and the Son, as from one principle."

So, despite his best efforts to the contrary, Pope Leo did get one thing right.  There is no need for controversy.  The Council of Trent settled the matter once and for all.  The Holy Ghost proceeds from both the Father and the Son.  Period.  No need for a bunch of dialogue.  And please - oh, please! - let there not be a whole slew of endless "synods" on the matter!  

It does behoove us to reiterate a few facts about "unity".  Unity is only good if it is founded on common assent to truth and Godliness.  Sometimes unity can serve evil and as such, is not at all to be desired.  Can any serious student of history gainsay that Nazi Germany, in the late 1930s, was unified?  They most certainly were, but that unity was based on evil.  Someone pointed this out to me: "It is better to be divided over the truth than united in a lie."  That latter kind of unity for which the pope is calling, unity brought about by allowing false notions of the nature of the Blessed Trinity, is false and dangerous, for it allows for the promulgation of error that could lead to the damnation of souls.

I understand that Pope Leo was not the first to eliminate the "filioque" while reciting a creed with Orthodox clergy.  Even Pope Benedict XVI scuttled truth for momentary convenience; for shame!  Before there is any more talk of "unity" and "ecumenism", Catholics must be absolutely committed to the Truths that Our Lord has revealed, understanding that these truths are not bargaining chips to be sacrificed to the false idol of "unity".