Catholic Identity Conference, Pittsburgh, September 30, 2023
Thanks largely to COVID, it’s been 6 years since I’ve had the honor of speaking at the CIC and as we know, much has changed since then.
Except one thing: Pope Francis is still waging his revolution, and with more gusto than ever, resulting in ever deepening divisions, persecution from within and from the top, a pervading atmosphere of fear, the fostering of mediocrity and hypocrisy, and the looming threat of formal schism.
“How long Lord?” has become the ever increasing refrain as the practicing faithful have looked on hopelessly, helplessly and powerlessly while they’re excluded and marginalized and we’re plunged into a crisis that could end up being worse than the Arian controversy, according to some Church historians.
Six years ago, it seemed as though matters might be coming to a head. We had had all the fallout from the family synods and Amoris Laetitia; we’d had a group of eminent Catholic scholars and clergy who had just accused Pope Francis of heresy; and we’d just had the news that Cardinal Carlo Caffarra had died and within days Pope Francis had effectively gutted the Pope St. John Paul II Institute for Marriage and the Family that the cardinal had founded. Also that year was the 100th anniversary of the Marian apparitions of Fatima, and there was hope that divine intervention might bring this dark period to a halt.
But, as we know, Our Lady asked for penance and reparation at Fatima and before that at Lourdes. That hasn’t happened, so the upheavals have gone on apace, whether it’s the traditional Mass that’s been quashed, the German Synodal Way that’s been allowed to continue effectively unchecked, or the scandals, both papal related and otherwise, that seem to never end.
Meanwhile those fully supportive of this revolution are pleased that it appears to have moved up a gear in recent months. Although in reality they still haven’t got much of what they’re aiming for (a clear change in Church governance, women deacons, married clergy and normalisation of homosexuality), with the Synod on Synodality, they’re rather dizzy at the thought that these seem to be finally within reach.
Continue reading at Edward Pentin
Edward Pentin’s Speech at the Arlington Latin Mass Society on November 10, 2023