Dispatches: The Battle Plan

Last week’s Vortex episodes consisted of 5 installments of “Dispatches: The Demolition of the Church”, a new CMTV show. Each of those installments is filled with boatloads of statistics that show the undeniable rapid decline of the Church over the last several decades, in every way that is measured. I’ve embedded episodes 4 and 5 below – please watch them!

In episode 5, “Time May Have Run Out”, MV gets to an important point – the notion of a conspiracy. He says:

No demolition happens without planning and forethought. What we have seen in the Church in America has all the hallmarks of an organized effort to remake and re-shape the Church after an entirely different vision of that of Our Lord’s. This kind of destruction, on so vast a scale, in so fast an amount of time is not without planning and desire and activity - Much of it done quietly and behind the scenes at first, but as one small victory after another began to add to other small victories and more significant battles were won – the forces of Demolition grew bolder.  

And those forces absolutely included clergy – bishops and priests – as well as other religious who were and are secret enemies of Christ. Let’s be entirely clear here so there is no mistake: this devastation, this demolition has been wrought by those who HATE Our Blessed Lord and hate His Church. Period.

It has been helped along by people who, while perhaps not HATING Our Lord and His Church, haven’t cared ENOUGH to fight the demolition. They have gone along with it, or ignored it.

I can’t say that I disagree. I guess it’s difficult to come up with hard evidence of a conspiracy, but I do think the evidence is there – at least as far as homosexuality goes (and that’s NOT a small issue!).

In episode #4 (yes, I know, I’m going backwards), MV enumerates more statistics, but he offers this advice to those of us (practically everyone, I’m sure) who wants to know what in the world we are to do about the unprecedented crisis in the Church. MV says:

We must act. The time to fight is now. We must pour our very being into this battle if we want to wear the eternal crown in heaven.

The battle is personal. We are not concerned with a macro-view necessarily; after all, we are nothing more than peasant Catholics wielding pitchforks. Despite that, some of us use a sword and shield.  

It is up to the Pope and the Bishops to steer the ship. We’re only along for the ride in a macro-sense. Our battle lies in the micro or immediate situation only.

As you might have guessed it, we’re going to focus on personal holiness and only the people in your immediate circle. So, here’s the five step battle plan to get out of this bleak situation.

The first step is to LEARN THE FAITH. How in the world do you expect to triumph in battle when you don’t know enough about Catholicism, or how to defend it? EXACTLY. It is like fighting without a sword. Make sure you take the time to learn it.

A word of caution: make sure the sources you are using are faithful to the Magisterium.  

The second step is to PRAY, FAST, and SACRIFICE for poor sinners. This is how you engage in battle with the principalities and powers of this world and what the Queen of Heaven requested of us specifically at Fatima.

Use these weapons. Become familiar with them. Make frequent use of them. After all, a man of prayer is a spiritually formidable force against evil.

The third step is to connect with other GOOD Catholics – real Catholics – and get INVOLVED in parish life in a GOOD PARISH. Let’s face it, we all have bad days. We need comrades to help us in dark times. We all need encouragement from time to time, especially in this sin-infested world. The Faith needs reinforcement.

The fourth step is to FREQUENT THE SACRAMENTS. Listen: war is tough. We all need to rest and recharge. It is through the sacraments that we are able to do this. The sacraments allow us to converse on a personal level with the supreme general – Jesus Christ. He will give us marching orders and the strength.

The fifth step is to engage the CORPORAL and SPIRITUAL works of mercy. These are commands from on high. We are called to love our neighbor. We can accomplish this in a multitude of ways. In turn, when the works of mercy are

Completed, we build up the Kingdom of God and win souls for Christ.

In conclusion, there are many, many more things we could suggest such as:

start a Bible study that relies on a faithful Catholic source;

meet with and encourage young men to consider a vocation to the priesthood;

form a social group for young Catholics that upholds and supports the Church’s teaching;

support faithful Catholic apostolates who missionary work is the salvation of souls;

share a statue of Our Lady between your Catholic friends;

pray the Rosary in group settings;

gather together with other like-minded and faithful Catholics for spiritual AND social activities;

and pray the Stations of the Cross.

You get the point.

This is faith and good work in ACTION. The Church in America is in need of many souls. We can win the battle if we only try. We need to reclaim our ZEAL and our LOVE for Jesus and His bride the Church.

Sounds like good advice to me. The one in the list above that’s a little problematic, though, is encouraging a young man to consider a vocation to the priesthood. The problem is not in encouraging him, but in helping him discern a good seminary, I would think! Bad enough that many young people go off to college – even Catholic colleges – and lose their faith; it’s even worse when you consider that a young man could go off to seminary and lose his faith!

St. Michael the Archangel, pray for us!

The full script for episode #4 is here.



The full script for episode #5 is here.