We're in a Holy War! Suit Up, Pray, Fast, and Fight!

I just returned last night from the Catholic Identity Conference. The theme was HOLY WAR: The Kingship of Christ vs the Great Reset. What a tour de force! Friday every speaker was a priest or bishop. Fr. John Echert, the former military chaplain, who sometimes used a U-Haul trailer as his portable church during the lockdowns, kept us all spellbound. Here's a video of his parking lot Mass on Laetare Sunday. He prayed Easter Mass in the snow from the back of the trailer.

There is something particularly appropriate about a military chaplain saying Mass outside in the open, bringing the holy Mass to those deprived of it because of the Wuhan war against the Church. That's what it is, folks. The powers that be know that if the Church opposes the Great Reset, they are in deep trouble. That's why the theme of this year's conference is so important. Most of our bishops have failed us, but many of our brave priests have not. (Check the conference schedule here. You can sign up for 30-day access to all the talks here, although I believe they are extending it to 90 days. Even if you watch only a few, it would be worth every penny.)

The pontifical Mass with Bishop Athanasius Schneider on Friday afternoon was standing room only and one of the most moving Masses I've ever attended. To see him in the role of Peter was to witness the good shepherd. What a contrast to the mean-spirited false shepherd sitting in Peter's chair: smug, uncharitable, attacking unceasingly those traditionalist who refuse, in the spirit of St. Thomas Aquinas, to bend the knee to his unjust and ungodly agenda. All through the weekend we were urged to pray for Francis but to resist his evil actions and be willing to return to the catacombs of our homes to celebrate Mass if he continues his nuclear war against the Traditional Latin Mass. He is shaking his fist at God. He can't win!

Bishop Athanasius Schneider, a good and faithful shepherd!

Michael Matt spoke of a holy priest in Canada who tried to conform himself to Pope Paul VI's new Mass imposed post Vatican II. After five years, he gave up. Did he leave the Church? NO! Although tens of thousands of priests abandoned their vocations and vows after the council, he became, like missionaries of old, a traveling priest. He started out in Eastern Canada on Sunday and worked his way across the country praying the Latin Mass in cities and town along the way for tiny remnant communities until he reached the west, boarded a plane, returned to eastern Canada and began the journey again. 

In every place he stopped to pray the Mass of the ages, a thriving Latin Mass community exists today. What a witness to the power of one faithful priest serving God in the wilderness! Will we come to that again? It's possible. Every priest who spoke (none were from the SSPX) said he will continue to say the Latin Mass. The buildings may be taken from them like Henry VIII's rape of the churches and monasteries in England, but these priests will continue, not in disobedience, but in obedience to Holy Mother Church and her doctrines and to God Himself. The TLM is growing and Pope Francis will never have enough power to suppress it no matter how many bishops join his unholy war.

That was clearly expressed by Vatican journalist, Diane Montagna, on Sunday morning when she told us her contacts in Rome describe the situation in the holy city as "a madhouse." The survey that supposedly convinced the pope to suppress the Mass as divisive and the threat to unity, did not support the view of the TLM as a source of division. It appears that the survey was a smokescreen to provide a stage and props to destroy the Latin Mass. Montagna quoted some of the bishops' comments coming from her sources. (While the survey has not been made public, I presume she saw a leaked copy. Not every bishop is a Judas.) Some bishops invoked the Gamaliel principle, i.e., If it's not from God it will disappear; if it is from God, you will be fighting against God and will not succeed. 

Diane Montagna: photo from a previous CIC conference

The TLM definitely will not disappear. When the CIC conferences began only a few hundred attended. This year it was close to 800, at capacity, and they had to turn people away while thousands watched the livestream from around the globe. A miniscule number, you modernists laugh? The Church began with only eleven faithful men led by an unlearned fishermen. Laugh all you want, the signs of the times are with Tradition with a capital T and the Fathers of the Church, not with the novelties of the man-made new religion of the modernists. Look at the families attending the Latin Mass and the parishes filled with geriatrics like me at the NO. I love being among the children and their young parents. Give me the tropical island with lots of little birds chirping rather than the noisy, happy clappy chaos at many NO services. 

I can't begin to do justice to the CIC weekend. All of the speakers were great. Peter Kwasniewski, Abby Johnson, Chris Ferrara...each added something valuable to the conversation. I particularly loved Bishop Schneider's talk on the angels and will think of the heavenly court surrounding the altar at every Mass and surrounding the tabernacle in every Catholic church where the sanctuary light burns. 

The weekend was not an assault on the Novus Ordo (NO), but it was a proclamation of the glory of the Traditional Latin Mass which began in the early days of the Church as a transformation of the Jewish rituals. The Mass is organic; the Eucharistic sacrifice was not created by man out of thin air like the NO with the influence of Protestants and Catholic clergy who hated the TLM. I will continue to attend the NO for daily Mass, but I will look forward with real joy to the Latin Mass on Sunday.

We are, indeed, in a "holy war" to preserve the faith. Since the St. Gallen's Mafia raised Francis to the chair of Peter, we have suffered the consequences of our own laziness to grow in the interior life and conform ourselves to the will of Almighty God. It's long past time to put on the armor of God and fight for Christ like the Catholics of the Vendee, the Cristeros of Mexico, and the underground Church in Communist countries. When the devil appears most to be winning, that is a sign of his desperation. So wrap yourselves in hope. God wins!

Viva Cristo Rey!