If You've Never Watched The Catholics, Now is the Time!

In 1972 Brian Moore wrote a short novel titled Catholics about a remote abbey on an island off the coast of Ireland. [online here] It's the year 2000 and the monks continue to offer the Latin Mass after Vatican II and even after Vatican IV. The Protestants have long been acclimated to the new Church and the new faith. The move now is to incorporate the Buddhists and a conference is scheduled in which the head of the order is participating. 

The monks have become an embarrassment and stumbling block to the new church. Ever since a television crew televised the Mass thousands of Catholics from all over the world flock to the liturgy offered on the mainland. The crisis comes when the head of the order in Rome sends a young priest to examine the abbey and order the monks to immediately adopt the new mass. There are no more private confessions. No one is required to believe that the bread and wine really become the Body and Blood of Christ at the consecration. No clergy are allowed to resist. They are ordered to conform.

Sunday Night Theater aired the film based on the novel in 1973. It's screenplay, in fact, was written by the book's author. Trevor Howard played the abbot. Martin Sheen played the young priest who, like many modernists of our own day, believes, not that the Church is about saving souls, but it's about social justice. The film is available on line and, in view of the prophetic insight of the author, it is well worth watching. Will we also see the denial of transubstantiation in the future? The progression of the Church seems much like what Brian Moore envisioned in 1972.

I immediately thought of the film when I heard about the Transalpine Redemptorists of Papa Stronsay, an island off the coast of Scotland. The monks published an open letter in October 2025 repudiating a number of documents and actions of Rome:

We repudiate Amoris Laetitia permitting Holy Communion to couples living in sin.  

We repudiate Traditionis Custodes’ persecution of the Mass and Catholics. 

We repudiate Fiducia Supplicans permitting the blessing of same-sex couples. 

We repudiate “The Document on Human Fraternity” stating that God wills all religions. 

We repudiate the false theology of “sister churches” and “partial communion”. 

We repudiate the false shepherds who triumphantly processed the Pachamama idol in St Peter’s. 

We repudiate Francis apologising for the heroic Catholic who threw that idol into the Tiber. 

We repudiate the scourge of religious indifference in New Zealand and throughout the Church. 

We repudiate the New Zealand Bishops’ acts of closing churches, and denying the sacraments in cowardly submission to the Covid-19 oppression. 

We repudiate the Bishop of Christchurch receiving his ashes on Ash Wednesday from the Anglican bishop of Christchurch. 

We repudiate the corruption of children, and scandal given to the innocent through evil catechetical programs. 

We repudiate Francis teaching that all religions are as different languages, and asking “Is my God more important than yours?” 

We repudiate the silence of those bishops who failed to speak out against that betrayal of the Faith. 

We repudiate the Synodal Church as distinct from the Divinely constituted Catholic Church. 

We repudiate the ongoing destruction and humiliation of our Holy Mother the Church. 

We repudiate those who attack or undermine the Church in her dogma, morals, sacraments, or discipline with a new cult of man.

On May 2, 2026, the feast of St. Athanasius, the monks took a further step by publishing The Dogma to Steer By. In it, they wrote:

So, what is the problem? The problem is, as St Pius X warned, that the structures of the Catholic Church have been infiltrated by men of a different non-Catholic religion1 . They use the Catholic name, they occupy the Catholic buildings, they know the Catholic culture. From the outside they look to be Catholics, but they do not profess the Catholic Faith as taught through the centuries. In reality, they have been formed as revolutionaries committed to the condemned Freemasonic heresies of Religious Liberty, Religious Indifference and False Ecumenism. Their infiltration has struck a lethal wound to the Catholic religion; they have brought about a major schism from the Mystical Body2 . We must stand firmly with the Catholic Church and move well away from the camouflage of its counterfeit.3

The document begins with a letter followed by a Declaration on the State of the Church. It's clear and easy to understand what the monks are saying. The open letter is only three pages long. The letter and declaration are only 21 pages long. Every Catholic would benefit from reading it to understand the crisis of faith we are all experiencing. 

Chris Jackson covered the issue in his Substack article, An Open Letter to the Transalpine Redemptorists: If Rome Says You Are In Schism, Make Rome Prove Its Case. He recommends that the monks avoid an argument over Vatican II. Instead He calls on them to challenge Rome to prove that Leo is the pope and the bishops aligned with him are truly Catholic. Here's what Jackson recommends:

Rome’s Charge [of schism] Presumes the Very Thing Under Dispute

Canon 751 defines schism as the refusal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff or refusal of communion with those subject to him. Canon 1364 attaches excommunication to apostasy, heresy, and schism. The DDF’s reserved-delict norms likewise identify heresy, apostasy, and schism as delicts against the faith.

But notice the hidden assumption. A charge of schism presupposes that the man being refused is, in fact, the Supreme Pontiff. It presupposes that the bishops in communion with him are Catholic bishops possessing Catholic jurisdiction. It presupposes that the accusers stand inside the Church while the accused stand outside.

That is precisely what the monks deny.

So the Redemptorists’ first answer should be: you may not smuggle your conclusion into the charge. Before accusing us of refusing submission to Leo XIV, prove that Leo XIV possesses the office. Before accusing us of breaking communion with his bishops, prove that these bishops profess the Catholic Faith. Before declaring us outside the Church, prove that your own hierarchy has not publicly defected from the religion it claims to administer.

This is the move. Not “we refuse to answer, because you have no authority.” Answer, but answer by challenging the premise.

I think the Vatican would find it very hard to prove that Fernandez has not publicly defected from the faith, especially in his pornographic books not to mention some of the synodal bishops saying sodomy is not sinful and advocating for women priests, an impossibility! Jackson includes in his Substack post an evaluation of Fernandez that is shocking. To have this man heading the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is inexcusable. 

If we love the faith we need to fight for the faith. These issues need to be answered for the sake of souls. We can't be like deer in the headlights but need to face the issues squarely and seek the truth. And say a prayer for Brian Moore who realized in 1972 where things were going and wrote a truly prophetic story about the crisis.

May Jesus Christ be praised, now and forever.