Where is the Vatican Going and What's at the Other End of the Dark Tunnel?

I'm not sure what the appropriate word is for the way the Vatican is going. Puzzling, baffling, idiotic, contradictory, chaotic? Dare I say satanic? Confusion and chaos are always signs of the evil one and, as Pope Paul VI so famously said, "Satan's smoke has made its way into the temple of God through some crack."  [Source]

Rome calls the SSPX rebels and the recently consecrated bishops as well as the two consecrating bishops excommunicated and schismatic. Meanwhile, the chaos and rebellion against the Vatican from within goes on unchecked and unpunished everywhere else. The Communist Chinese are allowed to appoint bishops and persecute the underground Church unopposed. Bishops in the name of synodality promote all kinds of doctrinal deviations. Freemasons rejoiced over the election of Francis and Leo walks in his footsteps. One Peter Five did a three part series titled Why Do the Freemasons Love Pope Francis? [Source] The Masons described Francis as "a radical agent of change." Interesting, eh? 

So what is the appropriate word for the Vatican's response to the crisis in the Church? Do they even admit there is a crisis? Or is the crisis part of the change agents' plan with or without the deliberate cooperation of the hierarchy? They don't need to be Masons or Communists, just think like them.

The SSPX obey Rome on every unchanging and unchangeable doctrine of the faith. They pray for the pope at every Mass. However, they stand like a rock opposing modernism and the increasingly bizarre novelties introduced since Vatican II. Those aberrations are received by Rome with silence which indicates consent. Meanwhile, the SSPX who always address the pope with respect, are castigated. Like the persecuted Church of the past, they see all the attacks against them as God's Providence to be suffered patiently.

And then there are the other cardinals and bishops. They are not in irregular situations, but their actions are anything but respectful and obedient toward the pope. Take for example the recent testimony of Bishop Peter Kohlgraf of Mainz who criticized the Vatican for maintaining the ban on lay preaching during Mass. He made it clear that he will not take action against any of his pastors who ignore Rome by inviting laity to give homilies to their congregations:

“In practice...it has become customary for lay people to preach....If I learn of this, I will not intervene disciplinarily or impose canonical sanctions.”

Essentially the bishop gave the bird to the Vatican. Will he face sanctions, warnings, and punishment for publicly opposing the Pope? Don't hold your breath. This is similar to what happened with Communion in the hand in the United States. Clergy encouraged disobedience. Their congregations responded by, you guessed it, being disobedient. And then the bishops asked for the allowance of Communion in the hand because "it had become customary." So now consecrated hosts are found inside mass booklets, are stolen to tack up on dorm room walls, and fragments are trampled on at just about every Novus Ordo Mass. Will that happen with lay preaching? It wouldn't surprise me.

Meanwhile the Diocese of Providence, RI under Bishop Bruce Lewandowski, has scheduled two LGBTQ+ parish gatherings, August 30 and September 27. According to the ADVATICAN website, "The diocesan invitation quotes Pope Francis: 'Todos, Todos, Todos (Everyone, Everyone, Everyone). That’s the Church, the Mother of all. There is room for everyone.'” 

So how faithful to Church teachings will these events be? They are scheduled for three hours each and include Mass, celebrated by the bishop himself, followed by dinner and listening sessions. How many sacrilegious Communions will occur at the Mass, how many same sex embraces and kisses at the sign of peace? How many rebellious t-shirts like the ones sodomites wore on their pilgrimage to Rome even into the basilica? How many Catholics will be scandalized believing now that "love is love" and homosexual and lesbian "marriages" should be approved?

The attack on sexual morality is nothing new; it's as old as original sin, but what's new is the eager acceptance by so many clerics in Roman collars who encourage and enable it. I personally remember the mobs gathering to support Fr. Charlie Curran at Catholic University in the late 1960s as he shook his fist at Humanae Vitae. It took decades before he was finally forbidden to teach at Catholic schools. The damage was already far advanced.  

And  now it continues even more aggressively. Those who dissent from Church teaching and even enemies of the faith are appointed to dicasteries and pontifical academies. Those who cling to the perennial truths of the faith are castigated and treated like lepers.

I'm judged to be among the excommunicated according to the EWTN-owned National Catholic Register and the moral theologian author who lives in Front Royal, my neck of the woods. He was replying to a question from a reader asking, Am I Excommunicated If I Attend an SSPX Wedding? Here is the apposite portion of the article:

An accompanying Explanatory Note explains that to join the schism means to “formally adhere” to it, applying the same criteria the Holy See established in its 1996 Explanatory Note following Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre’s 1988 illicit episcopal consecrations.

Formal adherence is a technical, canonical term requiring both an internal and an external element.

Internally, a person must knowingly and freely embrace the society’s refusal of full submission to the Roman Pontiff — in the present case, by approving its decision to proceed with episcopal ordinations despite the Holy See’s explicit prohibition.

Externally, he must manifest that choice by making the SSPX, rather than the Church in communion with the Roman Pontiff, the principal community through which he lives his Catholic faith — in other words, by making the SSPX his spiritual home.

By this reply I guess I am indeed considered by the author to be outside the boat since I "approved of the episcopal ordinations" as a sad necessity and have made the SSPX my "spiritual home." Do I believe I'm excommunicated and in schism? How can I be for embracing every doctrine of the Church and for respecting the authority of the papacy even when I find it hard to respect the man sitting on the chair. How can I read the encyclicals of past popes and then accept contradictory teachings from the current successor of Peter and his post Vatican II predecessors. I pray for him every day and look forward to witnessing him become an apostle after God's own heart and even a martyr for the true faith. 

Those who say there is no crisis in the Church and that the SSPX consecrations were unnecessary make me shake my head. What then would be the signs of necessity? If the pope changes the words of Consecration at the Mass will anyone blink? Or has the truth been so lost in the weeds that voices will join in chorus saying, "The pope mandates it; we must obey." Jesus Christ is the head of the Church, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The pope is His Vicar called to faithfully transmit Christ's teachings. Is he doing that? 

I don't judge any Catholic struggling to keep standing in the hurricane winds blowing through the Church which seem to have no connection to the breath of the Holy Spirit. We must all do our best in this most grievous period of history which I think is even more devastating than the Arian heresy and the Protestant revolution. I will think of all those striving to keep the faith as my allies rather than join in the circle firing squads. 

Let us all pray for one another and for Holy Mother Church, the battered bride of Christ.

Come O Holy Spirit, Come by means of Thy Well-Beloved Spouse, our Blessed Mother, Mediatrix of All Graces and Co-Redemptrix.

St. Joseph, Guardian of the Universal Church, pray for us.

St. Michael the Archangel, Defend us in battle.