On a related note, see the end.
From the appropriately named Crisis:
Can the Church Recover Its Fighting Spirit?
WILLIAM KILPATRICKThe Islamic world is waging—and winning—a war on Judeo-Christian civilization.
With 1.3 billion Catholics worldwide, the Catholic Church is potentially one of the most powerful centers of resistance to Islam. It certainly has been in the past. Unfortunately, that’s not the case today. What are those 1.3 billion Catholics doing in regard to the struggle with Islam? Well, essentially, very little. Many of them are just standing on the sidelines.
Why is that? The chief reason is that Catholics are receiving little guidance about Islam from their leaders. And what little information they receive is misleading. The hierarchy is still sticking with the message that Islam is a religion of peace which has recently been given a bad name by a tiny handful of terrorists who misunderstand the beneficent nature of their faith.
Meanwhile, while Catholic leaders have been pedaling this rosy picture of Islam, 90,000 Christians were murdered for their faith in 2016. Between 2005 and 2015, 900,000 Christians were martyred. In most cases the executioners were Muslims.
That tiny handful of extremists must be extremely busy. Either that, or the extremist ideology is actually widespread and the bishops have been woefully mistaken in their assumptions about Islam. As Islam gobbles up more and more of the geographical and cultural landscape, the latter possibility seems most likely. The Catholic leadership has been dead wrong about Islam and, as a result, a lot of Christians who were put off their guard by clerical reassurances, are dead, period.
[…]
The attacks are from Islam, but also from many other fronts, such as relativism, post-Truth loons, demonic gender ideology, etc. And they are within the walls.
What can we do?
First, know your Catholic Faith! If you don’t know it, you can’t share it or live it in adverse circumstances.
Second, pray to saints who’ve been there. I like Ss. Nunilo and Alodia.
Third, ask constantly for protection of St. Michael and the other angels. Invoke them in your family, parish, community.
Stay informed.
Here are a couple of books:
Also, get these books and get them also for your family and friends.
Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War by Sebastian Gorka.
Do you know the word “dawa”? More on this HERE.
And get a Kindle! US HERE – UK HERE
I also recommend The Grand Jihad by Andrew McCarthy. He explains how and why the liberal left coddles and cooperates with Islam in the destruction of Western culture.
UPDATE:
I also found something at LifeSite by the author Michael O’Brien (think Fr. Elijah, Voyage to Alpha Centuri, etc.
The Church: called to be a bulwark against the coming Apostasy
Why have so many Christians proved to be so vulnerable to, even eager for, the pathological narratives of our time? Why, in short, do we tell lies to ourselves? We deceive ourselves because there are abundant rewards for doing so, while simultaneously the inner tensions inherent in the moral struggle of the human condition are eased, left behind, as if we were discarding an outmoded legend. Daily, we gulp plausible lies, a web of falsehoods coupled to flattery, to emotional and physical pleasures, and constantly reinforced by a new world culture largely contrived by the entertainment and communications media, by the corruption of education, by morally compromised politics, and most reprehensible of all, by ambiguous theology and spurious spiritualities. [Do I hear an “Amen”?]
In his second letter to Timothy, St. Paul exhorts the shepherds of the flock of the Lord to preach the word of God with determination, in season and out of season, to “convince, rebuke, and exhort,” to be unfailing in persistence and in teaching. “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound doctrine, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths” (2 Tim 4: 3-4).
If the current studies of faith and practice in the Western world are accurate, it appears that more than 80% of Catholics no longer believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist and the need for Confession, nor in other fundamental doctrines of the Faith.
[…]
Reflect.
What does this mean for you in your state in life?
What changes have to be made?
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With all due respect to the esteemed Mr. Kilpatrick, are the leaders pedaling a rosy picture or peddling one? I agree with his point, however — some deceitful con is afoot, and too many of our leaders can claim only to have unwittingly forwarded it, whereas some must certainly be aware of their fraud. Sadly, I think this state of affairs can be found in almost every question of concern to the Church today. Who teaches what marriage and family really are, and who peddles a lie? Who teaches about the Real Presence, and who glosses over it with smarminess about “communion/that they may all be one”? Who prays for more vocations, and who creates conditions guaranteeing that any vocation would be a certifiable miracle? And how much of this is done by people who know better?
It is not possible to say that the men running the church do not comprehend or are not aware of the history and threat from Islam. These men were not born yesterday, so they know. Why they do what they do, is known to themselves and God. They have proven themselves untrustworthy, because they have worked to fill Europe and all the West with Islam, something any child would understand is suicide for any Western nation. It has never been any different. They have combined apostasy with an obvious death wish for the West.
It remains astounding there remain people in the West who do not comprehend this yet, and still cover for them. They must profit in some way, but in the end, they won’t.
Why is that? The chief reason is that Catholics are receiving little guidance about Islam from their leaders.
A small glimmer may be our parish in which our ICKSP Canon has made clear the threat to Islam and the need to stand against it. Pray that there are more like him.
The apostasy, the weakening of belief, the cafeteria Catholics, the C and E Catholics are all a direct result of Vatican II as an instrument of watering down the faith, banishing much of the sacrted liturgy. Bah!
I pose the following questions sincerely. First, have you ever been to Friday prayers at a mosque, and if so, was it mostly men or women that you saw there? Second, have you ever attended daily Mass on a Friday, and if so, was it mostly men or women that you saw there? Third, can one make any demographic inferences from your answers to the first two questions? The ostriches among you will claim that Jumu’ah Salah should be compared with Sunday Mass attendance, not voluntary daily Mass attendance, to which I reply, Keep your heads stuck in the sand!
Much of the blame for the evisceration of visible Catholic identity in the world can be laid at the feet of Nostra Aetate, after whose issuance the Church’s missionary zeal flat-lined. Its toxic after-effects can be witnessed to this day practically every time some media-darling priest or prelate opens his mouth. Until that and other Vatican II fatuities are renounced, faithful Catholics and Catholic practice will remain besieged.
Thank you for the advice and for the book recommendations.
On a broader note, it’s all well and good to say, “Will shall be the sterner, heart the bolder, spirit the greater as our strength lessens,” but I believe that one of the key points of Christianity is that we are called to [i]more[/i], to greater sacrifice, than Northern heroic (in the generic sense) defiance — and, of course, to ultimate victory, rather than mere “going down with guns blazing and colors nailed to the mast.”
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Thank you, Father, for highlighting this issue and the first author you quoted, who is my neighbor.
I am going to buy William a drink and thank him and encourage him. I have not been paying much attention to his writing.
We can all find someone doing good work that is overlooked and underappreciated, and then thank them and encourage them. Life is hard and unfair and many toil doing good things without adequate appreciation from others. I’ll consider it a work of charity and solidarity.
H. Reed Armstrong has contributed a valuable analysis over at 1P5 on a character we all know of but whom many of us ignore. Well worth the read.
https://onepeterfive.com/teilhard-chardin-vii-architect/
Illuminating.
It might help to put this part
…”Be Thou King of all those who are still involved in the darkness of idolatry or of Islamism, and refuse not to draw them into the light and kingdom of God. Turn Thine eyes of mercy towards the children of the race, once Thy chosen people: of old they called down upon themselves the Blood of the Savior; may it now descend upon them a laver of redemption and of life.”…
back into the prayer of consecration said on the Feast of Christ the King! The new version has subtly deleted it.
Great article by William Kilpatrick. It’s good to see a new essay by Michael O’Brien, his website has his earlier writings on the Church, art, culture, fatherhood, all well worth the read.
His novel Father Elijah came out two decades ago. Funny thing is, that novel really isn’t alarmist these days, with the Church of Sweden’s lesbian Bishop deciding Allah Akbar is a winning slogan; a fair amount of Catholic clergy and laity openly fawning over Luther; and the Russian Orthodox hierarchy generally advancing Putinism.
But is it over? Not according to the toga-wearing prophet Bluto Blutarsky: “Over? Did you say over? Nothing’s over until we say it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? No! And it’s not over now…” Ok, perhaps Bluto is not the best example, but that’s a great exhortation.
Another good book about all this is Anthony Esolen’s “Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture.” Very Catholic.
The other day, I happened to re-read Pope Benedict’s Regensburg Address, and I wondered if any work has been done since 2006 to help reunite Faith, Reason, and the University. For my own learning as a working adult, I take evening classes at the local college, and I can attest that the public colleges and universities are infested with Marxism and Post-Modernism. We will not turn the tide of culture back towards Christianity until we rebuild Academia from the inside. I don’t notice that work being done, but perhaps I just can’t see it.
“The chief reason is that Catholics are receiving little guidance about Islam from their leaders…”
As mentioned by a commentor, Nostra Aetate is largely to blame about the Church’s current view of Islam. That document effectively took the teeth out of the Church’s mission to evangelize. How can the Church preach the necessity of Christ and the Catholic Faith for salvation when Islam (and other false religions) is esteemed? As a result, all post Second Vatican Council popes have lavished praise on Islam. Pope John Paul II was notable of course, for invoking St. John the Baptist to protect Islam. Pope Benedict XVI prayed toward Mecca in the blue mosque and Pope Francis said Islam and the Koran were opposed to violence in Evangelii gaudium. None of this is compatible with the teaching and practice of the Church for centuries beforehand.
Pope Pius V called upon the faithful to pray the Rosary to prevent the Islamic invasion of Europe. Poland is one of the few, if not only European nation to heed this call for Our Blessed Mother’s aid today.
Most people have no clue what they’re up against with islam.
You’re playing to tie. islam is playing to win.
It is a shame that the Protestants are leading the fight against islam today. That needs to change.
You will quickly be left with two options:
1. Study islam, and go on the intellectual offensive against muhammed’s demonic cult, and fight like your civilization depends on it. David Wood, and Jay Smith are two great guys to look up and study their arguments.
2. Learn MMA.
Semper Gumby (and all): have you read “Elijah in Jerusalem”, the sequel to “Father Elijah”? Much shorter, about half the length, but well worth the read. I recently re-read both of them, sequentially. In fact, one could well start with “Sophia House”, and then go on to the other two, in the manner of his “Children of the last days” series. Tracts for Our Times, indeed – not too far-out a description, I hope, in that Newman also wrote compellingly on the anti-Christ and the Last Times.
jaykay: Yes, Elijah in Jerusalem was a great book. I was hooked before page 1 by the preface and prologue. Speaking of Newman, sometime I’d like to read, I think it’s called, the Patristical Idea of Antichrist.
I ended up somehow reading O’Brien chronologically backwards, after Father Elijah and Eclipse of the Sun, I got to Sophia House, several others, and finally Strangers and Sojourners. That O’Brien guy knows how to put a pen to paper.
[This is one I warmly recommend. It deals with the same dynamics of devolution we see now in our time and the rise (again) of Satan. His only foray into SciFi but it was a good one. Voyage to Alpha Centauri]
JonathanTX: I agree about rebuilding academia. Esolen’s book Out of the Ashes has two chapters on education, one on schools and another on colleges with both anecdotes and suggestions. If you use Fr. Z’s search box here for Wyoming Catholic College or Steubenville that should turn up interesting posts and comments. Hope this helps.
A great resource for learning about shariah law and the Muslim Brotherhood’s very successful stealth jihad currently being waged against the United States, check out http://www.UnderstandingTheThreat.com. The organization was started by John Guandolo, a USNA grad Marine Corp officer and former FBI subject matter expert on counter-terrorism. Also on staff is Chris Gaubatz, who infiltrated CAIR headquarters in DC. They have briefed lawmakers, law enforcement, and a few priests I know. In addition to their dedication to our country, both men are converts to Catholicism and are on fire for the faith.