Church Militant The Vortex Feed

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Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary.

In the wake of Campaign 2020, the election and now the very real Marxist threat to the Republic, many politically conservative faithful Catholics have stepped up and thrown their lot in with Church Militant. To sum up their multiple various comments, "No one does what you guys are doing, and I want to support it."

And these people have put their money where their mouths are saying, "We are done with giving money to establishment causes. The establishment in the Church and politics has betrayed us, and we are ready to fight." So we are happy to announce that, thanks to various people's generosity in the wake of the direction the country is heading, Church Militant is hiring, expanding our staff like never before.

We are looking for earnest Catholics who want to get in the fight to preserve Church and country. We are media. We do media, and we are looking for people who understand that media is the driving force behind all that happens in the nation, and, actually, the world.

And here's an important point: Experience in media is great, but it's not absolutely necessary. What we are mostly looking for is solid Catholic warriors who understand what's going on and want to join the fight in the world of media — folks who want to throw down and be trained up to be first-rate reporters, producers and editors.

Give us at least a two-year commitment, and you'll be a great media person when those two years are done. The Marxists have long understood that media is the key, and video is king, which is why they stormed that institution back in the day and took it over. Here's the reality: No one in the Catholic world does what we do here — absolutely no one.

We do hard-hitting investigations, hardcore news as it relates to the most important aspect of life — your eternal salvation. The country and the world have forgotten about God and the importance of faith and have ventured down a terrible, dark course in history. Church Militant believes with every fiber of our being we need to work to save whatever and whoever can be saved, and we are determined to do so.

What's being built here is the antidote to the darkness descending on us — a truthful media spotlight on the culture and the Church. No matter how much the corrupt hierarchy wants to demonize and dismiss us, they are terrified of the truth. Both Church and State must be scrutinized and reported on so you understand and can explain to others.

God can no more be left out of politics than hydrogen can be left out of water. And corruption in the Church produces the evil we see all around us. But if you're watching, you already get all this. So here's what we’re asking: If you can work here and join forces with us, get in touch by clicking the link below.

If you know someone who fits the bill, tell them, and forward this Vortex to them. We are looking for people who are already (or who are willing to be) trained up to be superb reporters and producers. We also need production people — the guys behind the scenes who make the programs come to life by shooting and editing.

Get in touch with us. Click the link. Send in your application. And make the decision that it's time for you to get in the fight.

In this week's Mic'd Up, Michael Voris interviews former Hollywood actor Bug Hall. Bug opens up about his conversion to the Catholic faith, Hollywood sex abuse and much more.

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When Church Militant broke the story a few weeks ago about a Dallas, Texas parish, Holy Trinity, calling the cops on a pregnant young mother to have her arrested for not wearing a mask, outrage against Bp. Edward Burns exploded on social media. 

Burns was one of the very first bishops in Texas to rush to microphones and publish statements that, even though Gov. Greg Abbott had lifted the mask mandate for the state, parishes in his diocese would still require them. Liberal clergy were delighted because his statement gave them permission to continue being tyrants and push the COVID fear, even when nothing was even remotely close to being dangerous (as in the case of the young pregnant mother with her 1-year-old, sitting alone in the back of the church, far away from any other person). 

When the homosexual-friendly priest called the police to have her arrested, she explained that she was experiencing morning sickness and the mask was exacerbating that. So she didn't put it on but deliberately distanced herself from anyone else.

Not good enough. Arrest her. So the responding police said, "Get off the property or we'll cuff you."

Burns, feeling the heat, did actually call her after the publicity hit and tried to smooth things over by saying he was sorry, but he never did or said a thing publicly in what has become a very public matter. It's important to remember that "Bp. Mask" portrays his rule as one of being concerned for the health and safety of all; an act of charity to preserve life — love of neighbor and all that.

He has even ordered his chancery to be completely locked down. No one is allowed in for any reason, lest you bring death in the door with you. That was taken to such an extreme that when hundreds of people wrote letters to Burns insisting he apologize publicly for the idiocy of the priest calling the cops, they were instructed to put the letters into a basket outside the front door.

Apparently, each letter would be sanitized appropriately and, with mask, gown and gloves on under his astronaut suit, Burns would dutifully read each one. So no one and nothing is allowed in the chancery because of COVID. How convenient. Burns and his staff get to hide behind COVID and not be accountable for the insane actions of an off-the-hook priest.

But now there's a new wrinkle to this whole affair that reveals the truth of Burns' hypocrisy: If he's so concerned about masks and safety, then why did he himself show up at a fundraising dinner without a mask, as seen in a cell phone picture quickly snapped at the semi-private event? Bishop, as Ricky Ricardo would say to Lucy, "You have some 'splaining to do."

But that event was not an isolated one. It seems Bp. Burns has some well-to-do friends and supporters who, like him, only pretend to care about the whole mask thing. Apparently, the virus knows to stay away from rich people, especially if a bishop is in the room. It's a hell of a smart virus. Two weeks ago, a pretty influential couple in Dallas threw a private cocktail party for Burns and invited some other well-to-do Catholics who like rubbing elbows with the bishop.

The couple is Dr. Gladden Pappin and his wife Jeanette. Pappin is a faculty member at the University of Dallas and runs in somewhat exclusive circles. The guests are considered to be "Catholic elite," which would stand to reason since that's who the Pappins run with. Dr. Pappin is a pretty accomplished political conservative who writes articles for various publications, including Newsweek magazine. They live in a, shall we say, pretty nice section of Dallas: the Greenway Parks area, where quite a few homes list for more than $1 million.

The elite wanted to host a party for the embattled Burns to let him know that they didn't like what the common riffraff were saying about him being a mean old bishop who supported the arrest of a young pregnant mom for not wearing a mask. But here's the hitch: We are told that the Pappinses announced quietly to their guests that masks did not have to be worn — but no one should take or post any pictures so they wouldn't be discovered flouting the bishop's own rule with him in the house (who, by the way, was also flouting his own rule).

But we do kind of understand: It's a little difficult to be sipping martinis and munching hors d'oeuvres through a mask. So just ditch it — but don't let anyone know. The Catholic elite accompanied by the bishop can toast each other, while non-elites can get tossed in jail because of morning sickness.

Aside from Burns' over-the-top hypocrisy on this, there's a deeper issue that goes straight to the heart of the corruption in the hierarchy. These two-faced men schmooze moneyed Catholics left and right. Heck, it's probably the first course they take in "bishop school."

And, of course, the weakness of some wealthy people is wanting to be accepted as powerful, influential, having pull and so forth. So when the bishop shows up for cocktails, this weakness that comes with money is exploited perfectly. He has access to their funds, and their egos are reinforced about their own self-importance.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is precisely how wicked bishops are enabled. They exploit anyone they can; they present two (or more) faces depending on the audience, and well-to-do Catholics fork over money to them, thus perpetuating the system.

Ask anyone who knows the McCarrick story. He used every wealthy Catholic he came into contact with, bilking them of tens of millions of dollars while putting on a show of being faithful and decrying abuse by clergy — all while abusing seminarians and promoting his friends such as Donald Wuerl, who took over for him in D.C. and covered for him perfectly.

In fact, the entire clerical network is built on whom you know and whether you agree with their view of the Church. With this in mind, it becomes easy to understand where a bishop is coming from. Men who climb the episcopal ranks do so because they have a keen ability to gauge which way the prevailing winds are blowing and whose ring to kiss.

So, looking at Burns, he's from Pittsburgh, and five years after he was ordained, his career took off once Wuerl became bishop. In fact, in a relatively short time after his arrival as bishop, Wuerl promoted him to be director of vocations. A couple of years later, he was promoted by Wuerl to be the head of clergy and ministerial formation for the diocese. A couple of years later and Wuerl tapped him again — this time to be head of clergy personnel.

What precisely did the lying, scheming, smooth-operating Cdl. Wuerl detect in Burns that he liked so much that he promoted him about every other year?

Then, two years later, Wuerl gave his permission for Burns to go national, being kicked into the stratosphere of the hierarchy by becoming the executive director of the Secretariat for Vocations and Priestly Formation at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C.

That is quite a meteoric rise. In the space of just 15 years, he goes from parish priest to actually writing the guidelines for the nation's bishops on priestly formation, catapulted every step of the way by the scheming Wuerl, who covered up brilliantly for McCarrick.

So given the company he keeps and the allies he has in the Church's rarefied air of corrupt bishops, it shouldn't be surprising that he was tabbed to go to Dallas to take over from Kevin Farrell — another McCarrick crony, who, like Wuerl, lied through his teeth when he said he was shocked by the revelations surrounding McCarrick.

Kevin Farrell was roommates with McCarrick for years in D.C. and denied knowing anything, which puts Farrell in the extremely rare position of having actually lived with two of the most notorious homopredator abusers in the 20th century Church and yet knowing exactly nothing about their "extracurricular" activities.

Farrell was in the Legion of Christ and was personal assistant to founder Fr. Marcial Maciel, who, for decades, raped and sexually assaulted essentially anyone on two feet, including both his own biological sons, illegitimately conceived in rape.

Farrell was in the inner circle on the Legion for years and yet, somehow, knew absolutely nothing about literally dozens and dozens of cases of mostly homosexual assault. Just like he knew nothing about McCarrick. And, of course, now he's been promoted to the second most powerful position in the entire Church: camerlengo.

That's a really good career boost for a man who has to be one of the densest in the world to have lived with prolific homopredators and be completely unaware of either of them. So when a bishop is appointed to follow in the diocese of a dirty bishop, it is normally the case that the appointment comes along with an understanding that the new guys will cover for the old guy.

That's why Wuerl replaced McCarrick in D.C. And it's a safe bet, given his pedigree, why Burns was put in place: to cover for Farrell.

Of course, none of this comes up at the polite chit-chat at the maskless cocktail parties that wealthy Catholic elites throw for bishops. These people are being snookered. And what's worse, they allow themselves to be snookered because they adore being in the important clique as part of the in-crowd.

You wonder, did anyone ask Burns while they were sipping martinis, "Why didn't you publicly apologize over the cops being called? Why did you just say something privately?"

Or did they ask:

Excuse me, Bp. Burns, but as I'm writing you a sizable check because you're so charming and know how to work the room appealing to our outsized egos, may I ask you, what are your thoughts about the man who promoted you, Cdl. Wuerl, lying and covering up for homopredator Theodore McCarrick? Are you disturbed that such a despicable man who lied and covered up sex abuse on his own watch in Pittsburgh and was named dozens of times in the Pennsylvania grand jury report and worked behind the scenes to prevent its release, does it bother you that such a man saw such potential in you? 

But see, these kinds of conversations, especially in rich neighborhoods, well, they aren't really cricket, you know. That would be much too impolite.

Meanwhile, we can understand why Burns sometimes wears a mask and sometimes doesn't: His needs vary depending on which face he's showing.

This case and his hypocrisy has so roiled faithful Catholics who are not elite that a prayer rally has been scheduled right out in front of the COVID-free chancery for Saturday, May 8, at 10:30 a.m., Dallas time. For details and information, just click here.

If you bring cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, the bishop just might show up. But be sure to bring your rosaries. People are always asking what they can do. Well, here you go. These men must be held accountable for abusing their offices and, now, for hiding behind COVID.

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As the COVID so-called vaccine (which is not a vaccine) continues to get rolled out, some very definite patterns are emerging. The more politically conservative you are, the less likely you are to get it. The more theologically conservative you are, the less likely you are to get it.

There are a few reasons for these patterns but the overriding one is this: trust. If you are theologically or politically conservative, you are much more likely to simply no longer trust authority — and with good reason. Secular and religious authorities have flat-out betrayed our trust for decades and sold the Church and the country down the river.

So being forced through social pressure — and even some political pressure — to have to take a shot you don't trust morally or scientifically, rubs the wrong way — a lot.

However, in the Church, there is another dimension to this. Fr. James Altman, for example, is earning the scorn of the religious and social establishment for calling out the bishops as cowards in how they have dealt with this whole Wuhan-flu madness.

Priests have called the cops on non-mask–wearing faithful and had them removed from the Church and kicked off the property. Some priests have declared they won't hear confessions or distribute Holy Communion unless Catholics have been vaccinated. Even Catholic univeristies are refusing students the ability to return to campus without the shot — Notre Dame, Boston College, Fordham and so forth.

All of this is happening because the U.S. bishops are virtue-signaling and being deliberately ambiguous about the so-called vaccine, knowing full well that their clergy will pick up that baton and act like the "COVID SS" to faithful Catholics. At the very least, they do nothing to correct those priests when they behave in that manner.

So an interesting case is now arising with regard to the sacraments, specifically Holy Orders. Church Militant is beginning to get reports from seminarians and priests that some bishops are sending out the signal, under the radar, that, like Catholic university students, seminarians will not be allowed to return or, more to the point, ordained if they don't get the jab.

That's outrageous, but if some bishops are down with Catholics being arrested at Mass or denied sacraments, why would they stop there? Why wouldn't they impose their insane COVID-vaccine demand on their future priests? In fact, just like the Marxist Democrats saw a golden opportunity to steal the election by manipulating the usual practices associated with voting, why wouldn't some of the nation's bishops do the same thing?

All over the United States, bishops are on record trying to persuade and subtly threaten the faithful that they must get the experimental gene therapy inoculation; that to do so is an "act of charity," implying, of course, that to not get the shot is uncharitable and, thereby, approaches being sinful. This is absolutely monstrous.

For the crowd that has spent 60 years destroying people's faith in the moral teachings of the Church by appealing to their consciences, they are now denying seminarians and transitional deacons the right to exercise their consciences and not get the shot.

Church Militant is still in the process of trying to get to the bottom of this, but we want to share with you some of what has been communicated to us to this point. Preserving people's identities, we share the following portions of some emails we have received:

"I recently learned that the Archdiocese of [XXXXX] is requiring the transitional deacons to receive the vaccine in order to be ordained priests. The poor seminarians can't speak out or resist. Their vocations are threatened if they do."

And in another case:

"One seminary says from an email to the seminarians that 'it's the seminary's expectation that you get vaccinated,' and if they have a reason to not want to get vaccinated, then they would have to speak with the vice rector. I was told that one seminarian went to give a reason not to be vaccinated and the vice rector said 'he would consider it.' Like he has the final say over this seminarian. This kind of language intimidates seminarians from opting out. I think some guys feel they don't have an option."

Of course a young man feels like he doesn't have an option. He is instantly put into a mental position of thinking he has to betray his conscience in order to be ordained. Then again, men who betray their consciences under the guise of obedience is exactly the type of man bishops want to ordain. They are pliable and easily controlled.

No man willing to give his life in service for the Church should ever be forced to lay aside his conscience because some modernist bishop applies pressure to him to pretend that not going along is disobedient. No Catholic is bound to violate his well-informed conscience because a bishop tells him to, especially if it's portrayed as a matter of obedience.

For men like this who have climbed the Church ladder of power, the whole COVID insanity becomes a perfect opportunity to weed out even more "rigid" men, those who won't go along; to uncover the future Fr. Altmans and Fr. Kalchiks and Fr. Perrones, the ones who many of these bishops wish had never been ordained. The type of man many of these bishops want to ordain are weak, snivelling, delusional, easily manipulated personalities who are all too willing to hear that to challenge any of the evil in the Church is somehow "disobedient."

It is never disobedient to stand and fight for the truth. But it is a sin to back down from defending it and to go along with what we could call the "gay drift" in the Church, accepting some homosexual bishop's casting it as being "pastoral."

It's not pastoral to give sin a pass, especially when so many bishops have an alternative reason for doing so. All of this is disgusting. It amounts to saying, "If you want the sacraments, bow down to the jab and accept the narrative."

No. I have a mind of my own and very good reasons for refusing to wear a mask, get a shot and live in fear. If others want to, fine. But any seminarian who is now being placed in this position has to seriously ask himself, "Do I want to be ordained if the price of ordination is to to be forced into something I don't want to do, not for any spiritual benefit, but to become part of a zeitgeist controlling the world and the Church?"

You want to be ordained to fight against that, so if your first act is to bow down to it, how on earth will you ever be able to fight it again? You will have accepted compromise of your conscience as a price to be paid, and these wicked men in miters will continue to force you to compromise your conscience until, one day, you are just like them.

Even the priesthood is not worth sacrificing your conscience for. If you think the so-called vaccine is either immoral or unhealthy, then you have every right to refuse it. But for a bishop to force you into it under threat of being denied a sacrament? Wow — just wow. In that case, then don't get ordained, at least not by him. Our Lord doesn't need your priesthood, but He does want you to be a strong man. In fact, it is commanded.

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Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary.

The two most powerful men in the world share a common vocabulary. Pope Francis and unelected President Biden talk the same game because they share the same view of the world. When you listen, and it doesn't have to be all that carefully, you hear the striking similarities.

For example, take the word "paradigm." First, what is a paradigm? It's a framework that directs actions. It's your worldview, complete with all its philosophies, from which you direct all your actions. 

So, for example, in the Church, the paradigm from which She operates is that Jesus Christ is the incarnate Second Person of the Blessed Trinity Who came to earth to redeem mankind and establish a Church to carry on His work of salvation throughout time. Therefore, all actions of this Church should be directed by this understanding — should be. 

Likewise, in the United States, you could say that the paradigm from which the U.S. government is supposed to function, the founding philosophy, is laid out in the Preamble of the Constitution — again, supposed to.

However, in Rome and Washington, dark clouds are hovering as talk of "paradigm shifts" ramps up. A paradigm shift is when one paradigm loses its influence and another becomes dominant. The shift is often characterized by those promoting it as "just keeping up with the latest trends of adapting to the current situation." That's wildly deceptive. A paradigm shift does not seek to respond to change but actually brings the change about.

In D.C., for example, Biden specifically said the words "change the paradigm" — shorthand for "paradigm shift" — in his first press conference at the end of March. Likewise, however, in Rome, it's also all about paradigm shifts, as was talked about by Chicago's pro-gay cardinal, Blase Cupich, in a speech he gave to a Catholic so-called think tank at Cambridge back in 2018. He is on record, referring to Pope Francis' theology, with such statements as: "[This] represents an enormous change of approach, a paradigm shift holistically rooted in Scripture, Tradition and human experience."

And while there isn't a word of truth to that (accepting homosexuality, divorce and remarriage and the rest of it as being "rooted in Scripture or Tradition"), the fact that he actually said it points to the reality that a paradigm shift is at least desired, if not actually underway, in Rome. In fact, the war within the Church right now is precisely over the desire of Francis and his allies to initiate a paradigm shift and those who refuse to accept it.

But Cupich was not the first in the Church to bring up a paradigm shift. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, said himself of Pope Francis' highly charged and controversial document Amoris Laetitia, "It's a paradigm change, and the text itself insists on this; that's what is asked of us — this new spirit, this new approach!"

That phrase, "paradigm shift," is now the dominant talking point of leftists stationed both in the Church and outside the Church. In principle, it's the same war in the United States. The Marxists who have a very slim control over the U.S. government (but, nonetheless, control) are setting about to completely eradicate the previous paradigm from which the United States operated, and institute a brand new one.

Theirs is something much more than just the "big government" that Ronald Reagan fought against. In a theological expression, it could be called "government alone," which is, at its heart, the very definition of communism. The individual has no meaning, no rights, nothing.

That is where America is headed, and it's being spearheaded not just by the actual government but also by "woke" corporations, whose public relations and human resources departments have been overrun by Marxists, courtesy of the educational establishment and its Marxist faculty and administrators.

The two most powerful men on earth share the same worldview, and they are both pulling every lever within their reach to bring it about. In politics and theology, there are no isolated things that happen. They are all and each part of a larger tapestry, a worldview.

So when you hear the unelected president creating a humanitarian crisis at the border and Pope Francis discussing the same type of issue, know that they are each reading from the same sheet of paper — they just speak with slightly different accents.

But they are saying the same thing:

That all of these leaders, so enraptured with justice, actually deny justice on such a large scale to so many — preborn as well as born — tells you all you need to know to understand their agenda. It has nothing to do with justice. It has everything to do with ushering in a new world order by means of a paradigm shift — a new world order where the individual is obliterated and any concept of human dignity conferred on man as a creature made in the image and likeness of God no longer exists. The world is hurtling toward preparation for the Antichrist. It has been since Eden.

Whether the time is ripe for him right now or this is just another step in a long series of steps preparing for him, the mysterious figure whom St. Paul calls "the lawless one" and "the one destined for destruction" is the goal of any new world order.

The previous paradigm from which we have operated was Christ-centered, at least by acknowledgment. The jettisoning of that paradigm, the shifting to a new one, has as its goal the jettisoning of Christ Himself.

This is why those who propose this, under the cover of justice, are actually proving themselves to be destroyers and servants of the demonic. Consciously or not, they have given themselves over to the diabolical — in the Church and the State — and they must be opposed.

This is why they are so intent on hiding themselves — so that they can demonize you and destroy you before you reveal their plans. The paradigm shift, in the final analysis, is all about salvation. Almighty God has allowed this all to come about, and while it was not the case for previous generations, it is for us. How steadfast we are in standing and opposing all this, whether we are "successful" or not, is what will determine our final destiny.

The old paradigm allowed for a path to Heaven. The new paradigm is being introduced precisely to close off the path to Heaven.

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Earlier this month, a pretty impactful author died at 92 years old, but his death went largely unnoticed. His name was John Naisbitt, and in 1982 he published a book that changed the way business was conducted in many parts of the world. It was called Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives.

He had researched the book for nearly a decade, and in it, he traced giant themes of cultural and attitudinal changes that Wall Street sat up and paid attention to. Naisbitt's notion that the direction of the world (collectively) can be discerned by tracing certain major barometers may seem somewhat passé now — or even obvious — but in 1982, it was groundbreaking.

Still, the idea of trying to look into the future based on giant trends or "megatrends," is lost on a large number of people. So when a study or poll or some intense research is published demonstrating what amounts to a megatrend, it really is surprising how few people actually take note.

Here are two societal megatrends, for example, both pointing in the same direction — and for believing Catholics and men of goodwill, that direction is the wrong direction. 

The first is the drop-off in organized religion across the board. A couple weeks ago, Gallup published a comprehensive study that concluded that the practice of religion has now sunk to below 50%. Specifically, only 47% of Americans had official membership in a church, temple or mosque. And to show the trend, specifically the megatrend, just two years earlier, membership stood at 50%. And that was down from 70% just 20 years earlier in 1999.

In 1937, the first year the question was polled, 73% said they belonged to a church, temple or mosque. And it stayed pretty much the same for roughly 60 years until 1999, when the drop began. So for 62 years, about three-quarters of Americans claimed religious membership. Then, in over just 20 years, it plummeted to a minority of less than half. That is the very definition of a megatrend, a huge shift with enormous impact. 

The other megatrend we see at play comes to us as we dig down into the 2020 Census numbers. Laying aside the political-power shift to GOP states, the main concern is the reduction in population growth — its lowest since the Great Depression. Various analysts are pointing to two main causes: fewer births and diminishing legal immigration. 

Another interesting point that emerged is there are more Americans over 80 than there are under 2 years old. That is the heart of the notion of a megatrend: a societal movement so pronounced and demonstrable that it becomes predictive. So as we look out across America, we see an aging country that is rejecting God more and more with each passing generation. That is one giant collective megatrend.

What does this mean now for Catholics? It means that the environment for exercising our Faith and for evangelizing is becoming more hostile. That's culturally speaking, but it also means the electorate, however divided, will be more and more sympathetic to anti-God legislation. It likely won't be an overt attack against God as God in Himself, but it will be legislation decidedly anti-religious, which means aimed at people who are believers. 

When Obama infamously declared back in 2006 that America is no longer just a Christian nation, he was actually correct, regardless of how many took it as an insult. It probably was said as a type of insult, but whether he meant it or not, it was spot-on — especially the last item he included: "Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation, at least, not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation and a Hindu nation and a nation of nonbelievers."

That was in 2006. Now, in 2021, a generation later, the percentage of Americans who identify as having no religious affiliation has jumped to the top of the pile, eclipsing Catholics and evangelicals. There are many ways to go at this information. We can (and should) ask, "What went wrong?" But we also have to ask, "What now, from here?"

Some things we will not be able to control. Some of the effects of all this are already in the pipeline and will have to be lived through. But it should also serve as a giant wake-up call that individual Catholics need to start turning things around in their own orbit. While megatrends make headlines and point to powerful forces, they did not emerge from nowhere. They are the culmination of many forces at play that cause certain trends to be set in motion.

If the bad trends are not defeated early on, they gather steam. However, it is also the case that good trends can be produced, but it will always be an uphill battle. That reality doesn't excuse us from working to produce a good trend; it just makes us approach the reality from a sober point of view. 

Ultimately, world trends impact eternal salvation, as we can see with the rise (and now dominance) of the irreligious. As Catholics, we can no longer live on the fumes of prior centuries and generations because even the fumes are almost gone. We need to understand where we are, how we got here and what we need to now do.

If that seems daunting, consider what the Apostles saw when they stared into the depths of the Roman Empire. And yet, you have your Faith because they did exactly what had to be done. This is now our time, and the sooner we embrace this, the sooner we can begin a Catholic megatrend.

That's what Our Lord meant when He commanded we go out and baptize all nations.

TRANSCRIPT

If someone would have said to you, say, 30 years ago, that America would be on the verge of becoming communist in the new millennium, you'd have laughed in his face.

But that is directly where we are heading. And if you think that's an exaggeration, let us take you back two years to President Trump's 2019 State of the Union Address. While the GOP members of Congress were cheering "USA, USA," the Democrats, typified by Bernie Sanders, simply sat there stonefaced.

What the glib Republicans were either unaware of or were unwilling to come to terms with (understandably, because it's quite horrible) is that the plans to convert America into a communist State were already well underway. And now, they are in full tilt.

Trump's speech was, of course, before the COVID world that provided the opportunity for the Marxist Democrats to steal the election and virtually cement their plans. But none of this is actually new; it's just new to some people. It's been going on for decades — for more than a century, actually.

And if you aren't "woke" to Marxism taking over the United States by now, well, this Vortex isn't going to convince you. But there is one point that gets overlooked by almost all political conservatives, even good Catholics among them: The groundwork for the Red Threat was laid in the Catholic Church first. It was called "modernism," which was aptly defined by Pope St. Pius X in his 1907 encyclical, Pascendi Dominici Gregis. He called it "the synthesis of all heresies."

Unsurprisingly, it was born in the same land where Marxism was born, and, beyond the geography of Germany, there are striking similarities — the main one being atheism. And make no mistake: If you encounter a modernist cleric, you are dealing with an atheist. Actual or practical, he is an atheist.

What do we mean by "practical atheist"? Quite simply, in all practical terms, in the day-to-day practice of his life, he conducts his affairs as if there is no God. Here is the civilizational alpha/omega: When atheism invades the ranks of the clergy, the culture will crumble.

There are, of course, a number of steps in between, and it takes a while to unfold, but the trajectory is clear and indisputable — the civilization is over. America is currently in a transition phase. What we once were is gone. Where we are heading seems pretty clear. But the question is this: "What's next?"

It's clear there are two Americas, two worldviews that have already collided, and one has essentially won or is very close to having won. This state of affairs in the political realm has been brought to you courtesy of the collapse of the Catholic Church as the guardian of human dignity on its way to its everlasting destiny. And that was brought about by modernism, the amalgamation of what amounts to atheistic denial of divine truth being passed off as enlightened thought.

For example, one of the huge earmarks of modernism is the denial of the miracle accounts in the gospels. The so-called scholarly approach is called "historical criticism," and it begins with the presumption that miracles do not happen, so any passage that relates some kind of miracle simply means something else.

It is an effective denial of Our Lord's divinity, and this is the first time we begin to see a a strong movement in the Church that takes the emphasis off Our Blessed Lord and puts it on the community. As this thought that began in the Protestant universities in Germany began to first seep in and then be embraced by Catholic scholars and houses of formation, it had disastrous impact on the life of the Church as lived by everyday Catholics.

It became a subconscious theme throughout the entire life of the Church. Tradition was not only dead and to be ignored, but was, in some ways, distorted. What was "modern" was the result of thought and reflection of the Church, and it clearly marked the path moving forward. Of course, what was "old" were ideas like Hell, damnation, guilt, responsibility, sin and so forth.

Once the Church discarded these "antiquated" concepts, then the world, which never really embraced them, was more than happy to celebrate the Church's "enlightenment." So instead of pushing back against the world and trying to convert it, the Church actually went along with the world.

At that point, it became a race to the bottom as generation after generation, encouraged by a malformed and corrupt clergy, kept allowing more and more evil, eventually promoting it. And now, we are here, on the precipice of the end of Western civilization, fashioned out of the ashes of the Roman Empire by the Catholic Church. That civilization, as it was formed, admitted to sin, guilt, damnation and so forth. It did not excuse man's fallen nature and sinfulness. It sought to convert it and baptize it on the way to Heaven.

Now, what's left of it is providing the fumes on which the West is just skating by — for now:

All of these — and all the consequences that fall from them in the political arena — all of these were brought to us by Catholicism. But when Catholic leaders distort these truths and throw their lots in with those who eradicate these truths, then there is no safeguard left.

It is the temple that first needs purification, and since the priests of the temple have betrayed the temple and the worshippers, then God Himself will have to purify it. Think how far we have descended as a nation and, especially, as a Church in just the two years since Trump gave that speech. No matter his intent, Trump was wrong in his assessment about America never becoming a socialist nation. Even he was caught off guard by the state of affairs just under the surface. It cost him the legitimate victory.

But most importantly, the world, collectively, has lost its touchstone to the Divine, and it is the Catholic Hierarchy that is to blame. Yet, even now, they persist in their wickedness, caving in or carrying the water for the enemies of Christ on a wide range of issues.

"What happens next?" is a question that should concern every single faithful Catholic. We are called to witness to the truth of Christ. What form that witness will be taking is the thought on the mind of every believer.

TRANSCRIPT

Fr. Horn had been settled into his role as director of the Office of Priestly Vocations for five years. 

Every now and then, a crystal-clear example presents itself that reveals the total rot in the Church. This one comes from the archdiocese of Detroit, specifically one of the premier parishes — National Shrine of the Little Flower — and, more specifically, its school. 

The pastor there, Fr. Joe Horn, who, by the way, is the vocations director for the archdiocese, just completely and totally caved to the homosexual agenda in his school. If this is the kind of example that a priest in charge of vocations sets for young men considering priesthood, they should walk away now while they still have mastery of their souls.

For a brief background, a longtime teacher at the grade school, Dawn Nyikes, had put up a poster in her classroom of Harvey Milk. Harvey Milk was on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, was openly gay and was shot and killed by city councilman Dan White in 1978. Hollywood even released a glorification movie about it starring Sean Penn because the Culture of Death always celebrates its own. But exactly why such a poster would be up on the wall of a Catholic classroom with young impressionable minds staring at it is a good and central question.

So some parents became aware of it and complained, and the school administration confronted Nyikes about it. She immediately went to the "feel bullied" corner, thus short-circuiting any discussion about the immorality of this topic and its opposition to Church teaching. But that's what the political Left always does: It goes straight to the emotion and feelings, sidestepping the intellect.

There is no reason on earth why a poster of a notable homosexual activist should be plastered on the wall of a Catholic classroom. The teacher then relayed her hurt feelings and, as a result, not only did she resign, but another teacher, Jane Frechette, joined her.

Church teaching on this did not matter in the slightest. Why would it? The teachers and their eventual supporters who rallied around them have been lied to by a largely homosexual clergy in this archdiocese for decades. Or, at the very least, they have never been taught the truth. So these teachers and their supporters see this entire matter as "just being mean." Nothing more — just a failure to love.

They whipped up a social media cause, and they got local media to arrive at the school last week to cover their plight of a mean, old Church hurting their feelings and hating homosexuals. Of course, the local media responded exactly as expected. One station even completely ignored that there was a sizable counterprotest of faithful Catholics there defending Church teaching and encouraging Fr. Horn to do the right thing by sticking up for Our Blessed Lord and the Church.

They quite literally had his back. But, of course, he totally caved, proving that even if a priest or bishop may actually personally and privately believe the Faith, it is dead if it is not followed up with good works. The good work, in this case, would have been to stand his ground and refuse to knuckle to the LGBT hate-machine.

The LGBT crowd, of course, showed up with their false appeals to "love," meaning that Jesus doesn't care at all about people's sins. He's indifferent to them. All that matters is that everyone is accepted regardless, that salvation is free, that grace is cheap and that everyone is saved.

So at the protest in the school parking lot, Fr. Horn did exactly what every wimpy priest in the United States does every single time a challenge to the authentic teaching of Christ is assailed: He refused to defend it and made the phony appeal to dialogue that says, "We all just need to coexist, get along, be nice." It's an appeal to peace and unity, but without any truth.

In fact, underscoring his stand, he sent out a letter to the entire parish stating that very thing by saying, "We all join together as a faith-filled community." But he never indicates which Faith, because promoting homosexuality to young minds, however subtly, is definitely not Catholic. Allowing the penetration into his school of a passive-aggressive discarding of Our Lord's teaching is not Catholic.

He said, "We are all hurting because of a lack of dialogue." No, Father, we are all hurting because of the overturning of authentic Catholic teaching for the sake of bowing down to the gods of the current culture. Any Catholic family that has their child in these schools needs to pull them out now.

The homosexual agenda has won and, from this point on, Fr. Horn is neutered. Your child's soul will no longer be safe there. It's challenging enough to combat the evil in the culture, but when the evil is enshrined, you need to leave. He gave in, and now it's on the record.

And when push comes to shove — and it will again in the future — he will never again be able to assert Catholic truth in the face of the dominant culture because when faced with it, he sacrificed it at their altar, covering it up as "dialogue" and "reconciliation."

Be honest, Father. It's called compromise for the sake of calming the mob. At least be that honest. But the icing on the cake is that not only did he send a letter to the school community announcing their reinstatement, but he included a letter from them that proudly announced, "Love does conquer all."

Love did not conquer in this case. Lies did. Compromise did. Sin did. And now the dominant theme at this school is that the LGBT ideology can never be challenged again.

So if you're a parent who is down with your child learning that intrinsic evil can be bargained with and negotiated with, then keep your child there. The pastor does it, so you'll get along just fine and have loads of dialogue. And your child will be just one more statistic in the spiritual war.

When he was out trying to placate the gods of the culture in his school parking lot last week, Father was saying this didn't have to do with anything other than a misunderstanding — it wasn't about Church teaching. It is exactly about Church teaching. That's why the complaining parents complained. The issue is why the teachers resigned and the fact that the poster (which is still up in the classroom, by the way) is an accusation against the rightness of Church teaching.

So whatever mamby-pamby deflection game Fr. Horn is playing here, it's disingenuous. That's why there's not a word mentioned reaffirming the Church's teaching in either his letter or their letter. Talk about a perfect opportunity to reaffirm the Church's doctrine regarding the intrinsic evil of sexual acts outside of sacramental marriage, including homosexual acts.

Local news crews did not show up to cover a misunderstanding. The protestors were there to support sodomy — their signs even said so. The teacher's "love conquers" comment is straight out of the homosexual playbook. And if Fr. Horn actually believes this has nothing to do with Church teaching, he's the only one who thinks that.

That's why a poster of a gay-hero icon is on the wall. It's a Catholic school. Why isn't there a poster of a heroic saint there in its place instead of a man worshipped by the homosexual world as a martyr to the cause of the sexual revolution?

Come on, Father. You're either massively naive or lying if you expect anyone to believe this had nothing to do with the Church's teaching. Everyone thinks that. So let's just say that if every other person has it wrong, then you should clearly and directly correct their mistaken impression by not only clearly asserting Church teaching on the matter, but — and this is key — have the teachers make a public profession of their faith in the Church's teaching that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered and always gravely sinful.

If they truly believe that, then neither they nor you should have a problem clearing up the whole matter with a simple, clear declaration of that. But that clarity is conspicuously missing here, Father, and it's because you either didn't want it or didn't insist on it. Why would any faithful parent entrust their child's soul to your care now?

You're a wimp, Father, who caused scandal by your actions, your refusal to defend the truth. Did Msgr. Michael Bugarin, on orders from Abp. Vigneron, call you and threaten you or something? Or did you just cave completely on your own?

And while we're speaking of resigning, perhaps you should strongly consider resigning from your post as the director of vocations. What kind of dedicated young man would want to follow you into the priesthood, and for what? To learn how to cave at the first sign of conflict?

Welcome to yet another example of the failed priesthood in the archdiocese of Detroit. All that matters is people's feelings. Truth be damned.

TRANSCRIPT

Not that we're ever not real in the Vortex, but let's just take a step back and throw down for a moment. It is truly pathetic that Church Militant exists or, more to the point, that it even needs to exist. But the condition of the Church, specifically the Hierarchy, is so abhorrent and corrupt, there is no choice other than for the laity to rise up and respond. 

With every email, tip, story, investigation, private conversation, article, even we — sitting here in our state-of-the-art media center that's dedicated to the work of the Church and serving Catholics — sometimes say, "Holy cow, is this really happening?" Remember, we have dozens of people here working every day fielding calls, checking out stories and so forth. We put in a total of close to 10,000 man-hours a month. It's a true labor of love to try and light a candle in the darkness of the evil engulfing the Church. 

Not a day goes by that a shocked and spiritually brutalized priest or parent or young person doesn't email or call or send a letter describing the nightmare of having encountered the effect of the modernist heresy in their lives, largely stemming from:

Day after day, the roughly 60 people who work at Church militant here in this media center or in our second building hear story after story like this. And to circle back and reemphasize this point, it's about 10,000 man-hours per month that Church Militant staff members are directly touching on all this. That fact alone puts Church Militant in the most unique position in the entire Catholic media world and, indeed, in practically all the Catholic world: We see and hear things that the vast majority of Catholics know almost nothing about regarding what's going on in the Church.

A friend once likened Church Militant to the Church's "SVU" (Special Victims Unit). We thought it was a good analogy. Much of what we hear we cannot report for a variety of reasons. We often try to stress a major overriding theme of evil and then point to a specific example to make the point.

For example, money. As parishes are closed left, right and center by bishops, one of the check marks they review is whether the parish has an endowment attached to it. If the answer is yes, then chances are good that that parish will get the ax because if a parish is closed, the endowment money attached to the parish goes to the bishop's coffers. It's actually pretty dirty.

Likewise, staying on money, show us a single bishop in the United States who will be totally transparent about how much he takes of your donations to expend on attorneys. Often, like here in Detroit, the attorneys are being paid to cover up the crimes of the bishop or his staff.

So the next time you are watching one of those videos from your bishop about how your annual donation helps the poor or schools or whatever, think to yourself, "I'm not being told the whole story" — because you aren't. And if you want proof of that, simply call your diocesan office and ask to see the annual filings from the previous year. You have a more reasonable hope that all men are saved than of ever seeing the financials from your bishop.

Anyway, you get the point, which is that there is so much wrong in the Church (including that all of this just seems to be accepted by way too many people as "business as usual") that it needs a massive operation of smart, skilled people who are sufficiently well-trained and knowledgeable to address it.

Almost by happenstance — some would say providence — that's what has grown up here around our work at Church Militant over the years. We've brought together solid Catholics who we are building into a crack team using the tools of journalism to help show how the Church, in many ways, has been hijacked by globalists, Marxists and heretics to advance their own agenda — an agenda that has nothing to do with souls or salvation.

Every now and then we ask for your continued help in this effort by way of a recurring monthly donation, and this is one of those times. Your continued financial support of, say, $25 a month, allows us the flexibility to be able to respond to various situations as we learn about them, such as being able to get on a plane and go to the location to cover it. Or it helps us fly in the victim or insider on a given story and speak with that person in a more solid way than over the phone.

Sometimes we do an on-camera interview with them; sometimes we don't. That decision depends on a number of factors. Sometimes our Resistance arm has to spring into action with very little notice because some event is ongoing or just developing, and we need to act quickly. Sometimes a particular tool — that's a deliberately generic term — becomes available to us, and we need it now. There is, of course, a price attached to that. Travel, technology and other items must be employed quite frequently by us in order to get at certain information that sheds light on all the double-dealings going on.

You've seen our work here, some of you for years. We provide a service to the Church that crooked leaders in the Church don't want you to know about. All over the secular world, there are what we could call political versions of Church Militant. Those sites are often backed by powerful outfits with very wealthy patrons. And while Church Militant does have a small number of well-heeled, generous supporters, there is no doubt that our bread and butter is the donor who gives us $25 to $100 a month.

If we may ask you once again to please help us out in this area, it would be very much appreciated. Whatever you are able to donate on a recurring basis is helpful, and you can do so by clicking on this donate link.

The "funny" thing about this kind of work is that the more you discover, the more you discover. As Cdl. Cupich would say, "It's a rabbit hole." But while he meant it to deflect from the truth, we mean it to dig up the dirt and let you know how much you are being betrayed.

Thank you in advance for whatever you may be able to do. And for those of you who are already monthly donors, thank you for everything you have done to bring us to this point and for what you continue to do.

As we are always saying, Church Militant is the work of the Church, and this is your apostolate. We just run it day-to-day.

For those of you in touch with us to provide information on the corruption, thank you to you as well.

TRANSCRIPT

Back near the beginning of the media-hyped Wuhan-virus crisis, priests were contacting us saying they were extremely opposed to their bishops shutting down access to the sacraments, but knew that if they said anything about it openly, that would be the end of any public ministry they had.

However, the conversations with clergy around the country generated an idea that has now turned into a reality, and we are announcing it today: a Church Militant initiative for priests to speak out against all this corruption and cowardice among bishops, but also in a way that protects them thoroughly.

Before we get into our effort here, if you know a priest who would be open to this, please send this to him immediately.    

The heart of the problem is this: Many faithful priests are getting tarred for the bad actions of their bishops. They are seen by quite a few as complicit for not speaking out and condemning the actions of the bishops — not just regarding the Chinese Communist Party virus, but a host of other issues as well, such as giving Holy Communion to anti-Catholic, fake-Catholic politicians; the constant pushing of the Marxist political line about climate, immigration, BLM and so forth.

These priests (like many actual faithful Catholics) are fed up with all of this and, with rare exception, do not really have an effective voice to protest or offer continual words of encouragement because they rightly suspect that once they step forward to protect the sheep, evil or cowardly shepherds will strike them down. True — we've seen that time and time again.

So as we started hearing all this, brought to the forefront by the Wuhan-virus affair, we thought we could provide a location for these priests to speak out about all this as a service to the lay faithful, yet completely and entirely protect their identity. We ran the idea past a cadre of excellent priests, and they all leaped at the idea and the chance to be part of it.

So after months of working out all kinds of logistics (personal and technical), we have come up with a completely secure way for these priests to remain anonymous and yet still voice their concerns and words of encouragement.

Here are the details:

It's that simple.

That is one of the points of this Vortex: to inform other priests that we are doing this, that there are 12 clergy members who produce a collective statement as needed, and we would like to have you be a voting member on the statements.

And here is the main key to all this: Not one priest knows the identity of any other priest — none of them. Only a very small, select part of the staff here at Church Militant knows the identities, and those identities will never be released, even to other priests. The core members don't know who the other core members are. The voting clergy members will not know who the other voting clergy members are. No one will know. That way, if a bishop calls in a priest, he can honestly say he has no idea who any of the other clergy members are.

If this all sounds a little subversive, know that it is in response to decades of cowardly, weak or wicked bishops subverting the Faith themselves. What's more, when a faithful priest says or does the right thing, these men bring the hammer down on him. That has to stop.

Priests defending the Faith are not enemies of the Church who need anger management or psychological evaluation. They need support, and they need to be given a voice. They get neither from their bishops, so we need to step forward and fill in here. It's absolutely ridiculous that the laity needs to battle bishops for the sake of the priests, but that's where we are right now as a Church, thanks to a conniving Hierarchy more concerned with the world than the Church.

So be it.

We are calling this all-new Church Militant endeavor "The New Catacombs," and we are now officially accepting applications from clergy to be voting members on each statement that is produced by the core members. And lest you concern yourself with the idea of the Church of Nice trying to get moles into the system, Church Militant will be doing its own vetting of every applicant priest to ensure no "Fr. Martin types" get inside.

As you know, we have been in this "game" now for quite a while. We know tons of priests — good and bad.

Good priests have been put on ice for too long now, silenced by the "lavender mafia" in their dioceses or religious communities; dumped on by the bishop or superior; falsely accused, sidelined, shipped off to nuthouses under false pretenses; charged with phony stuff in the Church's courts — you name it. And all of it is in an effort to silence them and deprive the sheep of true teaching. Enough!

This is Church Militant's answer to this nightmare: giving good priests a voice while protecting them from the ravages of modernist prelates, their gay-friendly staffs and complicit clerics. And all the while, we'll be completely concealing their identities — even from each other — and that's the point.

For complete clarity once again, no one knows, nor will ever know, who the core members or the voting members are — never.

This entire effort is being brought under the operational control of our Church Militant Resistance Arm, an organized effort for laypeople to be able to respond quickly to multiple crises in the Church. Protecting faithful priests and providing a means for them to speak to the faithful about the authentic teaching of the Church is all part of this. We are in a horrible, sordid mess in the Church today, and it simply must be addressed.

So here's your assignment: If you are a priest, please click on this link to submit your confidential information, and we will get back to you. If you are a layperson, please forward this Vortex to a priest.

One final word of appreciation to the core priests who do not know each other: Thank you for your efforts and work these past months to help establish "The New Catacombs" for your brother priests who are in quiet pain.

And thank you also to all our supporters who provide us with the financial means to be able to do this kind of extra work.

Never in our wildest dreams would we here at Church Militant/St. Michael's Media have imagined 15 years ago that things would come to this, but here we are. This apostolate belongs to the Church and Her saving work. The priesthood of Jesus Christ is worth fighting for.