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The legacy and reputation of Pope John Paul II are under heavy attack all of a sudden. And in a rare move, the Vatican is hitting back hard against the charges.

Normally, Rome doesn't respond to various reports because, frankly, someone is always accusing the Church of this or that — many of them false or half-truths or deliberately out-of-context stories. But in this case, in an unprecedented move, Rome is firing back.

This story and response is so explosive that Church Militant is also going to do something we haven't done in a Vortex before: bring in our Rome correspondent, Jules Gomes, and get the latest on all this.

Each day on our newly created Rome Dispatch show, Jules and Brad Eli bring you up to date on the latest happenings in Rome because, frankly, without daily updates, which Rome Dispatch is, it's nearly impossible for average Catholics to get their brains around all this.

Jules will be keeping us updated on all this and more each day with Brad on Rome Dispatch.

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If we can use a word from the communist propaganda machine, there's a lot of misinformation out there. And, yes, misinformation from communists is always lies, even if there might be some kernel of truth here or there.

But, being honest, there's also a lot of misinformation in the Catholic world as well. And it's not usually told to deliberately lie to you — usually. But that still doesn't make it reliable. One of the things we here at Church Militant have noticed, especially in the last few years, is a proliferation of commentary and stories that have no context, sometimes aren't even true or at best are nothing more than news to tickle your ears.

For that reason, to combat that (as well as to provide you much-needed context to help you better understand the world around you), we have brought back our popular The Download program. The discussions are very wide-ranging, but they help you connect the dots and detect the patterns, the trends that really dictate our lives.

In the couple of years we've had The Download on hold, the sheer amount of news and happenings has increased dramatically. And there is no end to the commentary and personal opinions of people who don't really know that much about what they're talking about.

The producers here at Church Militant have our heads collectively buried in this stuff every single day — so it's almost second nature for us to get on camera and help you understand the interconnectedness of everything.

To stress that point, one viewer recently commented to us, "This is by far the best of CM. The chemistry. The expertise. The pacing. Pump this show out all day every day."

The communist modernists in the Church and the communist Marxists outside the Church have developed quite the impressive arsenal of misinformation (some of it by just sheer volume), and Catholics as well as others of goodwill need to be able to understand how to cut through their garbage.

We also need to understand that these two dynamics, modernism and Marxism, are two faces of the same beast. Their agendas overlap. Their activities are often shared — climate change, for example, and illegal immigration and so-called social justice initiatives and many others.

What we do on The Download is just that — download you on all this, beginning with a particular story or two of the day and then expanding on how a given story spreads its wings and encompasses much more than just the actual news item.

We produce and air The Download every weekday at 5 p.m. EST on both our site and our Church Militant YouTube channel.

To give you a sense of just how much you can learn, I'm going to step aside here and present to you Wednesday's Download, where we are talking about not just the dueling rulings on the abortion pill, but going much further on the ramifications and consequences of that story.

You'd be hard-pressed to find more insightful discussions than from our crew here at Church Militant.

What is "radical Catholic ideology"? The question dominated the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee hearings this month.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J.: "What is radical Catholic ideology? Why were we looking into that? What's that about?" 

That's a good question. Unfortunately, the FBI thug trying to avoid perjuring himself since he was under oath sidestepped the entire matter.

Christopher Dunham, acting assistant director, FBI: "I'm not able to speak to specifics of the actual product. I think that's what the internal review that I referenced earlier." 

Van Drew: "Doesn't that concern you?" 

Dunham: "Certainly, I agree with the director's statements that the product was inexcusable." 

When Sen. Josh Hawley ripped U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland a new one a few weeks back about the FBI investigating faithful Catholics because the Justice Department believes we are "domestic extremists" and pose a "terror threat," Garland pretended he was embarrassed and confused and couldn't begin to understand how this could happen. 

Church Militant was specifically named on Page 4 of that FBI dossier.

Two weeks ago, it was the turn of the U.S. House to go after this anti-Catholic rot deeply embedded in the FBI. 

And it is that rot — that belief that faithful Mass-going Catholics are some kind of threat to the country, the "How did this become a narrative within the Federal Bureau of Investigation?" — that is the $64 thousand question.

Van Drew:

What would ever lead anybody to think that they could start investigating that? Now, I'm not as good as I should be; I miss Mass sometimes. But, mostly, Mass is a very peaceful thing where people go and pray and get Holy Communion. What are we investigating? How did that ever get through at all to even get started? Why did it have to be condemned when it never should have happened? 

Of course, the answer was more deflection and "We are investigating" and "I can't speak to that"  and "The results are not yet conclusive" and blah blah blah.

This is a serious question, and it's one that Church Militant asked on the Vortex a few weeks ago when news of the leaked dossier started making the rounds. Church Militant was asking these questions even before Congress was — which, of course, we would since we were specifically named in the report.

That Vortex was Feb. 15. Press reports about the leak started circulating about a week earlier. The leak itself occurred a month before that. So if the FBI is so embarrassed and disavowing of their dossier, why has it taken them so long to get to the bottom of it? Do they still not know who, as in what agent, put this together? Really? Three months later?

They can kick down the doors of pro-lifers with almost no notice. They can raid a former president's private residence pretending they finally found the smoking gun within minutes. But within their own agency, they can't figure out who researched, prepared and authorized a report violating the First Amendment rights of faithful Catholics?

What did come out of the hearings so far is that Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan assailed the FBI:

Based on the limited information produced by the FBI to the committee, we now know that the FBI relied on at least one undercover agent to produce its analysis, and that the FBI proposed that its agents engage in outreach to Catholic parishes to develop sources among the clergy and church leadership to inform on Americans practicing their faith.

Did you get that? The chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee caught the FBI red-handed spying on Catholics, using at least one undercover agent and trying to develop a network of spies across the country to infiltrate Catholic parishes.

Still think Church Militant's reported warnings about the hatred Joe Biden's administration has for Catholics is off base? Well, don't take our word for it; the Judiciary Committee just told you. It's clear there is much more going on here than just some goofy thinking that Catholics are violent domestic terrorist extremists.

There is an actual cover-up going on about what is really occurring in the Biden administration regarding faithful Catholics. That's why Joe Biden's FBI — call it what it is; it's his FBI — is dragging its feet in disclosing the most easily discoverable information about the dossier's origins.

That's why they handed over a heavily redacted report of their initial "investigation" — so much so that Chairman Jordan said it was essentially useless. The investigation is not an investigation. It's a whitewash, part of a larger cover-up. A cover-up of what exactly is the big question, but there is something likely big being covered up here.

The smart money is on the possibility that some of the U.S. bishops helped the FBI on this, and that is what is being covered up. That administration is led and directed by communists. Communism is the sworn enemy of the Catholic Church, so none of this is exactly surprising, at least in principle. What is surprising is just how brazen they are about it.

The only "radical ideology" here is that of Joe Biden and his anti-Catholicism. Guess that's what happens when you receive sacrilegious Holy Communion hundreds of times. And bishops, you have allowed every bit of this to happen. Rest assured that whatever eternal fate befalls Joe Biden, yours will be far worse.

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Anyone Catholic who is not about the business of evangelization might never entertain a serious hope of the beatific Vision.

Those words do not originate with Church Militant — although we wholeheartedly agree, which is why we are presenting them to you. They come from Fr. John Hardon, an old-school Jesuit who died in 2000 here in Detroit, despised by the modernist clique that runs the archdiocese here.

Fr. Hardon has been named a servant of God, the first step on the road to sainthood. The holy priest made no bones about the extremely weighty responsibility Catholics bear when it comes to spreading the good news of salvation and the necessity of the Catholic Church.

There is almost zero missionary sense, much less zeal, for saving souls. And let's be very clear here: There is no salvation outside the Catholic Church. Yet way too many Catholics themselves are offended by that, anticipating the offense others will take at it.

When Pope John Paul was on one of his many whirlwind tours around the globe, the Los Angeles Times published a poll that said a very large percentage of Catholics said you can still be a good Catholic while disagreeing with various Church teachings. And that poll was more than 30 years ago. Imagine what it would be today.

The Church in America has been consumed by America, and not the other way around. As a result, with more and more self-described Catholics rejecting multiple teachings (especially in the area of sexual morality), there is no consequent understanding of the need to help convert.

Many more people walk out of the Church each year than come into it, a subject we covered a couple of weeks back. And that means the Church is failing Her own, which means too many bishops and their staffs literally don't give a damn about the Church, as She is constituted in Herself.

They care about the material wealth the Church has accumulated. They care about Her "reputation," which is why they lie and distort and cover up every single scandal that comes along, and employ the legal system to cover their malfeasance. But when it comes to who the Church is, they've not a care in the world.

The Church is the Bride of Christ, and it is for Her that Our Lord underwent His passion. While He died for all of humanity to be redeemed, He did not die for the salvation of all, because all would not avail themselves of His redemption.

Only those who would embrace His redemptive act did He die for. The Son of God established a Church — one Church. There is no such thing as churches. There can be no contradiction in Christ, and yet, within Christianity, there are 40,000 contradictory positions on Christ and His teachings; and most Catholics, as well as their shepherds, are perfectly fine with that.

But what is astounding is that so many simply believe that, despite their total lack of charity toward those souls, they will simply waltz into Heaven because, you know, "God would never throw someone into Hell for all eternity."

Let's just say that is good for all of United States that the Apostles didn't look at it that way, or we wouldn't be here today. Going back to that very disturbing quote from Fr. Hardon, the reason you will not go to Heaven if you aren't trying to bring people into the Church is that you are lacking not just in charity but lacking in charity in the most important manner possible: You're indifferent to the question of a person's eternal life.

St. James expressed all of this in a positive mode in the last lines of his letter: "Know, brother, that whoever brings a brother back from the error of his ways will not only save his own soul from death, but cover a multitude of sins."

If you have charity toward your neighbor about his eternal life, you will merit eternal life. If you don't, you will be damned because you lack charity. As usual, everything with the Faith is always expressed in the most simple, easily understood principles. Love, and you will be in love for eternity. Fail to exercise charity, and you will endure without it for eternity.

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Easter blessings for you and your loved ones as we continue through the octave celebration of Our Lord's Resurrection. After a little more than a century, it has come down to this: the head-to-head battle between world communism and the universal Church. For those who truly understand, there can be no surprise about this. It was and is inevitable.

And here is the rub: The so-called conservative movement that is credited with pushing back against communism is totally ill-equipped because they are fighting the wrong war. This is a spiritual battle, the conflagration between the forces of atheism and the Catholic Church. It is not a foreign policy war; it is not a war over taxation, the value of the dollar, whether the border crisis is actually a crisis or what kids should be taught in classrooms. Every one of those, and all the rest, are merely symptoms, the outgrowth of the larger war.

The reason the communists must consign America to the garbage dump of history is that America, for all its many faults, still operates on the foundational principles of Catholic morality — if even just on the last fumes. The Catholic Church is the enemy of communism. It's not just any mere religion, but it's this religion, because this religion is established personally by the Son of God, and communism rejects, as a matter of policy, the very existence of God. What the commies have done is a kind of reverse engineering type of battle plan.

How people interact with others, how they relate to others, is the basis for a civilization. And if that is corrupted, everything else falls apart. The commies would never have had any realistic hope of defeating the West economically. America was on the ascent as a world power in the aftermath of World War I and cemented its place there after the Second World War. As the Soviet Union found out, dueling with the dominant economic force in the world — by far and away the dominant one — comes at a heavy cost.

But the Soviet Union was merely the body that world communism inhabited for a time. Once it was defeated, communism went on to infect another host, Western morality, which is to say the system of societal relations expounded by the Catholic Church. The family, always held up as the Domestic Church, needed to be radically undermined. And since morality and the family were so tightly bound together, to go after one would mean the destruction of the other.

Enter the sexual revolution. Divorce and remarriage, as well as contraception, would soon take their place in the pantheon of American custom, which, on its march to the destruction of the family, would score tremendous victories. After decades of this, the grandchildren of the sexual revolution are now embracing socialism with all its anti-Catholicism.

There is only one path possible moving forward to perhaps save a nation, and that is the embrace of Catholic morality as it used to be. Whether the clock has already run out on this remains to be seen, but it is the only viable solution.

As socialism and Marxism were emerging in the middle to late 19th century, the Church immediately recognized the evil. It not only recoiled in the face of it but condemned it in no uncertain terms because the Church recognized who She was ultimately battling against. The father of communism is Satan. And the only way to win against Satan is to embrace the means of victory over him provided by God: His Holy Catholic Church.

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A blessed Easter to each and every one of you. We celebrate Easter for eight days because the joy of the Resurrection cannot be contained to just one day. And let's talk about that joy and plugging into it.

First, let's be clear from the outset. If you do not worthily receive Holy Communion — the Real Presence of Jesus Christ, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity — you are playing with fire, eternal fire.

Despite all the good "feelings" and "emotions" over the Resurrection, those will evaporate for those who willfully disregarded or rejected the Divine Master's command to eat my Body and drink my Blood. How a person feels about Jesus or parts of His life or some of His teachings is entirely meaningless. What matters is the truth, nothing else.

Our Lord Himself directly connected the necessity of eating and drinking His Body and Blood to the Resurrection. In the synagogue at Capernaum, in front of the disbelieving Jews, He said, "He who eats My Body and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I will raise him up on the last day."

The real Church — the only Church, the Catholic Church — has held and taught this from the very beginning. Normatively speaking, a person who rejects the Real Presence is damned. That is what the Incarnate Eternal Logos said, not Michael Voris, not Church Militant but the Son of God: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you have no life within you."

Despite the emotions or excitement of whatever over this fact, it avails them nothing because they do not accept the truth of how Holy Thursday and Easter Sunday are related. They cannot be saved who know (or should know) the truth of the Real Presence and yet walk away from it. How are they any different from all the followers of Christ at Capernaum?

Everyone likes the "easy Jesus," the "comfortable Jesus," the popular Jesus in movies and docuseries, because that Jesus makes no demands on their souls. Faith alone (thank you, Martin Luther) is meaningless if it is not acted on. The Eucharist is not just some nice thing. Some "crackers and wine in little cups" thing.

The entire heresy of Protestantism — and it is a heresy — is ultimately built around the rejection of Our Blessed Lord's Real Presence in the Eucharist. The entire apparatus of its insufficient theology exists to countermand this divinely revealed truth and subsequent command by Our Savior.

The real joy of Easter is not that Our Lord burst forth from the tomb with more energy than all that's produced on earth combined, according to the newest scientific data. The real joy is that the path of salvation and resurrection is now available to us. It is not guaranteed, not by a stretch of any kind. Let's face it: God breaking the bonds of death is small potatoes for the all-powerful God.

Would He Who created from nothing somehow be trapped and defeated by death? Please.

Perhaps many people have not made this connection with the sinister lack of authentic teaching on the part of bad and cowardly bishops over these many decades, but truth is truth, regardless. This means that Catholics who do believe and do receive have a duty and obligation to tell this, to share it, to make sure as many people know as possible.

That Body that came out of the tomb, that Lamb of God, that Lamb God chose, must be consumed by the faithful just as the Passover lamb had to be consumed by the Jews. The Passover lamb and the eating of its flesh in order to escape the angel of death was a prefigurement of Christ the Lamb and the necessity of eating His flesh.

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As we arrive at and live through the holiest days of the year, there is one very tragic yet also profoundly beautiful thought to reflect on — Our Blessed Mother's experience through all this.

In a certain sense, it is not incorrect to say that the entire Church "collapsed" into her while Our Blessed Lord was in the tomb. Remember, the faith of the Apostles had evaporated (even though it was very likely at least some of them were watching the gruesome crucifixion, even St. John up close). Their presence was motivated by love, sadness, emotional attachment — but not Faith.

Remember, none of the Apostles, as well as Mary Magdalene, James and John's mother, none of them, not one, had belief in Our Lord's Resurrection or, when all was said and done, even the prospect of it. The women went to the tomb not to witness their resurrected Lord and God but to finish the burial anointing per Jewish law.

The Apostles were shaking like terrified cats in the Upper Room. Even when Our Lord physically presented Himself to them that first Easter evening, the gospels tell us He had to upbraid them for their disbelief.

So the women didn't believe. The Apostles didn't believe. Even His disciples didn't believe. In a word, they all saw all of this as over.

Now it was turning into every man for himself. No faith, no hope, questionable charity at best.

And before we turn to Our Blessed Mother, let's consider for just a brief moment the reaction of the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin.

As Ven. Abp. Fulton Sheen observes, it is the greatest irony that with regard to Our Lord's Resurrection, His enemies believed and His friends did not.

Whether the Pharisees actually believed that He would rise from the dead beforehand, it is a certainty that they did after the Roman guards came and told them. They bribed them for their silence and conspiracy.

Recall, at this point, that Our Lord Himself had said of them, "Even if a man were to come back from the dead, you would not believe." By that, He meant they would not possess supernatural faith to engender in them a change of soul; they would still refuse to accept Him and His divinity.

While we do not know their final eternal disposition, the fact that Our Lord said to them, "You will die in your sins" and "How can any of you escape damnation?" — those don't seem to hold out an awful lot of hope.

Turning now to His Blessed Mother, it is to her Immaculate Heart that the Church retreated and took up residence while His body lay in the tomb.

Just as her sinless body has housed His mortal body, now in her would reside His mystical body, until His glorified body would burst forth from the tomb. There is a reason on that Easter Sunday morning His Blessed Mother did not go to the tomb. She already knew He was not there. And she knew because He had already appeared to her.

Recall, when the women arrived, He was already gone. The only beings there were angelic beings to tell them the good news: He is not here; He is risen. From His own mouth, we know He had not yet ascended to His Father as He told Mary Magdalene.

So where was He between the Resurrection and the appearance to Mary Magdalene? Only the most thickheaded could not arrive at the answer. It is the belief of many Church Fathers and doctors that He was with His Mother.

In fact, the silence of Scripture bears this out, at least to a degree. Nowhere does Scripture record any appearance to His Mother. Ever. Anywhere. To hold that He never appeared to her would be tantamount to accusing God of disrespect toward the very woman, His mother, He specifically created for that role. He would be breaking His own Fourth Commandment.

So the only question is, When did He appear to her? What more spiritually optimal time than immediately after the Resurrection?

Because of both her sinless state as well as the untold agony she suffered on Calvary with Him, it would be an act divine justice (motivated by divine charity) that the very person who had suffered most would be the one most rewarded.

When that stone was rolled across the tomb's entrance, Our Lady shifted, so to speak, from horror and sadness to hope. Supernatural hope.

Her spouse is the Holy Spirit, and He would have flooded her with the reality of hope. No true follower of Christ ever abandons hope, as in walks away from it, rejects it. This is why we can rightly say the entire Church "collapsed" into her.

Not another human being on earth during those three days retained the supernatural virtues of faith, hope and charity. They were completely present in her and, importantly, only in her. Her obedience to the divine will, despite the gravest act of injustice ever perpetrated, was rewarded in justice with the gift of being the first human being to behold the resurrected Lord, her God and her Boy!

For that brief period, Mary was the Church, and the Church was Mary. 

So let's think on this, all of it, as the Church suffers through Her great agony right now. Stay true, resting in hope, despite injustice; despite the necessary submission of obedience to evil. If we hope to be united to Our Lord and His mother and all those who persevered in faith, hope and charity, we must undergo the agony.

From all of us here at Church Militant to all our viewers and supporters — a happy, blessed Easter to you and all your loved ones!

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A couple of weeks ago, we told you about the upcoming trial of one Douglass Mackey, a patriotic meme maker who was arrested for publishing memes about Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign. Mackey put up goofy posts encouraging people to text "Hillary" to a number in order to vote for her and avoid lines.

Of course, the whole thing was a spoof and a goof, akin to the practice back in the old days of telling your opponent's supporters to be sure and vote on Wednesday, when, of course, the election was the day before, on Tuesday.

By way of update, last week, Mackey was found guilty of interfering with citizens' sacred right to vote and is now awaiting sentencing and could face 10 years behind bars.

Church Militant has been watching this case very closely. Here are about 75 pages of research on it because we know a lot of the behind-the-scenes story, a story that could end up setting a precedent for not only canceling free speech but actually imprisoning you for it.

Douglass posted his satire memes a week or so before the 2016 election, where Trump defeated Killary. Then, when Biden "won" in 2020 and was sworn in on Jan. 20, 2021, an indictment against Mackey was handed down two days later, and he was arrested later that week.

The timeline says it all. The chair in the Oval Office was still warm from Trump when Biden's Department of Justice went and arrested Mackey for posting a joke meme. The back story is that the DOJ was itching all during the Trump years to arrest, charge and convict Mackey but held off, waiting in the wings.

No sooner had old brain-dead Brandon gotten in than they went racing after the young man. Later media reports revealed the Department of Justice, which is a joke if there ever was one, had been plotting for years to gin up a "test case" whereby they could actually throw someone in prison for his political postings.

We know Giant Tech and Biden and the alphabet agencies all conspired to cancel and deplatform anyone they could about anything they didn't like being challenged, but now we are at a whole new level.

Understand that this case was laid as a blueprint to set a precedent to enable federal agents to come after you if you post something they label as disinformation and can twist around to suggest you are threatening someone — either their right to vote, not feel offended or essentially anything.

This ruling gives them the excuse that they want to literally put you in prison. And clearly, they are not kidding. Just ask Douglass Mackey. He's scheduled for sentencing in August. And again, he could step into prison a young man and emerge a middle-aged man, all for a joke meme about Hillary. Are you listening?

It's one thing to cast about for a test case, but it's completely something different to strike gold with it. Mackey was tried and convicted in the Trump-friendly, Hillary-hating confines of Brooklyn, so we are, of course, certain that the jury was completely unbiased.

His legal team says that you can count on an appeal and are at least expressing confidence they will ultimately prevail, but no legal team predicts they will lose. So there's that.

Why is Church Militant keeping a careful eye on this? Because given the current climate, absolutely nothing is off the table when it comes to the commies who hold almost all the cards now.

If you think you can venture into the public square and open your mouth for justice, freedom or faith and don't think you won't end up on some target list, then you need to learn to say "leaked FBI Report."

In older times we might have called this "noose tightening." Today, we can just say that it is a dangerous road and becoming increasingly more dangerous. It makes you stop and think that in the days of the Roman persecutions, all you were asked to do was offer just a little pinch of incense. That's all, no big deal.

But the truth was that it was a big deal. It spelled the difference between apostasy and martyrdom. There aren't that many martyrs from those days, a relative few. But many more gave up the Faith and bowed to Caesar.

So as we approach the holiest days of the year, ask yourself this: Will you not say what needs to be said when it needs to be said, even if it's a joke, for fear of the feds and going to jail? The entire point is to make you give up your convictions and your faith. Mackey, as we said, was just the blueprint. If he doesn't win the appeal, you're next.

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Remember the old line about the "chickens coming home to roost"? Well, here's more proof of that when it comes to the once-great American nation. Decades of disaster regarding young Americans are finally taking their toll.

The Pentagon is announcing that not only is the U.S. military missing its recruiting targets by alarming numbers, but one giant leading cause is that kids are too fat. Other causes are that they are jacked up on drugs or mentally ill or have criminal records. However, perhaps the most frightening dimension of this is that the leading cause is a combination of all the above. 

Active U.S. military personnel total 1.3 million. Last year, the Pentagon set a goal of recruiting 60 thousand new members. They missed by 15 thousand (25 %). And that's just in one year alone. When it's all said and done, the Pentagon study concludes that almost 4 out of 5 kids cannot qualify for military service — that's 77 %! And remember, that's from the Pentagon's own findings.

So the military looks across the landscape of American youth and finds that the pool to choose from is too chocked full of fat, doped up, mentally ill criminals. That's quite the assessment. Likewise, as we covered last week in the Vortex, the results from that Wall Street Journal poll show that this is the very age group that essentially ditched any real notion of patriotism.

Top brass recently testified to Congress that things haven't been this bad since 1973, near the end of the Vietnam War. The military was able to make a rebound after that. However, within a few years, because there did exist a latent sense of patriotism, it hadn't been deserted yet.

Now, however, unlike in post-Vietnam where many citizens unjustifiably despised American servicemen, kids today are just indifferent, which is arguably worse. Duty, service, obligation and commitment are all going down the drain — and pretty fast.

So fast, in fact, that top brass are having to now lower the standards and consider taking kids they would never have taken years ago for various reasons. Likewise, just like what happened in ancient Rome, military leaders are looking at accepting into the ranks as a standard fare the children of illegal immigrants who were brought across the border by their parents.

If all of this has a ring of familiarity to it for Catholics, it should. This is exactly the same situation with the youth facing Church leaders. For decades, the young have not been paid attention to — except in too many cases as targets of sexual abuse. And now, the chickens are coming to roost here as well.

And likewise, to stem the outflow and gain some new adherents, the standards have been and continue to be lowered. Like patriotism has been downplayed in the country — even actually demonized in many ways — so too has true religion, as a virtue, been given the short shrift by leaders.

It's been cast not as a duty and obligation that improves a person (the spiritual struggle) but as some emasculated, feminized fellowship nonsense that soon runs its course after the laser lights are turned off and the drums are rolled off stage.

We here at Church Militant often talk about the intersection of culture and religion (the Church and society), and the reason we do is because that reality is inescapable. Of course, there are parallels — often deep parallels. 

The Church doesn't exist outside the world, at least in the day-to-day lived experience of the faithful on this side of the grave. As American youth have been left to become fat, lazy, mentally disturbed criminals, the same can be said spiritually for many Catholic youth.

The problem, as Pentagon brass are discovering in casting about for a remedy to their headaches, is the downward spiral effect that sets in. Last year, when testifying before Congress, a discussion started arising that an all-volunteer force may no longer be possible — meaning that the draft would have to be reinstituted.

Regardless of the massive controversy that would cause, it does beg the question: If 4 out of 5 kids are too fat, nuts and criminals, how narrow of a pool do you actually have left to force to join up? But whatever way that goes, bishops cannot force young people to believe the Faith. So where do the leaders go to solve this problem? In fact, a deeper question is at play here.

The generals actually recognize that they have a problem; it's not entirely clear the bishops do. If they do, and that's a big if, it's even less clear that they have even thought about an answer. Perhaps someone should halt the "social justice" merry-go-round at the bishops' HQ and remind them that the Church doesn't have a draft — or a selective service.

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It's almost impossible to be involved in the Church — believing, caring, concerned — without being plugged into affairs in the world. Venerable Abp. Fulton Sheen called the world "the theater of redemption."

While we are not of the world, we certainly are in the world. And that imparts a duty, an obligation to be involved in the work of evangelization. And that means a sufficient grasp of the world — what's going on, how it intersects with the Faith — is vital, especially in these days of such tumult and confusion.

It's why Church Militant is so adamant that faithful Catholics be aware of what's going on in the Church, the culture, politics — all of it. You have to be informed and knowledgeable.

That's why, each quarter, at the end-of-calendar quarter, we bring you a summary of the major stories Catholics should know. For today's Vortex, we are going to present the major stories, with analysis, from this just-passed first quarter.