Church Militant The Vortex Feed

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

I'm coming to you from the political battleground of Arizona — specifically Phoenix, in Maricopa County.

Arizona, you may recall, was a huge flashpoint in the 2020 election. Fox called the race early, ticking off many of its viewers.

In the end, Biden was given the state by a margin of just under 11,000 votes out of 3.4 million cast. This gave him, on paper, a win of one-third of 1 point. That razor-thin margin set off a series of investigations and audits throughout the state and has been the major fuel for the election-integrity movement that has swept the country since.

Arizona has another drama playing out that Catholics should follow. It's the challenge being put forward by faithful Catholics against phony Catholics who are running in the state.

In fact, there are five races where Marxist Democrats claiming to be Catholic are being dogged by the faithful for their phony faith. They are huge races: U.S. Senate, two crucial congressional seats, governor and secretary of state.

The U.S. Senate candidate is incumbent phony-Catholic Mark Kelly running against Trump-endorsed Blake Masters.

According to liberal polling outfits, Kelly has been out in front consistently, anywhere from 3 to 6 points. Kelly got roasted by Masters last week in the campaign's only scheduled debate, but the latest polls don't include those results.

The two phony congressional Catholics are Tom O'Halloran in the 4th Congressional District and Greg Stanton in the 9th. O'Halloran and Stanton are reliable Marxist votes every time and are steady supporters of child killing. Rumors are even bandied about that Stanton has a gay lover. Incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly is likewise a fan of unfettered child killing.

In the midst of this embrace of disastrous anti-family policies, socialist indoctrination, homosexuality and child killing, there has not been a peep from the bishops, who are content to simply look the other way regarding their Katholyk politicos.

All three of those federal candidates have been completely supportive of the Biden agenda, even though during the campaign they flat-out lied about it, pretending to be independent of Biden like they pretend to be Catholic.

On the state level, it's the same thing in two very high-profile races — one for governor, the other for secretary of state.

In the governor's race, it's Trump-endorsed Kari Lake against phony Katholyk Katie Hobbs. Hobbs has openly declared her support for child killing, saying at a legislative hearing in 2018, "The Catholic Church does not need to know why I am getting an abortion."

In the race for secretary of state, it's Trump-endorsed Mark Finchem — who has valiantly led the fight for election integrity — against yet another phony Commie Catholic, Adrian Fontes.

That whole panoply — Fontes, Hobbs, O'Halloran, Stanton and Kelly — is a disgrace to the Catholic Church and should have been called out and condemned long ago by Catholic bishops. Instead, the bishops have allowed the evil to fester.

Yes, that includes "good bishop" Thomas Olmsted, former bishop of Phoenix.

Faithful Catholics need to stop treating and responding to bishops who do the slightest little thing correctly as though they are "holy" and can never be challenged — just because they don't worship Satan. The bar for a bishop is much higher than just saying, "He doesn't practice devil worship, therefore, he's a good bishop." No, he isn't.

Frankly, to let these wicked politicians strut about, brandishing their Catholic credentials when they reject Catholicism, is wicked on the part of the bishops. Why? It's because they sit back and let the innocent be gobbled up by phony Catholicism, thus perpetuating the error.

All of this is the background to a rally held this past Saturday in Phoenix by faithful Catholics, who are fed up with evil people in public office being allowed to present themselves as Catholics.

The event was called "Catholics for Catholics" and had hundreds in attendance, including Church Militant.

The bottom line to all of this is pretty simple: Socialism is running amok. It has gotten this far and threatens to get much farther, owing to phony Catholics. This is ironic when you consider it was the Catholic Church that has most strongly condemned socialism.

So we are left, as Catholics, with only one of two conclusions. 

The males in miters are either secret socialists themselves — which explains why they let this rot go on — or they are the most hapless, effeminate, despicable, weak, cowardly, revolting, emasculated, sorry, bureaucratic, unsympathetic sociopaths who ever walked the earth.

It's high time the Catholic laity stood up to this.

No, we can't do anything about the bishops themselves, but we can attack the layers they place around themselves and the effects of their evil. 

We need to reclaim that label "Catholic," because right now, it's being stolen and driven into the ground.

The Church does not belong to the bishops. It belongs to those who love Our Lord. If there is one thing the political crisis has proven regarding Catholics, it's that the U.S. bishops do not love Our Lord nor His Church.

We must push hard against them and the results of their infidelity and treachery. 

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The current disaster in the Church is chasing some unsuspecting souls right into the arms of breakaway schismatic groups.

The SSPX, for example — shorthand for the Society of St. Pius X — is one such group. It's not the only one, but the one that seems to get the most "love" from so-called traditionalists.

For the record, jumping ship into a schismatic group is never the answer, no matter how "Catholic" that group may look or sound. All schismatic groups look Catholic. That's how they fool and attract people to leave the Church.

For those unfamiliar with this particular group, the leader and founder was French Abp. Marcel Lefebvre. In 1988, he defied Pope John Paul II and illicitly consecrated four bishops, thus incurring automatic excommunication.

Things were getting so crazy, even back then, in the Church that he gave himself the authority to tell the pope to drop dead and do his own thing, so the Latin Mass could continue.

Martin Luther led people out of the Church using Scripture. Lefebvre led people out of the Church using the liturgy.

John Salza:

If you read the writings of both Luther and Lefebvre, they use the same terminology as they attack Holy Mother Church. They both said that "Rome has lost the Faith" and that "Rome is teaching a new religion." You see this repeatedly in the writings of Luther and Calvin — and Lefebvre. "New religion," "Rome has lost the Faith," "Rome is no longer Catholic," etc. etc. There's a parallel there. But I would say in the case of Marcel Lefebvre, it's almost more dangerous because the Protestants completely rejected the Roman primacy and made that a matter of doctrine, of dogma. Lefebvre claimed to accept it, but rejected it in practice."

John Salza knows a thing or two about this schismatic group. He innocently and unsuspectingly attended it for a number of years. Then he wised up, studied and came to understand the real nature of this outfit.

To this day, after multiple invitations, still no one — not a layman, not a cleric, no one — from the SSPX will debate Salza. They or their adherents will attack him, but they will not debate him. You will understand why when you listen to him.

For example, at the heart of every schism you will find a heresy — disguised, of course, but a heresy nonetheless. The same was true in the case of Abp. Marcel Lefebvre.

John Salza:

I can name a dozen, but one that just comes to mind is Abp. Lefebvre, in a 1991 letter, which is found on the Society website to this day, is he held that jurisdiction comes from the people. That is a heresy that's been condemned by Pope Leo XIII. In fact, Abp. Lefebvre's own patron, St. Pius X, if you read his catechism — I think it's question 48 — the question is, "Does jurisdiction come from the people?" in St. Pius X's Catechism, and the answer is "No," and to say it does is a heresy. Well, Lefebvre held that because he knew he wasn't getting his jurisdiction from the pope, and therefore he said because the people have the need of my ministry, they as a result confer jurisdiction on me, and hence I can ordain priests and consecrate bishops.

Likewise, during the illicit consecrations of 1988 which brought about his excommunication, there was defiance.

John Salza:

If you look at the historical record, one of the things that really began to trouble me when I looked into this was reviewing the correspondence between Lefebvre and Cdl. Ratzinger and John Paul II, and this is public — if you want to look at the facts, the Holy See agreed with Marcel Lefebvre, even after 13 years of disobedience, even after Lefebvre ignored all canonical warnings, ignored canonical censures, ignored prohibitions to ordain priests or to exercise the priestly ministry or to erect chapels, to send priest out without incardination, etc., etc., etc. Even after all of that, the Holy See agreed to give Lefebvre one bishop. They scheduled the consecration for Aug. 15, 1988. Lefebvre agreed to it orally and agreed to it in writing. And we know what happened. The very next day, he reneged on that said, you know what? I need three more bishops six weeks earlier. Now think about that. There is no possible way anyone could say that there was a case of necessity to require three more bishops six weeks earlier against the express will of the Holy Father. It's ludicrous, and anyone that wants to argue that isn't in reality. You know, God permitted this to happen, right, but I think if Lefebvre had been obedient, the Church would've been much better off.

Lefebvre even lied during the consecration liturgy back in 1988.

Bishops cannot be consecrated without what's called an apostolic mandate. Of course, Lefebvre did not have one. John Paul II, remember, had told him that if he went through with it, he and they would be automatically excommunicated. 

When the point comes in the consecration Mass for the mandate to be read aloud, the instructions call for the principal celebrant — in this case, Lefebvre — to ask out loud, "Is there a mandate?" Lefebvre, knowing there wasn't one, asked it out loud anyway. His assistant, Fr. Franz Schmidberger, joined in the lie and responded he did have one. They did not.

The instructions for the Mass continue and Lefebvre instructs it be read out loud. He did that knowing it didn't exist. Then they just skipped over it because, really, what else could they do?

We have video of the back-and-forth lies, in Latin, at that illicit Mass of consecration. Lefebvre asks, "Habetis mandatum apostolicum?" This means, "Do you have an apostolic mandate?"

Schmidberger answers, "Habemus," meaning "We have one." 

Lefebvre declares, "Legatur," or "Let it be read."

Church Militant understands all too well the crisis in the Church. We've been reporting on it and its true nature for years.

But going into schism can never be the answer. You cannot leave the Church to preserve the Church.

We did a wide-ranging interview with Salza on this whole topic. We invite you to hear what the SSPX is deliberately hiding from you. Please click on the link to learn more about this. Educate yourself.

A word of caution to others in the Catholic world, especially certain Catholic media promoting this schism — your intentions mean nothing. You will have to stand before Almighty God one day and give an account for leading souls out of the Church.

The SSPX is in schism, with heresy at its root and the consecration of illicit bishops based on a lie.

That is not Catholic — even if it is said in Latin.

Learn more about the SSPX.

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The latest numbers have been compiled regarding U.S. Catholics. If you thought they were bad 10 years ago, then just wait.

For comparison, let's look first at those 2012 numbers. For the record, these are the official numbers of the U.S. bishops. In 2012, there were about 97 million Americans who said they had been Catholic at some point in their lives. Of those 97 million 10 years ago, 74 million continued identifying as Catholic.

That translates into nearly 25% who no longer claimed to be Catholic. About 18 million of those 74 million went to Mass each week, with about one-quarter of those still identifying as Catholic and about 19% of those who had at some time been Catholic.

OK, fast-forward to today — 2022, 10 years later. Same categories.

First, there are 87 million Americans claiming to have been Catholic at some time in their lives. This is 10 million fewer than in 2012, a drop of a cool million every year. Of these 87 million, 73 million still identify as Catholic. This is almost unchanged from 10 years ago.

That translates into 17% of the much smaller overall pool who no longer claim their Catholic identity. And of those 73 million still self-identifying, 17 million go to Mass each week — again, like 10 years ago, a little less than a quarter.

However — and there is always a however — this is a self-reverential analysis by the bishops. What they do not factor in is the growing U.S. population and the number of Catholics relative to the population.

In 2012, the total U.S. population was 308 million. People who had been Catholic at some time in their lives was 97 million — about 31%. In 2022, the total U.S. population stands at about 331 million, and people who had been Catholic at some time in their lives about 87 million — a drop to 26%.

The U.S. population growth, while absolutely slowing, is still outstripping Catholics.

In short, whatever "evangelization" efforts the bishops think are working are cratering. In fact, it has gotten so bad that popular culture is making fun of the whole sorry scene.

A stupid, slightly vulgar yet popular animated series from a few years back called Beavis and Butthead tells the tale of the ineptitude of the tone-deaf efforts on the part of the clergy to bring in new sheep.

Unlike in former centuries, too much of the clergy is almost completely out of touch with everyday people.

What the seminaries are churning out are maladapted, nerdy, socially awkward eggheads who simply cannot relate to everyday people.

No, that doesn't mean accepting their sins and patting them on the back. It means not being a social weirdo with no communication skills — someone who's all wrapped up in legal speak and doctrinal "theobabble."

Yes, they need to know what the Church teaches, of course, but priests need to be able to translate all that book knowledge into easy-to-understand, easy-to-digest information.

This is the problem when bishops, who are too often social weirdos and socially awkward themselves, perpetuate a system that propagates all this maladjusted strangeness. If a priest is not approachable because he doesn't seem "normal," who cares that he knows 237 encyclicals backward and forward?

People feel uncomfortable around weirdos. So, they don't ever really interact with them. You hear this same thing continually, from honest people in chanceries, about many bishops. Sure, they work around them because that's their livelihood, but they don't hang out, have a drink, watch college football and laugh at stupid jokes.

There is something seriously wrong with the entire process — from who applies for seminary, to who is reviewing the applicants, to who is placing those reviewers in place.

It didn't use to be like this. It was the appeal and desire to be around the leaders that helped shape the Church and form it in holiness — the personalities, the normalcy of the whole thing.

People loved their clergy back in the day. They saw great masculine qualities in them. They wanted to emulate them. They wanted the "something special" they had that was carried in a very normal vessel.

It was approachable.

Today, it's a joke.

Just ask Beavis.

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

In the world of politics, it's an up-and-down affair. It mirrors the spiritual life. Sometimes there are highs and peaks; other times there are slips and plunges. What matters is that you finish at a peak. 

Happily, with less than three weeks to go, it looks like the Marxist–socialist Democrats may have peaked too soon.

For a large part of the end of summer until the end of September, the Democrats have almost entirely erased the massive lead Republicans held all over the country. Fueled by the overturning of Roe and falling gas prices, the Democrats had drawn to near even in virtually every poll.

But then along came the effects of Joe Biden's "destroy America plan" — supported by every single Democrat on Capitol Hill.

Well, since those short-lived halcyon days of September, gas has climbed noticeably, there is no end in sight to inflation, stocks have tanked, pension plans have been wiped out and abortion has bottomed out as a top issue, even among women voters who identify as "independent."

And in what will go down as one of the largest strategic blunders of perhaps all time, the Democrats placed all their chips on the issue of abortion. After the initial uproar by Marxists at the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe, the issue has now receded to one of the least concerned about — low single digits, in fact — as people go to the store and gas pumps every week.

Democrats may have miscalculated that people cared more about being able to kill children than dealing with the effects of an economy careening off course.

Mortgage rates have more than doubled, bringing the housing market to a virtual standstill. Investment portfolios and pension plans have been so devastated, that one out of every four Americans now say they have to delay retirement.

As a result, the polls have stopped their freefall for Republicans, and turned around — with gaps between the GOP and Marxists once again widening.

And if that is a disappointment for Democrats, it will turn into a nightmare for them, if it holds up, because many of those Republicans gaining a head of steam are Trump Republicans — and they are heading to D.C. ticked off.

Likewise, the regular Republican voter — who is a Trumper — is ticked off and highly motivated to vote. Much more motivated, as they see the midterms as "revenge vote" for what happened in 2020.

They will be joined by a huge wave of independents who may not have a dog in the fight over election integrity but are ticked off at prices in the grocery store and the pump.

It's building. The red wave is rising and it looks very much like the Democrats peaked too soon and Republicans are beginning to peak at just the right time.

In fact, MAGA Republican candidates are becoming more and more aggressive in dealing with the press corps and their alliance with Marxist Democrats. Watch this blunt exchange between the press and Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who is running against fake Catholic Katie Hobbs.

There are so many angles in these midterms, it's hard to keep track of them: 

All of it being summed up best, perhaps, in the term "the pushback vote." This may, in fact, become known as the election of the "great push back."

And it's a safe bet that in all those crowds of voters, you will find a disproportionate number of faithful Catholics. And for faithful Catholics, this election has a spiritual dynamic to it. In fact, for faithful Catholics, this is the most important.

Almost every single one of the issues motivating those multiple groups boils down to a matter of justice. Justice is the forgotten one of the four cardinal virtues among the U.S. hierarchy.

They are certainly down with prudence, although they have greatly misunderstood it. They apparently are not aware that fortitude is on the list. And "justice" only seems to apply when you're talking about social justice.

The election is certainly part of the much larger spiritual battle we are engaged in. It's why we are asking for your financial support in our continuing coverage.

Everything we do here at Church Militant is aimed at making the absolute best productions and presentations possible in the Catholic world — whatever we are covering.

That can be what we did in our live coverage coming to you from Washington, D.C., during oral arguments in the Dobbs case last December. It includes our reporting on the consecration of Russia by Pope Francis to the Immaculate Heart. It, of course, includes our wall-to-wall coverage on Roe being overturned on the Feast of the Sacred Heart this past summer.

Just last week, here on set, we commemorated the opening of the Second Vatican Council and the impact of it 60 years later, with week-long reporting and a knock-'em-dead panel on Friday.

And now, we are turning our full guns toward the election, which we have been covering in detail since the beginning of the primaries.

All of this costs a lot of money, and it's why we need your help and are straight-up asking for you to click on the provided link and help us.

Specialized coverage takes a broader commitment of resources — hiring experts like our top-notch political analyst and faithful Catholic Jim Ellis, extra production, and so forth. Trust us when we say none of this is cheap.

So please, click on the provided donate link and help us remain your go-to source for election coverage from a Catholic point of view.

Both Monday night, before the election, and Election Night, we will be here with special coverage — highlighting all of it from a Catholic angle, as well as providing alternative live coverage to the major networks and their Marxist propaganda.

In 2016, Church Militant was the very first outfit, that we know of, to call the election for Donald Trump. They were stunned; we simply reported.

So make us your go-to and support us financially. Watch us cover the red wave for you.

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There is one, and only one, goal in life — that is your own personal salvation. Nothing else matters.

Few faithful would argue with this, but it is common in our everyday lives that the truth of that can get swamped by the realities of day-to-day living. We need to be reminded of our end, even as we live in the current. Because of this, the Church has always encouraged not just daily devotion and prayer life but also "out of the box" experiences as well.

There is simply no way to get to Heaven if a person is not plugged into the spiritual realities — and plugged in every day.

Saint Padre Pio summed it up best: "Those who pray, have hope. Those who pray little, are in great danger. Those who do not pray, are lost."

According to polls from Pew Research, the percentage of Americans who say they pray "every day" is declining about half a percentage point every year. In what amounts to yet another sign of the failure of the church leaders to do their job, the following statistics are telling:

Of those who say they pray every day, only 59% of Catholics said yes. That was followed closely by the Orthodox at 57% and mainline Protestants at 54%. And for some perspective, 71% of Muslims say they pray every day, and 62% of Hindus.

Also, it's no great shock that as we have seen religion become much more of an emotion-based experience — especially in Catholicism — women are much more embracing of it than men. Fully two-thirds of Catholic women say they pray every day, while slightly less than half of Catholic men do.

More than half of all Catholic men do not pray every day. That should be an earthquake across the Church — yet most just yawn their way through that news.

Likewise, when it comes to reading and praying from Sacred Scripture, the numbers are abysmal for Catholics — really, almost every group, but very disturbing for Catholics because it is the Catholic Church that gave us the Bible. While women do read/pray more than men from Scripture, numbers are bad from each group: 28% for women and just 22% for men.

When considering a theme for this year's Retreat at Sea, we went looking for one area where we might be able to make the largest impact. We decided that having Catholics reinvigorate their prayer lives based on Scripture and, specifically, the Gospels would hit the mark.

First, we are happy to announce that the much-beloved Church Militant Retreat at Sea is back. Yay! We had to go on hiatus the past two years because of the COVID craziness and were able to have it on land.

But all the mandates and testing and masks and all that have now been dropped by the cruise companies, and we are back to business as usual. Because of that, we need to let you know that the fares being offered are the best in over a decade as the cruise lines seek to jump-start their industry once again.

Best fares ever — make a note — with some fares as low as $67 a day, depending on your accommodations. We've barely promoted the retreat, and already we have over a hundred people signed up. 

Please click on the link for all the details and so forth, but we can tell you it's early February and a great prep for Lent which begins shortly after we disembark. Also, we will be leaving from Galveston, Houston, so travel to the ship shouldn't be burdensome for most. Again, all the details are in the provided link.

But back to the main topic — increasing prayer using Scripture. The theme is "the Life of Christ," and talks will focus on some of the less well-known passages from the Gospels.

There is nothing Our Blessed Lord said or did that is insignificant, but some are more well-known than others, obviously. We will be exploring the less-known or certainly less-talked-about ones, digging deep and mining for little gems aimed at making all of us more prayerful.

And a shout-out to Catholic men in particular. We've got to stop screwing around with our eternal lives. We pray less, use Scripture less and are less concerned with the spiritual than we need to be. That's horrendous.

He collected around Himself 12 men. Founded His Church on a man.

The call to men to become holy and fearless is a dominant theme in the New Testament. What on earth would make any Catholic man think he can slack in this area?

There is no greater gift on earth than to be Catholic. Do not squander it. Men, please come. Bring a buddy.

Learn to pray while leaning on the story of the greatest and most powerful Man to have ever lived. Hear the greatest story ever told. Plus, it's the Caribbean in the dead of winter. Where's the downside?

So please join us, everyone, at this year's return to the water — our 2023 Church Militant Retreat at Sea. See you on board.

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TRANSCRIPT

Before we begin, if I may ask you to say a prayer for my father and his eternal rest. Russ Voris would have been 93 today. God bless you, Dad.

And speaking of fathers, many spiritual fathers we have are an absolute disgrace and need to be called out left, right and center. The Irish have a term for such men — wastrels — one who expends resources foolishly and self-indulgently.

No one on the planet fits that definition more so than the U.S. bishops. Why? Because of the tremendous spiritual resources they have at their disposal, owing to their office. Yet time and time again, they squander those resources, refuse to tackle evil head-on and do nothing to protect the innocent.

But just as disturbing is the crowd of enablers who rush to the defense of these men because they, the bishops, are considered "orthodox." That word — orthodox — is treated as though it covers a multitude of sins. It does not. Not even close. Being privately orthodox is meaningless for a bishop if he does next to nothing to defend and advance the Faith.

It is of little consequence if he sits in his room and prays his Rosary and his daily Office, but goes out and withers in the face of evil. But it seems he can always count on the professional Catholics around him to make up excuses for him and say his life is tough and the decisions are tough and on and on.

First, there is no such thing as a tough decision when it comes to doing the right thing. What's "tough" is working up the courage to deal with the consequences. Admittedly, that may be tough. But the decision is not tough. Not even close. The decision is never tough.

Likewise, it might take a minute to collect all the data and information. But once that's done, the decision is always guided by the simple question, What's the right thing to do?

But today's weak, cowardly, revolting bishops — and for clarity, we mean the ones being defended by those around them for being orthodox — these bishops don't know how to even spell courage.

Look, it's this simple: They are not willing to die for the Faith. They aren't willing to die for the truth. They aren't willing to die for defense of the innocent. Sure they may believe the Faith on some esoteric, intellectual-bookworm, encyclopedia-of-dogma kind of way. But when it comes to living the Faith? Hang it up. 

They wear red as a sign of their willingness to die — to die for the Faith. These men are more concerned about disturbing the peace. They and their enablers will blast Church Militant for calling them out. They will call us divisive, say we are uncharitable, refuse to ever talk with us. Here in Detroit, our own archbishop — who has never sat down with us even once to talk — has privately called us demonic.

Likewise, the more genteel and professional bureaucrats among the "orthodox" bishop set view us as somehow beneath them and not worthy of being engaged with. But when it comes to the actual evil in the Church, they sit down with them, eat with them, cajole them, wine and dine them. And ruin souls.

And their enablers always defend their weakness. They make up the most ridiculous excuses about how little a bishop can do according to canon law. Complete excuse-baiting.

There is not a single thing in canon law preventing any bishop from denouncing James Martin's evil at any time he so desires. There is not a blessed thing in canon law forcing an archbishop to host a reception for a wicked cardinal.

What there is, are a hundred excuses and B.S. reasons for not rocking the boat. These men are incapable of inspiring anything. They don't love the Church and the Faith enough. And that is precisely the point. Enough!

Sometimes, you have to die for what you believe. You have to give the full measure. They refuse. And their enablers are full of excuses for them. They are bureaucrats with crosses who say a reverent Mass, but when it comes to exercising the fruits of the Mass, they are missing in action.

It's a straight-line analysis to everything wrong with the Republican establishment. Weak, self-centered men who will say whatever needs to be said, but have a phalanx of enablers around them excusing their inaction.

There is almost no difference between an "orthodox" bishop and Senate Leader Mitch McConnell. Heck, according to a poll released last week, even most priests don't trust their bishops, and see them more as administrators than shepherds.

Yet, in a number that says it all, the vast majority of bishops have a much higher opinion of themselves. Go figure. Brain-dead, out-of-touch, tone-deaf egomaniacs. Completely self-centered, self-absorbed.

And for everyone out there who thinks, "Oh, that's harsh. You should speak more charitably." Stop. Stop already. Do you not understand that souls are being damned because of these men and their polite manners and niceties, their unwillingness to be bold and go on the offense?

They were able to climb the ladder precisely because they are weak men. They have no guts, no fortitude. They literally don't give a damn, as in your damnation, about you, beyond some intellectually dry way. They won't die for you.

What a far, far, far way we have come from the Apostles and those first centuries of martyr bishops. These men would have sidelined St. John the Baptist and sent him to anger management classes.

I watched with my own eyes when I was 14 years old, Abp. Fulton Sheen loudly, and I do mean loudly, toss out an atheist out of the sacristy of the cathedral in San Francisco.

He yelled at him: "Get out. Get out! The Catholic faith is a gift from Almighty God and I will not have you polluting it. Get out!" Watched it with my very own eyes and so did my father. I was less than five feet away from Sheen and my dad was standing in the door to the sacristy.

There is not a single bishop in America today capable of that response. And the reason why is because they are wastrels. They don't love anywhere near enough.

God help them and their enablers when they die. And they better wake up and realize their "orthodoxy" will not save them. In fact, it will add to their condemnation because they knew the Faith. They knew the right thing to do, and they would not do it because they were selfish and thought of nothing and no one except themselves.

You're all in, or you aren't at all. That's how the world will end. And that's how each soul will come to its end.

Sheen said, in the end, each soul will die and see one of two faces. Either the loving countenance of Our Blessed Lord or the horror of the face of Satan. But each will say the same thing to each soul: "Come, you're all mine. All mine."

You "orthodox" bishops and enablers had better think long and hard on that.

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TRANSCRIPT

In the past few days, the retired former archbishop of Philadelphia (and before that, Denver) Charles Chaput stood in front of an audience and decried Joe Biden on abortion and being able to receive Holy Communion and so forth. Normally, actions and statements like those would be worth applauding and, certainly, the pure and simple message is.

However, as usual when a member of the U.S. hierarchy speaks, there is always the "grain of salt" factor you have to consider. Numerous well-known "orthodox" clergy seem to all of a sudden be so terribly concerned with the state of affairs in the Church that has bled over predictably to the state of affairs in the world, culture and government. It's almost like they have no idea that their reigns as bishops in key times and places around the country actually helped set the stage for this meltdown we are all now falling victim to.

Since Chaput put himself out there with his recent remarks, let's do a brief review of him and his past actions as a good example. When he was in Philadelphia, he hosted the World Meeting of Families. Nothing extraordinary about that until (because there is always an "until" with these "orthodox" ones), he invited two of the most Culture of Death politicos you could imagine — you know, the anti-family guys — to be honorary chairmen of the World Meeting of Families.

One was Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf, the lowest form of political life possible, because he was the only governor in American history who was also a "death-scort" for Planned Parenthood — you know, death-scorts. Those are the folks who wear the school crossing guard vests and block access from pro-lifers to women about to walk in and kill their children. Yup. Couldn't think of anyone better to be an honorary chairman for the World Meeting of Families.

Coming in a close second, however — because for Chaput, one just wasn't enough — he installed then-Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter as another honorary chair. Nutter has just wrapped up announcing to the world how proud he was that he and his administration were able to make Philadephia the most gay city in America. Whether that claim is actually true or not is beside the point. Nutter believed it to be true and was happy to take a bow.

So what does the "orthodox" Catholic archbishop of Philadelphia do? Well, make him an honorary chairman of the World Meeting of Families. What else?

When news of this broke, Church Militant contacted the archbishop and his communications director to ask, Hey, what gives — are these reports correct? For the record, they were. I personally emailed Chaput and asked the same question directly. What I got, which everyone gets whenever they question Chaput, was an electronic tongue-lashing.

After a few back-and-forths where he kept dodging the question and insisted on calling my faithfulness into question for questioning an archbishop, he finally answered the question. It was, "Michael, you just don't understand how you have to cooperate with civic leaders to get things done." Well, if cooperating means appointing child killers to honorary posts at a Catholic event, he's right. I don't understand.

We only dig this little gem, of which we have many, out of our files to point to the complete idiocy, hypocrisy, double standard, whatever you want to call it, on the part of these "good" bishops when it comes to what they have wrought.

Faithful Catholics are willing to canonize an "orthodox" bishop because of something he says that's on the money, but they can't stand to hear the rest of the story. They are completely willing to give these men a pass; unwilling to face the music that it was them back in the day that set the stage for what we now are living through.

Even to this day, not one of them has spoken up and decried the homosexuality within their own ranks within the seminaries they were in charge of. Within the parishes where they let all that filth go on, the perversion of doctrine — to name just one thing — they let the Church become more corrupt on their watch. And yes, they absolutely knew it, knew all about it.

Yet they rationalized every step of the way that it was more important that they remain a bishop in a diocese, so they could bring about good change, than openly confront the corruption and pay a price for it. Talk about hubris. The arrogance is outlandish!

"The truth can be ignored because what's really important here is that I retain a place of prominence where I can operate from behind the scenes and effect quiet change — this is my strategy for saving the Church."

Well, Your Eminences, you failed — in spades.

These men are always angling, having secret this or that, being discreet to a fault, while the Church and world burn to the ground. They tell faithful Catholics everything they want to hear in private gatherings and never have the intestinal fortitude to do a blessed thing about it.

These "good" bishops (if there really is such a thing these days) all know the truth of the miserable condition of the clergy — the lack of faithfulness, the rampant homosexuality, the freeloading — and yet they say not a single syllable about it.

Faithful Catholics must ask themselves, Why? Why do they never talk about the real internal crisis? And they can't blame it on "Pope Francis will remove me from my diocese." Francis wasn't pope 10 years ago and beyond, and yet they sat there stone silent.

They have twisted up in their weak intellects somewhere that their primary duty is to protect not the Faith but the institution — total hogwash! How's that working for you, bishops? You should have all long ago been dumped, for pride and incompetence, at the very least.

There is not a single institution in the country that would have allowed the likes of you bumblers to continue in your positions. But you live off the fumes of the Faith breathed in by the few remaining faithful, and even in retirement, still will not come clean when you have nothing to lose.

To lash out at the effects of the environment you created with your daintiness and lack of fortitude is revolting to behold. How many gay men did each of you ordain? How many unfaithful men did you allow to remain in office?

Beyond speeches to friendly audiences, what kind of example of action did any of you set? How much of your own skin did you have in the game? We all know the answer. We just have to look around.

Save the pointless speeches — you're a day late and a dollar short. That ship sailed while you were in office. Go back to your cocktail mixers with some wealthy friends and then get to a monastery for prayer and penance for the rest of your lives.

You squandered the wealth of graces given to you by God precisely because you are weak men and took the easy path of nonconfrontation — the very hallmark of an emasculated man — despite all the bluster. None of you will go down in Church history as anything more than a footnote of those weak Churchmen who enabled the evil which destroyed a civilization.

Too bad someone didn't say all this to you back in the day.

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TRANSCRIPT

It's been almost three years, but in that time, the full realization of the COVID conspiracy is coming more and more to light. The truth is never able to be fully covered up, and proof of that maxim is coming forward as we learn more about what really happened, how it was manipulated, by whom and why.

[Transcript unavailable]

Steven Mosher is president of the Population Research Institute and one of the world's leading authorities on China. Of course, most importantly, he's also a solid, faithful Catholic. In addition to authoring various books on China, he's been on Tucker, Laura Ingraham, Good Morning America, 60 Minutes, and written for the New York Post and Wall Street Journal.

In short, he's no slouch. He knows his stuff down cold. He's written what is the authoritative book on the entire COVID scam called The Politically Incorrect Guide to Pandemics. With almost 100 pages of supporting footnotes, the fun really begins about halfway through. After a brief world history lesson of plagues and pandemics stretching back thousands of years, Mosher then spends about a hundred pages breaking down in easy-to-understand detail all the relevant information on the China virus.

[Transcript unavailable]

In a weekend op-ed in the New York Post, Mosher lays out his case against Anthony Fauci with his opening paragraph: "I must admit that I, like most Americans, am deathly tired of having to listen to — or in my case, write about — Dr. Anthony Fauci. It has been clear for some time that his prescriptions for dealing with the pandemic were not only wrong, but made things worse, much worse."

Here's the summation for those of you who like the CliffsNotes version: China was developing a bioweapon.

Fauci, who was forbidden to pay for that type of research here in the United States, diverted funds from his government agency to the Chinese because of his longstanding fascination with mRNA vaccines. The virus escaped the lab in Wuhan. Fauci and Deborah Birx tricked Trump into shutting down the country. The Democrats took political advantage of the opportunity and rigged the election. Biden got into office and wrecked the country.

[Transcript unavailable]

Now facing a Republican tsunami wipeout in less than two weeks, the rats are jumping ship: writing books, appearing as guests on Marxist media outlets and praying they don't get subpoenaed before a highly ticked-off, newly elected and dominant Republican Congress.

Millions of people have died. Millions more are now beginning to suffer crippling and debilitating side effects.

Big Pharma has made a fortune and will continue to. And the stage is being set for Big Pharma to make even more and totally avoid all legal liability by getting their vaccines placed into the childhood-immunization shot series.

[Transcript unavailable]

We cover all this in our in-depth interview with Steven Mosher, available by clicking on the link below.

And, of course, the Catholic angle, as we always bring you: The bishops folded like a house of cards in the face of all this. In fact, even with all this now coming out, they still have multiple COVID restrictions in place.

Detroit's Allen Vigneron won't allow an out-of-diocese priest into the archdiocese to help out unless he's vaccinated.

Remember that Dallas Bp. Edward Burns refused to publicly apologize when one of his priests, at a well-known gay parish, called the police on a pregnant mom for refusing to wear a mask, even though she was sitting at the back of the church, many pews away from anyone else. Deirdre Hairston was with her infant child and pregnant with her second child when a notorious priest confronted her in the back pew as she knelt down after receiving Holy Communion. He ordered her to put her mask on — she refused. He called the police. And Bp. Burns was perfectly fine with all of it.

And so it went, throughout the entire pandemic: sacraments cut off, priests chastised for trying to serve the people, the sheep abandoned to the will of the government oligarchs.

It's time those who fell for the garbage wake up and realize: You were used. Your family members and friends were murdered and others close to you are either sick from the shot or may soon be.

To watch the riveting interview with Steven Mosher, please just click on the link.

And as a reminder, if you like what you're seeing and hearing at Church Militant, please consider a donation. Shows like Vortex are free for you to watch but not free for us to produce. So please just click on that link and donate whatever you like, to show your support.

It's much appreciated. Thank you in advance.

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TRANSCRIPT

We Catholics don't believe in karma, certainly as a religious, spiritual thing. That said, karma, as a thing, is related to justice, and justice is certainly something we do believe in. Well, call it what you will, but the "karma bus" has pulled into the diocese of Buffalo.

The diocese has finally settled a yearslong case with the state of New York over sex abuse allegations, involving the clergy there, stretching back decades. But more to the point, and especially important for Church Militant, we were in on the ground floor of this story when it broke back in 2018 in the wake of the Theodore McCarrick revelations.         

In fact, then-Buffalo Bp. Richard Malone had the unfortunate moment of being caught up in his own sex abuse cover-up scandal, as the bishop of a very homosexual-friendly diocese, which resulted in a messy lawsuit and state investigation. Then he had the further unfortunate moment of being on the same plane as the Church Militant crew coming back from the bishops' national meeting in November.

We waited for him as he came off the plane to ask him about the priests he was covering up for. As you can hear, he called us liars.

The U.S. bishops, as a body, were once again very displeased with us for being "divisive" and set about to write us a very strongly worded letter. They insisted we demonstrate "proof" that what we report is true.

In the intervening years, however, the seminary, Christ the King, had to close down because of homosexual harassment by the faculty. The rector, Fr. Joseph Gatto, had to step down as the chief harasser. Multiple lawsuits have been filed over homosexual abuse in and out of the seminary.

The diocese filed for bankruptcy to duck out on any further litigation from victims. And after a multiyear probe, the diocese finally settled with the state of New York and agreed, among a number of things, to ensure Bp. Malone had no official dealings with money anywhere in the state. The original accusations against Malone were that he was a thief misusing charitable funds to support priests he knew had likely sexually abused minors.

So despite all charges to the contrary by the crooked and emasculated clergy and their enablers, Church Militant is once again vindicated.

Malone was as crooked and arrogant as hell, not to mention corrupt. The establishment circled the wagons around him when he got caught. 

And for the record, he doesn't really run that fast through airports.

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TRANSCRIPT

For example, Kari Lake, the upstart feisty candidate for Arizona governorship — raised Catholic, she now no longer has anything to do with the Church, although it's clear she still embraces some of her Catholicism when it comes to the natural world. Likewise, U.S. Senate candidate (also from Arizona) Blake Masters — he, too, was raised Catholic and has since left the Faith.

It's jarring to the sensibilities of faithful, well-catechized Catholics that so many of the people we are cheering on politically comprise some of the collateral damage of the Church imploding. How much better off would America have been, and be in the future, if these souls could have remained in the Church and been properly catechized, instructed and formed in the One True Faith?

Yet, as we see time and time again, they have been left to fend for themselves by a reckless and uncaring hierarchy. The bishops were more content with allowing the Joe Bidens, Pelosis, Kennedys, Caseys, Durbins, Leahys, Cuomos et al. to define the Faith for an entire country and party.

You'd be hard-pressed to find any bishop speaking out against any of these deceivers, and even on the rare occasion they do, it's so far gone now that the impact is nothing. They let in and, in some cases, supported the spread of the Civilization of Death, starting right in their own sanctuaries.

Boston cardinal Seán O'Malley gave a king's send-off to Sen. Ted Kennedy at his funeral Mass. It was like Kennedy had been canonized. For the record, Kennedy spent not only a political life drinking, carousing — not to mention killing Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick — but also voting to kill millions of preborn babies. Hopefully, he was saved, but in no way, shape or form did he deserve that celebrated funeral Mass.

Here in Detroit, Abp. Allen Vigneron made a career of looking the other way as Catholic Democrat congressman John Dingell voted countless times to kill children. What was the response from Vigneron? Silence. He did say that we are mean for dividing the Church (but aside from that, not much).

The list of these wicked prelates and their inaction that has driven good men and women from the Church is frightening to behold. It's become a career; it's so ensconced.

But when the push comes to the shove, they aren't fully equipped to understand the entire gravity of the spiritual war taking place. They do get, on a basic level, that there is a spiritual dimension to this fight (the political fight), but when it comes to all guns blazing, they don't quite have the firepower needed.

Even if a return to morality and consequent laws based on morality were to return, they would always be threatened by a foundational philosophy not based on natural law and right religion.

If only the bishops had been pursuing the Faith in these past decades, imagine the flood of authentic Catholics there would be in the political world. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Kari Lake, Blake Masters and so many other former Catholics are, or at least appear to be, men and women of goodwill.

While goodwill on its own is insufficient for salvation, it is the first necessary ingredient because goodwill is good precisely because it seeks the truth. Even if the truth is uncomfortable, it will still be pursued by those of goodwill. It isn't truth in itself, but it is the first step toward it.

For faithful Catholics, politically, there is something to cheer. Spiritually and theologically, there is something to lament. 

The Karis and Marjories and Blakes of the political arena are our brothers and sisters in faith. They are, in many cases, a simple confession away from full restoration. 

Yet the bishops have created, and continue to sustain, such a questionable environment for returning (with their liberal, anti-American, pro-communist, wimpy, gay-friendly craziness) that normal people, Christ-loving patriots, see almost no value (if even any) in returning.

Talk about creating division — something you gossip about regarding Church Militant nonstop. In one fell swoop, the bishops managed to not only create division in the Church but the country as well.