Each year as we approach the September 11th anniversary of the destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, and a wing of the Pentagon, the country prepares all over again for a solemn public observance of the event. After nearly four years, the questions still remains unanswered, as to how a small group of terrorists from half way around the world could hijack four planes simultaneously, and carry out their plan with amazing accuracy, without outside help.
Of course we are always left wondering how the plans of the wicked often succeed, whereas the good end up with their plans mysteriously undermined. For instance, how could a country founded in hope and professing liberty and justice for all, find itself gradually sinking into economic, political and cultural chaos. It doesn't just happen. Those who lust for power and wealth want to own the world, and nothing is going to stand in their way. Jesus once said that the worldly were more cunning than the children of light when dealing with their own kind (Luke 16: 8). They're smarter than we are.
Those who do not believe in conspiracy theories should take note. Our educational institutions did not deteriorate of their own accord; they were hijacked too. It began with the children by a process of dis-education, i.e., brainwashing, according to John Dewey's humanistic and anti-Christian philosophy of education. Says one commentator: "Christians have lost the war for American schools-which have been scrubbed clean of the Christian principles and traditions that once guided those institutions, and are now filled instead with every conceivable form of propaganda and perversion" (D. Kupelian, Why are Christians losing America?, WorldNetDaily.com, Aug.9, 2002).
John Dewey was one of the drafters and signers of The Humanist Manifesto, which took its inspiration from The Communist Manifesto, and reflected the atheistic and socialistic character of that document. The Humanist Manifesto speaks piously about religion, but it means a totally man-centered religion without God, since humanists believe the universe is self-existing and not created. Human beings emerged, it is claimed, as the result of an evolutionary process. All associations and institutions exist for the fulfillment of human life. This includes religious institutions, which are to be reconstituted to that end.
If our once well-educated and literate society has become a "neo-pagan, Sodom-and-Gomorrah-style freak show" (Ibid.), it should come as no surprise. Our whole country has been hijacked. Friedrich Engels, who co-authored The Communist Manifesto with Karl Marx, once said that if you could remove a people from their roots, they could easily be persuaded to accept your point of view. Americans have been separated from their roots, and now their minds are like Swiss cheese, full of empty spaces. They are being easily herded into the "brave new world" of the secular humanists.
The Catholic Church, of course, had to be hijacked too, since it was once the chief opponent of atheistic humanism. The same method would be applied-infiltrate Catholic educational institutions-schools, universities, seminaries, parishes-separate them from their religious roots using the educational principles of John Dewey, and then Catholics will willingly accept the new humanistic form of religion.
"Religion according to Dewey, is different from a religious attitude - or 'spirituality,' as it's known today. Religion 'provides a set of ready-made beliefs and practices based on the idea of the supernatural.' But, according to Dewey, it entails obedience, 'takes away responsibility from the believer,' and so it's against the dignity of man…Spirituality is a change agent that is experiential and 'dynamic,' i.e., evolutionary'; it also reflects the first two planks of Freemasonry: liberty (freedom from dogma) and equality (freedom from authority)" (C. Ferreira, From Catholicism to counter-Church: Community on Pilgrimage, CFN, August, 2002).
"Now, in order to lead the grassroots out of the Church, a whole international industry called adult religious education, adult catechesis or the adult catechumenate has sprung up, based on the ideas of Dewey. You might think 'adult religious education' refers to teaching the Catholic faith to adults, but remember that according to Dewey, religion harms the dignity of man, so it's a religious attitude that must be inculcated. Religious education must be a change agent to help one adjust his thinking to the world, and to change institutions to meet the demands of the world-what Dewey calls 'reorganiz[ing] the social consciousness of the race'" (Ibid.).
Most Catholics now have minds like Swiss cheese too. Through mindless ecumenical and inter-faith "dialogue", they are already happy participants in the first stages of the New World Religion. We grieve for them and pray for them.
The efforts of John Dewey and other disciples of the devil to make the world over in their image will come to nothing. And the true Church, which is of supernatural origin, and can never be destroyed, is still alive, although robbed of her treasures and wounded, like the traveler in today's Gospel. But Jesus Himself is the Good Samaritan, who will bind up her wounds and restore her to health through the oil of His Truth and the wine of His Sacraments.
For a time the wicked will thrive in this world while the good suffer. Jesus offers this explanation in the parable of the weeds and the wheat:
"He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world; the good seed, the sons of the kingdom; the weeds, the sons of the wicked one; and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. But the harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore, just as the weeds are gathered up and burnt with fire, so will it be at the end of the world. The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all scandals and those who work iniquity, and cast them into the furnace of fire, where there will be the weeping, and the gnashing of teeth. Then the just will shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear" (Matthew 13:37-43).
