WHERE IS HOLY MOTHER CHURCH HEADING AS WE NEAR THE MILLENNIUM?

INTRODUCTION
      The Feature Article, begun in the inaugural issue two years ago, deals with the state of the Church. We continue probing the question that has perplexed the Magisterium and the laity for the past 30 years as the liberal element has left its mark, effecting changes that have seemingly watered down the "Roman Catholic" traditions. Yet, God in His Infinite Wisdom, has allowed this to happen for a specific purpose. He has been preparing us in a special way by sending His very Own Blessed Mother to guide us and remind us of our roots. Through perseverance, prayer and loyalty to Holy Mother Church headed by the Holy Father John Paul II and adhered to by the faithful who will not compromise, the pendulum is beginning to swing back toward the conservative side. In the seventy-third installment of this on-going feature series, we continue to sound the clarion as a wake-up call to all Catholics, especially bringing to the attention of all Catholics the necessity to mobilize the laity for the sake of Holy Mother Church. If we don't pay attention, we shall pay dearly as the third millennium dawns. We continue to alert the reader to what is happening and sound the call to arms, to enlist in Mary's army and take up the battle cry. God said it, we believe it, that settles it! Too many Catholics are going their own way with little regard to what their spiritual shepherd - the Vicar of Christ says. Sin is whitewashed. If we're not careful there will be a tremendous backwash and who among us wants to get caught in the vortex of that swirling whirlpool of Justice? With this chapter we continue our multi-installments on loyalty - Loyalty to the Holy Father and the Magisterium and therefore loyalty to Jesus. This series is a set blueprint for Catholics everywhere to take up the banner of truth in defending Christ's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church as we prepare for this glorious event.

      Almighty God gave us His Only-begotten Son as the perfect Example of Loyalty, as the perfect Example of selflessness, as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And Jesus Christ, our Lord, God, Savior and Redeemer, gave us the One True Church and established the Apostolic Succession so we would always have His Presence as the Head of the Church in the person of the Holy Father, the Vicar of Christ on earth. Jesus bestowed this privilege upon Peter, His Rock, upon whom Christ built and established His Church, and promised that He would be with her to the end and the gates of hell would not prevail against it (cf. Matthew 16:18).

      Loyalty then to the Holy Father is an absolute 'must' for all who profess to be of the Roman Catholic Faith, who profess Catholicism as their creed, and who profess to live this creed daily in every thought, word and deed. We, as Catholics, have been given an abundance of graces to keep us in union with God's Will, which is Loyalty lived and expressed on a divine level.

      Loyalty leads to respect. Respect for God, for country, for our neighbors, our families, ourselves. If we don't respect human life, which God created in His own image and likeness, then our loyalty is misplaced because we don't know who or what to be loyal to and why we must be loyal in the first place.

      It is altogether too easy to dismiss the words of Christ's Vicar on earth and to rationalize that he's out of touch, and we, who think we know better, must do our own thing in order to have a neat, orderly, sweet life filled with worldly pleasures.

      No, that's not the way it works. That's not loyalty in any definition of the term. Loyalty begins with God. It respects God's ultimate authority. Loyalty recognizes the authority God has given to an, first in His Church through the Apostolic succession, and then to local leaders. Let us remember well that LOYALTY is a rope whose threads connect us to the Will of the Almighty God. Those threads are composed of: Loving Obedience in Yielding All Life Through our 'Yes!'

      Another imagery offered is the unique vision St. John Bosco received in 1862. He was given a prophetic dream in which he was given to understand that peace in the world would come only after a great battle in which the Pope would achieve victory by anchoring the Boat (the Church) of St. Peter securely to the pillar of Jesus in the Eucharist and to the pillar of the Virgin Mary through the Rosary. This vision is more of a prophecy for us today than for the Church of the 19th Century. Our Holy Father said in 1980: "The Rosary is the remedy against evil. Pray, pray and ask for nothing else. Put everything in the hands of the Mother of God. We must be prepared to undergo great trials in the not-to-distant future..." No one epitomizes the leader of this vision more than our present pontiff. Through all the trials during his reign John Paul II has steadily steered the Bark of Peter through all kinds of treacherous waters - political-religious wars everywhere, the crumbling of communism as we now it, the steady rise of freemasonry, the runaway evil of homosexuality and abortion, and the growing schism within Christ's True Church. Yet, through it all, he has not wavered as evidence by his "high-noon" stand on abortion at the Cairo Conference a few years ago.

      To further clarify that St. John Bosco's vision was of our present pontiff consider that no pope has been more dedicated, rather make that "consecrated" to the Mother of God than this Totus Tuus Pope. No pope has been more Eucharistic - bringing Jesus to every continent throughout this sixteen-plus-year reign. And, truth-be-known, no pope in the line of 264 successors has had more adversity worldwide than his holiness John Paul II. Yet through it all he has remained loyal to the teachings of the Catholic Church, never compromising his values for political expediency as those liberals around him have done in trying to sabotage all that he has done. He, as our leader, has remained loyal to Christ and His Church.

      Loyalty then to the Holy Father, as the Vicar of Christ, is essential in our life as Roman Catholics. We can only be loyal by truly living the Gospel Message of Jesus Christ. Though the path is narrow, Mary's Divine Son has bestowed on those who remain loyal the ultimate privilege of receiving the True Presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament every time we attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and receive Holy Communion in a state of Sanctifying Grace.

      Those who rebelled against the Church in the Protestant Reformation had the same opportunities but chose to veer from the true lineage of Christ by taking their own course of action, thus losing the essence of the Sacraments. Many Catholic prelates today as well as lay leaders are advocating doing their own thing because "times have changed and the Pope does not understand the American lifestyle and customs." That is doubtful when you realize John Paul II is infused with the gifts of the Holy Spirit and it is preposterous when you realize that God, Who created each of us, was never, is never, and will never be "out-of-touch" with what we truly need and need to be.

      The truth be told, those who persist with this fallacy are out-of-touch with God's Will for the Holy Father, as head of the Church, is the final authority in matters of faith and morals. These have not changed in two thousand years. When the Holy Father sets down doctrine and dogma concerning matters of faith and morals, we believe through the gift of Faith, that the Holy Father is speaking infallibly because He is guided in such doctrine and dogma by the Holy Spirit, Who is Truth, Who cannot lie or deceive, nor be deceived. It is the deceivers who are being deceived! This is the quintessence of the New Age movement.

Next installment: part three on loyalty.