Fr. Regis Scanlon O.F.M. Cap.
Re-post of the article published on Fr. Scanlon’s blog
Fifty years ago, if you told Catholics that “cardinals would oppose cardinals and bishops would oppose bishops” in the Catholic Church, few would believe it. Now is has come true. Bishops and cardinals questioning teachings held since the beginning of the Church. What’s even harder to believe, it was all predicted in two separate Marian apparitions. One is the famous Fatima apparition to the three shepherd children, Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta, in 1917 at Fatima, Portugal and the other an apparition to Sr. Agnes Sasagawa at Akita, Japan in 1973. Here is more background about Fatima and Akita .
We can trust both apparitions. All the popes since Pius XII have accepted the message of Our Lady of Fatima. And the message to Sr. Agnes is the same as that which was told to the three children of Fatima. This was verified by Cardinal Ratzinger, the head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, when he met with Bishop John Ito, the ordinary of Sr. Agnes. While Cardinal Ratzinger did not officially approve of the messages of Our Lady at Akita (it would have taken years to do so), “he did not object to the pastoral letter which Bishop Ito wrote in 1984” which stated about Akita that “It is the message of Fatima.” This is very important since Cardinal Ratzinger, the future Benedict XVI, knew the contents of the Fatima Message, including the famous Third Secret. If the Akita message was not the same as that of Fatima, the Cardinal would have objected to Bishop Ito’s publication of it as such.
Our Lady of Fatima said that Catholics must pray the daily Rosary and do penance so that people will stop offending God. Our Lady told little Jacinta that “the sins of the flesh” were the most frequent sins committed by people leading them to eternal punishment. If God was offended by these sins in 1917, how much more is He offended today? In 1917, it’s fair to say that “the sins of the flesh” were considered deviant behavior, but today the situation is far worse, because those sins, including pornography, masturbation, contraception, fornication, adultery and sodomy, are considered normal behavior. And, abortion, which is often done to cover up the “sins of the flesh,” was considered rare in 1917, but just from 1980 until today the global number of babies that have been aborted is 1.5 billion. The point here is that mankind has not only refused to repent of its “sins of the flesh,” it has even doubled down by expanding these sins in both kind and number exponentially.
Our Lady warned of horrible events if people didn’t repent of these sins. Bishops opposing bishops and cardinals opposing cardinals is only the beginning. At both Fatima and Akita the warning is: If the chief rulers of the world and of the Church will not oppose these evils, God will allow a punishment in which “millions upon millions will die from one hour to another” and “wipe out a great part of humanity.” This may seem harsh and extreme but it is merely the modern application of Scripture where St. Paul teaches in Rm. 1:18-32 and Eph. 5:3-6 that “the wrath of God” is being poured out upon those who practice “unnatural sexual relations” and “impurity.”
So, what’s coming for the world and the Church?
The Signs of the Times
While we should not recklessly seek signs from God, when convoking Vatican II in Humanae Salutis, Pope St. John XXIII referred to Sacred Scripture by asserting that it is wise to be able to read the “signs of the times” (Mt. 16:3). After all, if God does offer a sign to us, there could be serious consequences if we do not recognize and heed it. So, what are the “signs of the times” for us in this second decade of the third millennium?
The day of the year, Oct. 13, mysteriously connects several events of the past and future.
First of all, on Oct. 13 1884 Pope Leo XIII received a locution after Holy Communion. He overheard in this locution a dialogue between God and Satan reminiscent of the dialogue between God and Satan found in the book of Job 1:6-12. During this dialogue, Pope Leo XIII heard what he believed to be the voice of Satan challenging God by saying that he can destroy the Church if he had 100 years and the power. God permitted Satan the 100 years and the power probably to manifest His own power and glory. Following this Pope Leo XIII composed the famous prayer to St. Michael the Archangel to defeat Satan.
Satan began his assault on Oct. 13, 1917 with the Bolshevik Revolution and atheistic Communism. We can pinpoint this date because years later, Leon Trotsky opened his “Prinkipo Letter” by saying that “The still isolated October Revolution now completes its fifteenth year” and he dated this Letter Oct. 13, 1932.
However, on the same day as the beginning of the Bolshevik Revolution, Oct. 13, 1917, Our Lady appeared at Fatima to warn the Church of Satan’s plan. She said that if the Church and leaders of nations did not oppose the sins of the flesh and the evils being spread by Russia, many nations would be annihilated and many souls would go to eternal punishment. To convince people that her message could be trusted, God worked a sign at Fatima, the famous the miracle of the sun.
Then, on Oct. 13, 1973, Our Lady appeared to Sr. AgnesSasagawa. In the 1970’s, the rejection of traditional morality was rapidly becoming the norm. In 1973, abortion was approved as a constitutional “right” in the United States. Clearly, the warning of Fatima was being ignored by mankind. So once again Our Lady intervened to emphasize once again the necessity that God must be obeyed or there would be a punishment for the world. At this apparition the statue in the chapel, where Sr. Agnes prayed, shed tears 101 times because of the great number of souls going to eternal punishment. The message was to pray the rosary and do penance to prevent souls from going to eternal punishment.
The question is, why is the hierarchy of the Church not responding more forcefully to these clear warnings from God through our Lady especially since the number of people doing abortions and sins of the flesh is far from shrinking.
Another question: if these “Oct. 13” markers are important, then shouldn’t the end of the 100-year period given to Satan to destroy the Church have occurred on Oct. 13, 2018?
I would answer that question this way. While this is speculative, I think it’s important to note that one of those years during this 100-year period was an Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy . This was a Roman Catholic period of prayer held from 8 December 2015, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, to 20 November 2016, the Feast of Christ the King to obtain God’s Mercy. Pope Francis hoped that during this “extraordinary time of grace” “We will entrust the life of the Church, all humanity, and the entire cosmos to the Lordship of Christ, asking him to pour out his mercy upon us like the morning dew.” In fact, while every Holy Year of Jubilee is related to obtaining God’s Mercy in some way or another, this was the only Holy Year which was explicitly labeled as an “Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy” since Pope Boniface VIII inaugurated the Holy Years of Jubilee in the 1300’s. Clearly, “it is ‘innovative’ in that there has never before been a Jubilee Year dedicated to ‘mercy.’ So, it is unprecedented.”
In other words, God has delayed the punishment for sins to extend His mercy. One interpretation is that the faithful were given a Year of Mercy added on to the 100 in which to repent of their sins before God will send a chastisement to stop the evil in the world. But this also means that Satan will have one more year – 101 years– to try to destroy the Church before God brings his challenge to a halt.
That brings us to a new deadline for Satan’s 100 year of power — the approaching date of Oct. 13, 2019.
While there are other good explanations of the 101 times that Our Lady’s statue shed tears which do not contradict the above interpretation, the above interpretation seems to be the most probable meaning relating to Oct. 13 of why the statue of Our Lady in Akita shed tears 101 times during her apparitions to Sr. Agnes Sasagawa. Could it be that Our Lady shed tears for each year that sin would reign, and so many souls would go to eternal punishment?
According to this interpretation, if the leaders of the Church and nations have not opposed these “sins of the flesh” by Oct. 13, 2019, sometime after Oct 13, 2019, God will stop Satan with a chastisement which will bring mankind to its knees. This is both good and bad news. Even though our Lady’s message says that many will not survive the chastisement, those who do so will once again worship God as He intended and Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart will triumph and there will be peace.
For now, we must pray the rosary and do penance so that the Pope and bishops will publicly and forcefully oppose these “sins of the flesh” by name which are so rampant throughout our society. If they do so, perhaps mankind will wake up and repent, and we will all escape a severe chastisement.
Carlos Caso-Rosendi 
Carlos,
Thank you very much for reposting the article by Father Scanlon.
We have to meditate on the seriousness of the situation and pray the Rosary more than ever.
I think Fr Scanlon is right. I think we are there. It is becoming unbearable and God will intervene if it goes on like that and nothing is done about it.
God Bless!
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Michel Bélisle:
The situation is clear and that seems to be what distinguishes our own times from other critical times. This is Berlin 1945 all over again and we are all Berliners.
Last night I could not sleep, I opened my Bible at random and began to read from the top of the page:
Isaiah 26:19-21 New Revised Standard Version, Anglicized Catholic Edition (NRSVACE)
19 Your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise.
O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For your dew is a radiant dew,
and the earth will give birth to those long dead.
20 Come, my people, enter your chambers,
and shut your doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
until the wrath is past.
21 For the Lord comes out from his place
to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
the earth will disclose the blood shed on it,
and will no longer cover its slain.
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With fullness of heart I cry out to God ourFather each day to intervene according to His perfect will, by His Holy Spirit, in Jesus’ Name.
God bless, C-Marie
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Jesus said that even He did not know the day or the hour but there are certainly many warning signs and we should make sure that our lamps are lit and we don’t run out of the oil of repentance because there is a limit to His mercy that we cannot share at the end.
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In addition to frequent worthy reception of communion, regular confession and daily rosary (do 15 decades, you’ll see) the Sensus Fidelium youtube channel is filled with excellent material for spiritual growth and discernment. Spend half of the time in prayer and spiritual pursuits that you do watching TV or surfing the web and you’ll be well on the way to sanctity.
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I think that the math might be wrong; 1917 + 101 years = 2018.
If I’m missing something, please let me know.
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Yes you are missing something: Matthew 24:36-44,1 Thessalonians 5:1-3,2 Peter 3:10,Revelation 3:3. If those were exact periods or “dispensations” (in the style of Millerism or Dispensationalism) then it would be possible to time God’s actions. God acts in seasons, we have a general sense of the times but He does the fine tuning. The prophecy of the 70 weeks was fulfilled with Jesus’ arrival but no one knew that the Messiah had been born in Bethlehem, moved to Egypt and relocated later to Nazareth. The timing (now we know) was exquisite but it was veiled. Something like that may be happening here. In the words of a famous 70’s song:
“And then one day you find ten years have got behind you. / No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.”
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And Jesus said that no one but the Father knows when Jesus will return. We could be thinking the end is near, and yet mighty prayers for mercy are going up and so perhaps the end is held off due to the love of neighbor and of enemy, per God’s commandments, that are in those prayers. Best to always be ready, ask Jesus to help keep us in readiness, do all the Holy Spirit gives us to do….Love, love, love and do not judge.
God bless, C-Marie
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There are so many signs right now for those who want to see (I do not want to name all the signs, but we see more and more unrest in many countries (Hong Kong, France etc…), we have more earthquakes and volcanoes erupting, we have extreme weather (this year being the hottest ever) and Brazil’s Amazon rainforest in flames etc…
Father Scanlon would not write such an article if he was not concerned about this year.
As he wrote, Our Lady gave us the solution to our problems and it is to pray the Rosary and do penance.
I think Fr Scanlon’s article is prophetic.
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Archbishop Sheen’s Warning of a Crisis in Christendom
With a saintly long-ranging spiritual vision, Bishop Sheen saw the roots of today’s crisis firmly planted and growing in 1974, but gave us an antidote.
Article by Joseph Pronechen
“First of all, we are at the end of Christendom,” Bishop Fulton Sheen solemnly said during a television show in 1974. “Now not Christianity, not the Church. Remember what I am saying.”
Then he defined what he meant. “Christendom is economic, political, social life as inspired by Christian principles. That is ending — we’ve seen it die. Look at the symptoms: the breakup of the family, divorce, abortion, immorality, general dishonesty.”
That was 1974. Today we know it’s even worse with the definition of marriage and gender drawn into the picture. And the crisis within the Church.
He reminded that of 22 civilizations that have decayed since the beginning of the world, 19 rotted and perished from within.
“We live in it from day to day, and we do not see the decline.” Remember, that was in 1974. “We take it for granted—we get used to things, and almost accept them as the rule.” Despite the decline blaring today, isn’t that a rule? How many Catholics accept the counter message to Humanae Vitae?
Sheen pointed out “the press that we read, the television that we see, is in no instance inspired by Christian principles. As a matter of fact, there is, on the part of many of us, the tendency to go down to meet the world — not to lift the world up. We are afraid of being unpopular — so we go with the mob.”
The good bishop noted we were living in the fourth 500-year period of Church history, explaining “the Church is not a continuing thing — it dies and rises again. It proceeds on the principle of Christ himself as priest and victim.
“And there comes the defeat, the seeming decay, we are put in the grave, and then we rise again. We have had four deaths in our Christian history.”
First Three Falls and Rises
The first time the Church was in dire straits was in the fall of Rome, the first 500-year period. It had a rebirth when great saint missionaries like Augustine in England and Patrick in Ireland spread the faith.
Then came a second “decay” around the year 1,000 with the Moslem invasions and the split of the Church with a schism in Constantinople.
“It seemed to be the end of everything. And then we came to life again,” Sheen said.
In the third 500-year period he said the Church became “rotten” as nuns and priests were defecting. Then came the reformers who “almost always reform the wrong things. And they began reforming the faith, and there was nothing wrong with faith — it was the morals that needed to be reformed. It’s not renewal — it’s really a moral reformation that is needed today, too.” Remember, that was 44 years ago.
All the more so in our day. On just one point, how many listened to, and took to heart, Humanae Vitae? Even theologians defected from it.
After that period the Church came to life again, Sheen said.
“And now we’re at the fourth period, and we’re rotting — we’re spoiled — no great zeal, no great learning, no great fire.” Yet there’s hope because “anyone who knows history is not particularly disturbed.”
Church’s Enemies
“But the enemy in each of the 500-year periods has been separate and distinct,” he continued. “We had, and here I am speaking generally of enemies within the Church, in the first 500 years, false doctrine centering around the person of Christ…the Christological heresies. So the Church was just split open, and that was one of the reasons that made it possible for the Moslems to develop.”
The next period saw attacks on the head of the Church, leading to the Eastern Church breaking away.
By the 16th century the attack was on “the body of Christ, the mystical body, the Church.” It was Reformation time.
Today’s 4th Enemy
“Our enemy today is the world — the spirit of the world,” Sheen made clear.
“Today we have to conform to the world or we’re branded” he said. Must be politically correct. “Our Lord said, I have taken you out of the world. We say, ‘No we have to win the world, and to win it you have to be one with it.’ Our Lord says, I pray not for the world. He was praying for the spirit of the world. And this is the easiest kind of way to fall off the log — worldliness. It’s so simple, and it can be justified for a thousand reasons; namely, the Vatican Council said we have to go into the world — indeed, but not to be world, which is quite a different matter. So this is our attack today.”
Sheen saw this as “one of the basic causes of our degeneration, of our death. We’re dying. What about it? What’s the answer?”
“The answer is: these are great and wonderful days in which to be alive. I thank God… that I can live in these days, because these are days of testing.” Since 1974 the testing pressure has increased.
Sheen explained it was easy to be Christian in the three decades before his talk. “The atmosphere was Christian; morals were Christian; there was no great problem in adapting ourselves to a Christian society. But now, when everything is turned around, these are days when the masks have got to come off, and we reveal ourselves just as we really are.”
“Today the current is against us. And today the mood of the world is, ‘Go with the world, go with the spirit.’ Listen, dead bodies float downstream. Only live bodies resist the current. And so the good Lord is testing us.”
“And he is testing Western Christians with worldliness, and how many of us are falling?” Would Bishop Sheen be surprised on how far the decadence and corruption have piled up?
He gives the example of the Israelites being tested by God in the desert. “That is what he is doing to us. We are showing what we really are now,” Sheen said. “St. John says in his Epistle: ‘They did not love us really from the beginning. That is why they left us.’ And so the souls that are falling away have just failed to meet the test. It is very much like the test that the Jews had.”
The farsighted bishop highlighted how the majority of Israelites scouting the Promised Land told the people they couldn’t enter because the dwellers there were too strong. But “the majority is not always right!” Only Caleb and Joshua, “the minority report,” disagreed. They were right.
Sheen warned “what we are going to have in the Church is a minority report: a minority report of sisters, a minority report of priests, a minority report of laity — not the minority that is aggressive and trouble-making, but the minority that like Caleb and Joshua, trusts in God. So we are tested just as the Jews were tested.”
He went on, “not far after our time, and perhaps in the time of some, then will come the battles and the testing. Our Lord said, Satan would sift you as wheat. And we are being sifted as wheat. So we can all thank God that we live in these days. Really, it’s beautiful. Now we can say, ‘aye’ or ‘nay,’ and we can bear up under assault, criticism and ridicule, because this is the lot of the Christian in the days of the spirit of the world.”
Surprising, Unexpected Advice
The saintly bishop made clear the situation was really not “gloomy.”
Why? Because “it is a picture of the Church in the midst of increasing opposition from the world. And, therefore, live your lives in the full consciousness of this hour of testing, and rally close to the heart of Christ.” Be the “minority.”
He really had ears perked up with his next revelation and recommendation.
“And if there is anything that has to be restored in our day, I would say it would be violence. Violence! The kingdom of heaven is won by violence. And only the violent shall conquer it.”
Shouldn’t it be about peace? Let’s hear the great Bishop Sheen explain. And Biblically too.
He observed how when the Church drops things, the world picks them up but twists them in the wrong way. For example, mysticism drops, and the young turn to pharmaceuticals and drugs.
“And we drop violence, discipline, commitment to the Cross, and the world picks it up…That’s why there’s no stopping the violence of this country. We just have to…hire more police guards, build more hospitals for the addicts. Why? Because there’s no moral reason on the inside why they should stop.”
Isn’t he right on today’s beam? What’s the usual first response? More government spending and more laws will fix the problem. Uh huh.
Sheen explained, “Our Blessed Lord said I have come to bring the sword. Not peace! We are always talking about peace, peace, peace! Yes, because that war (World War II, Korean War, etc.) happened — but we aren’t making war in ourselves — and there’s not going to be any peace in the world until we make war. Our Lord said, I came not to bring peace, but the sword!He never used the word ‘peace’ until after Easter.”
“The Lord brought a sword. It’s not the sword that’s thrust outward against the enemy. It’s a sword that’s thrust against ourselves, cutting out the seven pallbearers of the soul: pride and covetousness and lust and anger, envy, gluttony and sloth. And we’ve given up the sword — someone else has taken it up, and we have to restore it! Then we’ll get peace! And peace is never corporate — it’s never social — until it’s first individual.
Social peace, world peace, is the extension of individual peace in our hearts. When we are right with God, then we will be right with our fellow man. When are not right with God, then we will be wrong with everyone else.”
He told everyone to take seriously spending an hour before the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament every day “not only for our own souls, but for the world, and to strengthen our minority.” It’s “violence” to ourselves, easily enough understood.
Archbishop Sheen emphasized, “The Lord is keeping reserves. He is training us. We’ll make the entry. We’ll prepare for a new Church. And he is with us — we just simply can’t add rules — only we’ve already won as a matter of fact, only the news has not yet leaked out — and so it’s violence that has to be restored.”
EXPLANATION OF THE VIOLENT ……
And from the days of John the Baptist — That is, from the time he had borne his public testimony to the approach of the Messiah, or from the time when he had fulfilled his ministry, the kingdom of heaven — The dispensation which admits all persons equally, upon their repentance and faith, suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force — The spirits of men are so excited and animated by a desire after this kingdom, that it is, as it were, attacked like a besieged city, men of all sorts pressing to get into it, with a violence like that of men who are taking a place by storm. As if he had said, “Multitudes are flocking around me, to be instructed in the nature of my kingdom; and some, who were formerly of most licentious characters, and looked upon as utterly unfit to be subjects of the Messiah’s kingdom, are resolutely set on enjoying the blessings of it.” He that hath ears to hear, let him hear — A kind of proverbial expression, requiring the deepest attention to what is spoken. See Matthew 11: 12.
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Excellent article…..Bishop Sheen had Holy Spirit inspiration in many, many ways. Thank you for posting this article.
God bless, C-Marie
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You will pardon me but I have one more comment.
Some signs, especially weather patterns, have been puzzling even weather experts.
What is remarkable is the fact that the mainstream medias are talking about climate change strictly in the way of changing our behavior to help fight climate change.
They never talk about the possibility of the core of the earth becoming hotter or the sun becoming hotter, but it seems that it is happening.
They just do not want an explanation outside of man-made climate change because it supposes the existence of God and supposes also that God is maybe unhappy with mankind.
I guess that in the days of Noah just before the Flood, there were also signs of climate change but the people did not want to see it because they wanted to continue to sin.
As Our Lord said, just before His Second Coming, it will be similar to the days of Noah and it seems that it is indeed the case.
We have to pray the Holy Rosary more fervently than ever.
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Pardon me again but I had to underline some issues.
Except for your initiative Carlos to repost on your blog Father Scanlon’s article, it does not seem that an article of that importance has been reposted a lot.
Secondly, it seems that Father Scanlon did not want comments for this particular article. For most of his articles, Father Scanlon will allow comments.
I am not sure what that means. I know people do not want to be disturbed in their ways and this is a disturbing article for everybody that want the statu quo and they are many.
As much as I wish Jesus to come back as soon as possible, I guess the great majority do not wish Him to come back in their lifetime.
For myself, it is of course very difficult to understand but it seems to be the reality.
More and more, as Jesus prophesied, our days are similar to the days of Noah.
We have to pray the Holy Rosary more fervently than ever.
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MICHEL BÉLISLE,
Most likely Fr. Scanlon does not want to respond to the many that feel uncomfortable reading about this. Sometime ago I touched that subject: there is a “Catholic fatwa” out there banning eschatology. That is based on a peculiar interpretation of the words of Jesus “no one knows neither the day nor the hour”. I’ve been called names for writing about these things.
Please see this article, the first of a series.
https://casorosendi.wordpress.com/2016/05/20/you-know-neither-the-day-nor-the-hour/
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Plus regarding prophets and prophecies and Holy Spirit gifts from the beginning of the Church and forwards until Jesus comes again………..
“27 Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.
28 And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.
29 All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they?
30 All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they?
31 But earnestly desire the greater gifts.”
1 Corinthians 12: 27-31.
God bless, C-Marie
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C-MARIE: it is a touchy subject. Some believe it is a sin to talk about eschatology. If that was true, most of the saints would be in quite some trouble. But having said that, it is good to be prudent and clear in all things.
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So sad, because Jesus’ coming the first time was/is all about the last things. Plus, very good series…”you know neither the day nor the hour”….Thank you for it!
God bless, C-Marie
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