The smoke of Satan in the Temple of God

The pope's recent full frontal assault on the traditional Latin Mass is producing a spirited fight-back from faithful Catholic clergy. Bishop Athanasius Schneider held an entire conference on the subject in Paris. His introductory remarks are a powerful reminder of what is at stake here:

'The structures of evil dominate our time in an almost apocalyptic dimension on a global level. Particularly noteworthy is the state of internal crisis in the Church, which no honest person can deny, because it is already too obvious. Think of these precise observations, which are well known and in which Pope Paul VI honestly described the state of spiritual health of the Church in our time; they remain of great relevance. I quote Paul VI: “It was believed that after the Council the sun would shine on the history of the Church. But instead there came a day of clouds, storms, darkness, searching and uncertainty.” … These are the words of Paul VI. There is no spring. And the Pope added this bold phrase: 

“The smoke of Satan has entered the Temple of God.”  

These words were pronounced on June 29, 1972. Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, speaking at the 1976 Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia, U.S.A., said, “We are now faced with the greatest historical opposition that humanity has ever known. I don’t think that American society as a whole or the Christian community as a whole is fully aware of this. We are now faced with the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, between the Gospel and the anti-gospel, between Christ and the Antichrist. This confrontation is part of the plan of Divine Providence. Therefore, it is part of God’s plan and it is a trial that the Church must accept and face with courage.” These are the words of Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, two years before his papal election. God from all eternity, in His wise and loving plan, has chosen this important but extremely difficult time for us, in which we live, and God wants to reward us with His eternal love. We want to say from the bottom of our hearts to the Lord in these difficult times: "Lord, everything is for you, all my sufferings, all my humiliations, all my tears, all my works, all my love ... Everything is for you. Non nobis, Domine, non nobis. Not to us, not to us, Lord, but to your name give glory".'

In an interview with LifesiteNews' Jeanne Smits, the Bishop went into even more detail:

'Regarding what Cardinal Karol Wojtyla said about the Church today having to face with courage the confrontation of the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel and the anti-Gospel, perhaps Cardinal Wojtyla thought in 1976 that this confrontation would be between the Church and the enemies of the Church, who are outside the Church. But I think now we have the confrontation of a Church against a Church within, in the midst of the life of the Church. We have already seen this phenomenon in the past years, when we saw virtually the introduction of divorce in the Church through the text Amoris Laetitia, which is very ambiguous. So it’s an anti-gospel; it’s against what Jesus said about marriage. And then there are the forms of relativism that we have seen ... There are very serious signs of the acceptance of idols, even in the Vatican during the Amazon synod, these signs showing that it was not the Gospel. Our Lord Jesus Christ would never have accepted to worship an idol. The apostles of “Mother Earth” – they were called by another name – collaborated with the whole abortion industry, with the fetus industry, and with close collaboration. So these are just a few examples where we can see the confrontation that Cardinal Wojtyla was already talking about, but now we are in the middle of this confrontation. At the same time, we must always have the certainty of Christ’s victory, and for this reason in the book Christus Vincit, the main theme is always the victory of Christ and of the Catholic faith......

'.....But unfortunately, as time has gone by – I think in particular of the last two centuries – there has been even until today a phenomenon that many people now call papolatry, the adoration of the Pope almost: to consider the Pope as God, who can never make a mistake. This is wrong. This attitude towards the Pope has never existed in the Church. The Pope is human, the Pope is not the good God. We have to reform this, it is unhealthy. The Pope is only a vicar, a serving minister, and also a sinner. Only on special and rare occasions does he have the charism of infallibility. But sometimes, as history has shown, the Pope has made mistakes, serious mistakes, moral, political … rarely doctrinal, thanks to God. But it is the same situation now. We can tell them to the Pope, with love, and make filial, fraternal admonitions. As a bishop, I have the task of helping the Pope, as colleagues, as in a collegiality. So the Pope is not a king. The Pope cannot say: I am the Church, as Louis XIV said: I am the State! The Church is not the private property of the Pope. He is only an administrator, a vicar.'

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