It’s Time to End the Church’s Ravening Wolves Problem

When the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to the children of Fatima over one hundred years ago, there were many problems in the world, but rampant heresy within the Church was not one of them. Whereas today almost the entire Church hierarchy has at least tacitly accepted the proliferation of the most baneful lies to ever be preached from Catholic pulpits — that all Protestant religions please God; that hell might be empty; and that all souls may go to heaven — Our Lady of Fatima appeared at a time when Catholics knew that they must be good Catholics to save their souls.

At that time, Catholics who loved God and their neighbors tried to encourage each other to always consider the “four last things”: death, judgment, hell, and heaven. A brief excerpt from Fr. Martin von Cochen’s 1899 book The Four Last Things emphasizes why we must live our lives with our last end in mind:

“How many are now in Hell, who for a time were remarkable for their piety and virtue, but who gradually grew careless in the service of God, and finally fell into mortal sin and died without having become reconciled with God. Even the great St. Teresa was in danger of damnation, for God showed her the place destined for her in Hell, if she did not give up certain faults.”

If even pious Catholics can fall into sin and go to hell where they will suffer eternal torments, we can see why the Church always sought to encourage souls to stay close to the sacraments and far from occasions of sin.

We can trace the Church’s teachings on this all-important matter to the Sermon on the Mount, among many other sections of the New Testament:

“For I tell you, that unless your justice abound more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20)

“And if thy right eye scandalize thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee, for it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than that thy whole body be cast into hell.” (Matthew 5:29)

“Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate and strait is the way that leadeth to life and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14)

“Not every one that saith to me Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doth the will of My Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: Lord, Lord, have not we prophesied in Thy name, and cast out demons in Thy name, and done many miracles in Thy name? And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.” (Matthew 7: 21-23)

These words of Our Lord leave no room for doubt: those who claim to follow Christ will go to hell if they do not do the will of God.

But Satan and the proponents of the New World Order are delighted when the ravening wolves succeed in scandalizing souls.

Even St. Paul — to whom many Protestants look to for the mistaken proposition that men are saved solely by faith without works — makes it clear that Christians can lose their souls:

“But I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway.” (1 Corinthians 9:27)

The great saint knew that he himself could lose his soul unless he chastised his body to bring it into subjection. As he wrote to the Philippians, “With fear and trembling work out your salvation” (Philippians 2:12). What would there be to fear if merely acknowledging Christ as the Savior was sufficient for salvation? There would obviously be even less reason to fear if everyone was saved regardless of religion.

Although these teachings are abundantly clear, Jesus knew that Satan and his followers would try to persuade Christians to misunderstand or ignore them. Thus, in the midst of the Sermon on the Mount warnings about how difficult it is to reach heaven, He said:

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. By their fruits you shall know them.” (Matthew 7:15-16)

And of course the ravening wolves are full of malice, even though they appear in sheep’s clothing.

In his commentary on this passage, Fr. Cornelius a Lapide (1567-1637) wrote:

“False prophets, therefore, are false teachers, whether they be heretics, or gentiles and pagans, or any other persons who draw us from the narrow and right path into the broad path that leads astray; for this reason they are like wolves that tear and devour sheep.”

Therefore, anyone who claims to be Catholic and encourages souls to abandon the narrow path that leads to heaven is a “ravening wolf.” These ravening wolves will “come to you in the clothing of sheep.” Writing over three centuries ago, Fr. a Lapide provided a description of these wolves that sounds tragically familiar today:

“Now the sheep’s clothing which these wolves put on are meant to cancel and veil their errors and heresies, first under the plea of liberty of conscience; 2. By quoting texts of scripture that appear to favor their heresies; 3. Under the pretext of reforming the morals of the Church, especially those of the clergy and ecclesiastics; 4. By the simulation of meekness, simplicity, and piety; 5. By soft speeches, and garrulous eloquence by which they cover their wolfish ferocity and cleverly insinuate themselves into the minds of their hearers, so as to infect and destroy them then with their errors, and to empty their purses and devour their riches.”

This is an accurate description of the men who ushered the unholy Spirit of Vatican II into the Church and have used it to convince so many Catholics that the path to heaven is now so broad that one can scarcely leave it.

A man who makes such a wager with his own soul is a fool; one who makes the wager with the souls of the hundreds, thousands, or millions of souls entrusted to him is an absolute monster.

Lest we have any confusion on the matter, Our Lord also left us with a clear test: “by their fruits you shall know them.” As it turns out, we have a simple natural experiment with which to evaluate the fruits of Vatican II: we can easily see the different fruits produced by those who have maintained tradition and those who have chased the novelties that oppose the words of Christ. Tradition has flourished, producing glorious fruits; novelty has floundered, producing grotesque fruits. Only the willfully blind can miss this.

Who benefits from the wolves’ “merciful” attempts to broaden the path to heaven? As a matter of simple logic, we can see that the vast majority of Catholics and potential-Catholics are more likely to shun the Church’s teachings on salvation if they believe the ravening wolves who try to convince us that the way to heaven is broad. The poor soul who is brought to doubt what Our Lord said and what the Church always taught may experience fleeting relief at the prospect of not having to abide by God’s will, but he or she can never find peace from the resulting crisis of conscience. The Church will also suffer through the loss of members and weakened Faith of those who remain. But Satan and the proponents of the New World Order are delighted when the ravening wolves succeed in scandalizing souls. It is no mere coincidence that the Catholics who ardently seek to diminish Christ’s teaching on salvation are the same ones who fervently seek to advance the objectives of the New World Order.

And of course the ravening wolves are full of malice, even though they appear in sheep’s clothing. They deliberately propagate lies and distort the words of Christ and His Church, thereby abusing their positions of authority to promote a religion that fundamentally opposes the one they claim to represent. They know that if they are wrong in their heretical views they will lose their own souls and likely cause those who follow them to lose theirs as well. Nonetheless, they wantonly make this wager, caring little that the price of losing will be borne by those who trusted them to simply transmit the Faith as it had always been transmitted. A man who makes such a wager with his own soul is a fool; one who makes the wager with the souls of the hundreds, thousands, or millions of souls entrusted to him is an absolute monster.

In almost any other field of human endeavors, men who flagrantly betray the central tenets of their profession, to the detriment of those they are tasked with serving, would be publicly excoriated and likely imprisoned.

So why is it that the ravening wolves find almost no opposition within the Church as they devour innocent souls? Is it because we cannot in charity condemn members of the Church hierarchy? No, we know quite well, for instance, that we can condemn those who have contributed to the grave crisis of sexual abuse within the Church. Even Cardinals, such as Mr. Theodore McCarrick, have been publicly disgraced for their horrendous crimes.

Perhaps, then, the argument is that it is legitimate to punish and oppose those who commit crimes but not those who lead souls to hell through their corruption of the Faith? But what crimes could possibly cause more widespread devastation than the ones committed by the popes, bishops, and priests to lead souls to believe they can despise the truths of the Catholic Church and still go to heaven? The soul is worth more than the body: “And fear ye not them that kill the body, and yet are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him that can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). Moreover, those who lose the Faith are much more prone to fall into the grave sins of the flesh that we freely punish. As such, the ravening wolves indirectly encourage every other sin we see committed by Catholics.

Thus, upon a moment’s reflection, we should realize that good Catholics have a duty to warn against these ravening wolves, especially when we see the damage to souls they have caused. We would not have Bishop Robert Barron and Francis telling us today that hell might be empty, and all souls saved, if John Paul II had not been championed for saying the same things (albeit less openly) during the decades of his pontificate. Indeed, his Prayer Meeting at Assisi remains one of the greatest (false) signs from these liberals that all paths lead to heaven. And we would not have Fr James Martin, S.J. and the Lavender Mafia within the Church if the ravening wolves had not convinced so many souls that all paths lead to heaven.

There can be no triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, or period of peace, until the ravening wolves are expelled from the Church.

If we want to understand our duties to stop the ravening wolves within the Church, we can consider how reasonable people would react to similar offenses in the secular world. In almost any other field of human endeavors, men who flagrantly betray the central tenets of their profession, to the detriment of those they are tasked with serving, would be publicly excoriated and likely imprisoned. Think of a doctor who intentionally gave a patient a placebo instead of a life-saving cure; or an engineer who purposely included faulty materials in the construction of an airplane; or the president of a company who sabotaged his company’s performance upon receiving bribes from a competitor; or a military general who gave away the country’s costly arsenal and vital secrets to the enemy. In all of these cases, the villain in question could not begin to cause as much damage as the ravening wolves within the Church. And yet when it happens in the Church we heap accolades and honors upon the offenders, to the detriment of souls and delight of Satan.

We should humbly acknowledge that the Church and world are in this great crisis because “good Catholics” have showed far too much reticence when faced with the ravening wolves. They allowed their sheep to be devoured because they felt it was improper to denounce those with an insatiable taste for the blood of innocents. Oftentimes they reserved their “righteous anger” for denouncing those who openly resisted the innovations of Vatican II. The world is in such desperate need of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary today because good Catholics have let the wolves roam freely within the Church.

But now is the time for cowardice to give way to virtuous defense of Catholic truth. There can be no triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, or period of peace, until the ravening wolves are expelled from the Church. We who are not the pope cannot excommunicate heretics, but charity demands that we expose their fraudulent lies and hypocrisy to impede their work of leading souls to hell.

In this regard, we should heed the words of St. Pius X from his December 13, 1908 beatification of Joan of Arc:

“In our days more than ever the main strength of evil men is the cowardice and weakness of those who are good, and all the backbone of the kingdom of Satan lies in the weakness of Christians. Oh! if I were allowed, as the prophet Zechariah did in spirit, to ask the divine Redeemer: what are these wounds in the middle of your hands? The answer would not be doubtful: these have been given to me in the house of those who loved me; given by my friends, who have done nothing to defend me and who in every meeting have become accomplices of my opponents.”

We who are not the pope cannot excommunicate heretics, but charity demands that we expose their fraudulent lies and hypocrisy to impede their work of leading souls to hell.

Jesus wants us to be meek and humble of heart (Matthew 11:29), but shepherds who “meekly” allow their flocks to be devoured by the ravening wolves are cowards, not saints. If we cannot at least attempt to defend the central truths of the Catholic Faith under attack — many of which are clearly set forth in the Sermon on the Mount — how can we be worthy of God’s intercession to spare us from the hell on earth the globalists intend for us?

As we await God’s response to Francis’s “consecration of Russia and Ukraine,” we can do our part to prepare the way for the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary by resolving to never be weak or cowardly in the face of the ravening wolves. These wolves, with their filthy lies, are among the worst villains alive today and closest allies of Satan. Such men do not deserve our dollars or adulation — the greatest service we can render to the Church in their regard is to make it known that they are precisely the ravening wolves about which Jesus warned. If they convert, they can save their own souls; whether or not they convert, though, we must at least do all in our power to stop them from sending others to hell at the bidding of the Satan and his globalists.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!

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