Posted on 09/14/2025 1:44:23 PM PDT by ebb tide
The world sees the Catholic Church today that is presented by the cafeteria-Catholics in the pews and the false shepherds in Rome, whose words and deeds tell the world that souls do not really need to be Catholic, let alone follow what the Church has always taught. As long as Rome allows this reality to persist, many people who hear the Catholic pro-life message will naturally (but falsely) conclude that the Church’s teaching is no more than a recommendation — if it was truly something God commanded us to follow, they reason, then there would not be so many bishops, priests, and laity opposing it.
One of the most visible works of Catholics in the United States in recent decades has been our role in the pro-life movement. Certainly any person with a properly formed conscience opposes abortion, but Catholics lead the movement and often form the majority of those protesting abortion centers. Even though these protests generally involve no direct attempt to convert souls to the Catholic Faith, this courageous work displays a strength of conviction and fervor that can plant the seeds of conversion for non-Catholics of good will.
But there is a countervailing aspect of how the world sees the Church today: that presented by the cafeteria-Catholics in the pews and the false shepherds in Rome, whose words and deeds tell the world that souls do not really need to be Catholic, let alone follow what the Church has always taught. As long as Rome allows this reality to persist, many people who hear the Catholic pro-life message will naturally (but falsely) conclude that the Church’s teaching is no more than a recommendation — if it was truly something God commanded us to follow, they reason, then there would not be so many bishops, priests, and laity opposing it.
This was not always the case, and it does not need to be the case in the future. If we want to return to a world in which men of good will see the Catholic Church as a moral authority, we should recall what Catholics once believed and how it changed.
Frank Duff Against Protestant Proselytism
In his biography of Frank Duff, the founder of the Legion of Mary, Fr. Robert Bradshaw described Duff’s early efforts to help save souls by counteracting Protestant attempts to proselytize Catholics:
“Because of the great poverty in Dublin at that time, proselytism was rampant. A proselytizing Centre had been set up at 6 1/2 Whitefriars Street. Poor people would be offered a free breakfast on the condition that they took part in a Protestant Service. About 150 poor or destitute people, constrained by their tragic situation, did participate. Early in 1914, Tom McCabe, a great worker for the Church, wrote in a letter to the S.V.P. [St. Vincent de Paul] conference pointing out that something should be done about it. Mr. Lennon, the president of the conference, asked for a volunteer to go along with him to assess the situation. Frank volunteered, and at eight o’clock the following Sunday morning he and Mr. Lennon went to Whitefriars Street and took up their stand on the path opposite the proselytizing Centre and watched the proceedings; they were spellbound.” (pp. 28-29)
Shortly thereafter, Frank Duff helped establish a Catholic breakfast center nearby to satisfy the needs of those who would otherwise be tempted to succumb to the Protestant proselytism. Fr. Bradshaw’s description of Duff’s other efforts to close down the Protestant Centre will no doubt sound familiar to many Catholics who are familiar with the pro-life movement today:
“The Ladies Sodality meeting had just ended in the Carmelite Church. Outside the church doors, the priest was bidding farewell to the women and girls. Then, pointing to a lone figure down the street, he said, ‘That is our local madman.’ The lone figure was Frank Duff. Rosary beads in hand, he was picketing the proselytizing Centre at 6 1/2 Whitefriars Street. Emma Colgan, one of the Society members, was fascinated. She commented, ‘Oh, Father, that’s where you’re wrong. There’s a method in his madness he will succeed in closing down that place yet.’ . . . His method was: he would take his rosary beads in his hand and approach every man and woman entering the Centre, begging them not to do so. He’d give them a little sermon about betraying their religion for a meal and a Protestant service.’” (p. 47)
Rosary beads in hand, Duff was engaging in sidewalk counseling to prevent Catholics in Dublin from putting their souls in jeopardy by entering the Protestant proselytizing Centres. Duff’s efforts ultimately helped close two Protestant Centres but, for our purposes today, a more enduring legacy is the concrete manifestation of how all Catholics should think about the Faith. If we truly believe what the Church has always taught, then we must want to do all we can to bring others to the Church and help them live and die as good Catholics. This is why Frank Duff combatted the Protestant Centres, and why he ultimately founded the Legion of Mary.
A religion that does not want to convince others to belong to it is never going to convince society to change its course. The world needs Catholics who have the strength of Faith and courage that Frank Duff displayed throughout his life.
How the Vatican II Revolution Undermined the Church’s Moral Authority
As Frank Duff was engaging in sidewalk counseling in the early 1900s, he surely would have appreciated the words that Pope Pius XI would later write in his 1928 encyclical on religious unity, Mortalium Animos:
“Let them hear Lactantius crying out: ‘The Catholic Church is alone in keeping the true worship. This is the fount of truth, this the house of Faith, this the temple of God: if any man enter not here, or if any man go forth from it, he is a stranger to the hope of life and salvation. Let none delude himself with obstinate wrangling. For life and salvation are here concerned, which will be lost and entirely destroyed, unless their interests are carefully and assiduously kept in mind.’ Let, therefore, the separated children draw nigh to the Apostolic See, set up in the City which Peter and Paul, the Princes of the Apostles, consecrated by their blood . . . not with the intention and the hope that ‘the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth’ will cast aside the integrity of the faith and tolerate their errors, but, on the contrary, that they themselves submit to its teaching and government.”
This genuinely Catholic teaching has nothing to do with believing that Protestants are insincere or “bad people” — rather, it has everything to do with the recognition that Our Lord established the Catholic Church, and no others, for the salvation of souls. As Frank Duff, Pius XI, and every other properly educated Catholic knew, if we love our Protestant neighbors we must want them to renounce their errors and become Catholic.
Whereas Frank Duff could have used Pius XI’s words from Mortalium Animos to help persuade Catholics to steer clear of the Protestant proselytism Centre, it seems that he would not have been able to employ the following words for the same purpose:
“Moreover, some and even very many of the significant elements and endowments which together go to build up and give life to the Church itself, can exist outside the visible boundaries of the Catholic Church: the written word of God; the life of grace; faith, hope and charity, with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, and visible elements too. All of these, which come from Christ and lead back to Christ, belong by right to the one Church of Christ. The brethren divided from us also use many liturgical actions of the Christian religion. These most certainly can truly engender a life of grace in ways that vary according to the condition of each Church or Community. These liturgical actions must be regarded as capable of giving access to the community of salvation. It follows that the separated Churches and Communities as such, though we believe them to be deficient in some respects, have been by no means deprived of significance and importance in the mystery of salvation. For the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as means of salvation which derive their efficacy from the very fullness of grace and truth entrusted to the Church.”
These words, from Vatican II’s decree on ecumenism, Unitatis Redintegratio, have nearly the exact opposite rhetorical meaning of Pius XI’s words in Mortalium Animos. If Duff had argued along these lines to those Catholics seeking a free breakfast at a Protestant proselytizing Centre, he would have been soothing their consciences and encouraging them to go not only for the free meals but also for what edifying lessons they might learn there.
Anti-life “Catholics" like Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden did not simply emerge out of nowhere — they and many like them have learned from the Vatican II revolution that one no longer needs to follow Church teaching to be a Catholic “in good standing.”
This change in messaging over the past sixty years has had the effect that Pope Pius XI would have predicted: Catholics have decided that they no longer need to be Catholic, and Protestants see little reason to convert. As one manifestation of this, many Catholic parents today see no real reason why their sons or daughters should not marry a Protestant in a Protestant church. Mixed marriages have become more common than vocations in many dioceses. Overall, Catholics have consequently become far more likely to adopt Protestant viewpoints, including with respect to pro-life issues.
As such, it is not a surprise that many Catholics no longer believe what the Church teaches about pro-life issues, such as abortion, contraception, and divorce. Anti-life “Catholics" like Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden did not simply emerge out of nowhere — they and many like them have learned from the Vatican II revolution that one no longer needs to follow Church teaching to be a Catholic “in good standing.” In turn, the proliferation of so many cafeteria-Catholics reinforces the message that we do not really need to follow what the Church has always taught.
A religion that does not want to convince others to belong to it is never going to convince society to change its course. The world needs Catholics who have the strength of Faith and courage that Frank Duff displayed throughout his life. If we can rediscover what made him engage in sidewalk counseling to oppose Protestant efforts to proselytize Catholics, we would soon see that society would improve to the point at which there would no longer be a need to engage in sidewalk counseling outside of abortion centers. If we want to combat the evils afflicting out societies, we must first repel the enemies who have infiltrated our Catholic Church and return to what our favorites saints always believed. Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us!
Ping
It’s hard to know how history will eventually see this episode. Vatican II may come to be seen as an internal reformation of the Catholic Church which went horribly wrong and maybe it will be corrected with an internal counter-reformation later in the 21st century.
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