Only Saints Will Truly Renew
the Church

by Father Andrew B. Horvath, M.A.

     Indeed, only great saints will truly renew Christ’s Church in this 20th Century immoral debauchery. When I use the word "Church" here, I mean Her membership, i.e., clergymen, nuns and laity. As for Her doctrines, they had been contaminated with heresies, legalized abuses, novelties and innovations, set in motion by prayerless and liberal liturgical bureaucrats, who reaped an immense harvest in the field of religious ignorance.

     A "new" church and a "new" religion had arisen against all rules and regulations. According to Ven. Anne Catherine Emmerich, an Augustinian stigmatist, who died in 1824 A.D., this "new" church would not be built by saints and angels; rather, it would be of human origin, and in it would reign nothing but chaos and confusion. Even a child can see how accurately the saint had prophesied.

    The liberal Modernists believe they had ushered in a great renewal of the Church.

     I call the "new" church a "free-wheeling" church, where everything goes. It reminds me of a horse running without a saddle and bridle. No restraints anymore! Do as you please, and believe as you please! But who cares anymore? Lucifer must be hilarious in this era of flagrant disobedience and religious ignorance. Truly, this is an era of diabolical disorientation, when the religiously ignorant go wherever they are led by un- or misinformed clergymen and nuns. The blind are leading the blind, and all of them are falling into the pit of all kinds of errors. "Ignorance of religion," said Pope Benedict XV, "is the source of all calamity." Because of it, according to St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, "Innumerable souls are miserably lost."

     How can young boys and girls become priests or religious if they are religious illiterates? St. Louis Marie de Montfort asked: "Is it possible for a man to love what he does not know?" How can there be vocations if Jesus and His Mother are not known? They have, unfortunately, been cast out of our churches and classrooms by liberal iconoclasts, revisionists and innovators. "Heretics," declared the VII Council of Carthage in 261 A.D., "are antichrists and are adversaries of Christ." They are not Catholic, regardless of what they maintain, if they hold a "single heresy," according to St. Augustine. "Any novelty in faith is a sure mark of heresy" (St. Vincent of Lerins). "The devil is always discovering something novel against the truth" (Pope St. Leo the Great). That means that there are countless agents of Satan in practically all dioceses, parishes, monasteries and convents. How else can we explain all the chaos and confusion we see today in a "church," which is controlled by heretics and apostates?

Week after week, and even daily, they take Him to the whipping post, and scourge Him with their sins, crimes, sacrileges and indifference. Unlike in the olden days, they will not cease whipping Him.

     Should we pray for vocations when our seminaries are replete with theological and moral mishmash — a jumble of human opinions? Many candidates who are ordained are Father La Joyboys, who, like during the Protestant Reformation, discarded the cassock and the habit. How true the words of ex-seminarians who said to me what their rectors said to them: "We don't want holy men here. We want highly educated professionals." Fortunately, however, they don’t last too long. This had been proven again and again. Over 10,000 priests and over 50,000 nuns abandoned their sacred calling within a short period of time.

     The total number of U.S. Catholic seminarians dropped by 2.2% last fall, from 6,383 in 1992 to 6,244 in 1993. The decline stemmed from a sharp drop in the most significant group, i.e., theology students, who are seminarians in their final years of study before ordination. Their numbers declined from 3,178 to 2,915, for a one-year loss of 263 or 8.3%.

     But what can one expect, since the lives of seminarians are not based on the lives of such saints as SS. Anthony Mary Claret and Louis Marie de Montfort? What people mostly see today is a disgrace. An old shoemaker once said to me: "Our priests today look like bums." When priests come out into the sanctuary in civilian clothes in the presence of the congregation, is the gentleman wrong in his judgment? But he is not alone in thinking that way. One day, as I was leaving the church after Holy Mass, a man and a woman said to me: "I saw no Holiness there." They referred to the "President of the Assembly." I wonder what his wardrobe costs. When I substituted for priests, I saw rather expensive wardrobes.

     But what about the modern nuns today? How expensive are their wardrobes, cosmetics and earrings? Many of them, especially the more attractive, look like glorified secretaries to business executives. I wonder what their lifestyle is like. They have cars now, and, in civilian clothes, they can go almost anywhere with anyone they care to go with. I'm not imagining this, for you know it as well as I do.

     If I’m critical, so be it. Our Lady of La Salette, France, prophesied in 1846 that Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, would be unleashed from hell. The Faith would be lost little by little, even in souls consecrated to God. They would blind them in such a way that, unless they’d be blessed with a special grace, they would take on the spirit of these fallen angels of hell. Several religious institutions would lose all Faith, and would cause the loss of many souls. Holy places would be desecrated. In convents, the flowers of the Church (nuns) would decompose, as the devil would make himself the king of all hearts.

     Haven’t the nuns, like priests who cast aside the cassock, cast aside the habit? Our Lady warned religious communities to be on guard against the people they receive, for the devil would resort to all his evil tricks to introduce sinners into religious orders, for sorder and the love of carnal pleasures would be spread all over the earth.

     In 1634, Our Lady of Quito, Ecuador, had prophesied that children would lose their innocence. Vocations would be a disaster. Priests, having abandoned God’s path of life and his zeal, would abandon their sacred responsibilities. Did they not already abandon them to unordained ministers? I never dreamt I’d see females distributing Holy Communion, and having access to the tabernacle.

     Heresies would spread upon the earth toward the end of the 19th Century and for the greater part of the 20th Century. People would care little for the things of God. Satan would rule over the earth because of faithless men. What about our "new" churchmen today? Money is their god they worship.

     Does this appear gloomy and hopeless? Some bishops and priests claim that the Church is much alive. Everybody is now hilarious, somewhat like the pagan soldiers and bystanders on Mt. Calvary. They did not understand who was dying on the cross. But times have not changed since then. When Christ’s Body had been taken down from the cross, It was wrapped in clean linens but today when His Body is snatched by soiled hands of presumptuous ruffians, there is no sign of reverence. Indeed, there is no manifestation of remorse of conscience on the part of those who receive the All-Pure Christ sacrilegiously.

     Jesus could say to them what He said on Mt. Calvary: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" "For their own malice blinded them" (Wisdom 2:21). Because of their wickedness, the light had been taken away from them, as we read in the Book of Job (38:15).

     According to God's words to St. Catherine of Siena, "good and holy pastors" will reform His Church, even if it has to be done by force. The evils in our churches today prevail because of "bad pastors", according to God’s revelation to the saint. They have a poor track record for correcting. This holds especially for bishops today. I express myself quite emphatically concerning such pastors. I was not ordained yesterday. I’m 80 years old, and have been in the priesthood for nigh onto 52 years.

     However, I do not despair, for I sincerely believe that God’s Church will be rejuvenated in His time by great apostles of the "last times", who will cleanse the Church from all theological and immoral spittle.

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