Stephen Hand of Traditional Catholic Reflections and Reports on Apostasy

The Great Apostasy

St. Francis de Sales: "The revolt and separation must come…the Sacrifice shall cease and…the Son of Man shall hardly find faith on earth…All these passages are understood of the affliction which Antichrist shall cause in the Church…But the Church… shall not fail, and shall be fed and preserved amidst the deserts and solitudes to which She shall retire, as the Scripture says, (Apoc. Ch. 12),” ---The Catholic Controversy

St. Alphonsus Ligouri: “It is true [the Mass] will cease on earth at the time of Antichrist: the Sacrifice of the Mass is to be suspended…according to the prophecy of Daniel, (Dan. 12:11).” St. Alphonsus comforts Christ's scattered flock: “the Son of God, Eternal Priest, will always continue to offer Himself to God, the Father, in Heaven as an Eternal Sacrifice.” ---The Holy Eucharist

Cardinal Manning: “The Holy Fathers who have written upon the subject of Antichrist and the prophecies of Daniel — all of them unanimously — say that in the latter end of the world, during the reign of Antichrist, the Holy Sacrifice of the altar will cease.”--- The Present Crisis of the Holy See

St. Bernard: "We have seen 'the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place,’ (Matt. 34:15)…He has seated himself in the Chair of Peter. The holy place he covets, not for its holiness, but for its height. He has, I say, got possession of the holy place [but] not through the merit of his life. The election whereof he boasts is but a cloak for his malice. To call it an election at all is an impudent lie.” --Rev. Albert J. Luddy, The Life and Teachings of St. Bernard.

St. Jerome: "The abomination of desolation can be taken to mean as well every perverted doctrine. When we see such a thing stand in the holy place, that is in the Church and pretend it is God, we must flee…” --Breviary Lesson for the 24th and Last Sunday after Pentecost

Ven. Anne Catherine Emmerich: "I had another vision of the great tribulation. It seems to me that a concession was demanded from the clergy which could not be granted. I saw many older priests, especially one, who wept bitterly. A few younger ones were also weeping. But others, and the lukewarm among them, readily did what was demanded. It was as if people were splitting into two camps."

"I saw that many pastors allowed themselves to be taken up with ideas that were dangerous to the Church. They were building a great, strange, and extravagant Church. Everyone was to be admitted in it in order to be united and have equal rights: Protestants, Catholics, sects of every description. Such was to be the new Church ... But God had other designs."

"I saw again the strange big church that was being built there in Rome. There was nothing holy in it...I saw again the new and odd-looking church which they were trying to build. There was nothing holy about it ... People were kneading bread in the crypt below ... but it would not rise, nor did they receive the body of our Lord, but only bread. Those who were in error, through no fault of their own, and who piously and ardently longed for the Body of Jesus were spiritually consoled, but not by their communion."---The Life of Anne Catherine Emmerich, by Very Rev. Carl E. Schmoger, C.SS.R, Vol. ii, pages, pages 292-29

“The 'abomination of desolation' has been wrought in many Catholic churches by heretics and apostates who have broken altars, scattered relics of martyrs and desecrated the Blessed Sacrament. At the time of the French Revolution a lewd woman was seated upon the altar of the cathedral in Paris and worshiped as the goddess of reason. Such things but faintly foreshadow the abominations that will desecrate churches in those sorrowful days when Antichrist will seat himself at the altar to be adored as God,” (Rev. E.S. Berry, “The Apocalypse of St. John,” 1906)

To say the events HERE... are sad is to say the very least. One could think much more.

When the apostasy is universal, only the universal pastor can confront it and cleanse Christ's Church. If he does not, but allows heresies to flourish, well...and the Church in consequence shatters into remnants of believers holding to sacred tradition and scripture, changing nothing, as St. Vincent of Lerins admonished. Only the Church of Christ can know this pain and universal an apostasy, foretold long ago.

--Stephen Hand