On today’s feast of the Immaculate Heart of Our Lady, we share some encouraging whispers from Europe:

Apparently several hierarchs are experiencing a growing discontent with The Way Things Are, perhaps anticipating a dire trajectory for the upcoming Synod. As it happens, one WOR contributor has lately seen a book-length manuscript, quietly circulating among a number of Roman prelates and collaborators at present. The thing is set to appear some time before Christmas as a kind of Catholic manifesto — and, believe it or not, it is actually Catholic in content.

In fact, the text reads like a book-length counterscript to the insanities increasingly espoused at the Vatican. It directly engages just about every “hot-button” issue at large: religious liberty, ecumenism, collegiality, synodality, globalism, deathvaxxes, pluralism, women’s ordination, Islam, evolution, transhumanism (is this even a thing?), papal error, Latin Mass, communism, bogus forms of prayer, gender-nonsense, pacha-nonsense, sodo-nonsense, freemasonry, modernism, and enough other “isms” to pack a railway car… while systematically explaining the True Faith with all flags flying.

A few brief excerpts are below, in no particular order:

Is Christ merely one “privileged way” to God, among many other possible ways?
No. Such a notion expresses religious indifferentism, the belief that all religions are channels of grace, holiness, and salvation, even if some are more “efficacious” than others. This rejects the unity of the divine plan, insults our Redeemer, and contradicts His most solemn words: “No man comes to the Father except through Me” (Jn 14:6), “I am the way” (see Jn 14:6), and “there is no other name given under heaven whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Is the public normalization of sexual sin a clear mark of a decaying civilization? 
Yes. As demonstrated many times throughout history, the society that normalizes any sexual sin — especially sodomy — is on the way to collective destruction. 

What of Catholics who are publicly known to commit such sins?
Catholics engaged in open adultery, cohabitation, pornography, homosexual lifestyle, or political activism for such causes (e.g., the so-called “LGBTQ+ agenda”), must be regarded as public sinners, and until they have repented and been reconciled to the Church, they must be denied Holy Communion by any minister of the sacrament (see Mt 18:17).

Could the traditional Roman Rite ever be legitimately forbidden for the entire Church?
No. It rests upon divine, apostolic, and ancient pontifical usage, and bears the canonical force of immemorial custom; it can never be abrogated or forbidden.

Must we comply with civil mandates to undergo objectionable medical procedures?
No. “Public magistrates have no direct power over the bodies of their subjects,” and because the State exists for the welfare of citizens, “where no crime has taken place, … [it] can never directly harm or tamper with the integrity of the body.” … Such initiatives are a form of medical violence and thus of tyranny. They may be justly opposed by citizens as such.

What of the novel claim that our “gender” may not correspond to our biological sex? 
This error of gender ideology or gender theory denies the reality of the two sexes and replaces it with unlimited private choice, claiming that one’s inner thoughts and feelings or merely social and educational conditioning constitute the “gender” of the “true self” — a kind of Gnostic and ultimately Satanic dualism that must be rejected. 

Are political systems that deny the right to private property evil in themselves?
Yes. Be it named socialism, communism, or otherwise, any system that denies the basic right to property “is in opposition both to reason and to divine revelation” and “intrinsically perverse.”

What emerging geopolitical movements are especially opposed to subsidiarity?
1. Globalism, which advocates for open borders and the dissolution of individual States; 2. Technocracy, which would subjugate private rights and liberties through socioeconomic systems entirely dependent on technological gateways controlled by a small number. 

What’s this? A clear, current, Catholic book from the hierarchy? Dare we hope?

Of course, no book can solve the Vatican Nightmare, regardless of how many cardinals and bishops are behind it. More public and canonical actions are needed. Perhaps there are plans for such. (Again, dare we hope?)

Even so, such a text will be strong medicine — and far more importantly, a monument. At this point, any truly Catholic manifesto from the living episcopatus will enter history as one of those “stubborn artifacts” for posterity. Like the Tome of Leo, the thing itself will give enduring and public testimony to one critical dogmatic fact: Christ’s doctrine abides in the Catholic hierarchy, regardless of how vigorously preached or widely followed by the same.

Today, when most of the Church’s earthly institutions are in the hands of her enemies, this could be our century’s Hard Evidence that she remains indefectible. And, who knows? Some apostolic zeal may follow.

Either way, an ecclesiastical kerfuffle seems likely, Deo gratias. Far worse for souls, if things are allowed to continue like this. Will the real Catholic doctrine please stand up?

May the Immaculate Heart soon triumph…

…and Bravo the Restoration!