The Mystical Passion of the Church: Dreadful Reality vs. Delusive Counterfeit

“Judge not according to the appearance…” (Jn 7:24)

The Mystical Passion of the Church:
Dreadful Reality vs. Delusive Counterfeit

Before our Blessed Lord ascended into Heaven to sit at the Right Hand of the Father until His return in glory, He warned His disciples:

Take heed that no man seduce you: For many will come in my name saying, I am Christ: and they will seduce many….

And many false prophets shall rise, and shall seduce many. And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold. But he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom, shall be preached in the whole world, for a testimony to all nations, and then shall the consummation come.

When therefore you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place: he that readeth let him understand. Then they that are in Judea, let them flee to the mountains: And he that is on the housetop, let him not come down to take any thing out of his house: And he that is in the field, let him not go back to take his coat. And woe to them that are with child, and that give suck in those days. But pray that your flight be not in the winter, or on the sabbath. For there shall be then great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be. And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved: but for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened.

Then if any man shall say to you: Lo here is Christ, or there, do not believe him. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect. Behold I have told it to you, beforehand.

If therefore they shall say to you: Behold he is in the desert, go ye not out: Behold he is in the closets, believe it not. For as lightning cometh out of the east, and appeareth even into the west: so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Wheresoever the body shall be, there shall the eagles also be gathered together.

And immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be moved: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all tribes of the earth mourn: and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with much power and majesty.

(Matthew 24:4-5,11-30)

These days there is a lot of talk about a ‘Passion of the Church’, not only by Sedevacantists but also by recognize-and-resist traditionalists and even conservative Novus Ordos, and for good reason.

The concept of a Passion of the Mystical Body of Christ was explicitly taught by Pope Pius XII in his encyclical letter on the Church:

From the outset it should be noted that the society established by the Redeemer of the human race resembles its divine Founder who was persecuted, calumniated and tortured by those very men whom He had undertaken to save. We do not deny, rather from a heart filled with gratitude to God We admit, that even in our turbulent times there are many who, though outside the fold of Jesus Christ, look to the Church as the only haven of salvation; but We are also aware that the Church of God not only is despised and hated maliciously by those who shut their eyes to the light of Christian wisdom and miserably return to the teachings, customs and practices of ancient paganism, but is ignored, neglected, and even at times looked upon as irksome by many Christians who are allured by specious error or caught in the meshes of the world’s corruption.

(Pope Pius XII, Encyclical Mystici Corporis, n. 3)

The Pope here is clearly and rightly drawing an analogy between the Catholic Church and the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as the Son of God was persecuted and had to endure the greatest sufferings, so it must be for the Church, His Mystical Body, as St. Paul indicated: “Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for his body, which is the church” (Col 1:24). In other words, like her Divine Lord, the Church is the victim of the Passion, not the perpetrator. She suffers the Passion; she does not inflict it.

Yet, who or what is responsible for this great apostasy currently afflicting souls under the banner of Catholicism? It is the ‘Popes’ after Pius XII (i.e. since 1958) and the strange new ‘Conciliar Church’ they have set up!

If we want to look for a label Divine Revelation ascribes to the power that perennially persecutes the Church, there is one that stands out: It is the power and spirit of Antichrist. St. John the Apostle warned the faithful directly: “…Antichrist cometh, even now there are become many Antichrists: whereby we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us.…” (1 Jn 2:18-19).

It is interesting that St. John states that “they went out from us”, i.e. they were once part of the True Church but then defected into heresy or apostasy. And St. Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, pointed out that this persecuting power is the “operation of error” that God would send “to believe lying: that all may be judged who have not believed the truth, but have consented to iniquity” (2 Thess 2:10-11).

Is it too difficult to see that the “operation of error” is the false Vatican II Church, which seeks to deceive, if it were possible, even the elect (cf. Mt 24:24)? Certainly, the “operation of error” can never be the true Catholic Church herself, for she is supernaturally assisted by God and miraculously preserved by Him, for His glory and the salvation of souls:

In fact, only a miracle of that divine power could preserve the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, from blemish in the holiness of Her doctrine, law, and end in the midst of the flood of corruption and lapses of her members. Her doctrine, law and end have produced an abundant harvest. The faith and holiness of her children have brought forth the most salutary fruits. Here is another proof of her divine life: in spite of a great number of pernicious opinions and great variety of errors (as well as the vast army of rebels) the Church remains immutable and constant, “as the pillar and foundation of truth”, in professing one identical doctrine, in receiving the same Sacraments, in her divine constitution, government, and morality….

(Pope St. Pius X, Encyclical Editae Saepe, n. 8; underlining added.)

Our Blessed Lord has given His Church this protection especially through one man — one office — that He endowed with an unfailing Faith: the Pope (cf. Lk 22:32-32; Mt 16:18). He is the Vicar of Christ, the successor of St. Peter, and his faith “so far neither has failed, nor up to the end will fail” (Pope St. Leo IX, Apostolic Letter In Terra Pax; Denz. 351).

Thus it is precisely through her true Popes that the Church is safely guarded from error and heresy until the end of time:

From these events men should realize that all attempts to overthrow the “House of God” are in vain. For this is the Church founded on Peter, “Rock,” not merely in name but in truth. Against this “the gates of hell will not prevail” [Mt 16:18] “for it is founded on a rock” [Mt 7:25; Lk 6:48]. There has never been an enemy of the Christian religion who was not simultaneously at wicked war with the See of Peter, since while this See remained strong the survival of the Christian religion was assured. As St. Irenaeus proclaims openly to all, “by the order and succession of the Roman pontiffs the tradition from the Apostles in the Church and the proclamation of the truth has come down to us. And this is the fullest demonstration that it is the one and the same life-giving faith which has been preserved in the Church until now since the time of the Apostles and has been handed on in truth” [Adversus haereses, bk. 3, chap. 3].

(Pope Pius VII, Encyclical Diu Satis, n. 6; underlining added.)

Pope Leo XII made clear that human weakness cannot vitiate Christ’s promises in a true Pope, that “his high rank does not fail even in an unworthy heir” (Encyclical Ubi Primum, n. 22).

Pope Leo XIII summed it up succinctly when he taught that “the strong and effective instrument of salvation is none other than the Roman Pontificate” (Allocution for the 25th Anniversary of his Election, Feb. 20, 1903; excerpted in Papal Teachings: The Church, n. 653).

The traditional Catholic teaching, then, is that the Pope is the guarantor of orthodoxy, and therefore he can never be the true Faith’s ruin!

If, therefore, the Catholic Church is undergoing her Passion today — and there can be no doubt that this is so — then the perpetrator is most definitely not a true Pope but an impostor! A true Pope will be the main victim of the persecution, not its chief protagonist! The Pope is the Vicar of Jesus Christ, not of Caiphas or Judas Iscariot!

Just as our Blessed Lord died as a result of His Sacred Passion, only to rise again gloriously a few days later, so it would seem reasonable that in the Passion of the Mystical Body, the Pope is taken away for a short time with frightful consequences: “Then Jesus said to them: All you shall be scandalized in me this night. For it is written: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be dispersed” (Mt 26:31; cf. Zac 13:7).

That the Pope himself would be “taken out of the way” for a while was prophesied in 2 Thess 2:3-7:

Let no man deceive you by any means, for unless there come a revolt first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition who opposeth, and is lifted up above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself as if he were God. Remember you not, that when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now you know what withholdeth, that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity already worketh; only that he who now holdeth, do hold, until he be taken out of the way.

In 1861, Cardinal Henry Edward Manning explained at length what Catholic Tradition says about the end of days, about the persecution of the Church, about the Great Apostasy, and about the role of the Pope on the one hand and that of the Antichrist on the other. Readers who have not already done so are strongly encouraged to read the post we have published presenting salient excerpts of Cardinal Manning’s lectures on this topic:

The Persecution and ‘Death’ of the Church: The Testimony of Scripture and Tradition

The Passion of the Church is a most intriguing topic, but it is important to understand what it is and isn’t, so we are not misled, in accordance with St. Paul’s warning: “Let no man deceive you by any means…” (2 Th 2:3).

To help illustrate the essential difference between an orthodox and an unorthodox view of the ‘Mystical Passion’ of the Church, we present the following overviews:

The genuine Passion of the Church (compatible with Catholic doctrine)

the chief shepherd is struck, the sheep are scattered
the Mystical Body is persecuted by its enemies, by “false apostles … deceitful workmen, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ” (2 Cor 11:13), and “by them that say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan” (Apoc 2:9)
Jesus Christ is persecuted in His Vicar
the faithful are thrown into great confusion
many abandon the Faith because they are scandalized by what has happened
Catholics are mocked and taunted for holding on to the true Faith
the canonically public celebration of the Holy Sacrifice has ceased, and the Abomination of Desolation stands in the holy place (cf. Dan 8:11-12; 9:27; Mt 24:15)
the remnant faithful “flee to the mountains” (Mt 24:16) to preserve the Faith and the sacraments
the Vicar of Christ is somehow “taken out of the way” (2 Thess 2:7)
an “operation of error” (2 Thess 2:10) has the potential “to seduce (if it were possible) even the elect” (Mk 13:22)
the false prophets of the operation of error try to lure the remaining Catholics with false miracles (cf. Mt 24:23-24)
the total number of true believers in the world is relatively small
the remnant faithful are perplexed — there are countless questions and no one has all the answers
all seems lost and hopeless, but isn’t

The counterfeit Passion of the Church (contradicts Catholic doctrine)

the Vicar of Christ persecutes the faithful
the Pope is no longer the proximate rule of Faith
the Church has abandoned her mission and no longer actively seeks to make converts
the Church introduces sacrilegious liturgical/sacramental rites, harmful laws, and false teachings
the Church has defected from the Faith and is no longer a reliable guide to salvation
the Ark of Salvation has become the Ark of Damnation
Jesus Christ is persecuted by His Vicar
there is a higher authority in the Church than the Pope to which the faithful can and must turn when the Pope teaches poisonous errors
individual bishops (usually retired, or mere auxiliaries) habitually correct the Pope and teach contrary to him, thereby playing ‘substitute Pope’ to whom the faithful should adhere instead of the Pope
individual Catholics must decide which bloggers, YouTubers, journalists, or lawyers they will listen to who correct the Pope and presume to guide ‘true Catholics’ so they know what they can and can’t accept from the Holy See
the Pope canonizes as saints public sinners and other manifestly unworthy candidates, decreeing they are to be venerated by the whole Church
the Vicar of Christ is also the Vicar of Antichrist
papal teachings and decrees have no force if a Canadian beard oil salesman on YouTube disagrees
liturgical laws are subject to approval by retired philosophy professor from United States
Catholic teaching on the papal magisterium is a “painful historical embarrassment” that no longer applies
many timeless Catholic teachings are suddenly void because some have privately decided, against the agreement of the hierarchy, that there is now an “emergency situation”
the Church is treated as if she were merely a human institution and could fail and be corrupted like anything else that is the work of human hands
long-term individual Catholic resistance/disobedience to the hierarchy, to the teachings and laws of the Church, is proposed as the solution

In other words: The true Passion of the Church consists of Catholics, including the Pope, being betrayed, persecuted, humiliated, scandalized, scourged, calumniated, tortured, and/or killed by the enemies of Christ, of His Church, and of His Vicar. The false Passion of the Church would have the Church herself defect and poison and persecute her own children, with the ‘Pope’ leading the charge! The Church would thus have been derailed from her divine mission, and Christ’s promises would have been made void. That is blasphemy and most certainly not compatible with traditional Catholic doctrine!

For more information about the traditional Catholic position on the signs that precede the end of the world and our Lord’s Second Coming, and for content related to that, the following links provide helpful resources:

There is no doubt that what the Catholic Church is undergoing at the moment is nothing short of her Mystical Passion. However, this does not mean that we can use this concept to infringe upon Catholic dogma or doctrine as it was believed and taught before the false Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).

In other words, we cannot appeal to an ecclesiastical passion to justify contradictions, to allow us to hold unorthodox ideas, or to dismiss the pre-Vatican II magisterium. Whatever the true nature of the Church’s Passion may be, it certainly cannot be anything that would contradict perennial Catholic doctrine.

Catholics can accept mystery, but we cannot accept contradiction.

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The Mystical Passion of the Church: Dreadful Reality vs. Delusive Counterfeit