Unmasking ...

I would steal Monsignor Pope's title, but decided against it.

Nevertheless his recent post, The Masks Are Coming Off is right on target.  Nothing hidden that will not be exposed - so it seems to me the real face of evil is emerging.  Heretofore, many of us were persuaded to see the best intentions in every thing, every one, every movement - even when they directly opposed us for believing in Christ and what the Church teaches regarding faith and morals.

The veil is torn in two.

I have been thinking of this passage from the Passion of Christ,  “And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”

I know there are many levels of meaning in that event, but today, when it seems the Church is in the throes of scandal - the scandal of the cross exposes the truth in a startling way, so it seems to me.  We've seen scandal after scandal exposed, one after another.  Now we see the world we live in, society, culture, politics exposed for what it is, being unmasked, to use Monsignor's analogy.

An abortion bill, similar in many respects to the horrifying bill recently passed in New York, was recently tabled by the Virginia General Assembly. It would have eliminated many of the requirements already in state law for third-trimester abortions. That it was tabled is the only good news.

Most of you have already heard the exchange between Virginia state delegate Todd Gilbert and the bill’s sponsor, delegate Kathy Tran. He asked Tran if her bill would allow a woman who is in labor to request an abortion if a physician certified that the pregnancy would impair her mental health; Tran replied that it would.

About this truly shocking (but honest) admission, delegate Tran afterwards lamented, “I was caught off guard and probably wasn’t as artful in the moment as I could have been,”

“Artful”—In other words, she couldn’t wordsmith quickly enough to cloak the shocking truth that if this bill became law, a woman already in labor could legally have her child killed (with a physician’s approval). - Finish reading here.

The slippery slope.

That term has become cliche, but it is so true.  How does one excuse the lie pro-choice people use when they assure us they want abortions to be 'safe and rare' and only want women to have the 'choice' available to them?  Tran truly exposes the craft of wordsmithing to make something so heinous palatable and acceptable to those who refuse to accept the reality of infanticide.

Since the McCarrick scandal my POV has changed.  How much I felt I could excuse on account of human weakness, or the excuse, that's what gay people do - even when the actions of some, if true, may have actually been criminal.  How easily one can be mislead in this culture, even deceived by evil masquerading as good, or the means to a greater good.  It is mind blowing.  I keep thinking of what our Lord said in the Gospel, "because of the increase of evildoing, the love of many will grow cold."  Warning, "False messiahs and false prophets will arise, and they will perform signs and wonders so great as to deceive, if that were possible, even the elect."

Do not be amazed, [then,] brothers, if the world hates you.

Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.  This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist that, as you heard, is to come, but in fact is already in the world. - 1 John

“We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that wide circles of the American society or wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel. This confrontation lies within the plans of divine Providence; it is trial which the whole Church, and the Polish Church in particular, must take up. It is a trial of not only our nation and the Church, but, in a sense, a test of 2,000 years of culture and Christian civilization with all of its consequences for human dignity, individual rights, human rights and the rights of nations.” - Attributed to St. John Paul II