Evangelical Questions About the Crisis in the Catholic Church

A video chronology of the decline of the Catholic Church.

Living in the Ozark Mountains, deep within the Bible Belt, I am immersed in a Baptist/Pentecostal (Evangelical) culture that is, for the most part, ignorant about the Catholic Church and what’s going on therein. The Catholic population of the Ozarks is between 3% and 6%, depending on the location, and you won’t find Catholic churches outside of cities and large towns. Usually, a large town in the Ozarks (population > 4k) will have one Catholic church, and this one parish will service not only all the Catholics in that entire down, but all the Catholics in the surrounding rural areas for miles in every direction. The Ozarks doesn’t have any large cities, but it does have a few mid-size cities, and each of these will have approximately half a dozen Catholic parishes or less.

As a result of this demographic reality, most Evangelicals in the Ozarks think Catholicism is a rather small “denomination” which is comparable to the size of the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses in the same area. Most Evangelicals are shocked when I tell them that outside of the American Bible Belt, the Catholic Church is HUGE, and is not a “denomination” at all, but rather the largest Christian Church in the world, with 1.3 billion members — more than half the population of all Christians on planet Earth. They usually don’t believe me. Such news just isn’t consistent with the reality they see around them every day. I remember one time I said this to a Baptist coworker. He said “Riiiiight!” as he chuckled a little, then he stopped and followed with “Oh, you’re serious. Well, I don’t know about that Shane… It seems like a pretty tall tale to me.“

However, Evangelicals in the Ozarks do own televisions, computers, smart phones and radios. They do hear the news, and the news they’ve been hearing about the Catholic Church lately isn’t good. Because I’m a fairly public Catholic, meaning that I blog and am fairly active in my local parish, many local Evangelicals see me as their go-to-guy for all things Catholic. As a result, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the crisis in the Catholic Church for almost a year now. I’ve decided to record my answers here for the benefit of my readers. The following are not the only answers, and they may not be the best answers, but they are my answers…

What on earth is going on in the Catholic Church?

The Catholic Church is in the throes of a major crisis that began over a century ago, rose to the mainstream in the 1950s — 1990s, and is now coming to its conclusion, which is the complete ruin of the Catholic Church as we know it. The crisis is threefold: spiritual, moral and liturgical. All three factors are intimately woven together and inseparable

What is this crisis?

The crisis began in the middle 1800s as Liberalism, or a general lack of faith in the supernatural. It continued into the early 1900s as Modernism, which seeks to reinterpret Catholic teaching in the light of philosophical, historical, and psychological theories that call for freedom of conscience as the final arbiter of good and evil. This all began in the late 19th to early 20th centuries, and was promoted by the Freemasons primarily in Europe, and to a lesser degree in North America. This, however, was exacerbated in the 1930s — 1940s by the infiltration of Marxist moles into the priesthood, planted by communist agents over the course of thirty years. (This was uncovered by the testimony of Bella Dodd and others during the McCarthy hearings in the 1950s.) Many of these Marxist moles were promoted to the level of bishop by the 1960s. All three infiltrators (Liberals, Modernists and Marxists) worked together during the 20th century to undermine the moral authority of the Catholic Church by recruiting homosexual men into the priesthood (as many as possible), deconstructing the liturgy and traditions of the Catholic Church, and teaching Marxism as “social justice” and “liberation theology” from behind the pulpit. This was a collaborative effort of Freemasons, Liberals and Marxists, remarkably successful in bringing down the moral authority of the Catholic Church, over the course of nearly 200 years that accelerated exponentially over the last 50 years.

You refer to homosexuals, but I thought the Catholic Church was dealing with pedophilia. Don’t you mean pedophiles?

No. The greatest lie perpetrated on the general public is that the Catholic Church has a pedophilia problem. The truth is, it never had a pedophilia problem. This propaganda was circulated by criminal clergy at the Dallas Bishops’ Conference in 2002. The lie was told to the press, and the press dutifully reported it (without question) to the general public. The lie is that most of the sexual abuse in the Catholic Church was pedophilia.

The truth is, it was NOT pedophilia, not by clinical, legal or social definitions at all. In fact, the English language has a specific word for the kind of abuse it really was, but the clergy at Dallas (in 2002) deflected from using that word, and switched to the word “pedophilia” instead, so as to create a diversion.

The reason why they did this was to protect their own ranks. You see, it’s a clinical fact that homosexuality and pedophilia have nothing in common. Pedophilia is perverse sexual behavior between adults and pre-pubescent children, both boys and girls. Homosexuality, on the other hand, is the perverse sexual activity between two people of the same sex which occurs AFTER puberty. See the difference? So if the primary problem in the Catholic Church is homosexuality, but you tell everyone it’s pedophilia instead, you successfully deflect everyone’s attention away from the real problem. That is what they did at the Dallas Bishops’ Conference in 2002, and the press blindly reported it without objection, so that everyone today believes the Catholic Church has a pedophilia problem, not a homosexual problem.

Now for a little lesson in sexual perversion. Let’s get the terms accurate…

• Pedophilia = sexual abuse of pre-pubescent children
• Homosexuality = sexual activity between members of the same sex, after puberty, this may, or may not, be abusive in nature. More often than not, this describes consensual activity between adults.
• Pederasty = homosexual abuse of teenagers between puberty and age 18

Remember these terms and what they mean. That’s important, because about 80% of all victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church were post-pubescent teenage boys between ages 10 and 18. Yes, that statistic has been verified by the John Jay Report, and many other reports since then. By definition, this is pederasty not pedophilia. Puberty starts at different ages for different people. For boys, it’s usually between the ages of 10 to 14. By the time they reach age 14, they basically have adult male bodies. Some physical development will continue in the years ahead, but the basic sexual transition from child to man is usually complete between the ages of 10 to 14. Mental development is an entirely different matter. Most teenage boys don’t become men (mentally speaking) until age 18, and some are late bloomers, not reaching mental maturity until their early 20s. This makes them highly vulnerable to homosexual predators who have no problem seducing teenagers under the legal age of 18. The younger they are the better, as far as these pederasts are concerned, because it makes them more vulnerable. These types of homosexual predators are rightly called “pederasts” according to the English language and clinical definition, so as not to incriminate regular homosexuals who keep their sexual relations between legal and consenting adults.

The Catholic Church has a pederast problem, not a pedophilia problem, and the general public has been lied to about this. Pederasty is a sub-culture within the homosexual community, just like statutory-rape is a sub-culture within the heterosexual community. Perverse heterosexual men like to seduce post-pubescent teenage girls under the age of 18, while perverse homosexual men like to seduce post-pubescent teenage boys under the age of 18. It’s a common problem in both the homosexual and heterosexual communities. It’s just that in the homosexual community we have a specific word for it, and it’s called “pederasty.” The reason why the Catholic Church has a pederast problem is because the Catholic Church, by reason of infiltration of Liberals, Modernists and Marxists, has recruited untold scores of homosexual men into the priesthood. With that  population comes a small percentage of pederasts. Had these priests been heterosexual, the primary problem wouldn’t be pederasty, but rather statutory-rape, which is the exact problem we see prevalent in Protestant churches these days. In both cases, neither Catholic nor Protestant communities have a significant problem with pedophilia. Sorry, you’ve been lied to about that, and you continue to be lied to every day, by some in the Catholic hierarchy and the mainstream media. The actual statistics tell a very different story. The Catholic Church has a pederasty problem, not a pedophilia problem. So it’s not so much your young pre-pubescent children you really need to worry about. It’s your older post-pubescent teens (particularly teenage boys) that are in real danger.

In addition to that, the Catholic Church also has a homosexual problem, and this is because (according to canon law) homosexual men are not allowed into the priesthood. Yet because of the infiltration described above, many bishops have ignored this rule for decades, recruiting homosexual men into the priesthood in extremely high numbers, creating a clergy of bishops and priests that are, on average, about 50% homosexual as of 2019. I say, on average, because that percentage is higher in urban dioceses and lower in rural dioceses. In some urban dioceses the percentage is as high as 80% homosexual, while in some rural dioceses, the statistic is as low as 10% homosexual or less.

This creates some significant problems for the Church in the sense that we now have a high concentration of homosexual men in one profession, which is ruling the Church as its leaders. This leads to a compromise in spiritual and moral teaching, as well as liturgical practice. All three of these things are wrapped into one. If a homosexual priest (some remain celibate and some don’t) starts acting on his temptations, then one can easily see how the conscience of a practicing homosexual priest is burned and scarred. On the one hand he’s charged with teaching that homosexual behavior is a sin, but on the other hand, he’s doing that very thing privately. Many such priests eventually compromise by saying that homosexuality is not a sin, and they teach their congregations likewise. We now have a significant problem with what has been dubbed the “homo-heresy” that God accepts homosexual behavior as “normal” and “good.”

We also have a problem with homosexual priests having sexual relations with each other, as well as others outside the clergy. This makes them highly vulnerable to blackmail and we’ve learned that this sort of thing goes on quite frequently. This is one reason why many clergy fail to report pederasty among their ranks. Because of their homosexual relations, they’re being blackmailed by pederast priests.

What is the solution to the homosexual problem in the clergy?

It’s fairly simple. Catholic bishops simply need to follow canon law by refusing to ordain homosexual men. Had this canon been followed in the past, we wouldn’t even be talking about this problem of pederasty and homosexuality today. Alas, it wasn’t followed. Bishops ignored it. Some of them were likely Marxists planted by Communist agents. Still others were probably just Liberals and Modernists. Regardless of the reason why they didn’t follow canon law, the fact remains they didn’t follow it. Canon law is there for a reason. When bishops fail to enforce it, bad things happen. The current crisis in the Catholic Church is the perfect example of how bad things can get when canon law is flagrantly ignored by the bishops whose job it is to enforce it.

As for those homosexual men who have already been ordained, the problem can be settled with a single papal decree.  All priests (heterosexual or homosexual) who are found to have violated chastity, are to be laicized (defrocked) without exception, effective as of a specified future date to be determined by the pope. This means that if a celibate priest has sexual relations with anyone (man, woman or child) he is to be laicized. And if a married priest (yes, some Catholic priests can be married) has sexual relations with anyone besides his wife, he is to be laicized as well. Once the pope sets the bar, and the bishops enforce it, things will change — guaranteed. We just need a pope with enough guts to do it, and who is willing to discipline any bishop who fails to enforce it.

Has the Catholic Church been destroyed then?

No, the Catholic Church has not been destroyed and cannot be destroyed, because it was founded by Jesus Christ on the Rock of St. Peter. However, it has been seriously compromised and humbled to a level unseen in modern times, and the destruction is still nowhere near complete. The entire exterior edifice of the Catholic Church is likely to crumble in the years ahead.

The recruitment of homosexuals into the priesthood has led to a subculture of pederasts who prey upon teenage boys. This has led to a flurry of civil lawsuits that threaten to bankrupt many Catholic dioceses across North America and Europe. In addition, criminal action is now being pursued in many US states, which will likely lead to a federal RICO investigation. This will inevitably finish off many dioceses already hit hard by civil lawsuits. Properties will have to be sold to pay the legal bills, and that means that many Catholic parishes will have to close and be merged. It is likely that some bishops will be prosecuted and have to serve jail time, in addition to the many pederast priests already in legal custody. The crisis reaches all the way up to the Vatican, and we currently have no idea what legal repercussions that will have. In the United States, however, we are expecting a near total loss for the US Catholic Church. Much of the material wealth and assets of the US Catholic Church are now at the mercy of state attorney generals and the FBI.

These, however, are all material things. The Church isn’t really about buildings, bank accounts and property. It’s about people, and the Catholic Church will survive this because the people will survive this. Many congregations may have to start over, in borrowed buildings, and smaller chapels, but the Catholic Church will survive. We may be downsized, but we will survive, just as we have survived every crisis in the last 2,000 years, because it is Christ’s Church not ours. It is our hope that many of the corrupt bishops and priests will either be removed, jailed or forced into early retirement, by the legal consequences of their evil acts, leaving us with a new crop of faithful and orthodox clergy, who are ready and willing to do the work of the gospel, as well as keep the dictates of canon law.

What is the current situation within the Catholic Church?

Currently, the Catholic Church is in a state of functional schism. I say “functional” because a state of schism currently exists, but the lines haven’t been clearly drawn yet, and a schism hasn’t been formally declared yet. In the Catholic Church, we use the Latin phrase de facto to declare a functional schism that isn’t official yet, and de jure to declare a schism that has been officially declared and defined. So the current state of schism in the Catholic Church is de facto, but not yet de jure. I use the words “functional” and “official” because that tends to make more sense to English speakers. What we have in the Catholic Church right now is a functional schism, but not an official one yet. Basically, we have two Catholic churches living within one official Church structure.

On the one side of this divide we have Faithful Catholics, who remain consistently solid with the Catholic Christian faith as it’s always been taught. They are marked by regular Mass attendance, adhering to the Catechism, traditional worship-styles and conservative moral and political beliefs.

On the other side of this divide we have Cafeteria Catholics, who want the Church to “get with the times” and approve women priests and same-sex “marriage.” They are marked by sporadic Mass attendance, picking and choosing what to believe from the Catechism (hence the name “Cafeteria” Catholics), modern worship-styles that go beyond what is usually permissible, and liberal to socialist politics, with a heavy emphasis on globalism.

Currently, both Faithful Catholics and Cafeteria Catholics coexist together in many parishes throughout the United States, but unless something changes in the Church soon, there will be a polarization followed by an official (de jure) schism. As it stands right now, most of the senior leadership in the US Catholic Church caters to Cafeteria Catholics, while faithful Catholics are often marginalized by the senior leadership. Younger bishops, of smaller dioceses, tend to cater to Faithful Catholics instead, and those who do are blessed with diocesan stability and an increased number of vocations (celibate, heterosexual men applying to the priesthood). Bishops who cater to Cafeteria Catholics often find their dioceses in financial and legal trouble with sex-abuse scandals, as well as dwindling parish membership and a reduced number of vocations. Liberalism, Modernism and Marxism, combined with rampant homosexuality, have the negative effect of killing life in the Church. Parishes and dioceses that cater to Cafeteria Catholics are hurting financially, legally and in membership. Parishes and dioceses that cater to Faithful Catholics are experiencing growth and renewal, with significantly reduced financial and legal problems. It would seem to be a no-brainer. If you want to revive the Church, just cater to Faithful Catholics with traditional worship and orthodox teaching. But sadly, Liberals have a long reputation of doubling-down on what has been proved to fail. The answer of Liberals is always “more Liberalism please!”

That a formal and official (de jure) schism will happen, seems to be inevitable now. The only question that remains is HOW will it go down? That is the big mystery. Will it happen by Faithful Catholics literally being thrown out of communion with the pope, against our will? Or will the papacy be regained by Faithful Catholics, causing the Cafeteria Catholics to leave communion with Rome in disgust? Only God knows the answer to that right now.

Why don’t the Faithful Catholics just break away and start their own Church?

This is how things are usually done in the Protestant world. One of the hallmarks of Faithful Catholicism is remaining in communion with the pope and refusing to leave. So we Faithful Catholics, because we are Faithful Catholics, can’t leave communion with Rome unless the pope literally throws us out. That means we can’t go out and start our own church. We have to hang-tight, buckle-down, and ride this mess out. That’s why it’s bound to get very dramatic in the days ahead. We just won’t leave the Church. So you can expect a whole lot of in-fighting between Faithful Catholics and Cafeteria Catholics in the near future.

How does the situation in the Catholic Church affect our world?

It has been said that as the Catholic Church goes, so does the world. One can see how this plays out in secular politics. The United States alone is filled with so-called “Catholic” politicians who absolutely insist on reminding their constituents that they are “Catholics” but they do not follow the teachings of the faith. They are, in fact, Cafeteria Catholics who pick and choose what to believe about Church teaching based upon political expedience. Allow me to name some names here as an example of what I’m talking about…

• Joe Biden
• Nancy Pelosi
• John Kerry
• Dick Durbin
• Ted Kennedy
• Mario Cuomo

These are just six examples of “Catholics” who ignore(d) Church teaching on such things as abortion, same-sex “marriage” and gender theory. Still yet, some have even lobbied (or threatened to lobby) for legislation that harms the Catholic Church directly, as well as Faithful Catholic families. These politicians might not be so easily re-elected if their Catholic bishops would publicly discipline them according to canon law, using both interdict (refusing communion) and excommunication (officially kicking them out of the Church). If their bishops would just enforce canon law, these politicians wouldn’t be able to call themselves “Catholic” anymore without being embarrassed by their bishop contradicting them. Getting re-elected would be tougher under these circumstances. So you see, the failure of the bishops to enforce canon law, with “Catholic” politicians, helps them get re-elected, which in turn enables them to pass immoral laws that affect everyone!

As bad as that is, it gets worse. When bishops fail to enforce canon law, they tolerate heretic priests within their ranks. The homo-heresy has now gone mainstream, and many priests are now teaching lay Catholics that homosexuality is okay, and they should learn to accept it as such. While Faithful Catholics will reject this heresy with all their being, Cafeteria Catholics are usually quick to accept it. This leads to voting habits that reflect such beliefs, and that in turn leads to more Leftist politicians who enact more Leftist laws. Some of those laws may be geared toward protecting homosexuals and transgenders at the expense of religious freedom, as we already see play out in the Democrat-controlled US House of Representatives.

How does this situation in the Catholic Church affect Evangelicals?

Sadly, the very same elements that have infiltrated the Catholic Church (Liberalism, Modernism, Marxism and the homo-heresy) are now working their way into Evangelical communities as well. They’re a few decades behind where they are in the Catholic Church, but the moles are burrowing in. They’ll wait until the time is right before they surface, but already their poison is being spread quietly behind closed doors. The smartest thing Evangelicals can do is study what happened to the Catholic Church, and learn quickly how to combat the same Judases in your own ranks.

I highly recommend the book “Infiltration” by Dr. Taylor Marshall. This will help you understand exactly how this all played out in the Catholic Church over the span of nearly 200 years, leading to where we are today. The book exposes the major players, how they did it, and who they are today. You’ll be shocked to learn how many are already in your presence within Evangelicalism. Buy it, read it, and share it with your pastor.

You may ask; why am I (as a Catholic) warning Evangelicals about this? What’s in it for me? In the interest of full disclosure, I am a former Evangelical myself, and I take no joy in watching my Christian brethren be attacked by a common enemy. It is simply a matter of justice. We are both baptized Christians, and comrades-in-arms against the same spiritual adversaries. I don’t like seeing my friends get hurt.

If you want to know what’s really going on in the Catholic Church, and what Faithful Catholics are doing to expose and combat the crisis, I suggest you turn to ChurchMilitant.Com for news and information. Church Militant is an independent Catholic media outfit, which is not owned by any bishop or diocese. It’s completely independent of Church money, and that in turn insures that they report the news as it really is, without fear of retribution from local bishops. There are only a handful of independent Catholic media sources out there, and Church Militant is by far the most well-organized and professional video news outlet in the Catholic world. These are Faithful Catholics reporting the news that Cafeteria Catholics don’t want anyone to see or hear. Many Cafeteria bishops absolutely HATE Church Militant. But we know for sure there are many Faithful bishops who love Church Militant, and quietly watch it behind closed doors. Some have even approached Church Militant staff and encouraged them to keep up the good work. I personally support the work of Church Militant, both with monthly contributions, and an occasional column I may write for them. They’re a good Catholic news outlet, and I’m not the least bit ashamed to say so. I highly encourage both Catholics and Evangelicals to watch Church Militant and read their articles. Catholics need to watch it to understand what’s really going on in our Church. Evangelicals need to watch it to understand how the enemy works at infiltrating Christian organizations and bringing them down. Know thy enemy! Church Militant will expose his tactics.

Please do try to understand that we Faithful Catholics are desperately trying to take back our Church from the influence of Cafeteria Catholics and a corrupt Church hierarchy. We have a long road ahead of us, but whatever happens, we know Christ will win back his Church. So we are not in despair. We’re actually very hopeful. Please understand that there are two kinds of Catholics — Faithful and Cafeteria. It would be best for you to work together with Faithful Catholics, as we tend to be on the same page with Evangelicals when it comes to moral, social and political matters. By working together, in Christ, I believe we can do much to retake what was lost of our once Christian culture in America.

Shane Schaetzel is an author of Catholic books and an Evangelical convert to the Catholic Church through Anglicanism. His articles have been featured on LifeSiteNews, The Remnant Newspaper, Forward in Christ, and Catholic Online. You can read Shane’s books at ShaneSchaetzel.Com