By their fruits you will know them..

From Gloria TV:


"The Vatican publishes in December the visitor numbers at Papal public encounters (liturgies, audiences, Angelus) of the current year. But in December 2017 this did not happen. In the last years, the numbers have been shrinking dramatically:

2014: 5.92 million visitors
2015: 3.21 million visitors
2016: 3.95 million visitors
2017: ???

The numbers of the pilgrims who care to see Pope Francis during the Wednesday General Audiences are even more disappointing:

2014: 1.2 million
2015: 0.7 million
2016: 0.8 million
2017: ???

The same was true for Francis' Chile visit. According to usnews.com the crowds were 'very thin, in many areas a single line of people.'"

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves. By their fruits you will know them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
Just so, every good tree bears good fruit, and a rotten tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. So by their fruits you will know them." (Matthew 7: 15-20).

The fulfillment of prophecy: Men will abuse the freedom of conscience conceded to them and the sacrament of Matrimony will be attacked and deeply profaned

Venerable Bartholomew Holzhauser (17th century, Germany)

"The fifth period of the Church, which began circa 1520, will end with the arrival of the holy Pope and of the powerful Monarch who is called "Help From God" because he will restore everything. The fifth period is one of affliction, desolation, humiliation, and poverty for the Church. Jesus Christ will purify His people through cruel wars, famines, plagues, epidemics, and other horrible calamities.

He will also afflict and weaken the Latin Church with many heresies. It is a period of defections, calamities and exterminations. Those Christians who survive the sword, plague and famines, will be few on earth.

"During this period, many men will abuse the freedom of conscience conceded to them (See here). It is of such men that Jude, the Apostle, spoke when he said: 'These men blaspheme- whatever they do not understand; and they corrupt whatever they know naturally as irrational animals do. . . They feast together without restraint, feeding themselves, grumbling murmurers, walking according to their lusts; their mouth speaketh proud things, they admire people for the sake of gain; they bring about division, sensual men, having not the spirit.'

"During this unhappy period, there will be laxity in divine and human precepts. Discipline will suffer. The Holy Canons will be completely disregarded, and the Clergy will not respect the laws of the Church. Everyone will be carried away and led to believe and to do what he fancies, according to the manner of the flesh. They will ridicule Christian simplicity; they will call it folly and nonsense, but they will have the highest regard for advanced knowledge, and for the skill by which the axioms of the law, the precepts of morality, the Holy Canons and religious dogmas are clouded by senseless questions and elaborate arguments. As a result, no principle at all, however holy, authentic, ancient, and certain it may be, will remain free of censure, criticism, false interpretations, modification and delimitation by man."

"These are evil times, a century full of dangers and calamities. Heresy is everywhere, and the followers of heresy are in power almost everywhere.

Bishops, prelates, and priests say that they are doing their duty, that they are vigilant, and that they live as befits their state in life. In like manner, therefore, they all seek excuses. But God will permit a great evil against His Church: Heretics and tyrants will come suddenly and unexpectedly; they will break into the Church while bishops, prelates, and priests are asleep. They will enter Italy and lay Rome waste; they will burn down the churches and destroy everything."

---

—Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774–1824); The Life and Revelations of Anne Catherine Emmerich; message from April 12th, 1820

I had another vision of the great tribulation… It seems to me that a concession was demanded from the clergy that could not be granted. I saw many older priests, especially one, who wept bitterly. A few younger ones were also weeping… It was as if people were splitting into two camps.  —Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774–1824); The Life and Revelations of Anne Catherine Emmerich; message from April 12th, 1820

---

Sr. Marianne de Jesus Torres (17th century) - Our Lady of Good Success, Quito, Ecuador

Our Lady told her: "The Church will find itself attacked by waves of a secret sect ... corrupted priests will scandalize the Church ... Moreover, in these unhappy times there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will lose themselves.

Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women, and, in this supreme moment of need of the Church, those whom it behooves to speak will fall silent."

“As for the Sacrament of Matrimony, which symbolizes the union of Christ with His Church, it will be attacked and deeply profaned*. Freemasonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws with the aim of doing away with this Sacrament, making it easy for everyone to live in sin and encouraging the procreation of illegitimate children born without the blessing of the Church. The Catholic spirit will rapidly decay; the precious light of Faith will gradually be extinguished until there will be an almost total and general corruption of customs. Added to this will be the effects of secular education, which will be one reason for the dearth of priestly and religious vocations.

“The Sacrament of Holy Orders will be ridiculed, oppressed, and despised, for in this Sacrament, the Church of God and even God Himself is scorned and despised since He is represented in His priests. The Devil will try to persecute the ministers of the Lord in every possible way; he will labor with cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their vocation and will corrupt many of them. These depraved priests, who will scandalize the Christian people, will make the hatred of bad Catholics and the enemies of the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church fall upon all priests.

"This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings to the good Pastors of the Church, the many good priests, and the Supreme Pastor and Vicar of Christ on Earth, who, a prisoner in the Vatican, will shed secret and bitter tears in the presence of his God and Lord, beseeching light, sanctity, and perfection for all the clergy of the world, of whom he is King and Father.

 

*  See here.

Bishop Marcello Sanchez Sorondo cannot recognize children of the Devil when he sees them

Carol Glatz, writing for the Catholic News Service, quotes Bishop Marcello Sanchez Sorondo, Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, as saying that the United Nations is not "the Devil."

The Bishop asserted recently that, "To see the devil in the United Nations, which some on the right tend to do, is not the position of the Holy See."

Got that?  Devout Catholics who are wary of the United Nations are dismissed as political partisans.

What Bishop Sorondo doesn't understand, intellectually-challenged cleric that he is, is that while the U.N. is not the Devil, it has shown itself, as a body, to be ready, willing and able to serve the Devil and to welcome him when he comes in flesh as the Man of Iniquity.

In his Life of Christ (Image Books, 1977, p. 10), Archbishop Fulton John Sheen wrote, "We do know that at the end of time, when the great conflict between the forces of good and evil takes place, Satan will appear without the Cross, as the Great Philanthropist and Social Reformer to become the final temptation of mankind."

It was Paul Henri-Spaak, who served as Belgian Prime Minister and gained international prominence in 1945 when he was elected chairman of the first session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, who called for such a "Great Philanthropist and Social Reformer":


"We do not want another committee, we have too many already. What we want is a man of sufficient stature to hold the allegiance of all people, and to lift us out of the economic morass in which we are sinking. Send us such a man and be he God or the Devil, we will receive him."

No, the United Nations is not "the Devil," but it has promoted, among other things, abortion, contraception, homosexuality and lesbianism, and even prostitution (see here).

As Terrence McKeegan, J.D., reported for C-FAM back in 2010, "...at the World Youth Conference, organized primarily by the Mexican government and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the main event for most of [the] estimated 5,000 ‘participants’ was the Interactive Global Forum, a massive expo with hundreds of booths and exhibits. A tour of the booths revealed what passes for ‘age-appropriate’ sexual education in some UN circles. Because the venue for the World Youth Conference had considerably more exhibit space than most UN conferences, it was a unique opportunity for organizations focusing on youth to put their best face forward. In the expo hall, there were dozens of booths with pornographic or sexually explicit materials or presentations.

At the International Planned Parenthood Federation (the largest provider of abortion services in the world) booth, their table featured the sexually explicit brochure: 'Healthy, Happy, and Hot', which garnered headlines last March due to its distribution at a Girl Scouts side event at the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
At a booth by an organization named 'RECREA,' there was a table with a bowl of condoms and a wooden phallus. The walls of the exhibit booth were covered with pornographic and sexually suggestive photos. Nearby there were two glass cases featuring rubber models of male and female genitalia, as well as a bright assortment of condoms.



At the Fundacion Collectivo de Mujeres Jovenes booth,which was staffed by two middle-aged men, the presentation largely consisted of a collection of thong underwear hung up around the booth, as well as a 'snakes and ladders' floor game with puffy dice."

Did you catch the name of that "game"? Snakes and ladders.  Who is the serpent?

While Pro-Life literature was taboo at the UN Conference, wooden phalluses, condoms, pornographic and sexually suggestive photos were allowed.

No Bishop Sorondo, the United Nations is not "the Devil."  But if you had any spiritual discernment or even common sense (not to mention a rudimentary understanding of the Scriptures), you would know that some people freely choose to serve the Devil:

“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did. As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the works of your own father.”

“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”

Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say.  You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies." John 8:39-44.

Bill O'Reilly: The Gospels are wrong but MY word is inspired by the Holy Spirit

Bill O'Reilly, in an interview with CBS, claims that the Holy Spirit inspired his book entitled 'Killing Jesus" even as he attempts to "correct the Gospels.  When confronted with such an arrogant approach to God's Word, the Fathers of the Church responded in no uncertain terms:

"They have not feared to lay hands upon the sacred Scriptures, saying that they have corrected them. Nor is it likely that they themselves are ignorant of how very bold their offense is. For either they do not believe that the sacred Scriptures were spoken by the Holy Spirit, in which case they are unbelievers, or if they regard themselves as being wiser than the Holy Spirit, what else can they be but demoniacs." (St. Hippolytus of Rome, "Fragment" in Eusebius, History of the Church, 5, ch. 28)

In his book, Bill advances the idea that Jesus could not have spoken the words, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do" because the way he was hung on the cross would not have allowed enough air in His lungs to speak them audibly."  Bill also refers to Jesus as "the guy" in his interview with CBS.

The problem with Bill's argument should be immediately obvious to even the most unastute who spend even a modicum of time with Sacred Scripture.  In Matthew 27: 46-48, we read: "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?' that is, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?'  And some of the bystanders hearing it said, 'This man is calling Elijah.'  And one of them [because Jesus said "I thirst," Jn 19:28] at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink."

If Jesus couldn't speak audibly to pronounce the words "Father forgive them...," how could He speak these other words audibly?  The words "I thirst" were among His last spoken words from the cross.  Apparently Bill would reject the authoritative teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church as well:

"When the hour had come for him to fulfill the Father's plan of love, Jesus allows a glimpse of the boundless depth of his filial prayer, not only before he freely delivered himself up ("Abba . . . not my will, but yours."), but even in his last words on the Cross, where prayer and the gift of self are but one: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"; "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise", "Woman, behold your son" - "Behold your mother"; "I thirst."; "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"; "It is finished"; "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!"until the "loud cry" as he expires, giving up his spirit." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2605).

Perhaps Bill should retitle his book "Killing Common Sense"?