The Darkness
Descends Upon Us

May God Have Mercy on Us All

by Father Nicholas Gruner, S.T.L., S.T.D. (Cand.)

       The devil’s battle for your soul has entered a new stage. You are in more danger now than ever. So am I. May God strengthen us with His fortitude and may He make us ever more watchful and ever more aware of the devil’s snares — for us personally as well as for the Church and the whole world.

       Am I exaggerating? I wish I were! You be the judge, but only after you consider the facts.

       How do I know? How can you tell, too, that we have entered this new, this more dangerous stage?

It is Explained in This Issue

       You must read it and arm yourself with the truth. Open your eyes wider. I, myself, thought I was well informed but my eyes have been opened in a way I never thought possible by the facts in this issue coupled with the review of Biblical prophecy and prophecy from Our Lady of Fatima.

       "Only Our Lady of the Rosary can help you" She said on July 13th. She, "the Woman clothed with the sun", Who told Lucy and Jacinta and Francisco about the most terrible dangers that face every soul in our day.

       In the first part of the Secret of Fatima, Our Lady showed them the vision of many souls in hell, tortured by devils and burning with fire "amidst loud cries of pain and despair" that made the three children "tremble with fear". She told us that many souls in our day go there and what we must do to not go there ourselves.

       In the second part of the Secret, the beautiful Lady told them of the dangers to all Christendom and, therefore, to each citizen of every country in the world. She told them that the good would be martyred, entire nations would be annihilated and that the entire world remaining would be tyrannized by godless men who would dominate us all, including the United States of America.¹

       But the third part of the Secret is a prophecy foretelling the most terrible part, the part that is now today taking place before our eyes, the part that predicted the apostasy in the Church, the part that is even worse than the second part just described above.

       We have openly entered this apostasy already. It was just last October 13, 2003 that this stage started to publicly unfold in a way never before seen in the history of mankind.

       It was almost imperceptible, and its significance took about a month for me to understand just how present the danger is. It is still unfolding and it will have repercussions for you personally, terrible repercussions that cannot be imagined today (see Matt. 24:15-24) unless you and I and many thousands of others react now and continuously.

       We must become prayerful more than ever. We must ask Our Lady of the Rosary for help. "Only She can help us."

       We must wake up now. We must try to wake up others — for the sake of their own eternal salvation. If we wake up enough people, if we pray hard enough, offer enough sacrifices and act intelligently and effectively, we may yet avoid the danger.

       But we must prepare for the worst. We are at the latest stage before it is too late.

       You need to take the necessary precautionary steps for yourself. You cannot sit on the sidelines. Billions of souls are at stake besides your own. You can become a valued member of the winning side — if you act now.

       How do I know we have entered this new stage? Why can I date it October 12-13, 2003? How do these facts tie in with biblical prophecy about the end times? How does it tie in with Fatima prophecies about the last times?

       What has happened, as you’ll see in this issue, is the clear and open "official" call for apostasy by those who hold high and powerful positions within the Catholic Church, both in Fatima and in the Vatican.

What is Apostasy?

       Apostasy is a word used in the Bible. Saint Paul uses it to describe what must take place first before the Antichrist comes. The Antichrist is the "man of sin", the "son of perdition", the man who will lead all the forces of the devil, all of the forces of the anti-God movements and organizations and governments.

       That is, all the secular humanists, the Masons, the Communists (both the overt ones in China, Cuba, etc. as well as the Communist regimes of Russia and the Eastern European bloc which are more and more openly returning to the old Stalinist-Leninist ways), the one world government, New World Order, One World man-made religion types — some of whom pretend to be serving God but who really serve either only themselves or the devil.

       So the "man of sin", the "son of perdition", the "anti-Christ" will come out of the closet — and make himself known. He will unite all the forces found in various sectors of legitimate human endeavor against Jesus Christ — people in finance, in banking, in industry, in diplomacy, in government, in the military, in technology and in many other areas as well; many lawyers, doctors, accountants — professionals who seek to serve money first, rather than God.

       But before the man of sin comes, Saint Paul tells us first must come the apostasy. Just as before Jesus Christ was born into the world — God prepared mankind by giving them the Old Covenant, the Old Testament with its prophets, its patriarchs, its people and its leaders. The people living God’s revelation well enough up to that time became saints and martyrs — so that at least a remnant in Israel did recognize Him when He came, and accepted His teaching — did what He taught and they in turn passed it on to the rest of the world.

       "He came unto His own and His own received Him not" but to "those who did receive Him" (the remnant of Israel) "He gave them power to become sons of God".

       The devil has been preparing his remnant (those who have served him over the centuries) to introduce the apostasy among us so that when the devil has caused enough people to have apostatized, to have stopped serving Christ and started serving the devil, then he will reveal his chosen man, the Antichrist, to wage open war on all the faithful followers of Jesus Christ.

       So first must come the apostasy, the Great Apostasy. What is the sin of apostasy? Apostasy is more than schism, more than heresy. Apostasy is much worse. Let me explain these three things so you can get a better understanding of the enormity of these sins.

Schism

       Schism is a terrible sin, whereby the unity of the Church of Jesus Christ is attacked, wilfully, by one or more souls.

       We know from our Catechism that the four marks of the Church are One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. The Holy Bible tells us we have one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism. (Eph. 4:5) The Church is One in its government and has oneness in community.

       The word "Schism" comes from the Greek and it means to tear apart. Schism can come from members of the Church, at whatever level — lay person, priest, bishop or even from the Pope.

       Usually schism is when a person of the Church refuses to acknowledge the legitimate authority of his superior. An act of disobedience to legitimate authority is always a sin — but it is not always an act of schism. Disobedience becomes an act of schism when the subject says, I do not recognize your right to command me, not simply in a particular command, but even at all.

       You will notice I have emphasized legitimate authority. Obviously if a command is given that is not within the authority of the one commanding them — it is neither disobedience nor schism to not obey it.

       A superior can also be guilty of schism by giving an order, or appearance of an order to the faithful in his charge, which by the very nature of the order, causes the faithful to fight among themselves. An example would be telling one half of the congregation to do one thing and telling the second half to do the opposite. This is explained in my article "Schism and the Common Good" (The Fatima Crusader, Issue 57, pp. 24ff and Issue 59, pp. 35ff).

       Schism is terrible because it brings disorder, unhappiness and quarrelling amongst the members of the Church who should be at peace. That peace is to reflect the peace of the Church in Heaven. That peace is to be a sign to those inside and outside the Church of its Divine mission. "See how they love one another" is what Christ wills for His Church to be one piece of evidence to non-Catholics that the Catholic Church is the one true Church. Peace within the Catholic Church is also meant to be a comfort and joy to all Catholics.

Heresy

       Heresy is much worse because it attacks God more openly. It is always an act of schism and is harder to repent of, for the individual soul. It scandalizes more souls and has longer lasting consequences. If heresy is not healed, it can lead to apostasy. Schism, by itself, does not lead to apostasy.

       Heresy is the sin whereby a person, while accepting as true most of the teachings of Jesus Christ, rejects one or a few of them. The heretic says, I accept all but one, or five or so of the dogmatic truths that are taught by the Church of Christ

       Heresy does not reject that Jesus Christ came and taught us the way to God. Nor does it deny that there is one God, Who Christ taught us about.

       However heresies over the last 2000 years have taught all sorts of errors about Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the nature of the Church and the Sacraments.

       There have already been numerous errors, heresies, that have affected the eternal destiny of millions of souls.

       There are, to this day, organized bodies of men and women who hold heretical views and because of that are not members of the Catholic Church. If they die in that condition then they are excluded from going to Heaven.

       Heresy is a mortal sin against the virtue of faith because it refuses to accept the right of God to demand of each human person that he believes what God teaches. If a person commits the sin of heresy and does not recant it, does not repent of it — he goes to hell. If his heresy is public — that is if he tells others of his rejection of a doctrine of Jesus Christ — he must make a public recantation of his heresy.

God is All Holy.

       God is perfect in every way. He is all holy. There are no sins in Him, nor can there be. Not only is He sinless, but He is Sanctity Itself. He is all virtuous so that He cannot lie because to tell falsehoods is a sin. God has no limitations to His perfection, so there is no ignorance in His mind. He knows all things everywhere, at all times, past, present and future.

       God is all knowing and He can tell no lies. Therefore, when God tells us something, then we must believe it because it is true. We must believe it because we know that God could not and would not deceive us when He affirms the truth of any teaching.

       If we do not believe God, then we insult Him. By our act of disbelief, we are implicitly saying to Him — You are ignorant, You do not know the truth that You claim to know. Otherwise by our disbelief, we are implicitly saying to Him — You are not holy, You are deliberately lying to us, You are not all perfect.

       Either way, we blaspheme God, at least implicitly, by our act of disbelief. So even though a heretic accepts some of what Christ and His Church teach — they are still rejecting other parts of His teaching and this implicitly blasphemes Him. The deliberate act of heresy is always a mortal sin.

Apostasy

       But heresy is not as bad as apostasy. Apostasy is much worse. The sin of apostasy is when a person who, at one time accepted the teachings (at least most of them or all of them) of Christ, now decides to reject the majority of His teachings — or all of His teachings.

       Apostasy is when a person who once was Christian now rejects it all. He rejects it in his beliefs, he embraces anti-Christ opinions and practices and also rejects much of the moral law that Christ taught.

       If a person was never exposed to the teachings of Christ then he cannot be an apostate because he never knew the light Christ brought to the world. He may do all the things an apostate Christian does, but his sin is not as great, because his fall from his former gifts God gave him is not as high.

       Apostasy is a sin, but only Christians can commit apostasy. Apostasy is much worse than schism, much worse than heresy. The "Great Apostasy" is not just when one person commits the sin of apostasy. It is when a large segment of formerly believing Catholics fall into the sin of apostasy, harden their hearts in it and eventually welcome the Antichrist into their midst as the savior of the world.

       They welcome the Antichrist as the one to rule over them, as the one to bring peace to the world, as the one to obey. As apostates, they will agree with the persecution of faithful Catholics, even to the point of agreeing with the attempt to exterminate all Catholics by torture and death.

       The Great Apostasy must come first before the Antichrist comes. And the Great Apostasy is already moving along at very high speed. It has been developing its plan since 1960, over 40 years.

       The Great Apostasy is not only spoken of in Sacred Scripture, it is also spoken of in the third part of the Secret of Fatima. The Vatican has still not released these words but they are there. Cardinal Ciappi said "in the Third Secret it is foretold, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top."

Can we be any clearer?!

       We know that the Third Secret is a prophecy that began to be realized in 1960. This prophecy foretells the apostasy that enters the Church from the Vatican and from other highly placed persons around the world. This is explained in Frère Michel’s book, The Third Secret and in the book The Devil’s Final Battle.

       We are, right now, living through the beginning stages, and rapidly advancing to the middle stages, of the Great Apostasy.

We know this because:

1. The Fatima Message is true. It came from God. The Third Secret is part of that Message.
2. The Third Secret is a prophecy foretelling the future.
3. It foretold what began before the end of 1960.
4. What is predicted there will be over when Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart triumphs and a period of peace is given to the world. We are obviously not at the period of peace for all mankind yet.
5. Therefore, we are in the midst of that prophecy.
6. The prophecy talks about the Great Apostasy.
7. The prophecy warns us against those in high places in the Church government that promote this Great Apostasy.
8. Recently, open apostasy has been "officially" promoted by Monsignor Guerra and his supporters inside the Vatican. By their silence they also promote it.

       What then has happened to make us pass this milestone in the devil’s plan?

The Congress on
"The Future of God"

       Shortly after the Congress on "The Future of God" was started, the open war on God began to be conducted by none other than the Fatima Shrine officials.

       They declared their intention with the ‘blessing’ or ‘silence’ of higher Churchmen,² the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon, the Bishop of Fatima, the Vatican Papal Nuncio and the Vatican Archbishop promoting "inter-religious dialogue" — whatever that is.

       In conjunction with this congress, was announced the plan to set up "the Abomination of Desolation" in the Holy Place that Jesus Christ, Himself, warned us would take place in the days of antichrist.

       Never before in the history of the Church has it ever been stated that a Catholic Shrine would invite, on an ongoing basis, pagan idols to be brought into the Catholic place of worship where Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Son of God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity alone must be worshipped. Jesus Christ — Who is jealous of our adherence, our worship and belief in Him — will accept no rivals.

       The temerity, the rank insult offered Him in this Holy Place – the suggestion that this is a service to God and the will of the Blessed Virgin — by this apostate Rector of this Fatima Shrine is blasphemous, heretical, schismatic and apostasy – each of which is worthy of hellfire!

We Must Reject Apostasy
Forcefully and Immediately

       To invite pagans and other false religions into the Holy Place of Fatima to worship their false gods or to worship God in ways that are displeasing to Him is a signal that the full-blown apostasy is not far behind unless we reject it — forcefully and immediately — while we still have time.

       I prayed very hard for the grace to be able to make you and all Catholics and people of good will to be able to understand this. I cannot emphasize enough, the utmost importance of understanding your Catholic Faith and living it, lest you be mesmerized into the pits of hell for eternity. Please, for the sake of your soul and those of your loved ones and your neighbors, call us, write us, if we have not sufficiently made clear that the lives and souls of God’s children worldwide hangs in the balance.

       You and I together must help to clear away the veil of falsehoods that our families and friends are succumbing to. Let us help their eyes to see, their ears to hear — the soul saving truths of the One True Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church of Christ.

       Let us pray and sacrifice that neither they or any other Catholic will remain blind or ignorant or lazy before the present danger. If we do not do our part we fear their senses and their hearts will remain cluttered with the ways of the world, the flesh and the devil so much so, that many of them will be unable to understand and be converted to the Lord.

Jesus Warned Us
in Biblical Prophecy

       Jesus said "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." (See Matt. 24:15-24 and Daniel 9:27.)

       The Shrine officials’ diabolical plan has not been implemented full force yet — but it will be if we do not stop it by our prayers, by our effective protests, and to cease giving alms to apostate ‘Catholic’ collection baskets which promote such apostasy and instead give alms to faithful Catholic organizations.

       It is up to you to understand, to be informed, to pray and to act or we will need to flee for our very lives, very soon.

       This article is further explained by Sister Lucy. See the article "The Last Times of the World" in this issue.

Footnotes:

1. See Sister Lucy’s conversation with Father Fuentes in Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Third Secret, (Buffalo: Immaculate Heart Publications, 1990) pp. 503 - 510. See also William Thomas Walsh, Our Lady of Fatima, (New York: Doubleday, 1954) p. 221; Louis Kaczmarek, The Wonders She Performs, (Manassas: Trinity Communications, 1986), pp. 151-160; and Memorias e Cartas da Irma Lucia, (Porto, 1973) pp. 340-341.

2. See John Vennari’s article "Fatima to Become Interfaith Shrine?" and Chris Ferrara’s article "A New Fatima for the New Church" in this issue.

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