An image that is never far from my mind

 From my old WW2 history days, is this:

The saluting officer is Hans Langsdorff.  He is noted for losing the Battle of the River Plate. His ship, the German cruiser (pocket battleship) Admiral Graf Spee, was trapped and he ordered it scuttled.  Contemporary accounts say he made sure his crew was taken care of.  After that, he retired to a room on shore, wrote a letter accepting full responsibility for the loss of the ship, then committed suicide.  

Legend says that before he took his life, he stretched out the traditional imperial naval ensign and laid down upon it.  He did not use the infamous Swastika flag of the Nazi Party.  If you look at the photo, you'll notice something that gives credence to the tale. 

He's the one saluting traditional style.  And what are so many around him doing - including those who are obviously clergy within the Church?  Yep.  That would be the famous salute to der Fuhrer.  Because Nazism was not universally scorned across South America at the time, heavily Catholic though it was.  

Today, of course, it's everything from communism to Marxist influenced Latin American Liberation Theology that is the rage south of the border, and at times to the north.  Pope Francis has, on more than one occasion, given hat tips to the better side of communist thinking.  Quite a few Catholics on the Internet have joined mainstream media outlets in singing praises to various forms of Marxism, certainly socialism, and in the odd case or two, full blown communism.

This doesn't address the legions of Catholic leaders with their heads down about so many growing evils in our modern age. From openly race hating Caucasians, to surgically altering the bodies of minors, the cheering for increased abortion rights, to bringing our porn sex culture to the youngest of these, to turning a blind eye to non-MAGA types cheering for the killing of Jews, to persecuting Christians for refusing to conform to this madness, to ending antiquated notions of equality and sanctity of human life, it's stunning to hear the sounds of the Church's silence.    

Though in fairness, the best we often get from believers is silence. That's because other believers rely on attacking anyone trying to stand up to the madness.  They might not openly support the manifold evils and absurdities being mandated by our corporate expert class.  But they focus on always attacking those trying to stop it.

Then you have the Catholics - leaders and otherwise - who are the modern equivalent of those in the photo giving their loudest Sieg Heils!  They embrace and endorse whatever the World throws our way. Even when the World says the best scholarship has proven the Bible was bunk, those believers are right there trying to  accommodate.  Plus they will happily join with that other group in attacking anyone who does otherwise.   

That's just the way it is.  From the Golden Calf to feeding their babes to Baalim, God's people have always produced a bumper crop of followers willing to throw in with the principalities, the powers, the rulers of the darkness of the age, and the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.  And there's not much we can do, other than not fall into the same pit.  Instead, consider this from the letter to the Church at Sardis: 

‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”’

Be like those few in Sardis who didn't defile their garments.  Be like the 7000 who did not bow a knee to Baal.  Heck, even be like Hans Langsdorff. Hardly perfect (he was on the wrong side after all), but a damn sight better than what many of our leaders and fellows in the Faith are doing today.   And don't be like she who doesn't bow a knee, but won't call out Baal and will turn on you in preference to taking a stand.  At the end of the day, it's all the same alliance.