Catholic group warns of physical and spiritual crisis, urges filial resistance

November 2, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – A prominent lay organization penned a statement in response to the current global “crisis,” calling on Catholics to “reaffirm their love for Western Christian civilization … to defend its remnants and culture,” and warning that the Pope is attacking the remnants of Christian civilization. 

The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property (TFP) is a group of lay Catholics “concerned about the moral crisis shaking the remnants of Christian civilization” that organizes public demonstrations, prayer vigils and lobbying campaigns in defense of Catholic values and “tradition, family and private ownership.” 

Together with its sister organizations worldwide, the American TFP issued a statement titled “An Urgent Appeal to Resist the Betrayal and Ruin of the West, Flower of Christian Civilization.”  

The statement warned of the “triple crisis of COVID-19, civil unrest, and economic disaster … shaking the West’s spiritual and material foundations and the world,” as well as the spiritual crisis in the Church, and proposes a course of action to prevent the ultimate decline of both.  

The TFP noted the viral epidemic that affects physical health but which also has a “profound economic, social, and psychological impact” as a result of the “draconian health and lockdown measures.”  

In mentioning the widespread restrictions on personal liberty and human rights, the TFP describes the situation as “a world of sadness, isolation, and sub–consumerism controlled by technocrats, not unlike the dystopian nightmare in George Orwell’s 1984 novel.” 

The statement also highlighted the “great political weakness in the West” that is caused by “monumental economic dependence … to China,” and warned of a huge upcoming economic crisis “worse than the Great Depression.”  

It further noted the “focal points of unrest that have arisen simultaneously worldwide as if triggered by a common direction.” Additionally, the TFP observed how liberals have employed “street violence and urban destruction,” especially in the Black Lives Matter movement, as a means to promote class struggle. 

Western Civilization has been undermined by “procured abortion” and “aggressive LGBT ideology,” and is thus unable to withstand the assault presented by the various forces attacking it, the TFP wrote. 

However, the chief crisis, the TFP warns, is the abandonment of the Catholic faith that occurs in tandem with the threefold crisis already outlined: “(u)ntold numbers abandon the Faith and live without God or His Law, no longer seeking God’s grace and sacramental life.” 

The declaration continued, commenting that “moral decadence” has resulted in the weakening of society, and a collective despair is falling on people, the likes of which was not seen even after the two world wars. 

The multitude of questions regarding the uncertain future and possible solutions to these problems demonstrate “remorse and a faint longing for the abandoned path of virtue,” according to the TFP. 

Underlying the body of the text, is the issue of Pope Francis’s statements and teachings that the TFP recognize as a danger to the future of Christendom. The document turned to the issue of the erring hierarchy and the Pope, who are jointly described as false shepherds, abandoning the flock to the wolves. 

The TFP noted that unlike in previous times, when people would “lift their gaze to the Chair of Peter” for guidance, today the Holy See “seems to favor those attacking the West with unparalleled intensity.”  

This situation is termed an “Immense Spiritual Orphanhood,” which, the TFP affirms, has been further compounded by Pope Francis’s recent statements regarding same-sex unions and in his encyclical Fratelli Tutti.  

Describing the closure of churches in the spring during national lockdowns, the TFP observed that the “hierarchy’s passivity during the health crisis” served as a means of “aggravating a growing apostasy.” 

Warning of the Vatican’s “policy of détente with the communist governments,” already present in the reign of Pope Paul VI, the TFP highlighted that this necessitates resistance still today: “To resist means to denounce with filial and respectful frankness the dangerous contradiction between the privileged treatment accorded by the Holy See to Red China.” 

The statement further noted how Pope Francis’s most recent writings have been “contradicting Church social doctrine,” with Fratelli Tutti restricting “private property and the free market economy so extensively that, in practice, it denies the moral licitness of these two foundations of the Western economy.” 

Filial Catholic resistance 

“Is it lawful,” the TFP asked, “to resist, to the fullest extent permitted by Canon Law, the policies pursued by Pope Francis that threaten the West’s integrity, security, and cultural identities?” 

The group answered in the affirmative, urging people “to obey God rather than men” and to practice a faithful Catholic resistance, which is not insurrection, but is rather “fidelity, it is union, it is love, it is submission.” 

To this end, the statement sought to “encourage Catholics to reaffirm their love for Western Christian civilization and their willingness to defend its remnants and culture.”  

It called for Catholics to practice filial acts of resistance in order to preserve civilization. These actions can show that the “West’s demise is not a foregone conclusion … because nothing can defeat a people that is virtuous and truly loves God.” 

“To resist means to respectfully publish our analysis and judgment in situations such as the encyclical Fratelli Tutti or Pope Francis’s endorsement of the legal recognition of homosexual unions — a death blow to what remains of Western Christian civilization,” the statement read. 

In order to provide a deeper explanation of the current crisis, as well as a suitable response to save Western Civilization and the Church, the TFP strongly recommends a book by its founder, Professor Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira’s Revolution and Counter-Revolution.  

Professor de Oliveira offered some words of encouragement: “When men resolve to cooperate with the grace of God, the marvels of history are worked: the conversion of the Roman Empire; the formation of the Middle Ages; the reconquest of Spain, starting from Covadonga; all the events that result from the great resurrections of soul of which peoples are also capable.” 

The statement ended with consolation from Our Lady of Fatima, urging the readers to proclaim her words “with indomitable confidence” and know “that beyond the spiritual storms, material challenges, and every attack by their enemies, the West and Christian civilization will rise again”: “finally, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”