Thy divine law is transgressed; Thy Gospel despised; Thy religion forsaken; torrents of iniquity flood the whole earth; the whole earth is desolate: wickedness is on a throne, Thy sanctuary is profaned, and abomination has entered even into the holy place.
Newsroom (21/06/2022 09:00, Gaudium Press) If we were to write a summary of what has happened in the world in recent months, our very way of thinking and living would be shaken. There would not be enough space in an article to include so much information. Instead, I will do so briefly, based on some facts pointing to what is now occurring globally.
A pandemic that has left 6.3 million dead, many chronically ill, and others suffering from the psychological effects.
A war that could lead to World War III – as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Terrible news, photos and videos confront us constantly. Mariupol – which is a city turned into a huge cemetery and reduced to rubble, with thousands of people murdered or forced to flee. “A devastated land”, the Primate Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, stressed: “Ukraine is burning. Ukraine is on fire” .
Famine. A food crisis could come as a consequence of the war in Ukraine, which is considered the breadbasket of the world, and the fifth largest exporter of wheat, among other things. In Germany, the Ministry of the Interior recommends storing water and food for ten days in the face of a possible supply crisis, “because the situation is very serious“. The UN fears “a hurricane of famine“, especially in African countries.
Natural disasters or climate change draw attention in their appearance, variety and intensity. In Spain, May was the hottest month since 1961. On the contrary, in Chile, the coldest in the last 50 years. Australia with the most snowfall in 54 years. In Japan, floods caused the evacuation of more than 300,000 people; in Brazil, floods caused 120 deaths and 100,000 people were left homeless. Mexico and other Caribbean nations were hit by Hurricane Agatha, the strongest in seven decades. A “dangerous and deadly heat wave” is approaching the southwestern US, the National Weather Service warns.
The crisis in families. In the worrying degradation of fundamental values, the family – which constitutes one of the most precious goods of humanity in the words of John Paul II – is under attack like no other institution. Obscured, among other things, by “polygamy, the epidemic of divorce, so-called free love and other deformations” (Gaudium et spes, 47).
Increase in the suicide rate in post-pandemic days. More than half of Spanish young people acknowledge mental health problems and many have suicidal ideas, according to the Fundación Mutua Madrileña and the FAD Youth Foundation. If it were only Spain… since the beginning of the year, in the US, according to the Gun Violence Archive organization, more than 10,000 people have died by suicide.
The life of the innocent unborn child is not respected, nor are the lives of the elderly or sick. The defense of life seems a thing of the past. The “discourse” of human rights refuses to recognize the dignity of life in all its stages, from beginning to end, even to the point of considering the healthy or strong as having more rights than the weak, the disabled or the elderly, considering these last ones a burden on society.
The massacres that have occurred lately in the richest country in the world. Since the beginning of the year, the United States has suffered 237 mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive. “There are more mass murders than there are days in the year,” said Connecticut’s Democratic Senator Chris Murphy. The number of victims of gun violence is terrifying. There are 43 million guns in anyone’s hands. The latest belief – on the rise – among citizens is that they need guns for their personal safety.
Such frequency of cruelty leaves us perplexed. The latest widely publicized incident of the 18-year-old who committed the massacre in Uvalde, a small town near the Mexican border, killing 19 children and two teachers, has paralyzed the world. It appears that we are entering into an uncontrollable “kill-match”. The killer, known as especially violent, with aggressive behaviour, especially towards women, came from a broken family. He had neither sound discipline nor social connection, and certainly lacked family affection.
There must certainly have been many factors which had influenced him to take such a bloody attitude; it is very difficult to produce a profile of the killers who carry out these mass shootings. This individual, for example, having no criminal record or relationship with the school, children or teachers he attacked, carried out a bloodthirsty massacre.
It is worth noting that the amount of violent material that is available to young people, in movies or video games, can result in stimulating cruel reactions.
We are witnessing violence now as the most frequent form of persecution of the Church. Recently, in just one brief, tragic and little publicized news item, more than 38 Catholics were killed in an attack which took place during the celebration of a Mass, in Owo, Nigeria. An attack of indiscriminate shooting and the detonation of a bomb. It has already been named “The Pentecost Massacre”.
The decline in the number of Catholics in Latin America. In 1970 92% of the population was Catholic; In 1995 it had dropped to 80%, and by 2018 it had fallen to 59%.
The internal crisis in the Holy Church, where moral or social ideas contrary to the teachings of the Magisterium of the Church are proposed as good.
Joy, peace, goodness, gentleness, and purity disappear step by step, giving way to envy, discord, anger, impurity, sadness. All this leaves us astonished, frightened, even speechless. It causes us to raise our thoughts and cry out, as St Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort did in his prophetic “Fiery Prayer”, of which I dare to transcribe only a few paragraphs. We can see here the reason for everything that happens:
“It is time to act, Lord, You have cast down Your Law to the ground, Your divine law is transgressed; Your Gospel, abandoned; torrents of iniquity flood every earth, and sweep away even Your servants; the whole earth is desolate, wickedness is upon the throne, Your sanctuary is profaned, and abomination has entered even into the holy place. Will You leave all this to the uttermost, O righteous Lord, God of vengeance? Will You always hold Your peace? Will You always tolerate? Is it not necessary that Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, and that Your kingdom come to us? Have You not shown some of Your friends beforehand a future renewal of Your Church? Amen. Come, Lord Jesus” (Rev 22:20).
The Saint was moved to see God “so cruelly and freely offended“. That is why he pleads, at the end of his prayer:
“Arise, O Lord! Why do You seem to sleep? Arise in Your omnipotence, in Your mercy and in Your justice to form a select company of guards to watch over Your house, defend Your glory and save Your souls, so that there may be one flock and one shepherd, and that all may give You glory in Your temple. Amen.”
What could the consequences of all this destruction possibly be? Sadly, we are seeing and living them: “War, famine, persecution of the Church and of the Holy Father, various nations will be annihilated,” warns the Message of Fatima.
By Fr. Fernando Gioia, EP
Compiled by Sandra Chisholm