The Revolution Gathers Force

By Charlie Johnston

Houston, Texas – When I was a little boy, just after starting elementary school, I became a great admirer of President Kennedy. Every time he gave a speech on all the networks, I watched raptly. Of course, I had the mind of a child, so I did not always properly interpret what he said. In the days following his Cuban Missile Crisis Speech, every time I saw a small plane fly overhead, I dove into the closest ditch to avoid the possible Cuban bombers. But I loved Mr. Kennedy.

There was nothing my Dad and his two brothers loved more than arguing about the people and events of the day – and they were together at our house every week. It upset me that they were always criticizing and denigrating Mr. Kennedy. I loved him. But I was just a young tyke, not yet welcomed into their boisterous verbal brawling society. So I suffered in silence.

Then, a week after he was killed, I dreaded my uncles coming over, for I could not bear to hear Mr. Kennedy denigrated while I was still deep in mourning for him. To my astonishment, suddenly my Dad and his brothers all now agreed that he was Saint Kennedy. Say what?! If he was a saint, why did they not treat him like one in life? If he was a bum, how did getting killed so transform him? I was too young to understand that people love to criticize, critique, and second guess prominent authority figures while they live and loathe to speak ill of those figures when they have died. Even if I had, to go from speaking all negative to all positive in a matter of days would have seemed a bridge too far beyond respectful understatement to me. I just concluded that grown-ups were crazy, while praying that that particular brand of crazy didn’t take hold of me when I grew up.

***

That episode has been very much on my mind in the aftermath of Pope Francis’ death. In life, I was mainly a critic of his, though I also prayed for him every day – and that I would be measured in my words about him rather than reflexive. When I woke to the news Monday morning, my first reflexive thought was, “Christ is risen: Francis is fallen.” It was a simple juxtaposition of fact rather than an expression of opinion, though the juxtaposition itself bore more than a little pointed sentiment.

I do think that God often speaks to us in large, but subtle, symbols – symbols that we usually ignore or don’t notice at all. But we ignore them to our peril. One thing that unnerved me from the start of Francis’ papacy was the lightning that struck St. Peter’s Cathedral almost immediately twice in the immediate hours after Pope Benedict’s resignation. No, it did not jade me to Francis from the start. I spent the first three years of his papacy as a Francis apologist. But it did unnerve me a bit. The symbolism of his papacy beginning with lightning striking the Vatican and ending within hours after the holy celebration of the Resurrection of Christ is worthy, I think, of contemplation.

There is much to be thankful for that flowed from the papacy of Francis. I always say that, since God barred Himself from interfering with our free will, the main method He uses to prompt reform is threefold: revelation, responsibility, and public declaration. First, He reveals the depths of the problem. Second, He forces us to make a conscious choice of whom we will serve – even if we had ardently avoided that choice previously with all our might. After Philadelphia’s Dr. Kermit Gosnell was found to have murdered dozens, perhaps hundreds, of babies born alive after a failed abortion attempt, people could still be “pro-choice” – but they could no longer pretend they did not know what they were supporting when they stand before God. They made a choice. Third, He requires us to publicly declare where we stand.

Pope Francis was very much a form of contradiction to our smug self-satisfaction. There has long been a cabal of clerics who longed to remake the Church into their own image rather than God’s. They wanted the social status and influence the Church gave them but without the supernatural authority she exercised over them. They carefully hid themselves during the papacy of both St. John Paul and, then, Benedict XVI. With the arrival of Francis, they felt they had finally won and eagerly revealed themselves. Francis is gone, but they still stand revealed. Many Catholics had exchanged their responsibility of serious, sober discernment for silly, formulaic, conceits. Some, in the more orthodox quarters of the faith, have long told themselves that, to be on the right side of things, just do whatever the Pope says, regardless of whether it is part of his legitimate authority or not. There has been a lot of rethinking of that this last decade. Some, having rejected the Pope’s authority on things where he has no authority, have rejected his legitimate authority, as well. There is a price that will have to be paid for that, too.

The time for reflexively smug, self-satisfied discipleship has come to an end. We will have to be thoughtful, intentional disciples or we must stand revealed as no disciples at all. The overt enemies of the faith and the Magisterium are only the first layer of the onion of delusion that must be stripped. Many people who I mainly agree with have their own cherished formulaic totems and panaceas that will also be stripped away. I pray that I only suffer from a few such, but if it is so, it is because I beat the rush in having my comfortable illusions stripped away from me. We can learn now…if we listen and submit to discipline. Each of us will either learn or perish.

So yes, I think we have just ended 12 years of a failed and offensive papacy. I also think God used this papacy to accomplish several critical things we need to live as intentional disciples within the structure Our Lord set up. Funny thing…no matter what we do, God uses it to advance His Kingdom – that we may live.

***

Already I am hearing people saying the Holy Spirit chooses the Pope. No, He does not. The Cardinals elect the Pope. The Holy Spirit offers inspiration for those Cardinals who seek it. Whether they seek that inspiration or seek worldly advantage for themselves, God does not interfere with their free will. He does, however, use whatever they choose to do to accomplish His aims. He always prevails in the end.

This fallacious, pseudo-pious canard is used to prop up the error of papolatry. It is very common because we had such a run of notably good Popes for several centuries. But God is intent that we recollect that having a great Pope does NOT relieve us of our moral agency or responsibility. We must discern and act with our whole heart, mind, body, and soul directed toward Christ.

***

The speculation has also begun over who will be the next Pope. Actually, that began quite a while ago. I’ve seen the lists. You probably have, too. Even before I was formally Catholic, I enjoyed watching the speculation on that subject during interregnums. Before the election of Paul VI, John Paul I, and John Paul II, I saw no lists that referenced them as likely Popes. I did see Benedict XVI on a list before he was elected. It has long seemed to me that the “experts” on this subject do not have near as much expertise as they think they do – kind of like the old Russia hands during the Soviet era.

I’m not going to give any list of names. That’s a fool’s game. BUT, I will tell you, in broad terms, what I think is most likely to happen.

Many have worried that Pope Francis stacked the College of Cardinals with men who are eager to remake the Church in a worldly image. Perhaps, but if God does not select the Pope, He does have His say – which is ultimately decisive. I think the worldly coalition of Cardinals is going to find that all those Cardinals chosen “from the peripheries” are not quite as worldly focused as the coalition had hoped. The heterodox group is going to find they do not have the heft to choose an overtly political Pope as they thought they would. But the orthodox Cardinals will confirm that they do not have the heft to select an obviously orthodox Pope, either. So there will be a compromise candidate. He will at least be in his 70’s – because both sides want to make sure he is interim, to give them time to solidify their own positions to take full control with the one following the next Pope. He will be a diplomat – a man acceptable to the orthodox because they will trust he won’t go out of his way to hurt them. While not all they hoped for, the heterodox Cardinals will be confident that he is their man. That, I think, is the palette God will use to paint His next chapter in salvation history.

***

Christ is doing something new. He taught that men do not put new wine into old wineskins, lest the old wineskins break and the wine pour out. (Matthew 9:17)

Even so, almost everyone tries to analyze what is new using old interpretive templates. The rules have already changed. Dramatically. Schemers will scheme to their own destruction. From now on, doing the most right thing you can think of is not only the right thing to do, it is also the most effective.

You can see it in everything. The establishment media schemed to take down Donald Trump and all conservatives by foul, perverted, lying means. They have only succeeded in destroying their own credibility. They sink further as they try to double down on the old rules that once worked so well for them. There have been many other casualties along these lines – and now the judiciary is busy destroying itself, gleefully thinking that it has the upper hand as it veers ever close to its own destruction. The old rules are dead.

A little over a year ago I began praying for what is simultaneously both a great blessing and a great curse for everyone in the world. I asked the Lord that, for everyone, whatever they do for or earnestly wish for another, it return to them twofold. For those of good heart, it is a blessing. For those of scheming hearts, it is a curse. I believe the Lord has – and is – answering that prayer right now.

We see many things that are unprecedented in these times. That is because these are not ordinary times. The rules have changed.

When I see pollsters asking how people feel about tariffs…or whatever, I laugh. Do they not understand that we are not doing discrete changes on the edges of the margins anymore? Everything has been thrown into the air – to be entirely reshaped. The post World War order is already dead. It was not working for the great mass of ordinary people. It was working fabulously for the grifters who love to call themselves “experts,” who go opine on television about how it is good for Americans to be impoverished, endangered, and reduced to prey for the amusement of the “expert” class.

In America, Trump is not tweaking tariffs or crime or any other particular policy. He saw the world has changed dramatically – and so he is working to reshape America – and the globe – to the benefit of ordinary people who merely want to live their faith and care for their families in freedom. We’re playing football now and the godless left is furiously trying to hit a home run. Both the game and the rules have changed.

***

I am convinced that we are in the battle of Armageddon. Armageddon is the decisive battle between good and evil, preceding the great era of peace, which I believe will be gloriously proclaimed with the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart. It is not, as many think, synonymous with the Apocalypse, which is the final battle before the end of time. In some ways, though, Armageddon is a dress rehearsal for the Apocalypse.

It is vital we get this right. Though I insist this is not the end – or anywhere near the end – I DO believe it is our last chance. Once the era of peace begins, the next time there is a mass falling away from faith will be the beginning of the actual end.

This is part of why things are so dramatically different now. Even as you see people step up to the plate in defense of truth, memory, and plain sense against the depredations of the dark fantasists of the godless, culturally suicidal left, know that those unconscious minions of the satan will not go quietly into the dark night. I believe we are going to see several years of pitched conflict around the globe. Nation will rise against nation, national borders will change, domestic and international institutions will enter into an internal battle of what they will be and whom they will serve. As Someone far greater than me noted, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that you are not troubled: all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.” Rather, the Lord added, these are just the beginning of birth pains. Christ is doing something new – and He has chosen you to be present at the birth of a revitalized world. Give thanks and march with considered deliberation rather than raw panic or useless despair.

***

As all of these tumultuous things unfold, remember who Jesus said will be saved. “…he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved.” And when that era of peace commences, it is our solemn duty to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom as a witness to all the nations. Worry about what we are commanded to do now, rather than over that which is not yet. Begin now. And give thanks to the Lord for choosing you to live during this struggle, one which all the prophets and saints from the beginning of time have longed to see. Give thanks, I say, give thanks!

If communication goes out for any length of time, meet outside your local Church at 9 a.m. on Saturday mornings. Tell friends at Church now in case you can’t then. CORAC teams will be out looking for people to gather in and work with.

Find me on X at @JohnstonPilgrim

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