Author: Daniel O'Connor

Equip Now for Battle

Time to suit up. In accordance with — first of all, Our Lord’s command in the Gospel to proclaim His Name to the whole world; secondly, the Signs of the Times clearly indicating that the urgency of this command has become more dire than ever; and, thirdly, the Prophetic Consensus reaching a fever pitch in begging us to proclaim His Name while there is still time left before the Warning arrives and/or the Great Persecution bursts forth, rendering this proclamation far more difficult, if not nearly impossible out in the open (things like this are just the beginning) — we must now work harder than ever to gather as many souls as possible into His Sacred Heart.

To that end, I will here present some miscellaneous resources and advice to supplement your own proclamation of Christ Crucified. In a word, I seek to help equip you for battle. 

One admonition, though, before diving in: Remember that you cannot give what you do not have. If evangelization consists in spreading the Life of Christ throughout the world, then in order to succeed in this task, you must first have His life within you. Only a saint can really evangelize. So, it’s simple: become a saint. If you’re not a saint, there’s only one reason for that: you don’t want to be one. So stop not wanting to be a saint. Live in the Divine Will.  “…some dare to say that to [attentive souls] I give Grace for them to make themselves saints, and to others I do not, almost wanting to hold Me responsible, while they content themselves with conducting their lives lazing about, as if the light of Grace were not there for them…” – Jesus to Luisa. October 20, 1916. Holy week, now upon us, is the best time to become a saint. So whatever you’ve been indefinitely putting off in that regard, today is the day to no longer put it off. And be sure to offer Our Lord consolation, especially this Holy Thursday and Good Friday, by repenting of all your sins (hopefully with a good confession in the next couple days) and reading the Hours of the Passion. 

Now, on to the equipment:

Rosary in Public

Whenever you find yourself walking around in public: on the sidewalks, in the store, at the library, at school, or wherever, carry your Rosary beads openly and proudly. Even if you are not actively engaged in praying a full blown Rosary at that moment, this is still a powerful witness, and merely reverently clutching Our Lady’s Weapon in your hand is itself a powerful prayer.

Whenever you are praying a Rosary in public, be sure that you are doing so on Rosary beads that you are willing to part with. If anyone asks you about what you are holding, it is FAR more powerful to say to them, “here, you can have my Rosary beads. Stay close to our Mother Mary!” than it is to reach into your purse or backpack and pull out a spare Rosary from a little plastic baggy and hand that to the person. 

There are plenty of places you can acquire many Rosaries. One such example is Holy Cross Family Ministries, which sends out beads for free.

Proclaim the Divine Mercy 

Of the Divine Mercy Image, Jesus promised to St. Faustina that “whosoever venerates this image shall not perish.” Do we demonstrate the faintest belief in this promise by our actions? If we aren’t doing our best to ensure that as many people as possible are given the opportunity to venerate it… then, no, we aren’t. Let’s change that. 

Of course, the Divine Mercy Message is about much more than just the image. However, instead of saying more about that here and now, I’ll just direct you to a talk I gave several years ago, as well as the work of my good friend Fr. Chris Alar, and also a wonderful new website which was just made to promote the Divine Mercy: https://www.divinemercymessage.com/  

Evangelize in Every Single Conversation

Don’t let a single conversation (even if only a brief interaction with a cashier) evade you without in some way evangelizing during it. 

Those who have read my blog are accustomed to seeing me boldly proclaim, with great clarity, the most “controversial” elements of the moral and Divine Law. But this is not the approach that is called for in most conversations during which you evangelize. You are under no obligation to explicitly and immediately contradict every single error you happen to hear. And you will never succeed in evangelizing if you feel you must be everybody’s tutor: first of all, because you will simply avoid evangelizing if you are so scrupulous as to suppose this duty exists; instead, you’ll more likely wind up just sitting behind your keyboard typing out angry comments on social media. Secondly, you’ll more likely just push people away if you begin your evangelization with admonishment. Good evangelization is gentle, graceful, natural, and begins with the basics: Jesus’ infinite love for each soul, and the availability of His Mercy for all, no matter what. Phony evangelization, however, indefinitely stays at that level and refuses to ever get to the point of admonishment. I made www.PrepareToSeeHim.org in order to provide some gentle admonishment to try and inspire souls to be rid of their sins. The importance of 1) Not leaving out admonishment, but 2) Not beginning with it, either, is precisely why I put that URL on the Evangelization Cards (more on these cards below); so that those whom the Spirit moves to learn more will find a resource which reminds them of the things in their lives that must change.

Of course, the Holy Spirit is the one Who inspires true evangelization, and He is well within His rights to direct you to say whatever He pleases. Sometimes this will indeed mean being very strong in calling something out, even while evangelizing. So above all, simply ensure you always remain open to His guidance, and He will give you the words. If you can, silently say a simple prayer before any interaction with others: “Lord, let me speak all of Your words and only Your words, in Your Will and not mine, for Your glory and not mine.” 

Sometimes your evangelizing efforts will be miniscule. That’s okay. A little is infinitely better than nothing, and God can work miracles through even a tiny effort on our part. Sometimes something as simple as a smile (so if you can, take off that stupid mask!) and saying “God bless you” before departing can change someone’s life forever.  

Use Evangelization Cards

Always have a few of these in your pocket whenever you go out. They are sized like standard business cards, and the front and back are as follows:

If you’d like a batch, you can fill out the form here: https://atomic-temporary-9645019.wpcomstaging.com/evangelization-cards/

My wife and I will do our best to mail you some. For the last few months since I last posted about this, we haven’t been able to send more out, so if you’ve placed a request during that time period, we’ll still get yours out shortly, as we are about ready to get to work sending out another round. Due to the generous donation of C, we still have cards, postage, and envelopes left, and we’ll happily continue sending these as long as we can. Depending upon how many requests we get, it may not be possible for us to fulfill them all, but we will try! Finally, quite a few envelopes were returned during our last round of mailings as we wound up putting too many cards in for the amount of postage affixed. My apologies. If you never received cards you requested last time I posted about this, feel free to put in a new request. 

  • Hand them to people on the streets who ask you for money
  • Place them in spots where they will be picked up
  • Put them in the envelope with your checks when you pay the bills
  • Leave them near places of sin in hopes of calling the souls that frequent them to repentance (e.g. near the prophylactics or impure magazines in the supermarket or convenience store) 
  • Bring them with you when you pray outside of abortion mills
  • Be creative and be zealous!

Proclaim the Kingdom

We live in the most exciting times in the history of the world. After 6,000 years of preparation, God is ready to commence the Reign of His Will on earth as in Heaven. You need to tell people about this. 

Yes, Chastisements will be needed for purification before this Reign can be universal, but these Chastisements will be more or less brief (even if enormous, apocalyptic, and unprecedented), and what will follow them will make all the suffering more than worthwhile. And what is most important anyway is that this Reign begins in your soul right now. This can happen, this must happen, and this will happen, if only you want it. 

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then watch the video above and go to www.ProclaimTheKingdom.com to learn more. Once you know the gist: GET TO WORK PROCLAIMING IT. You needn’t be an expert in Jesus’ revelations to Luisa to do so. Here are some ideas:

  • Here is a simple, one page Word Document of the image below. Here is the same thing as a PDF. Print it and post it places!
  • Send out the video above
  • Hand out copies of The Crown of History. I am also happy to send out bulk orders at no profit at all to myself (click here). I wrote this book in order to try and provide the most brief introduction I could manage to Jesus’ revelations to Luisa. The entire book is also free as an audiobook; please promote it.  
  • Start a Divine Will prayer group. Be sure to, above all, ground this group 100% in orthodox Catholic Teaching. Then, proceed however you like, and do not feel like you “have to” do it a certain way — just ignore the bossy micromanagers who think they own Luisa’s revelations :-). You could perhaps pray the Rosary and/or Divine Mercy Chaplet together, then the Chaplet of the Divine Will given to us by St. Hannibal (Luisa’s spiritual director and most zealous promoter), then proceed to discuss something from the Hours of the Passion, the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will, Luisa’s Letters, or the 36 Volumes.  
  • Like all of God’s greatest efforts in the world, the Divine Will is zealously opposed by the Pharisees. Don’t let them put you off; such people are always around, they always oppose the Holy Spirit, and they’ve already been fully refuted in the Appendices of The Crown of Sanctity. In some Catholic circles, even the Divine Mercy of St. Faustina is still opposed, as if its promises are too great to be orthodox and as if it is somehow an affront to the Sacred Heart devotion . I advise against wasting your time with lengthy debates with Pharisees, but do ensure that all who have been exposed to their slanders have been given this PDF and directed to see its appendices. 
    • We live in an age of many false prophets, and consequently there are plenty of Catholics out there who are — completely rightly and understandably — extremely cautious with private revelation. Do not lump them in with the slandering Pharisees mentioned above simply because they are cautious. Instead, direct them to www.SunOfMyWill.com
  • Pray for Luisa’s intercession and carefully document (then send to your Bishop) any miracles received. Trust me, she is an amazing miracle worker. 

Fight for Life

Abortion is the most terrible crime in the history of the world. Of all temporal battles, the most important one is to fight for life. But do not think so much about abortion as a “general issue;” rather, think about the individual souls in your own home town who are tempted to get abortions, and the children in their mothers’ wombs whose very lives are at risk. Fighting for pro-life laws, for example, is very good and we must engage in this battle. But it is even better to exercise your love more concretely and specifically: by going out to your local abortion mill and peacefully praying and even sidewalk counseling. 

Participating in 40 Days for Life is a wonderful way to do this. But remember, abortion happens 365 days a year, not only 80 days a year (i.e. the Fall and Spring 40 Days for Life Campaigns), so aim for keeping your pro-life work up beyond the end of each individual 40DfL campaign. There is probably a pro-life group in your local area: find it and participate in it. If there isn’t one, then start one. People who have left the abortion industry have testified that merely seeing someone praying outside a Planned Parenthood causes many women to silently choose not to have an abortion. That is amazing. Don’t watch movies about the great genocides and other atrocities of history and say to yourself, “If I lived then and there, I would have done something about it.” The worst genocide in history — the genocide of the unborn — is happening right outside your door, and you can do something about it. 

Daily Mass & Communion

If possible, attend Mass and receive Communion every single day. Absent the 3 months of Spring 2020 lockdowns, this has been the greatest grace of my life for the past 13 years, and I heartily recommend it to all. (It also enables you to receive a Plenary Indulgence every single day, which should cause you to have absolutely no fear of death. Whoever is striving to Live in the Divine Will — and any sincerely devout Catholic for that matter — should have no fear of death anyway, but a daily Plenary Indulgence sure helps!)

Undertaking well the duties of your state in life, of course, should come before daily Mass; I am not here asking those to attend Mass daily who, for example, would have to spend hours in the car each day in order to do so. I ask only that you be honest with yourself (a task that no one else can do for you) about whether you can reasonably accommodate daily Mass. Go to www.MassTimes.org and determine what daily Masses are said within a reasonable drive of your home or job — the majority of Catholics could easily go to Mass each day while still managing the duties of their state in life just fine; but, sadly, we see an utterly miniscule percentage of Catholics at daily Mass, and few priests even acknowledge, must less encourage, daily Mass during their Sunday homilies. This is particularly tragic when considering that we know that the Eucharist is the source and summit of our lives, and when we consider what the Magisterium, Popes and Private Revelation have said about daily Mass and the Eucharist:

Jesus to the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta, November 5th, 1925:

“The Sacrament of the Eucharist is not only their own life that souls receive, but is my very Life that gives Itself to them.  So, the fruit of this Sacrament is to form my Life in them, and each Communion serves to make my Life grow, to develop It, in such a way that one may be able to say:  ‘I am another Christ’.  But, alas!, how few take advantage of it. “

Pope St. Pius X, Sacra Tridentina Synodus:

“…all Christians should be daily nourished by this heavenly banquet [the Eucharist]…Moreover, we are bidden in the Lord’s Prayer to ask for “our daily bread” by which words, the holy Fathers of the Church all but unanimously teach, must be understood not so much that material bread which is the support of the body as the Eucharistic bread which ought to be our daily food…. [it is] the desire of Jesus Christ and of the Church that all the faithful should daily approach the sacred banquet…The will of God in this respect was well understood by the first Christians; and they daily hastened to this Table of life and strength. …”

This is a canonized saint Pope, in a weighty Magisterial document, begging all Catholics to be daily Communicants. Do you realize how serious this is? He even points out that the Our Father prayer itself, in its asking God for our “daily bread,” is not primarily about physical food, but is primarily about the Eucharist. 

Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1324: 

“The Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life.” “The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch.”

So, again, daily Mass is certainly not a requirement, and shouldn’t be undertaken if it would impair the duties of your state in life. But you will not be able to successfully discern if you are called to daily Mass if you do not recognize how glorious it is. If you regard it as “just another pious option among many,” you’ll be inclined to avoid it by failing to recognize just what sacrifices for the sake of it are worth making on account of how important it is. 

Be a Divine Will Missionary of Mercy

If you are attending Mass each day, you can also, each day, be a Divine Will Missionary of Mercy. I started this apostolate several years ago, and you can go to the website to learn more (www.DWMoM.org). But the gist is this: to receive Jesus in the Eucharist every day, earnestly beseech Him to remain Sacramentally within you and grant His Will to you, so that as you leave the Church, you truly become a Eucharistic Procession out into the world. This, indeed, is the essence of the Mystery of the Visitation. As Pope Benedict XVI said, it was history’s first Eucharistic Procession. Just as Mary received the Real Presence of Jesus into her womb upon the Annunciation, so too we — whenever we receive Communion — receive the Real Presence of Jesus into our own bodies. And we must imitate Mary: we must not keep these graces to ourselves; rather, we must bring them out into the world. Our Lady told the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta that, in the Visitation, she went to see Elizabeth  “… not simply to pay her a visit, but because my Heart was set ablaze with the desire to bring Jesus to her…I felt ardent yearnings to give my dear Jesus to everyone, so that all might possess him and love him.” (The Blessed Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will. Day 20.) We must be like Our Lady. This is one powerful way to do so. 

You may not be able to take this proclamation to the impoverished city streets surrounding urban Churches (which I present as one possible way of being a DWMoM), but you can still say the DWMoM prayer after receiving Communion and modify this prayer however you need to (here is an editable word document) in order to apply it to whatever the duties of your state in life require you to do after Mass, and thereby become a Eucharistic Procession into your workplace, school, errands, commute, etc. 

Do Something Crazy and Out There

I do not know the future, but it is quite possible that we have scarcely any time left before everything we know in the world radically changes forever. In consideration of this possibility, do not rule out the prospect that God may be calling you to right now do something great for His glory. The fact that the day of Public Revelation’s prophecy is over does not change the fact that God still calls prophets to do things not unlike what the Biblical Prophets themselves did. 

Have you perhaps fallen into sin? That is unfortunate. Hopefully you have repented. If not, do so immediately and go to confession. But now, consider that God allows all things for a reason; even our falls. One major reason He allows falls in those who love Him is to compel them to “make up for it” by doing great things for His Glory.

As Jesus said to the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta:

“Sometimes I allow the guilt in a soul who loves me in order to squeeze her more tightly to Me, and to oblige her to do greater things for my glory. In fact, the more I give to her, permitting even guilt in order to endear her more to Me for her miseries – to love her more and to fill her with my charisms, the more I push her to do great things for Me. These are the excesses of my Love.” – April 23, 1912

I will not here present a list of “crazy and out there” great things you can do for God’s glory. Such tasks must be inspired by God speaking to your heart and must be carefully discerned with fervent prayer and individual priestly spiritual direction. But don’t rule them out just because there will be plenty of “serious Catholics” who call you crazy or overzealous. Soon, you’ll be dead. And whatever temporal thing you had to give up, and whatever temporal persecution you had to endure, in order to do this great thing for God will themselves seem like nothing; whereas the great thing you did for God will never be forgotten.  

Don’t let them spin this

If you checked the news today, you likely already heard that the Vatican’s CDF, with Pope Francis’ express approval, authoritatively ruled out the possibility of the Church ever blessing homosexual unions. While any sincere Catholic would have already known full well that such a blessing is obviously radically contrary to the Faith and completely illicit, this is nevertheless certainly newsworthy, as we have lately not been accustomed to such clarity coming from the Vatican. Even secular news sources usually reported fairly accurately the main thrust of this ruling:

God cannot bless sin. The Church cannot bless sin. Christians cannot bless sin. No exceptions. Not now, not ever. Period.

Love the sinner, yes. But hate the sin. No “advanced theology” is needed here.

Heaven’s messages have lately been particularly urgent in imploring prayers from the faithful on behalf of their shepherds, and I have no doubt that this ruling is one of the fruits of those prayers. So, please, keep these prayers up. Rather, redouble them. This ruling, though a Godsend indeed, may even be the event that spurs on the prophesied formal schism — as I think we all know full well that the German Bishop’s Conference will not tolerate it — as well as the event that spurs on the formal persecution, as I think we all know equally well that the worldly powers that be will not much longer allow any dissent from their own sexual-morality-overthrowing anti-dogmas. The handwriting is on the wall.

[Update: minutes after publishing this post, I saw that the head of the German Bishop’s Conference has said he is “not happy”]

But it is equally essential that we not allow this CDF Document to be spun, by the wolves within the Church, in such a way as to imply that its prohibitions are less restrictive than they, in fact, are. These wolves are already in overdrive seeking to enact this spin. AP News quoted the powerful Catholic nun, Sr. Simone Campbell — who most recently made headlines for praising Joe Biden’s pro-abortion stance as “developed” — as saying she was “relived [sic] the Vatican statement wasn’t worse… you could [still] have a ritual where the individuals get blessed to be their committed selves.” (Whatever that means.) Papal biographer and de-facto Pope Francis spokesman, Austen Ivereigh, is claiming “this doesn’t make [same sex unions] bad or wrong per se.” America Magazine, which I criticized strongly a few posts ago, complains that this ruling “…’was not discussed’ in the monthly plenary meeting of [the CDF],” before asserting that when the ruling finally moved “in a positive direction,” it spoke about welcoming with respect same-sex attracted persons… as if it was not a “positive” thing for the CDF to reiterate perennial, soul-saving Church Teaching. Fr. James Martin is trying to deflect attention back to Pope Francis’ (deeply erroneous) personal opinion that we should have same-sex civil unions:

[Update 2 (3/16/2021). The popular Jesuit priest, Fr. Thomas Reese, has just written,“My guess is that [Pope Francis] was given the document right before he left for Iraq and deferred to the congregation rather than subject the document to a close personal review.” This “guess” is impossible, because although we only learned of the Document yesterday, it was nevertheless signed and promulgated on February 22nd; long before Pope Francis’ Iraq trip. As we can see, this “spin” I am cautioning against is already reaching an absurd degree, as the biggest voices in the “Catholic left” are trying to pretend that Pope Francis doesn’t even agree with the very Magisterial document he just signed off on. Bear in mind that this document is a whopping 2 pages long; supposing — for any reason — that Pope Francis “didn’t carefully read it” is ridiculous.]

The truth is that, while the focus of this document is indeed the question of what the Church can (or cannot, rather) bless in the context of sacramentals, its teachings are anything but restricted to this domain; it’s teachings also rule out any sort of same-sex “civil union” or any other endorsement of homosexuality.

While the first several paragraphs of the document offer catechesis on the nature of sacramentals, the teachings contained thereafter are not presented as being restricted to describing the boundaries of sacramentals alone. The following paragraph of the ruling is the key to understanding the broader implications of this document, so I present it in full (with emphasis added):

The answer to the proposed dubium does not preclude the blessings given to individual persons with homosexual inclinations, who manifest the will to live in fidelity to the revealed plans of God as proposed by Church teaching. Rather, it declares illicit any form of blessing that tends to acknowledge their unions as such. In this case, in fact, the blessing would manifest not the intention to entrust such individual persons to the protection and help of God, in the sense mentioned above, but to approve and encourage a choice and a way of life that cannot be recognized as objectively ordered to the revealed plans of God.

The CDF here makes it explicit that it is not merely condemning the liturgical, sacramental blessing of a homosexual union. Rather, “any form of blessing,” whatsoever, of a homosexual union as such, is condemned, because it would constitute an “approval” and an “encouragement” of something contrary to the “revealed plans of God.”

A “blessing,” in the broadest sense — which is the intended sense here, by virtue of the phrase “any form” — is simply any act of praise. Whatever would “praise” a sinful or disordered situation, is utterly ruled out by basic Christian common sense… and by this CDF ruling. Praising sin or disorder does not become okay merely because it is done outside of a liturgical context.

If, however, one insists upon interpreting “blessing” here (despite the qualifier “any form”) as being restricted to the context of sacramentals, this still makes no difference. For this paragraph does not say that such a blessing would merely fail to remain in keeping with the proper norms governing Sacramentals. Rather, it says that such a blessing would do something objectively wrong –– something, in other words, wrong in every single situation: sacramental or otherwise, liturgical or otherwise, from clergy or from laity, from the Church or from the secular world — namely, it would approve that which is contrary to God’s Law. No one may ever do that.

I hope and pray that this will encourage a moment of repentance for those Catholics who jumped on the bandwagon to agree with Pope Francis’ personal opinion that we should have same-sex civil unions, since this CDF ruling — which is no mere personal opinion, but rather participates in the Church’s Ordinary Magisterium, and which bears Pope Francis’ explicit approval — flatly contradicts such a stance.

I hope this will also serve as a general reminder that personal opinions of Popes cannot overturn Magisterium. Last October, when it came to light that Pope Francis personally endorsed same-sex civil unions, Catholics should have known better than to jump on board. They should have known that the CDF already Magisterially ruled, in 2003, that “all Catholics are obliged to oppose the legal recognition of homosexual unions” and that “laws in favour of homosexual unions are contrary to right reason” and that “In those situations where homosexual unions have been legally recognized … clear and emphatic opposition is a duty.” Instead, so many chose to reject the True Magisterium and jump on board with a fashionable opinion that the Pope personally held. Similarly, so many are pretending that Pope Francis’ personally preferred interpretation of one footnote of one of his apostolic exhortations (Amoris Laetitia) has the right to overturn a clear and direct Magisterial teaching actually within another apostolic exhortation (Familiaris Consortio paragraph 84) . Frankly, these situations are not all that confusing. How to side with the True Magisterium in these cases is not that perplexing. One simply needs to want it.

Perhaps this CDF document bearing express Papal approval was even Pope Francis’ way of repenting of his error and seeking to make amends. I do not believe it was any accident that this ruling was promulgated on the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter. Let us continue to trust in the promise that Christ gave to Peter. The Gates of Hell shall not prevail. Though we can count on more bumps along the way, we can rest assured that God will not disappoint.

Let us not forget that he is our Pope. We must continue to love him and pray for him. Prayers are powerful, dear brethren in Christ.

Pray, pray, pray.

There are no aliens.

I had been writing this piece as an appendix to my forthcoming post on Resisting the Coming Diabolical “Quantum Leap” –– but, as it took on a life of its own, I am now instead publishing it on its own as a forerunner (a preview, perhaps) of that post. 

Indeed, part of the coming Great Deception will perhaps in some way involve the notion of “aliens,” this notion being used to persuade us to change our ways and beliefs. I am concerned that this Great Deception will be hastened with the imminent release of the U.S. Government’s hitherto confidential “UFO” files — their deadline is June of this year. And I am equally concerned that many in the Vatican will do their utmost to promote this Deception (it wouldn’t be the first deception that many prelates in the Vatican have promoted lately), especially now that we have a Pope who has boasted that he would happily “baptize Martians,” and theologians in the Vatican giddy about the idea of aliens. Last year’s Vatican Nativity Scene was, I fear, more than just a hideous piece of “art,” but perhaps was also a symbol and a signal that they are ready to promote this Deception as soon as the time is ripe. I mean, just look at it:

This proposal to listen to the aliens, (“more evolved beings,” they will be called by their mediators among our elite), however, — if indeed it is offered — will be nothing other than a cover for the demons themselves to directly instruct the masses to a degree they usually can only attain with devoted Satanists themselves. It is, therefore, essential that we all right now realize that there are no aliens — that is, no extraterrestrial intelligent incarnate life (in this post I am only addressing the question of extraterrestrial intelligent life) — so that we are not tempted to dialogue with or listen to demons if they communicate under the guise of being friendly aliens. We already know that demons use any opportunity they can find to give camouflaged destructive communications to unsuspecting souls who stray from realms of safety — e.g. people using Ouija boards or participating in Séances — so there is no reason to suppose these demons won’t likewise use modern society’s fixation upon “aliens” to do the same thing. 

Now, I am aware that no Church Dogmas expressly and explicitly affirm that there are no extraterrestrials (So don’t worry, I am not accusing you of being a formal heretic if you believe they exist!). But it is still quite clearly contained within Church Teaching. Read on to see why that is the case. 

The word “Human.” The Church does teach that all of humanity truly descended from the two literal, and first, humans: Adam and Eve (See, for example, Humani Generis). But “human” doesn’t merely mean “those who descended from Adam and Eve.” Such a definition of the word “human” would render the aforementioned Church Teaching a mere trivial truism; an empty tautology. And we know that no Church Teachings are like that. Indeed, “human” has always been defined (in both Catholic theology and Catholic philosophy) as “rational animal” (that is, intelligent incarnate life). From this it follows that all rational animals are descendents of Adam and Eve; which, in turn, means that there are no extraterrestrials (at least, no intelligent ones). 

If one protests, “But ‘human’ actually just means rational incarnate life on this particular planet,” then the burden of proof rests on that person. Nowhere that I know of has the Church defined “human” as necessitating that distinction; everywhere we see man defined, this definition is given in a way that implies, if not outright indicates, universality; “human” simply being the word encompassing all rational incarnate life. As the Catechism itself teaches (quoting Vatican II’s binding teaching): 

“Of all visible creatures [i.e. non-angels], only man is able to know and love his creator… he [man] alone is called to share… in God’s own life.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 356) 

(Note: the full context also makes reference to “on this earth,” simply to distinguish earth from Heaven/Hell/Purgatory. But even if one insists upon a different interpretation of “on this earth,” it makes no difference: the clauses I present above are logically independent from that reference, which anyone will see who reads the entire section and considers basic grammatical norms.)

Now, an alien believer will protest, “Ah! So maybe there are aliens, they just aren’t able to know and love God or share in His life!” But this protestation blasphemes God’s goodness. Any rational creature, by nature, is intrinsically inseparable from the potency (and call) to know and love God. For God to create a rational being who nevertheless could not know Him would be for God to create an evil, which can never be (God can at most allow evil; never cause it). From this, too, it therefore follows that we can be certain that man is the only visible (non-angelic) creature that exists who has rationality. No aliens. 

The sensus fidelium absolutely rules out aliens. We must also consider the fact that the Church does teach that sensus fidelium is infallible; the sensus fidelium being the consensus of all the Faithful. Now, if something is infallible, that means it cannot change at any time — it does not merely mean that it was “true in its day.” Infallibility is by nature permanent. This means that discoveries in, say, the year 2021, cannot possibly warrant conclusions that contradict what the sensus fidelium held in the year 1300. A batch of theologians — even if they reside in the Vatican — deciding in the year 2021 that they believe in the existence or possibility of something that the sensus fidelium held, in the year 1300, to be impossible, cannot budge that element of the sensus fidelium one iota. Up until the days of Galileo’s discoveries (and the concomitant absurd, but predictable, assumption by the giddily progress-crazed scholars of the times following that all of these newly observed planets and moons “must” have life on them just like ours… more below…), the sensus fidelium always held that human beings were the only intelligent incarnate life. I challenge anyone to find any meaningful amount of material — from the millions of pages we have which derive from any point in the Church’s history from 33 AD to 1500 AD that regards the proposition of extraterrestrial intelligent life (or any extraterrestrial incarnate life, for that matter) seriously. I’m not holding my breath. (Nota Bene: no, Aquinas and other scholastics did not posit the possibility of aliens; more on that below.)

We are, therefore, “stuck” with that element of the Sensus forever. Similarly, the Church (as far as I know) gives no clear and explicit Dogmas that Christ was celibate; and yet, we know with certainty that He was celibate, since this has always been an element of the Sensus Fidelium — and the ridiculous Dan Brown novels (e.g. Da Vinci Code) cannot budge that fact one bit, no matter how many theologians pretend it is possible that Christ wasn’t celibate. 

Neither can one claim that this question of extraterrestrials is outside of the proper domain of the Sensus Fidelium, as, for example, the details of physics and astronomy are (i.e., it will not work to protest, “but for the first thousand years of Christianity, all the faithful thought the earth didn’t rotate, also!”). For the question of whether mankind (and thus the Incarnation and Redemption) is unique is no mere trifle and no mere empirical question that could be dismissed as tangential to the Faith; rather, it is a question that touches upon our fundamental understanding of the Creator’s creation, our place within it, the meaning of the Incarnation, the domain of Redemption, and on the list goes. As you will see below, the Catholic theologian alien-supporters themselves implicitly admit that this is a Faith-essential question, since they say that discovering aliens would require us to “completely re-read” the Faith. Whether the earth rotates, on the other hand (and other similar questions), has absolutely no effect on the Faith. 

An article in Scientific American published a couple weeks ago, though ostensibly refuting my point on the Sensus Fidelium here presented, actually only proves my point. The article’s very title boldly (and falsely) claims “Until recently, people accepted the ‘fact’ of Aliens in the Solar System.” The body of the article, however, confuses one small period of history — the era of modernism — with history itself, as it only refers to “the period from some four hundred years ago until the last century” harboring the widespread belief (among scientists) in aliens. The entire article contains not a single reference to belief in extraterrestrial life before Galileo. (Note: there were indeed ancient pre-Christian thinkers who believed in aliens; but, obviously, they do not get a “vote” in the Sensus Fidelium!)  One thing this article does an excellent job of, however, is to demonstrate that those who blindly “trust the science,” when doing so requires leaving aside common sense, good philosophy, or good theology, are always led into error. Indeed, most — if not practically all — of the post-Galileo astronomers insisted [with their primitive telescopes to ‘prove’ it] that the Moon, and Mars, and the other planets they could see, were filled with life. “Our telescopes prove it! Look at the engineered canals on Mars!” (there were none) they would proclaim in the 1800s when telescopes were improved further still. Now, “the science” clearly proved extraterrestrial life! The 18th century astronomer who discovered Uranus, William Herschel, insisted that not only were the planets populated with aliens, but so was the sun (it has dark spots! These simply must be holes in its life-supporting atmosphere!). The 19th century astronomer and “enlightenment”-promoting Christian minister Thomas Dick went on to calculate that there were 50 billion aliens on Venus, 15 billion on Mars, 7 trillion on Jupiter, and 8 trillion on Saturn’s rings. If you dared contradict these claims with philosophy or theology, then you were, of course, nothing but a “rigid philosopher” or a “dogma-obsessed theologian” who failed to acknowledge the superiority of science. These scientists had the “evidence,” after all! They had the telescopes, the calculations, and the advanced astronomy! 

Then …. came July 14th, 1965, when Mariner 4 sent us back photos and other observations of the surface of Mars during its flyby: no magnetic field, virtually no atmosphere, and nothing but a surface of dead rock. As the article there linked notes, “There were, alas, none of the canals seen by astronomers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, nor evidence of senders of messages heard by Nikola Tesla or Gugliemo Marconi. Indeed, the hazy images of a barren, crater-strewn landscape ended speculation that Mars might plausibly be inhabited by higher life forms.” 

Indeed, sometimes the vindication of good philosophy and theology takes centuries. Only months before these photos were obtained, the famous skeptic (probably atheist, but at least agnostic) Carl Sagan insisted — in a formal scientific paper –– that “the present body of scientific evidence suggests” that there is life on Mars. This was the case, Sagan continued, because of “photometrically observed waves of darkening … [interpreted] in terms of seasonal biological activity.” Woops. Too bad Sagan saved his “skepticism” for God — Whom anyone should easily be able to conclude with certainty, and even with reason alone, exists — instead of being skeptical about scientific conjectures. But remember, Sagan wasn’t merely giving a personal opinion; rather, he was representing a “body of scientific evidence”  (indeed, those waves on Mars had been observed for over a hundred years). Well, the inferences drawn from that entire “body of evidence” were garbage. We now know those waves are just from dead dust moving around. [Similarly, science itself will soon conclude that macroevolution was the biggest hoax in the history of science, despite the fact that the vast majority of scientists now believe it. (It is, however, a much newer theory than the post-Galileo Martian-life theories which were annihilated 56 years ago; centuries after they were written.) ] 

Of course, we never learn our lessons. Men of a given age almost invariably arrogantly regard “our science” as somehow by nature a different kind of thing than yesterday’s science. One hears it said today, “Come on! It’s 2021!” — which is no more meaningful than reminding one of which day of the week it is — “…now we actually can allow science to overturn philosophy and theology!” What utter myopia. Don’t succumb to it. In my forthcoming post on Resisting the Coming Diabolical “Quantum Leap,” I will be writing on a number of other areas in which we must be sure to never allow “what the science says” to undermine what we should know is true by Faith and Reason. 

***

A note on Aquinas and the Scholastics: Those who do not understand how Scholastic Theology works are known to take certain considerations found in the writings of Aquinas and others — whether before or after him — and pretend that these great spiritual masters thought that there are, or might be, extraterrestrials. But that is false. In pointing out that making “other worlds” is possible for God, Aquinas was just making a theological point about God’s omnipotence and the world’s finitude, not presenting a speculation about aliens. Jesus said the same to Luisa: “One single act of my Will is enough to create a thousand worlds.” (October 20, 1914) Aquinas’ point here would be in contradiction to (for example) that of Descartes, who thought that God would not even be capable of creating other worlds (cosmos), for Descartes erroneously regarded the given physical space we now inhabit as exhaustive of all possibilities. 

The Grave Dangers of Believing in Aliens

Karl Rahner, a theologian very influential during Vatican II, famously posited that aliens were possible. (While Fr. Karl certainly had some good things to say, which I am not disputing, it should be noted in considering this particular question that he is perhaps best known for his heretical teachings by which he supported artificial contraception and women’s ordination.) He said “it cannot be proved that multiple incarnations in different histories of salvation is absolutely unthinkable.” Of course it’s unthinkable, Fr. Karl. Salvation History is just that: Salvation History. Not “a” Salvation History or “our” Salvation History or “one” Salvation History. The phrase has no qualifiers because it needs no qualifiers; it enjoys a categorically and absolutely spatio-temporally/universally unique status. It is the only Salvation History and it is everyone’s Salvation History. However, if one is merely a theologian and has forgotten what is infinitely more important than advanced theology (namely, basic Christian common sense), then this absurdity is indeed quite “thinkable.” 

The current Vatican astronomer, Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti, tragically goes even further, claiming that discovering alien civilizations will require us to conduct a “rereading of the Gospel in light of the new data.” He is far from alone in the Vatican in believing in aliens who will, or may, require us to completely “reread” our Faith and fundamentally change our theology.

Can you not see how diabolical this is? There are no aliens. But I do not doubt that the Antichrist or his forerunners will try to convince us that there are — and that, conveniently, he has contact with them (and maybe even can “show them” to us) — and through this “contact” he will strive to compel us to “reread” our Faith, thus emptying it of its power, as St. Paul prophesied for these times. Have nothing to do with it. 

But the damage is, sadly, not restricted to when the “aliens” are “introduced” to us; the damage is being done right now. To even think that it is possible (as Fr. Giuseppe and so many others in the Vatican and throughout the Church do) that something like contact with alien civilizations might one day require us to completely “re-read the Gospel” and “revise our theology” is to even now undermine the confidence and certitude we must have in our Faith — as it is understood; as it is laid out in public revelation; as it is developed by Sacred Tradition; as it is authoritatively interpreted by Magisterium. I’m not saying we should pretend we “have it all figured out.” We don’t, and we never will. God is a great mystery and we must stand in awe and humility before Him and His creation. But maintaining a posture of humility and awe, as we ought, does not imply that we should be flexible with those truths which we should know to be true.  

The justification for saying aliens do exist, or might exist, is always the same: “given the incredible number of planets out there, it is likely or at least possible that life developed somewhere else as well.” But the premises of such an assertion are nothing but patently heretical Darwinism. Life cannot “develop” if merely given enough chances to do so. It can only be created by God. It wouldn’t matter if there were a trillion times as many planets out there as modern astronomers now think there are and if the universe were a trillion times as old as they think it is– the chance of life “developing” would still be zero — mathematically, scientifically, and logically impossible — as demonstrated in part 1 of The Crown of Sanctity. 

A few footnotes:

  1. I’m aware that there is one small passage in Maria Valtorta’s writings that seem to speak of aliens. It’s not the only error in her writings. (I’m making no claims regarding Valtorta’s authenticity here; even authentic mystics’ private revelations can, and often do, contain errors! I do not know much about Valtorta, so I cannot comment on her, but I do know that many people I love and trust regard her highly, so please don’t take my insistence that she is wrong on one small thing as an attack on her or her mystical writings. Even St. Catherine of Siena’s private revelations had at least one glaring error! [i.e. that Our Lady was not immaculately conceived])
  2. I’m also aware of the many claims of UFO/Alien phenomena. Although the vast majority of these can be explained by military testing/ atmospheric phenomena/ optical illusions/manipulated media/ weather balloons/ mentally unstable people “seeing” things/etc., it is also true that some testimonies are not so easily cast aside. I am not one to ignore what a person — who by all accounts appears trustworthy — insists that he himself directly observed. Indeed, we must take such testimonies seriously. However, when one reads these testimonies, they almost universally include elements of incredible darkness and evil. The people themselves who give the testimonies usually speak of some horrible, dark, evil feeling pervading them when they witnessed the “UFO” or the “alien.” Often heinous sexual things are described. All of this just confirms my thesis: yes, there may well be alleged “aliens,” but, again, they aren’t aliens at all; rather, they are demonic manifestations. This just redoubles the importance of rejecting the possibility of actual aliens, so that we may remain firm in our insistence to have nothing to do with these “aliens” when they appear. 
  3. Consider as well that any alien race would either be 1) Unfallen, or 2) Fallen, thus in need of Redemption. If they were 1) Unfallen, then they would each be Immaculate Conceptions, which would itself be contrary to Catholic Dogma on Our Lady being the only Immaculate Conception. If they were 2) In need of Redemption, then this would be abhorrent, since they could not receive it — it is Catholic Dogma that there is one and only one Incarnation (which itself is necessary for Redemption). 
  4. The typical Catholic response to this question these days, i.e. “Well, there’s no Church teaching on this, so who knows,” may not, after all, be accurate. Pope Zachary may indeed have condemned this notion. Here is an excerpt from Ireland and the Antipodes: The Heterodoxy of Virgil of Salzburg, by John Carey. 

Now, the cleric in question, “Virgil,” did later become a Bishop (and was canonized a saint!), so we can presume he recanted this view — plenty of saints have believed errors and then recanted. Nevertheless, Pope Zachary evidently regarded this error of positing the existence of “other men” in “another world” beneath the earth (or perhaps even on the sun and moon) as such an egregious opposition to God that it was “abominable,” a detriment to one’s very soul, and a just cause for expelling this priest from the Church and stripping him of his priesthood. Perhaps Pope Zachary was particularly condemning the ancient Irish pagan belief in elves who existed in “fairy mounds” underground; in any event, this condemnation clearly covers aliens as well. So, dear Catholics, weigh what we have here: on the one hand, an extremely strong denunciation, in a Papal letter, of aliens as an “abominable teaching,” and, on the other hand, Pope Francis making a verbal remark that he’d “baptize Martians.” Discerning which is the weightier teaching is not difficult. Obviously I am not claiming we can have certainty in Pope Zachary’s condemnation merely from John Carey’s work here quoted, but we should presume its validity absent legitimate reasons to doubt it.