Right Here Right Now

I’m underwhelmed.  And, all things considered, I’m also somehow remarkably satisfied.  One year ago, another Catholic man and I started a men’s group.  The backdrop was a shaken America where statues were being toppled and desecrated while churches were set on fire.  So we decided to establish a men’s group dedicated to protection.  We didn’t know exactly what that would look like, but we knew that iconoclasm in real time had to be responded to.  We met up and hashed out some vague ideas on how we might awaken and keep active as many men in our diocese as possible to the spiritual and physical evils around them.  We intended to help others become adequate spiritual and physical protectors of themselves, their homes, and their churches.  

After gathering dozens of names and emails, we assembled forty-five men, in person.  We discussed the societal collapse of our time and shared spiritual and physical defense tactics that men could take home that night.  Were we planning a rapid response team to meet physical threats imminent within our own community?  Or were we focusing on security?  Or were we going to take the idea of protection to embody a much broader meaning.  The answer at that time: yes.

From there, the essence of the group formed based upon developments that happened nationally and within our own community.  Or perhaps it formed based upon things that did not happen.  As the background of constant violence in the streets faded, so did the will to form a rapid response team.  Many have left this group or have become inactive because they thought this group would be X, but it was really Y.  Some have criticized that the group is too broad in scope.  Others have found satisfaction in simply being Catholics practicing security during mass times.  Bottom line, one year later, this group is a different beast than what it started as.  Nevertheless, it is still a men’s group that has grown in number while producing an abundance of fruits, many of which were never expected at the group’s inception.

Why the broad scope of this group?  Because the more that has happened over the last fourteen months, the more one who is awake realizes that protecting the Church is a very broad endeavor, considering what the Church is actually up against.  This is especially true when the leaders of the Church are not fully aware of what the Church is truly facing right now.  Need proof?  How many bishops and priests, one year ago, uttered the phrase, “black lives matter” while wearing a mask outdoors?  How many priests and bishops have endorsed an experimental shot that they don’t understand in the name of “charity”?  How well did the USCCB do when they gave a score cards comparing each presidential candidate and came up with a pro-abortion “Catholic” as seemingly a more viable candidate?  How many of our Church leaders even understand, at all, the significance of the Vatican hosted Covid “conference” which gave a platform to the “Great Resetters” of our world and their dishonest, big pharma feeding, IMF empowering, national sovereignty eradicating, trans-humanistic agenda?  

The Church needs protection.  Lots of protection right now.  And she’s not getting it.  It goes way beyond physical protection of buildings that may or may not be in jeopardy of physical attack.  The members of our Church make up the mystical body of Christ.  And the mystical body of Christ is in serious danger when it’s members no longer live in a society with free elections.  This body is threatened when legislation is on the table that promotes that teaching of critical race theory and comprehensive “sex education” in our schools.  The Church is under attack when civil and Church leaders buy the narrative that Covid-19 merits the cult-like covering of our faces despite the inefficacy of masks.  We are under attack when Catholics start to feel the pressure at work to take an untested medical treatment for something that they know has been grossly overblown, mostly for the ultimate sake of the political and financial gain of a handful of globalist elites.

I would love to just focus on my spiritual life and taking care of my own family at this time and forget all the rest.  I would love for the forces that attack and threaten our Church to be merely physical in nature and as simple as a clan of foot soldiers called ANTIFA and transients who should not be allowed onto Church property (not that church security isn’t important… it is!).  But as this past year progressed, it became more and more obvious that a mindset that oversimplifies our enemies and the current situation is grossly myopic and ultimately dangerous.  

When legislation threatens the success of our local police officers, we must do what we can to oppose it together.  When our only viable political party is full of RINOs and out of touch old ladies, we must take it over to protect our children from having the sacraments taken away from them again over manufactured crises.  When our own Bishop is screened from the truth of the current dangers of segregation of the faithful over “vaccination”, we must get through that screen and warn him before such a precedent is set before his closed eyes.  We love him too much not to do so.  We love our children too much not to protect their bodily autonomy from dark globalists with a corporate agenda who are manipulating gullible priests and the church ladies who run many of their parishes.  We love our Church, in general, too much not to die protecting it from the evils that actually threaten her, all of these evils, even if others don’t quite see them as we do or think we are “extreme” for wanting to protect the Church from them.

Where are we now?  In Little Rock, Arkansas, Bishop Taylor has ordered that only fully “vaccinated” people in his diocese can serve as lectors or extra-ordinary ministers of Holy Communion.  Closer to home, a Catholic Church in Casa Grande has dedicated a Sunday mass time to those who have not been injected with the Covid-19 “vaccine”.  In our own diocese, St. Bernard’s recently sent a flock note to parishioners asking who has been vaccinated.  The pastor of Resurrection Church in Tempe recently sent a message to parishioners informing them that they do not need to take off the mask at church just because they have been fully “vaccinated”.  If that is not strange enough, why were diocesan Catholic school children not allowed to take off their masks when governor Ducey relieved such a mandate in schools?  

I voiced my concerns over many of these issues to several people I know within my network and asked multiple people if they could help me obtain an audience with our Bishop.  I specifically wished to express concern that segregation and discrimination over “vaccination” could come to our diocese.  All of the people I talked to said that, from what they were hearing from the diocesan office, our Bishop had not intention of implementing any such discrimination or segregation from a diocesan level.  I was essentially told that a meeting would not happen and that I needn’t worry.  But this did not cover the possibility that a priest could try to implement something within his own parish!  I asked many people to help send emails to the bishop’s secretary voicing concern over the continued masking of our school children and the looming possibility that a priest might segregate or discriminate within his parish over “vaccination”.  To the credit of the secretary, many emails were responded to, but with the same dismissive attitude.  Perhaps some progress was made, though, as some emails were actually responded to by a priest within the diocesan office… though still dismissively.

I know that multiple men within our diocese have had an opportunity to speak with our Bishop, briefly, over such concerns.  I have also taken such an opportunity myself (he’s actually a very approachable guy).  From what I understand, there is good reason to still be concerned over the possibility that a priest could segregate/discriminate in his own parish over “vaccination”.  So I ask, what are you doing right now to protect the Church?  Have you expressed concern to your priest and to your bishop over “vaccination” segregation/discrimination?  How involved are you politically?  Do you know the status of any bills that would ban companies from requiring proof of vaccination for employment or to receive service?  Are you joining the ever growing number of men praying outside valley abortion clinics since the start of our men’s group?  When a Eucharistic procession is finally announced, led by our Bishop, meant to honor fathers on the feast of Corpus Christi, are you excitedly gathering your icons and gearing up your family to participate?  Or are you taking the easy excuse that it’s too early in the morning and managing children is hard?  Most importantly, are you answering the  appeals to increase your interior spiritual life and to pray suggested devotions, or are you scrolling down looking for the next thread of commentary to engage in?

One year after the founding of our men’s group, I can honestly say that many great fruits have yielded.  I truly believe that this group has helped edify men in my community.  Sub-groups with specific missions, ran with organized precision, have come out of this group led by men who have been called to be true leaders.  Men have marched together in Eucharistic processions and around the capitol many times over because of this group.  Spiritual readings are shared, devotions are shared, special intentions are shared, petitions have been signed, mass email blasts to local politicians have been made, and many men have come together in fellowship.  Most importantly, this group has helped men who are awake understand that they may be awake, but they are not alone.  

One year later, we live in a larger a society that is moving toward vaccine passports.  Our political system is clearly rigged and wrecked, while issues such as comprehensive sex education and critical race theory threaten our ever masked school children.  These are just a few issues we face.  We should at this moment be united as a strong and relentless force doing everything possible to thwart these real attacks on our Church at every turn!  Some are doing just this, but collectively, we clearly aren’t there.

I write to re-invigorate that same zeal to defend our Church that captivated so many men in that initial meeting.  At the same time, I ask that these men embrace a broader mission of protecting our Church from the greater evils that attack her both now and in the long term.  Re-double your efforts and help those of us who fight tirelessly together against these evils.  Embrace your call to be a Church Protector.  

God bless,

Gadfly