The Silver Linings of the Apocalypse

We live in an apocalyptic age, and we should be grateful. I don’t mean “apocalyptic” in the sense of disaster here and catastrophe there and impending end times with attendant death, mayhem, and destruction. No. I mean apocalyptic in its original meaning, which is revelation.

Don’t misunderstand me. There are many bad things occurring and unfolding in society, government, and the Church. However, all these dark clouds are proving to have silver linings. Covid. Joe Biden’s term as president. The pontificate of Pope Francis. And the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. All these terrible happenings reveal valuable knowledge that can help us better prepare for life, labor for the common good, and strive to become saints.

We are now five years past the draconian lockdowns in response to a coronavirus outbreak likely originating in a Chinese laboratory. Many Americans have woken up from the slumber of preconceived notions about health, science, and medicine and reassessed how they live. Concerns about a dystopian trajectory for our society in response to pandemics has contributed to an awakening. Americans are now questioning standard assumptions about public health, science, medicine, vaccines, masking, and lockdowns. A rising opposition to the oppression of a new public health regime has changed the public conversation affecting how we live, work, educate our kids, and practice the Faith. This is clearly a case of declaring that the emperor (our supposedly-expert technocratic elite overlords) has no clothes. 

In some ways, the joke is on the lords of lockdown: a vibrant new movement, often referred to as “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA), has gained grassroots traction and, in what is clearly a rebuke to the old guard, helped move Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent MAHA proponent and fierce critic of disease-dystopians (like Anthony Fauci), into a place in the government to implement a new vision for American health. Catholics, too, have looked at the Church’s significant involvement in American health care, for better and worse. Many Catholics have also considered the Church’s response to Covid and started asking hard questions, especially about the cancellation of Mass and closing of parish life. For some, this has meant leaving parishes where omnipresent bottles of hand sanitizer outnumber young children in the pews and seeking congregations more in tune with tradition.

The Covid crisis sprouted and grew during the first Trump administration, but it bore fruit during the Biden presidency. The assault on family rights, community standards, the rule of law, and plain common sense finally impelled Americans to start acting like the angels in our Lord’s parable and separating the good grain from the cockle. Wide swathes of ordinary Americans started questioning presidential actions and activity, possible corruption and misuse of influence, and even the president’s cognitive ability. Even the ruling class’s lack of enthusiasm for America and Western civilizationcame under scrutiny.   The assault on family rights, community standards, the rule of law, and plain common sense finally impelled Americans to start acting like the angels in our Lord’s parable and separating the good grain from the cockle. Tweet This

America finally became fed up with the mainstream media for its bias—the widespread outrage after Mr. Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Mr. Trump revealed the media’s leading role in covering up the utter mental decrepitude of the sitting United States president. The media and its left-leaning propaganda lost nearly all credibility at that point. That ending of the illusion or mirage of an objective media was only reinforced by the full-throated support of the media-establishment combine in pushing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and the trans agenda of sex-confusion, child mutilation, and attack on women. Had Biden not been elected in 2020, it is possible that these revelations would not have unfolded the way they did.

Furthermore, regarding elections, the conclave’s selection of Jesuit Cardinal Bergoglio of Argentina, now Pope Francis, has led to revelations that may be helping the Church to recover its Catholic identity. Under Pope Francis, opponents of Church teaching have come out into the open: Jesuit Fr. James Martin has made support for homosexuality his primary mission; Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia has been “publicly endorsing assisted suicide while making a mangle of the Church’s moral authority”; and the notorious would-be artist Fr. Marko Rupnik has been exposed as a serial abuser, though he has not been removed from the priestly state. 

The Holy Father’s bewildering agenda has inspired examination of the extent of the pope’s power. We also have seen what constitutes heresy now discussed, papal power over liturgy discussed, and dogma discussed. Under Popes Benedict and John Paul II, the heterodox, to an extent, kept their heads down. Now we know who our opponents are, how they operate, what their goals are, and who their allies are outside the Church (John Podesta, Jeffrey Sachs, assorted globalists, et al.). 

Networks and cabals such as the “St. Gallen Mafia” have been identified. It has also been instructive and edifying to see a few—very few—bishops, cardinals, and priests speak out on some of these issues: Cardinal Pell, Cardinal Burke, Bishop Strickland, and cancelled priests. Most recently, the USCCB, which has been nearly mute in opposing politicians (almost exclusively Democrats) who claim the Faith while undermining it, has suddenly found its voice when confronted with the closing off of the D.C. money spigot for “refugee resettlement.” More and more American Catholics are learning that their bishops are bureaucratic moral cowards beholden to elites and politicians while simultaneously not protecting the flocks entrusted to them.

The final issue I believe has resulted in beneficial revelations is the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel. Seemingly settled verities about anti-Semitism now seem anything but settled. The German-Jewish immigrant, philosopher, and political theorist Hannah Arendt suddenly seems proven right for asserting in her classic book The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951): “In the United States, social antisemitism may one day become the very dangerous nucleus for a political movement.” The “anti-Zionist” demonstrations that erupted across U.S. college campuses seem to validate that fear. But almost as quickly came discussions about Zionism, anti-Semitism, U.S. foreign policy especially as connected to Israel, Catholic relations with the Jews, and the tragic situation of Middle Eastern Christians. 

All these issues may have been further revealed or exposed as silver linings in the recent cloud-covered age. We should closely study them as beneficial history lessons and springboards for action. But even given the heavy import of those revelations, does it change our essential mission, which is to proclaim and live out the Good News of Christ?! Surveys and polls published by Pew and others tell us how much work we have to do. The burgeoning counter-revolution is a good start, but there is much real estate and many hearts to be recovered.