The State of the Spiritual Battlefield
Friday, March 26, 2021
Now that I’m getting more and more eager to increase my faith, I’ve taken to watching Catholic YouTube videos. I didn’t know there were any Catholic YouTubers, but here they are: Ascension Presents with Fr. Mike Schmitz, Fr. Chris Alar from the Association of Marian Helpers, Professor of Theology and Catholic apologist Dr. Scott Hahn, Sr. Miriam James Heidland, Fr. Jeffrey Kirby’s homilies, Pints with Aquinas with Matt Fradd, Fr. Donald Calloway, The Catholic Talk Show, the late EWTN founder Mother Angelica, US Grace Force with Fr. Richard Heilman, traditionalist Dr. Marshall Taylor, rebel priest Fr. James Altman, and so many more.
Looks like it’s becoming cool to be Catholic. I am stunned and elated.
Today, I’m treating myself to a lengthy discussion on “The State of the Spiritual Battlefield” with Fr. Chad Ripperger, an American Catholic priest, theologian, philosopher, and exorcist. He’s written numerous books, among them one of my favorites, a book of deliverance prayers. He’s very matter of fact, as I assume someone who deals with evil day in and day out would have to be.
The topic of exorcism fascinates me. One reason is my former love of horror movies. Another reason is my own first-hand experiences with what I call “the Dark Side”—from hauntings to astral attacks and being offered a pact with the devil by the devil from the lips of a possessed person. And the third reason is, believe it or not, it’s actually very educational. In fact, some of my newfound Catholic beliefs have been cemented by observing what the enemies of Christ do.
Take the Eucharist, for example. Satanists and practitioners of witchcraft would do anything to get their hands on a consecrated host so they can abuse and desecrate it in their Black Masses. They often secretly attend Catholic Mass and pretend to receive Holy Communion in the hand (that’s one of the reasons why it’s better to receive on the tongue) so they can steal the Eucharist.
Why would they do that if it’s just a symbol of Jesus? You can buy a box of 1,000 unconsecrated hosts (aka “altar bread) on Amazon for $19.80. Why go to such great lengths for what basically amounts to a cookie? It only makes sense if the blessed host is actually Jesus himself.
I also read that both genuinely possessed people and hardcore Satanists can tell a consecrated host from an unconsecrated one. How do they do it? Fr. Andrew Trapp describes how, as a seminarian, he asked a former-Satanist-turned-Catholic this exact question:
[He] told us that he could do this himself before his conversion from Satanism. A chill went down my spine. If someone were to put ten identical communion hosts in front of him, nine unconsecrated and one consecrated, he would have been able to point directly and immediately to the host that had been consecrated. I asked him in amazement, “But how were you able to know?” He looked at me, and the words he spoke are forever burned in my memory: “Because of the hate,” he said. “Because of the burning hate I would feel toward that host, apart from all the others.”
How would that be possible if the Eucharist were just a symbol, if there’s no transubstantiation turning it into the living Body of our Lord and Savior whom the Dark Side hates so much?
Another thing I learned from demons—I think I mentioned it before, but it can’t be said often enough—is proper respect for the Holy Mother. Turns out that all of them, including Satan himself, are deadly afraid of the Blessed Virgin.
One exorcist said, “Once Mary enters the room, it’s over. They all flee immediately.” Even just saying her name is apparently enough to send them packing.
As a former Protestant, I was always wary of Mary and her elevated status in the Catholic faith. But when I heard that she is the “terror of demons,” it convinced me to pay more attention to her. And now I realize that my recent explosive spiritual growth started right after my 46-day prep for “Mary’s Mantle Consecration,” which included praying the Rosary every day.
Holy Mother, I owe you a major apology. I’m sorry that I used to be so dismissive of you. In spite of that, you patiently waited until I was ready to turn to you and ask for your help, and you never held it against me. Thank you so much for bringing me closer to your Son every single day. I’ll make sure to give you the honor and respect you deserve.
Now onto Fr. Ripperger’s video. Let’s see what we can learn today.
He starts right away with a bombshell. In 1963, he says, something changed in exorcisms. Before 1963, the time to free a soul from possession was one to two days. In 1963, it changed overnight to ten to twelve months!
About six months later, he says, it went down to two to three months. At some point, Fr. Ripperger says he felt a “shift,” and now the cases that would take ten to twenty-four months to resolve “are now almost indefinite.” He says “most exorcists are complaining that they are practically liberating no one.”
Wow.
He says the state of the Church is part of the reason for this. The efficacy of the exorcisms a priest does is based on the state of the Church: “So the worse the state of the Church is, the longer it takes to liberate people.”
Interesting. In 1963, the Catholic Church got a new pope: Paul VI, who presided over most of the Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II as it’s called, which started on October 11, 1962 and ended on December 8, 1965.
1963 was also the time when the greatly revised 1962 Roman Missal was published. (The Roman Missal is the liturgical book that contains all the prescribed prayers, chants, and instructions for the celebration of Mass in the Roman Catholic Church.)
A little digging tells me that in 1948, Pope Pius XII established the Commission for Liturgical Reform and appointed a priest named Annibale Bugnini as his secretary, who later became Archbishop Bugnini. This same man was later ousted as a Freemason, and Pope Paul VI removed him from all his positions of authority on Vatican commissions, but, as the website traditioninaction.org states, “unfortunately, not before he had authored and instigated alteration after alteration of the Church’s liturgy, even finally the Novus Ordo Missae itself.”
Roman Catholic clergy are not allowed to be members of Masonic Orders, which is not all that surprising when you know that Freemasons worship Lucifer (whom they call “the Great Architect of the Universe”). It’s a previously little-known secret which even lower-ranked Freemasons are often not aware of, but which has been publicized and verified more broadly in the last few decades. Now imagine what damage a Lucifer worshipper—aka, a Satanist—could do to the sacred liturgy of the Church.
The good news, says Fr. Ripperger, is that the numbers of real possession are very low. Of the 600 people he saw for an exorcism session in 2015, only three were actually possessed. However, he estimates that “20–25% of the adult population are diabolically obsessed” and says internet porn plays a huge role in this.
There’s way too much information in the video to list. Just a few highlights:
Since the 1950s or ‘60s, Satan and his five demon generals have been out in force trying to morally corrupt our culture, though fornication, co-habitation, divorce, contraception, abortion, homosexuality, pornography, and more.
More and more politicians around the world are becoming involved in the occult. He points to the 2016 grand opening of the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland that featured a bizarre, demonic-looking performance resembling a worship ceremony for Baphomet, one of Satan’s generals. It’s pretty gross, but if you want to watch it, here it is.
The Catholic bishops have essentially allowed the civil authorities to “shut down the spigot of grace” during COVID by locking down churches and denying the faithful the Sacraments. “The bishops are supposed to be the generals in this battle, but they’re nowhere to be found on this spiritual battlefield, with a few exceptions.”
The good news: “There is a tremendous amount of protection that is being given to people who are faithful. God is now forming His troops. […] The ability of people who are faithful to influence the good is going to be extraordinary.”
Our job is to be persistent, consistent, and faithful to God and the teachings of the Church, no matter what happens. “Don’t allow yourself to fall into sin; maintain a habitual life of grace.” That way, we will get through all the trials and eventually see the glory of the Church.
“People, even Catholics, don’t know what virtue is anymore. There are 64 moral virtues. Get knowledgeable about them and develop them in yourself. The way, going forward, revolves around the family. Holy people having lots of holy children.”
“You must start curtailing the amount of time you spend on any kind of digital media.”
What a fascinating video, and I didn’t even cover the half of it. I suggest you watch it yourself:
God help us all and bless us all, so that we may be strong and faithful in this fight for human souls.