We are pleased to share an excerpt from Sophia Institute’s new book Persecuted from Within: How the Saints Endured Crises in the Church by Alec Torres and Joshua Charles.
Persecuted From Within
What are Christians to do when those who lead the Church are unwise, imprudent, or even downright wicked? Is the Church really the spotless Bride of Christ, when her miters are stained by sin, error, and division? How does Christ protect His sheep when shepherds appointed over them are sometimes the very ones leading their flocks astray? Perhaps most importantly for the Church Militant here on earth, how can we become the saints God has called us to be when bishops, cardinals, and even the pope seem to question the Magisterium or persecute faithful, orthodox Catholics precisely for their faithfulness and orthodoxy?
These are far from academic questions. Today, faithful Catholics who affirm and try to live by the hard teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ frequently feel abandoned in the spiritual field of battle. Worse, as the assaults of the world become more painful and severe, we see many of the leaders who were ordained to defend us instead turn and attack their own flock.
When the world shut down in the face of a global pandemic, faithful Catholics turned toward the light of the Church and the consolation of the sacraments. Many found their sanctuary doors locked. Even last rites—on which a soul’s eternal salvation might well depend—were often denied to the dying out of fear of illness. While some brave priests did continue to feed their lambs, they often risked censure and punishment—not from the state, but from their very own bishops.
Such disregard for the value of spiritual things precedes the pandemic. Many Church leaders have long been more inclined to focus on political posturing and bureaucratic management than on boldly proclaiming the gospel. These finely coiffed and curated executives of a religiously themed NGO have overseen financial scandals, sexual impropriety, pedophilia, liturgical abuse, and cover-ups that have shaken the faith of Catholics across the globe.
The hierarchy’s most prominent personalities generate confusion on fundamental doctrines related to issues like marriage, adultery, grace, and the worthy reception of Communion. In a Church beset with declining Mass attendance, disturbingly low levels of belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and widespread apathy among Catholics living in open rejection of the Church’s moral teaching—not to mention entire national churches on the verge of open schism— Rome nonetheless often treats those who are faithful to the full, historic Magisterium of the Church with the greatest harshness….
Our Lord Himself warned us in Scripture about wolves “in sheep’s clothing” (Matt. 7:15) and of weeds among the wheat (Matt. 13:24–30). In fact, the reason we have most of the books of the New Testament is because apostles such as Sts. Paul, John, and Jude were sounding the alarm about widespread heresy, even among the clergy. As early as A.D. 51, St. Paul wrote about heretics in the Church, saying, “The mystery of lawlessness is already at work” (2 Thess. 2:7).
If we see the prophesies of Jesus Christ and the words of His apostles coming true, that is no reason to lose faith in Him. Rather, that should only increase our joy at the opportunity to be even more united with Christ in His suffering. “But rejoice in so far as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed” (1 Pet. 4:13).
We do not suffer unexpectedly. Sin and persecution occur in all ages. That our suffering sometimes comes at the hands of our own spiritual fathers hurts most of all, but it should not shake our faith. And if the scale of apostasy and immorality seem great to us now, remember that it was in this hour that God chose us to live and work out our salvation ( Jer. 1:5).
Even as we are comforted by the words of Christ, Peter, and Paul, we must still respond to the crisis within the Church. Yet no sooner do we resolve to confront this crisis than we face two temptations. The first is to leave the Church the way Protestants have. When the clergy are corrupt or wrong, give up hope that God can mend what is broken and reform what is wayward….
But no true Catholic could even contemplate going this route. Ecclesiastical freelancing is completely unheard of in Sacred Scripture, both Old Testament and New. In fact, the only time it is mentioned, it is condemned: in the book of Numbers, God kills Korah and all his followers for attempting to start a new Israel. If we go into schism, we should expect our souls to meet the same fate. As faithful Catholics, we are neither schismatics nor Donatists—those who believe that the clergy must be without fault in order to be legitimate. We recognize that our clergy will never be perfect, and that their imperfections are never an excuse to break from the Church.
If our faith is shaken by bad Christians, then our faith is not in Christ but in men. We are not Catholics because we follow priests but because we follow Christ, who founded the Church and promised to be with her until the end of time. Heretical homilies, liturgical abuse, effeminacy among priests, weak leadership, financial and sexual sins, and even doctrinal error on the part of clergy must never be allowed to shake our faith. Instead, they are crosses for us to bear with Christ, challenges for us to confront as we fulfill our true identity as children of God….
Schism is clearly forbidden. But there is also a second and more insidious temptation in our times: to make no protest at all, silently submitting to the abuses of the hierarchy. By preying upon false notions of meekness and obedience, the enemy undermines the strength of the Church.
The regula fidei is Tradition and Scripture, which itself was born out of Tradition. Doctrine can develop, the way an acorn grows into an oak tree. But Tradition and Scripture never change. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). We are to follow the bishops and popes, but never to sin and never to follow falsehood. True obedience is not blind.
Therefore, clergy are to be followed to the extent that they adhere to Sacred Tradition. When they lead us astray, it is not merely our right but our Catholic obligation to contradict, to resist, and to correct.
In fact, St. Thomas Aquinas taught that the faithful should shun wicked priests. Our Lord Himself was betrayed by the very religious leaders whom He had appointed. His three-year ministry frequently involved contentions against priests, scholars of the law, and rabbis, the most devout of the day. His Passion was precipitated by the betrayal of an apostle.
Counter to the twin temptations of proud protest and false meekness, we have only one path to take. We must strive to become saints….
Author Bio:
Alec Torres
Alec Torres is a former speechwriter for President Donald Trump and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and has ghostwritten for cabinet secretaries, ambassadors, national media personalities, and business leaders. He is the co-founder of Allograph, a strategic writing, communications, and design firm, and the author of Persecuted from Within: How the Saints Endured Crises in the Church. Alec lives with his wife, children, and dogs in Texas.
Joshua Charles
Joshua Charles is a former White House speechwriter for Vice President Mike Pence, a number-one New York Times best-selling author, a historian, a columnist, a writer, a public speaker, and a ghostwriter for Fortune 500 CEOs, political leaders, and more. He is a scholar at the Faith and Liberty Discovery Center in Philadelphia, a PragerU lecturer, and the Pope Leo XIII Fellow of Catholic Teaching on Capitalism, Socialism, and Communism at St. Thomas University in Miami, Florida. He lives in California.
