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I do not think it means what you think it means.
– Inigo Montoya correcting Vizzini in The Princess Bride
We often hear or read a word or phrase or we listen to a piece of music and we absorb it immediately without thinking. As Catholics, we have filters — defenses, really — that block or at least alert us to problematic messages. But some problematic messages slip through easily. I now realize that they were designed to make us think we know their meaning when in fact they mean considerably more or even something else entirely. Over time, the hidden meaning becomes our belief and our faith is eroded.
1. The Poor
Who does not want to help “the poor?” What Catholic does not understand that when you feed the hungry and clothe the naked you are doing it for God? (See, Matthew 25: 35-46.) Yet “concern” for the poor is an ancient deception.
Consider John 12: 1-5. Jesus is visiting with Martha, Mary and Lazarus in Bethania. At some point, Mary takes some very expensive spikenard ointment and anoints the feet of Jesus. A disciple speaks up: “why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor?” That disciple was Judas.
The phrase, “The Poor,” is often used by persons with an agenda as a reason or justification for your doing something that they have in mind. Who does not want to serve the poor? It sounds so Catholic. And so the idea slips through your filters.
That is how we got the “Catacombs Pact of November 16, 1965,” in which some 40 bishops attending the Second Vatican Council secretly met in the catacombs and vowed to create a “poor church for the poor.” It would be a humble church, where all are welcome, with none of the trappings of majesty. No one in this church would be worthy of spikenard.
2. The People of God
“The People of God.” That’s us Catholics, right? Well arguably, but the Second Vatican Council made it so much more inclusive. See, Chapter II of Lumen Gentium. In this chapter, the Council discusses who are included in “the People of God.”
The chapter starts out as one might expect: the people of God are the Jews (by virtue of their original covenant with God), Gentiles, and all those who believe in Christ. But then we come to Section 16, which states that “those who have not yet received the Gospel are related in various ways to the people of God.” And therefore “the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator. In the first place amongst these there are the Muslims, who, professing to hold the faith of Abraham, along with us adore the one and merciful God, who on the last day will judge mankind.” What exactly does it mean that the “plan of salvation” includes Muslims? It continues to say positive things about pagans and non-believers, implying they are part of the People of God, at least in some way.
True, this section includes a caveat that “men, deceived by the Evil One, have become vain in their reasonings and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, serving the creature rather than the Creator. Or some there are who, living and dying in this world without God, are exposed to final despair.” And thus the final section of “the People of God” ends with an exhortation to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ so “that the entire world may become the People of God.” Nevertheless with Pope Francis and the Abrahamic Family House, these nuances have been lost since Vatican II in a wave of indifferentism utilizing the phrase “people of God,” while minimizing any threat of “final despair.”
So at least in practice, the “people of God” are all those who acknowledge the Creator. Or maybe a creator. But not necessarily “God the Father,” because that term implies the Trinity. In short, “God,” in the phrase “People of God,” has something to do with Jesus Christ but nothing to do with the Holy Ghost. By this reasoning then, the phrase would not include Catholics, who believe in a triune God. This phrase deserves scrutiny whenever it is encountered.
3. Our Common Home
This phrase is used in the encyclical letter of Pope Francis, dated May 24, 2015, Laudato Si’ – on Care for Our Common Home. The term is not defined but context tells us it means the whole earth. In this document, the pope assumes the mantle of St. Francis of Assisi, “whose name I took as my guide and inspiration when I was elected Bishop of Rome.” St. Francis’s Canticle of the Sun contains several verses that begin, “Laudato si….” (“Be praised…”)
The pope then takes approximately 45,000 words to lecture the whole human family on seeking sustainable and integral development, with particular concern for the “tragic effects of environmental degradation on the lives of the world’s poorest.” At the end, the pope proposes two prayers: one for all Christians to take up a commitment to creation, and another for “all who believe in a God who is the all-powerful Creator,” for the earth.
It is probably just a coincidence that the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development four months later which promotes Feminism, “gender equality,” and “reproductive health.” Coincidence or not, the document aligns the Catholic Church with the secular politics of environmentalism. Notice in particular how the encyclical leveraged “the poor” to make its case.
St. Francis of Assisi, who understood that creation praises God by its very existence, would be dismayed to learn how his poetry has become a twenty-first century political anthem.
4. Unity
In December of 2021, I wrote to the bishop of Arlington, Virginia, to request that he forbear from implementing Traditionis Custodes, the “moto proprio” letter promulgated by Pope Francis on July 16, 2021, that abrogated the Traditional Latin Mass. The reply, declining my request, suggested that I pray for unity.
Wait. Didn’t the Roman Rite of the universal Church offer the same Latin Mass until 1970? That is, until the Vatican made up a new Mass? With respect to liturgy at least, did we not have unity for centuries in the Latin rite? And yet unity was offered to me as justification for eventually banishing our parish’s Traditional Latin Mass to a converted gymnasium a half-hour’s drive from our parish church.
Number 813 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church states that unity is “the essence of the Church,” tracing back to the unity of the Trinity. But then the Catechism admits in Number 817 that there are “wounds” to unity, including heresy, apostasy and schism. I nominate callous “moto proprios” for this list of wounds. “Unity” has become a pious catch-all, for use when rational arguments do not come to mind.
5. Being Church / Synodal
According to the Vatican’s Synod website (www.synod.va), Synodality is “…the People of God journeying together and gathering in assembly….” Part I of the Final Document of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, approved by Pope Francis on November 24, 2024, is titled, “The Heart of Synodality – Called by the Holy Spirit to Conversion.” It says the seeds of synodality were sown during the Second Vatican Council.
The first sub-section of Part I is titled, “The Church as the People of God, Sacrament of Unity.” This says to me that the synodal Church somehow has become an outward sign, instituted by the Council to unify all that believe in the Creator. This synodal Church is being accomplished through a series of gatherings at which representatives of the People of God meet to decide what to leave in and what to leave out of some future catechism.
The Final Document was not the final document. We are now in the “implementation phase,” which is the third and final phase of the synodal process, according to Pathways for the Implementation Phase of the Synod, released June 29, 2025. This phase “aims to examine new practices and structures that will make the life of the Church more synodal.” All of this will culminate in an Ecclesial Assembly to be held at the Vatican in October, 2028.
In announcing the Pathways document, Cardinal Mario Grech, the Synod’s Secretary General, described the document as a plan for bringing into effect a new manner of “being Church” in preparation for the 2028 Ecclesial Assembly. I fear that in 2028, we will not get a new way of “being Church,” but rather a new way of being Catholic.
6. Accompaniment
Before the “synodal” church emerged from the shadows, Catholicism had become “the Church of accompaniment.” The idea was that we are all wounded by sin and the Church is the field hospital, there to accompany the wounded. The shepherds of the Church were exhorted to “smell like the sheep.”
“Accompaniment,” however, did not mean “admonishment.” There was no notion of a need for repentance. This was not about the salvation of souls. Instead, we were gradually introduced to the idea that it was the Church that needed to rethink its teachings; that needed to be less “rigid.”
Now it is clear that we were being conditioned to accept a process where the sinners would gather in assembly and decide which sins could be normalized and which teachings could be softened in a new church.
7. All Are Welcome
My guess is that a great many parish church bulletins contain the phrase, “All Are Welcome.” Of course all are welcome. Catholicism is open to everyone. In fact, just before He ascended to heaven, Jesus Christ commissioned his apostles to make disciples of all nations, “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20). That’s the catch: you are welcome but you must convert and become Catholic.
Not anymore. After Pope Francis told us in the 2019 Abu Dhabi Declaration that “pluralism and diversity of religions … are willed by God,” conversion became optional. The pope also told us during a visit to Singapore in September, 2024, that there are many paths to God. In other words, there is no need to become Catholic; there is nothing special about Catholicism. The phrase, “All Are Welcome,” simply means “Come as You Are.”
8. Spiritual
We all probably know someone who professes to be “spiritual but not religious.” I interpret this to mean that they have their own personal relationship with (their concept of) God, and have no need of an organized religion. They have their own truth. They do not feel the need to attend Mass.
What is missing in this relationship? I will tell you: worship. According
to Bishop Athanasius Schneider’s book, Credo: Compendium of the Catholic Faith, worship is the act by which reverence is given to God on account of His excellence. The essential worship of the Catholic Church is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Worship requires liturgy. “Spirituality” alone is not a sufficient relationship with the Almighty.
And yet no institution has done more to wreck liturgy than the Catholic Church, whether by creating a new Mass or by permitting dances, costumes or rain forest idols at the altar. Worship has become secondary to climate change and social justice issues in the mission of the Church. This, too, is part of a new way of “being church.”
9. Freelancing
In the liturgy of the Mass, every word, every motion, every gesture, is scripted. There is one way, and one way only, for the Holy Sacrifice to be offered. It is set forth in the altar missal, right there in black and red. Yet, after the Second Vatican Council, who has not been to a Novus Ordo Mass where the celebrant changed or added his own words to the liturgy? I have even seen a video of a Mass where the priest imparted the final blessing with a guitar, as though it were a monstrance.
Never have I heard of a celebrant being corrected for such tinkering with the liturgy. (If there were such a correction, I am sure there would be defenders, using such words as “rigid” and “pharisee.”)
The message is that there is no rite or ritual that cannot be amended, revised or replaced. They have been getting you accustomed to it. They are not finished.
10. Hymns
The Second Vatican Council encouraged the use of the vernacular and active participation by the faithful at Mass. Ever since, we have been subjected to a number of doctrinally problematic hymns at Mass and other events. In October of 2024, the bishop of Jefferson City, Missouri, had had enough. He listed a dozen contemporary hymns that were henceforth absolutely forbidden to be used in the diocese. On the list were such titles as, “All Are Welcome,” “Bread of Life” and “Table of Plenty.”
The ban only lasted a couple of weeks. On November 7, 2024, the Catholic News Agency covered the story of the bishop’s obviously forced retreat. The headline tells you everything you need to know: “Diocese reverses hymn ban in favor of ‘synodal’ selection of sacred music.”
Gone was the list of banned hymns. In its place was a list of four “Mass settings” approved for use in the diocese and with which every parish should become familiar for the sake of unity.
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The synodal church that began as a seed at the Second Vatican Council is now blossoming. We may not yet know its final dimensions, but we know from experience that what this church allows or defends is what this church holds sacred.
