The Final Battle Between The Lord and Reign of Satan: Marriage and Family

The first clause of this title. The Final Battle Between the Lord and Reign of Satan is apocryphal and, therefore, terrifying- the stuff of twenty-first-century Hollywood fantasy.

And yet, these are precisely the words used by Sister Lucia in a written reply to a prayer request to a cardinal in 1981. Following the conclusion of the 1980 Synod on the Family, then Pope John ll asked Cardinal Carlo Caffara to plan and establish the Pontifical Institute for the Studies on Marriage and the Family. A couple of years later, the Cardinal wrote to Sister Lucia through her Bishop.

In a 2017 interview with Aleteia Magazine, Cardinal Caffara explained, “It [the Institute] was not wanted within and outside of the Church, because of the vision it was proposing. And so I was very concerned. Without asking anyone, I thought: “I will write to Sr. Lucia.” Since the Patroness of the Institute was Our Lady of Fatima, the Cardinal wrote to the surviving member of the three Fatima children, Sister Lucia, to ask for her prayers. When two to three weeks later, he received a lengthy letter from her, he says he was greatly surprised.

“It was a hand-written letter and quite long. I have given sworn testimony of what the letter said. The letter ended, saying (in 1983 or 1984): 'Father, a time will come when the decisive battle between the kingdom of Christ and Satan will be over marriage and the family. And those who will work for the good of the family will experience persecution and tribulation. But do not be afraid, because Our Lady has already crushed his head.' 

This remained engraved on my heart, and amid all of the difficulties we have encountered — and there have been so, so many — these words have always given me a great strength.”

Forty-five years later, just four months before his September 2017 death, the Cardinal spoke at the 4th annual Rome Life Forum, organized by Voice of the Family.

Beginning his address by quoting the words of Our Lord, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself” [John 12, 32]. “The whole world is under the power of the Evil One” [1 John, 5, 19], Cardinal Caffara spoke about the clarity with which Christ’s own words describe the darkness of our current culture and its lies.

The world is a battleground for the hearts, minds, and souls of our brothers and sisters. Each of us knows this. But only after reading the full text of Cardinal Caffara’s text did I realize just how insidious and pervasive has been the attacks on humanity.

Unfettered by notions of political correctness or institutional politics, the Cardinal sets a context of anti-creation-Satan- through the ennoblement of 

• abortion and 
• homosexuality.

Interesting word choice but one that describes precisely what we see happening within our legislatures and our churches. Cardinal Caffara writes not about the act of a single person, but of the

• “broader legitimation which can be perpetrated by a judicial system in a single act: to subsume it into the category of subjective right..calling what is good, evil...The reason why man should not shed the blood of man is that man is the image of God. Through man, God dwells in His creation... By ennobling the killing of humans, Satan has laid the foundations for his “creation:” To remove from creation the image of God...
• Ennobling homosexuality denies “the mind of God with regard to marriage...in the mind of God, marriage has a permanent structure, based on the duality of the human mode of being: femininity and masculinity. Not opposite poles, but the one for the other. Only thus does man escape his original solitude.”

Perhaps like me, you have friends who think

there are “worse things than abortion” and who have beloved friends in same-sex marriages. Maybe you squirm, as I do when these subjects are brought up.

What are we to say...and do?

In the clear, succinct prose of the Cardinal, we are to Testify!

We are no longer witnesses but deserters if we do not speak openly and publically.