Attack On The Family?

The apparitions of the Blessed Mother at Fatima are arguably the most well-documented and renowned of all the Marian visions. In Fatima, Portugal the Mother of God came to earth in 1917 and delivered a message to three shepherd children in which she prophesied about drastic future perils should mankind not alter his trajectory back towards God. Lucia, being the last remaining child of the Fatima visionary knew the seriousness of the times and what was at stake. In 1984, Sister Lucia wrote Father Caffarra a letter and communicated to him, “The final battle between the Lord and the kingdom of Satan will be about marriage and the family.” 

Here, Sister Lucia announced that according to the Blessed Mother, the family would be at the center of the spiritual clash St. Paul warned about (see Eph 6: 11-13). Absorbed in the hubbub of everyday life we are only dimly aware of the spiritual battle between good and evil. In our modern world, it’s easy to be hesitant, lose focus, or dismiss the spiritual warfare that the Catholic faith pinpoints. In order to be privy to the reality of this mysterious battle, one needs to grasp the spiritual concept in ideas. That is, every idea or teaching ultimately has a source from which it originated from. From the eternal vantage point, an idea either comes from God or comes from a demonic source. Being in the middle of a fallen creation, we humans have a hard time ascertaining which idea comes from which source. However, God provides us certain situations in which this spiritual fuzziness becomes clearer.

Lucia’s warning that the final battle between Satan and God would place the family smack dab in the middle should wake us up to this reality. The devil is hell-bent on twisting God’s sacred economy. The family is a central component to God’s creation as the family is an icon of the Most Holy Trinity. 

As Pope John Paul II asserts, “God in his deepest mystery is not a solitude, but a family, since he has in himself Fatherhood, Sonship and the essence of the family, which is love - the Holy Spirit.” In God, we see Fatherhood, Sonship, and the love that flows between the Father to the Son – the Holy Spirit. In other words, if you add up the three persons of the Trinity, you have a family. Notice John Paul II did not say that God is like a family or has characteristics of a family. He said God is a family. 

That is, the communion of love between the three Divine Persons is the original family. This Divine communion is fruitful, that is, it brings forth life. It cannot help but do so. Life bursts forth from the love of the Holy Trinity. Flowing from this fact, the human family is a reflection of the inner essence of God, thus the family is of divine significance. In fact, the Church calls the human family “the domestic church.” (CCC 1656, 1666) and espouses that the family is of singular importance in the Church (see CCC 2204, 2205, 2206).

Because the family is the earthly image of Trinitarian love, the demonic hates it and, consequently, wants to wiggle his way in to rupture its foundation. This demonic raid has been made utterly manifest in the moral decay on the family with the constant expansion of contraception, divorce, abortion, fornication, adultery, homosexuality, and overall moral depravity that has plagued human families. This tsunami of damage within the family clearly derives from the spirit of the world (i.e., society) which, in turn, is laced with demonic roots. Recall, Jesus referred to the “ruler of the world” as a demonic entity and continually cautioned his followers from adapting the ways of the word (see John 15:19, 2:15, 17:14-16, 1 Cor. 3:19, Romans 12:2, James 1:27, 4:4, Heb. 9:14, Col.3:1-2,6, Eph. 1:1-3, 1John 2:14-17, 5:19).

Therefore, it follows that the popular mantra of this world is ensconced in evil.

As we continue to chug through the decades of spiritual rot in our world, we witness how the demonic infiltration of the family is real and not consigned to mere philosophical abstractions. To further point this out, Msgr. Anthony Figueirdo, a consultant to the Vatican’s Dicastery for Integral Human Development bluntly announced “there is a real attack on family life.”

Sadly, the persistence of the evil one never falters. If you are faithful enough to have children, the demonic wants to rupture your role as a parent in a family.

It is important to first know that the church places the parents as chief in all areas of the child’s life including as the principal educators of their children (see CCC 1653). The Catechism firmly asserts, “The role of parents in education is of such importance that it is almost impossible to provide an adequate substitute. . . The right and duty of parents to educate their children are primordial and inalienable.” (CCC 2221) From this Catholicism expresses that the parent has an innate right and duty to educate their children. Sadly, the modern playbook of “work first kids later'' has caused many parents to outsource the education of their children to public schools. This acts as a trap to channel kids through the soiled ideology of the socialist-leaning public school system. 

Alex Newman’s research highlights how public education was hijacked by Marxist ideology in the 1920’s and continues down this dark path paved with a Marxist worldview that is anti-God, anti-natural law, and anti-family. In other words, public schools are designed to produce garbage in and garbage out in hopes to corrupt the kids.  

Yet some parents, refusing to bow to this ruse, have opted for private education instead. Given the parental shift away from school indoctrination, a subtle strategy has emerged to once again breach the family - take the parent out of the decision process altogether. It used to be a legal and natural given that any major health action of a child has to be approved by the parent first. That is, the medical community needed to get the parents’ permission before establishing a health protocol on the child. In their opening report, the NCBI rather readily acknowledges that parents are the supreme decision-makers for children’s health; “As parents are the primary decision-makers of child's health….” The Department of Health and Human Services as well admits “you are your child’s personal representative and can exercise all your child’s HIPAA rights.” And The American Medical Association as well fully acknowledges that the parents are the principal decision-makers of a child's health.

That parents (or legal guardians) are the supreme decision-makers of the child’s health is a staple we take for granted. But, insert a worldwide “medical emergency” (i.e. covid) now faceless government officials and medical bureaucrats are creeping ever so closer to making crucial decisions for your child without your consent. As it pertains to covid, parents have little if any say in the pressing decision if their child should wear a mask or should receive the experimental vaccine or not.

The decision for children is of utmost importance and should not be made with haphazard incompetence all the while eliminating the parents’ say in the matter. Why? Because the Church refers to children “as the supreme gift of marriage” (CCC 2378). That is, kids are the immensely beautiful gift bestowed to parents after the parents have received the Sacrament of Matrimony. As the Catechism directs, “Married love is ordered to the procreation and education of the offspring and it is in them that if finds its crowning glory.” (CCC 1652). As children are the parent’s ultimate gift, the parents stand as the child’s primary outlet of love, chief educator, decision-maker and advocate throughout their life. 

Here, we come to a crucial battle that hits home in the family - who has the right to direct what the child does? It goes without saying that the parents do. But, given the covid hysteria, other people who have no vested interest in your child, (only a vested interest in keeping their job) have been thrown in as lead director of your child’s health matters. This sly flip acts as a battering ram to the family and ushers in a cold transfer of power from parents to unknown and unreachable bureaucrats. 

Therefore, what naturally belongs to the parents is slowly shifting to prominent administrators and medical bureaucrats eerily resembling socialism in which the state replaces the family as the lead advocate. To be sure, state control in socialism happens more subtly akin to a frog boiled alive by slowly going from cold to boiling water.

This issue of enacting health mandates without family choice and consent paints a debasing picture that smells like the grotesque fruit of a demonic strike on the family.

How did we arrive at this precarious place where politicians feel comfortable issuing edicts that interfere so drastically with the family hierarchy? May this be another element in the camouflage attack on the family that Sr. Lucia predicted?

Today, we are witnessing a significant transfer on who is in control of your child for this spiritual battle typically plays out as a tug of war on the child’s life. Does the child listen to the pop culture or the parent and the church? In a fallen world, kids tend to gravitate to the dark infiltration of the pop culture over and above the Holy Trinity and the vestige of that Trinity in the human family. 

From the demonic perspective, any trace of parental control now needs to be eroded away. The “covid emergency” represents a dark opening that triggers new draconian restrictions on human life while allowing those who don’t know you or your child to act as the surrogate parent in charge of making pertinent decisions for your child all the while muting the parents’ concern. This new formula of governmental control holds a vice grip over one that lacks fortitude. Those in administration or key medical roles that don’t comply with the standard covid narrative of the land are forced to sheepishly nod in approval of covid mandates less they run the risk of losing their job.  

The idea that urgent decisions for children now get outsourced to so-called “experts” flies in the face of Catholic theology. 

The Catholic concept of subsidiarity holds that human affairs are best handled at the lowest possible level; closest to the affected persons and that nothing should be done by a larger more complex organization (i.e., bureaucrats) which can be done as well by a smaller and simpler organization (community or parent). In short, with subsidiarity decisions should be made by those who are closest to the scene. This is a rather simple concept to grasp. In sports, the referee closest to the action makes the call - not one who is farther away. In subsidiarity having proximity and a vested interest matter. When it comes to the children - who is the closest to them and who has their best interest in mind? Not even close - it is the parents. The parents have their genetic makeup in their kids not to mention they have an innate self-sacrificial reflex towards their kids that no medical or governmental administrator can come close to match.   

When the principle of subsidiarity is ignored, institutions often overstep their bounds in managing matters best handled on a more local or individual level. Typically this decreases economy, efficiency, liberty, and the personal character of the social order.

When the federal government usurps the rights and responsibilities of those closest to the source (i.e. the family), a flagrant violation of the Catholic principle of subsidiarity has occurred. Yet, this is precisely the strategy of evil - flip the natural order of the family in control to now those in elite positions. The demonic formula organizes strictly so upper echelon bureaucrats (many of which are drunk on power) operate in a top-down manner and deny any flexibility to their subordinates or those at the local level - especially the family

Subsidiarity is connected to the social teaching of the Church which has the basis that the human person is the principle, subject and object of every social organization. As such, the human person’s decision cannot be outsourced to the department of XYZ all the while censoring the parent's say.

In silencing the parent, another demonic tactic surfaces - to erode the right for one to make personal choices using their well-formed intellect. Parents stand as a sturdy guide for their children to utilize their reason which, in turn, leads to their freedom (see CCC 2228). In Catholic theology, one’s freedom comes from the God-given use of their intellect and will (see CCC 1804, 2223, 1804). As this Catholic principle states: “By virtue of his soul and his spiritual powers of intellect and will, man is endowed with freedom, an outstanding manifestation of the divine image” (CCC 1706). As the Church asserts that freedom is “the power rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions to one’s own responsibility” (CCC 1731). In other words, the use of one’s intellect to make sound decisions expresses human virtue and authentic freedom for that person. Moreover, when one is free, through the act of decision making, one is ascending closer to the image of God for the Catechism goes on to articulate, “Every human person, created in the image of God, has the natural right to be recognized as a free and responsible being. . . The right to the exercise of freedom, especially in moral and religious matters, is an inalienable requirement of the dignity of the human person” (CCC 1738).

Therefore, the health dictatorship scene today has sadly reduced a person's divine image. Moreover, it has created a tug-of-war over the basic right of a person’s freedom for the state can’t mute this human right by vaguely showing there is a crisis for “the common good.” As the Church announces, “Public authority is obliged to respect the fundamental rights of the human person and the conditions for the exercise of his freedom” (CCC 2254). And one of the most basic rights of a person is to make moral decisions for himself as the Nuremberg laws establish the principle of informed consent – one must receive a person’s full agreement before an uncertain act takes place on them. This concept is a bedrock of the first amendment in the Constitution and a staple in Catholic theology. How this reads is that the Constitution and the Church are in agreement that the preeminent, eternal, and self-evident truth articulates that “all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, namely Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Moreover, the Church emphasizes this point further. “Man has the right to act in conscience and in freedom so as personally to make moral decisions. He must not be forced to act contrary to his [right-ordered] conscience. Nor must he be prevented from acting according to his conscience, especially in religious matters” (CCC 1782, 1907).

All of this Catholic teaching that runs counter to forced medical mandates is why the Bishops of Colorado have signed a letter opposing medical orders over one's free choice in a religious setting and have called for a religious exemption to these medical commands.

Unfortunately, free thought and free speech has been exchanged for the impossible task to ensure that everyone has to be physically safe. Coming to this conclusion, parents have to make a choice - do you protect kids from a non-lethal virus, or protect them from an authoritative health dictatorship that denies our right to make intelligent choices.

Besides being an icon of the Trinity, the family is the building block of society. As Catholic theology articulates, “The family is the original cell of social life. It is the natural society. . . Family life is an initiation into life in society” (CCC 2207). So, not only is family an image of God and a church, family is the core engine that runs society itself. One would think in a just society that government officials would bend-over-backwards to support the family precisely so that society operates in a clean, wholesome sphere (see CCC 2210-2211).

Renowned exorcist Fr. Chad Ripperger recently developed a series in which he parallels how demons and communism are mutually compatible. Both seek to divert people's perceptions, to manipulate, control and enslave them all the while destroying God's economy of creation. Communism forces one to forgo their ability to become an independent free thinker, and instead, become a slave to the rhetoric and ideas of the state. Fr. Ripperger insists that the first stop on this communist train is to ransack the family and usurp authority from the parents.

When on comes to the realization of a spiritual battle it can invoke fear and anxiety, but, alas as priests often point out, spiritual warfare will awaken one's soul and actually draw one closer to God for people who become keenly aware of being in the midst of a spiritual battle tend to pray more and go to Mass and Confession with a sense of holy urgency. In fact, delving into the faith is the only way to win in spiritual warfare (see Eph.6: 13-17). So, don't give in to the temptation of acting out in anger, rather, pray, fast, and go to the Sacraments for being in a state of grace moves the needle closer to God, but being in a state of rage moves the needle closer to Satan.

By poking at the family the demonic strategy will eventually backfire for now we see previously lukewarm Catholics shedding off their wishy-washy mentality and becoming more brazen in joining the spiritual battle. In short, mama bear and papa bear just awoke to see that their cubs are being threatened by a sly intruder. And being shocked out of a lukewarm state is a net plus in defeating evil. As. St. Pope Pius V stated, "All the evils of the world are due to lukewarm Catholics."

As we come to the reality that the family, Catholic teaching, and free choice are being eroded within our society by demonic elements we can glean hope from the message of Mary at Fatima as she beautifully announced, “Finally, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”