"Smoke of Satan had entered the Church"?

[J.R]

I’ve heard and read over the years the statement by Pope Paul VI, “the smoke of Satan had entered into the church”. Does anyone know when and where he said it and can they elaborate on it? Thank you and God Bless all here.

 

[Zosimus]

After Vatican II,Pope Paul VI declared that “the smoke of Satan has entered into the very heart of the Church.” It wasn’t so much the Council that the Pope had a problem with, especially since he was the pope who took it upon himself to finish Vatican II. Rather, it was the problem of internal dissent that had developed as a result of a whole lot of people in the Western world going around claiming to have “the spirit of Vatican II” and totally ignoring the letter of Vatican II, let alone the fact that Vatican II was merely the latest in a long line of ecumenical councils of the Catholic Church, nearly all of which have issued decrees or constitutions which are binding on the faithful. For some reason, many people believed that Vatican II gave them license to do as they please and still call themselves Catholic. This attitude extended to religious (that would be monks and nuns for those of you who aren’t Catholic) who discarded their habits, and refused to be distinctive witnesses to the Lord Jesus, to priests who believe it is their prerogative to believe in heterodox doctrines, or not wear their clericals in public and to act as the world acts and do as the world does. St. Paul’s call to “be separate” was no longer to be heeded, and many in the Church thought that the City of God could survive by compromising with the City of Man. No doubt these sorts of attitudes concerned Pope Paul; they certainly concern John Paul II, and since they seem to be all the more pervasive in today’s Church, they should concern those of us who are just lowly but faithful laymen and laywomen.

 

[Genesis315]

many in the Church thought that the City of God could survive by compromising with the City of Man.

I’ve been looking for a way to best describe Liberalism, and I think this may do it. It’s the error of our times.

 

[TeriGator]

If you want a real eye-opener and an excellent example of the smoke of satan, read “Ungodly Rage” by Donna Steichen. It was published in 1991, but many of the people she names in that book are still out there today, doing their level best to destroy the Church from within.

 

[Brian_Crane]

J.R.:

I’ve heard and read over the years the statement by Pope Paul VI, “the smoke of Satan had entered into the church”. Does anyone know when and where he said it and can they elaborate on it? Thank you and God Bless all here.

“*The tail of the devil is functioning in the disintegration of the Catholic world. The darkness of Satan has entered and spread throughout the Catholic Church even to its summit. Apostasy, the loss of the faith, is spreading throughout the world and into the highest levels within the Church.” **-- *Pope Paul VI, October 13, 1977, Address on the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Fatima Apparitions

 

[Catholic2003]

See this thread on the old Greenspun forum.

 

[Brian_Crane]

Actually, I think the smoke of Satan quote is a different one from the one I just posted. That one is from a 1972 sermon in Rome on the feast day of St. Peter and Paul.

 

[Jayson]

We hear about many cases of apostasy on this forum, but that is probably only a small fraction of what is actually out there. There are nuns, brother, priests, bishops, etc. that have lost their faith and continue to remain in the church. They see it as just another occupation and seek to reshape the church to fit their opinions.

The tragic thing is that they are taking many other souls into hell with them.

We must pray, especially the rosary. Our Lady has warned us about this. John Paul II said that our only weapon in this fight is prayer. This is so widespread that ultimately christ is the only one who can set it right.

It has been said that the life of Mother Church will follow the same pattern as the life of Christ. There must come a time of persecution, but it will be followed by a glorious resurrection. Do not lose hope!

 

[TNT]

Genesis315:

I’ve been looking for a way to best describe Liberalism, and I think this may do it. It’s the error of our times.

Try the Signature, it’s been around for about 80 years.

 

[Genesis315]

TNT:

Try the Signature, it’s been around for about 80 years.

That’s a good one. I actually just got done reading “Liberalism is a Sin.”

Disorder in the mind leads to disorder in the heart…

 

[Gracie2004]

I see the greatest error of our times as rationalism. To quote JPII:

“All the rationalism of the last cetnrueis–as much in its Anglo-Saxon expression as in its Continential expression in Kantianism, Hegelianism, and the German philosophy of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries up to Husserl and Heidegger–can be considered a continuation and an expansion of Cartesian positions. The author of *Meditationes de Prima Philosophia *with his ontological proofs, *distanced us from the philosophy of existence, *and also from the traditional approaches of Saint Thomas which lead to God who is ‘autonomous existence’, Ipsum esse subsistens. By making subjective consciousness absolute, Descartes moves instead toward *pure consciousness of the Absolute, *which is pure thought. Such an Absolute is not autonomous existence, but rather *autonomous thought. *Only that which corresponds to human thought makes sense. The objective truth of this thought is not as important as the fact that something exists in human consciousness.” (*Crossing the Threshold of Hope, *[Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1995], 51.)

So I think that rationalism led to liberalism and most other errors of our time, Humanist secularism being in the forefront.

Gracie