Overview: The Smoke of Satan in the Temple of God

Overview of Manuscript: The Smoke of Satan in the Temple of God

by Timothy Wallace

Taking as his point of departure Pope Paul VI’s observation that seven years following the close of the Second Vatican Council conditions in the Church were such that it was as if “the Smoke of Satan has entered the Temple of God,” the author recounts how it was that the misimplementation of the council’s documents resulted in the emergence of what Henri De Lubac termed “a different Church from that of Jesus Christ,” all under the guide of updating (aggiornamento) and renewal. Pope Paul was of the mind that by 1972 the greatest need in the Church was to be defended against the adversary power of darkness, the Devil. For the Pope the unmistakable signs of the Evil One’s penetration of the Church were a vast undermining of Catholic moral teaching (particularly sexual morality), the ideological seduction of fashionable theological errors (particularly neomodernism) which spawned doctrinal uncertainty, a radical denial of God (recall Time’s “Is God Dead?”) and the watering down of and even rejection of the spirit of the Gospel.

After a review of Church teaching on the little-regarded teaching on the reality of spiritual warfare, Wallace recounts how the postconciliar neomodernist heresy emerged as the dominant influence in theology after Vatican II, dividing the council fathers into the majority “progressive,” neomodernist wing, and the orthodox wing, the latter under the guidance of the Paul VI of the Credo of the People of God, as well as two Vatican II periti, Fr. Joseph Ratzinger and Archbishop Karol Wojtyla.

Subsequent chapters outline the influence and effects of theological error in sexual moral teaching, the Mass, religious life, catechesis and the role of the bishop in the face of this error. Wallace reminds us of the relevance of Jesus’ promise that in its attempt to prevail the gates of hell would ultimately fail, citing numerous examples of how the papacies of John Paul II and Benedict XVI have begun the long road back to implementation of the true teaching of Vatican II. The author analyzes this in light of Jesus’ overcoming of the world and its prince, the Devil, now manifest in the Church of the new millennium, ripe with reasons for hope for the new evangelization. The Smoke of Satan in the Temple of God is ideal for Catholics who wish an updated comprehensive analysis of the turmoil in the Catholic Church since the end of Vatican II, and to discover the true teaching of the council from its documents, the realization of which has been the overriding goal of the current Pope and his predecessor.

This book is written primarily for millions of Catholics in the U.S. born and catechized before Vatican II and unaware of the true teaching of the Council. It is forthright in asserting that there are Catholics whose practice of their faith does not differentiate them all that much from those who are not Catholic. Many Catholics of the “baby-boom” generation are alienated from the Church all together because their only exposure has been to a superficial, cultural Catholicism, impotent in the face of an American culture increasingly without faith. Conversely, many others have left hungrier, as they say, for a more “biblically-based spirituality.” These two reactions amount to throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

In addition, it is meant for young people of the “JP II” generation of Catholics, born long after the council but perhaps not fully aware of the turmoil spawned by dissent in the Church which, though on the wane, is still with us today. These young people, especially those in authentically Catholic colleges (Franciscan, Christendom, Aquinas, Ave Maria, etc.) will be the Church of the 21^st century, and have an interest in this recent history of the Church. It would serve nicely as a background/survey text in theology courses.

About the Author

Timothy Wallace hold an M.A. in History and currently serves as chair of the Social Studies Department at a suburban Catholic High School in the Archdiocese of Detroit, where he has taught American history and government since 1980. He is also a certified catechist in the Archdiocese, and has taught high school religion in 3 area high schools from 1978-2000. Wallace has participated in numerous St. John Bosco Catechetical Institute and Defending the Faith Conferences at Franciscan University. He has also been the recipient of the University of Detroit Mercy Outstanding High School Teacher Award (1998), and the University of Chicago Outstanding High School Teacher Award (2000), and for scholarship in the field of history is a member of Phi Alpha Theta’s National History Honor Society.

Competitive Titles

Standard works on the subject, though devoid of analysis of Paul VI’s reasons for of the crisis and the element of spiritual combat in general, are Msgr. George Kelly’s The Battle for the American Church (1979) and its sequel, The Battle for the American Church Revisited (1995); Dietrich VonHildebrand’s The Trojan Horse in the City of God: the Catholic Crisis Explained (1976), Ralph McInerny’s What Went Wrong With Vatican II? The Catholic Crisis Explained (1998), Philip Trower’s Turmoil and Truth: The Historical Roots of the Modern Crisis in the Catholic Church (1998). Other works with chapters on the subject are George Weigel, The Courage to be Catholic: Crisis, Reform and the Future of the Church (2004), and Fr. Richard Gilsdorf, The Signs of the Times: Understanding the Church since Vatican II (2008).

Comments

This video of a young boy twerking at Pride has homophobes outraged | Gay Star News

DANCING WITH MR. D: This video of a young boy twerking at Pride has homophobes outraged | Gay Star News : 'via Blog this'

The Dysfunctional Nations

From time to time a local pastor fires us up with fortitudinal e-blasts, of which this is his latest: Dear Parishioners, Every Catholic should be angry about this. Please take the time to read the editorial below that recently appeared in Investor's Business Daily . Cheers in the Lord, Fr. Tony United Nations Scolds Catholic Church On Human Rights Anti-Religion: Ignoring abhorrences such as China's one-child policy and atrocities condoned by Shariah law, a U.N. committee tells the Vatican to deal with abusive priests and change its teachings on abortion, contraception and homosexuality. That the report issued by the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child would mention the instances of abuse of children by priests in the United States is not surprising. What is surprising and unfortunate is that the U.N. would act as if the Catholic Church had done nothing about it and use the report as a ...

Et Lux in tenebris lucet et tenebrae eam non comprehenderunt

What Is the Source of This Darkness of Our Times? |Blogs | NCRegister.com : What prompted me to write a book about the current spiritual war ongoing in the world in which we live? Stumbling upon this quote by the Pope of the council, Pope Paul VI : We have the impression that through some cracks in the wall the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God: it is doubt, uncertainty, questioning, dissatisfaction, confrontation. And how did this come about? We will confide to you the thought that may be, we ourselves admit in free discussion, that may be unfounded, and that is that there has been a power, an adversary power. Let us call him by his name: the devil. We thought that after the Council a day of sunshine would have dawned for the history of the Church. What dawned instead was a day of clouds and storms, of darkness, of searching and uncertainties . I am an avid reader of Msgr. Charles Pope, who has written recently on this our adversary in ...

Humanae Vitae: Embarassing Uncle or Wise Uncle?

I am not the slightest bit hesitant to say that I believe with the Church that we humans live in a world characterized by a spiritual war, and thus as baptized Catholics we are called to “put on the armor of God.” In an Augustinian sense we must decide where our allegiance lies: are we citizens of God’s kingdom, who happen temporarily to reside in a civil society, or are we full-fledged citizens of the city of men, making room for God when we are able? Catholic teaching on original sin continues to shed light on man’s position in the world. As a result of the Fall, Satan has acquired “a certain domination over man” in spite of our free will . Widespread ignorance of this teaching is the root cause of the crisis of faith facing The Church today. The Catechism teaches the reality of this spiritual combat: The whole of man's history has been the story of dour combat with the powers of evil, stretching, so our Lord tells us, from the very dawn of history until the last day. Finding...

Dancing With Mr. D: Grooming the Little Children

A former pro-transgender activist said she regretted her previous work in pro-transgender activism, adding she felt she was "indoctrinated" on gender ideology in an interview with Fox News Digital. "I started to realize that what I had been doing at my job at the LGBT Center, it was grooming," Kay Yang, a former employee of a location in New York, said. Grooming in this context means "to get into readiness for a specific objective." Kay works as a 'deprogrammer' to help parents and children who have been 'indoctrinated' by the 'cult-like' transgender agenda. Yang herself previously went by they/them and worked as a 'trans educator' in schools for years. Listen to her testimony.

Why did God Make You?

Often we get caught up in the things of this world to the extent that, as Catholics, we forget why God made us, and what our existence means, really. So, find 45 minutes, and enjoy!

Dancin' With Mr. D: Non-Binary?

A n LGBT activist has admitted that the battle over men accessing women’s bathrooms and vice versa has little do with transgenderism, and everything to do with re-working society and getting rid of the heterobinary structure—eliminating distinctions between “male” and “female” altogether. Male and female He made them. Riki Wilchins, who has undergone “sex change” surgery and is a far-left social change activist, has written that p eople should be able to enter whatever bathroom “fits their gender identity,” but the fact that we even have “male” and “female” bathrooms reflects something about society that needs to change. He added that there are many “genderqueer” or “non-binary” people, pointing to a student who recently “came out” to President Obama as “non-binary” at a London townhall as an example. “Non-binary” people don’t identify as male or female and they often want to be referred to as “they” or “hir” or “zer.” So the fact that there...

Libido Redux: Gabriele Kuby

Gabriele Kuby’s The Global Sexual Revolution has been translated into English and published by Angelico Press. In it, Kuby persuasively argues that the freedom offered by the sexual revolutionaries is another and highly effective means of enslavement. Here are some highlights: · The Marquis de Sade, who lived and wrote violent pornography from his cell in the Bastille as the Ancien Régime fell and the French Revolution began. · Thomas Malthus, Margaret Sanger, Marx & Engels, Wilhelm Reich , Freud & Jung, behaviorist John Watson, Edward Bernays, Bernard Berelson, child abuser Alfred Kinsey, sex-change giant John Money ,--a gallery of evil men whose own immorality drove them to emasculate man’s morality. · The Yogyakarta Principles, a manifesto produced by a cabal of leftist homosexuals and “human rights” activists that purp...

From Chapter 5 of The Smoke of Satan in the Temple of God

When conciliar teaching precluded such deviant “reforms,” an appeal to “the spirit of Vatican II” was made by the defectors. Religious themselves were sent to seminars, conferences, and think-tanks which pressured them to abandon hierarchical structures in favor of the “democratic,” to question traditional doctrinal certainties, and to demand reasons for those things formerly regarded as sacred, the most important of which was the basis for their vocation to the religious life. They became exposed to new anthropologies under the influence of psychology, sociology, and other social sciences, acceptance of which many sisters were naturally compliant under obedience — all this in spite of the obviousness that such changes were not approved by Rome and threatened the existence of their communities. In other words, the desired ressourcement of the council Fathers , rather than providing the guiding atmosphere in which aggiornamento was to occur, was ignored in favor of “updating.” ...

Shepherding Shepherds

A s Jonathan Coe has recently observed, When we look at the contemporary ecclesial landscape, we should never limit what the Holy Spirit can do, but any optimism needs to be tempered by certain realities. For example, in looking at the Catholic Church in America, (1) our de facto leader is the heterodox, zeitgeist puppet Cardinal Blaise Cupich; (2) homosexualist priest Fr. James Martin has been given almost carte blanche in peddling his lavender gospel; and (3) the USCCB voted 137-83, with three abstaining, to not encourage the Holy See to release all documents concerning allegations of sexual misconduct by the recently defrocked ex-Cardinal McCarrick. The list goes on and on . In the face of these disheartening developments, Coe highlights the shepherding of 3 prominent churchmen; Archbishop Charles Chaput, Cardinal Robert Sarah, and Bishop Athanasius Schneider. Let’s sample the thinking of the first shepherd. In his talk at the ...

Search This Blog