It is Easter… the day of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter proves that love is stronger than hate, good triumphs over evil, and that truth sets us free. The cobwebs of ignorance are removed by shining the light of truth on them. Slimy secrets exposed no longer withhold truth from people who seek it.
It doesn’t always happen on our time schedule, but it always happens.
That is why we are told to seek… why we are promised that if we seek we will find answers to our questions. People, it seems, are lazy. We stopped seeking and began saying prayers asking Jesus to seek and provide the answers for us… or we relied on our Parson or Priest or a television personality to do our seeking – to find truth for us. We must find our own truths.
We stopped seeking answers to worldly matters, too. We turned everything over to politicians so we would have more time for ourselves… our personal needs. And that’s how we got in our current mess… overtaken by corruption in the hands of power seekers.
How could a greater contrast between two philosophies of life be made clearer during this Easter Week? Those who follow Islam gave us Brussels. Jesus Christ gave His life for Christians.
How did our lives, our sovereignty as a nation, our peaceful world get lost so quickly? How did our world change so fast? It did not. What we are seeing today is the result of plans that were put in place long ago and have been implemented one small step at a time. For example, Thomas Jefferson was the first President to declare war against radical Islamists.
It is reminiscent of what happened to the Catholic Church when it got caught up in the evil of pedophile priests abusing young boys. It is the worst kind of abuse of power. It is a puzzle that took years to figure out and Rome is still working to resolve it. Rome thought evil could be swept under a rug… but the light of truth always surprises evil doers.
Before Catholic haters jump to conclusions and before Catholics become defensive, what follows is a true story. It explains how the communists plotted the downfall of the Catholic Church – and have come a long way toward achieving their objectives. It is a story that is difficult to believe… but it is the absolute truth and is exemplary of just how far diseased minds go to achieve the objectives of world dominance.
The book School of Darkness was published in 1954. It was written by Bella Dodd, from 1932 – 1948 an organizer for the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). For four years, she sat on the CPUSA’s National Council. Bella Dodd says: “In the 1930s we put eleven hundred men into the priesthood in order to destroy the Church from within.” In a Fordham University lecture, in 1950, she said: “Right now they are in the highest places in the Church.”
This may help some people understand the socialist/communist messages that periodically emerge from priestly commentary at Sunday Mass – or from the Pope in Rome. Just as America today is the result of policies put quietly in place in the late 1800s to turn our Republic into a corporation, the Church today faces the problems caused by those eleven hundred communists placed in the Catholic Church by CPUSA way back in the 1930s and 40s.
Today, we count the ways in which people can abuse power and impose the cruelest of life-changing experiences on others while, simultaneously, holding themselves and their association with the abuse above it all—because of position. Politicians do it, teachers do it, policemen and judges do it—and priests do it. All are human.
It is important to realize that those who abuse the power of position are those who suffer from the greatest sense of personal powerlessness. They are the weakest, most insecure among us. When asked why they abuse others, many respond “Because I can.” Their power over others makes it possible. Not all politicians, teachers, policemen, judges — or priests or presidents — gain a sense of personal power from their occupations. Most seek to serve. Too many, however, do not.
Emotion can carry us into the darkness of half-truths, but there is a greater point to be made. All believers suffer persistent attacks against Christianity, family, and everyday goodness and we must not allow them to overcome us! Be aware of the attacks and why they are occurring. They want to take your faith, your family, and your goodness from you. It is the only way they can bring down this Great Nation.
To prove my point, between 2001 and 2005 the Associated Press investigated sexual misconduct in our public schools. They found 1,801 educators were guilty of sexual misconduct with youths. We don’t hear about this sexual abuse in government’s public schools… but the mainstream media makes sure we hear about any deviance within any religious organization. Ask yourself why.
In a 2004 report for the U.S. Department of Education titled “Educator Sexual Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature” done for the “No Child Left Behind” program, Dr. Carol Shakeshaft said that a study she did of complaints against Catholic priests versus public school abuse over a 50-year period proved “the physical sexual abuse of students in public schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests.” Still, parents appear to have no time for School Board meetings. When did you last attend a Board meeting?
When the first Catholic priest abused his power to sexually assault a child and was protected by the Church rather than reported to the police, a Holy obligation to “let the little children come unto Me” was violated. That command was given by the highest possible authority within any Christian Church.
The Vatican has said that sinful and criminal abuse of minors by members of the Church must be condemned. They agree there is a need for justice and amends. I say the Church needs to clearly define at what point it’s time to dial 911 and let law enforcement handle unlawful behavior. All humans must be held accountable to the same standard before the law. An Oath to God and the designation as a “Man of God” does not change that simple rule of the most basic definition of civilization. Too, it’s pretty clear that a “Man of God” doesn’t sexually assault children.
All of the above takes me back to Bella Dodd’s book, School of Darkness. A graduate of Hunter College and New York University’s School of Law, Mrs. Dodd was a school teacher and lawyer by profession. Reading Bella Dodd’s book made me realize the Church has been fighting a communist recruitment program put in place in the 1930s by CPUSA. All Christians have been fighting this battle and the Communist Party is still up to its old and very dirty tricks in our fight against radical Islam.
It is for this reason I draw the analogy between what Bella Dodd reports about the CPUSA and our President’s inability to accurately define our current Middle East enemy in the war on terror. Until Mrs. Dodd wrote her book and explained what happened in the 1930s and 40s, the Catholic Church couldn’t define its enemy. And, I would point out the communists are as anti-Christian today as they were in 1940.
Specifically, Mrs. Dodd said: “In the 1930s we (CPUSA) put eleven hundred men into the priesthood in order to destroy the Church from within.” The idea was for these men to be ordained and progress to positions of influence and authority as Monsignors and Bishops. Just 12 years before Vatican II, held in 1962, she said: “Right now they are in the highest places in the Church.” The plan was to weaken the church’s effectiveness against Communism. She stated that these changes would be so drastic, “you will not recognize the Catholic Church.”
During her Fordham University lecture in 1950, Dodd talked of the chaos planned. A monk who attended the lecture is quoted from Christian Order:
“I listened to that woman for four hours and she had my hair standing on end. Everything she said has been fulfilled to the letter. You would think she was the world’s greatest prophet, but she was no prophet. She was merely exposing the step-by-step battle plan of Communist subversion of the Catholic Church. She explained that of all the world’s religions, the Catholic Church was the only one feared by the Communists… The whole idea was to destroy, not the institution of the Church, but rather the Faith of the people, and even use the institution of the Church, if possible, to destroy the Faith through the promotion of a pseudo-religion: something that resembled Catholicism but was not the real thing.
“Once the Faith was destroyed,” the Monk continued, “she explained that there would be a guilt complex introduced into the Church… to label the ‘Church of the past’ as being oppressive, authoritarian, full of prejudices, arrogant in claiming to be the sole possessor of truth, and responsible for the divisions of religious bodies throughout the centuries. This would be necessary to shame Church leaders into an ‘openness to the world,’ and to a more flexible attitude toward all religions and philosophies. The Communists would then exploit this openness in order to undermine the Church.”
Has anyone listened to the recent comments of Pope Francis lately? They ring with “openness.”
In New York, the CPUSA got into trouble and Dodd was a featured part of the problem in the New York Times reports. Dodd, who parted ways with CPUSA, went to Washington to argue an immigration appeal and met with a friend from the old East Bronx area of her childhood. He talked with her about testifying against the Communist Party in front of the House UnAmerican Activities Committee and asked if she wanted FBI protection. He then asked if she would like to see a priest. She was startled by the question, but was amazed at the intensity of her own answer as she said she would.
“Perhaps we can reach Monsignor Sheen at Catholic University,” he said, and an appointment was made for her late that evening.
From School of Darkness, Chapter 16:
“A thousand fears assailed me. Would he insist that I talk to the FBI? Would he insist that I testify? Would he make me write articles? Would he see me at all?
“…By what right, I thought, was I seeking the help of someone I had helped revile, even if only by my silence? …I rang the doorbell and was ushered into a small room. While I waited, the struggle within me began again. Had there been an easy exit I would have run out, but in the midst of my turmoil Monsignor Fulton Sheen walked into the room, his silver cross gleaming, a warm smile in his eyes.
“He held out his hand as he crossed the room. ‘Doctor, I’m glad you’ve come,’ he said. His voice and his eyes had a welcome which I had not expected, and it caught me unaware. Monsignor Sheen put his hand on my shoulder to comfort me. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘This thing will pass,’ and he led me gently to a little chapel. We both knelt before a statue of Our Lady. I don’t remember praying, but I do remember that the battle within me ceased, my tears were dried, and I was conscious of stillness and peace.”
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (as he was at the end of his life) never hesitated to point out the evils of communism on his popular television broadcasts of the 1960s. He was an exceptional man. He counseled Bella Dodd as disease sent her to her death. He is the reason she wrote her book.
The impact of Archbishop Sheen’s counseling is apparent in Bella Dodd’s words:
“On my way to the airport I thought how much he understood. He knew that a nominal Christian with a memory of the Cross can easily be twisted to the purposes of evil by men who masquerade as saviors. I thought how communist leaders achieve their greatest strength and cleverest snare when they use the will to goodness of their members. They stir the emotions with phrases which are only a blurred picture of eternal truths.”
There is no doubt the current crisis and liberal attitudes within the Catholic Church have hurt many people. The headlines achieve the objectives set by CPUSA over 80 years ago. This, then, established the battleground of the Catholic Church from 1950 until—today. It is also the battleground of our schools, families and all other character-building tools used by humanity to keep evil in its cage and civilization moving forward and not “progressing” back into the cave.
As Bella Dodd said, “I thought how communist leaders achieve their greatest strength and cleverest snare when they use the will to goodness of their members.”
That is a danger all Christians face. Goodness misdirected can deter us all from its very purpose. We must keep a clear line of delineation between how faith and religion are defined. Our First Amendment rights to freedom of religion do not carry with them the right of Islam to establish a separate government with its Sharia statutes and laws as part of its religion.
What is “Goodness?” It is best defined by the reason we celebrate this day: Easter and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ who sacrificed His life so that we might have eternal life.
Compare that with the tyrannical taking of other lives so radical egos can celebrate its power over the powerless… whether it is done via violence in Brussels or non-violence in Washington, D.C.
Happy Easter!
2016 Marilyn M. Barnewall – All Rights Reserved
