Translation of the last part of the study, "The Mystery of
the Church and the Antichrist", taken from Letter 141, May 1963, reproduced on pages
360-364 of this volume.
"THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH AND THE ANTICHRIST"
THE GREAT APOSTASY IS IMMINENT! (L. 141)
Before he departed for the holy City, the Abbé de Nantes wrote a text of major
importance: his last Letter on "The Mystery of the Church and the Antichrist".
Recapitulating the whole of his study, he applied it to the dramatic events of these last
weeks of the pontificate of John XXIII, only a few days away from the conclave in which
the future of the Church for the end of this century was at stake… Here are these two
pages, quoted in their entirety:
"And then, if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or
‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets
will arise and show signs and wonders to lead astray, if it were possible, the elect
themselves. But you take heed; I have told you all things beforehand." (Mark
13.21-23)
THE ANTICHRIST WILL BE A MAN OF SATAN, BUT ALSO A MASS MOVEMENT AND AN IDEOLOGY… I
have been asked whether I think the Antichrist is a person or a theory. I am not a prophet
nor am I charged with the interpretation of prophecy. It may well be that he is a man of
Satan who will precede the return of Christ Jesus, – that is the meaning of his title
Antechrist –, and this seems to be affirmed by Holy Scripture. But it will
also, of necessity, be a mass movement and an ideology of extraordinary power both
political and spiritual. We have learned from Our Lord not to tremble before such a
prospect, but to hold fast to our faith in Him, as we await the return of our only Saviour
"coming on the clouds of heaven just as He ascended there". The important thing
is not to let ourselves be led astray, for the Antichrist will seduce Christians
themselves and he will thus come close to total victory.
… A NEW CHRISTIANITY, UPDATED AND TRANSPOSED. That is to say that he will present
himself as a replica of Christ, another Christ, and his doctrine will be presented…
like a new Christianity, updated and improved, but modelled nevertheless on the authentic
doctrine to such an extent that the elect themselves will be taken in by it, unless God
preserve them from this! It is easy to see that this adversary of the last times has only
to push to its full conclusion the ancient imposture, whose permanent principle is Judaism
and which every branch detached from the Catholic trunk has reproduced with greater or
lesser force – namely, the transposition of Christian faith and hope into the worldly
and carnal perspective from which Jesus had rescued them.
THE THREE GOLDEN NAILS FROM WHICH OUR CATHOLIC FAITH IS SUSPENDED. Let us therefore
recall that this Saviour, in re-creating a new humanity from His Blood, namely the Church,
fixed the history of salvation in three stages: that of Original Sin which is portrayed as
the principal of all human misery; that of the Redemption wrought on the Cross; and
finally that of the blessed Restoration in Heaven. This whole great design of God, the
whole movement of our faith, is as it were fixed and held on high, on a totally
supernatural plane, by these three golden nails: the Sin of Adam – the Sacrifice on
Calvary – the Return of Jesus. These are the historical events through which
salvation necessarily comes to us.
THE DOCTRINE OF THE ANTICHRIST : A DIABOLICAL TRANSPOSITION OF THE TRUE FAITH. Judaism
is acquainted with this general movement of faith, this fundamental trilogy of
fall-redemption-restoration, which is likewise the staple diet of every heresy and every
brand of messianism. But they have all wrested it away from the three golden nails I spoke
of and lowered this heroic evolution and this progress to the strict boundaries of a great
earthly drama, one that is human and carnal. Luther, for example, made himself the
redeemer and liberator of the noble German nation fallen into slavery under a demonic
Rome, something which with the passing of the centuries seems more risible than odious.
But Lumumba and Kiwangu in the Congo and N’Khruma in Ghana are for their sectarian
supporters the saviours of the blacks fallen into the power of the white man. Christs of
their people, they will return to life and finally chase out the oppressors in order to
inaugurate paradise on earth. Let us not smile! This political mystique after all is drawn
from the same divine source which inebriates all mankind, namely the Bible. The Jewish
people have a thorough understanding of it in its primitive and wholly carnal meaning. But
any Christian, as soon as he fails to hold firm to Catholic doctrine and to his pure hope
in Heaven, will inevitably fall back to the level of this revolutionary expectation and,
like the Synagogue, he will go searching for a Messiah. Here, perfectly identified and
defined, we see the doctrine of the Antichrist. It hangs about and re-emerges from century
to century like an exact but carnal replica of the Catholic doctrine of Sin, Redemption
and Life Eternal. It invites and tempts men, from all races and religions, promising them
that they will recover possession of the earthly paradise on condition that they all enter
heroically into the gigantic effort made by this liberating revolution. Wretched though
they were yesterday, today they have become liberators of captive humanity, and tomorrow
they will be as gods in a regenerated world. Such is the faith in the world and the trust
in man which answers the Word of God.
IF PRIESTS LOSE THE LOVE OF THE CROSS, IF THE VIGILANCE OF THE CHURCH GROWS WEAK…
Suppose now that vigilance of the Church were to grow weak for a time and that the
teaching of her priests were to lose its clarity and precision, whilst at the same time a
new star were to arise on the horizon... and there we have the epiphany of Satan. At that
time he will bring about a terrifying alignment of the City of God with the earthly City,
the latter proposing itself to the former as the object of its hopes. Here we behold the
secret of this Hour of darkness. If, in the pride of their knowledge and in the abundance
of their material goods, Catholic priests lose the cult of the Cross and the love of
Jesus, then the three golden nails, the three historical events on which their faith
depends, will no longer seem anything more than uncertain symbols. Retaining nothing but
the hope, the optimism and the idea of progress of the Christian mission, they will end up
thinking that such an ideal is parallel, similar and closely related to the Jewish faith
and all the other great mystical traditions that intoxicate and arouse the human masses.
THE ANTICHRIST DOCTRINE OF PROGRESSIVISM WILL BE PREACHED EVERYWHERE. At that time
there will be preached, both within the Church and outside her, the same great mythology:
the whole of humanity will be invited to take stock of its wretchedness or its original
"alienation" (but not of its sin!) of which Adam and Eve are the symbol, the
epic personification, in the primitive religious tradition. Humanity will be persuaded to
believe that salvation is possible in a formidable economic and cultural advancement (but
not in any moral conversion!), and Christ will become the adored pioneer of this
emancipation from misery and His cross an image that exalts human industry. Finally, the
leaders of all the religions and parties will proclaim in advance the success of this
great period of human history and the near approach of a society that is united,
fraternal, fully developed and happy (but not dead and restored by grace!), and it is in
this new humanity that there will be realised the longing of the Ancients for the new
earth and eternal life promised to men of good will.
LET US BE AFRAID! MASS APOSTASY IS SEDUCTIVE! This prodigious mutation of our faith is
today [1963] little short of being accomplished. For many people the Church is
identified with the modern world and her hopes fit in marvellously well with the
"aspirations of the masses". Let there now come on the scene, within a people or
in the world, a Man or a Movement that appears to be endowed with such power that he can
dominate and draw everything behind him, and numerous theologians will preach him as the
saviour of the world, that is to say the Man-Christ. You will then see Pastors by force
and persuasion leading their flocks behind him… and who will be able to resist,
except those who love Jesus and His Cross? Teilhard de Chardin already thought he had
recognised the cosmic salvation in Hitler and Nazism. His disciples see it in communism
and the students of our young progressivist missionaries adore it in Lumumba, who although
dead will soon return to install his negro kingdom for ever… If they make Teilhard
out to be so great, it is because he is the authentic and most high doctor of the
Antichrist.
Let us be afraid! Mass apostasy is seductive, especially if the whole Church should
slip into it and – without renouncing her faith, her optimism and her symbols, and
even whilst maintaining the personal piety of her faithful – should recognise herself
to be immersed in a much vaster religion and, opening herself to all the intoxicating
currents that stir humanity, should willingly enrol herself in the building of the Tower
of Babel. Oh! it will be a lengthy process: the devil will keep this whole female humanity
waiting in suspense with increasing passion for this Man who must possess it in his own
name. First of all there will be the false messiahs, the minor christs who will deceive;
they are already legion, from Johnny Halliday and Billy Graham to U’Thant and La
Pira. The passion, the hopes, and the sacrilegious expectation of men (and of Christians,
alas!) could not be more extreme, more blind, and more foolish. Then, indeed, no matter
what creature of Satan may appear, Man or Beast, promising an earthly paradise for all,
everyone will follow him, and at first he will persuade them to deceive their brothers and
to kill, and then to reject God and to adore none but himself. But, for this paradise of
cadavers, they will accept all and the moralists and theologians will be there on tap to
justify everything. There we have it, being prepared beneath our very eyes, and how is
that the wise and the prudent have all been struck with blindness?
Perhaps it will be the Jewish people, the most innocent in this falsification of the
faith, who will be the most resistant and who will be the first to return to the Saviour.
For they remained in the flesh although aspiring confusedly to the reign of the spirit,
whilst the Christians, abandoning the Holy Spirit, returned to the flesh, a decision from
which there is no return. Possibly… but I see Christians so consumed with desire to
possess the earth, to enjoy the flesh and to dominate the world that I do not know
whether, when He returns, Jesus, the true and only Christ, will find any faith at all on
the earth… |
