Once madness has been unleashed and the human being is willing to behave foolishly, there are no limits to the manifestation of absurdities, aberrations and lies. Scheeben considered sin to be a mystery of iniquity because it is a bottomless abyss of malice; after all, the offense inflicted by sin is infinite, for infinite is the dignity of the offended person, God. Consequently, the list of ravings, the very ones whose sprouting has made possible the mild weather of the Ecclesiastical Springtime, seems to be endless.

            One of them, for example, is the triumph achieved by feminism over machismo. At long last, women have liberated themselves from the oppression which they had been suffering at the hands of males; it is now that women have finally obtained the possibility of fulfilling themselves as persons, of being themselves. It a victory worthy of being engraved in marble, quite capable of giving happiness to the (old) weak sex which (now) has finally become strong and emancipated. The only condition required to feed such euphoria, of course, was to not lay too much emphasis on the meaning of expressions such as fulfilling herself as a person or being herself…; the simple reason being that nobody has ever been able to find out the meaning of those absurdities. Absurdities which reached their acme when it was discovered –wonder of wonders!— that God is feminine and that the Church has become feminine…!

            Consequently, if homosexuals have finally found their status as citizens within the present Ecclesiastical Springtime, why should that status not be granted to woman-love-for-woman? Let us here quote Malachi Martin:

            “Only Catholic women of the sixties generation were clever enough to perceive themselves as victims of ecclesiastical sexism; for them, a day of reckoning with the age-old sexist-minded Church had come at last. There now arose Womanchurch –one of those eerie, new pop-up words which meant meetings for women in private apartments where She (God the Mother) was worshiped and thanked for having sent her Child (Jesus) by the fertilizing power of the Holy Spirit (Herself the primo-primordial Woman).”[1]

            Obviously, we cannot continue enumerating the catalog of absurdities which is too long; besides, there is enough serious bibliography about the issue. Nevertheless, we need to mention here, at least in passing, the outrageous assault effected against the divine constitution of the Church.

            The absurd winds which attempted to impose the democratization of the Church, as another fruit of the Springtime, almost finished off the authority of the Hierarchy in an unrestrained effort to replace that authority with the governing of the laity. But this is totally contrary to the will of the Divine Founder of the Church; such substitution, should it be successful, would deal her a death blow: the Church is not a democracy but a hierarchy. Let us consider, for example, the Bishops. They have full power to regulate their own dioceses, to the extent that they are directly accountable only to the Pope or to the Ecumenical Council (provided that it is also presided over by the Pope, as a condition for its legality). Therefore no Conference, no matter how Episcopal it may be, has any jurisdiction over them. This fact becomes even clearer if we keep in mind that Episcopal Conferences are one of the rather unfortunate creations of the Second Vatican Council. In reality, they have restricted the freedom of Bishops in their sees, frequently imposing some form of coercion on their decisions (presuming that they have done so in good will). But there is, in addition to what has been said, the gravest of all the consequences: the Conferences have proven to be susceptible to the influence of special Pressure Groups, which, truly speaking, have never been too worried about the true needs of the Church.

The same winds of democracy have appeared at the parochial level. 
Parishes have been changed into agencies led by laymen who, in the end, decide  everything through Liturgical and Economic  Commissions, Pastoral Councils, Councils of Parish life,  Administrative and Social Councils, etc., etc.; all of them governed and presided over by lay people. In this way, the pastor has been reduced to a mere employee at the orders of the various Councils, without the power to dispose of anything without their approval. In a word: the shepherd is now receiving orders and directives from the sheep. In some of the new Communities that have arisen in the Church, even the direction and the principle roles in worship are reserved for the laity, while the presence of the priest is almost irrelevant.

However, since Jesus Christ instituted the Church, structured in the form of a Hierarchy and simple faithful, not even the Church herself can modify her configuration: a Church that has been made into a democracy, thus abandoning her hierarchical structure, would no longer be the Church founded by Jesus Christ. But in spite of this, as Father Martin says alluding to the tornado which is shaking the Church,

            “All hopes are now centered on the community. The People of God was now distinct and separate from the old, still-boned hierarchy of Pope, bishops, priests, and nuns in the tight coagulation of Roman discipline. More than that, this People of God –altogether, as well as in each little gathering of believers—was now said to be the real Church, the real source of revelation, the only legitimizer of morality, the sole source of what to believe. In matters of faith, morals, dogma, and religious practice, Rome, Georgia, had the same authority as the Rome of the Popes.”[2]

            --Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.[3]

            As far as I am concerned, my birth into the supernatural life took place, because of God’s goodness, within the Catholic Church; the Only true Church founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ. I was ordained a priest in her during the pontificate of Pius XII, and I hope to be granted the grace of dying in her bosom. Apart from that, I am well aware that, according to the promise of her Divine Founder, the Church cannot disappear, and, therefore, she is there; although it is difficult to recognize her, and sometimes even to find her. I am also convinced, by the grace of faith, that the Church being the only way to salvation, no other salvation can possibly be found outside her. I have not received the charism to found a new Church or to do away with her Hierarchy or to change it for another: Where Peter is –whether he is the traitor who heard the cock crow on the night of the Passion or the hero who died on the cross, upside down and out of love and fidelity to his Master— there the Church is. And yet, her metamorphosis is so patent and profound that it would be useless and not very honest to deny the fact that she seems to be another. Nevertheless, and in spite of all the evidence and the multitude of appearances, this is the sole Church which lives in continuity with the Church of all times and, consequently, the only true one. That is why this is the moment for us the faithful to actualize our faith, to put our trust in God, and, like Abraham, to hope against all hope (Rom 4:18); for God will finally come to our aid. How could it be otherwise? Can God by chance abandon His own? Can He stop watching over His Church and looking after her…? The true disciple of Jesus is the only carrier of true Joy, and only he possesses true Hope: But when these things begin to come to pass, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is at hand.[4] The Good Shepherd will never abandon His flock: He that gives testimony of these things, says: ‘Surely, I come quickly’: Amen. Come, Lord Jesus![5] And, Be glad in that day and rejoice: for behold, your reward is great in heaven.[6]