The Urgent Imperative for Moral Clarity

Dear Friend, 

What did the Lord really mean when He told His disciples that “the gates of hell” would “not prevail” against His Church (Matthew 16:18)? It is commonly interpreted as the promise of Christ to His Bride that the devil would never be able to destroy her. 

That’s a solid interpretation, and we would all be wise to place our total confidence in the Lord’s protective promise.

But there is another possible interpretation, and here I want you to think of the People of Israel before the gates of Jericho. Those gates didn’t “prevail” against the divine power of God did they? In fact, the entire wall of the city fell down when the people came against it! And the point of that sword was a mighty spiritual warrior named Joshua.

The first interpretation above is defensive. It speaks about God’s protective power residing in the heart of His Church. The second interpretation is offensive, in a military sense. It speaks of the spiritual power of the Church Militant to come against and destroy spiritual strongholds— “gates”—of evil, if you will.

Some are not comfortable with the idea of an “aggressive” approach to religion, which is supposed to be comforting and peaceful. I get that, and the Church certainly is that, most of the time. 

But I also try to read the full biblical record on such matters, and there is plenty of evidence for “spiritual warfare” in the Church’s founding document, not the least of which is the story of Jericho. We can read that story as a sort of premonition about the Church’s mission to fight the power of evil in the world. 

Rather than lengthy descriptions, I prefer just to cite scripture references that detail the “militant” nature of the Church based upon the example of our Founder. It’s all pretty clear that the Church is a kind of spiritual army, by design. See Acts 10:38; 2 Cor 10:4; Eph 6, especially verse 17; 1 Tim 1:18, 6:12; 2 Tim 2:3; 1 John 3:8, not to mention the great battles of Revelation, among others.

So, what does all this have to do with moral clarity? Simple. 

Amid the global chaos we are experiencing today, the enemy has clearly taken over the key areas of culture, and the apostles of evil are carrying out their plan of moral and societal destruction as we speak. Everywhere we look we see extreme criminal activity, ethical compromise, corruption of the most important institutions, deliberate moral ambiguity, spiritual confusion, and utterly twisted notions of right and wrong. 

If you need more evidence of all this wickedness, just watch the news! Ultimately, these organized forces of evil are bent on the destruction of souls, and quite frankly, they appear to be winning the battle. 

In the face of all this evil, what we need is a Church that has returned to battle mode. Every time the Church fights evil, it ultimately prevails. It must. It has the power of God behind its every act. That is the fruit of the promise of Christ that the “gates of hell” will not hold out against the onslaught of truth, beauty, and goodness, which are the proper spiritual weapons of the Church.

But one gets the distinct impression that the Church isn’t fighting back—at all. It has laid down its weapons and renounced the battle. Not only is it not “fighting the good fight”, most days, it’s not even on the battlefield!

Today the aggressive workers of spiritual evil are perverting the very moral fabric of society, even to the point of seducing vulnerable children into changing genders. 

Where are the spiritual leaders shouting in the streets the prophecy of Isaiah: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who change darkness to light and light to darkness” (Isaiah 5:20)?

And it’s not only the Islamic terrorists who are beheading babies. Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry have been doing it for fifty years—right in our back yards. 

Where are our spiritual leaders rebuking the aggressive killers of the innocent: “Thou shalt not kill” (Ex 20:13)?

Building up a moral foundation for a whole society—and in fact for all Western Civilization, which is the Church’s legacy—takes time. It is the work of many generations of saints and souls who faithfully hand on the Gospel message to others. 

A moral foundation is the kind of thing that can’t be built in a day, but it can be destroyed overnight. Which is exactly what we see happening before our very eyes. 

The crisis of moral clarity we are experiencing today is because the Church has yet to enter the battle. We don’t need another committee to examine the problem or more commentators telling us how bad things have gotten. We already know that. 

We need spiritual warriors, as St. Thomas Aquinas once said: to refute the madness of heretics, which are rightly called “the gates of hell” and knock them down.

Truly the only force that can stop this tsunami of evil is the “One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church”, which is the only Church founded directly by Jesus Christ Himself. It was established—literally—to fight evil. 

Our spiritual leaders need to pick up their weapons and fight the good fight!

Your fellow warrior in Christ,

Thomas McKenna

Founder and President

Catholic Action for Faith and Family

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P.S. Stay-tuned in the coming weeks as Catholic Action for Faith and Family mounts a coordinated response to these alarming trends anchored by Operation Storm Heaven, the largest worldwide spiritual crusade lead by His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke to storm Heaven with prayer namely of praying the Holy Rosary on the 1st of every month. If you have not submitted your intentions for Nov. 1, please take this opportunity now.