There is little question among more observant Catholics that the current situation in the Church is critical, especially as one watches the train wreck which the Vatican increasingly resembles. History, fortunately, comes to our rescue, however. I mean that, looking over the past centuries, it becomes apparent that as regards the Western Church we can see a recurring cycle of reform and decay every 500 years. Beginning with the great reforms of St. Benedict and Pope St. Gregory the Great in the latter 6th century we witness how their reforms shaped and gave rise to the Carolignian renaissance. Still, corruption gradually crept in and by the 10th and early 11th centuries a very dark period emerged for both the papacy and Church discipline. Just when it seemed things could get no worse under the infamous papacy of Benedict IX, a new Ecclesial reformation sprang up under the guiding hands of St. Peter Damien, Hildebrand who became Pope St. Gregory VII, and St. Bernard of Clairvaux.

The following few centuries would see the Medieval Church reach its greatest glory in the 13th century guided by St. Francis of Assisi, St. Dominic, and St. Thomas Aquinas to name just a few luminaries. Once again though, faith and moral discipline began to wane as corruption set in at both the papal and local levels so that by the time of another corrupt Pope, Alexander VI, the stage had been ably set for Martin Luther’s revolt. Again, it was not until the latter half of that 16th century that a genuine Church Counter-reformation began to take effect led by new saints of great stature: St. Charles Borromeo, St. Philip Neri, Sts. Ignatius and Francis Xavier, and Pope St. Pius V who finalized the great reforms of Trent as well as securing the expulsion of the Muslim Turks from Christendom at Lepanto.

500 years from Pope St. Gregory the Great to Hildebrand’s (Pope St. Gregory VII) reforms. 500 more years elapsed from the late 11th century reforms to the late 16th century reforms at Trent under Pope St. Pius V. We are currently standing 500 years out from the revolution of Luther and Calvin and the Church again seems to be at her nadir, especially when viewing the current papacy. This suggests that we are again on the eve of another great reform movement in the Church. That’s the good news. The bad news is that we need to survive the current imminent disaster, trusting that God already has the next Hildebrand or Borromeo lined up to reverse the course of a (Masonic) trajectory which appears to lead towards the Church’s planned demolition. It is a situation similar to what Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher were facing in Henry VIII’s England, again just 500 years ago.