Well, that was quick. I wrote some 48 hours ago that Pope Francis had intentionally opened the floodgates of abuse against faithful Catholics — especially pastors — with the Vatican’s recent document directing priests to bless homosexual relationships in church. (Yes, the document was cleverly phrased, with just enough wiggle room to permit Catholic Scientologists to hypnotize themselves into thinking that the pope had not betrayed us. But nobody’s really fooled.)

And lo and behold, it’s already happening. No, not yet the tsunami of litigation targeting faithful priests who refuse to sprinkle holy water on sodomy. Those briefs are already being drawn up, however, in the white shoe law firms that serve the LGBTQMYNAMEISLEGION juggernaut. They will appear in due time, against carefully targeted clergy, with the same strategic direction as the suits against Christian bakers and wedding planners. And the bishops in charge of those priests will be given the option of firing those priests — kicking them to the curb with no salary, no pension, no place to live — as the price of dodging those lawsuits. Thus Francis the Machiavellian can use the shock troops of Sodom to purge the Church.

Outsourcing Persecution to the Public

But we aren’t there yet. That’s the wholesale persecution, which eventually will include criminal charges of violating gay couples’ “civil rights” from the same Justice Department that’s already infiltrating traditional Catholic churches in Virginia.

For now, what we’re seeing is retail, volunteer, grassroots persecution by individual homosexuals of priests whom they suspect of holding to biblical morality. See this X post by a popular, solid priest:

Exactly
The Holy Father and +Fernandez put priests in an impossible position.
I’ve talked to three or four clergy today who already were fielding calls from couples in irregular marriages and/or gay couples to set up their blessing.
So, we end up being called reactionary… https://t.co/T3o1eKvW77

— Fr. Joseph Krupp (@Joeinblack) December 20, 2023

Count on prosperous, childless, troubled gay activists to make it a part-time job to call parish after parish, compiling hit lists of Crimethink pastors to target. Given that we’ve seen multiple violent acts by unhinged transgender zealots (“tranissaries,” Revolver News calls them), don’t be too sure that physical mayhem is off the table. You see, Pope Francis stripped away the standard defense that faithful pastors could always use against made-up charges of “hate” — the fact that rejecting same-sex coupling is required by our religion. It no longer is. Now the targets can be personalized, isolated, and hunted wolf-pack style. Like lambs cut off from the flock.

We have entered an intolerant age, where “liberals” no longer even mouth half-understood slogans embracing liberty. They straight up demand conformity, groupthink, and kowtowing before their idols.

Caesar’s Court Dwarf

This sort of thing has happened before, of course. And there have always been Christian leaders ready and willing to serve as Caesar’s court dwarf, Mammon’s prancing jester, or the well-paid vicar of Sodom. Perhaps the last such instance that anyone even bothers to remember and disapprove of occurred in the 1930s, when the vast majority of Protestant leaders in Germany confronted the rise of Jew-hating violent paganism with … silence. Or hearty sermons decrying the evils of Soviet Communism, and “decadent” individualism. Or any evil, really, apart from the ones the Nazis were stuffing down everyone’s throats.

Just so today, we’ll find progressive Christians willing to courageously condemn white racism, “patriarchy,” Christian Nationalism, fossil fuels, the nuclear family, and every imperfect thing that Caesar happens to sneer at. They just won’t touch the third rail by criticizing what those now in power are saying and making us do. Such Christians have a nice biblical slogan ready to hand which I hope they start using: “We have no king but Caesar!” (John 19:15)

What Would Bonhoeffer Do?

My good friend Eric Metaxas wrote a brilliant, sobering book about the chilling parallels between today’s hard left and the straight up O.G. Nazis. And between our squish pastors today, and those of the 1930s. It’s called Letter to the American Church, and you can read it in a day or two — though (fair warning) it will haunt you ever after. I interviewed Eric about the book when it came out.

Now a powerful film version making this prophetic warning even more available is coming out Feb. 8, featuring Charlie Kirk, David Engelhardt, and other leaders. Check out the trailer, make plans to see it, and get ready to support the next pastor who gets canceled, harassed, fired, or prosecuted for refusing to step on the crucifix, to burn incense before Caesar’s idol.

If you’re wondering what you would have done during Hitler’s rise to power, stop wondering. It is what you are doing now.

John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream and author or co-author of ten books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. He is co-author with Jason Jones of “God, Guns, & the Government.”