“The enemy has, indeed, long been prowling about the fold and attacking it with such subtle cunning that now, more than ever before, the prediction of the Apostle to the elders of the Church of Ephesus seems to be verified: ‘I know that…fierce wolves will get in among you, and will not spare the flock.’” -Pope Pius X (1905)

“How are they to hear, if no one preaches?” -St Paul

(In my effort to reach out to fellow Catholics specifically, I have recently been including more content from papal encyclicals from a past come and gone and being resurrected as we speak. This is not to exclude non-Catholics, obviously, but in addition to my usual political work that often brings in Christ and the Christian faith, I am aiming to add some things more specific to Catholicism for a number of reasons–first and foremost my love for the traditional practices of the ancient faith. Here are two examples from February and March, “On Usury and Other Dishonest Profits: An Increasingly Relevant 1745 Papal Encyclical” and “The Four Last Things & Traditional Christianity: A View on the Death Penalty.”)

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In an era where electronic screen deception masquerades as truth and ignorance is posted on the same electronic screen for all the world as enlightenment, the words of Pius X in his 1905 encyclical Acerbo Nimis resonate with a clarity that cuts through the maze of modern disinformation.

In short, religion matters. Religion is necessary to extricate ourselves from the cave.

He lamented the pervasive religious ignorance of his time. And that, of course, was long before humans had available to them the sheer amount of information as they have today:

It is hard to find words to describe how profound is the darkness in which they are engulfed and, what is most deplorable of all, how tranquilly they repose there. They rarely give thought to God, the Supreme Author and Ruler of all things, or to the teachings of the faith of Christ. They know nothing of the Incarnation of the Word of God, nothing of the perfect restoration of the human race which He accomplished. Grace, the greatest of the helps for attaining eternal things… are entirely unknown to them. They have no conception of the malice and baseness of sin; hence they show no anxiety to avoid sin or to renounce it…. And so Our Predecessor, Benedict XIV, had just cause to write: “We declare that a great number of those who are condemned to eternal punishment suffer that everlasting calamity because of ignorance of those mysteries of faith which must be known and believed in order to be numbered among the elect.

Can you imagine what he’d say now in 2025?

Seems frightening, but we have to ask ourselves the question: Does truth change over time? Eternal truth, that is. 

People don’t know the truth because they’ve roamed in a swamp of deception that makes it difficult to know any different. Those who hold power in this world need us to remain ignorant. 

This is all about control and destroying the souls of God’s children. If you don’t know what’s true, you can’t act. If you don’t act, you can’t resist. And if you can’t resist, you can be ruled by some figure other than God.

Ruled by the prince of this world—and that is the whole point, precisely what Christ was constantly warning about.

The Parable of the Sower & the Information War

Consider the Parable of the Sower from the Gospel of Luke (8:4-15, Douay-Rheims). It is a popular Gospel passage often glossed over by Catholics who have heard it a hundred too many times. Once upon a time, I was guilty of this embarrassing mental lethargy. But as some of us know, there is always something new to cull from the Word of God, something only accessible to the humble, the most blessed non-lethargic among us.

We all know the one—Christ describes seeds falling on different types of ground—some on the wayside, some on rocky soil, others among thorns, and finally, some on good ground. Christ himself explains to his apostles after he tells it:

• The seed is the Word of God.
• Those on the wayside are they that hear, then the devil comes and takes the word out of their heart, lest believing they should be saved.
• Those on the rock receive it with joy for a time but have no roots—when temptation comes, they fall away.
• Those among thorns fall among thorns are they who have heard and, going their way, are choked with the cares, riches, and pleasures of this life, and thus yield no fruit.
• On the good ground are they who, in a good and perfect heart, hearing the Word, keep it and bring forth fruit in patience.

Now ask yourself, what kind of ground is our world cultivating? What kind of ground are we as individual souls cultivating?

Juxtapose the parable with the current state of the world. Modern geopolitics and culture are a wasteland of rocky soil and thorn-choked fields, where truth struggles to survive beneath the constant onslaught of electronic lies.

Who’s doing the planting? What fruit of the seeds?

Legacy media. Controlled alt-media. Algorithms. The comment section of every post. Universities. The political class. The so-called “experts” and “scientists”—all of them telling us what to think, what to believe, and—most importantly—what not to question.

Take Libya. Take Ukraine. Take Syria. Take Israel. Take Iran. Take every major geopolitical event about which we are told we must have an opinion. And in the midst of that lecture hall, narratives are carefully crafted, not to inform, but to manipulate that public opinion, to serve agendas that have little to do with the pursuit of truth and everything to do with the consolidation of power. It is a relentless barrage of half-truths and outright lies, preventing the seeds of truth from taking root in the hearts and minds of the populace, even those of Christians. The script is already written—included the opposition’s, the one we think is on our side. We’re just supposed to nod along, yell it out on social media that !we’re taking our country back!, and depend on Trump or other secular leaders to fix everything.

Don’t ask why American politicians send endless billions to protect foreign borders while our own country falls apart.

Don’t ask why we’re fed cartoonishly simplistic narratives, as if international conflicts were Marvel movies with clear-cut good guys and bad guys.

Don’t ask who benefits from keeping us distracted, misinformed, and obedient, or else we’ll be labeled with one of those pesky little pejoratives.

Don’t question that screen—no matter how confused and disjointed it is in itself.

Embrace the total lunacy of it all.

Who Is Instructing Us?

In a great understatement, we humans can be dumb. We need guidance.

As Pius X warned, when people are ignorant of the truth, they become easy prey for those who seek to rule them. This is why he emphasized the critical role of proper catechesis:

We must now consider upon whom rests the obligation to dissipate this most pernicious ignorance and to impart in its stead the knowledge that is wholly indispensable. There can be no doubt…that this most important duty rests upon all who are pastors of souls. On them, by command of Christ, rest the obligations of knowing and of feeding the flocks committed to their care; and to feed implies, first of all, to teach. “I will give you pastors according to my own heart,” God promised through Jeremias, “and they shall feed you with knowledge and doctrine.” Hence the Apostle Paul said: “Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel,” thereby indicating that the first duty of all those who are entrusted in any way with the government of the Church is to instruct the faithful in the things of God.

In other words, the priesthood is of vital importance.

And let’s be honest—when Pius speaks of souls and flock, he’s not talking about some vague, faceless victims. He’s talking about… you and me.

He’s warning about globalist overlords intent on enslaving us in a totalitarian, worldwide government—replacing that priesthood entirely with a diabolical power structure.

It is for Pius X, therefore, a moral imperative to illuminate the darkness of ignorance with the light of truth—not with modernist dialogue and journeying—but with real, hard, Catholic catechesis. Ignorance of religion and God doesn’t just exist. It is cultivated. It is enforced. And the only way to destroy it is to speak truth—loudly, relentlessly, and without apology.

And we need our priests to start doing it so we laymen can stop it with the blogging battlefields.

LEJEUNE RECENT

Christ made the diabolical power structure clear in the Gospel of St John Chapter 8 when he faced down the Pharisees, saying, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him.”

This scathing rebuke underscores the eternal struggle between truth and falsehood, between those who seek to enlighten and those who, wittingly or unwittingly, perpetuate deception.

Who exactly was he talking to then?

The ruling class of his time. The religious (and political) “experts” who twisted truth, controlled the narrative, and crushed anyone who stepped out of line. The infiltrators who had traitors inside the Roman government. The ones poisoned by Babylon.

You’ve heard of the Trojan horse. What about a fifth column?

When people are ignorant, they are easy to control. They clap like sitcom idiots on cue.

We are forced to agree with those who hold that the chief cause of the present indifference and, as it were, infirmity of soul, and the serious evils that result from it, is to be found above all in ignorance of things divine. This is fully in accord with what God Himself declared through the Prophet Osee [Hosea]: “And there is no knowledge of God in the land. Cursing and lying and killing and theft and adultery have overflowed: and blood hath touched blood. Thereafter shall the land mourn, and everyone that dwelleth in it shall languish.”

In both political and Church arena, this battle manifests in the form of propaganda and the suppression of truth. The legacy media long ago abdicated its responsibility to hold power to account, choosing instead to act as its mouthpiece.

This dereliction of duty has profound implications, as an uninformed or misinformed populace—dependent on the wrong instructor—is ill-equipped to make decisions that align with its best interests or the common good. Add to that the complete annihilation of Christ’s religion, or at least near-annihilation, and you have what you have.

A veritable hell on earth.

Pius X was blunt in his warning about this:

There is…no reason for wonder that the corruption of morals and depravity of life is already so great, and ever increasingly greater, not only among uncivilized peoples but even in those very nations that are called Christian. The Apostle Paul, writing to the Ephesians, repeatedly admonished them in these words: “But immorality and every uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as become saints; or obscenity or foolish talk.” He also places the foundation of holiness and sound morals upon a knowledge of divine things-which holds in check evil desires: “See to it therefore, brethren, that you walk with care: not as unwise but as wise. . . Therefore, do not become foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” And rightly so. For the will of man retains but little of that divinely implanted love of virtue and righteousness by which it was, as it were, attracted strongly toward the real and not merely apparent good. Disordered by the stain of the first sin, and almost forgetful of God, its Author, it improperly turns every affection to a love of vanity and deceit. This erring will, blinded by its own evil desires, has need therefore of a guide to lead it back to the paths of justice whence it has so unfortunately strayed. The intellect itself is this guide, which need not be sought elsewhere, but is provided by nature itself. It is a guide, though, that, if it lack its companion light, the knowledge of divine things, will be only an instance of the blind leading the blind so that both will fall into the pit.

Here lies the crux of the matter: ignorance begets apathy, and apathy begets inaction. When individuals are deprived of truth, their capacity for righteous action is severely compromised. Ignorance makes cowards of men. It rots the soul.

It’s not just that nothing ever gets done. It’s that nothing was ever meant to get done.

That’s the trick.

The people in power need you ignorant of this force. They want you distracted from this force. And they’ll do anything to keep you there.

That’s what they were calling “idiot boxes” back in the 1950s are for. Now the idiot boxes are glued to our hands.

Final Words

So what is the antidote to this pervasive ignorance and manipulation? It begins with a commitment from at least a certain number of us to seeking truth, to questioning narratives, and to educating ourselves and others on the Faith of our Fathers. It requires the courage to stand against the tide of popular opinion when it is rooted in falsehood, courage to instruct—especially amid Catholics who are unwary of what deception has been levied on us.

There is always something new to cull from the Word of God. There is always something valuable to cull from the popes of the past:

We do not think it necessary to set forth here the praises of such instruction or to point out how meritorious it is in God’s sight. If, assuredly, the alms with which we relieve the needs of the poor are highly praised by the Lord, how much more precious in His eyes, then, will be the zeal and labor expended in teaching and admonishing, by which we provide not for the passing needs of the body but for the eternal profit of the soul! Nothing, surely, is more desirable, nothing more acceptable to Jesus Christ, the Savior of souls, Who testifies of Himself through Isaias: “To bring good news to the poor he has sent me.”

And admonishing…

The words of Pius X in Acerbo Nimis, bolstered by Scripture itself, serve as both a warning and a call to action. Such a braiding of wisdom reminds us that ignorance is not merely a personal failing but a societal ill with far-reaching consequences. As we navigate the complexities of our modern world, let us take to heart the lessons of the past, the teachings of Scripture, and the imperative to be bearers of truth in an age rife with deception.

Let us know exactly where our seeds are falling—and let us pray in earnest for good priests to once again carry the torch.

“The holy king David, praising God for the light of truth with which He had illumined the intellect, exclaimed: ‘The light of Thy countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us.’ Then he described the effect of this light by adding: ‘Thou hast given gladness in my heart,’ gladness, that is, which enlarges our heart so that it runs in the way of God’s Commandments.”

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May everyone named directly or referenced indirectly ask forgiveness and do penance for their sins against America and God. I fight this information war in the spirit of justice and love for the innocent, but I have been reminded of the need for mercy and prayers for our enemies. I am a sinner in need of redemption as well after all, for my sins are many. In the words of Jesus Christ himself, Lord forgive us all, for we know not what we do.