If I hear one more time, “Oh, well, you know the Church changes very slowly”, I think I’ll scream.  The slowness of change is usually attributed to how the “Holy Spirit” does things.  No, No, No, it’s not because the Holy Spirit operates that way.  

As every day Catholics, we do not like to mention certain “S” words, this one being Satan.  For most of us, Satan is relegated to the realm of “figments of our imagination”, and so we don’t have the competence like our evangelical brother and sisters to speak of Satan with any kind of ease or certainty, in terms of the reality of Satan’s presence, except of course, in the baptismal ceremony, where we reject, Satan, Father of Lies. 

Gone is the day when we as Catholics could remark like St. Peter, when talking to Sapphira and Annias, that Satan had driven them to deceive the Christian community. There is also a great number of  number of times and places where St. Paul speaks about Satan and the “lawless” one. 

Why am I going on about this?  Simply, because the real obstacle to change is the power and works of Satan, yes, in our Church. Who is it that immediately confronts Jesus, once Jesus is baptized in the Jordan, and commences his spiritual mission?  It is Satan, and he has not stopped attempting to sabotage Jesus since then. Even after the resurrection of Christ, and in which we understand, Satan is ultimately defeated, Satan continues his campaign to destroy Christ, by attempting to destroy Christ’s disciples and the mission of the Church. 

At the root of all the discord, injustice, and abuse of power in the Church, is the work of Satan.  Christ said, the “weeds or the enemy will come”.  We don’t want to hear that these weeds are at all levels of the Church, but they are.  Christ said, “the weeds and the wheat will grow up together”.  It is not for ordinary, human, knowledge, to know exactly “who” is the weed.

God alone knows the hearts of the people, but I wish we could just call a “spade” a “spade”.  What do we do in the face of the constant opposition to do the will of God and fulfill the mission of Christ?  We must rely first and foremost upon Christ, who also said, “Who can cast out Satan?”  Only Christ can, and so the Lord goes about the invisible, more supernatural work of  clearing the way for us by tying up the strong man and destroying his works.  As St. Paul says, Christ promises to destroy Satan and His works!

Is there anything that the ordinary Catholic can do?  Yes, I think, there is! As Catholics, we have grown up with devotions to Mary, the Blessed Mother and the Saints.  I remember at one point that the rosary was being recited so that Russians would be liberated from Communism.  I’m asking that people pray the rosary, with the specific intention that Satan is destroyed from preventing the fulfillment of the Vision of Vatican II.  You must understand, that it is the work of the diabolical, at the level of the spirit, that we cannot see, that is creating the roadblocks to Christ’s work for renewal in the Church.

This point came home to me, while I was reading Jesuit Father Gerry O’Hanlon’s book:  A New Vision:  A View From Ireland.  Why are we, as the Church, having to prove our need for change,  having to beg and cry and shout to be heard by the powers that be?

It is insane that we are forced to react to the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, the Pope and his cohort.  It should be commonplace, that in the Church there is listening to one another, commonplace that we all share and discuss, commonplace that we respect everyone’s gifts and viewpoint, commonplace that we all work together in mutual respect to find solutions. 

So, do you see, why this is not happening?  I hope you do, and please set your rosary dials, for the destruction of the evil that continually undermines the work of  Christ and His Church, particularly as it applies to the full implementation of Vatican II. 

We, as the Church, cannot realistically hope for things to change, unless we are working with Christ and Mary to “root” out the “weeds” of the Church.  The work of “renewal” begins by recognizing where the change must start.

Gerry O'Hanlon's review of his book

Review by Brendan Hoban

A large part of the book is here   (note especially the call, being heard around the world, for regular synods!)