The Church will be in eclipse, the world will be in dismay... Rome will lose the faith and become the seat of Antichrist.—Our Lady of La Salette.
Mary said the above words in a Vatican-approved apparition from the 19th century. There’s a lot of debate in the Catholic world today about this. In the year 2000, Catholic Answers had an article claiming it was misused by post-Vatican II traditionalists: “What is absurd is the radical traditionalist claim that the alleged prophecy of Our Lady of La Salette may be applied to Rome today… Radical traditionalists often seem to have a defective understanding of what counts as apostasy. It is much more than tepid or weak faith. It is more than just accepting ideas contrary to the Catholic faith (that’s what heresy is). Apostasy constitutes a full repudiation of the faith so that one no longer considers oneself a Christian.”
I would have agreed with them 25 years ago. But after the Pachamama-worshipping event in Rome in 2018, and Fiducia Sodomons coming out of the Vatican in 2024, we need to go a little deeper into the Bible and the saints to figure out what this “eclipse” is, and how to navigate it at a practical level.
Our Lord said about the end of the world: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened.”—Mt 24:29. According to the Church Fathers, this applies to the actual sun before Christ returns. But St. Augustine also spoke of a great apostasy at the end of the world befalling the final Catholics: “The sun, that is, the Church, shall be darkened, because in those tremendous tribulations and temptations which shall be in the end of the world, many who had seemed as bright and as firm as the sun and the stars shall fall away from the Faith and a state of grace.”—St. Augustine, Letter #80 to Hesychium.
As most of you know, the Church Fathers also refer to Christ as the Sun, and the Mary as the Moon. This is because Christ is the source of all grace and Mary is the clearest and brightest reflection of God’s grace to all of mankind. It’s a mixed-analogy to apply this to the prophesy of La Salette. Why? Because it’s obviously not Mary who is blocking the visibility of the Church in the current crisis. If the clergy actually prayed the Rosary and listened to Mary (the destroyer of all heresies) we would not be in this trainwreck of debates on doctrine and liturgy.
However, if you will overlook the above mixed-analogy, I think there is something very significant about the fact that the Church Fathers spoke of Mary as the Moon and St. Augustine predicted at the end of the world “many who had seemed as bright and as firm as the sun and the stars shall fall away from the Faith and a state of grace,” and Our Lady of La Salette later predicted a time of “an eclipse of the Church” and today most priests and bishops are teaching heresy in one form or another. (In fact, I challenge my readers to email me the name of one ordinary in the world who holds or teaches the infallible dogma of Extra Ecclesia Nulla Salus. An “ordinary” is a bishop leading a geographical-diocese. Thus, AB. Viganò and Bp. Williamson are not ordinaries, even though they are bishops.)
Before we put all this together, consider how St. Louis De Montfort wrote that the final saints would be the most devoted to Mary in all of Church history. He wrote:
“I said that this will happen especially towards the end of the world, and indeed soon, because Almighty God and His holy Mother are to raise up great saints who will surpass in holiness most other saints as much as the cedars of Lebanon tower above little shrubs… These great souls filled with grace and zeal will be chosen to oppose the enemies of God who are raging on all sides. They will be exceptionally devoted to the Blessed Virgin. Illumined by her light… guided by her spirit… they will give battle, overthrowing and crushing heretics and their heresies, schismatics and their schisms, idolaters and their idolatries, sinners and their wickedness.”—Saint Louis Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, #47-48.
When St. Louis De Montfort wrote that over two hundred years ago, he did not know that Our Lady of Fatima 100 years after his death would predict that the final heretics would be found in the ranks of bishops and Cardinals (and perhaps higher) of the Catholic Church. But St. Louis did seem to know the final saints need would Mary to navigate around untold numbers of heresies. Again, he prophesied “these great souls filled with grace and zeal will be chosen to oppose the enemies of God who are raging on all sides. They will be exceptionally devoted to the Blessed Virgin. Illumined by her light… they will give battle… overthrowing and crushing heretics and their heresies.”
In this video, I believe there’s very strong research and evidence by Catholic attorneys that the Third Secret of Fatima was apostasy from the top—down. That means especially the hierarchy. And we clergy are supposed to constitute the most prominent aspect of the visibility of the Catholic Church according to many Catholic theologians. Although Christ’s love and grace is obviously not missing from the earth in our current Church crisis, this night of heresy and apostasy impeding the visibility of the Church is probably tantamount to “the eclipse” predicted at La Salette. And what is the brightest guide at night? The Moon, who the Fathers say is analogous to the Immaculate Virgin Mary.
Thus, the Holy Theotokos will be the best (and possibly only?) guide to Jesus Christ in the darkness of heresy challenging the final saints. The final saints will be the most Marian in history. This isn’t said just to drum up a sweet devotion, but rather because Mary is the illuminator of Her Son, the Truth, and she is also the extinguisher of all heresies. What does this mean practically for you? It means praying your Rosary daily in this unprecedented-eclipse of the hierarchy may be more important to your family’s salvation than any other time in the Catholic Church’s 2000 year history.