Catholic Candle note: During this month of the Holy Rosary, it is an especially opportune time to not only appreciate the Holy Rosary more and to be more devoted to it, but also to understand better that the forces of evil are strengthening their attacks on it.

In our times of Great Apostasy, when there is no access to an uncompromising priest to provide the uncompromising sacraments (at least in most places), God wants us to be greatly devoted to those means of salvation He currently places in our hands, especially the Rosary. 

We are in the time of the greater efficacy of the Holy Rosary, as Our Lady told us, through Sr. Lucy of Fatima:

God is giving two last remedies to the world: the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  …  Prayer and sacrifice are the two means to save the world.  As for the Holy Rosary, Father [Fuentes], in these last times in which we are living, the Blessed Virgin has given a new efficacy to the praying of the Holy Rosary.  This in such a way that there is no problem that cannot be resolved by praying the Rosary, no matter how difficult it is – be it temporal or above all spiritual ….[1]

Therefore, we should now have a greater appreciation of the power of the Rosary, and the devil knows of its greater power too.  In his fight against us, the devil and his minions attack the Rosary more fiercely because they have an increased fear of its power and its role protecting and sanctifying the Church Militant during these times.

Also, it seems to us that the devil might know that his time is short before the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart by the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  Thus, Satan and his minions are boldly intensifying their attacks on the Rosary.  Hell’s forces are attempting to stigmatize this heaven-sent means of sanctification as a weapon of violence of “right-wing extremists”.  Since no one likes being called an “extremist” or a “crackpot”, this stigma makes people embarrassed to pray the Rosary and reluctant to connect themselves with it.

For example, in August, 2022, the Atlantic magazine attacked the Rosary as part of what the magazine calls the “extremist gun culture”.[2]  The Atlantic also declares that the Rosary has “been woven into a conspiratorial politics” and “radical-traditionalist … campaigns against” the acceptance of unnatural impurity in the Church.  (The Atlantic’s name-calling refers to Catholics who faithfully uphold Catholic dogma on matters of purity.)  The article warns about what it calls “rad-trad” Catholics who “idealize the traditional patriarchal family” (in other words, these Catholics oppose feminism).[3] 

The magazine says that this is part of the “far-right” milieus including “real world terrorist attacks”.[4]  The magazine asserts that:

The “battle beads” culture of spiritual warfare permits radical-traditional Catholics literally to demonize their political opponents and regard the use of armed force against them as sanctified.  The sacramental rosary isn’t just a spiritual weapon but one that comes with physical ammunition.[5]

The Atlantic acknowledges that some mainstream [viz., conciliar] Catholics pray the Rosary too, but distinguishes those mainstream Catholics from “the modern radical-traditionalist Catholic movement” because that movement “generally rejects the Second Vatican Council’s reforms” and “is far outside the majority opinion in the Roman Catholic Church in America”.  To show how (supposedly) extreme the “radical-traditionalist Catholic movement” is, the magazine points out that “many prominent American Catholic bishops advocate for gun control”.[6]

The take-away message from the article is that society should be wary of those “radical-traditionalist Catholics” who pray the Rosary and hold “extreme” positions on social issues.  The magazine suggests that these “extremist” conservative Catholics are only a short distance away from committing “real world terrorist attacks”.[7]

The leftists’ persecution of Christ’s True Church continues to increase.  They are anti-God and are showing their “true colors” more clearly! 

Let us re-double our love of the Rosary and spread devotion to it, far and wide!  As our Lady of Fatima assures us, “there is no problem that cannot be resolved by praying the Rosary, no matter how difficult it is – be it temporal or above all spiritual ….”[8]