CATHOLIC DEFENSE AGAINST THE DARK ARTS: Lesson Three: THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IS CORRUPT AND BORING.

With all the hype about corruption in the Catholic Church, and there is that in it, the Devil floats two “suggestions” to weak members of society, that sound innocent enough and seem to describe what the individual human feels about religion:

a. With all the press about pedophilia in the Catholic Church latching on to its normal predilection to sell sensationalism, bringing up sexual misconduct for priests and nuns, laity, politicians, and virtually every segment of society touched by original sin, is a win-win. Even if those affected (accusers as well as victims) are dragged through the court of public opinion, there are no winners. In all cases, justice must be served. The fact that this glaring hole exists in the Catholic Church (who in the world would choose to be celibate in a world of sexual permissiveness?) is one that the faithful must be on guard against. No one is immune (save Jesus and Mary, and only because the Holy Spirit overshadowed her with grace). This is the “thorn of the flesh” for the Catholic Church.

If God communicates to us in silence, then Satan, the wannabe “ruler of the earth,” is indeed like a snake that slithers around unnoticed by the unsuspecting or spiritually illiterate, speaking in “Parcel tongue” as in the Harry Potter series. This tongue is but a whisper, but always present to our gullible minds because of original sin (again, the Devil’s hint of what is good or evil rather than God’s). This is the struggle faced by those who are aware that they are aware of the existential dynamic unfolding in the upper room of their inner selves.

Sometimes the Devil uses the whiplash nature of our newly discovered rationality (in terms of evolutionary time as our species), to confront us directly by using our sexual drives, those naturally evolved characteristics humans must have for procreation, to suggest that modern humans don’t need that old-fashioned Catholic Church that hates pleasure to remind us of the boundaries our species must rise to, to continue evolving. Again, not the easy way of doing things, as pointed out brilliantly by the Book of Genesis, Chapters 1-3, but the result of the wrong choice of Adam and Eve (prototype humans).

When that invisible and silent urge in me to become jealous, envious, lustful, hateful, causes me to want to destroy individuals, and, in the case we speak of now, the Catholic Church, this emotional temptation is not yet sinful unless I agree with it. Scriptures tell us, “If you find hatred, you must replace it with good. Do not return evil for evil.” This is the battleground on which we humans play, until we have learned how to navigate those potholes (Seven Deadly Sins) and not allow them to disable us or kill the spirit of adoption we received in Baptism. Again, it takes awareness; it takes a positive act of the will to say NO to Satan, which is a YES to the boundaries set by God. I don’t have the energy from my human nature to be aware, nor the strength of will to do what I know is right, from what the Devil shepherds me towards, and it is a perversion of what my nature intended for me. The battleground is within each human being to discover and move to the highest form of evolution. Church helps my awareness, but I still must make that decision for myself. When I deny Christ by factioning the Church into my own image and likeness, there is more joy in Hell over my lack of awareness than any human can express. How subtle; divide and conquer. And some Catholics don’t see it other than to think they, not the Church, are the sole proprietors of God’s energy. False gods!

The Devil does not have the power to raise any of us to that next level of humanity, our spiritual birthright, the place where we can walk the rocky way with Christ until we die. The seduction is to target the individual, the one most affected by original sin and the most vulnerable, those weak and beaten down by the tragedies of life, not of their doing, losing hope, losing the only energy that can sustain them against the world. It is that subtle pull to separate from what seems to be a corrupt Church, one racked by sinful people (the most egregious of whom are St. Peter and St. Paul) as irrelevant and out of touch with “what really makes us happy.” The cross never promises happiness or the overcoming of poverty or oppression of mind and body. Just because your road is rocky doesn’t mean you are going the wrong way. The way of the cross is to listen to the silence of God rather than the seductive false promises of the Devil.

CHALLENGES FOR THOSE WHO ARE PRONE TO THE SEDUCTION OF FACTIONING.

• Don’t mess around with the Devil. “Prefer nothing to the love of Christ.”
• You can choose only one Center. What do you put there: “God” or “god”? One is truth personified, and one looks good but leads to the death of the spirit.
• Factions are the leading cause of friction among many Catholics. The choice is between the living authority of Christ in each age, the Magisterium, or an individual’s belief (I am proposing that it is sincere) that their notion of Catholicism preserves truth, but one they themselves have created by allowing the Devil to insert factioning into the mindset of their contemplative prayer life.
• Being Catholic means I must be on my guard constantly to be aware of the existential conflict between good and evil and who determines it. God sets the boundaries, not me. The Catholic Church has been given direct authority to interpret those boundaries in each age through its visible head, the Holy Father.
• Ask yourself three questions: (the ones I always ask Jehovah’s Witnesses) First: Who, right now, wears the Shoes of the Fisherman? Next, do you believe that Jesus is present, body and blood, soul and divinity, in the Eucharist (The Last Supper Made Real Each Day Since Christ’s Ascension)? And, third, what is the indelible sign God gives to each person He has called to adoption as brothers and sisters and heirs to the kingdom of Heaven?
• Catholics who care, stay away from the occasions that divide the Church due to your personal opinions.
• Catholics who want to grow deeper in Christ Jesus, the Church offers you the tools to dig for heavenly gold in that upper room of your inner self. Before you go to Eucharist, prepare your mind and heart by sitting in silence and solitude and waiting for whatever God gifts you as to what you need.
• Catholics who share with others, “Share the peace of Christ. Not the peace that comes from the resolution of disputes, but, rather, the peace that is the love of Christ made real through you right now.”

b. The second vulnerability that sticks out with many novice Catholics, youth, those who are pussilanimous (I love that word), translated weak, and is like an M&M candy that melts every time there is the slightest discomfort or boredom in religion. Boredom is the default in our daily lives, one which I call the Martyrdom of Ordinary Living. Life is not glamorous and enthralling, although it can be for a short period. The fallback to human nature is tedious routine, the lack of growing deeper in the Faith, being reactive to Christ rather than actively seeking out Jesus, and engaging in energy transfer.

It is no accident that the side-effects of the Fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden were becoming their own Alpha and Omega (living in a world that continuously lives and ends), is also a world where you have to work to earn your daily bread, or experience no work at all. The listless don’t want to work, wanting life to give them a free ride, always seeking the easy way out instead of what is right (according to our programmed destiny to Omega). One of the sneakiest Seven Deadly Sins is Sloth, one at the core of our weakness to choose the difficult over what makes us seemingly happy but is only like cotton candy, no substance, and no nourishment. Contrast that with the way that promises that the food you need for survival is free, always there, always waiting for you to sit down and eat.

This is Eucharist, one of the two most important gifts Jesus can give any human, and one that is not a symbol of one who walked the shores of Galilee long ago, but the same Jesus who tells those who believe, “If you eat this bread and drink this cup, you will have life in you. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. If you drink this blood and eat this bread, you will have eternal life.” And yet, Satan slithers into our minds to suggest that all this Jesus stuff is poppycock and doesn’t make any sense to the modern mind, which needs to be fully human. Boredom is at the heart of all spirituality. If we are not aware of the dynamics of love from divine nature to human nature, and how we can, through Christ Jesus, eat of that bread and drink of that cup, then all is boredom and sameness, repetition of prayers that don’t say anything to those with boring ears.

CHALLENGES FOR THOSE WHO ARE OVERSHADOWED BY THE MARTYRDOM OF ORDINARY LIVING

Idleness is the Devil’s playground. Those who let down their guard may let in their enemies to steal their souls if they are not vigilant.

Boredom is not the repetition of the Eucharist, prayers, being in constant vigil each day, or being aware that it takes work and sacrifice to do what is right rather than what is easy. Boredom is the inability of each individual to proactively roll up their sleeves and dig for heavenly gold right under their feet. Being spoon-fed Christ’s invitation to Eucharist as THE one rule each Catholic must keep misses the context that if we don’t feed ourselves from the bread of life, we do not have God’s life in us, and that may cause a crack in our armor of Faith we must use to combat Satan.

Catholics, wake up. Seize back your Faith from a seemingly passive Satan who uses social media and cotton candy Christianity to seduce those who think they are faithful. The cross combats sloth. Take it up each day.

Catholics, wake up. You are Christ to society only if you “Have in you the mind of Christ Jesus.” Become associated with Lay Ministries at your parish. Join Lay Organizations of strict practice, such as Lay Franciscans, Lay Dominicans, Lay Carmelites, Lay Cistercians (the one to which I belong), and Lay Augustinians.

Don’t just sit on your bottom waiting for Christ to contact you. Be strong like the Saints and “Prefer nothing to the love of Christ.” It isn’t about money. It is about abandoning all those false gods we end up serving, without realizing that the boredom of being human has seduced us.

Copyright. 2026. Michael F. Conrad. Ed.D., The Center for Contemplative Practice. All Rights Reserved. Non-profit status awaiting completion.

Catholics, dig for heavenly gold right under your feet. Can you drink the cup that Jesus drinks? You can, but you must know how, and it takes sacrifice.