There the Blessed Mother warned of things that would happen about three centuries later. Now many of us should know the prophetic truth of what she had foretold in Ecuador, because we see them unfolding, starting especially in the mid-20th century.
The following are the Blessed Mother’s prophetic words conveyed to Mother Mariana on Jan. 21, 1610: “…. I make it known to you that from the end of the 19th century and shortly after the middle of the 20th century…. the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of customs (morals)….
“They will focus principally on the children in order to sustain this general corruption. Woe to the children of these times! It will be difficult to receive the Sacrament of Baptism, and also that of Confirmation…
“As for the Sacrament of Matrimony… it will be attacked and deeply profaned… The Catholic spirit will rapidly decay; the precious light of the Faith will gradually be extinguished… Added to this will be the effects of secular education, which will be one reason for the dearth of priestly and religious vocations.
“The Sacrament of Holy Orders will be ridiculed, oppressed, and despised… The Devil will try to persecute the ministers of the Lord in every possible way; he will labor with cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their vocation and will corrupt many of them. These depraved priests, who will scandalize the Christian people, will make the hatred of bad Catholics and the enemies of the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church fall upon all priests…
“Further, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury, which will ensnare the rest into sin and conquer innumerable frivolous souls, who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women. In this supreme moment of need of the Church, the one who should speak will fall silent.”
There are things that have been happening in our times that echo the Quito prophecies, things that are even getting worse. Let me cite some concrete manifestations.
Here in Pampanga, many priests have developed confessional allergies. They are not available for the Sacrament of Reconciliation as specified on posted church schedules. If ever a priest shows up, they are late and always in a hurry to depart.
But they faithfully show up for rehearsals for stage plays. They promptly come in full force for concelebrated Masses for highly positioned public officials known to be engaged in assorted evils. Even while they still hold Masses, more and more of them deliver ill-prepared homilies that start with something like: “Tingnan mo ang katabi mo at sabihin mo…”
There are still saintly priests, but they are an endangered species. That’s why the Sacrament of Holy Orders is being ridiculed.
I don’t know how such insincere priests have impacted on the faith of people, but there is no doubt there is already a severe slackening of adherence to yet another sacrament: Matrimony. In our neighborhoods, if not our family, there are couples cohabiting without first getting married. Nay, with plans never to get married at all. Such situation is now as common as the sari-sari store.
Who can gainsay the magnitude of luxury of our times? Even those who don’t have the wealth for incredible modern luxury are hooked up on something luxurious, particularly smartphones which have become yearly summum bonum for their new models. And the trend is towards internet access, no longer the simpler calls and texts, and here lies the danger.
Internet, alas, has become the tool of the demon to literally demonize youths through the sin that, the Blessed Mother had once admitted, is the main transgression leading to eternal perdition: sins of the flesh. Internet porno has become an ordinary staple via smartphones in the hands of even the youngest.
In another front, joining beauty contests that require women to wear skimpy pieces have become the dream of young girls, and naked women featured on magazine covers are extolled for their professional sexiness. No one raises a brow and even mothers teach toddlers the elements of being sexy for phone selfies.
The air in schools have also changed in our times. As example, there’s this all-girls school being run by religious sisters in Pampanga, where students are taught social manners but can’t even enumerate the 10 Commandments, much less the precepts of the Church and the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. At certain times in the past that I know of, the girls had been required to spend for costumes to mark an international day in a parade on campus, where the school head – a religious sister – sat on a throne-like chair in the middle of a platform, like a queen reviewing her subjects but without explicit pertinence to the biblical Genesis.
Yes, the prophecies from Quito are unfolding.
