by Phoebe Wise
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| Author Phoebe Wise |
Have you heard about the Raspberry Crazy Ants that are taking over south Texas? I recently visited Austin for the first time in almost 30 years, and my nephew told me about the latest entymological horror to invade my native state. They came from Brazil sometime before 2003, when they were first noticed by exterminator Tom Raspberry,who named them after himself. Some call them Tawny crazy ants, which better describes their color. The New York Times did a great article on them in 2013 which you can read here: There's a Reason They Call Them Crazy Ants
They are called crazy ants because they zip around in an insanely chaotic fashion. And they swarm together in huge clumps for no apparent reason; the scientists haven’t figured out why they do what they do. As one besieged homeowner in the Times article phrased it: "They're freakin crazy, man."
They don’t have painful bites, so why are they so horrifying?
Sheer numbers—they invade your home by the millions. Like most ants, they are attracted to power sources, and their writhing swarms can short circuit your television, your electrical box… the lights just flicker and go out. In Brazil they have been known to suffocate birds by blocking their nasal cavities. After stirring up all this senseless havoc, they suffer massive die-offs that leave piles of dead ants like tawny-colored snow drifts all around your home.
Upon hearing about this new menace, I immediately thought of the Synod on the Family, now going on in Rome. What’s that? you ask. Well, scores of Cardinals, Archbishops, and the Various and Sundry are gathered, even as I'm typing this, to sit around and ponder, um, something about the family—just what that may be, we’ll have to wait and see.
Why should Raspberry Crazy Ants make me think of the Synod on the Family? Well, actually, what I really thought of was Vatican II. History has shown us that the most recent ecumenical council was more like the random kicking of an anthill than anything else.
Yes, I am aware that Vatican II gave us a five-foot shelf of books that was beautifully faithful to the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church. Too bad nobody read them.
Instead, most of the guys in red and purple robes went back home and communicated some form of craziness to the troops that made Catholics start swarming around and shorting out all the power sources of our faith: beautiful music, awe-inspiring liturgy, noble art and architecture, devotion to Mary and the saints, belief in the Real Presence…
Even more debilitating was the abandonment of the life-giving, salvation-bringing Magisterium of the Catholic Church. Because they were no longer hearing the truth taught in their churches and schools, Catholics fell away by the millions, given up to the lies put forth by the culture of death. They drifted around in the world like so many millions of dead husks—just like Raspberry Crazy Ants. (Now you see where I’m going with this analogy.)
The deaths were physical as well as spiritual; millions of Catholic babies died from abortion and abortifacient contraceptives. Millions more were never conceived because married people had never taken to heart their nuptial promise: to be open to the gift of children that God would send them.
Worst of all, the Vatican II craziness attacked the most stupendous sources of power that this benighted planet has ever known: the sacraments. Baptism makes us adopted sons and daughters of God; confirmation fortifies us for our spiritual battle, confession restores us to grace when we have fallen, communion gives us God Himself as our food for the journey, marriage enables us to love and nurture new life, holy orders make the other sacraments possible, and the sacrament of the sick prepares us for death and the life of Heaven.
Unfortunately no one chooses to access these phenomenal power sources unless they have faith, and the Vatican II craziness confused, or killed the faith of millions.
To return to my ant analogy, the light of faith flickered and went out. People stopped going to confession and communion, stopped getting married in the Church, no longer had their children baptized or confirmed. Few encouraged a son’s vocation to the priesthood, and for the dying, last rites were ignored, or worse, euthanasia was offered instead. For lack of the sacraments, many millions of people succumbed to spiritual and physical death.
So much death. “I had not thought death had undone so many.”
That's why the Raspberry Crazy Ants made me think of the false spirit of Vatican II. It’s why all this week and next, as long as the Red and Purple Robes are swarming at the Vatican, I will be praying this simple prayer:
“Dear Merciful Father, please don’t let the Synod on the Family be like, well, You know…"
Enjoy this piece? You might like to read also: THE REFINER'S FIRE: Synod 14
And Synod on the Family: Treachery in the Vatican?
They are called crazy ants because they zip around in an insanely chaotic fashion. And they swarm together in huge clumps for no apparent reason; the scientists haven’t figured out why they do what they do. As one besieged homeowner in the Times article phrased it: "They're freakin crazy, man."
They don’t have painful bites, so why are they so horrifying?
 |
| Just your everyday heap of dead crazy ants |
Upon hearing about this new menace, I immediately thought of the Synod on the Family, now going on in Rome. What’s that? you ask. Well, scores of Cardinals, Archbishops, and the Various and Sundry are gathered, even as I'm typing this, to sit around and ponder, um, something about the family—just what that may be, we’ll have to wait and see.
Why should Raspberry Crazy Ants make me think of the Synod on the Family? Well, actually, what I really thought of was Vatican II. History has shown us that the most recent ecumenical council was more like the random kicking of an anthill than anything else.
Yes, I am aware that Vatican II gave us a five-foot shelf of books that was beautifully faithful to the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church. Too bad nobody read them.
Instead, most of the guys in red and purple robes went back home and communicated some form of craziness to the troops that made Catholics start swarming around and shorting out all the power sources of our faith: beautiful music, awe-inspiring liturgy, noble art and architecture, devotion to Mary and the saints, belief in the Real Presence…
Even more debilitating was the abandonment of the life-giving, salvation-bringing Magisterium of the Catholic Church. Because they were no longer hearing the truth taught in their churches and schools, Catholics fell away by the millions, given up to the lies put forth by the culture of death. They drifted around in the world like so many millions of dead husks—just like Raspberry Crazy Ants. (Now you see where I’m going with this analogy.)
 |
| "Vatican II opened up the Church." Response: "And the people left!" |
The deaths were physical as well as spiritual; millions of Catholic babies died from abortion and abortifacient contraceptives. Millions more were never conceived because married people had never taken to heart their nuptial promise: to be open to the gift of children that God would send them.
Worst of all, the Vatican II craziness attacked the most stupendous sources of power that this benighted planet has ever known: the sacraments. Baptism makes us adopted sons and daughters of God; confirmation fortifies us for our spiritual battle, confession restores us to grace when we have fallen, communion gives us God Himself as our food for the journey, marriage enables us to love and nurture new life, holy orders make the other sacraments possible, and the sacrament of the sick prepares us for death and the life of Heaven.
Unfortunately no one chooses to access these phenomenal power sources unless they have faith, and the Vatican II craziness confused, or killed the faith of millions.
To return to my ant analogy, the light of faith flickered and went out. People stopped going to confession and communion, stopped getting married in the Church, no longer had their children baptized or confirmed. Few encouraged a son’s vocation to the priesthood, and for the dying, last rites were ignored, or worse, euthanasia was offered instead. For lack of the sacraments, many millions of people succumbed to spiritual and physical death.
So much death. “I had not thought death had undone so many.”
That's why the Raspberry Crazy Ants made me think of the false spirit of Vatican II. It’s why all this week and next, as long as the Red and Purple Robes are swarming at the Vatican, I will be praying this simple prayer:
“Dear Merciful Father, please don’t let the Synod on the Family be like, well, You know…"
Enjoy this piece? You might like to read also: THE REFINER'S FIRE: Synod 14
And Synod on the Family: Treachery in the Vatican?
