“Signs Of Our Times": Ven. Fulton Sheen on Anti-Christ & Crisis in the Church & Society (1947)
Andrew Guernsey149,773 viewsOct 10, 2016
'Signs of Our Times' A radio sermon by Ven. Fulton J. Sheen delivered on January 26, 1947

Expanded radio address in transcript (below) printed in 'Signs of Our Times' In Light Your Lamps, 8th ed., pp. 5-17. (Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 1958): https://goo.gl/y7kROm

Also included in Fulton J. Sheen, 'Communism and the Conscience of the West' (Bobbs-Merril Company, Indianapolis, 1948), see pp. 22-25  (scanned original): http://goo.gl/1wQPEs
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(5:22) "The Antichrist will not be so called; otherwise he would have no followers. He will not wear red tights, nor vomit sulphur, nor carry a trident nor wave an arrowed tail as Mephistopheles in Faust. This masquerade has helped the Devil convince men that he does not exist. When no man recognizes, the more power he exercises. God has defined Himself as “I am Who am,” and the Devil as “I am who am not. Nowhere in Sacred Scripture do we find warrant for the popular myth of the Devil as a buffoon who is dressed like the first “red.” Rather is he described as an angel fallen from heaven, as “the Prince of this world,” whose business it is to tell us that there is no other world. His logic is simple: if there is no heaven there is no hell; if there is no hell, then there is no sin; if there is no sin, then there is no judge, and if there is no judgment then evil is good and good is evil. But above all these descriptions, Our Lord tells us that he will be so much like Himself that he would deceive even the elect — and certainly no devil ever seen in picture books could deceive even the elect."

(6:38) "How will he come in this new age to win followers to his religion? He will come disguised as the Great Humanitarian; he will talk peace, prosperity and plenty not as means to lead us to God, but as ends in themselves; he will write books on the new idea of God, to suit the way peope live; induce faith in astrology so as to make not the will but the stars responsible for sins; he will explain guilt away psychologically as inhibited eroticism, make men shrink in shame if their fellowmen say they are not broadminded and liberal; he will be so broadminded as to identify tolerance with indifference to right and wrong, truth and error; he will spread the lie that men will never be better until thy make society better and thus have selfishness to provide fuel for the next revolution; he will foster science but only to have armament makers use one marvel of science to destroy another; he will foster more divorces under the disguise that another partner is “vital”; he will increase love for love and decrease love for person; he will invoke religion to destroy religion; he will speak of Christ and say He was the greatest man who ever lived; he will say his mission is to liberate men from the servitude of superstition and Fascism; he will organize children’s games, tell people whom they should and should not marry and unmarry, who should bear children and who should not; he will benevolently draw chocolate bars from his pockets for the little ones, and bottles of milk for the Hottentots; he will tempt Christians with the same three temptations with which he tempted Christ."
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(7:56) In the midst of all his seeming love for humanity and his glib talk of freedom and equality, he will have one great secret which he will tell to no one: he will not believe in God. Because his religion will be brotherhood without the fatherhood of God, he will deceive even the elect. He will set up a counter-church which will be the ape of the Church, because he, the Devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the Antichrist that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ

"And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns, like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon." - Apoc. 13:11

We are definitely getting close, if not already there, given all that's happened so quickly in the past couple of years.

Now, mark my words, I'm not saying that he is the Antichrist, not at all, but some of this describes Barack Obama.  Let's just say that when the man of sin comes, he's kind of going to remind people of Obama.  Wait and see.

Intelligent, handsome (depending on one's tastes), tall, slim, athletic in the fashion of a pickup basketball player, smooth, easy demeanor, glib and articulate doesn't even begin to describe it, the man could sell ice cubes to Eskimos and have them asking for more.  Add to this a compelling life story, being able to invoke having been raised in Hawaii's "aloha" culture, and I will admit, as a man who has had to navigate different cultures myself without being the "ugly American", I had to admire when he was able to speak in passable Bahasa Indonesia, and pronounced "Pocki-stonn" correctly.  Being biracial helped too, that is the e-ticket in today's America.  Compared to Trump's speaking in sentence fragments and sometimes sounding like an adult speaking baby talk, well, that speaks for itself.  (Biden, unusually for a liberal Democrat, is somewhat linguistically challenged, but keep in mind that he is working around a stuttering problem.  I had a similar problem for many years, until an event took place that I'd rather not discuss, that freed me from that impairment.)

Though it's sad that we've gotten to the point where we summarily have to label Democrats as "liberals" and Republicans as "conservatives", it is increasingly true that Democrats project as being more attractive, sympathetic, interesting, compelling, and even seductive (in the generic sense, not a sɛҳuąƖ one), while Republicans are the "adults in the room", sometimes boring in a "sit down and eat your peas" way.  One thing I'll give Bernie Sanders, he's rough as a cob, but you have absolutely no doubt what is on his mind, he says what he means and means what he says, not unlike a liberal Barry Goldwater.  (I was going to say "liberal Jєωιѕн Barry Goldwater", but Goldwater was Jєωιѕн, albeit only racially, not religiously.)

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(7:56) In the midst of all his seeming love for humanity and his glib talk of freedom and equality, he will have one great secret which he will tell to no one: he will not believe in God. Because his religion will be brotherhood without the fatherhood of God, he will deceive even the elect. He will set up a counter-church which will be the ape of the Church, because he, the Devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the Antichrist that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ

This is interesting. He seems to be saying that this charismatic and beloved humanitarian will be the leader of what appears to be the Catholic Church. While the world is full of beloved humanitarians who fit his description, we haven't really had a charismatic pope in a while(even John Paul 2 barely fits the bill) and despite how liberal and modernist they may be, the Vatican 2 popes have been despised by most of the secular world rather than beloved.

I think Sheen might have underestimated just how bad things would get in the world. For a pope to "meet the world halfway" so to speak, to be so liberal as to appease the globohomo agenda, he'd have to abandon Catholicism so fully and apparently that not even the most liberal of Catholics could ignore it or be able to reconcile it. He'd have to embrace abortions, gender ideology, gαy marriages, but not just in indifference or "kind" words like Francis, but in full approval. That'd be the only way the world would ever stop attacking the Church with venom, and the only way a pope(or a "pope") could ever set himself up as the spiritual leader of the world.

This is interesting. He seems to be saying that this charismatic and beloved humanitarian will be the leader of what appears to be the Catholic Church. While the world is full of beloved humanitarians who fit his description, we haven't really had a charismatic pope in a while(even John Paul 2 barely fits the bill) and despite how liberal and modernist they may be, the Vatican 2 popes have been despised by most of the secular world rather than beloved.

I beg to differ.  The Deuce (JP2) was one of the most charismatic humanitarians ever.  First of all, we have to admit that not only was he a humanitarian but that he was a "great" humanitarian.  It is what he is most famous for.  When people think of him they don't think how he spread Catholicism every where.  No, he spread the "gospel of man".  He taught that every man is God.  He taught that man's dignity was inviolable to such an extent that he promoted the idea that the death penalty was immoral.  He never directly said it but he implied that killing a man would be on the level of deicide.  And he traveled all over the world constantly for 27 years always preaching the gospel of man.  Second, he was extremely charismatic.  So much so that I don't think that it is an exaggeration to say that he was being worshiped.  A friend just the other day was telling me that he went to see the Deuce at one of his big events in the US and my friend was saying that when he walked out on the stage, he could feel or sense the man's power.  As if the crowd was gripped by some invisible force.  I was told many years ago that whenever the Deuce visited the US, there was a noticeable increase in applications to Novus Ordo fag factories seminaries.  He was definitely charismatic.

But he also resembles the Antichrist in many other ways.

Montini is the "pope" of the council of human rights instead of God's rights. He abolished the mass and set up the abomination instead. Also, he went to the UN and explained that there is no more hope other than the UN.

The Conciliar Sect is the body of the Antichrist, the false prophet, the beast from the earth with two horns, successfully deceiving those who don't love the truth into loving and worshipping man instead of God, worshipping human rights not divine rights, worshipping the beast rising out of the water, Humanism.

The Conciliar Sect sits in the temple, sits in place of the true Church, selling herself as the Church of God. (see St. Augustine, City of God, book 20, chapter 19).

I beg to differ.  The Deuce (JP2) was one of the most charismatic humanitarians ever.  First of all, we have to admit that not only was he a humanitarian but that he was a "great" humanitarian.  It is what he is most famous for.  When people think of him they don't think how he spread Catholicism every where.  No, he spread the "gospel of man".  He taught that every man is God.  He taught that man's dignity was inviolable to such an extent that he promoted the idea that the death penalty was immoral.  He never directly said it but he implied that killing a man would be on the level of deicide.  And he traveled all over the world constantly for 27 years always preaching the gospel of man.  Second, he was extremely charismatic.  So much so that I don't think that it is an exaggeration to say that he was being worshiped.  A friend just the other day was telling me that he went to see the Deuce at one of his big events in the US and my friend was saying that when he walked out on the stage, he could feel or sense the man's power.  As if the crowd was gripped by some invisible force.  I was told many years ago that whenever the Deuce visited the US, there was a noticeable increase in applications to Novus Ordo fag factories seminaries.  He was definitely charismatic.

I'm torn on MHFM's conclusions about JPII. On the one hand, there's a lot surrounding JPII that is very strange and aligns with what they talk about in those videos. But, there's also the concern that the timeframe simply doesn't add up, as the Apocalypse is pretty explicit that the Antichrist will reign for 2 1/2 years before being defeated. JPII reigned in Rome for 27 years, quite off the mark in that regard. That said, there's the possibility that he is the "first Beast", especially given the incredibly strong cult surrounding him as a "saint" of the Novus Ordo. Even seculars have respect towards the man as the great humanitarian.

Edit: I will speak anecdotally here in agreeing with the "presence" that even the image of JPII has. Personally, I tend to get this sort of anxious/excitable feeling in my gut when faced with temptations, especially when I've studied false religions or looked into Orthodoxy or even back at the Novus Ordo, that usually serves as a warning sign to steer clear of it (if it's a charism or grace, I have no idea, but it's helped me). I get this same feeling very strongly when I reflect on JPII as well, which tells me something wicked surrounds that man.

But, all this is something that none of us will really know until it's revealed at the Last Judgment.

He’s referring to the conciliar church.

There is no “conciliar church.” There is only the Church; one, holy, catholic, apostolic. And indefectible.