..."Judging" matters not. The point is there are scarcely any Catholics left in the world, I doubt if 1% of the supposed 1 million baptized Catholics, live the faith and even their children have lost or are loosing the habit.
The fate of the Modernist heresy to its end conclusion -- a world of subtle illusions... on top of illusions. Nobody knows whose infected anymore; because in a way we've all been influenced; if not directly then indirectly. Why you can have the "1%" of Trad Catholics on a Forum (here and elsewhere) and see evident contradiction and disagreements everywhere. Unity in our disunity.
We are living in the time after the anti-Christ, the whole world has lost the faith, and nobody knows it.
Pascendi: 3. "
...they lay the axe...to the very root, that is, to the Faith.... Finally, and this almost destroys all hope of cure, their very doctrines have given such a bent to their minds,..."
Scary to think that a person can lose the Faith, and
not know they've lost the Faith. It's approximating the opposite of the elect; being doomed to damnation, because they never figure this out in this life...believing all along they were on the right road. The heresy of heresies.
There is no "solution", it has already happened. What you need to do is live the faith, and don't fall for the subterfuge.
I agree although I'm still open to persuasion (belief in the restoration); but see this current state of affairs as being over. Stick a fork in it; it's done. It's a matter of how long can we extend this thing out...years??? Decades??? Somewhere in this world are dispersed the true faithful; much holier and better than me. Their humble bearing of their crosses and perseverance is keeping this whole thing afloat.
What greater chastisement is there than that everyone has lost the faith? The entire world is going to hell, and the only people that could warn them, the Catholics and the Conciliar Church, have been teaching that everyone who is "good" is saved.
Worse than what you described. If we (you and me) were living in the 1800's; we could walk down the neighborhoood Catholic Church and be assured of having 'the Faith,'....still, the company line to salvation was the old standby ---- "4 Last Things:" Death, Judgement, Heaven, and Hell. It was assumed already that you had the faith. The battle to determine one's eternal fate was in keeping the Commandments and Laws of the Church; in other words to retain the state of grace unto death --- The preaching
then, was that the fewest of the few were saved (of those who had the Faith already).
"The Four Last Things" Fr. Martin von Cochem pg. 211-223 (next 3 para.)
"...observe that Christ did not say that those were few in number who walked in the path to heaven, but that there were but few who found that narrow way...The path leading to heaven is so narrow and so rough, it is so overgrown, so dark and difficult to discern, that there are many who, their whole life long, never find it. And those who do find it are exposed constantly to the danger of deviating from it, of mistaking their way and unwittingly wandering away from it, because it is so irregular and overgrown." This St. Jerome says, in his commentary on the passage in question. Again, there are some who when they are on the right road, hasten to leave it, because it is so steep and toilsome. There are also many who are enticed to leave the narrow way by the wiles and deceits of the devil, and thus almost imperceptibly to themselves, are led downwards to hell. From all that has been said we may gather that those are but few in number who find the way to heaven, and yet fewer are those who persevere in following it unto the end."
"The Four Last Things"
; and those who live a careless life and indulge their senses are repeatedly warned that eternal death will be their portion. Listen to the admonition Christ addresses to the votaries of this world and the lovers of its luxuries: "Woe to you that are rich, for you have your consolation. Woe to you that are filled, for you shall hunger; woe to you that now laugh, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when men shall bless you," that is, when men of bad principles, opposed to the maxims of religion, applaud your words, your actions, your opinions. This denunciation from Our Lord's lips may well fill us with dismay. What object in life have the great majority of mankind? What is it that they strive after and crave for? They desire to be rich, to be prosperous, to live in luxury, and to be praised by their fellow men. Nobody considers this to be a sin. And yet Our Lord declares that everlasting death will be the doom of such persons, and He denounces them in forcible language.
"The Four Last Things"
St. Catherine Sienna: "O unhappy sinners, do not rely upon the greatness of God's mercy; believe me, the more you provoke the anger of this merciful God by willful sin, the deeper you will be cast into the abyss of perdition."
St. Gregory: "Let him who does all that he can, rely firmly upon the mercy of God. But for him who does not do all that lies within his power; to rely upon the mercy of God would be simple presumption."
"The Four Last Things"
Several of the Fathers of the Church consider that from the fact that at the time of the deluge only eight persons were saved, at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha only four - namely, Lot, his wife and his two daughters - escaped with their lives, and of the 600,000 able men who departed out of Egypt, not more than 2 reached the Promised Land, the others all dying in the desert, it may be concluded that the number of the elect amongst Christians will be proportionately small. This agrees with what St. John Chrysostom said on one occasion when he was preaching in the city of Antioch: "....
"The Four Last Things"
If thou wouldst be saved, follow the counsel of St. Anselm, when he says: "If thou wouldst be certain of being in the number of the elect, strive to be one of the few, not of the many. And if thou wouldst be quite sure of thy salvation, strive to be among the fewest of the few; that is to say: Do not follow the great majority of mankind, but follow those who enter upon the narrow way, who renounce the world, who give themselves to prayer, and who never relax their efforts by day or by night, that they may attain everlasting felicity."
....just think that was back then, before the heresy of heresies (Modernism) now rearing it's frightful and ugly head.
What's worse is that Catholic Traditionalist, in particular are prone to temptations to pride (because we believe we're better than others/ that spirit of inner gnosticism where we won't go out of our way to share what "we know."). Pride is one of the causes of ... you guessed it, Modernism.
Pascendi 40.
The Cause of Modernism: Proximate cause is a perversion of the mind...the remote causes are curiosity and pride....But it is pride which exercises an incomparable greater sway over the soul to blind it and plunge it into error, and pride sits in Modernism as in its own house...It is pride which fills the Modernist with that confidence in themselves and leads them to hold themselves up as the rule for all, pride which puffs them up with that vainglory which allows them to regard themselves as the sole possessors of knowledge, and makes them say, inflated with presumption, We are not as the rest of men....
This was the initial downfall of the post VII clergy and it is now trying to destroy Faithful Catholics by numbing our brain into believing that everything isn't so bad or by overestimating perceived threats that aren't there (getting away from a healthy median).
So perhaps the greatest grace from your fears and concerns Bowler is awareness... of our own fragility... of our own helplessness... and of our own weakness; because then we will be our strongest by turning to Christ to find our strength (and not by our own wits) and by living each day with edge, effort, and energy in the True Faith...never forgetting Hope in Our Lord and supernatural Charity.