I went to mass today (keep in mind I am at a Novus Ordo Church), and the priest gave a sermon about focusing on Jesus Christ instead of other things. I like most of what he had to say except one thing. He mentioned how times really have not changed since even 200 years ago, and that things have not gotten worse morally. I know some of you are going to immediately disagree with that based on your views of the post-Vatican II Church. Setting that aside, do you think things have gotten worse, stayed the same, or maybe even better in society as far as morality goes? I am going to argue that things have gotten worse, and that it is more difficult in this day and age to be a solid practicing Catholic. My presumption is based off of the prophecies of the Saints and Divine Revelation regarding the end times, and my own observation. Everything is pointing to us going into the End Times as we speak. The following prophecy predicted the sɛҳuąƖ revolution of the 1960's and how it has lead us into moral decline...
After the year 1900, toward the middle of the 20th century, the people of that time will become unrecognisable. When the time for the Advent of the Antichrist approaches, peoples minds will grow cloudy from carnal passions, and dishonour and lawlessness will grow stronger. Then the world will become unrecognisable. Peoples appearances will change, and it will be impossible to distinguish men from women due to there shamelessness in dress and style of hair. These people will be cruel and will be like wild animals because of the temptations of the Antichrist. There will be no respect for parents or elders, love will disappear, and Christian pastors, bishops, and priests will become vain men, completely failing to distinguish the right hand way from the left. At that time the morals and traditions of Christians and the Church will change. People will abandon modesty, and dissipation will reign. Falsehood and greed will attain great proportions, and woe to those who pile up treasures. Lust, adultery, ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖity, secret deeds and murder will rule in society.
-- St. Nilus, 430 AD
I see these things that St. Nilus predicted in our society today. Even 200 years ago, I think there were more faithful, and not as many distractions that lead people astray. I also think that people did not commit adultery as often, nor did they fornicate as much, and communication's were more limited than today thus making things much more difficult for the wicked to conduct their dirty deeds. Granted, these things mentioned in St. Nilus's prophecy still existed in those days, but I think many more people refrained from doing them as much as possible. Nowadays, we have widespread liberalism that leads people to think that its ok or they are much more nonchalant about these things, and they end up doing them much more.
I think our media paints things to be much more chaotic and unorganized 200 years ago then what they really were. We see western movies where cowboys would have duels and firefights in the taverns and such. We see mobster movies where the Italians would be spraying down people, cars, etc. with their tommy guns. We also see women getting smacked around by their husbands. The list goes on. The media pumps out movies like this because these kinds of issues grab peoples attention. Plus they are trying to stir people up against each other. Anyways, people's views of the past have been warped to think that back in those days things were much more chaotic and negative than they are today. Yes those issues existed, but not on the level that people seem to think. In fact, morally, we have declined compared to those days. Thats what I think, what do you think?