"Hard to believe acting had reached such an intense level of depravity." :ready-to-eat:
Yes! Exactly! This is a theme that fascinates me because I was once an aspiring actor and writer, the consummate artiste, and I remember I was very Machiavellian. I didn't just plot out my film scripts, I would plot out how I was going to act and do press interviews once I got famous, how I would maintain the interest of the public... I'm pretty sure that I was not the only one like that. This is a symptom of a narcissistic age. Somehow Jesus talked me down from the ledge. I was making myself sick.
Because of this though I do see actors everywhere. I see these actors not only in Hollywood but in the Vatican and in the Church. Many of them do not really care about their parishioners, but only about being talked-about, even if if they are seen as the villain. They are just playing roles. What they love is the SPOTLIGHT.
My dad was a lawyer and he would always mock other lawyers and judges for trying to get into the papers. He'd call them "stars," as opposed to the "real" lawyers, those who do the grunt work and keep their noses to the grindstone. Lefebvre was most certainly a "star." Thuc was a real lawyer, quietly and brutally martyred -- so it seems to me anyway.
As you say, it is unbelievable how subtle people can be in their acting. It has reached a point where "even the elect would be deceived if it were possible." But Christ is always fair. He showed us the way. And when you read the words of Jesus, or the Apostles, or the heretic-fighters of early Church history, these words are always clear and direct. No obfuscation. What could be more clear than the language of St. Chrysostom? This is how truth-tellers always talk, but we have lost sight of that today. We want the warm fuzzies, we want to hear whatever reassures us. We deserve these double-minded creeps.
That kind of "itching ear," only wanting to hear what is pleasant, got us to where we are today, which is right in the thick of an unbelievable, magical, occultic nightmare, where witchcraft has swept the earth from end to end. We could have nipped it in the bud at the time of the French and American Revolutions, said "We will not accept democracy" or "We will not accept to be financially ruled by Jєωs." Too late. Now the truth is SO far-fetched that it's even more impossible for most to believe. That is why there are about six or seven of us on this board and even we don't see eye-to-eye on everything. The Catholic Church has been ravaged nearly to death by witchcraft. But it still lives!
This is the reverse of the Middle Ages. Back then the majority were Catholics and there were scattered witches to make people scared; now the vast majority are witches , even if they don't know it. I'd like to think they are a bit scared of us, but they probably aren't. They should certainly be scared of Christ who will utterly obliterate them on the Day of Wrath.