The premise of the book Infiltration by Taylor Marshall is that the gates of Hell have prevailed against the Church, in doctrine and discipline, since the pontificate of Pope Pius XII, through the Second Vatican Council, and most fully in the pontificate of Pope Francis. The gates of Hell have prevailed against the Church. That’s what Taylor Marshall and ALL supporters of the book Infiltration are saying. And so they are openly contradicting and rejecting the dogmatic teaching of Christ and His Church, that the Church is indefectible:

Jesus: “And I say to you, that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.” (Mt 16:18).

It is not possible for the Church to be infiltrated by Satan. The Church is the body of Christ, with Christ as Her head, and with the Holy Spirit as Her soul. The accusation of infiltration of the Church by Satan would mean, if it were true, that Christ is possessed by a demon and that the soul of the Church would be Satan in place of the Holy Spirit. That is the necessary implication of any claim that the Church is infiltrated by Satan. And the claim is therefore blasphemy against Jesus and against the Holy Spirit. The claim is also apostasy, heresy, and schism.

And do not say to me that the “infiltration” of the Church is by something other than Satan.

There is no person on earth who would want to infiltrate the Church and lead Her astray more than Satan. He has permission from God, due to our grave sins, to tempt persons and to lead other fallen angels in putting sinners to the test. If any human persons gained an opportunity and ability to harm the Church gravely, he would become involved (if he were not the one who prompted the attempt to harm the Church, in the first place).

As an analogy, if a drug cartel has a favorite city where it imports and distributes drugs, no other criminals will be permitted to set up any substantial operations by that powerful evil organization. The cartel will intervene in the territory it claims, wrongly, for itself. There is no infiltration of the Church apart from Satan. He sees himself as in charge of any attempts to harm or overthrow the Church. In the distant future, when the Antichrist tries to destroy the Church, who is his main partner in this endeavor? Satan, of course. When Christ himself began His ministry, who tried to tempt even Christ himself? Satan. So if there were an infiltration of the Church, it would be by Satan, or at least by human persons heavily assisted and even guided by Satan — which is essentially the same thing.

Sinful secular society would like the Catholic Church to conform to its ideas. But there is no organization within society which is targeting the Church for infiltration and control. The approach used by society is external pressure by laws, the customs of society, the mass media, etc. They don’t want to choose the Pope, or make particular changes to Canon law, nor do they have any interest in the teachings of Ecumenical Councils. Sinful secular society does not wish to infiltrate the Church; they have no secret plot. They openly ask the Church to conform to their errors, but there is no infiltration of the Church by sinful secular society.

Literal freemasons had power in society many generations ago. Today, they have no real political or social power. Their errors on religion and morals are grave, but they generally leave the Church alone. They do not wish to have anything to do with Catholicism. There is no plot today by literal freemasons to infiltrate the Church. They have a set of lodges and “grand lodges” in many places, but they have no single person or group which leads them. They have no president or other leader; they have no ruling board or other body. There is no secret plan by literal freemasons to infiltrate or take over the Catholic Church today. If you went into any freemason lodge today, and asked to join them in their plot to infiltrate the Catholic Church, they would laugh at you and expel you. And they would assume you were insane for making that claim. There is no freemason plot to infiltrate the Church.

Are any Cardinals or Bishops members of a freemason lodge? No, they are not. Do any of them have any type of leadership role among freemasons. No, of course not. The claim is a baseless conspiracy theory, which some persons accept as it gives them a claimed basis for attacking the Pope.

Papal accusers: “Oh, no! The Pope was elected by the St. Gallen Mafia, who are really freemasons, and Satan is behind it all!”

Me: “You forgot to mention their co-conspirators: the illuminati, Margaret Sanger, Thanos, John Wilkes Booth, the Easter bunny, Spider-Gwen of Earth-65, and the Antichrist.”

Papal accusers: “No, we mentioned Pope Francis might be the Antichrist.”

Me: “Oh, yeah. That’s right. You did, you heretics. [Source]

It is dogma that each Pope has the gifts of immunity from grave error and a never-failing faith. It is dogma that the Church is indefectible. It is dogma that the Church is the body of Christ, with Christ as Her head, and with the Holy Spirit as Her soul. It is dogma that the body of Bishops are the successors to the Apostles and are confirmed in their faith by the Pope. The accusations of the papal critics are impossible given these dogmas, therefore the accusations are heretical and schismatic.

In the past, freemasons had power in society for a time, due to their money and influence. But that was when the members of the organization were, initially, actual stone masons participating in a guild. They did seem, at one point, to have enough power and influence over society to oppose the Church. But the gates of Hell cannot prevail over the Church. They fell apart, while the Church continued, and ever since, they have had no real power. The idea that literal freemasons are infiltrating the Church, or represent any real danger to the Church today is absurd.

When the Blessed Virgin Mary speaks in some (actually, very few) private revelations about “freemasons” she is using the term figuratively. Have you never read the Gospels, which are filled with various figures, such as that the disciples of Christ as sheep? It’s a figure of speech. Mary is referring to the Church under the figure of a church building made of stone. And the stones of the Church are Her doctrine and discipline. Those who wish to either chip away at, or to replace, these various “stones” are the figurative freemasons (stone masons) of today.

And who, in particular, are these figurative freemasons? They are Catholics who think to change the Church’s doctrine and discipline. They are found on both the left and the right. Yes, conservatives Catholics, who claim that there is a plot by literal freemasons to harm the Church, are in fact among the very persons that the Blessed Virgin Mary is rebuking by the term freemasons. They are the figurative freemasons who are harming the Church. For they have placed themselves above the Pope, the Ecumenical Councils, the Magisterium, and the whole Church, to presume to judge and condemn, to presume to substitute their own pretended authority for that of the true authority of Peter. They are attempting to force the Church to conform to their own grave misunderstandings and errors on doctrine and discipline.

They are the ones who wish to infiltrate the Church and lead Her astray. And that implies that Satan himself is helping them. Literally.

However, I will say this again. The Church can never be infiltrated by Satan (or anything else) at the level of Popes, Councils, the Magisterium, the temporal authority of the Church, nor in any other substantial way. It is dogma that the Church, the Pope, and the body of Bishops are indefectible. All claims to the contrary are heretical and schismatic.

So the leaders of the conservative Catholic subculture are attempting to infiltrate the Church, and they have the help of Satan. But they have not succeeded, as proven by their bitter complaints against the recent Popes, the Second Vatican Council, Canon law, the teachings of the Magisterium, the body of Bishops, and doctrine and discipline. If they had succeeded in taking over the Church, they would not be complaining.

Taylor Marshall — who wrote the blasphemous book “Infiltration”, which essentially accuses Christ of having a demon (cf. Mt 12:24-31; Mk 3:21-29; Lk 12:9-10; 22:65; Jn 10:20) — is one of those persons who is trying to infiltrate the Church at the highest levels by opposing the Pope and the body of Bishops, by proposing that Vatican II and all the recent Popes went astray gravely, and by replacing the truths of the faith with his own doctrinal errors and foolish judgments. Marshall is a figurative freemason, attempting to replace the stones of the Church’s doctrine and discipline so as to remake the Church in his own image. In his book, Infiltration, any decision by any Pope from Pope Pius XII forward and any decision by Vatican II, when contrary to his own ideas, is condemned severely as if it were part of a plot by freemasons and Satan. In this way, Taylor Marshall gives himself the role of Christ over the Church. He presents himself as if he is going to save the Church, by replacing the decisions on doctrine and discipline of Popes and Councils with his own judgments. He speaks as if he is inerrant on all these matters, and as if he had authority over the whole Church.

The sins expressed in the book Infiltration are: heresy, schism, apostasy, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, grave scandal, and extreme pride. What was the very first sin in all Creation? Pride. This book is gravely harming the faithful of the Church, though it can do no harm to the indefectibility of the Church.

Taylor Marshall and his ilk are literally assisted by Satan and other fallen angels. For anyone who succeeds in gravely harming the Church draws the attention of fallen angels, and the greater the harm, the more likely that Satan himself will become involved.

The book Infiltration has done great harm to the Faith, as now many “Catholics” are rejecting not only Pope Francis, but the recent Popes, Vatican II, and the Church Herself. They have now been encouraged by that book to accuse the Church of being controlled by Satan or by freemasons, so that they have lost their faith in the Church herself. Previously, they sinned gravely by rejecting Pope Francis. But it is far worse to reject the Church Herself, and that is the evil fruit of that book.

Marshall has also accused the Pope and his supporters of “madness” and “insanity” in that they teach ideas contrary to his own understanding, which he has dogmatized and divinized. What replaces the Church, when you claim that She is mad or has been infiltrated by Satan? Having rejected the Church which is the body of Christ, with Christ as Her head and the Holy Spirit as Her soul, you then become your own god, as the Blessed Virgin Mary warned at La Salette: “you who make profession of serving Jesus Christ” but “on the inside you adore yourselves” [Melanie’s secret, n. 25].

Note to Taylor, please remove the plagiarism in your wicked book from my work on the secrets of La Salette.

The Church cannot be infiltrated by anyone or anything, as She is pure, spotless, and indefectible. And the leaders of the conservative Catholic subculture are actually the ones who are attempting to infiltrate the Church. They are the ones trying to chip away at, or replace, the stones of the Church, which are Her doctrine and discipline.

Papal accusers: “Oh, no! The Church is being infiltrated by freemasons and Satan!”

Me: “No, you idiots! You’re the figurative freemasons, assisted by Satan, who are trying to infiltrate the Church. You are the very evil you complain about! And you cannot succeed, as even the gates of Hell cannot prevail over the Church founded on Peter.”

Someone buy these idiots a mirror. Their lack of self-awareness is astounding.

by
Ronald L. Conte Jr.
Roman Catholic theologian and translator of the Catholic Public Domain Version of the Bible.

Please consider reading my recent book: The Indefectibility of the Pope