Catholic Candle note: The article below was written by a man who has always been Traditional Catholic and who has been continually fighting liberalism since before Vatican II.

That is exactly what the Masons and the modernists did to the Catholic Church through a heresy of the Second Vatican Council—that of universal salvation, (i.e., everyone goes to heaven). How did this heresy become respectable? I’ll tell you how, in the context of a funeral:

Draping the casket in white;
Stating over and over again that the deceased is now in heaven, or “in a much better place smiling down on us,” etc.;
Using the new conciliar “mass of the resurrection”;
Revising the words of the Consecration of the Wine, from “many” to “all” to suggest that everyone’s sins are forgiven;
Reciting the Glorious Mysteries or the conciliar Luminous Mysteries (if the family insists on prayers);
There is never a request for a mass said for the soul of the deceased;
The priest implies there is no need for prayers because the deceased is already in heaven;
There is no need for “Christians” (i.e., heretics) to convert as they are already united to Christ in Baptism;
There is no longer a need for a prayer card for the deceased because their life story on a page or two, with pictures, is “more appropriate” now.
The Novus Ordo mass is a community meal and not appropriate for prayers of atonement for the sins of the deceased. When they eliminated the traditional Catholic Requiem Mass for the salvation of the deceased, they had to point out there is no longer a need for the Requiem Mass because “everyone goes to heaven now.”
Here the Council of Trent interposed with a definition of Faith (Sess. XXII. can. iii) “If anyone saith, that the Mass is only a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving ... but not a propitiatory sacrifice; or, that it profits only the recipient, and that it ought not to be offered for the living and the dead for sins, punishments, satisfaction, and other necessities; let him be anathema." Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. X, pp. 16-17.

With the above heresy made respectable, why is there a need to go to mass, confession, receive the sacraments, or ever go to a church, or support the Catholic Church? Everyone goes to heaven, no doubt. The Catholic Church is unnecessary, obsolete; there’s no need for it anymore. To sell a product, the salesman must convince the buyer that he really needs the item being sold. When there is no longer a need for the Catholic Church and all its regulations, sacraments, doctrines, service, etc., it is easy to predict the Church’s substantial loss of influence and membership.

The results of this heresy—that everyone goes to heaven, and that there is no further need of the Church for salvation—can be clearly seen by comparing Catholic Church statistics for the U.S., from 1965 to 2016. It spotlights that the Church is losing influence and that Catholics’ perceived need for the Church is greatly diminished or completely eliminated:

Total priests: 58,632 to 37,192 (and these are doubtfully valid priests anyway);
For an explanation of the inherent doubtfulness of conciliar ordinations and why every conciliar ordination must be treated as invalid, read the analysis in these articles:
Ordinations: 994 to 548 (and these are doubtfully valid ordinations anyway);
Religious Sisters: 179,954 to 47,170;
Religious Brothers: 12,271 to 4,119;
Parishes without a resident priest: 549 to 3,499;
Baptisms of infants: 1.31 million in 1965, to 670,481 in 2016 (and when these baptisms occur at all, they are usually delayed for months or years, as shown by the sizes of the baptismal gowns now widely sold);
Marriages: 352,458 in 1965, to 145,916 in 2016; and
Mass attendance: 55% to 22%.

The above very, very sad and disheartening statistics indicate a real problem for those few who adhere to and live the traditional Catholic Faith. Moreover, these statistics do not include the rampant impurity and pervasive abuse of countless victims in every diocese through the world.

Don't expect the above statistics to improve at all. This fact of life is based on Pope and church leaders criticizing traditional Catholicism. More and more, Traditional Catholics will be considered by Church and local civil authorities to be a disruptive group that acts contrary to the lifestyle and accepted morals of the majority, and that this group must be “dealt with”.

It might come to that.

Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you. Matt. 5:10-12.

Catholic Candle note: We might be in the End Times and, if we are not, there certainly seems to be a strong basis for comparing the current great apostasy to the apostasy then.

Here is the teaching of St. Ambrose, Doctor of the Church, regarding widespread apostasy in the End Times:

With so many people apostatizing from Christianity, the brightness of the faith will be dimmed by this cloud of apostasy ....

Further, when the End Times come, the Catholic Church will be persecuted everywhere. Here is the teaching of St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church:

[Our Lord’s End Times prophesy] will come to pass when tribulations shall be so spread through the whole world that it will affect the Church (which will be persecuted in every place) and not those who will persecute her; for it is they who will say “peace and security”....

Both quoted from the Catena Aurea on St. Luke’s Gospel, ch 21, vv. 25-33, St. Thomas Aquinas, editor.