HOW KIKO GETS AWAY WITH "IT"

Perhaps one of the hardest things for us to understand is, with all of Kiko's atrocities so widely known, how Rome and especially the pope can continue to at least appear to be supporting his "movement." 

The problem is that most of us have just as an inflated view of Rome as we once had of our own chancery. Because while Jesus promised us that the "gates of hell would not prevail against his church", He only promised us that they would not "prevail". He did not promise us that there would not be a battle. In fact, He promised us the "battle", and to the end. 

The reasons Pope Benedict gave for his resignation from the Chair of Peter should have given us a clue. Things were (and still are) so bad inside the Roman Curia (the government of the church) that he, a great and holy man, after much prayer, knew he did not have the physical or spiritual stamina to withstand the evil onslaught from within. 

Part of that "onslaught", that "smoke of Satan" as Paul VI coined it, is these spiritual interlopers like Kiko Arguello, men who have the gifts to fool millions, including popes. This is nothing new, the church has been beset by such men (and women) from the beginning. Even Judas was found within the ranks of Jesus' personally chosen inner circle. 

The problem is that the average Catholic has not taken the time to learn Church history. And this is probably because he or she has never been encouraged to do so. But lack of such understanding of history makes us easy prey to the earthquakes and storms within the church that have always occurred. 

So here's a very short and recent history lesson relative to the damage that Kiko is now doing to the Church:

FIGHTING EVIL

Fighting evil in the Church is nothing new. In fact, that is where Christ warned us where we'd find it. (Mt. 24:15) We shouldn't be surprised. Satan hates Jesus Christ. And while he can't attack Christ directly, he does attack his Bride. 

To give some perspective to what we're going through, recently we canonized a pope who unknowingly protected and assisted the very growth of the "filth in the church" that his successor finally confronted and dismantled. 

One of Pope John Paul II's most favored and protected groups was the Legionaries of Christ, and he often bestowed great words of blessing and encouragement on its founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel. 

It was easy to see why. At a time when vocations around the Catholic world were vastly declining, Maciel built a veritable empire of vocations. No one was producing more priests than Fr. Marcial Maciel and because of it, he was elevated to a special place of personal favor by Pope John Paul II.