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Before Woke, There Was Bella
I’m a big believer in the adage, “you are what you consume.” It’s why I’ve only read some things about Saul Alinsky and have avoided reading his oft-cited book, Rules for Radicals. I’m not reading any book dedicated to “the very first radical,” Lucifer (despite what Snopes says about said dedication being “mostly false” — look at an image of the text and judge for yourself).
Now I’m reading about Bella Dodd and her communist infiltration of the Catholic church into seminaries and the education establishment on the pages of CRISIS Magazine in the article, The Roots of Woke: The Devil and Bella Dodd.
The difference here, though, is Bella reverted to Catholicism and repented of her communist ways through the counsel and sacraments offered by Servant of God Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Her penance for her sins was to share with the world how communism is a false religion bent on supplanting true religion, the family, and individual autonomy through lies and manipulation.
What you do is gather information and use it to affect him emotionally, you try to drive him into a breakdown, you try to destroy him economically by making it impossible for him to be employed, and you also destroy his personality as a person.
Sound familiar? Smear tactics — cancel culture — work. The Left has perfected the technique and is subverting not only our politics, but our entire civilization. You’ll be hard-pressed to convince me leftism is not of the devil.
This is one biography of a leftist I may have to read. It sounds like Mary Nicholas and Paul Kengor have done good work telling Dodd’s story of redemption. I’m putting The Devil and Bella Dodd on my Christmas wish list.
Published in General
I wonder if Pope Francis would have been as successful as Mr. Sheen in convincing her of the evils of communism…
You’ll get no argument from me about the quality — or lack thereof — of Pope Francis’s papacy. The perseverance of the Catholic church through bad popes and bishops and priests is how you can be assured it is the church about which Jesus said, “the gates of hell shall not prevail.”
This quote in the linked article stood out. Reminds me of Matthew 12:43-45
Sheen is a real example of what a church leader should be. Pope Francis could learn from him.
I read rules for radicals because one should know who the enemy is and how he thinks and acts.
My thinking runs to John Paul II as an example.
I agree, WC – Leftism is of the devil. There is something distinctly demonic in its desire to crush tradional Christian values. Their love for abortion, for the “trans” craze of mutilating the bodies of children, for sexualizing children…..it doesn’t make sense except as an expression of the demonic.
100%. Although the evil is quite out in the open now, I think it got its foothold in a more subtle way in the US in the 20th century with the mainline Protestant churches caving on the issue of contraception, and the “logical” follow-on that a woman’s worth lay in what she could produce outside the home. In how much her life and vocation resembled a man’s. This is what “makes sense” of abortion and all the other denials of what it means to be human.
The devil is a clever bastard, you have to give him that.
I met Lucifer in Colorado and he claims to lean libertarian. Also, if the Church can withstand Hell and what not and leftism is demonic why is the Church succumbing to leftism?
No need for him to be clever. Humans are entirely intelligent enough to justify what they want without him.
The gates of hell shall not prevail is not a defensive statement. The Church is storming the gates to rescue souls for Christ. The only “withstanding” is done by hell.
And I don’t believe I said the Church is succumbing to leftism. If you believe Jesus is incapable of lying, the Church will persist through the ages. What does that mean? Does it mean Catholics and their clergy will be sinless and without error? No, it means the Church is protected from teaching error in her doctrines and dogmas. That she will offer the sacraments as instituted by Christ, for the imparting of grace, until he comes again. Hers is a mission of mercy and sanctification.
While Pope Francis has South American socialist sensibilities, he has not — and will not — change teaching to be in error. It’s Christ’s church, with Francis as one of many of Peter’s successors, and rather a middling one.
I wonder how the Catholic faithful are doing in China these days.
Have you seen the massive protests against the zero-COVID enforcers? Pray for the Chinese people, not just the Catholics.
I suspect that even Lucifer would have sympathy with the Chinese Catholics. Lucifer said that he had no participation in the oppression of the Tibetan people so I doubt he is oppressing Catholics in China.