By Rey Flores
Cue Twilight Zone music and pan into Rod Serling smoking a cigarette. His voice resonates: “Picture if you will, a Catholic teacher in a Catholic high school in a free country that affords us the right to free speech and freedom of religion. Now picture her being censored, admonished, and eventually fired from her teaching job.”
He continues, “Picture if you will, as well, the Saint Patrick’s Day parade in New York City. This is an annual celebration where, for decades, Catholic Irish-Americans celebrate their most revered saint who, legend has it, drove the snakes out of Ireland. But today, it is the snakes of sin that are driving the Catholics away from their own parade. You have just entered The Secular Twilight Zone.” 
Just as the old television show took us to a different dimension, today we are experiencing a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between absurdity and insanity, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge.
Today’s practicing Catholic walks about clutching a rosary in one hand and scratching his head with the other. We are left to wonder where our shepherds have gone and where they can be found.
In a world that no longer embraces God or faith, but instead assaults each and every one of our senses with worldly prizes and endless compromises, we wander about like lost sheep—the blind leading the blind in an already dark chasm with no light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.
Never did we think we’d reach an actual time in our lives when our Catholicism would be literally outlawed and spit upon. Within the last 80 years, we have witnessed the persecution of the Jews in World War II and the holocaust of abortion, which has killed off more human beings than most recorded wars combined. But never had it occurred to us that we would be next.
Catholics and all other Christians must prepare to do battle for our Lord. We must be spiritually sound and remain in a state of grace as we face the growing dangers against us. This war is being fought on several fronts and on many levels—and some are even shedding blood in copious amounts for the faith.
While we may not be witnessing beheadings en masse here on our shores, we certainly have allowed a bloodletting of historic proportions through abortion in our nation. The nightmare isn’t about to start; it has already begun and we are in the middle of it.
A secular Twilight Zone indeed, my friends. Pray. Pray really hard. The snakes keep coming, so we must keep fighting. And we must never give up.
Rey Flores is the director of outreach for ALL. Contact Rey at
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