If we see the prophesied “Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary” before the end of the world, there is reason to believe we’ll get a traditional Pope (as miraculous as that would be) and my hope in that would begin the resuscitation of the international missions of the Catholic Church.  Perhaps I would leave my hermit life and begin or join an international congregation if that happened.  Or more than likely, I would continue my current life and simply go deeper into contemplation and also deeper into international missions.  (This is why I learned French and Spanish and Portuguese, anyway.)  Or perhaps I will be old, and I’ll just continue to teach online.

When that day of the Resurrection of the Church comes (namely, when Mary said in the famous apparition in Ecuador 500 years ago that the Church—after being paralyzed for awhile in the 20th century—would leap like a young girl in a “total restoration”) we will hopefully have many priests and nuns who give themselves again to the salvation of souls in all countries.  In light of this, I wanted to do a reconnaissance mission in the Mediterranean, for this is the center of Judaism and Christianity and Islam.  Here’s a few reasons:

  1. To Learn What the Apostles Brought.  As I said in this video from Egypt, there is no chance of me going Eastern Orthodox or even Eastern Catholic.  I’m not only traditional—but Roman to the core.  While I have been studying for a long time what the Apostles like St. Peter and Paul brought to Rome (hence, the traditional Roman ways of liturgy and doctrine I constantly write about) I have wanted to know what Christ gave to the Apostles who went East (like St. Thomas to India, St. Andrew to Turkey, St. Mark to Egypt, etc.)  By going to Eastern Monasteries and Eastern Churches, we know their tradition goes back to the first century.  Also, Eastern Rites never had a Vatican II, so we see very early traditions in visiting Coptic Churches and Greek Orthodox monasteries.  Again, this interests me not because it’s not-Western but because it’s ancient (just like our oldest Latin traditions.)
  2. How To Win Non-Catholic Christians to Catholicism.  But I also want those Greek and Coptic Orthodox to become Eastern-Rite Catholics.  In Cairo, I spoke to a very zealous 22 year old Coptic Orthodox man named Andreas.  We spoke for over an hour about the Catholic Church, the Orthodox, Saints, Muslims, etc.  The only thing he knew about the current Vatican is that they recently approved gay-blessings.  Do you see what an embarrassment you-know-who has made of the Church in hijacking her?  I had to explain to Andreas that this current crisis represents nothing of Catholicism.  Some people in the USA want me to evangelize and not worry about Church reform.  But we can’t evangelize if the world now believes this diabolical leftism represents the Catholic Church.  I fear for the salvation of the Cardinals who stay silent.  Their silence is harming not just Catholics, but even non-Catholics all over the world.
  3. How to win Infidels to Christianity.  I met many very kind Muslims and even gave Miraculous Medals to a few of them.  I went on this reconnaissance mission to see what makes non-Christians “tick” so to speak.  It’s the same things I knew before I departed to the Mediterranean:  Union, friendship, intellectual stimulation, sex, good food, security, peace, etc.  But it’s good to see how this is sought-after in other parts of the world, because their means to an end are always slightly different country-to-country.  Because I have many readers and listeners outside the country, I wanted to see what fuels the peoples of the Sea where God initially placed humans 6,000 years ago.  This is valuable for a digital-nomad monk-missionary, even if I never leave the United States again.

Reconnaissance is defined as “military observation of a region to locate an enemy or ascertain strategic features.”  Of course, there are no enemies except infiltrators to the Catholic Church.  Jesus Christ (for whom I am an ambassador) wants to save every soul and bring them into the Catholic Church who misrepresent Christ’s doctrine.  But in approaching infidels or pagans, we do need to “ascertain strategic features” as the definition says.  Whether my mission continues with simply online teaching as a hermit, or in-person baptizing in the jungles, I hope this was a valuable trip and use of my donors’ money.

St. Moses Coptic Orthodox Church in Cairo, Egypt.