By Brian D. O'Leary
The O'Leary Review
August 2, 2025
Today marks the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola-soldier, mystic, founder of the Society of Jesus. Once, this name commanded respect from Catholics worldwide. Today, it often evokes embarrassment among the faithful who witness some of his spiritual sons betraying everything he fought to defend.
Yet, Ignatius was a warrior-literally. A cannonball shattered his leg at Pamplona, thus transforming a worldly knight into Christ's most disciplined general.
His Jesuits were the face of the Church Militant-soldiers trained for spiritual warfare, organized with military precision, devoted to one sacred motto: Ad majórem Dei glóriam ("For the greater glory of God"). They spearheaded the Counter-Reformation, building an empire of souls that stretched from European universities to Asia and the New World.
What would this authentic warrior make of his order's pseudo-celebrities today? Men like James Martin masquerade online as shepherds while leading the flock toward perdition. Fr. Martin, a modernist, represents everything St. Pius X condemned in his encyclical Pascendi Dominici gregis (1907), when he called modernism the "synthesis of all heresies," seeking to marry Catholic truth with atheistic rationalism.
This atheistic cocktail is a favorite libation of the modernists-a poisonous blend of faith and false philosophy, creating a pseudo-Christianity devoid of supernatural truth. Modernists like Martin present themselves as defenders of the faith but systematically undermine its foundations.
They craft a "rational Christianity" stripped of miracles, moral absolutes, and divine authority. This is precisely what Pius X warned would destroy the Church from within.
These are the "false prophets who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. By their fruits you shall know them." Christ's words are indeed prophetic.
Every day on social media, one will witness Martin and his ilk using their clerical collars to advance agendas that contradict two millennia of Catholic teaching. They exploit their position as shepherds to scatter the flock instead of protecting it.
The contrast could not be more stark. Ignatius was a devoted soldier of the Church Militant-Christians on earth engaged in spiritual warfare against sin and error. Martin represents the Church Submissive, an institution that genuflects before contemporary culture rather than challenging it with eternal truth.
Where Ignatius demanded discipline and obedience to Church teaching, Martin promotes "dialogue" with a chaser of disorder. Where the Basque saint built institutions to defend Catholic doctrine, his supposed spiritual son builds bridges to relativism.
Reflect. This betrayal would have horrified the man who wrote the Spiritual Exercises, whose mission was to train souls for authentic spiritual combat.
Traditional Catholics recognize the battle lines. On one side stands the authentic Church-militant, uncompromising, faithful to Christ's teachings. On the other? The modernist counterfeit, submissive to worldly opinion, eager to accommodate error, and desperate for secular approval.
Consider asking St. Ignatius for his intercession. Pray for his Society's return to orthodoxy. The cancer of modernism has metastasized, but Christ's promise to the Church remains: "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
The faithful remnant will rebuild what these wolves have attempted to destroy.
This article was originally published on The O'Leary Review.