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Anti-Vatican II Hysteria in Taylor Marshall’s Book Fan Club

Anti-Vatican II Hysteria in Taylor Marshall’s Book Fan Club

Last updated on: June 5, 2026 at 11:53 pm by Dave Armstrong

Anti-Vatican II Hysteria in Taylor Marshall’s Book Fan Club 2026-06-05T23:53:55-04:00 Dave Armstrong

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Infiltration: The Plot to Destroy the Church from Within, by Dr. Taylor Marshall, is currently taking Amazon by storm. I wrote an analysis of it today in which I noted that the bashing of the Second Vatican Council was a prominent motif. Such a “spirit” (pun intended) is a prominent characteristic of radical Catholic reactionary thought. I have found, through the years, that much of the criticism directed towards this ecumenical council of Holy Mother Church falls prey to the good ol’ post hoc ergo propter hoc logical fallacy. The Wikipedia entry on this erroneous and sloppy thinking describes it:

(Latin: “after this, therefore because of this”) is an informal fallacy that states “Since event Y followed event X, event Y must have been caused by event X.” . . . Post hoc is a particularly tempting error because correlation appears to suggest causality. The fallacy lies in a conclusion based solely on the order of events, rather than taking into account other factors potentially responsible for the result that might rule out the connection. A simple example is “the rooster crows immediately before sunrise; therefore the rooster causes the sun to rise.”

I wrote just last month about Vatican II, along these lines, replying to someone who noted (like Taylor Marshall has — very Voris-like — in his book) that U.S. church membership has “been in decline since Vatican II”:

There was also this thing called “the 60s” and the sexual revolution . . . But people prefer to blame an orthodox ecumenical council. . . .

Liturgical abuses: absolutely. Fault of the council: no. And VCII said the Latin should be retained (too). It wasn’t in most places, but obviously that is counter to the wishes of the council, too. . . . Many parishes ignored that. Blame them, not the council. . . .

Yet it seems to get blamed for everything because people can’t figure out causation of complex issues and would rather sink to conspiratorialism. . . .

VCII did not change “no salvation outside the Church” in the least. It was Trent (following Augustine contra the Donatists 1100 years earlier) that declared that non-Catholic trinitarian baptism was a valid sacrament, and that those who received it were truly Christians and members of the Body of Christ.

Dr. Marshall undertook a clever campaign of amassing over 500 people (currently, 533 as I write) to endorse his book in reviews on Amazon. There is nothing wrong with this (it’s pure capitalism). But it does provide an opportunity to see what sort of outlook typifies those who are gung-ho about the book and “pied piper” Taylor Marshall’s recently acquired reactionary conspiratorialism.

I thought it would be instructive to survey these reviews to see what was written about Vatican II (which Cardinal Ratzinger in 1985 said had precisely the same authority as the Council of Trent):

*****

1) Pope Paul VI and those whom he empowered did their best to destroy the traditions of the Catholic Church and thereby the Church itself.

2) Marshall does an excellent job pointing out the infiltrating major players: Freemasonry, the Enlightenment, communism, Jesuits, modernism, false ecumenism, and abandonment of Thomistic theological precision for theological ambiguity (which eventually led to weaponized ambiguity deliberately inserted into Vatican II documents). Satan, of course, is behind it all.

3) I will forever consider Michael Davies’s “Liturgical Time Bombs in Vatican II” to be my go-to “quick read” recommendation for those seeking to understand where this crisis began in terms of liturgy, doctrine, and Vatican II, . . .

4) Dr. Marshall connects all the dots. From the Freemasons, to Modernism, Vatican II, the Norvos [sic] Ordo, Fatima, Pope Benedict’s resignation, and others, you will see how these dots all connect to show how all of this is the Devil’s work himself to destroy the Church.

5) Being a pre-Vatican II Catholic, I have watched with dismay as the Church I love has disintegrated into the wasteland that it is today. 6

6) Vatican II was not Modernism’s beginning in our church, but rather its coming out party!7

7) There is a tendency to blame these conditions on Vatican II, and that sense is justified.

8) This book clearly explains the reasons for the convening of Vatican II and the organizations, people and anti Catholic forces behind its destructive and anti Catholic actions.

9) Dr. Marshall connects the ‘infiltration’ clues surrounding the Freemasons; Bella Dodd; warnings of Our Lady at Fatima & La Salette; the Vatican bank scandals; the Sankt Gallen Mafia; secret societies; Communism; Vatican II; the Sicilian Mafia; and more. In different ways, these man-made scandals contributed to the erosion of the Church’s moral authority and led to the dilution of the Liturgy over the past several decades.

10) Vatican II, for example, did not give rise to Modernism in the Church, but it might be said that Modernism gave rise to many developments at Vatican II. . . . Modernism is now widely accepted among hierarchs, clergy, and laity. It, too, is rationally and theologically incompatible with historic Christianity. Yet, Dr. Marshall sees it on display at Vatican II.

11) This is an excellent overview of the situation within the Church and why the return to order must include the rejection of Vatican II and the rediscovery of the Roman Rite of the Mass.

12) He rightly points out that the current crisis in the Church IS modernism, and while Vatican II may have been a tipping point, the “Infiltration” started a long time ago.

13) Marshall finds that the infiltration of the Freemasons, humanists, and the modernistic “nouvelle” theologians (e.g., Karl Rahner, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Walter Kasper, Joseph Ratzinger, Edward Schillebeeckx, Johann Baptist Metz, etc.; 134-35) who introduced the Novus Ordo Mass and highly influenced the Second Vatican Council, led to the perversion of the “supernatural religion of the crucified and resurrected Jesus Christ” of the Church into the “natural religion” that emphasizes the Human over the Divine (i.e., Satanism; 4).

14) Undoubtedly, many effects of Vatican II have been negative and have contributed to the current situation.

15) The poisonous fruits of Vatican II worked to make a religion more pleasing to man, not God, and we are reaping that rotten harvest right now.

16) Plots, intrigue, and evil manipulations are shown to shape the Second Vatican Council . . .

17) . . . changes in Vatican II that I feel weakened the Church.

18) . . . Vatican II where the enemies within the church clearly revealed themselves.

19) Dr. Marshall names, names and shows all of us that Vatican II was only one part of the devil’s plan to destroy the Church from within.

20) I once thought Vatican II was the catalyst for the infiltration of the Church but after reading this book, I know see that it was the victory lap.

21) . . . the Modernist revolution of Vatican II doctrinal confusion . . .

22) Dr. Marshall explains this apparent reversal of policy towards these heresies as the result of Freemasons, Communists, and other liberal theologians as having infiltrated the Church in the years prior to the Vatican II Council. The Council was their Coming Out Party.

23) I made my first communion just prior to Vatican II and soon after that it seemed that almost everything I had been taught and believed was changing. Now I understand why.

24) Important events (the demise of the Papal States, the infiltration of the Church by Communists and Freemasons, the errors that were introduced at Vatican II by the modernists, . . .

25) Most people wouldn’t know that the freemasons are very active in Italy, reaching into Vatican 2 itself. . . . the bomb that was Vatican II . . .

26) Dr. Marshall provides a short explanation of the Nouvelle Theologie and its impact on the major players of Vatican II, as well as some of the problematic documents of that Council and why they matter.

27) [M]any are waking up and trying to understand how and why their Holy Church is in crisis. Taylor Marshall clears all that up with a concise walk through Catholic Church history displaying the true nature of how events and the rise of Freemasonry 300 years ago lead to the drastic changes of Vatican II.

28) It was shocking that at Vatican II, Protestant clergy were given the right to interfere in the making of those documents, clearly showing that the Catholic church was manipulated, subverted and Protestantized.

29) Chapter 19 is a detailed account of the theological ruin and infiltration of Vatican II . . .

30) Marshall argues that Vatican II was just the coming out party of 100 years of a slow and methodical infiltration of the Church’s ideology.

31) Marshall traces the polluted bloodline of Marxist-Modernist footmen, arrogantly maneuvering from within the Church to cast aside the richness, the beauty, and the Truth of the Tridentine Liturgy. These relentless conspirators in clerical camouflage understood the inherent strength of the Tridentine Liturgy and the downstream impact of concealing it away from the hearts of future generations—thus the poisonous results of Vatican II.

32) I have read numerous books on the current state of the Church, the issues with Vatican Council II, the freemasons, and the communist infiltration of the Church. But this book has put all of these issues together, with a timeline showing the interconnectedness that has led us to the current crisis.

33) This is a very relevant book for anyone who wants to understand the root-cause of the problems facing the Catholic Church today, would highly recommend. Dr. Marshall breaks down chronologically where the source of the problems began, how it manifested in Vatican II all the way through to the current Pontificate.

34) I found the evidence of Vatican II procuring the decline of the Church and how that was the target goal in losing faithful Christians.

35) The transformation of Catholic doctrine and liturgy had its apotheosis in Vatican II.

36) Dr. Marshall explains why Vatican II ended up being the byproduct of a sophisticated and shrewd plan devised over a hundred and fifty years ago.

37) Dr. Taylor Marshall presents the conspiracy theory that the Roman Catholic Church has been infiltrated with thousands of priests, bishops and even popes with the nafarious [sic] intent of destroying this ancient institution. . . . This story has taken more than 150 years to unravel and has involved Freemasons, the Communist Party, The Italian mafia, Benito Mussilini [sic], Marian apparitions, The Second Vatican Council, Agatha Christie, thousands of priests, bishops and cardinals, some of whom were homosexuals and pedophiles, and 11 Popes.

38) [T]he author succintly [sic] described the ideas and people behind modernism and Nouvelle Theologie. As crucial as both these ideas were to the Second Vatican Council, I have never been able to find such a good and useful “short” summary as Dr. Marshall’s treatment here.

39) I also never thought about how dangerous Vatican II was . . .

40) Marshall sees only Archbishop Lefebvre as the one prophet to fully comprehend the magnitude of the changes brought about by Vatican II. Lefebvre became then the point man for the resistance to the Modernism and the infiltration of the Church — and he is recognized for his role more and more by even conservatives in the Novus Ordo.

41) Vatican II, which the author refers to as “modernism on display” did not make the Catholic Church a friendlier place and was actually harmful to the laity.

42) He shows us how this “Smoke of Satan” entered into Holy Mother Church with everything from Freemasonry, the Illuminati, Socialism, Communism, Homosexuality, and today’s Modernism. All of which left us vulnerable and the door wide open to the many “radical reforms” of Vatican II. His book also demonstrates with in depth detail the key players that shredded the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass we’ve had for centuries into what we’re left with today. A Mass that may look similar, but is devoid of the supernatural Divine content of the Ages.

43) The average Catholic will now know . . . that we are not bound to accept/adhere to the documents or the “spirit” which came from that council.

44) Vatican II is the culmination of years of infiltration by men who often presented a facade of obedience to the magisterium, but were working actively behind the scenes to undermine it.

45) The book also makes clear why Vatican II is not the cause of Catholicism’s current crisis, but the result of a carefully worked out plan to take control of the Papacy and Church teachings.

46) One thing is clear: if the Church is going to defeat this satanic infiltration, it must reject all things Vatican II and this book does an excellent job of explaining why that is the case.

47) My favorite section of Infiltration is the chapter on Vatican II and Novus Ordo Missae because Dr. Marshall provides important historical facts on the inception of Vatican II, the “engineers” of the document, and the challenge of Modernism.

48) He names names, cites sources, and lays out the map of the corruptive and evil influences that led to the confusion of Vatican Council II and its disastrous fall out.

2 Timothy 4:3-4 (RSV) For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, [4] and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.

***

“I have chills & am in tears doing research for my new book on Infiltration of the Catholic Church. THERE IS SO MUCH EVIL IN SANKT GALLEN. IT WILL ROCK THE CHURCH. Like Natcha Jaitt, I’m not suicidal. If anything happens to me it was a murder. Pray for me. Book due in May 2019.”

— Dr. Taylor Marshall, 3-6-19 on Twitter

***

Now, for the actual orthodox ecclesiological teaching of Holy Mother Church (over against reactionary, conspiratorial pied pipers), see the following articles on my blog, regarding the full orthodoxy and spiritually rich and more fully developed true content of the Second Vatican Council, the Mind of the Church, and the sublime authority of Holy Spirit-protected ecumenical councils:

Conciliar Infallibility: Summary from Church Documents [6-5-98]

Infallibility, Councils, and Levels of Church Authority: Explanation of the Subtleties of Church Teaching and Debate with Several Radical Catholic Reactionaries [7-30-99; terminology updated, and a few minor changes made on 7-31-18]

The Bible on Papal & Church Infallibility [5-16-06]

Apologia for the New (Pauline) Mass (with Massive Traditional Documentation, Over Against its Detractors / Summary of Vatican II on Liturgical Reform) [6-18-08]

Dialogue on Vatican II: Its Relative Worth, Interpretation, and Application (with Patti Sheffield) [9-15-13]
*

Vatican II Defended Against Reactionary (and Some Traditionalist) Charges [4-25-14; expanded and re-edited: 1-23-17]

Apologia for Vatican II / Misguided Reactionary Criticisms [8-17-15]

Traditionalist Misuse of Ratzinger “Banal” Quote [12-17-15]

“Novelties” of Vatican II (Religious Liberty & Ecumenism)? [2-10-17]

Dr. Joseph Shaw Apes “Reformers” (“Ambiguous” Catholic Documents) [10-11-17]

Debate on Ross Douthat’s Critical Views of Vatican II [3-26-18]
*

Catholic (?) Vatican II-Bashing: Cutting Thru the Crap [4-25-19]

***

Photo credit: Rory112233 (8-21-17) [Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license]

***

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