The crisis in the Catholic Church did not appear overnight. It is the product of centuries of ideological revolutions and the Church’s response to them. Frank Wright highlights a historical framework proposed by Stephen Kokx that explains how the Church has weathered revolutionary movements over the past five centuries.
Kokx’s “pendulum” analogy traces a pattern: after each revolution, the Church was renewed through saints and counter-revolutionary efforts. But over time, fewer Church leaders resisted the errors of the modern age. The Second Vatican Council marked a decisive shift—from opposition to accommodation with modern liberalism.
Wright argues that this historical trajectory has contributed to the contemporary crisis facing both Church and society. The pattern is clear. The question is whether Catholics will recognize it, and whether they will respond with the same counter-revolutionary fidelity that saved the Church in past ages.
