(From 1948 and written by a unknown* Catacomb bishop)
"The third-and more modern-form of attack on the Church is especially important for us to be aware of. Here the enemy, having destroyed the lawful and canonical hierarchy, plants his own false hierarchy to govern the Church, and creates a clergy which is only externally churchly, being wholly obedient to his evil designs. Operating in this way, the enemy fashions the most cunning forgery of the truth; he makes every effort to govern the Church himself, and laughs fiendishly at those souls he deceives.
This method is a current favorite of the enemy. It is frightful to speak of all his schemes. Instead of the holy Orthodox Church, he has built his own, outwardly resembling the Church in every respect, even, as he says, "improved". Today the enemy is making a special concerted effort to rapidly establish his own in place of Christ's Church, utilizing for this purpose people who have become his obedient tools. The Renovationist schism was the first attempt by the demons to forge a substitute for Christ's Church in Russia. Thanks to the faith of the Russian people and its true pastors, this attempt was exposed. Then Satan began acting with still greater cunning. In the Gregorian and later in the Sergian apostasy from the Church, the enemy has made still more refined moves to subvert the Church, moves barely noticeable to those indifferent to the truth.
Not long ago one of our Orthodox bishop-ascetics said that in our day the enemy would make several attempts to ruin the Church through schisms. The first schism, said this bishop, everyone will perceive, but subsequent surrogates will be more difficult to recognize, and few will understand the truth. Then the enemy will try to seduce, if possible, even the elect (Mark 13:22).
Here one must add that besides the various attempts at fashioning surrogates of the Church, Satan has stirred up a fierce persecution against all those who discern and are unmasking his frightful activity."
*Note: some attribute this letter to the Catacomb Bishop Vladyka Anthony Galynsky-Mikhailovsky (pictured above) who reposed in 1976.