| Welcome, Guest |
You have to register before you can post on our site.
|
| Online Users |
There are currently 412 online users.
» 1 Member(s) | 408 Guest(s)
Applebot, Bing, Google
|
|
|
| Alberta premier makes it illegal for ‘unvaccinated’ to gather, introduces vaccine passport |
|
Posted by: Stone - 09-17-2021, 07:46 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
- No Replies
|
 |
Alberta premier makes it illegal for ‘unvaccinated’ to gather, introduces vaccine passport
‘I had already committed not to introduce proof of vaccination because of concerns I had around privacy rights. But we must deal with the reality that we are facing.’
![[Image: JasonKenneyReopen-810x500.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/JasonKenneyReopen-810x500.jpg)
Jason Kenney
Thu Sep 16, 2021
EDMONTON, Alberta (LifeSiteNews - slightly adapted) — Despite promising his province would be open “for good,” Premier of Alberta Jason Kenney introduced a COVID-19 vaccine passport Wednesday, as well as new rules banning “unvaccinated” people from gathering in their private homes.
“The decision not to get vaccinated is not just a personal choice, it has real consequences for our whole society and the ability of our hospitals to cope,” said Kenney Wednesday while announcing new restrictions.
“That is why the government has reluctantly decided to adopt the ‘Restriction Exemption Program,’ a proof of vaccination program for participation in certain discretionary activities that have a higher risk of viral transmission.”
Kenney began his press conference by declaring a state of emergency in Alberta due to high ICU rates. As of yesterday, there were 218 people in ICU in Alberta in relation to COVID-19.
Kenney’s harsh words for the “unvaccinated” also came with a note that “no one will be compelled to get vaccinated against their wishes.”
Alberta law was recently changed under Bill 66 to remove previous powers allowing the government to force people to get a vaccine.
Under the new rules, “unvaccinated” Albertans are banned from indoor social gatherings starting Thursday. Those who have been jabbed are allowed to gather indoors, however, they are limited to a single household plus one more household, at a maximum of 10 people. Kids under 12 are exempt.
Both those who have been jabbed and those who have chosen not to be will be allowed to gather outdoors, at a maximum of 200 people.
Kenney’s announcement Wednesday is a flip-flop regarding an earlier promise that he would not introduce vaccine passports in Alberta. He acknowledged this Wednesday.
“I had already committed not to introduce proof of vaccination because of concerns I had around privacy rights,” said Kenney. “But we must deal with the reality that we are facing.”
Alberta’s new “Restriction Exemption Program” will apply to restaurants, certain retail stores, adult sports, bars, pubs, entertainment, and recreation facilities. The vaccine passport will take effect on September 20.
Essential services such as grocery stores, pharmacies, and hospitals are exempt from the new rules.
Under the new vaccine passport, businesses that fall under the restrictions have two options: They can either take part in the program which will require proof of vaccination or a negative rapid test result and operate as “usual,” or they must restrict their capacity size.
However, only COVID tests from a pharmacy will be allowed to be used as proof, which cost $40 each on average.
Restaurants that choose not to go along with the program are banned from having in-person dining. Churches are now limited to one-third capacity, and masks and social distancing are mandatory. Masks are also mandatory in schools for grades 4 and up.
Kenney’s announcement comes only two weeks after directly blaming the “unvaccinated” for a rise in new COVID-19 cases while introducing the first round of restrictions.
Alberta introduced a COVID-19 vaccine incentive program two weeks ago. Every Albertan aged 18 and over who gets a COVID-19 jab between September 3 and October 13 is eligible for a $100 pre-paid debit card.
Only weeks before introducing new COVID-19 restrictions in September, a secretly recorded video shows Kenney swearing “to God” that his province would be open “for good.”
Leader of the People’s Party of Canada Maxime Bernier blasted Kenney’s new restrictions, tweeting, “Jason Kenney has just declared war on our Charter of rights and freedoms.”
“I will be in Alberta this weekend for the last stretch of the election campaign to join Albertans in their fight against this despot,” said Bernier.
A federal election will be held on September 20. Some polls have the PPC at 20 percent in Alberta.
Lawyer blasts Kenney for going on the attack against the “unvaccinated”
President of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) John Carpay said that by “virtue” of the Kenney government limiting the fully jabbed to “indoor social interactions of no more than ten people,” the government “acknowledges that vaccinated people are spreaders of viruses.”
“What evidence does the government rely on for its belief that unvaccinated people are worse spreaders of viruses than vaccinated people,” said Carpay in a statement sent to LifeSiteNews. “Premier Kenney has joined Prime Minister Trudeau in scapegoating, demonizing and vilifying the minority of unvaccinated individuals.”
Carpay also blasted Kenney for his government’s failure to not increase hospital bed capacity.
“Premier Jason Kenney has been fearmongering for 18 months about Alberta running out of intensive care beds and staff to manage Covid patients, yet his government continues to fail to increase health care capacity,” he said. “Seventeen months after announcing the increase of ICU capacity, the government has still failed to do so, instead crippling the economy with lockdowns and by incurring tens of billions in new debt that our children and grandchildren will need to repay.”
Carpay added that Kenney “complains about the unvaccinated people in the hospital” but “ignores the fact that everyone, including vaccinated individuals, can spread the virus.”
“There have been outbreaks in heavily vaccinated countries like Israel and Iceland, and the new vaccine is not effective against the Delta variant,” added Carpay.
The province’s health authority, Alberta Health Services (AHS), announced that all staff and contractors must be fully vaccinated by October 16.
The city of Calgary has mandated jabs for all city employees. The city of Edmonton is considering mandating COVID jabs but has not done so at this time. Employees were asked to disclose jab status by September 10.
As a result, frontline workers in Calgary recently stood in unison in silent protest of the city mandate requiring all employees to get the COVID-19 jabs or lose their jobs.
Also, on Saturday a large silent protest, estimated at more than 2,000 people, took place in Calgary in support of AHS nurses, doctors, and first responders opposed to jab mandates.
On Monday, protests against vaccine mandates were held outside hospitals in Calgary and Edmonton.
Kenney called the protestors an “outrageous small minority” and threatened to bring the full extent of the law on them should they block roadways.
Health Canada has authorized four COVID-19 injections for adults and one for kids age 12 and up (Pfizer), all with connections to cells derived from aborted babies. All four have also been associated with severe side effects such as blood clots, rashes, miscarriages, and even heart attacks in young, healthy men.
LifeSiteNews has put together a resource guide called “How to resist COVID jab mandates in Canada — a comprehensive guide.”
To make your views respectfully known, contact:
Premier of Alberta Jason Kenney
Office of the Premier
307 Legislature Building
10800 – 97 Avenue
Edmonton, Alberta T5K 2B6
Email: premier@gov.ab.ca
Phone: 780-427-2251
To contact your local MLA, click here.
|
|
|
| UK unveils winter COVID plans, including ‘plan B’ to mandate face masks, vaccine passports |
|
Posted by: Stone - 09-17-2021, 07:40 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
- No Replies
|
|
UK unveils winter COVID plans, including ‘plan B’ to mandate face masks, vaccine passports
Plan B: Although the settings in which vaccination would be required are to be limited to 'large gatherings,'
the government added that extending the requirement more broadly 'cannot be entirely ruled out.'
Thu Sep 16, 2021 - 11:25 am EDT
LONDON (LifeSiteNews - slightly adpated) — The British government on Tuesday announced plans for the upcoming winter months, including implementing COVID-19 booster shots and the possibility of launching vaccine passports and reintroducing a mask mandate.
As part of a “winter COVID plan,” U.K. Health Secretary Sajid Javid has laid out a dual set of plans, A and B, outlining a strategy aimed at reducing the spread of COVID-19 during the upcoming winter months, including the implementation of booster shots and the possibility of vaccine passports becoming a requirement in “certain settings.”
Javid announced his “plan A” strategy to the House of Commons Tuesday morning, explaining that “there are five pillars to this plan” and emphasizing in the first place “the importance of our vaccination programme.”
According to Javid, “[t]he latest statistics from the ONS [Office for National Statistics] show that almost 99 percent of COVID-19 deaths in the first half of this year were people who had not received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.”
But according to an analysis of the data presented by the ONS in the Daily Sceptic, the ONS research period from January 1 to July 2 does not account for the fact that the Alpha variant was dominant at the time, nor does it account for the low number of jabs administered at the beginning of the year. Accordingly, the Daily Sceptic concluded that taking the ONS data as confirming anything about the achievement of the jabs is “meaningless” and “misleading.”
In fact, Public Health England data published at the beginning of September show that, in the last month alone, around 70 percent of deaths among COVID-positive individuals was in the double jabbed.
Although Javid touted the supposed success of the jabs based on ONS data, he subsequently announced that booster jabs will be made available to over 50s and, indeed, those with underlying health complications who are under 50 years of age, describing the top-up shots as “an important way” to keep the virus at bay. In an interview on Good Morning Britain, Javid said that the booster program would commence “next week,” targeting “30 million people.”
During the same interview, Javid determined that the restrictive measures being introduced “will not be behind us” by 2022. “COVID is with us for years, it’s probably with us forever,” the minister said. “I think vaccination is with us for a long time … we will learn to live with it,” he added.”
12–15-year-olds are also set to be offered the shot, which is part of Javid’s promise to “renew our [the government’s] efforts to maximise uptake” of the abortion-tainted shots.
Additionally, in his address to Commons, Javid suggested that “it is highly likely that frontline NHS staff” will be required to receive the experimental jab as a condition of their employment, although he did not confirm this.
Secondary measures of testing for the virus and tracing those who have tested positive, enforcing isolation of those individuals, will form part of the government’s COVID “plan A.” Javid underscored the testing and isolation of COVID-positive asymptomatic individuals, despite numerous experts and researchers debunking asymptomatic transmission of COVID-19 as “more myth than reality.”
Prefacing his announcement of “contingency measures,” to be “call[ed] upon only if they are needed,” the health secretary argued that “we’ve seen how quickly this virus can adapt and change, so we have prepared a plan B.”
Javid announced to Parliament that, despite his promise just two days earlier that vaccine passports would not be introduced in the U.K., “we’ll be holding that power in reserve,” opening up the possibility of restricting unvaccinated individuals in “certain settings.”
The supposed backup plan makes provisions for “legally mandating face coverings in certain settings,” as well as “a further measure of asking people to work from home, if they can, for a limited time, if that is supported by the data.” Many businesses that cannot support work-from-home arrangements, such as the hospitality industry, will receive limited financial support from the government if the order is implemented.
An accompanying document to Javid’s announcement, “COVID-19 Response: Autumn and Winter Plan,” outlines the conditions under which “plan B” would be enacted. If “the NHS is likely to come under unsustainable pressure,” and that the “data suggests further measures are necessary to protect the NHS,” then the additional restrictions will come into force. The exact figures which constitute “unsustainable pressure” were not clearly elucidated by the government.
LifeSiteNews contacted the Department of Health and Social Care for clarification on what specific conditions would trigger the enactment of “plan B” measures. A department spokesman told LifeSite that the determination is “complex” and that the government will be monitoring hospitalizations “and various other things” to assess the level of pressure. There is no one measurement, such as hospital bed capacity, that will force the introduction of the government’s contingency plan, he said.
Regarding the settings in which face coverings would become legally mandatory, the spokesman told LifeSiteNews that “close indoor settings” would require mask wearing. Vaccination would be required before entry into “large events,” which would likely include nightclubs, the spokesman confirmed. When pressed on specific venues, the spokesman suggested that details would only be revealed closer to the time in which “plan B” would be implemented.
Until the extra measures are imposed, the government is encouraging “the voluntary use of the NHS COVID Pass,” which will “certify individuals based on vaccination, testing or natural immunity status.”
However, if “plan B” is enforced, “at that point the NHS COVID Pass will change to display full vaccination only,” offering no opt-out through natural immunity or presentation of a negative COVID test for entry to those venues where the mandate applies. Those under 18 and “those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons” will be afforded an exemption to this rule under the proposed guidelines. No mention of moral or religious exemptions was made.
Although the settings in which vaccination would be required are to be limited to “large gatherings,” the government added that extending the requirement more broadly “cannot be entirely ruled out.”
|
|
|
|
| September 16th – St Cornelius, Pope & Martyr and St Cyprian, Bishop & Martyr |
|
Posted by: Stone - 09-16-2021, 08:05 PM - Forum: September
- No Replies
|
|
September 16 – St Cornelius, Pope & Martyr and St Cyprian, Bishop & Martyr
There is a peculiar beauty in the meeting of these two Saints upon the sacred Cycle. Cyprian, in a famous dispute, was once opposed to the Apostolic See: Eternal Wisdom now offers to the homage of the world, in company with one of the most illustrious successors of St. Peter.
Cornelius was, by birth, of the highest nobility; witness his tomb, lately discovered in the family crypt, surrounded by the most honorable names in the patrician ranks. The elevation of a descendant of the Scipios to the sovereign Pontificate linked the past grandeurs of Rome to her future greatness. Decius, who “would more easily have suffered a competitor in his empire than a Bishop in Rome,” had just issued the edict for the seventh general persecution. But the Cæsar bestowed upon the world’s capital by a village of Pannonia, could not stay the destinies of the Eternal City. Beside this blood-thirsty emperor, and others like him whose fathers were known in the city only as slaves or conquered enemies, the true Roman, the descendant of the Cornelii, might be recognized by his native simplicity, by the calmness of his strength of soul, by the intrepid firmness belonging to his race and wherewith he first triumphed over the usurper, who was soon to surrender to the Goths on the borders of the Danube. And yet, O holy Pontiff, thou art even greater by the humility which Cyprian, thy illustrious friend, admired in thee, and by that purity of thy virginal soul, through which, according to him, thou didst become the elect of God and of his Christ.
At thy side, how great is Cyprian himself! What a path of light is traced across the heavens of holy Church by this convert of the priest Cœcilius! In the generosity of his soul, when once conquered to Christ, he relinquished honors and riches, his family inheritance, and the glory acquired in the field of eloquence. All marvelled to see in him, as his historian says, the harvest gathered before the seed was sown. By a justifiable exception, he became a pontiff while yet a neophyte. During the ten years of his episcopate, all men, not only in Carthage and Africa, but in the whole world, had their eyes fixed upon him; the pagans crying: Cyprian to the lions! the Christians only awaiting his word of command in order to obey. Those ten years represent one of the most troubled periods of history. In the empire, anarchy was rife; the frontiers were the scene of repeated invasions; pestilence was raging everywhere: in the Church, a long peace, which had lulled men’s souls to sleep, was followed by the persecutions of Decius, Gallus, and Valerian. The first of these, suddenly bursting like a thunderstorm, caused the fall of many; which evil, in its turn, led to schisms, on account of the too great indulgence of some, and the excessive rigor of others, towards the lapsed.
Who, then, was to teach repentence to the fallen, the truth to the heretics, unity to the schismatics, and to the sons of God prayer and peace? Who was to bring back the virgins to the rules of a holy life? Who was to turn back against the Gentiles their blasphemous sophisms? Under the sword of death, who would speak of future happiness, and bring consolation to souls? Who would teach them mercy, patience, and the secret of changing the venom of envy into the sweetness of salvation? Who would assist the martyrs to rise to the height of their divine vocation? Who would uphold the confessors under torture, in prison, in exile? Who would preserve the survivors of martyrdom from the dangers of their regained liberty.
Cyprian, ever ready, seemed in his incomparable calmness to defy the powers of earth and of hell. Never had a flock a surer hand to defend it under a sudden attack, and to put to flight the wild boar of the forest. And how proud the shepherd was of the dignity of that Christian family which God had entrusted to his guidance and protection! Love for the Church was, so to say, the distinguishing feature of the Bishop of Carthage. In his immortal letters to his most brave and most happy brethren, confessors of Christ, and the honor of the Church, he exclaims: “Oh! truly blessed is our mother the Church, whom the divine condescension has so honored, who is made illustrious in our days by the glorious blood of the triumphant martyrs; formerly white by the good works of our brethren, she is now adorned with purple from the veins of her heroes; among her flowers, neither roses nor lilies are wanting.”
Unfortunately this very love, this legitimate, though falsely applied, jealousy for the noble Bride of our Savior, led Cyprian to err on the serious question of the validity of heretical baptism. “The only one,” he said, “alone possesses the keys, the power of the Spouse; we are defending her honor, when we repudiate the polluted water of the heretics.” He was forgetting that, although through our Lord’s merciful liberality, the most indispensable of the Sacraments does not lose its virtue when administered by a stranger, or even by an enemy of the Church; nevertheless it derives its fecundity, even then, from and through the Bride; being valid only through union with what she herself does. How true it is that neither holiness nor learning confers upon man that gift of infallibility, which was promised by our Lord to none but the successor of St. Peter. It was, perhaps, as a demonstration of this truth that God suffered this passing cloud to darken so lofty an intellect as Cyprian’s. The danger could not be serious, nor the error lasting, in one whose ruling thought is expressed in these words: “He that keeps not the unity of the Church, does he think to keep the faith? He that abandons the See of Peter whereon the Church is founded, can he flatter himself that he is still in the Church?”
Great in his life, Cyprian was still greater in death. Valerian had given orders for the extermination of the principal clergy; and in Rome, Sixtus II, followed by Laurence, had led the way to martyrdom. Galerius Maximus, proconsul of Africa, was then holding his assizes at Utica, and commanded Thascius Cyprian to be brought before him. But the bishop would not allow the “honor of his Church to be mutilated” by dying at a distance form his episcopal city. He therefore waited till the proconsul had returned to Carthage, and then delivered himself up by making a public entrance into the town.
In the house which served for a few hours as his prison, Cyprian, calm and unmoved, gathered his friends and family for the last time round his table. The Christians hastened from all parts to spend the night with their pastor and father. Thus, while he yet lived, they kept the first vigil of his future feast. When, in the morning, he was led before the proconsul, they offered him an arm-chair draped like a bishop’s seat. It was indeed the beginning of an episcopal function, the pontiff’s own peculiar office being to give his life for the Church, in union with the eternal High Priest. The interrogatory was short, for there was no hope of shaking his constancy; and the judge pronounced sentence that Thascius Cyprian must die by the sword. On the way to the place of execution, the soldiers formed a guard of honor to the bishop, who advanced calmly, surrounded by his clergy as on days of solemnity. Deep emotion stirred the immense crowd of friends and enemies who had assembled to assist at the sacrifice. The hour had come. The pontiff prayed prostrate upon the ground; then rising, he ordered twenty-five gold pieces to be given to the execution, and, taking off his tunic, handed it to the deacons. He himself tied the bandage over his eyes; a priest, assisted by a subdeacon, bound his hands; while the people spread linen cloths around him to receive his blood. Not until the bishop himself had given the word of command did the trembling executioner lower his sword. In the evening, the faithful came with torches and with hymns to bury Cyprian. It was the 14th of September, in the year 258.
Let us read first the lines consecrated by the holy Liturgy to the Bishop of Rome.
Quote:Cornelius, a Roman by birth, was Sovereign Pontiff during the reign of the Emperors Gallus and Volusianus. In concert with a holy lady named Lucina, he translated the bodies of St. Peter and St. Paul from the catacombs to a more honorable resting place. St. Paul’s body was entombed by Lucina on an estate of hers on the Ostian Way, close to the spot where he had been beheaded; while Cornelius laid the body of the Prince of the Apostles near the place of his crucifixion. When this became known to the emperors, and they were moreover informed that, by the advice of the Pontiff, many became Christians, Cornelius was exiled to Centumcellæ where Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, wrote to him to console him.
The frequency of this christian and charitable intercourse between the two Saints gave great displeasure to the emperors; and accordingly, Cornelius was summoned to Rome, where, as if guilty of treason, he was beaten with scourges tipped with lead. He was next dragged before an image of Mars, and commanded to sacrifice to it; but, indignantly refusing to commit such an act of impiety, he was beheaded on the eighteenth of the Calends of October. The blessed Lucina, aided by some clerics, buried his body in a sandpit on her estate, near to the cemetery of Callixtus. His pontificate lasted about two years.
The Church borrows from St. Jerome her eulogy on St. Cyprian.
From the book of St. Jerome, priest, on Ecclesiastical writers.
Quote:Cyprian was a native of Africa, and at first taught rhetoric there with great applause. The priest Cæcilius, from whom he adopted his surname, having persuaded him to become a Christian, he thereupon distributed all his goods among the poor. Not long afterwards, having been made priest, he was chosen Bishop of Carthage. It would be useless to enlarge upon his genius, since his works outshine the sun. He suffered under the emperors Valerian and Gallienus, in the eighth persecution, on the same day as Cornelius was martyred at Rome, but not in the same year.
Holy Pontiffs, united now in glory as you once were by friendship and in martyrdom preserve within us the fruit of your example and doctrine. Your life teaches us to despise honors and fortune for Christ’s sake, and to give to the Church all our devotedness, of which the world is unworthy. May this be understood by those countless descendants of noble races, who are led astray by a misguided society. May they learn form you gloriously to confound the impious conspiracy that seeks to exterminate them in shameful oblivion and enforced idleness. If their fathers deserved well of mankind, they themselves may now enter upon a higher career of usefulness, where decadence is unknown, and the fruit once produced is everlasting. Remind the lowly as well as the great in the city of God, that peace and war alike have flowers to crown the soldier of Christ: the white wreath of good works is offered to those who cannot aspire to the rosy diadem of martyrdom.
Watch, O Cyprian, over thy church of Carthage, now at length renewing her youth. And do thou, O Cornelius, restore to Rome her glorious past. Put down the foreigner from her throne; for the mistress of the world must obey no ruler by the Vicar of the King of kings. May her speedy deliverance be the signal to her people for a complete renovation, which cannot now be far distant, unless the end of the world be approaching.
The fourth Ecumenical Council was held at Chalcedon in the church of St. Euphemia; beside the tomb of this holy Virgin, the impious Eutyches was condemned, and the twofold nature of the God-Man was vindicated. The great martyr seems to have shown a predilection for the study of sacred doctrine: the faculty of theology in Paris chose her for its special patroness, and the ancient Sorbonne treasured with singular veneration a notable portion of her blessed relics. Let us recommend ourselves to her prayers, and to those of the holy widow Lucy and the noble Geminian, whom the Church associates with her.
Prayer
Præsta, Domine, precibus nostris cum exsultatione proventum: ut sanctorum Martyrum Euphemiæ Luciæ et Geminiani, quorum diem passionis annua devotione recolimus, etiam fidei constantiam subsequamur. Per Dominum.
Grant, O Lord, a joyful issue to our prayers, that we may imitate the constancy in faith of the holy martyrs Euphemia, Lucy, and Geminian, the day of whose sufferings we commemorate with annual devotion. Through.
|
|
|
|
| Mayor demands school board members resign or face charges over ‘pornographic’ high school mater |
|
Posted by: Stone - 09-16-2021, 07:42 AM - Forum: Against the Children
- No Replies
|
|
Ohio mayor demands school board members resign or face charges over ‘pornographic’ high school material
A book of writing prompts distributed to high school seniors included disturbing and sexually inappropriate suggestions which raised the ire of parents and the city’s mayor.
HUDSON, Ohio (LifeSiteNews - slightly adpated) — An Ohio mayor has advised an entire school board to quit or face criminal charges for distributing materials for high school students which a judge called “child pornography.”
The controversy stemmed from a book of writing prompts entitled “642 Things to Write About,” which was distributed to high school seniors at Hudson High School in northeast Ohio.
As reported by The Daily Wire, writing prompts from the book included “sexual content like, ‘write a [omitted] scene you wouldn’t show your mom,’ and ‘rewrite the [omitted] scene from above into one that you’d let your mom read.’”
Other disturbing prompts in the book, which was provided to students enrolled in a senior-level college credit course entitled “Writing in the Liberal Arts II”, offered in conjunction with Hiram College, included “You have a dream that you’ve murdered someone. Who is it, how and why did the murder happen, and what happens afterward?”
Another prompt asked writers to “Choose how you will die.”
In a school board meeting Monday, Mayor Craig Shubert, a Catholic who attends St. Mary Catholic Church in Hudson, told board members, “I’m going to give you a simple choice: either choose to resign from this board of education or you will be charged.”
Schubert, who kicked off his mayoral campaign in 2019 with an appeal to “common sense governance,” said at the board meeting that it had come to his attention “that your educators are distributing essentially what is child pornography in the classroom.”
The mayor added that he spoke with a judge that evening who “already confirmed” the characterization of the material as “pornography.”
Shubert’s ultimatum to the five members of the school board was met with enthusiastic applause from parents and others in attendance.
Although many of the “642” prompts appear to be innocuous, some are blatantly sexual or otherwise inappropriate.
Former teacher of 11 years Monica Havens, the mother of a high school senior who was provided with the material, listed off some of the objectionable prompts.
The book suggests writers choose to “write a letter from the point of view of a drug addict,” “write an X-rated Disney scenario,” describe “the first time you had [omitted],” or come up with “ten euphemisms for [omitted],” among other prompts which Havens suggested were inappropriate for high school age children.
“I can’t even wrap my brain around a teacher … I don’t care if it’s for college credit; these are minors,” Havens said.
Hudson High School Principal Brian Wilch admitted that the school made a mistake by distributing the material, saying that authorities within the school failed to “exercise our due diligence,” Cleveland.com reported.
“There are times we need to take a step back, reflect and get better,” Wilch said in the meeting, telling parents and other attendees that the school will do better moving forward to appropriately vet curriculum provided to high school students.
“We did not exercise our due diligence when we reviewed this resource and we overlooked several prompts that were not appropriate,” he said.
As reported by Cleveland.com, Hudson High School officially apologized to parents for the offensive material and said it is “working to collect the prompt books.”
Wilch said the school “felt terrible” about the incident, remarking that “you can’t unsee” the inappropriate prompts.
As reported by USA Today, Hudson High School Superintendent Phil Herman described the book as a “supplemental resource” and said it was quickly pulled after the district became aware of its racier content.
In a prepared statement, Herman said “[t]he district immediately determined this writing resource should not be in the hands of our students, and on Monday collected the books from the students enrolled in the course.”
Herman explained that the “inappropriate and offensive writing prompts” in the book were never selected to be “assigned as part of the class.”
With the offensive material now pulled from the classroom, the school board’s president of education David Zuro said in a statement that none of the school board members plan to resign following the mayor’s threat.
“While we respect the Mayor’s position within the City of Hudson, in accordance with the State laws of Ohio, the supervision of the public schools of this District is the responsibility of the Board of Education,” Zuro said in a statement obtained by ABC-5 Cleveland.
“At this time, no Board of Education member has indicated any intention to resign.”
It remains to be seen whether Mayor Shubert will follow through on his threat and ask for the school board members to be charged for distributing the offensive material.
Shubert made the comments to the school board just over a week after his wife of nearly 22 years tragically passed away at age 60 on September 3 after a 9-month battle with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
According to her obituary, Sherri and her husband were married at Saint Dominic Church in Shaker Heights, Ohio. The obituary states that Sherri followed “in the footsteps of Saint Dominic, and after five years of study became a fully-professed Third Order Dominican, taking the religious name, Sister Catherine of Sienna.”
School boards have frequently been the nexus of controversy this year as parents and board members have clashed over hot-button issues like critical race theory and mandatory masking.
|
|
|
|
| Pope Francis on Communion for pro-abortion politicians: ‘Don’t go condemning’ |
|
Posted by: Stone - 09-16-2021, 07:32 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
- No Replies
|
|
Pope Francis on Communion for pro-abortion politicians: ‘Don’t go condemning’
‘If you say you can give or not give [the Eucharist], this is casuistry,’ the Pope said.
![[Image: GettyImages-1340556080-scaled-e163173065...10x500.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340556080-scaled-e1631730654465-810x500.jpg)
Wed Sep 15, 2021
(LifeSiteNews) – In the midst of an in-flight interview Wednesday following his visit to Eastern Europe, Pope Francis said that distributing the Eucharist to pro-abortion politicians must be determined in the “pastoral dimension,” without “condemning,” and that he has never denied the Eucharist to anyone.
On his return flight from Bratislava, Slovakia, to Rome, Pope Francis spoke with journalists, answering questions on vaccination, abortion, and the issue of distributing Holy Communion to Catholic politicians who openly support abortion.
Though the Pope was able to outline the Church’s clear position on abortion that “it’s murder, whoever has an abortion kills,” he subsequently said that when it comes to denying pro-abortion politicians Communion, “the problem is not theological, it is pastoral, how we bishops manage this principle pastorally.”
Prefacing his remarks on distributing Communion to pro-abortion politicians by repeating an oft used phrase of his that “Communion is not a prize for the perfect,” Francis later described a “hypothesis” by which priests may give the Eucharist to such people, suggesting that priests might be “close, tender, and give Communion.”
The Pope criticized priests who “go beyond the pastoral dimension” and “become a politician” on the issue of distributing Communion to opponents of the Faith, asking: “What must the pastor do? Be a pastor, don’t go condemning. Be a pastor because he is a pastor also for the excommunicated. Pastors with God’s style, which is closeness, compassion and tenderness.”
The Pope drew a comparison with the controversy that was ignited upon the release of Amoris Laetitia, between “that chapter on accompanying separated, divorced couples” and the current discussion in the U.S. over withholding the Eucharist from pro-abortion politicians like President Joe Biden.
Though the Pope did not want to comment directly on denying the Eucharist in the U.S., he said that he would comment “on the principle.”
After thanking Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, whom he called “a great theologian,” for clarifying the controversy in Amoris Laetitia after charges of heresy were raised against him, Francis noted that, like divorced and remarried couples, pro-abortion politicians are “children of God and they need our pastoral closeness, then the pastor resolves things as the Spirit indicates to him.”
“If you say you can give or not give [the Eucharist], this is casuistry,” he added.
Asked if he had ever given the Eucharist to a pro-abortion politician, the Pope revealed that he has never denied the Eucharist to anyone since becoming a priest, adding that “I don’t know if anyone has come in these conditions.” Instead, he related an occasion when he inadvertently distributed Holy Communion to a Jewish woman while visiting a nursing home.
Describing the occasion as “a nice thing [to] happen,” Francis told the woman, who revealed she was Jewish only after having received Communion, that “[w]hat I gave you is Jewish too,” and suggested that “the Lord wanted to reward her” by allowing the Pope to accidentally administer the host, despite his recognition that “those who are not in the community cannot take communion.”
LifeSiteNews spoke with Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, a liturgical expert and author of “Reclaiming Our Roman Catholic Birthright: The Genius and Timeliness of the Traditional Latin Mass.”
Kwasniewski expressed disbelief that the Pope has “not only never refused Communion but has never met someone who deserved to be refused communion (as per Canon 915).” Although the Jewish woman did receive Communion, “the Pope makes it clear he didn’t know and so he was not deliberately giving the Lord to a non-Christian.”
“However,” Kwasniewski continued, “his explanation of it makes it sound like ‘no big deal,’ like something one laughs off. Obviously, he wasn’t going to berate the old lady, but he shouldn’t describe it as rewarding her. There has never been any doubt that it is objectively gravely evil for an unbeliever to receive the Eucharist, just as it evil for a non-practising Catholic to receive.”
Asked about the divisions between Christians on taking the COVID jabs, the Pope said that the issue is “a bit strange,” arguing that “humanity has a history of friendship with vaccines.” Francis suggested that the “diversity of the vaccines” developed against COVID, some of which he described as “a little more than distilled water,” has “created fear” about taking them.
In an apparent reference to Cardinal Raymond Burke, who was recently hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19, Pope Francis suggested that “in the college of cardinals, there are some deniers,” but he did not say exactly what it is these cardinals deny, only adding that “one of them, poor man, is in hospital with the virus. It’s an irony of life.”
Kwasniewski told LifeSiteNews that the Pope’s comments on the COVID shots “show him to be profoundly ignorant — or incapable of reasoning — about the issues that are involved,” and that his reference to Cardinal Burke “is dripping with contempt.” Explaining, Kwasniewski said that Francis’ apparent jibe against Burke is “not surprising, considering that he has held him in contempt from the moment the still-unanswered Dubia were submitted.”
|
|
|
|
| Two Important Stories from the latest Remnnt.tv video: Monica Smit and RFK Jr |
|
Posted by: Stone - 09-16-2021, 07:05 AM - Forum: General Commentary
- Replies (1)
|
|
Excerpt from the video description - September 10, 2021:
Quote:Why is Big Tech trying to cancel us, unless it’s because we’re speaking truth and they can’t handle the truth?
Plus, Michael shows a heartbreaking clip from an appeal made by Mr. and Mrs. Smit, an Australian couple whose daughter was just sent to prison for standing up against COVID lockdowns. Monica Smit is now the only political prisoner on Australian soil. And for WHAT?! By the way, Michael also points out that Monica Smit is a traditional Catholic who is a big promoter of the Christus Rex Pilgrimage in Australia.
Michael closes out his show by turning it over to Robert F. Kennedy, whose latest talk rips the mask off the COVIDIACS and exposes them as the same globalist madmen who were behind the military industrial complex 60 years ago.
This one’s not for the faint of heart. If you can’t handle the awful truth of what’s really going on here, you may wish to go back to YouTube where you’ll be safely shielded from all of it.
Video can be viewed here.
|
|
|
|
| Narrative Nuked: Nearly Half Of 'COVID Hospitalizations' This Year Have Been Mild Or Asymptomatic |
|
Posted by: Stone - 09-15-2021, 12:36 PM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
- No Replies
|
|
Narrative Nuked: Nearly Half Of 'COVID Hospitalizations' This Year Have Been Mild Or Asymptomatic Cases
ZH | SEP 14, 2021
A brand new study is calling into question how reliable and meaningful of a number of "patients hospitalized with Covid-19" in the U.S. is.
Covid hospitalizations - the most common metric heard when discussing the seriousness of the pandemic - may not be nearly as meaningful of a number as many once thought. And don't take it from us: The Atlantic published a stunning piece on Tuesday citing a new study that suggests "almost half of those hospitalized with COVID-19 have mild or asymptomatic cases".
The Atlantic had formerly called Covid hospitalizations “the most reliable pandemic number,” last winter. Now, after a nationwide study of hospitalization records was release, the publication is walking back its fervor on that statement.
Researchers from Harvard Medical School, Tufts Medical Center, and the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System took on the task of trying to figure out how serious Covid cases were in those hospitalized, and how many people counted as Covid hospitalizations were actually in the hospital for Covid, versus getting a Covid test after being admitted for something else.
The study "analyzed the electronic records for nearly 50,000 COVID hospital admissions at the more than 100 VA hospitals across the country," The Atlantic wrote. It "checked to see whether each patient required supplemental oxygen or had a blood oxygen level below 94 percent" in order to try and determine if cases met the NIH's threshold for "severe COVID".
What the study found was that from March 2020 to January 2021, 36% of Covid cases in the hospital were mild or asymptomatic. From January 2021 to June 2021, during the Delta variant's spread, that number rose all the way to 48%. For vaccinated hospital patients, the number rose to a stunning 57%.
As The Atlantic put it in their own words: "The study suggests that roughly half of all the hospitalized patients showing up on COVID-data dashboards in 2021 may have been admitted for another reason entirely, or had only a mild presentation of disease."
The limitations of the study obviously included the fact that the VA isn't representative of the total U.S. population:
Quote:Among the limitations of the study is that patients in the VA system are not representative of the U.S. population as a whole, as they include few women and no children. (Still, the new findings echo those from the two pediatric-admissions studies.) Also, like many medical centers, the VA has a policy to test every inpatient for COVID, but this is not a universal practice. Lastly, most of the data—even from the patients admitted in 2021—derive from the phase of the pandemic before Delta became widespread, and it’s possible that the ratios have changed in recent months. The study did run through June 30, however, when the Delta wave was about to break, and it did not find that the proportion of patients with moderate to severe respiratory distress was trending upward at the end of the observation period.
Graham Snyder, the medical director of infection prevention and hospital epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, says the study buries the lede of how effective the vaccine is: “It’s underreported how well the vaccine makes your life better, how much less sick you are likely to be, and less sick even if hospitalized. That’s the gem in this study.”
Daniel Griffin, an infectious-disease specialist at Columbia University, concurred: “People ask me, ‘Why am I getting vaccinated if I just end up in the hospital anyway?’ But I say, ‘You’ll end up leaving the hospital.’”
"We should refine the definition of hospitalization," said Shira Doron, an infectious-disease physician and hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center and co-author of the study. "Those patients who are there with rather than from COVID don’t belong in the metric.”
What does the study as a whole conclude? Again, in the words of The Atlantic: "...the study also demonstrates that hospitalization rates for COVID, as cited by journalists and policy makers, can be misleading, if not considered carefully."
|
|
|
|
| Project Veritas: Alleged Elder Abuse and Medical Fraud |
|
Posted by: Stone - 09-15-2021, 12:30 PM - Forum: Health
- Replies (1)
|
|
BREAKING: Two Healthcare Insiders at Aegis Living Blow Whistle on Alleged Elder Abuse and Medical Fraud
‘Aegis Living is Grossly Taking Advantage of Severely Vulnerable Adults’ ... ‘Signature Had Been Forged Multiple Times’
![[Image: ageis_thumb.jpg?w=960&h=540&q=50&fm=webp&fit=thumb]](https://images.ctfassets.net/syq3snmxclc9/1dEBZrQi16XkhZPjfY00mE/090341d302462a1824d828de7b0ce94f/ageis_thumb.jpg?w=960&h=540&q=50&fm=webp&fit=thumb)
- Cassandra Renner, Aegis Living Insider: “I came to Project Veritas because I believe that Aegis Living is grossly taking advantage of severely vulnerable adults through fraud on care plans.”
- Renner: “I had overheard a chemical restraint being given to one of the residents I worked with in order to get her to take the COVID vaccine…They had given her a PRN, like Xanax, and they were successful after giving her the PRN in order to get her to take the COVID vaccine. The resident was lied to about what shot she was receiving. She was told that it was the flu shot… She's no longer with us and in her last moments of life, she had to have her dignity removed.”
- Renner: “I don't think that the neglect is coming directly from the care managers, as much as it is coming from the facility making the choice to be short-staffed.”
- Renner: “We can probably, on a good day, get about 50% of what these people are paying for done.”
- Renner: “In the past I had not signed for certain things that I knew I hadn't completed, and I was told by the ACD [Associate Care Director] who had told me to sign them, that I needed to just sign them anyways. Even if I hadn't completed the task…I noticed the other day, or like a little bit ago that one of my signatures looks like it wasn't mine.”
- Renner: “I had found out that my signature had been forged multiple times. Someone signed for me to claim that I had completed a service that I specifically did not sign because it was not completed.”
- Jonathan Schlect, Aegis Living Insider: “I was told by the care director, Jen, if I didn't [forge signatures], I would be out of compliance with my job and not following her direction, and I'd be written up.”
- Schlect: “Adam, who was another ACD replies back [in the group text], ‘Falsify documents. It will pay off.’”
- Margie Massa, Associate Care Director, Aegis Living: “If there’s not a signature there then that means you didn’t do the service. If I knew who worked that day, then I might jot in an initial because I'm kind of saving their asses too. You know?”
- Averi Robinson, Associate Care Director, Aegis Living: “The people we do have are there [at Aegis Living] because we need a heartbeat and not because they're actually capable caregivers…They [Aegis Living] literally cannot afford to fire any of us. If we have anything, it’s job security.”
[Project Veritas - Issaquah, Wash. – Sept. 14, 2021] Project Veritas released a new video today that features two healthcare insiders blowing the whistle on their employer, Aegis Living, for engaging in alleged elder abuse and medical fraud.
Cassandra Renner, who worked as a Medical Technician at Aegis Living, said she came forward because she could no longer bear the corruption in her workplace.
![[Image: ageis1.png?w=800]](https://images.ctfassets.net/syq3snmxclc9/3ij4u0r6KqQoOfYLOcDpGt/0623b538558e01c66cb5d54a9e1e00b8/ageis1.png?w=800)
“I came to Project Veritas because I believe that Aegis Living is grossly taking advantage of severely vulnerable adults through fraud on care plans,” Renner said.
“I don't think that the neglect is coming directly from the care managers, as much as it is coming from the facility making the choice to be short-staffed,” she said.
“We can probably, on a good day, get about 50% of what these people are paying for done.”
Renner addressed the short staffing issue with her colleague, Averi Robinson, who is one of Aegis Living’s Associate Care Directors:
Quote:Renner: “How would you go about trying to push for more people because it's necessary?”
Robinson: “I don’t know that I can, I’ve tried.”
Renner: “I know.”
Robinson: “Like, I- There’s enough people to have, but the people we do have are there because we need a heartbeat and not because they’re actually capable caregivers.”
Renner: “But when you're being trained by word of mouth of someone else who might've been trained by word of mouth, from someone else, you're going to end up getting somebody who has no idea what these people actually require. Is the problem that we have such a staffing issue that you can't, like, threaten actual--”
Robinson: “They can write you up, but like at this point I'm, like--”
Renner: “Well, are they going to fire you? Like, unless it's like--”
Robinson: “No. They literally cannot afford to fire any of us. If we have anything, it's job security.”
Renner told Project Veritas she witnessed a patient being lied to about the vaccine she was taking. The patient ultimately died.
“I had overheard a chemical restraint being given to one of the residents I worked with in order to get her to take the COVID vaccine…They had given her a PRN, like Xanax, and they were successful after giving her the PRN in order to get her to take the COVID vaccine,” Renner said.
“The resident was lied to about what shot she was receiving. She was told that it was the flu shot… She's no longer with us and in her last moments of life, she had to have her dignity removed.”
Renner said that signature forgery is commonplace at Aegis Living.
“In the past I had not signed for certain things that I knew I hadn't completed, and I was told by the ACD [Associate Care Director] who had told me to sign them, that I needed to just sign them anyways. Even if I hadn't completed the task…I noticed the other day, or like a little bit ago that one of my signatures looks like it wasn't mine,” she said.
“I had found out that my signature had been forged multiple times. Someone signed for me to claim that I had completed a service that I specifically did not sign because it was not completed.”
Another Aegis Living insider, Jonathan Schlect, who worked as an Associate Care Director, also told Veritas about how signature forgery was encouraged in his workplace.
“I was told by the care director, Jen, if I didn't [forge signatures], I would be out of compliance with my job and not following her direction, and I'd be written up,” Schlect said.
“Adam, who was another ACD replies back [in the group text], ‘Falsify documents. It will pay off,’” he said.
Aegis Living Associate Care Director, Margie Massa, corroborated Renner’s and Schlect’s allegations.
“If there’s not a signature there [on the document] then that means you didn’t do the service. If I knew who worked that day, then I might jot in an initial because I'm kind of saving their asses too. You know?”
|
|
|
|
| Abp. Viganò: COVID-19 vaccine, passport drive ‘an epochal war’ and ‘prelude to the end times’ |
|
Posted by: Stone - 09-15-2021, 12:22 PM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò
- Replies (4)
|
|
Abp. Viganò: COVID-19 vaccine, passport drive ‘an epochal war’ and ‘prelude to the end times’
The former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States compared the current state of the world to 'the great apostasy spoken of in second scripture.'
Tue Sep 14, 2021
(LifeSiteNews) – In the first installment of an 18-part interview conducted by veteran Vatican journalist Robert Moynihan, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò asserted that the people of the world are being confronted with “war” from the aggression of public officials, with the support of even some Church authorities, who seek to violate their rights with gene-based vaccine mandates and accompanying passports.
“We are facing a siege on both the social and religious front,” stated the former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States. “The so-called emergency pandemic has been utilized as a false pretext to impose the vaccination and the Green Pass in many nations of the world, in a simultaneous and coordinated way.”
“At the same time, on the other front, not only do the ecclesiastical authorities not condemn in the least the abuse of power by those who govern public affairs, but they support them in this wicked plan, and go so far as to condemn those who do not accept being subjected to inoculation with an experimental gene serum, with unknown side effects, that does not impart any immunity from the virus,” the archbishop said.
In criticizing Church authorities on this point, he went on to emphasize that due to these experimental gene-based vaccines being tainted with abortion in either their production or testing, every Catholic has “more than sufficient” moral grounds “to refuse the vaccine.”
“We are at war,” he said, “a war that is not openly declared, that is not fought with conventional weapons, but a war all the same in which there are aggressors and aggressees, executioners and victims, kangaroo courts and prisoners. A war in which violence ensues in ostensibly legal forms in order to violate the rights of citizens as well as believers.
“It is an epochal war that is a prelude to the end times, and the great apostasy spoken of in second scripture,” the archbishop concluded.
|
|
|
|
| Revelations of Berthe Petit from Our Lord about the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary |
|
Posted by: Stone - 09-15-2021, 07:25 AM - Forum: Our Lady
- Replies (3)
|
|
The Revelations of Berthe Petit from Our Lord about the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary
![[Image: QSZwaWQ9QXBp]](https://imgs.search.brave.com/RyUqHVKVc1h8iVUnrO9pWMTXhF5giwhvtY1zSVKuKPw/rs:fit:174:225:1/g:ce/aHR0cHM6Ly90c2U0/Lm1tLmJpbmcubmV0/L3RoP2lkPU9JUC5v/Y09LZzVHMUxLSmhI/TTlEUVMxSjJBQUFB/QSZwaWQ9QXBp)
In Belgium of 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War a special baby girl was born, who was later to become a mystic. She was named Berthe Maria. Before the received any visions from Our Lord, she had received the invisible stigmata: in her humility she had begged that the marks not be made visible. The wounds were very painful for her, especially on Good Friday and other Fridays. She experienced the pains in her hands and feet and side. The worst pain of all was caused by the torment to her head which was like the pain of thorns pressing into her. This pain was so great and constant she slept but rarely.
It was not until she was 39 years old that the indication of her actual mission was made manifest: During Midnight Christmas Mass she saw the wounded Heart of Jesus and close by was the pierced Heart of His Mother. Then she heard these words:
"Cause My Mother's Heart, transfixed by sorrows that rent Mine, to be loved."
This was her apostolate, to spread devotion to the Sorrowful, Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary. In the following February she had a vision of the two Hearts intertwined with a dove hovering above. Jesus spoke to her again telling her to live in the two Hearts, requesting of her: " . . . you must spread devotion to this Heart so wholly united to Mine."
A few weeks later, He told her:
"The world must be dedicated to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother as it is dedicated to Mine."
She had other revelations both from Jesus and Mary who told Berthe that she was not only the Immaculate Conception, but the Mother of the Sorrowful Heart.
In the summer of 1912, Berthe began receiving more political messages or prophecies from Our Lord. He forewarned her about World War I and a coming chastisement later. After the Germans entered Brussels, Jesus revealed to her:
"The worst calamities I predicted are unleashed. The time has now arrived when I wish mankind to turn to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother.
Let this prayer be uttered by every soul:
SORROWFUL AND IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY, PRAY FOR US
So that it may spread as a refreshing and purifying balm of reparation that will appease My anger."
Both the Primate of Belgium, Cardinal Mercier and the Primate of England, Cardinal Bourne helped Berthe, the latter writing two pastorals on devotion to the Sorrowful Heart; he went further, consecrating England to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. He then prescribed prayers to be said on the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, which was on a Friday of that year, 1916. That same day was a turning point in the War and England had a great victory.
World War I ended in September of 1918 and Jesus appeared to Berthe again, saying:
"If I had not intervened in answer to the recourse to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother and through the leadership of My apostle, Francis (Cardinal Bourne), victory would have been on the side . . . who had ambitions . . . for why should I come to the aid of a France intent on persecuting My Church . . . That is why trials will continue until the day when, humbly acknowledging her errors, this nation will render Me My rights and give full liberty to My Church."
In October of 1920, Our Lord told Berthe of how exalted His Mother's Sorrowful Immaculate Heart was, saying:
"The title Immaculate belongs to the whole being of My Mother, and not specifically to her Heart . . this title flows from My . . . gift to the Virgin who has given Me birth. However, My Mother has acquired for her Heart the title, Sorrowful by sharing . . . all the sufferings of My Heart and My Body, from the crib to the Cross . . .The title of Sorrowful is most dear of all to Me . . "
|
|
|
|
| Feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary |
|
Posted by: Stone - 09-15-2021, 06:44 AM - Forum: Our Lady
- Replies (9)
|
|
September 15 – Feast of the Seven Dolours of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Octave of the Nativity
w/ Commemoration of St. Nicomedes
“Praise and glory be to thee, O holy Trinity, who hast brought us all to this day’s solemnity. Praise be to thee also, O holy Mother of God, scepter of the orthodox faith: through thee the Cross triumphs, and man is called back to heaven; through thee the idols are overthrown, and the nations are brought to repentance.” Such words as these, which the Church borrows from her doctors to close the bright Octave, were doubtless sung in prophecy by the angels around the new-born babe Mary. And such, in the light of the ages since elapsed, must needs be our answer to the question so often repeated at the cradle side: What shall this child be?
The doctrine lately laid down to magisterially by the infallible successor of St. Peter, is this: Since the days of her mortal life, when Mary was, even in this world, truly the Mother of the Church, the Queen of the Apostles and their Mistress with regard to the divine oracles; but especially since she has received in heaven an almost infinite power for dispensing the fruits of redemption: the mighty helper of the Christian people, the restorer of the world, has not ceased to prove herself the impregnable rampart of the Church, the solid foundation of the faith, the fountain springing from God, whence the rivers of divine Wisdom pour out their pure waters, sweeping away heresy from all places.
May so glorious a past give us confidence for the future. “It is by Mary,” says the Blessed Grignon de Montfort, “ that the salvation of the world has begun, and it is by Mary that is must be consummated. Being the way by which Jesus Christ came to us the first time, she will also be the way by which he will come the second time, though not in the same manner. Mary must shine forth more than ever in mercy, in might, and in grace, in these latter times: in mercy, to bring back and lovingly receive the poor strayed sinners who shall be converted and shall return to the Catholic Church; in might, against the enemies of God, idolaters, schismatics, Mahometans, Jews, and souls hardened in impiety, who shall rise in terrible revolt against God to seduce all those who shall be contrary to them, and make them fall by promises and threats; and finally, she must shine forth in grace, in order to animate and sustain the valiant soldiers and faithful servants of Jesus Christ, who shall do battle for his interests. Mary must be terrible as an army ranged in battle, principally in these latter times. It is principally of these last and cruel persecutions of the devil, which shall go on increasing daily till the reign of Antichrist, that we ought to understand that first and celebrated prediction and curse of God, pronounced in the terrestrial Paradise against the serpent: I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed.
“God has never made or formed but one enmity; but it is an irreconcilable one: it is between Mary, his worthy Mother, and the devil; between the children and servants of the Blessed Virgin and the children and instruments of Lucifer. Satan fears Mary not only more than all Angels and men, but in some sense more than God himself. It is not that the anger, the hatred, and the power of God are not infinitely greater than those of the blessed Virgin, for the perfections of Mary are limited; but it is because Satan, being proud, suffers infinitely more from being beaten and punished by a little and humble handmaid of God, and her humility humbles him more than the divine power. The devils fear one of her sighs for a soul more than the prayers of all the Saints, and one of her menaces against them more than all other torments.”
A holy priest named Nicomedes is honored today. The Virgin Martyr St. Felicula, whose body he had buried, obtained for him in return the palm of martyrdom. Let us, together with the Church, implore his protection.
Prayer
Adesto, Domine, populo tuo: ut beati Nicomedis Martyris tui merita præclara suscipiens, ad impetrandam misericordiam tuam semper ejus patrociniis adjuvetur. Per Dominum.
Attend to thy people, O Lord, that having recourse to the splendid merits of blessed Nicomedes, thy martyr, they may ever be assisted by his patronage for obtaining thy mercy. Through, &c.
Let us sing to Mary on her birthday feast this graceful Sequence of the fourteenth century.
Sequence
Nativitas Mariæ Virginis
Quæ nos lavit a labe criminis
Celebratur hodie,
Dies est lætitiæ:
De radice Jesse propaginis
Hanc eduxit Sol veri luminis
Manu Sapientiæ,
Templum suæ gratiæ.
The Nativity of the Virgin Mary, who cleansed us from the stain of our crimes, is celebrated today: it is a day of joy! This is the branch produced from the root of Jesse by the Sun of true light; she is the handiwork of Wisdom, the temple of divine grace.
Stella nova noviter oritur
Cujus ortu mors nostra moritur,
Evæ lapsus jam restituitur
In Maria:
Ut aurora surgens progreditur,
Sicut luna pulchra describitur,
Super cunctas ut sol eligitur
Virgo pia.
A new star newly rises, at whose rising our death dies; the fall of Eve is now repaired in Mary. The gentle Virgin comes forth as the rising aurora; appearing beautiful as the moon, chosen above all maidens as the sun outshines the stars.
Virgo mater et virgo unica,
Virga fumi sed aromatica,
In te cœli mundique fabrica gloriatur:
Te signarunt ora prophetica,
Tibi canit Salomon cantica
Canticorum, te vox angelica protestatur.
Virgin-Mother and Virgin without peer, pillar of smoke of aromatical spices, both heaven and earth are justly proud of thee. Thee did the ancient seers prophesy; to thee sang Solomon his Son of songs; the Angel’s voice thy greatness did proclaim.
Verbum Patris processu temporis,
Intra tui secretum corporis,
In te totum et totum deforis simul fuit:
Fructua virens arboris,
Christus, gigas immensi roboris,
Nos a nexu funesti pignoris eripuit.
In course of time, the Heavenly Father’s Word in thy chaste body took up his abode, at once wholly within, wholly without. Christ, the fair fruit of an unwatered tree, the giant of immeasurable strength, has freed us from the bond of the fatal pledge.
Condoluit humano generi
Virginalis filius uteri,
Accingantur senes et pueri
Ad laudem Virginis:
Qui poterat de nobis conqueri
Pro peccato parentum veteri,
Mediator voluit fieri
Dei et hominis.
The Son of a Virgin Mother has taken pity on the human race: then let old men and children be prompt to praise the Virgin. He who might well have spoken against us, for that ancient sin of our first parents, chose to become the mediator between God and man.
O Maria, dulce commercium
Intra tuum celasti gremium,
Quo salutis reis remedium indulgetur:
O vera spes et verum gaudium,
Fac post vitæ præsentis stadium,
Ut optatum in cœlis bravium
Nobis detur. Amen.
How sweet, O Mary, was the secret commerce carried on within thy bosom, whereby the remedy of salvation was mercifully given to the guilty! O our true joy and most assured hope, grant that, after the course of this present life, we may obtain in heaven the reward we so desire. Amen.
O all ye that pass by the way, attend, and see if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow! Is this, then, the first cry of that sweet babe whose coming brought such pure joy to our earth? Is the standard of suffering to be so soon unfurled over the cradle of such lovely innocence? Yet the heart of mother Church has not deceived her; this feast, coming at such a time, is ever the answer to that question of the expectant human race: What shall this child be?
The Savior to come is not only the reason of Mary’s existence, he is also her exemplar in all things. It is as his Mother that the Blessed Virgin came, and therefore as the Mother of sorrows; for the God, whose future birth was the very cause of her own birth, is to be in this world a Man of sorrows and acquainted with infirmity. To whom shall I compare thee? sings the prophet of lamentations: O Virgin … great as the sea is thy destruction. On the mountain of the Sacrifice, as mother she gave her Son, as Bride she offered herself together with him; by her sufferings both as Bride and as Mother, she was the co-redemptress of the human race. This teaching and these recollections were deeply engraved on our hearts on that other feast of our Lady’s dolors which immediately preceded Holy Week.
Christ dieth now no more: and Our Lady’s sufferings are over. Nevertheless the Passion of Christ is continued in his elect, in his Church, against which hell vents the rage it cannot exercise against himself. To this Passion of Christ’s mystical Body of which she is also a Mother, Mary still contributes her compassion; how often have her venerated images attested the fact, by miraculously shedding tears! This explains the Church’s departure from liturgical custom by celebrating two feasts, in different seasons, under one title.
On perusing the register of the apostolic decrees concerning sacred rites, the reader is astonished to find a long and unusual interruption lasting from March 20th 1809 to September 17th 1814, at which latter date is entered the decree instituting on this present Sunday a second Commemoration of Our Lady’s Dolors. 1809-1814, five sorrowful years, during which the government of Christendom was suspended; years of blood which beheld the Man-God agonizing once more in the person of his captive Vicar. But the Mother of Sorrows was still standing beneath the Cross, offering to God the Church’s sufferings; and when the trial was over, Pius VII, knowing well whence the mercy had come, dedicated this day to Mary as a fresh memorial of the day of Calvary.
Even in the seventeenth century, the Servites had the privilege of possessing this second feast, which they celebrated as a double of the 2nd Class, with a Vigil and an Octave. It is from them that the Church has borrowed the Office and Mass. This honor and privilege was due to the Order established by Our Lady to honor her sufferings and to spread devotion to them. Philip Benizi, heir to the seven holy Founders, propagated the flame kindled by them on the heights of Monte Senario; thanks to the zeal of his sons and successors, the devotion to the Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary, once their family property, now the treasure of the whole world.
The prophecy of the aged Simeon, the flight into Egypt, the loss of the divine Child in Jerusalem, the carrying of the Cross, the Crucifixion, the taking down from the Cross, and the burial of Jesus: these are the seven mysteries into which are grouped the well-nigh infinite sufferings which made Our Lady the Queen of martyrs, the first and loveliest rose in the garden of the Spouse. Let us take to heart the recommendation of the Book of Tobias, which the Church reads during this week in the Office of the Time: Thou shalt honor thy mother: for thou must be mindful what and how great perils she suffered in giving thee birth.
MASS
The daily Sacrifice, though surrounded with all the pomps of the Liturgy, is substantially the same as that of Calvary. But the only assistants at the foot of the Cross were, as our Introit points out, one single man, and a few women weeping around the Mother of sorrows. The Gospel will repeat this Introit, and even its verse which, contrary to custom, is not taken from the Psalms.
Introit
Stabant juxta Crucem Jesu Mater ejus, et soror Matris ejus Maria Cleophæ, et Salome, et Maria Magdalene.
There stood by the Cross of Jesus his Mother, and his Mother’s sister Mary of Cleophas, and Salome, and Mary Magdalene.
℣. Mulier, ecce filius tuus, dixit Jesus: ad discipulum autem: Ecce mater tua. Gloria Patri. Stabant.
℣. Woman, behold thy son, said Jesus; to the disciple however, Behold thy mother. Glory be. There stood.
The honoring of our Lady’s Dolors does not distract our thoughts from the one Victim of salvation. On the contrary, its immediate result, as the Collect shows, is to cause the Passion of our Savior to bear fruit in our souls.
Collect
Deus, in cujus passione, secundum Simeonis prophetiam, dulcissimam animam gloriosæ Virginis et Matris Mariæ doloris gladius pertransivit: concede propitius; ut qui dolores ejus venerando recolimus, passionis tuæ effectum felicem consequamur. Qui vivis.
O God, in whose Passion, according to the prophecy of Simeon, a sword of sorrow pierced the most sweet soul of the glorious Mary, Mother and Virgin: grant in thy mercy, that we who call to mind her sorrows with veneration, may obtain the happy effect of thy Passion. Who livest, &c.
Then is added the Collect of the occurring Sunday.
Epistle
Lesson from the Book of Judith. Ch. xiii.
The Lord hath blessed thee by his power, because by thee he hath brought our enemies to nought. Blessed art thou, O daughter, by the Lord the most high God, above all women upon the earth. Blessed be the Lord who made heaven and earth, who hath directed thee to the cutting off the head of the prince of our enemies. Because he hath so magnified thy name this day, that thy praise shall not depart out of the mouth of men who shall be mindful of the power of the Lord for ever, for that thou hast not spared thy life, by reason of the distress and tribulation of thy people, but hast prevented our ruin in the presence of our God.
Quote:Oh, the greatness of our Judith among all creatures! “God,” says the pious and profound Father Faber, “vouchsafed to select the very things about him which are most incommunicable, and in a most mysteriously real way communicate them to her. See how he had already mixed her up with the eternal designs of creation, making her almost a partial cause and partial model of it. Our Lady’s cooperation in the redemption of the world gives us a fresh view of her magnificence. Neither the Immaculate Conception nor the Assumption will give us a higher idea of Mary’s exaltation than the title of co-redemptress. Her dolors were not necessary for the resurrection of the world, but in the counsels of God they were inseparable from it. They belong to the integrity of the divine plan. Are not Mary’s mysteries Jesus’ mysteries, and his mysteries hers? The truth appears to be that all the mysteries of Jesus and Mary were in God’s designs as one mystery. Jesus himself was Mary’s sorrow, seven times repeated, aggravated sevenfold. During the hours of the Passion, the offering of Jesus and the offering of Mary were tied in one. They kept pace together; they were made of the same materials; they were perfumed with kindred fragrance; they were lighted with the same fire; they were offered with kindred dispositions. The two things were one simultaneous oblation, interwoven each moment through the thickly crowded mysteries of that dread time unto the Eternal, out of two sinless Hearts, that were the Hearts of Son and Mother, for the sins of a guilty world which fell on them contrary to their merits, but according to their own free will.”
Let us mingle our tears with Mary’s, in union with the sufferings of the great Victim. In proportionas we do this during life we shall rejoice in heaven with the Son and the Mother; if our Lady is now, as we sing in the Alleluia-Verse, Queen of heaven and mistress of the world, is there one among all the elect who can recall sufferings comparable to hers?
After the Gradual follows the Stabat Mater, the touching Complaint attributed to the Franciscan, Blessed Jacopone de Todi.
Gradual
Dolorosa, et lacrymabilis es Virgo Maria, stans juxta Crucem Domini Jesu Filii tui Redemptoris.
Thou art sorrowful and worthy of tears, O Virgin Mary, standing near the Cross of the Lord Jesus, thy Son, our Redeemer.
℣. Virgo Dei Genitrix, quem totus non capitat orbis, hoc crucis fert supplicium, auctor vitæ factus homo.
℣. O Virgin Mother of God, he whom the whole world doth not contain, beareth this punishment of the Cross, he the author of life being made man.
Alleluia, alleluia.
Alleluia, alleluia.
℣. Stabat sancta Maria, cœli Regina, et mundi Domina, juxta crucem Domini nostri Jesu Christi dolorosa.
℣. Holy Mary, the Queen of heaven, and mistress of the world, stood by the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, full of sadness.
Sequence
Stabat Mater dolorosa
iuxta Crucem lacrimosa,
dum pendebat Filius.
At the Cross her station keeping, stood the mournful Mother weeping, close to Jesus to the last.
Cuius animam gementem,
contristatam et dolentem
pertransivit gladius.
Through her heart, His sorrow sharing, all His bitter anguish bearing, now at length the sword has passed.
O quam tristis et afflicta
fuit illa benedicta,
mater Unigeniti!
O how sad and sore distressed was that Mother, highly blest, of the sole-begotten One.
Quæ mærebat et dolebat,
pia Mater, dum videbat
nati poenas inclyti.
Christ above in torment hangs, she beneath beholds the pangs of her dying glorious Son.
Quis est homo qui non fleret,
matrem Christi si videret in tanto supplicio?
Is there one who would not weep, whelmed in miseries so deep, Christ’s dear Mother to behold?
Quis non posset contristari
Christi Matrem contemplari
dolentem cum Filio?
Can the human heart refrain from partaking in her pain, in that Mother’s pain untold?
Pro peccatis suæ gentis
vidit Iesum in tormentis,
et flagellis subditum.
Bruised, derided, cursed, defiled, she beheld her tender Child All with scourges rent:
Vidit suum dulcem Natum
moriendo desolatum,
dum emisit spiritum.
For the sins of His own nation, saw Him hang in desolation, Till His spirit forth He sent.
Eia, Mater, fons amoris
me sentire vim doloris
fac, ut tecum lugeam.
O thou Mother! fount of love! Touch my spirit from above, make my heart with thine accord:
Fac, ut ardeat cor meum
in amando Christum Deum
ut sibi complaceam.
Make me feel as thou hast felt; make my soul to glow and melt with the love of Christ my Lord.
Sancta Mater, istud agas,
crucifixi fige plagas
cordi meo valide.
Holy Mother! pierce me through, in my heart each wound renew of my Savior crucified:
Tui Nati vulnerati,
tam dignati pro me pati,
poenas mecum divide.
Let me share with thee His pain, who for all my sins was slain, who for me in torments died.
Fac me tecum pie flere,
crucifixo condolere,
donec ego vixero.
Let me mingle tears with thee, mourning Him who mourned for me, all the days that I may live:
Iuxta Crucem tecum stare,
et me tibi sociare
in planctu desidero.
By the Cross with thee to stay, there with thee to weep and pray, is all I ask of thee to give.
Virgo virginum præclara,
mihi iam non sis amara,
fac me tecum plangere.
Virgin of all virgins blest!, Listen to my fond request: let me share thy grief divine;
Fac, ut portem Christi mortem,
passionis fac consortem,
et plagas recolere.
Let me, to my latest breath, in my body bear the death of that dying Son of thine.
Fac me plagis vulnerari,
fac me Cruce inebriari,
et cruore Filii.
Wounded with His every wound, steep my soul till it hath swooned, in His very Blood away;
Flammis ne urar succensus,
per te, Virgo, sim defensus
in die iudicii.
Be to me, O Virgin, nigh, lest in flames I burn and die, in His awful Judgment Day.
Christe, cum sit hinc exire,
da per Matrem me venire
ad palmam victoriæ.
Christ, when Thou shalt call me hence, by Thy Mother my defense, by Thy Cross my victory;
Quando corpus morietur,
fac, ut animæ donetur
paradisi gloria. Amen.
While my body here decays, may my soul Thy goodness praise, safe in paradise with Thee. Amen.
Gospel
Sequel of the holy Gospel according to St. John. Ch. xix.
At that time, there stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalen. When Jesus therefore had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he saith to his mother: Woman, behold thy son. After that, he saith to the disciple: Behold thy mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own.
Quote:Woman, behold thy son.—My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Such are the words of Jesus on the Cross in our Gospel. Has he, then, no longer a Father in heaven, a Mother on earth? Oh! mystery of justice, and still more of love! God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son for it, so far as to lay upon him, instead of upon sinful men, the curse our sins deserved, and our Lady too, in her sublime union with the Father, did not spare, but offered in like manner for us all, this same Son of her virginity. If on this head we belong to the Eternal Father, we belong henceforth to Mary also; each has bought us at a great price: the exchange of any only Son for sons of adoption.
It is at the foot of the Cross that our Lady truly became the Queen of mercy. At the foot of the Altar, where the renewal of the great Sacrifice is preparing, let us commend ourselves to her omnipotent influence over the Heart of her divine Son.
Offertory
Recordare, Virgo Mater Dei, dum steteris in conspectu Domini, ut loquaris pro nobis bona, et ut avertat indignationem suam a nobis.
Be mindful, O Virgin Mother of God, when thou standest in the sight of the Lord, to speak good things for us, that he may turn away his anger from us.
How many holy souls, in the course of ages, have come to keep faithful company with the Mother of sorrows! Their intercession united with Mary’s is a strength to the Church; and we hope to obtain thereby the effect of the merits of our Savior’s death.
Secret
Offerimus tibi preces et hostias, Domine Jesu Christe, humiliter supplicantes: ut, qui Transfixionem dulcissimi spiritus beatæ Mariæ Matris tuæ precibus recensemus; suo, suorumque sub Cruce sanctorum consortium, multiplicato piisimo interventu, meritis mortis tuæ, meritum cum beatis habeamus. Qui vivis.
We offer to thee prayers and sacrifices, O Lord Jesus Christ, humbly beseeching, that we who pray in remembrance of the transfixion of the most sweet soul of blessed Mary thy Mother, by the multiplied and pious intercession of her and her holy companions under the cross, may have a reward with the blessed, by the merits of thy death. Who livest.
A commemoration is then made of the Sunday.
The Preface is the same as on the 8th of September, except that for in Nativitate, on the Navitity is substituted in Transfixione, on the Transfixion of the Blessed Mary ever Virgin.
So great, it has been said (Bernardin of Siena, Pro festivit. V.M. Sermo xiii. De exaltatione B.V. in gloria, art ii. c. 2), was Mary’s grief on Calvary, that had it been divided among all creatures capable of suffering, it would have caused them all to die instantly. It was our Lady’s wonderful peace, maintained by perfect acquiescence and the total abandoment of her whole being to God, that alone was able to sustain in her the life which the Holy Ghost was preserving for the Church’s sake. May our participation in the sacred mysteries give us that peace of God which passeth all understanding and which keepeth minds and hearts in Christ Jesus!
Communion
Felices sensus beatæ Mariæ Virginis, qui sine morte meruerunt martyrii palmam sub Cruce Domini.
Happy senses of the blessed Virgin Mary, which without dying deserved the palm of martyrdom beneath the cross of our Lord.
As the Postcommunion points out, the loving memory of our Mother’s sorrows will powerfully assist us to find all good things in the holy Sacrifice of the Altar.
Postcommunion
Sacrificia, quæ sumpsimus, Domine Jesu Christe, Transfixionem Matris tuæ et Virginis devote celebrantes, nobis impetrent apud clementiam tuam omnis boni salutaris effectum. Qui vivis.
O Lord Jesus Christ, may the sacrifices of which we have parteken, in the devout celebration of the transfixion of thy Virgin Mother, obtain for us of thy clemency the effect of every salutary good. Who livest, &c.
The Postcommunion of the occurring Sunday is added, and the Gospel of the same is read at the end of the Mass instead of the usual passage from St. John.
|
|
|
|
| September 15th - Feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary |
|
Posted by: Stone - 09-15-2021, 06:44 AM - Forum: September
- Replies (8)
|
|
September 15 – Feast of the Seven Dolours of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Octave of the Nativity
w/ Commemoration of St. Nicomedes
“Praise and glory be to thee, O holy Trinity, who hast brought us all to this day’s solemnity. Praise be to thee also, O holy Mother of God, scepter of the orthodox faith: through thee the Cross triumphs, and man is called back to heaven; through thee the idols are overthrown, and the nations are brought to repentance.” Such words as these, which the Church borrows from her doctors to close the bright Octave, were doubtless sung in prophecy by the angels around the new-born babe Mary. And such, in the light of the ages since elapsed, must needs be our answer to the question so often repeated at the cradle side: What shall this child be?
The doctrine lately laid down to magisterially by the infallible successor of St. Peter, is this: Since the days of her mortal life, when Mary was, even in this world, truly the Mother of the Church, the Queen of the Apostles and their Mistress with regard to the divine oracles; but especially since she has received in heaven an almost infinite power for dispensing the fruits of redemption: the mighty helper of the Christian people, the restorer of the world, has not ceased to prove herself the impregnable rampart of the Church, the solid foundation of the faith, the fountain springing from God, whence the rivers of divine Wisdom pour out their pure waters, sweeping away heresy from all places.
May so glorious a past give us confidence for the future. “It is by Mary,” says the Blessed Grignon de Montfort, “ that the salvation of the world has begun, and it is by Mary that is must be consummated. Being the way by which Jesus Christ came to us the first time, she will also be the way by which he will come the second time, though not in the same manner. Mary must shine forth more than ever in mercy, in might, and in grace, in these latter times: in mercy, to bring back and lovingly receive the poor strayed sinners who shall be converted and shall return to the Catholic Church; in might, against the enemies of God, idolaters, schismatics, Mahometans, Jews, and souls hardened in impiety, who shall rise in terrible revolt against God to seduce all those who shall be contrary to them, and make them fall by promises and threats; and finally, she must shine forth in grace, in order to animate and sustain the valiant soldiers and faithful servants of Jesus Christ, who shall do battle for his interests. Mary must be terrible as an army ranged in battle, principally in these latter times. It is principally of these last and cruel persecutions of the devil, which shall go on increasing daily till the reign of Antichrist, that we ought to understand that first and celebrated prediction and curse of God, pronounced in the terrestrial Paradise against the serpent: I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed.
“God has never made or formed but one enmity; but it is an irreconcilable one: it is between Mary, his worthy Mother, and the devil; between the children and servants of the Blessed Virgin and the children and instruments of Lucifer. Satan fears Mary not only more than all Angels and men, but in some sense more than God himself. It is not that the anger, the hatred, and the power of God are not infinitely greater than those of the blessed Virgin, for the perfections of Mary are limited; but it is because Satan, being proud, suffers infinitely more from being beaten and punished by a little and humble handmaid of God, and her humility humbles him more than the divine power. The devils fear one of her sighs for a soul more than the prayers of all the Saints, and one of her menaces against them more than all other torments.”
A holy priest named Nicomedes is honored today. The Virgin Martyr St. Felicula, whose body he had buried, obtained for him in return the palm of martyrdom. Let us, together with the Church, implore his protection.
Prayer
Adesto, Domine, populo tuo: ut beati Nicomedis Martyris tui merita præclara suscipiens, ad impetrandam misericordiam tuam semper ejus patrociniis adjuvetur. Per Dominum.
Attend to thy people, O Lord, that having recourse to the splendid merits of blessed Nicomedes, thy martyr, they may ever be assisted by his patronage for obtaining thy mercy. Through, &c.
Let us sing to Mary on her birthday feast this graceful Sequence of the fourteenth century.
Sequence
Nativitas Mariæ Virginis
Quæ nos lavit a labe criminis
Celebratur hodie,
Dies est lætitiæ:
De radice Jesse propaginis
Hanc eduxit Sol veri luminis
Manu Sapientiæ,
Templum suæ gratiæ.
The Nativity of the Virgin Mary, who cleansed us from the stain of our crimes, is celebrated today: it is a day of joy! This is the branch produced from the root of Jesse by the Sun of true light; she is the handiwork of Wisdom, the temple of divine grace.
Stella nova noviter oritur
Cujus ortu mors nostra moritur,
Evæ lapsus jam restituitur
In Maria:
Ut aurora surgens progreditur,
Sicut luna pulchra describitur,
Super cunctas ut sol eligitur
Virgo pia.
A new star newly rises, at whose rising our death dies; the fall of Eve is now repaired in Mary. The gentle Virgin comes forth as the rising aurora; appearing beautiful as the moon, chosen above all maidens as the sun outshines the stars.
Virgo mater et virgo unica,
Virga fumi sed aromatica,
In te cœli mundique fabrica gloriatur:
Te signarunt ora prophetica,
Tibi canit Salomon cantica
Canticorum, te vox angelica protestatur.
Virgin-Mother and Virgin without peer, pillar of smoke of aromatical spices, both heaven and earth are justly proud of thee. Thee did the ancient seers prophesy; to thee sang Solomon his Son of songs; the Angel’s voice thy greatness did proclaim.
Verbum Patris processu temporis,
Intra tui secretum corporis,
In te totum et totum deforis simul fuit:
Fructua virens arboris,
Christus, gigas immensi roboris,
Nos a nexu funesti pignoris eripuit.
In course of time, the Heavenly Father’s Word in thy chaste body took up his abode, at once wholly within, wholly without. Christ, the fair fruit of an unwatered tree, the giant of immeasurable strength, has freed us from the bond of the fatal pledge.
Condoluit humano generi
Virginalis filius uteri,
Accingantur senes et pueri
Ad laudem Virginis:
Qui poterat de nobis conqueri
Pro peccato parentum veteri,
Mediator voluit fieri
Dei et hominis.
The Son of a Virgin Mother has taken pity on the human race: then let old men and children be prompt to praise the Virgin. He who might well have spoken against us, for that ancient sin of our first parents, chose to become the mediator between God and man.
O Maria, dulce commercium
Intra tuum celasti gremium,
Quo salutis reis remedium indulgetur:
O vera spes et verum gaudium,
Fac post vitæ præsentis stadium,
Ut optatum in cœlis bravium
Nobis detur. Amen.
How sweet, O Mary, was the secret commerce carried on within thy bosom, whereby the remedy of salvation was mercifully given to the guilty! O our true joy and most assured hope, grant that, after the course of this present life, we may obtain in heaven the reward we so desire. Amen.
O all ye that pass by the way, attend, and see if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow! Is this, then, the first cry of that sweet babe whose coming brought such pure joy to our earth? Is the standard of suffering to be so soon unfurled over the cradle of such lovely innocence? Yet the heart of mother Church has not deceived her; this feast, coming at such a time, is ever the answer to that question of the expectant human race: What shall this child be?
The Savior to come is not only the reason of Mary’s existence, he is also her exemplar in all things. It is as his Mother that the Blessed Virgin came, and therefore as the Mother of sorrows; for the God, whose future birth was the very cause of her own birth, is to be in this world a Man of sorrows and acquainted with infirmity. To whom shall I compare thee? sings the prophet of lamentations: O Virgin … great as the sea is thy destruction. On the mountain of the Sacrifice, as mother she gave her Son, as Bride she offered herself together with him; by her sufferings both as Bride and as Mother, she was the co-redemptress of the human race. This teaching and these recollections were deeply engraved on our hearts on that other feast of our Lady’s dolors which immediately preceded Holy Week.
Christ dieth now no more: and Our Lady’s sufferings are over. Nevertheless the Passion of Christ is continued in his elect, in his Church, against which hell vents the rage it cannot exercise against himself. To this Passion of Christ’s mystical Body of which she is also a Mother, Mary still contributes her compassion; how often have her venerated images attested the fact, by miraculously shedding tears! This explains the Church’s departure from liturgical custom by celebrating two feasts, in different seasons, under one title.
On perusing the register of the apostolic decrees concerning sacred rites, the reader is astonished to find a long and unusual interruption lasting from March 20th 1809 to September 17th 1814, at which latter date is entered the decree instituting on this present Sunday a second Commemoration of Our Lady’s Dolors. 1809-1814, five sorrowful years, during which the government of Christendom was suspended; years of blood which beheld the Man-God agonizing once more in the person of his captive Vicar. But the Mother of Sorrows was still standing beneath the Cross, offering to God the Church’s sufferings; and when the trial was over, Pius VII, knowing well whence the mercy had come, dedicated this day to Mary as a fresh memorial of the day of Calvary.
Even in the seventeenth century, the Servites had the privilege of possessing this second feast, which they celebrated as a double of the 2nd Class, with a Vigil and an Octave. It is from them that the Church has borrowed the Office and Mass. This honor and privilege was due to the Order established by Our Lady to honor her sufferings and to spread devotion to them. Philip Benizi, heir to the seven holy Founders, propagated the flame kindled by them on the heights of Monte Senario; thanks to the zeal of his sons and successors, the devotion to the Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary, once their family property, now the treasure of the whole world.
The prophecy of the aged Simeon, the flight into Egypt, the loss of the divine Child in Jerusalem, the carrying of the Cross, the Crucifixion, the taking down from the Cross, and the burial of Jesus: these are the seven mysteries into which are grouped the well-nigh infinite sufferings which made Our Lady the Queen of martyrs, the first and loveliest rose in the garden of the Spouse. Let us take to heart the recommendation of the Book of Tobias, which the Church reads during this week in the Office of the Time: Thou shalt honor thy mother: for thou must be mindful what and how great perils she suffered in giving thee birth.
MASS
The daily Sacrifice, though surrounded with all the pomps of the Liturgy, is substantially the same as that of Calvary. But the only assistants at the foot of the Cross were, as our Introit points out, one single man, and a few women weeping around the Mother of sorrows. The Gospel will repeat this Introit, and even its verse which, contrary to custom, is not taken from the Psalms.
Introit
Stabant juxta Crucem Jesu Mater ejus, et soror Matris ejus Maria Cleophæ, et Salome, et Maria Magdalene.
There stood by the Cross of Jesus his Mother, and his Mother’s sister Mary of Cleophas, and Salome, and Mary Magdalene.
℣. Mulier, ecce filius tuus, dixit Jesus: ad discipulum autem: Ecce mater tua. Gloria Patri. Stabant.
℣. Woman, behold thy son, said Jesus; to the disciple however, Behold thy mother. Glory be. There stood.
The honoring of our Lady’s Dolors does not distract our thoughts from the one Victim of salvation. On the contrary, its immediate result, as the Collect shows, is to cause the Passion of our Savior to bear fruit in our souls.
Collect
Deus, in cujus passione, secundum Simeonis prophetiam, dulcissimam animam gloriosæ Virginis et Matris Mariæ doloris gladius pertransivit: concede propitius; ut qui dolores ejus venerando recolimus, passionis tuæ effectum felicem consequamur. Qui vivis.
O God, in whose Passion, according to the prophecy of Simeon, a sword of sorrow pierced the most sweet soul of the glorious Mary, Mother and Virgin: grant in thy mercy, that we who call to mind her sorrows with veneration, may obtain the happy effect of thy Passion. Who livest, &c.
Then is added the Collect of the occurring Sunday.
Epistle
Lesson from the Book of Judith. Ch. xiii.
The Lord hath blessed thee by his power, because by thee he hath brought our enemies to nought. Blessed art thou, O daughter, by the Lord the most high God, above all women upon the earth. Blessed be the Lord who made heaven and earth, who hath directed thee to the cutting off the head of the prince of our enemies. Because he hath so magnified thy name this day, that thy praise shall not depart out of the mouth of men who shall be mindful of the power of the Lord for ever, for that thou hast not spared thy life, by reason of the distress and tribulation of thy people, but hast prevented our ruin in the presence of our God.
Quote:Oh, the greatness of our Judith among all creatures! “God,” says the pious and profound Father Faber, “vouchsafed to select the very things about him which are most incommunicable, and in a most mysteriously real way communicate them to her. See how he had already mixed her up with the eternal designs of creation, making her almost a partial cause and partial model of it. Our Lady’s cooperation in the redemption of the world gives us a fresh view of her magnificence. Neither the Immaculate Conception nor the Assumption will give us a higher idea of Mary’s exaltation than the title of co-redemptress. Her dolors were not necessary for the resurrection of the world, but in the counsels of God they were inseparable from it. They belong to the integrity of the divine plan. Are not Mary’s mysteries Jesus’ mysteries, and his mysteries hers? The truth appears to be that all the mysteries of Jesus and Mary were in God’s designs as one mystery. Jesus himself was Mary’s sorrow, seven times repeated, aggravated sevenfold. During the hours of the Passion, the offering of Jesus and the offering of Mary were tied in one. They kept pace together; they were made of the same materials; they were perfumed with kindred fragrance; they were lighted with the same fire; they were offered with kindred dispositions. The two things were one simultaneous oblation, interwoven each moment through the thickly crowded mysteries of that dread time unto the Eternal, out of two sinless Hearts, that were the Hearts of Son and Mother, for the sins of a guilty world which fell on them contrary to their merits, but according to their own free will.”
Let us mingle our tears with Mary’s, in union with the sufferings of the great Victim. In proportionas we do this during life we shall rejoice in heaven with the Son and the Mother; if our Lady is now, as we sing in the Alleluia-Verse, Queen of heaven and mistress of the world, is there one among all the elect who can recall sufferings comparable to hers?
After the Gradual follows the Stabat Mater, the touching Complaint attributed to the Franciscan, Blessed Jacopone de Todi.
Gradual
Dolorosa, et lacrymabilis es Virgo Maria, stans juxta Crucem Domini Jesu Filii tui Redemptoris.
Thou art sorrowful and worthy of tears, O Virgin Mary, standing near the Cross of the Lord Jesus, thy Son, our Redeemer.
℣. Virgo Dei Genitrix, quem totus non capitat orbis, hoc crucis fert supplicium, auctor vitæ factus homo.
℣. O Virgin Mother of God, he whom the whole world doth not contain, beareth this punishment of the Cross, he the author of life being made man.
Alleluia, alleluia.
Alleluia, alleluia.
℣. Stabat sancta Maria, cœli Regina, et mundi Domina, juxta crucem Domini nostri Jesu Christi dolorosa.
℣. Holy Mary, the Queen of heaven, and mistress of the world, stood by the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, full of sadness.
Sequence
Stabat Mater dolorosa
iuxta Crucem lacrimosa,
dum pendebat Filius.
At the Cross her station keeping, stood the mournful Mother weeping, close to Jesus to the last.
Cuius animam gementem,
contristatam et dolentem
pertransivit gladius.
Through her heart, His sorrow sharing, all His bitter anguish bearing, now at length the sword has passed.
O quam tristis et afflicta
fuit illa benedicta,
mater Unigeniti!
O how sad and sore distressed was that Mother, highly blest, of the sole-begotten One.
Quæ mærebat et dolebat,
pia Mater, dum videbat
nati poenas inclyti.
Christ above in torment hangs, she beneath beholds the pangs of her dying glorious Son.
Quis est homo qui non fleret,
matrem Christi si videret in tanto supplicio?
Is there one who would not weep, whelmed in miseries so deep, Christ’s dear Mother to behold?
Quis non posset contristari
Christi Matrem contemplari
dolentem cum Filio?
Can the human heart refrain from partaking in her pain, in that Mother’s pain untold?
Pro peccatis suæ gentis
vidit Iesum in tormentis,
et flagellis subditum.
Bruised, derided, cursed, defiled, she beheld her tender Child All with scourges rent:
Vidit suum dulcem Natum
moriendo desolatum,
dum emisit spiritum.
For the sins of His own nation, saw Him hang in desolation, Till His spirit forth He sent.
Eia, Mater, fons amoris
me sentire vim doloris
fac, ut tecum lugeam.
O thou Mother! fount of love! Touch my spirit from above, make my heart with thine accord:
Fac, ut ardeat cor meum
in amando Christum Deum
ut sibi complaceam.
Make me feel as thou hast felt; make my soul to glow and melt with the love of Christ my Lord.
Sancta Mater, istud agas,
crucifixi fige plagas
cordi meo valide.
Holy Mother! pierce me through, in my heart each wound renew of my Savior crucified:
Tui Nati vulnerati,
tam dignati pro me pati,
poenas mecum divide.
Let me share with thee His pain, who for all my sins was slain, who for me in torments died.
Fac me tecum pie flere,
crucifixo condolere,
donec ego vixero.
Let me mingle tears with thee, mourning Him who mourned for me, all the days that I may live:
Iuxta Crucem tecum stare,
et me tibi sociare
in planctu desidero.
By the Cross with thee to stay, there with thee to weep and pray, is all I ask of thee to give.
Virgo virginum præclara,
mihi iam non sis amara,
fac me tecum plangere.
Virgin of all virgins blest!, Listen to my fond request: let me share thy grief divine;
Fac, ut portem Christi mortem,
passionis fac consortem,
et plagas recolere.
Let me, to my latest breath, in my body bear the death of that dying Son of thine.
Fac me plagis vulnerari,
fac me Cruce inebriari,
et cruore Filii.
Wounded with His every wound, steep my soul till it hath swooned, in His very Blood away;
Flammis ne urar succensus,
per te, Virgo, sim defensus
in die iudicii.
Be to me, O Virgin, nigh, lest in flames I burn and die, in His awful Judgment Day.
Christe, cum sit hinc exire,
da per Matrem me venire
ad palmam victoriæ.
Christ, when Thou shalt call me hence, by Thy Mother my defense, by Thy Cross my victory;
Quando corpus morietur,
fac, ut animæ donetur
paradisi gloria. Amen.
While my body here decays, may my soul Thy goodness praise, safe in paradise with Thee. Amen.
Gospel
Sequel of the holy Gospel according to St. John. Ch. xix.
At that time, there stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalen. When Jesus therefore had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he saith to his mother: Woman, behold thy son. After that, he saith to the disciple: Behold thy mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own.
Quote:Woman, behold thy son.—My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Such are the words of Jesus on the Cross in our Gospel. Has he, then, no longer a Father in heaven, a Mother on earth? Oh! mystery of justice, and still more of love! God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son for it, so far as to lay upon him, instead of upon sinful men, the curse our sins deserved, and our Lady too, in her sublime union with the Father, did not spare, but offered in like manner for us all, this same Son of her virginity. If on this head we belong to the Eternal Father, we belong henceforth to Mary also; each has bought us at a great price: the exchange of any only Son for sons of adoption.
It is at the foot of the Cross that our Lady truly became the Queen of mercy. At the foot of the Altar, where the renewal of the great Sacrifice is preparing, let us commend ourselves to her omnipotent influence over the Heart of her divine Son.
Offertory
Recordare, Virgo Mater Dei, dum steteris in conspectu Domini, ut loquaris pro nobis bona, et ut avertat indignationem suam a nobis.
Be mindful, O Virgin Mother of God, when thou standest in the sight of the Lord, to speak good things for us, that he may turn away his anger from us.
How many holy souls, in the course of ages, have come to keep faithful company with the Mother of sorrows! Their intercession united with Mary’s is a strength to the Church; and we hope to obtain thereby the effect of the merits of our Savior’s death.
Secret
Offerimus tibi preces et hostias, Domine Jesu Christe, humiliter supplicantes: ut, qui Transfixionem dulcissimi spiritus beatæ Mariæ Matris tuæ precibus recensemus; suo, suorumque sub Cruce sanctorum consortium, multiplicato piisimo interventu, meritis mortis tuæ, meritum cum beatis habeamus. Qui vivis.
We offer to thee prayers and sacrifices, O Lord Jesus Christ, humbly beseeching, that we who pray in remembrance of the transfixion of the most sweet soul of blessed Mary thy Mother, by the multiplied and pious intercession of her and her holy companions under the cross, may have a reward with the blessed, by the merits of thy death. Who livest.
A commemoration is then made of the Sunday.
The Preface is the same as on the 8th of September, except that for in Nativitate, on the Navitity is substituted in Transfixione, on the Transfixion of the Blessed Mary ever Virgin.
So great, it has been said (Bernardin of Siena, Pro festivit. V.M. Sermo xiii. De exaltatione B.V. in gloria, art ii. c. 2), was Mary’s grief on Calvary, that had it been divided among all creatures capable of suffering, it would have caused them all to die instantly. It was our Lady’s wonderful peace, maintained by perfect acquiescence and the total abandoment of her whole being to God, that alone was able to sustain in her the life which the Holy Ghost was preserving for the Church’s sake. May our participation in the sacred mysteries give us that peace of God which passeth all understanding and which keepeth minds and hearts in Christ Jesus!
Communion
Felices sensus beatæ Mariæ Virginis, qui sine morte meruerunt martyrii palmam sub Cruce Domini.
Happy senses of the blessed Virgin Mary, which without dying deserved the palm of martyrdom beneath the cross of our Lord.
As the Postcommunion points out, the loving memory of our Mother’s sorrows will powerfully assist us to find all good things in the holy Sacrifice of the Altar.
Postcommunion
Sacrificia, quæ sumpsimus, Domine Jesu Christe, Transfixionem Matris tuæ et Virginis devote celebrantes, nobis impetrent apud clementiam tuam omnis boni salutaris effectum. Qui vivis.
O Lord Jesus Christ, may the sacrifices of which we have parteken, in the devout celebration of the transfixion of thy Virgin Mother, obtain for us of thy clemency the effect of every salutary good. Who livest, &c.
The Postcommunion of the occurring Sunday is added, and the Gospel of the same is read at the end of the Mass instead of the usual passage from St. John.
|
|
|
|
| From the archives: Pope Francis calls for new ‘supranational’ authorities |
|
Posted by: Stone - 09-14-2021, 09:52 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
- Replies (1)
|
|
Pope Francis calls for new ‘supranational’ authorities to enforce UN goals
ROME, May 2, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis made a strong new push for globalism on Thursday, calling for a supranational, legally constituted body to enforce United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and implement “climate change” policies.
Speaking to members of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, the Pope said: “When a supranational common good is clearly identified, there is need for a special legally constituted authority capable of facilitating its implementation.”
“Think of the great contemporary challenges of climate change, new slavery and peace,” he told members of the Pontifical Academy, who are meeting this week at the Vatican for a plenary session themed: “Nation, State, Nation-State.”
Featured speakers at the May 1-3 plenary include German Cardinal Walter Kasper, who spoke on: “Peace Stemming from Justice. Theological Reflections Between Men, Communities and Nations”; Archbishop Roland Minnerath of Dijon, France, who delivered the opening talk on day two, themed: “Nation, State, Nation-State and the Doctrine of the Catholic Church”; and German climatologist and founding director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, who addressed the Pontifical Academy on “The State of the World.”
In his address to the academy, the Pope said that while “the principle of subsidiarity” requires that “individual nations must be given the power to operate as far as they can reach,” nonetheless “groups of neighboring nations — as is already the case — can strengthen their cooperation by attributing the exercise of certain functions and services to intergovernmental institutions that manage their common interests.”
The thrust of the Pope’s remarks, however, focused on growing trends toward nationalism which he said threatens migrants, the “universal common good” and the power of the United Nations and other transnational bodies to implement the Sustainable Development Goal agenda.
The Church “has always exhorted men to love their own people and homeland,” he said. “At the same time,” he added, “the Church has warned persons, peoples and governments about deviations from this attachment when it is about excluding and hating others, when it becomes conflictual nationalism that builds walls, indeed even racism or anti-Semitism.”
“The Church observes with concern the re-emergence, almost everywhere in the world, of aggressive currents towards foreigners, especially immigrants, as well as that growing nationalism which neglects the common good,” Pope Francis continued.
“There is a risk of compromising already established forms of international cooperation, undermining the aims of international organizations as a space for dialogue and meeting for all countries on a level of mutual respect, and hindering the achievement of the sustainable development goals unanimously approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 25 September 2015,” he told members of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.
SDGs: eliminating poverty or children?
Many are concerned that some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while billed as aimed at eliminating poverty, are really about eliminating children. “Reproductive health services” for example, which are referred to in the SDGs, are often a euphemism frequently employed to mean abortion in UN debates.
As Steven Mosher, Population Research Institute, explains:
Developing nations who adopt the SDGs will be pressured to legalize abortion, even though the word abortion never appears in the document. They will be told, falsely, that there is an “international consensus” that reproductive rights includes a right to abortion. They will be instructed that laws protecting the unborn violate this consensus and must be replaced with new laws permitting abortion on demand. And they will be threatened with the withholding of international aid unless they comply.
Pope Francis did give some recognition to concerns about “ideological colonization” of socially and morally conservative countries in the developing world in his remarks:
Multilateral bodies were created in the hope of being able to replace the logic of revenge, domination, oppression and conflict with that of dialogue, mediation, compromise, harmony and the awareness of belonging to the same humanity in the common home. Of course, these bodies must ensure that States are effectively represented, with equal rights and duties, in order to avoid the growing hegemony of powers and interest groups that impose their own visions and ideas, as well as new forms of ideological colonization, often disregarding the identity, customs and traditions, dignity and sensitivity of the peoples concerned. The emergence of such tendencies is weakening the multilateral system, with the result of a lack of credibility in international politics and a progressive marginalization of the most vulnerable members of the family of nations.
Pope Benedict XVI, affirming his predecessor John XIII, also called in Caritas et Veritate for a “true world political authority” to “manage the global economy,” “guarantee the protection of the environment,” “regulate migration,” and “bring about integral and timely disarmament” and work for the “common good.”
In the same encyclical, however, Benedict XVI denounced “practices of demographic control, on the part of governments that often promote contraception and even go so far as to impose abortion.” He also openly condemned ecomonic bodies for their lending policies which tie aid to “family planning,” writing: “There is reason to suspect that development aid is sometimes linked to specific health-care policies which de facto involve the imposition of strong birth control measures.”
...
The issues raised by Pope Francis’s remarks to Pontifical Academy of Sciences reflect the controversy that has raged throughout his pontificate as to whether he is substituting secular rationalistic goals for the supernatural ideals of the Church.
Here below is a LifeSite translation of Pope Francis’s address to members of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, which was delivered in Italian.
***
Dear brothers and sisters,
I welcome you and thank your President, Prof. Stefano Zamagni, for his kind words and for accepting to preside over the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. Also this year you have chosen to discuss an issue of permanent relevance. Unfortunately, we have before our eyes situations in which some nation-states implement their relations in a spirit more of opposition than of cooperation. Moreover, it must be noted that the borders of States do not always coincide with the demarcations of homogeneous populations and that many tensions come from an excessive claim to sovereignty by States, often precisely in areas where they are no longer able to act effectively to protect the common good.
In both the Encyclical Laudato si’ and in the Address to the Members of the Diplomatic Corps this year, I drew attention to the global challenges facing humanity, such as integral development, peace, care of our common home, climate change, poverty, war, migration, human trafficking, organ trafficking, the protection of the common good, and new forms of slavery.
St. Thomas has a beautiful notion of what a people is: “The Seine river is not ‘this particular river’ because of ‘this flowing water,’ but because of ‘this source’ and ‘this bed,’ and hence is always called the same river, although there may be other water flowing down it; likewise a people is the same, not because of a sameness of soul or of men, but because of the same dwelling place, or rather because of the same laws and the same manner of living, as Aristotle says in book III of the Politica” (On spiritual creatures, a. 9, ad 10).
The Church has always exhorted men to love their own people and homeland, and to respect the treasure of various cultural expressions, customs and traditions and right ways of living rooted in peoples. At the same time, the Church has warned persons, peoples and governments about deviations from this attachment when it is about excluding and hating others, when it becomes conflictual nationalism that builds walls, indeed even racism or anti-Semitism. The Church observes with concern the re-emergence, almost everywhere in the world, of aggressive currents towards foreigners, especially immigrants, as well as that growing nationalism which neglects the common good. There is a risk of compromising already established forms of international cooperation, undermining the aims of international organizations as a space for dialogue and meeting for all countries on a level of mutual respect, and hindering the achievement of the sustainable development goals unanimously approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 25 September 2015.
It is a common doctrine that the State is at the service of the person and of the natural groupings of people such as the family, the cultural group, the nation as an expression of the will and profound customs of a people, the common good and peace. All too often, however, States are subservient to the interests of a dominant group, mostly for reasons of economic profit, which oppresses, among others, the ethnic, linguistic or religious minorities who are in their territory.
From this perspective, for example, the way in which a nation welcomes migrants reveals its vision of human dignity and its relationship with humanity. Every human person is a member of humanity and has the same dignity. When a person or a family is forced to leave their own land, they must be welcomed with humanity. I have said many times that our obligations to migrants are articulated in four verbs: to welcome, to protect, to promote and to integrate. The migrant is not a threat to the culture, customs and values of the host nation. He too has a duty, to integrate into the nation who receives him. To integrate does not mean to assimilate, but to share the kind of life of his new homeland, even though he himself as a person the bearer of his own biographical story. In this way, the migrant can present himself and be recognized as an opportunity to enrich the people who integrate him. It is the task of public authority to protect migrants and to regulate migratory flows with the virtue of prudence, as well as to promote reception so that local populations are formed and encouraged to participate consciously in the integration process of the migrants being received.
The issue of migration, which is a permanent feature of human history, also enlivens reflection on the nature of the Nation-State. All nations are the result of the integration of successive waves of people or groups of migrants and tend to be images of the diversity of humanity while being united by common values, cultural resources and healthy customs. A state that arouses the nationalistic feelings of its own people against other nations or groups of people would fail in its mission. We know from history where such deviations lead.
The Nation-State cannot be considered as an absolute, as an island in relation to its surroundings. In the current situation of globalization not only of economy but also of technological and cultural exchanges, the Nation-State is no longer able to procure by itself the common good for its population. The common good has become global and nations must associate for their own benefit. When a supranational common good is clearly identified, there is need for a special legally constituted authority capable of facilitating its implementation. Think of the great contemporary challenges of climate change, new slavery and peace.
While, according to the principle of subsidiarity, individual nations must be given the power to operate as far as they can reach, on the other hand, groups of neighboring nations — as is already the case — can strengthen their cooperation by attributing the exercise of certain functions and services to intergovernmental institutions that manage their common interests.It is to be hoped that, for example, we will not lose in Europe the awareness of the benefits brought by this path of rapprochement and harmony between peoples undertaken after the Second World War. In Latin America, on the other hand, Simón Bolivar urged the leaders of his time to forge the dream of a Great Homeland that knows how to welcome, respect, embrace and develop the riches of every people.
This cooperative vision among nations can move history by relaunching multilateralism, which is opposed both to new nationalistic pressures and to hegemonic politics.
Humanity would thus avoid the threat of recourse to armed conflicts every time a dispute arises between Nation-States, as well as evading the danger of economic and ideological colonization of superpowers, avoiding the tyranny of the strongest over the weakest, paying attention to the global dimension without losing sight of the local, national and regional dimensions. Faced with the plan of globalization imagined as “spherical,” which levels differences and suffocates localization, it is easy for both nationalism and hegemonic imperialism to re-emerge. In order for globalization to be of benefit to all, one must think of implementing a “multifaceted” form of globalization, supporting a healthy struggle for mutual recognition between the collective identity of each people and nation and globalization itself, according to the principle that the whole comes before the parts, so as to arrive at a general state of peace and harmony.
Multilateral bodies were created in the hope of being able to replace the logic of revenge, domination, oppression and conflict with that of dialogue, mediation, compromise, harmony and the awareness of belonging to the same humanity in the common home. Of course, these bodies must ensure that States are effectively represented, with equal rights and duties, in order to avoid the growing hegemony of powers and interest groups that impose their own visions and ideas, as well as new forms of ideological colonization, often disregarding the identity, customs and traditions, dignity and sensitivity of the peoples concerned. The emergence of such tendencies is weakening the multilateral system, with the result of a lack of credibility in international politics and a progressive marginalization of the most vulnerable members of the family of nations.
I encourage you to persevere in your search for processes to overcome what divides nations and to propose new paths of cooperation, especially with regard to the new challenges of climate change and new slavery, as well as the excellent social good that is peace. Unfortunately, today the season of multilateral nuclear disarmament seems outdated and no longer stirs the political conscience of nations which possess atomic weapons. On the contrary, a new season of disturbing nuclear confrontation seems to be opening, because it cancels the progress of the recent past and multiplies the risk of war, also due to the possible malfunctioning of very advanced technologies that are always subject to natural and human imponderables. If, now, offensive and defensive nuclear weapons are placed not only on earth but also in space, the so-called new technological frontier will have raised and not lowered the danger of a nuclear holocaust.
The State is therefore called upon to assume greater responsibility. While maintaining the characteristics of independence and sovereignty and continuing to pursue the good of its people, today its task is to participate in the construction of the common good of humanity, a necessary and essential element for world equilibrium. This universal common good, in turn, must acquire greater legal value at international level. I am certainly not thinking of a universalism or a generic internationalism that overlooks the identity of individual peoples: this, in fact, must always be valued as a unique and indispensable contribution to the greatest harmonious design.
Dear friends, as inhabitants of our time, Christians and academics of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, I ask you to collaborate with me in spreading this awareness of renewed international solidarity in the respect for human dignity, the common good, respect for the planet and the supreme good of peace.
I bless all of you, I bless your work and your initiatives. I accompany you with my prayer, and you too, please, do not forget to pray for me. Thank you!
|
|
|
|
|
![[Image: santi-cornelio-e-cipriano1.jpg?resize=537%2C1024&ssl=1]](https://i0.wp.com/sensusfidelium.us/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/santi-cornelio-e-cipriano1.jpg?resize=537%2C1024&ssl=1)
![[Image: ageis2.png?w=800]](https://images.ctfassets.net/syq3snmxclc9/3loU5ZGJ5ct5krkICs81fa/44749f2fbefe6b84e66311345dbb2621/ageis2.png?w=800)
![[Image: ageis4.png?w=800]](https://images.ctfassets.net/syq3snmxclc9/a2U2rSYVb4INHnBMlndnY/5439e95025cac96e0a403d36fe97ef0a/ageis4.png?w=800)
![[Image: 08b953302771cc582751c63d91087619.jpg?w=608&ssl=1]](https://i1.wp.com/sensusfidelium.us/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/08b953302771cc582751c63d91087619.jpg?w=608&ssl=1)
![[Image: 60f2a75456fb6bce6d6e610092790857-1.jpg?w=564&ssl=1]](https://i0.wp.com/sensusfidelium.us/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/60f2a75456fb6bce6d6e610092790857-1.jpg?w=564&ssl=1)
