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| Pfizer COVID jab contracts: ‘There’s good reason Pfizer fought to hide the details’ |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-01-2021, 08:47 AM - Forum: COVID Vaccines
- Replies (1)
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Information security expert reveals Pfizer COVID jab contracts: ‘There’s good reason Pfizer fought to hide the details’
The revealed contract of COVID jab manufacturer Pfizer, was described as being 'worse than it seems.'
![[Image: pfizer_coronavirus_vaccine-810x500.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/pfizer_coronavirus_vaccine-810x500.jpg)
July 30, 2021 (America’s Frontline Doctors - please original article for screenshots of Pfizer agreement) – Unredacted contracts for the experimental biological agent known as the “COVID-19 vaccine” between the Pfizer corporation and various governments continue to be revealed.
Information security expert Ehden Biber told America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS) Frontline News that the first document to recently emerge was discovered by Albanian newspaper Gogo.al. Biber then was able to locate the digitally-signed Brazilian contract, and at least two others, one with the European Commission, and the other with the Dominican Republic.
AFLDS Chief Science Officer Dr. Michael Yeadon responded to the revelations after perusing the Albania contract, saying it “looks genuine.” He continued: “I know the basic anatomy of these agreements and nothing is missing that I’d expect to be present, and I’ve seen no clues that suggests it’s fake.”
Yeadon noted what he found “the most stunning revelation,” citing the clause that stipulates “if there are any laws or regulations in your country under which Pfizer could be prosecuted, you agree to CHANGE THE LAW OR REGULATION to close that off.” (emphasis his)
In a Twitter thread that has since been removed except the first tweet in the thread, Biber explained the significance of the revealed agreements: “Because the cost of developing contracts is very high and time consuming (legal review cycles), Pfizer, like all corporations, develop a standardized agreement template and use these agreements with relatively minor adjustments in different countries.
“These agreements are confidential, but luckily one country did not protect the contract document well enough, so I managed to get a hold of a copy.
“As you are about to see, there is a good reason why Pfizer was fighting to hide the details of these contracts.”
"First,” Biber continues, “let’s talk about the product: The agreement not only covers manufacturing of vaccines for COVID-19 and its mutations, but also for ‘any device, technology, or product used in the administration of or to enhance the use or effect of, such vaccine’.”
“If you were wondering why Ivermectin was suppressed, it is because the agreement that countries had with Pfizer does not allow them to escape their contract, which states that even if a drug will be found to treat COVID-19, the contract cannot be voided.”
“Supplying the product: ‘Pfizer shall have no liability for any failure to deliver doses in accordance with any estimated delivery dates… nor shall any such failure give Purchaser any right to cancel orders for any quantities of Product’.”
“‘Pfizer shall decide on necessary adjustments to the number of Contracted Doses and Delivery Schedule due to the Purchaser … based on principles to be determined by Pfizer … Purchaser shall be deemed to agree to any revision’.”
“Just to make it clear: ‘Purchaser hereby waives all rights and remedies that it may have at Law, in equity or otherwise, arising from or relating to:.. any failure by Pfizer to deliver the Contracted Doses in accordance with the Delivery Schedule’.”
“Once again: ‘Under no circumstances will Pfizer be subject to or liable for any late delivery penalties’,” noted Biber.
“You can’t return the product, no matter what,” he observed: “‘Pfizer will not, in any circumstances, accept any returns of Product (or any dose)…no Product returns may take place under any circumstances’.”
“Now for the BIG SECRET: $12 per dosage for about 250K units. Funny that this is the price for a small amount of dosages when Pfizer was charging the U.S. $19.50 per dose,” continued Biber.
“U.S. taxpayers got screwed by Pfizer, probably also Israel,” he suggested.
“About payment, the country has no right ‘to withhold, offset, recoup or debit any amounts owed to Pfizer, whether under this Agreement or otherwise, against any other amount owed (or to become due and owing) to it by Pfizer or a Pfizer Affiliate’.”
“Damaged goods: THE ONLY WAY to get a recall is if you can prove cGMP fault,” explained Biber.
“‘For clarity, Purchaser shall not be entitled to reject any Product based on service complaints unless a Product does not materially conform to Specifications or cGMP’.”
“This agreement is above any local law of the state..."
“Long-term effects and efficacy: ‘Purchaser acknowledges…the long-term effects and efficacy of the Vaccine are not currently known and that there may be adverse effects of the Vaccine that are not currently known’.”
“Termination for cause: There are clauses about termination possibility, but in fact, as you saw so far, the buyer has almost nothing that can be considered a material breach, while Pfizer can easily do so if they don’t get their money or if they deem so,” added Biber.
“You must pay Pfizer for the dosages you ordered, no matter how much you consumed, regardless if Pfizer got it approved (it was a pre-EU approval) or if they delivered the Contracted Doses in accordance with any estimated delivery dates set forth herein,” he explained.
“‘Purchaser hereby agrees to indemnify, DEFEND AND HOLD HARMLESS Pfizer, BioNTech (and) their Affiliates…from and against any and all suits, claims, actions, demands, losses, damages, liabilities, settlements, penalties, fines, costs and expenses…’”
“The state must defend Pfizer,” noted Biber: “ ‘(Pfizer) shall notify Purchaser of Losses for which it is seeking indemnification… Upon such notification, Purchaser shall promptly assume conduct and control of the defense of such Indemnified Claims on behalf of (Pfizer)’ ”
“However, ‘Pfizer shall have the right to assume control of such defense… and Purchaser shall pay all Losses, including, without limitation, the reasonable attorneys’ fees and other expenses incurred’.”
“Pfizer is making sure the country will pay for everything: ‘Costs and expenses, including… fees and disbursements of counsel, incurred by the Indemnitee(s) in connection with any Indemnified Claim shall be reimbursed on a quarterly basis by Purchaser’ ”
“Liability: ‘This shall not include, nor constitute, product liability insurance to cover any third party/patients claims and such general liability insurance shall be without prejudice to Purchaser’s indemnification obligation as set out in this Agreement’.”
“There is no limit to the liability of the country in case of ‘the indemnity given by it under Section 8 (Indemnification)’ or if the Purchaser failed to pay Pfizer...'
“The Purchaser waives any right for immunity, it give up any law that might cap the obligation to pay damages to Pfizer. Comment: The court in New York has the capacity to hold international assets of a country if the country failed the contract.”
As for the “Condition to supply,” Biber noted: “Purchaser must provide Pfizer protection from liability for claims and all Losses, must implement it via statutory or regulatory requirements, and the sufficiency of such efforts shall be in Pfizer’s sole discretion.”
“Confidentiality, part 1: ‘Each Recipient shall safeguard the confidential and proprietary nature of the Disclosing Party’s Confidential Information with at least the same degree of care as it holds its own confidential or proprietary information of like kind’”
“Confidentiality, part 2: ‘Recipient shall disclose Confidential Information only to such of its Representatives who have a need to know such Confidential Information to fulfill its obligations under this Agreement’”
“Confidentiality, part 3: The contract must be kept confidential for 10 years. Why 30 years in Israel?” questioned Biber.
“‘The provisions of this Section 10 (Confidential Information) shall survive the termination or expiration of the this Agreement for a period of ten (10) years’”
“Arbitration and governing laws: Arbitration must be done in New York, in according to Rules of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce, governed by the laws of the State of New York, USA..."
“If a specific ministry was assigned to safeguard the contract, they must continue to so: ‘…attempted assignment of rights or delegation or subcontracting of duties without the required prior written consent of the other Parties shall be void and ineffective’.”
Biber explained how he came across the contract and thus revelaed it to the world. “I first stumbled upon a document, called KONTRATEN-E-PLOTE which translates to ‘read the full contract’. Only later I discovered it was Albanian website that has published it on January 2021. They deserve ALL the credit for the leakage of the document, and journalists around the world deserves the shame for not discovering and reporting it.”
“Countries might claim they negotiated a better deal,” he added. “But based on the evidence we have received from South America it seems this contract is real, and that it’s similar to what was used worldwide.”
“‘One Health Ministry official, Yaron Niv, said in a separate Kan interview that each dose cost Israel $62.’ Netanyahu is indeed a magician – he got Israel to pay 5 times more than Albania and made people worship him for this BAD deal.”
“This contract is actually worse than it seems,” observed Biber.
“Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) is regulated by the FDA. cGMP will tell you NOTHING about mRNA, because we never had cGMP of mRNA vaccine, so you cannot prove cGMP malpractice.”
“Addendum: Former president of Pfizer in Brazil and CEO for Latin America testified to the Brazilian committee that Pfizer demanded the same condition for vaccine purchase from all countries..."
Quote:“Former president of Pfizer in Brazil and CEO for Latin America Carlos Murillo today said in testimony to the COVID CPI that the clauses proposed by the pharmaceutical company for the offer of vaccines to Brazil are not ‘preeminent’, as stated by the former minister of Eduardo Pazuello Health.
“According to Murillo, Pfizer demanded from all countries the same conditions for the purchase of vaccines against COVID-19. In addition, he said that claims that the drug maker would have demanded state assets such as embassies and military bases as collateral are not correct. ‘It’s distorted information,’ he declared.”
Biber concluded: “To those think it is a fake: My university law professor said laws are like computer code. They use legal functions, and variables, and processes. I worked in Big Pharma, I reviewed many contracts in my career, and this document seems to me as real as can be.”
“I wrote this on the 13th of July: ‘Israel has turned into a pharmaceutical Banana Republic, where the priorities of a multinational supersedes the priorities of its citizens. It is no longer the Jewish motherland, it is Pfizerland.”
Reprinted with permission from America’s Frontline Doctors
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| Catholic health care giant Ascension to mandate coronavirus vaccines for employees |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-01-2021, 08:25 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Spiritual]
- Replies (1)
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Catholic health care giant Ascension to mandate coronavirus vaccines for employees
CNA | Jul 29, 2021
The Catholic health care network Ascension will mandate coronavirus vaccination for its employees, physicians, volunteers, and vendors. It cited a need for more action to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic and promised some exemptions to the mandate for people with health problems or religious exemptions.
“Like many health systems across the country, including in many of our markets, we are moving to require our associates to be vaccinated against COVID-19,” Ascension said July 27.
“Ascension conducted a thorough moral and ethical analysis as part of the decision-making process,” it added. “As a healthcare provider and as a Catholic ministry, ensuring we have a culture of safety for our associates, patients and communities is foundational to our work.”
Tens of thousands of its employees have already been vaccinated, said Ascension, which added: “But we must do more to overcome this pandemic as we provide safe environments for those we serve.”
The mandate applies to all employees regardless of whether they provide direct patient care or whether they work remotely. It also applies to employees of subsidiaries and partners; physicians and advanced practiced providers, including those who are independent; and volunteers and vendors who enter Ascension facilities.
“Together, we will put this pandemic behind us so that we can continue to focus on meeting the needs of those who come to us for care,” Ascension said.
The health network aims to fulfil this mandate by Nov. 12, aligned with its annual influenza vaccination requirement. There will be an exemption process similar to that used for its influenza vaccine process for those unable to be vaccinated because of a medical condition or a strongly held religious belief. Ascension said it is implementing the mandate in line with collective bargaining agreements.
According to the Alabama-based NBC15 News, an email sent to Ascension employees this week said fewer than 50% of its employees in Florida and the Gulf Coast are vaccinated.
Some employees have objected that the mandate violates their medical freedom and personal choice.
According to Ascension’s website, as of 2020 it has over 160,000 associates, 40,000 aligned health care providers and 9,000 employed providers. It has more than 2,600 health care facilities in 19 states and the District of Columbia, including 145 hospitals and over 40 senior care facilities.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has addressed concerns about the use of vaccines with a remote connection to abortion. The use of these vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process is acceptable “when ethically irreproachable Covid-19 vaccines are not available,” it said in a December 2020 note.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in a March 2 statement, said that the mRNA vaccines available from Pfizer and Moderna have “the least connection to abortion-derived cell lines should be chosen” and should be preferred to the vaccine from Johnson & Johnson.
In a July 2 statement, the National Catholic Bioethics Center discussed vaccine mandates. Any mandates should provide “robust, transparent, and readily accessible exemptions for medical, religious, and conscience reasons.” This safeguards the rights of conscience, establishes trust, and avoids “undue pressure,” the bioethics center said. Mandates can exert severe pressure if employment is threatened, and the current vaccines are approved only under an emergency use authorization.
“Recognizing the importance of public health, institutions that grant an exemption may require that recipients restrict their interpersonal interactions, but these restrictions should be the least burdensome possible,” the statement continued.
The National Catholic Bioethics Center said there is “no universal moral obligation” to accept or reject vaccines.
“Catholic institutions, in particular, should respect the decisions of people to decline use of vaccines dependent on abortion-derived cell lines,” said the center. “This is especially relevant when there are other means of mitigating risk.”
The novel coronavirus has killed over 612,000 people and hospitalized many more in the U.S. While the arrival of vaccines has significantly reduced the spread of the disease, there are concern that failures to vaccinate and the arrival of new viral variants could still cause significant harm.
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Updated: Catholics ask Cardinal Gregory to reconsider cancelation of Tridentine Mass at National Shrine
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A June survey from the Public Religion Research Institute, published July 27, reported that about 80% of Catholics would accept a coronavirus vaccine. Hispanic Catholics’ vaccine acceptance has particularly increased in recent months.
About 67% of Americans told the survey they had received at least one dose of the vaccine and another 4% said they aimed to get vaccinated as soon as possible. Overall, under 15% of Americans are hesitant. Concerns about possible long-term effects of vaccines appear to be decreasing.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association recommend vaccine mandates for all employees in health care and long-term care, the Detroit Free Press reports. California and New York have also required government workers to vaccinate or submit to regular testing.
President Joe Biden on Thursday announced a similar mandate for all civilian federal workers.
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| Fr. Barthe: Italian Bishops and Cardinals were the origin and moving force behind TC |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-01-2021, 08:21 AM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism
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Italian Bishops and Cardinals were the origin and moving force behind Traditionis Custodes (an Interview with Fr. Claude Barthe)
Rorate Caeli | July 30, 2021
Fr. Claude Barthe is a seasoned veteran of the pre-Summorum "liturgical wars", now rekindled by Francis in his edict "Traditionis custodes". Living in Paris, Fr. Barthe was also the main chaplain for the Summorum Pontificum pilgrimages that took thousands of Traditional Catholics to pray and attend the Holy Mass in the Traditional Roman Rite in Saint Peter's Basilica during the past decade.
Fr. Barthe knows, therefore, all involved with the decision that led to the papal edict against the Traditional Mass. As he reveals (corroborated by several sources), the Italian bishops, and a couple of Italian cardinals in the Curia, were at the origin and the moving force behind this document.
Let us pray.
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Interview with Fr. Claude Barthe
“Traditionis custodes: A New Liturgical War”
With the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes published on July 16, Pope Francis "unravels" his predecessor Benedict XVI’s motu proprio Summorum Pontificum of July 7, 2007 by drastically limiting the celebration of the traditional Mass.
Father, rumors about this motu proprio, which practically cancels Benedict XVI’s motu proprio of July 7, 2007, have been floating around for some time. Did you expect it to be published so soon, on July 16?
None of us were quite sure. There had been various rumors. In Rome there was talk of an August publication, while others warned of an imminent publication. The latter version turned out to be true. The Secretariat of State, which led all this, was extremely discreet, it must be admitted.
Recent events seemed to point towards the possibility of an appeasement - such as the words of Cardinal Gambetti, archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica, who appealed to Summorum Pontificum in a recent interview on Vatican News. Were these hopes unfounded?
I don't know what Cardinal Gambetti did or said to the Pope, but it is certain that requests were made to postpone this document so as not to start a new liturgical war in the Church. Notably, some say that Cardinal Ladaria, president of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, held it back as long as he could, as did others. In the end, the decision was made by the Pope and by those who lobbied him to take it, especially the Secretary of State, Cardinal Parolin, the substitute, Cardinal Peña Parra, Cardinal Versaldi, and others who were involved, that is, who participated in these inter-dicastery meetings (meetings between the prefects of the congregations concerned: Divine Worship, Clergy, Bishops, and the Secretariat of State) and who have been working on this document for a long time.
How did the supporters of Francis' motu proprio win through?
It was enough to convince the Pope! He has the power to go against anyone... In this case, the major lobby group in the Italian bishops' conference was set against Summorum Pontificum, mainly because in Italy, rather later than in France, young priests were beginning to celebrate the traditional Mass and to adopt more traditional ideas. They noticed a "traditionalization" of the seminaries, which worried them greatly. In the Curia as well, people like Cardinal Parolin, Cardinal Stella in the Congregation for Clergy, etc., were also very concerned.
What are their arguments for questioning Benedict XVI’s document?
They are laid out clearly in the accompanying letter. They can also be found on the blog of Andrea Grillo, a lay professor of liturgy at St. Anselm's who has been extremely hostile to Summorum Pontificum. His idea, taken up by the Pope and the crafters of the recent motu proprio, is that the traditional Mass represents a state of doctrine prior to Vatican II while the new Mass represents the doctrine of Vatican II - something we all already knew. Therefore, it was no longer necessary for the traditional Mass to be a right, but only a tolerance, and even then a tolerance only granted to faithful and priests to help them gradually transition to the new Mass.
So the main reason is doctrinal?
Yes, and it is very important to say this and to be aware of it because, paradoxically, this is all very providential. It is of course very painful. It will hinder the diffusion of the traditional Mass. It will start new persecutions. But, on the other hand, it puts the finger on what hurts, namely the doctrinal status of Vatican II, which has never been settled.
How does this motu proprio affect the Ecclesia Dei communities - if we can still call them that?
It will affect them. They are also in the crosshairs, that's for sure. The document says it clearly, the Pope's letter indicates it in a cynical way. It is a question of destroying the traditional celebration of the Mass by ensuring there will be no more priests to celebrate it. These communities are particularly targeted because they are "factories" for such priests, as is the Society of St. Pius X, which was alone at the beginning. Henceforth, these institutes are no longer under the jurisdiction of Ecclesia Dei, which no longer exists, nor under the Congregation of the Faith, which is relatively protective, but under the jurisdiction of the Congregation for Religious. They’ve been reduced from their status of pontifical right. The Congregation for Religious, presided by Cardinal Braz de Aviz, is very much aligned with Francis and is going to get work to put things in order. For example, they will make canonical visits to the seminaries to verify that the teaching given there is in conformity with Vatican II, and to ensure they study and celebrate the new liturgy there. In short: the goal will be to discourage vocations. When we object: "But you are going to cause these institutes’ vocations to dry up", they answer, “But we don't need these people, they are useless." (That was the actual response of a certain person I shall not name!).
So for them, the good of souls is of little importance?
In fact, yes. For them, the good of souls is Vatican II. They prefer not to have priests than to have those they think are bad priests. It's appalling - even diabolical. It has to be said: this pontificate is attacking every place where there is priestly renewal. The Franciscans of the Immaculate was one example, but there are many others.
In fact, Benedict XVI’s motu proprio was never fully applied, but it did permit the application of John Paul II’s 1988 motu proprio. With Francis, are we now returning to the situation of the 1970s, the period right after the Council?
We have forgotten how terrible those times were to live through. It is different in the sense that 50 years have passed and the persecutors are much less strong than they were at that time. The conciliar Church is very sick, in some places it is dying, like in many French dioceses. It has no more troops, especially no more priests.
For example, are we going back to the atrocious situation of the 1970s, when requests for a traditional funeral mass were systematically denied?
Theoretically, yes. The last motu proprio does not speak of this, but it speaks of things that are permitted, and this is not one of them. I shall celebrate a traditional funeral in Provence in a few days. Theoretically I could be forbidden. For a wedding planned for September, it's the same thing.
Even if you ask permission?
We ask permission for group Masses. In general, it is better not to ask for clarification, and just to do it...
What will become of the authorization granted by Francis himself to the priests of the Society of St. Pius X to celebrate marriages and funerals in parishes? Isn't there a contradiction there?
That hasn’t changed! Yes, there is a contradiction there... But will they still have the right to celebrate publicly in a parish? I repeat: it is better not to dig too deep for the moment. Each should interpret himself or leave it to the bishop to interpret, rather than getting into details.
What do you think the bishops' reactions will be? I am thinking of the Archbishop of Ferrara, not at all a conservative, who erected a personal parish for the extraordinary form 15 days before the Pope announced his document. Do you expect this kind of reaction?
The case of Ferrara is very interesting in many ways. It shows this "left-wing" bishop’s independence from Pope Francis. In Italy, and in the Curia, people are distancing themselves from the pontiff. They feel that he is at the end of his career and are thinking about the future. They find the present government chaotic, and they want something more serious, and more true liberalism. As for the Bishop of Ferrara, it is clear: aware of the document and knowing that personal parishes would no longer be allowed to be erected, he erected one immediately: it’s great!
How do you imagine the French bishops will react?
Their reactions will vary. Some will use the Pope's text to repress as much as possible. Others will simply be realistic, they will not want to light fires in their own homes. I am thinking of the bishop of Versailles, who has just published a communiqué that is a little difficult to interpret but which seems to say that nothing will happen for the moment. There are still others who are in favor, there is no doubt, of this traditional life in their dioceses, even if they do not share the ideas. They will circle the wagons, play for time...
If they wanted to resist, they could do so, even canonically: Canon 87 paragraph 1 of Canon Law says that “A diocesan bishop, whenever he judges that it contributes to their spiritual good, is able to dispense the faithful from universal and particular disciplinary laws issued for his territory or his subjects by the supreme authority of the Church.” This opens up many possibilities. The bishop still has to want to act. Now, contrary to what we are told about synodality, it really only works one way, in favor of bishops who think like the pope. But when this is not the case... I’m reminded of the words of Archbishop Roche, the new prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, who recently said expressly - with a laugh: "We are going to destroy Summorum Pontificum. Liturgical power will be given to the bishops... but not to the conservative bishops!"
St. Pius V specifying that this Mass cannot be abrogated, Paul VI forbidding it, Benedict XVI re-establishing it, Francis again seeking to make it disappear: how can the Church's decisions be taken seriously under these conditions?
You are right. We must review the text of Quo Primum and what exactly St. Pius V says: he is saying that no one can prevent a priest from celebrating this Mass, no matter where he is in the Church, in order to oblige him to say it in one of the particular rites (Lyon, etc.)...
Aren't we there in a certain way?
In a certain way, we are there, indeed. The Mass of Saint Pius V, when it was abrogated by Paul VI (because it was abrogated, it must be said, Jean Madiran rightly pointed it out), was identical, almost in detail, to what it was in the eleventh century. Benedict XVI, in Summorum Pontificum, said that it had never been abrogated. Then Francis again abrogates it... That doesn't sound very serious.
We come back to the fact that all experiments are permitted, including blessings of homosexual couples (forbidden by the Church), except "the experiment of Tradition", according to the expression of Archbishop Lefebvre...
Everything is allowed, any heresy can be professed by men of the Church , who still get to keep their Catholic "identity card" - except those who celebrate or attend the traditional Mass. No, they are accused by the Pope himself of tearing apart the unity of the Church.
So, the bottom line is that this hatred of the traditional Mass has a doctrinal basis?
Absolutely. It is the hatred of the Tridentine ecclesiology, of all that this Mass represents from the point of view of Eucharistic doctrine as well as the doctrine of the Church.
Father, as chaplain of the Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage, often mentioned in our pages, you are well placed to answer us. Does this pilgrimage have a bright future ahead of it?
Who knows? Let’s wait and see!
[Original publication in French by Présent; translation by Zachary Thomas.] [/b]
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| Archbishop Viganò Responds to Traditionis Custodes |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-01-2021, 07:44 AM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò
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Archbishop Viganò Responds to the Theft of the Mass of All Ages by Pope Francis
CFN | July 31, 2021
Editors note: Archbishop Viganò has sent us for publication an extensive analysis of the Motu Proprio Traditionis Custodes in which Francis attempts to suppress the Mass of all Ages. After the Archbishop keenly analyzes this tyrannical act, he concludes by affirming “the necessity of giving visibility to our composed protest and ensuring a form of coordination for public action.” He encourages us not to be isolated nor to give into despair. He looks forward to a complete restoration of what has been stolen but reminds us for that to happen we must be worthy of that restoration. The Archbishop’s text can be read or he can be seen delivering it in the following video. - Brian McCall
LAPIDES CLAMABUNT
Dico vobis quia si hii tacuerint, lapides clamabunt.
I say to you that if these are silent, the stones will cry out. - Lk 19:40
Traditionis custodes: this is the incipit [“beginning” or “first words”] of the document with which Francis imperiously cancels the previous Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum of Benedict XVI. The almost mocking tone of the bombastic quotation from Lumen Gentium will not have escaped notice: just when Bergoglio recognizes the Bishops as guardians of the Tradition, he asks them to obstruct its highest and most sacred expression of prayer. Anyone who tries to find within the folds of the text some escamotage [“sleight of hand” or “trickery”] to circumvent the text should know that the draft sent to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for revision was extremely more drastic than the final text: a confirmation, if ever it were needed, that no particular pressure was needed from of the historical enemies of the Tridentine Liturgy – beginning with the scholars of Sant’Anselmo – to convince His Holiness to try his hand at what he does best: demolishing. Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant. [They make a wasteland and call it peace. – Tacitus, Agricola]
The Modus Operandi of Francis
Francis has once again disavowed the pious illusion of the hermeneutic of continuity, stating that the coexistence of the Vetus and Novus Ordo is impossible because they are expressions of two irreconcilable doctrinal and ecclesiological approaches. On the one hand there is the Apostolic Mass, the voice of the Church of Christ; on the other there is the Montinian “Eucharistic celebration,” the voice of the conciliar church. And this is not an accusation, however legitimate, made by those who express reservations about the reformed rite and Vatican II. Rather it is an admission, indeed a proud affirmation of ideological adherence on the part of Francis himself, the head of the most extremist faction of progressivism. His dual role as pope and liquidator of the Catholic Church allows him on the one hand to demolish it with decrees and acts of governance, and on the other hand to use the prestige that his office entails to establish and spread the new religion over the rubble of the old one. It matters little if the ways in which he acts against God, against the Church and against the Lord's flock are in stark conflict with his appeals to parrhesia, to dialogue, to building bridges and not erecting walls: the church of mercy and the field hospital turn out to be empty rhetorical devices, since it ought to be Catholics who benefit from them and not heretics or fornicators. In reality, each of us is well aware that Amoris Laetitia's indulgence towards public concubinage and adulterers would hardly be imaginable towards those “rigid” ones against whom Bergoglio hurls his darts as soon as he has the opportunity.
After years of this pontificate, we have all understood that the reasons given by Bergoglio for declining a meeting with a Prelate, a politician or a conservative intellectual do not apply to the molester Cardinal, the heretic Bishop, the abortionist politician, or the globalist intellectual. In short, there is a blatant difference in behavior, from which one can grasp the partiality and partisanship of Francis in favor of any ideology, thought, project, scientific, artistic or literary expression that is not Catholic. Anything that even only vaguely evokes anything Catholic seems to arouse in the tenant of Santa Marta an aversion that is disconcerting to say the least, if only in virtue of the Throne on which he is seated. Many have noted this dissociation, this sort of bipolarity of a pope who does not behave like a Pope and does not speak like a Pope. The problem is that we are not faced with a sort of inaction from the Papacy, as could happen with a sick or very old Pontiff; but rather with a constant action that is organized and planned in a sense diametrically opposed to the very essence of the Papacy. Not only does Bergoglio not condemn the errors of the present time by strongly reaffirming the Truth of the Catholic Faith – he has never done this! – but he actively seeks to disseminate these errors, to promote them, to encourage their supporters, to spread them to the greatest possible extent and to host events promoting them in the Vatican, simultaneously silencing those who denounce these same errors. Not only does he not punish fornicating Prelates, but he even promotes and defends them by lying, while he removes conservative Bishops and does not hide his annoyance with the heartfelt appeals of Cardinals not aligned with the new course. Not only does he not condemn abortionist politicians who proclaim themselves Catholics, but he intervenes to prevent the Episcopal Conference from pronouncing on this matter, contradicting that synodal path which conversely allows him to use a minority of ultra-progressives to impose his will on the majority of the Synod Fathers.
The one constant of this attitude, noted in its most brazen and arrogant form in Traditionis Custodes, is duplicity and lies. A duplicity that is a facade, of course, daily disavowed by positions that are anything but prudent in favor of a very specific group, which for the sake of brevity we can identify with the ideological Left, indeed with its most recent evolution in a globalist, ecologist, transhuman and LGBTQ key. We have come to the point that even simple people with little knowledge of doctrinal issues understand that we have a non-Catholic pope, at least in the strict sense of the term. This poses some problems of a canonical nature that are not inconsiderable, which it is not up to us to solve but which sooner or later will have to be addressed.
Idological Extremism
Another significant element of this pontificate, taken to its extreme consequences with Traditionis Custodes, is Bergoglio’s ideological extremism: an extremism that is deplored in words when it concerns others, but which shows itself in its most violent and ruthless expression when it is he himself who puts it into practice against clergy and laity connected to the ancient rite and faithful to Sacred Tradition. Towards the Society of Saint Pius X he shows himself willing to make concessions and to establish a relationship as “good neighbors,” but towards the poor priests and faithful who have to endure a thousand humiliations and blackmail in order to beg for a Mass in Latin, he shows no understanding, no humanity. This behavior is not accidental: Archbishop Lefebvre’s movement enjoys its own autonomy and economic independence, and for this reason it has no reason to fear retaliation or commissioners from the Holy See. But the Bishops, priests and clerics incardinated in dioceses or religious Orders know that hanging over them is the sword of Damocles of removal from office, dismissal from the ecclesiastical state, and the deprivation of their very means of subsistence.
The Experience of the Tridentine Mass in Priestly Life
Those who have had the opportunity to follow my speeches and declarations know well what my position is on the Council and on the Novus Ordo; but they also know what my background is, my curriculum in the service of the Holy See and my relatively recent awareness of the apostasy and the crisis in which we find ourselves. For this reason, I would like to reiterate my understanding for the spiritual path of those who, precisely because of this situation, cannot or are not yet able to make a radical choice, such as celebrating or attending exclusively the Mass of St. Pius V.
Many priests discover the treasures of the venerable Tridentine Liturgy only when they celebrate it and allow themselves to be permeated by it, and it is not uncommon for an initial curiosity towards the “extraordinary form” – certainly fascinating due to the solemnity of the rite – to change quickly into the awareness of the depth of the words, the clarity of the doctrine, the incomparable spirituality that it gives birth to and nourishes in our souls. There is a perfect harmony that words cannot express, and that the faithful can understand only in part, but which touches the heart of the Priesthood as only God can. This can be confirmed by my confreres who have approached the usus antiquior after decades of obedient celebration of the Novus Ordo: a world opens up, a cosmos that includes the prayer of the Breviary with the lessons of Matins and the commentaries of the Fathers, the cross-references to the texts of the Mass, the Martyrology in the Hour of Prime… They are sacred words – not because they are expressed in Latin – but rather they are expressed in Latin because the vulgate language would demean them, would profane them, as Dom Guéranger wisely observed. These are the words of the Bride to the divine Bridegroom, words of the soul that lives in intimate union with God, of the soul that lets itself be inhabited by the Most Holy Trinity.
Essentially priestly words, in the deepest sense of the term, which implies in the Priesthood not only the power to offer sacrifice, but to unite in self-offering to the pure, holy and immaculate Victim. It has nothing to do with the ramblings of the reformed rite, which is too intent on pleasing the secularized mentality to turn to the Majesty of God and the Heavenly Court; so preoccupied with making itself understandable that one has to give up on communicating anything but trivial obviousness; so careful not to hurt the feelings of heretics as to allow itself to keep silent about the Truth just at the moment in which the Lord God makes himself present on the altar; so fearful of asking the faithful for the slightest commitment as to trivialize the sacred song and any artistic expression linked to worship. The simple fact that Lutheran pastors, modernists and well-known Freemasons collaborated in the drafting of that rite should make us understand, if not the bad faith and willful misconduct, at least the horizontal mentality, devoid of any supernatural impetus, which motivated the authors of the so-called “liturgical reform” – who, as far as we know, certainly did not shine with the sanctity with which the sacred authors of the texts of the ancient Missale Romanum and of the entire liturgical corpus shine.
How many of you priests – and certainly also many lay people – in reciting the wonderful verses of the Pentecost sequence were moved to tears, understanding that your initial predilection for the traditional liturgy had nothing to do with a sterile aesthetic satisfaction, but had evolved into a real spiritual necessity, as indispensable as breathing? How can you and how can we explain to those who today would like to deprive you of this priceless good, that that blessed rite has made you discover the true nature of your Priesthood, and that from it and only from it are you able to draw strength and nourishment to face the commitments of your ministry? How can you make it clear that the obligatory return to the Montinian rite represents an impossible sacrifice for you, because in the daily battle against the world, the flesh and the devil it leaves you disarmed, prostrate and without strength?
It is evident that only those who have not celebrated the Mass of St. Pius V can consider it as an annoying tinsel of the past, which can be done without. Even many young priests, accustomed to the Novus Ordo since their adolescence, have understood that the two forms of the rite have nothing in common, and that one is so superior to the other as to reveal all its limits and criticisms, to the point of making it almost painful to celebrate. It is not a question of nostalgia, of a cult of the past: here we are speaking of the life of the soul, its spiritual growth, ascesis and mysticism. Concepts that those who see their priesthood as a profession cannot even understand, just as they cannot understand the agony that a priestly soul feels in seeing the Eucharistic Species desecrated during the grotesque rites of Communion in the era of the pandemic farce.
The reductive vision of the liberalization of the mass
This is why I find it extremely unpleasant to have to read in Traditionis Custodes that the reason why Francis believes that the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum was promulgated fourteen years ago lay only in the desire to heal the so-called schism of Archbishop Lefebvre. Of course, the “political” calculation may have had its weight, especially at the time of John Paul II, even if at that time the faithful of the Society of Saint Pius X were few in number. But the request to be able to restore citizenship to the Mass which for two millennia nourished the holiness of the faithful and gave the sap of life to Christian civilization cannot be reduced to a contingent fact.
With his Motu Proprio, Benedict XVI restored the Roman Apostolic Mass to the Church, declaring that it had never been abolished. Indirectly, he admitted that there was an abuse by Paul VI, when in order to give authority to his rite he ruthlessly forbade the celebration of the traditional Liturgy. And even if in that document there may be some incongruent elements, such as the coexistence of the two forms of the same rite, we can believe that these have served to allow for the diffusion of the extraordinary form, without affecting the ordinary one. In other times, it would have seemed incomprehensible to let a Mass steeped in misunderstandings and omissions to be celebrated, when the authority of the Pontiff could have simply restored the ancient rite. But today, with the heavy burden of Vatican II and with the now widespread secularized mentality, even the mere liceity of celebrating the Tridentine Mass without permission can be considered an undeniable good – a good that is visible to all due to the abundant fruits it brings to the communities where it is celebrated. And we can also believe that it would have brought even more fruits if only Summorum Pontificum had been applied in all its points and with a spirit of true ecclesial communion.
The alleged “instrumental use” of the Roman Missal
Francis knows well that the survey taken among Bishops all over the world did not yield negative results, although the formulation of the questions made clear what answers he wanted to receive. That consultation was a pretext, in order to make people believe that the decision he made was inevitable and the fruit of a choral request from the Episcopate. We all know that if Beroglio wants to obtain a result, he does not hesitate to resort to force, lies, and sleight of hand: the events of the last Synods have demonstrated this beyond all reasonable doubt, with the Post-Synodal Exhortation drafted even before the vote on the Instrumentum Laboris. Also in this case, therefore, the pre-established purpose was the abolition of the Tridentine Mass and the prophasis, that is, the apparent excuse, had to be the supposed “instrumental use of the Roman Missal of 1962, often characterized by a rejection not only of the liturgical reform, but of Vatican Council II itself” (here). In all honesty, one can perchance accuse the Society of Saint Pius X of this instrumental use, which has every right to affirm what each of us knows well, that the Mass of Saint Pius V is incompatible with post-conciliar ecclesiology and doctrine. But the Society is not affected by the Motu Proprio, and has always celebrated using the 1962 Missal precisely by virtue of that inalienable right which Benedict XVI recognized, which was not created ex nihilo in 2007.
The diocesan priest who celebrates Mass in the church assigned to him by the Bishop, and who every week must undergo the third degree through the accusations of zealous progressive Catholics only because he has dared to recite the Confiteor prior to administering Communion to the faithful, knows very well that he cannot speak ill of the Novus Ordo or Vatican II, because at the first syllable he would already be summoned to the Curia and sent to a parish church lost in the mountains. That silence, always painful and almost always perceived by everyone as more eloquent than many words, is the price he has to pay in order to have the possibility of celebrating the Holy Mass of all time, in order not to deprive the faithful of the Graces that it pours down upon the Church and the world. And what is even more absurd is that while we hear it said with impunity that the Tridentine Mass ought to be abolished because it is incompatible with the ecclesiology of Vatican II, as soon as we say the same thing – that is, that the Montinian Mass is incompatible with Catholic ecclesiology – we are immediately made the object of condemnation, and our affirmation is used as evidence against us before the revolutionary tribunal of Santa Marta.
I wonder what sort of spiritual disease could have struck the Shepherds in the last few decades, in order to lead them to become, not loving fathers but ruthless censors of their priests, officials constantly watching and ready to revoke all rights in virtue of a blackmail that they do not even try to conceal. This climate of suspicion does not in the least contribute to the serenity of many good priests, when the good they do is always placed under the lens of functionaries who consider the faithful linked to the Tradition as a danger, as an annoying presence to be tolerated so long as it does stand out too much. But how can we even conceive of a Church in which the good is systematically hindered and whoever does it is viewed with suspicion and kept under control? I therefore understand the scandal of many Catholics, faithful, and not a few priests in the face of this “shepherd who instead of smelling his sheep, angrily beats them with a stick”(here).
The misunderstanding of being able to enjoy a right as if it were a gracious concession may also be found in public affairs, where the State permits itself to authorize travel, school lessons, the opening of activities and the performance of work, as long as one undergoes inoculation with the experimental genetic serum. Thus, just as the “extraordinary form” is granted on the condition of accepting the Council and the reformed Mass, so also in the civil sphere the rights of citizens are granted on the condition of accepting the pandemic narrative, the vaccination, and tracking systems. It is not surprising that in many cases it is precisely priests and Bishops – and Bergoglio himself – who ask that people be vaccinated in order to access the Sacraments – the perfect synchrony of action on both sides is disturbing to say the least.
But where then is this instrumental use of the Missale Romanum? Should we not rather speak of the instrumental use of the Missal of Paul VI, which – to paraphrase Bergoglio’s words – is ever more characterized by a growing rejection not only of the pre-conciliar liturgical tradition but of all the Ecumenical Councils prior to Vatican II? On the other hand, is it not precisely Francis who considers as a threat to the Council the simple fact that a Mass may be celebrated which repudiates and condemns all the doctrinal deviations of Vatican II?
Other incongruences
Never in the history of the Church did a Council or a liturgical reform constitute a point of rupture between what came before and what came after! Never in the course of these two millennia have the Roman Pontiffs deliberately drawn an ideological border between the Church that preceded them and the one they had to govern, cancelling and contradicting the Magisterium of their Predecessors! The before and after, instead, became an obsession, both of those who prudently insinuated doctrinal errors behind equivocal expressions, as well as of those who – with the boldness of those who believe that they have won, propagated Vatican II as “the 1789 of the Church,” as a “prophetic” and “revolutionary” event. Before 7 July 2007, in response to the spread of the traditional rite, a well-known pontifical master of ceremonies replied piquedly: “There is no going back!” And yet apparently with Francis one can go back on the promulgation of Summorum Pontificum – and how! – if it serves to preserve power and to prevent the Good from spreading. It is a slogan which sinisterly echoes the cry of “Nothing will be as it was before” of the pandemic farce.
Francis’ admission of an alleged division between the faithful linked to the Tridentine liturgy and those who largely out of habit or resignation have adapted to the reformed liturgy is revealing: he does not seek to heal this division by recognizing full rights to a rite that is objectively better with respect to the Montinian rite, but precisely in order to prevent the ontological superiority of the Mass of Saint Pius V from becoming evident, and to prevent the criticisms of the reformed rite and the doctrine it expresses from emerging, he prohibits it, he labels it as divisive, he confines it to Indian reservations, trying to limit its diffusion as much as possible, so that it will disappear completely in the name of the cancel culture of which the conciliar revolution was the unfortunate forerunner. Not being able to tolerate that the Novus Ordo and Vatican II emerge inexorably defeated by their confrontation with the Vetus Ordo and the perennial Catholic Magisterium, the only solution that can be adopted is to cancel every trace of Tradition, relegating it to the nostalgic refuge of some irreducible octogenarian or a clique of eccentrics, or presenting it – as a pretext – as the ideological manifesto of a minority of fundamentalists. On the other hand, constructing a media version consistent with the system, to be repeated ad nauseam in order to indoctrinate the masses, is the recurring element not only in the ecclesiastical sphere but also in the political and civil sphere, so that it appears with disconcerting evidence that the deep church and deep state are nothing other than two parallel tracks which run in the same direction and have as their final destination the New World Order, with its religion and its prophet.
The division is there, obviously, but it does not come from good Catholics and clergy who remain faithful to the doctrine of all time, but rather from those who have replaced orthodoxy with heresy and the Holy Sacrifice with a fraternal agape. That division is not new today, but dates back to the Sixties, when the “spirit of the Council,” openness to the world and inter-religious dialogue turned two thousand years of Catholicity into straw and revolutionized the entire ecclesial body, persecuting and ostracizing the refractory. Yet that division, accomplished by bringing doctrinal and liturgical confusion into the heart of the Church, did not seem so deplorable then; while today, in full apostasy, they are paradoxically considered divisive who ask, not for the explicit condemnation of Vatican II and the Novus Ordo, but simply the tolerance of the Mass “in the extraordinary form” in the name of the much-vaunted multifaceted pluralism.
Significantly, even in the civilized world the protection of minorities is valid only when they serve to demolish traditional society, while such protection is ignored when it would guarantee the legitimate rights of honest citizens. And it has become clear that under the pretext of the protection of minorities the only intention was to weaken the majority of the good, while now that the majority is made up of those who are corrupt, the minority of the good can be crushed without mercy: recent history does not lack illuminating precedents in this regard.
The tyrannical nature of Traditionis custodes
In my opinion, it is not so much this or that point of the Motu Proprio that is disconcerting, but rather its overall tyrannical nature accompanied by a substantial falsity of the arguments put forward to justify the decisions imposed. Scandal is also given by the abuse of power by an authority that has its own raison d’etre not in impeding or limiting the Graces that are bestowed on its adherents through the Church but rather in promoting those Graces; not in taking away Glory from the Divine Majesty with a rite that winks at the Protestants but rather in rendering that Glory perfectly; not in sowing doctrinal and moral errors but rather in condemning and eradicating them. Here too, the parallel with what takes place in the civil world is all too evident: our rulers abuse their power just as our Prelates do, imposing norms and limitations in violation of the most basic principles of law. Furthermore, it is precisely those who are constituted in authority, on both fronts, who often avail themselves of a mere de facto recognition by the rank and file – citizens and faithful – even when the methods by which they have taken power violate, if not the letter, then at least the spirit of the law. The case of Italy – in which a non-elected Government legislates on the obligation to be vaccinated and on the green pass, violating the Italian Constitution and the natural rights of the Italian people – does not seem very dissimilar to the situation in which the Church finds herself, with a resigned Pontiff replaced by Jorge Mario Bergoglio, chosen – or at least appreciated and supported – by the Saint Gallen Mafia and the ultra-progressive Episcopate. It remains obvious that there is a profound crisis of authority, both civil and religious, in which those who exercise power do so contrary to those whom they are supposed to protect, and above all contrary to the purpose for which that authority has been established.
Analogies between the deep church and the deep state
I think that it has been understood that both civil society and the Church suffer from the same cancer that struck the former with the French Revolution and the latter with the Second Vatican Council: in both cases, Masonic thought is at the foundation of the systematic demolition of the institution and its replacement with a simulacrum that maintains its external appearances, hierarchical structure, and coercive force, but with purposes diametrically opposed to those it ought to have.
At this point, citizens on the one hand and the faithful on the other find themselves in the condition of having to disobey earthly authority in order obey divine authority, which governs Nations and the Church. Obviously the “reactionaries” – that is, those who do not accept the perversion of authority and want to remain faithful to the Church of Christ and to their Homeland – constitute an element of dissent that cannot be tolerated in any way, and therefore they must be discredited, delegitimized, threatened and deprived of their rights in the name of a “public good” that is no longer the bonum commune but its contrary. Whether accused of conspiracy theories, traditionalism, or fundamentalism, these few survivors of a world that they want to make disappear constitutes a threat to the accomplishment of the global plan, just at the most crucial moment of its realization. This is why power is reacting in such an open, brazen, and violent way: the evidence of the fraud risks being understood by a greater number of people, of bringing them together in an organized resistance, of breaking down the wall of silence and ferocious censorship imposed by the mainstream media.
We can therefore understand the violence of the reactions of authority and prepare ourselves for a strong and determined opposition, continuing to avail ourselves of those rights that have been abusively and illicitly denied us. Of course, we may find ourselves having to exercise those rights in an incomplete way when we are denied the opportunity to travel if we do not have our green pass or if the Bishop prohibits us from celebrating the Mass of all time in a church in his Diocese, but our resistance to abuses of authority will still be able to count on the Graces that the Lord will not cease to grant us – in particular the virtue of Fortitude that is so indispensable in times of tyranny.
The Normality that Frightens
If on the one had we can see how the persecution of dissenters is well-organized and planned, on the other hand we cannot fail to recognize the fragmentation of the opposition. Bergoglio knows well that every movement of dissent must be silenced, above all by creating internal division and isolating priests and the faithful. A fruitful and fraternal collaboration between diocesan clergy, religious, and the Ecclesia Dei institutes is something he must avert, because it would permit the diffusion of a knowledge of the ancient rite, as well as a precious help in the ministry. But this would mean making the Tridentine Mass a “normality” in the daily life of the faithful, something that is not tolerable for Francis. For this reason, diocesan clergy are left at the mercy of their Ordinaries, while the Ecclesia Dei Institutes are placed under the authority of the Congregation of Religious, as a sad prelude to a destiny that has already been sealed. Let us not forget the fate that befell the flourishing religious Orders, guilty of being blessed with numerous vocations born and nurtured precisely thanks to the hated traditional Liturgy and the faithful observance of the Rule. This is why certain forms of insistence on the ceremonial aspect of the celebrations risk legitimizing the provisions of the commissar and play Bergoglio’s game.
Even in the civil world, it is precisely by encouraging certain excesses by the dissenters that those in power marginalize them and legitimize repressive measures towards them: just think of the case of the no-vax movements and how easy it is to discredit the legitimate protests of citizens by emphasizing the eccentricities and inconsistencies of a few. And it is all too easy to condemn a few agitated people who out of exasperation set fire to a vaccine center, overshadowing millions of honest persons who take to the streets in order not to be branded with the health passport or fired if they do not allow themselves to be vaccinated.
Do not stay isolated and disorganized
Another important element for all of us is the necessity of giving visibility to our composed protest and ensuring a form of coordination for public action. With the abolition of Summorum Pontificum we find ourselves taken back twenty years. This unhappy decision by Bergoglio to cancel the Motu Proprio of Pope Benedict is doomed to inexorable failure, because it touches the very soul of the Church, of which the Lord Himself is Pontiff and High Priest. And it is not a given that the entire Episcopate – as we are seeing in the last few days with relief – will be willing to passively submit to forms of authoritarianism that certainly do not contribute to bringing peace to souls. The Code of Canon Law guarantees the Bishops the possibility of dispensing their faithful from particular or universal laws, under certain conditions. Secondly, the people of God have well understood the subversive nature of Traditionis Custodes and are instinctively led to want to get to know something that arouses such disapproval among progressives. Let us not be surprised therefore if we soon begin to see the faithful coming from ordinary parish life and even those far from the Church finding their way to the churches where the traditional Mass is celebrated. It will be our duty, whether as Ministers of God or as simple faithful, to show firmness and serene resistance to such abuse, walking along the way of our own little Calvary with a supernatural spirit, while the new high priests and scribes of the people mock us and label us as fanatics. It will be our humility, the silent offering of injustices toward us, and the example of a life consistent with the Creed that we profess that will merit the triumph of the Catholic Mass and the conversion of many souls. And let us remember that, since we have received much, much will be demanded of us.
Restitutio in integrum
What father among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent instead? (Lk 11:11-12). Now we can understand the meaning of these words, considering with pain and torment of heart the cynicism of a father who gives us the stones of a soulless liturgy, the serpents of a corrupted doctrine, and the scorpions of an adulterated morality. And who reaches the point of dividing the flock of the Lord between those who accept the Novus Ordo and those who want to remain faithful to the Mass of our fathers, exactly as civil rulers are pitting the vaccinated and unvaccinated against one another.
When Our Lord entered Jerusalem seated on a donkey’s colt, while the crowd was spreading cloaks as He passed, the Pharisees asked Him: “Master, rebuke your disciples.” The Lord answered them: “I say to you that if these are silent, the stones will cry out” (Lk 19:28-40). For sixty years the stones of our churches have been crying out, from which the Holy Sacrifice has been twice proscribed. The marble of the altars, the columns of the basilicas, and the soaring vaults of the cathedrals cry out as well, because those stones, consecrated to the worship of the true God, today are abandoned and deserted, or profaned by abhorrent rites, or transformed into parking lots and supermarkets, precisely as a result of that Council that we insist on defending. Let us also cry out: we who are living stones of the temple of God. Let us cry with faith to the Lord, so that he may give a voice to His disciples who today are mute, and so that the intolerable theft for which the administrators of the Lord’s Vineyard are responsible may be repaired.
But in order for that theft to be repaired, it is necessary that we show ourselves to be worthy of the treasures that have been stolen from us. Let us try to do this by our holiness of life, by giving example of the virtues, by prayer and the frequent reception of the Sacraments. And let us not forget that there are hundreds of good priests who still know the meaning of the Sacred Unction by which they have been ordained Ministers of Christ and dispensers of the Mystery of God. The Lord deigns to descend on our altars even when they are erected in cellars or attics. Contrariisquibuslibet minime obstantibus [Anything to the contrary notwithstanding].
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
28 July 2021
Ss. Nazarii et Celsi Martyrum,
Victoris I Papae et Martyris ac
Innocentii I Papae et Confessoris
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| Tenth Sunday after Pentecost |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-01-2021, 06:44 AM - Forum: Pentecost
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INSTRUCTION ON THE TENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST.
From Fr. Leonard Goffine's Explanations of the Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays, Holydays, and Festivals throughout the Ecclesiastical Year 36th edition, 1880
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The Introit of the Mass pray with the Church for God's help to guard us against our enemies: When I cried to the Lord, he heard my voice, from them that draw near to me, and he humbled them, who is before all ages, and remains for ever. Cast thy care upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee. (Ps. liv.) Hear, O God, my prayer, and despise not my supplication; be attentive to me, and hear me. Glory, &c.
PRAYER OF THE CHURCH. O God, who dost manifest Thine almighty power above all in showing pardon and pity: multiply upon us Thy mercy, that we running forward to the attainment of Thy promises, may be made partakers of heavenly treasures. Through.
EPISTLE. (i Cor, xii. 2 — 11.) Brethren, You know that when you were heathens, you went to dumb idols according as you were led. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man, speaking by the Spirit of God, saith Anathema to Jesus. And no man can say: the Lord Jesus, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of graces, but the same Spirit; and there are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but the same God, who worketh all in all. And the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man unto profit. To one, indeed, by the Spirit, is given the word of wisdom: and to another, the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit: to another, faith in the same Spirit: to another, the grace of healing in one Spirit: to another, the working of miracles: to another, prophecy: to another, the discerning of spirits: to another, divers kinds of tongues: to another, interpretation of speeches. But all these things one and the same Spirit worketh, dividing to every one according as he will.
Quote:EXPLANATION. The apostle here reminds the Corinthians of the great grace they received from God in their conversion, and urges them to be grateful for it; for while heathens, they cursed Jesus, but being now brought to the knowledge of the Spirit of God, they possess Christ as their Lord and Redeemer who can be known and professed only by the enlightenment of the Holy Ghost. The holy Spirit works in different ways, conferring His graces on whom He wills; to one He gives wisdom to understand the great truths of Christianity; to another the gift of healing the sick; to another the gift of miracles and of prophecy; to another the gift of discerning spirits, to know if one is governed by the Spirit of God, or of the world, Satan and the flesh; to another the gift of tongues. The extraordinary gifts, namely those of working miracles, and of prophecying &c. became rarer as the faith spread, whereas the gifts which sanctify man will always remain the same.
[See Instruction on the gifts of the Holy Ghost, Pentecost.]
GOSPEL. (Luke xviii. 9 — 14.) At that time, Jesus spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves as just, and despised others. Two men went up into the Temple to pray: the one a Pharisee, and the other a Publican. The Pharisee standing, prayed thus with himself: O God, I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, as also is this Publican. I fast twice in the week; I give tithes of all that I possess. And the Publican standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes towards heaven, but struck his breast, saying: O God, be merciful to me a sinner. I say to you: this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: because every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Why did Christ make use of his parable of the Pharisee and the Publican?
To teach us never proudly to condemn or despise a man, even though he should appear impious, for we may be deceived like the Pharisee who despised the Publican, whom he considered a great sinner, while, in reality, the man was justified before God on account of his repentant spirit.
What should we do before entering a Church?
We should reflect that we are going into the house of God, should therefore think what we are about to say to Him, and what we wish to ask of Him. That we may make ourselves less unworthy to be heard, we should humble ourselves as did Abraham, (Gen. xviii. 27.) remembering that we are dust and ashes, and on account of our sins unworthy to appear before the eyes of God, much less to address Him., for He listens to the prayers of the humble only, (Ps. ci. 18.) and gives them His grace, while He resists the proud. (James iv. 6.)
Was the Pharisee's prayer acceptable to God?
No, for it was no prayer, but boasting and ostentation; he praised himself, and enumerated his apparent good works. But in despising others and judging them rashly he sinned grievously instead of meriting God's grace.
Was the Publican's prayer acceptable to God?
Yes, for though short, it was humble and contrite. He stood afar off, as if to acknowledge himself unworthy of the presence of God and intercourse with men. He stood with downcast eyes, thus showing that he considered himself because of his sins unworthy to look towards heaven, even confessed himself a sinner, and struck his breast to punish, as St. Augustine says, the sins which he had committed in his heart. This is why we strike our breast at certain times during Mass, for by this we acknowledge ourselves miserable sinners, and that we are sorry for our sins.
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ON PRIDE AND VAIN GLORY.
WE should learn from this gospel that God looks upon the humble and exalts them, but is far from the proud. (Ps. cxxxvii. 6.) The Pharisee went to the temple entirely wrapt up in himself, and the good works which he thought he had performed, but returned empty and hated by God; the Publican, on the contrary, appearing before God as a public but penitent sinner, returned justified. Truly, an humble sinner is better in the sight of God than a proud just man!
He who glories in his own good works, or performs them to please men, or to win their praise, loses his merit in the eyes of the most High, for Christ says: Take heed that you do not your justice before men, to be seen by them: otherwise you shall not have a reward of your Father who is in heaven. (Matt. vi. 1.)
In order that we may learn to despise vain glory, these doctrines should be well borne in mind. We should consider that it will happen to those who seek after vain glory, as to the man who made many toilsome journeys on land and sea in order to accumulate wealth, and had no sooner acquired it than he was shipwrecked, and lost all. Thus the ambitious man avariciously seeking glory and honor will find, when dying, that the merit which he might have had for his good works, is now lost to him, because hedid not labor for the honor of God. To prevent such an evil, strive at the commencement of every good work which you undertake, to turn your heart to God by a good intention.
But that you may plainly recognize this vice, which generally keeps itself concealed, and that you may avoid it, know that pride is an inordinate love of ostentation, and an immoderate desire to surpass others in honor and praise. The proud man goes beyond himself, so to speak, makes far more of himself than he really is, and, like the Pharisee, despises others; the humble man, on the contrary, has a low estimate of himself, looks upon himself as nothing and, like the Publican, despises no one but himself, and thus is pleasing in the sight of God.
ASPIRATION. O God, who hearest the prayers of the humble, but dost resist the proud, I earnestly beseech Thee to give me a humble heart, that I may imitate the humility of Thy only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and thereby merit to be exalted with Him in heaven.
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INSTRUCTION ON GRACE.
IN the epistle of this day the Apostle St. Paul speaks of the different gifts of the Holy Ghost which He distributes as He pleases. These extraordinary graces which the apostle mentions, are not necessary for salvation. But the Church teaches, that the grace of the Holy Ghost is necessary for salvation, because without it we could neither properly believe, nor faithfully observe the commandments of God. For the holy religion of Jesus teaches, and experience confirms, that since the fall of our first parents we are weak and miserable, and of ourselves, and by our own strength, we cannot know or perform the good necessary for our salvation. We need a higher aid, a higher assistance, and this assistance is called grace.
What, then, is grace?
Grace is an inward, supernatural gift which God through infinite goodness, and in consideration of Christ's merits, grants us to enable us to work out our salvation.
Grace is a gift, that is, a present, a favor, a benefit. It is an inward and supernatural gift; an inward gift, because it is bestowed upon man's soul to distinguish it from external gifts and benefits of God, such as: food, clothing, health; grace is a supernatural gift, because it is above nature. In creating our souls God gives us a certain degree of light which enables us to think, reflect, judge, to acquire more or less knowledge: this is called natural light. In the same way He gives our souls the power in some measure to overcome sensual, vicious inclinations; this power is called natural power (virtue). To this natural light and power must be added a higher light and a higher power, if man would be sanctified and saved. This higher light and higher power is grace. It is therefore called a supernatural gift, because it surpasses the natural power of man, and produces in his understanding and in his will wholesome effects, which he could not produce without it. For example, divine faith, divine love is a supernatural
gift or grace of God, because man of his own power could never receive as certain God's revelations and His incomprehensible mysteries with so great a joy and so firm a conviction, and could never love God above all things and for His own sake, unless God assisted him by His grace.
God grants us grace also through pure benevolence without our assistance, without our having any right to it; He grants it without cost, and to whom He pleases; but He gives it in consideration of the infinite merits of Christ Jesus, in consideration of Christ's death on the cross, and of the infinite price of our redemption. Finally, grace is a gift of God, by which to work out our salvation, that is, it is only by the grace of God that we can perform meritorious works which aid us in reaching heaven. Without grace it is impossible for us to perform any good action, even to have a good thought by which to gain heaven.
From this it follows that with the grace of God we can accomplish all things necessary for our salvation, fulfil all the commandments of God, but without it we can do nothing meritorious. God gives His grace to all, and if the wicked perish, it is because they do not cooperate with its divine promptings.
How is grace divided?
Into two kinds, actual and sanctifying grace.
Actual grace is God's assistance which we always need to accomplish a good work, to avoid sin which we are in danger of committing, or that grace which urges us on to good, and assists us in accomplishing it; for it is God, says the Apostle Paul, (Phil. ii. 13.) who worketh in you both to will and to accomplish. If a good work is to be performed by us, God must enlighten our mind that we may properly know the good and distinguish it from evil; He must rouse our will and urge it on to do the known good and to avoid the evil; He must also uphold our will and increase our strength that what we wish to do, we may really accomplish.
This actual grace is, therefore, necessary for the just, that they may always remain in sanctifying grace, and accomplish good works; it is necessary for the sinner that he may reach the state of sanctifying grace.
What is sanctifying grace?
It is the great benefit which God bestows upon us, when He sanctifies and justifies us; in other words: sanctifying grace is the love of God, given to us by the Holy Ghost, which love dwells in us and whose temple we become, or it is the advent and abiding of God in our hearts, as promised in the words of Jesus: If any one love me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will make our abode with him. (John xvi. 23.)
He who possesses sanctifying grace , possesses the greatest treasure that a man can have on earth. For what can be more precious than to be beautiful in the sight of God, acceptable to Him, and united with Him! He who possesses this grace, carries within himself the supernatural image of God, he is a child of God, and has a right to the inheritance of heaven.
How is this sanctifying grace lost?
It is lost by every mortal sin, and can only be regained by a complete return to God, by true repentance and amendment. The loss of sanctifying grace is a far greater injury than the loss of all earthly possessions. How terrible, then, is mortal sin which deprives us of this treasure!
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July 31 - Saint Ignatius of Loyola |
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Posted by: SAguide - 07-31-2021, 11:33 AM - Forum: July
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Saint Ignatius of Loyola
Founder of the Society of Jesus
(1491-1556)
Patron of retreats
Saint Ignatius was born at Loyola in Spain, in the year 1491. He served his king as a courtier and a soldier until his thirtieth year. At that time a cannon ball broke the right leg of the young officer, who in a few days had reached the brink of death and received the Last Sacraments. It was the eve of the feast day of Saint Peter and Saint Paul; he fell asleep afterwards and believed he saw Saint Peter in a dream, restoring him to health by touching his wound. When he woke, his high fever was gone and he was out of danger, although lame. To pass the time of his convalescence after three operations, he asked for books; the Life of Christ and lives of the Saints were brought to him. He read them distractedly at first, then with profound emotion. He underwent a violent combat, but finally grace won out.
He began to treat his body with the utmost rigor and rose every night to weep over his sins. One night, he consecrated himself to the Saviour through the intercession of Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners, swearing inviolable fidelity to the Son and His Mother. Not long afterwards, to fortify him in his good resolutions, Mary appeared to him surrounded by light, holding in Her arms the Child Jesus. His heart purified by this vision, Ignatius made a general confession and a pilgrimage to Montserrat, to venerate a miraculous image of the Mother of God and implore Her protection, then bought a rude long habit for the pilgrimage he was planning to make to Jerusalem. He set out on foot, wearing only one sandal for his lame leg.
He spent some time at Manreza caring for the sick and undertaking a life of austerity equaled only by the most celebrated anchorites. Living by alms, fasting on bread and water, wearing a hair shirt, he remained kneeling every day for six or seven hours in prayer. The devil made vain efforts to discourage him. He fell ill, however, and was carried to the hospital from the cavern where he was staying. It was only out of obedience to his director at Montserrat that he ceased his extreme penance, and found again, through his obedience, the peace of soul he had lost. At Manreza he composed his famous Spiritual Exercises for retreatants, which ever since have brought to grace and fervor great numbers of souls.
After a journey to Rome and other points of pilgrimage in Italy, he embarked for the Holy Land. He wished to remain there to work for the conversion of souls, but was commanded by the enlightened Provincial of the Franciscans, under obedience, to return to Europe. He was then thirty-three years old.
Ignatius had already won certain Spanish compatriots to join him in the service of God; it was for them that he had composed the Exercises. With them he undertook studies for several years, and at the end of that time had four companions. He taught catechism while at Alcala, and virtually reformed the entire youth of that city.
In 1528, when he was already 37 years old, he went to Paris to study in the greatest poverty, eating his meals at a hospital with the poor. He was persecuted when he converted a number of young persons. It was in Paris, with six young companions, that at Montmartre the Society of Jesus was founded. They made a vow to go to Jerusalem in absolute poverty, or if this proved impossible, which it did, to go to Rome to the Vicar of Christ, and place themselves at his disposition for the service of the Church and the salvation of souls. Our Lord promised Saint Ignatius that the precious heritage of His Passion would never be lacking to his Society. By this term, heritage, the Saviour referred to the contradictions and persecutions the just must always face. Founded to combat error, the Company of Jesus has always had to bear the fury of those who favor it.
When Saint Ignatius was cast into prison at Salamanca on suspicion of heresy, he said to a friend who expressed his sympathy, It is a sign that you have little love of Christ in your heart, or you would not deem it so hard a fate to be in chains for His sake. All Salamanca does not contain as many fetters, manacles, and chains as I would gladly wear for love of Jesus Christ. Saint Ignatius went to receive his crown on July 31, 1556.
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| TX Governor issues executive order blocking cities from requiring masks and vaccines |
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Posted by: Juan Diego - 07-30-2021, 08:37 PM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
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Texas Governor Abbott issues executive order blocking cities from requiring masks and vaccines
Abbott argued that Texans should decide to vaccinate or wear mask themselves, not the government.
Link
July 30, 2021
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday signed an executive order prohibiting mask mandates or COVID-19 vaccine requirements from government agencies and municipalities statewide.
Abbott issued the order Thursday, two days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended indoor mask mandates, regardless of vaccination status, in places with at least 50 confirmed COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people over the previous seven days.
“To further ensure that no governmental entity can mandate masks, the following requirement shall continue to apply: No governmental entity, including a county, city, school district, and public health authority, and no governmental official may require any person to wear a face-covering or to mandate that other person wear a covering,” the executive order read.
Abbott defended the move in a statement, arguing, “Today’s executive order will provide clarity and uniformity in the Lone Star State’s continued fight against COVID-19.”
The Republican governor went on to reiterate his argument that “the path forward relies on personal responsibility rather than government mandates.”
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| CDC study shows 74% of people infected in MA Covid outbreak were fully vaccinated |
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Posted by: Scarlet - 07-30-2021, 05:35 PM - Forum: COVID Vaccines
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CDC study shows 74% of people infected in Massachusetts
Covid outbreak were fully vaccinated
Published Fri, Jul 30 2021
Quote:Key Points- About three-fourths of people infected in a Massachusetts Covid-19 outbreak were fully vaccinated, according to new data published Friday by the CDC.
- The new data, published in the U.S. agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, also found that fully vaccinated people who get infected carry as much of the virus in their nose as unvaccinated people.
About three-fourths of people infected in a Massachusetts Covid-19 outbreak were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus with four of them ending up in the hospital, according to new data published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The new data, published in the U.S. agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, also found that fully vaccinated people who get infected carry as much of the virus in their nose as unvaccinated people, and could spread it to other individuals.
“This finding is concerning and was a pivotal discovery leading to CDC’s updated mask recommendation,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a statement. “The masking recommendation was updated to ensure the vaccinated public would not unknowingly transmit virus to others, including their unvaccinated or immunocompromised loved ones.”
On Tuesday, the CDC reversed course on its prior guidance and recommended fully vaccinated Americans who live in areas with high Covid infection rates resume wearing face masks indoors. The guidelines cover about two-thirds of the U.S. population, according to a CNBC analysis.
* Link to CDC article: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/m...mm7031e2_w |
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| CDC director recommends vaccine passports as ‘path forward’ for Americans |
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Posted by: Stone - 07-30-2021, 05:59 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
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CDC director recommends vaccine passports as ‘path forward’ for Americans
The endorsement of vaccine passports comes amid increasingly heavy-handed moves by state and federal governments to force Americans to get the experimental drug.
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ATLANTA, July 29, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said forcing Americans to show proof of having received a COVID-19 shot to engage in ordinary life “may very well be the path forward.”
During an interview Tuesday on CNN, an anchor asked Walensky whether she believed “health passes” like those currently issued in Europe, which give vaccinated citizens access to public venues while barring those who have chosen not to get the shot, might be implemented in the United States.
“You know I think some communities are doing that, and that may very well be the path forward,” Walensky said.
She then went on to justify the CDC’s recent flip-flop on mask guidance by remarking that even in venues in which people are “fully vaccinated,” unmasked individuals may still transmit COVID-19.
It’s unclear what data Walensky was referencing to make the judgment about masking, and how small of a risk of transmission would be acceptable for refraining from taking up mask mandates, social distancing, and other COVID-19 related impositions.
Walensky said the CDC’s mask guidance update, which would impose masking upon roughly two-thirds of Americans, was based upon “new data.” But the information allegedly used to motivate the change has not been released to the public.
“Outside scientists” told The Washington Post on Thursday that the CDC report recommending vaccinated Americans don face masks again only cites “unpublished data” as its scientific rationale. The scientists are requesting the CDC release this “new,” “unpublished data” for review.
According to the Post, the CDC justified its reversal by claiming that “[p]eople who have had their shots and become infected with the delta variant of the coronavirus can harbor large amounts of virus just like unvaccinated people. That means they could become spreaders of the disease and should return to wearing masks indoors in certain situations, including when vulnerable people are present.”
However, the CDC has not publicly demonstrated how it arrived at that conclusion.
“They’re making a claim that people with delta who are vaccinated and unvaccinated have similar levels of viral load, but nobody knows what that means,” Gregg Gonsalves, an associate professor at the Yale School of Public Health, told the Post. “It’s meaningless unless we see the data.”
The latest commentary from Walensky and the CDC advocating vaccine passports and a return to masking in U.S. counties with low vaccination rates set off a wave of outrage this week, with conservatives urging Americans not to go along with the new guidance.
In a July 27 statement, former President Donald Trump said, “We won’t go back. We won’t mask our children. Joe Biden and his administration learned nothing from the last year.”
“Brave Americans learned how to safely and responsibly live and fight back,” Trump added. “Don’t surrender to COVID. Don’t go back! Why do Democrats distrust the science? Don’t let this happen to our children or our Country.”
Ohio state Senator Michael Rulli suggested Wednesday that “Americans will NOT comply with another wave of mandates and lockdowns.”
Earlier this week, the Department of Veterans Affairs became the first federal department to require COVID-19 jabs for medical employees including facilities staff, and California and New York moved to force state employees and health care professionals to take the shot, be subject to regular testing, or lose their jobs.
President Joe Biden is expected to announce a government-wide vaccine mandate for all federal government employees.
In addition to imposing vaccine mandates, the Biden administration has refused to rule out a new wave of lockdowns.
During a press conference Thursday, principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that if scientists recommended a return to lockdowns and school closures, the administration would “listen to the CDC, and the expert[s], and their guidance.”
While many governors are expected to go along with the CDC’s fluctuating guidance regarding masks, lockdowns, and vaccine passports, some governors have already signaled their intention to buck the agency’s guidance, promising to prevent a return to mandates, lockdowns, or the introduction of vaccine passports in their states.
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has said that he would block mask mandates imposed by the federal government or enacted by Florida schools, and signed a bill to forbid vaccine passports at both the public and private level in his state.
In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott also banned vaccine passports whether attempted by government or private entities, and signed an executive order banning mask mandates.
On Thursday, Abbott denied the request of San Antonio mayor Ron Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff to impose a mask mandate in schools and government buildings.
In a FOX News interview Wednesday, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said the moves to reimpose mask mandates and force Americans to take the experimental drugs are “pure politics.”
“As a political matter, the Democrats decided they want to control your lives,” Cruz said. “They want everyone to wear a mask. My view is real simple: We shouldn't have federal government mandates on COVID. That means no mask mandates. That means no vaccine mandates. That means no vaccine passports. This should be a question of individual choice.”
“The CDC has destroyed their credibility,” Cruz added. “A year and a half ago, the CDC was one of the most respected scientific organizations in the world and they allowed themselves to be politicized — with Dr. Fauci at the helm of the politicization — and right now their credibility is in tatters because they behave more like an arm of the DNC than an actual, serious medical and scientific organization.”
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| Catholic church burns down just 2 days after priest attacked |
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Posted by: Stone - 07-30-2021, 05:48 AM - Forum: Anti-Catholic Violence
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Catholic church burns down just 2 days after priest attacked
Local fears destruction of 163-year-old church another manifestation of anti-Catholic sentiment
GLASGOW, Scotland, July 29, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – Just two days after a priest was attacked with a bottle in Edinburgh’s Catholic cathedral, a 163-year-old Catholic church in nearby Glasgow was engulfed in flames.
At around 2:40 a.m. on Wednesday morning, a team of 30 firefighters was dispatched to the parish church of St. Simon’s in Partick, a district within Glasgow’s leafy west end, where a large fire was consuming the building, the third oldest Catholic church in the city.
After evacuating the residents of neighboring buildings, the firefighters tackled the blaze. The historic landmark, however, was completely gutted within half an hour, according to a report in The Scotsman. One person was saved from inside the church before it was destroyed; no one was injured during the incident.
A spokesman for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service confirmed the details of the incident in a statement: “We were alerted at 2.40 a.m. on Wednesday, July 28 to reports of a fire within a church on Partick Bridge Street, Partick, Glasgow.”
“Operations Control mobilised six fire appliances including two height appliances and more than 30 firefighters are in attendance and working to extinguish the fire.”
“One person was assisted from the property and given precautionary treatment at the scene. Adjacent properties have been evacuated as a precautionary measure and nearby residents are advised to keep windows and doors closed due to smoke.”
Police Scotland also commented on the incident, noting that “the fact that the building is unsafe, at this time neither Police nor Scottish Fire and Rescue officers have been able to get in to the church to establish how the fire started.”
"Enquiries are very much at an early stage and we cannot speculate at this time as to the cause,” the police continued.
A spokeswoman added that the police does not currently suppose that the fire is part of a “sectarian” [i.e. anti-Catholic] or hate-crime related offence.
St. Simon's has been home to a large Polish community since the Second World War when “soldiers of the Polish Armed Forces who had escaped the Nazis and who were based in Yorkhill Barracks needed a church,” the parish website reads. Until the fire, Masses in Polish were celebrated in the church twice a week, including Sundays, by a local Polish priest.
The church building, originally opened in 1858, was subject to a thorough restoration project between 2005 and 2008, coinciding with the 150th anniversary of the church. Around £400,000 was raised for the project, half of which come from the efforts of the congregation, and the other half courtesy of a grant from Heritage Scotland.
A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Glasgow, in which St. Simon’s is situated, said that the demise of the church “will be a blow to people far beyond the west end of Glasgow.”
“Though small in size, St. Simon’s was well-frequented and was the spiritual home of the Polish community in the west of Scotland who had established a shrine there.”
He added that the church acted as “a focal point for the local community, and especially the homeless who benefited from a café on site which had to be suspended during the pandemic.”
“The church of St Simon’s is linked to the larger parish of St Peter’s in Partick and worshippers will be accommodated there,” the spokesman stated.
“The cause of the blaze is not immediately apparent, but we will work with the Fire Service as they investigate the site. Structural engineers are on site to advise on the necessary measures to make the remains of the building safe," he continued.
“St. Simon’s was a much-loved landmark at Partick Cross and its loss is a heavy blow.”
LifeSiteNews reached out to Sancta Familia Media, a Catholic video apostolate based in Lanarkshire, near Glasgow. A spokesman for the company said that the church’s destruction “was very sad news.”
The spokesman for Sancta Familia Media, who asked not to be named, stressed that the cause of the fire was as yet unknown. However, he added that “against a backdrop of increasingly anti-Catholic sentiment in Scotland, including a priest attacked at the weekend and other incidents, one can only wonder whether there is a connection.”
“It just increases worries for us Scottish Catholics that this will continue, especially in light of some Scottish government policies on hate crimes which could marginalise us,” the spokesman explained, in reference to the controversial Scottish Hate Crime Bill.
The bill was proposed in 2020 by Scotland’s Health Minister Humza Yousaf, and later passed by the Scottish Parliament in March 2021. The bill has refined the law around hate speech, including a new provision for “stirring up hatred,” which criminalizes behaving “in a manner that a reasonable person would consider to be threatening or abusive.” The law extends to conversations and materials kept in the privacy of one’s own home.
A proposal for criminalizing “possession of inflammatory material,” which could include the Catechism of the Catholic Church for its teaching that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered,” was dropped after strong opposition from the Catholic bishops.
A few hours after the fire had destroyed St. Simon’s, Yousaf posted a tweet expressing his sympathies with local Catholics devastated by both the fire and the assault upon the Edinburgh priest.
“What a devastating couple of days for Catholics in Scotland. First a cowardly attack on a priest in his place of worship, followed by this. I know St. Simon’s had a special place in the Polish community's heart,” the Health Minister wrote.
“Solidarity with our Catholic community in Scotland.”
The burning of St. Simon’s is not the first tragedy to strike the Glasgow church. In 2019, the church suffered an attack from vandals who invaded the sanctuary, damaging it in the process, and breaking a statue of Our Lady of Czestochowa.
Though police stated at the time that they found no evidence of anti-Catholic sectarianism, many commentators took to social media to point out a worrying pattern of anti-Catholic sentiment in the country, which has been reportedly on the increase within the last few years.
On July 29, 31-year-old Jason Irvine, described of no-fixed-address, appeared in court, charged with both the assault of the 35-year-old Edinburgh priest and the assault of another individual in the Scottish capital's Princes Street Gardens. The attacks are said to have occurred within ten minutes of each other.
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| July 30th – Sts Abdon and Sennen |
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Posted by: Stone - 07-30-2021, 05:41 AM - Forum: July
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July 30 – Sts Abdon and Sennen
Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger (1841-1875)
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The decrees of Eternal Wisdom ordained that the West should be honored before the East with the glory of martyrdom. Yet when the hour had come, Jesus was to have, beyond the Tigris, millions of witnesses by no means inferior to their forerunners, astonishing heaven and earth by new forms of heroism. Impatient of the delay, two noble Persians won their palm on this day by the command of Rome. By shedding their blood they paid tribute for their native land to the eternal City; and now they protect our Latin Churches, and receive the prayers and praise of the West. France received a goodly portion of their sacred relics; and the city of Arles-sur-Tech, in Roussillon, can show to an incredulous generation the sarcophagus, from which flows a mysterious liquor, a symbol of the continual benefits bestowed on us by these holy martyrs.
Quote:During the reign of Decius, two Persians, Abdon and Sennen, were accused of burying on their own estate the bodies of the Christians which had been exposed. By order of the Emperor they were apprehended and commanded to sacrifice to the gods. As they refused to obey, and moreover with the greatest constancy proclaimed Jesus Christ to be God, whey were placed in close confinement, and when later, Decius returned to Rome, they were led in chains in his triumphal march. They were dragged to the Roman idols, but to show their hatred of the demons, they spat upon them. Upon this they were exposed to the fury of lions and bears, but the beasts did not dare to touch them; at length they were put to death by the sword. Their bodies were dragged by the feet before the statue of the Sun, but they were secretly carried away and buried by Quirinus the deacon in his own house.
Hearken to our earnest prayers, O blessed martyrs! May the faith at length triumph in that land of Persia whence so many flowers of martyrdom have been culled for heaven. Before the time appointed for the struggle to begin in your native land, ye went to meet death elsewhere, and thus ye gained a new fatherland whereon to bestow your love. Bless us, the fellow citizens of your choice, and bring us all to the eternal fatherland of all the children of God.
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| Gov. Cuomo: ‘Knock on doors,’ ‘put [people] in a car,’ ‘get that vaccine in their arm |
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Posted by: Scarlet - 07-29-2021, 07:59 PM - Forum: COVID Vaccines
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NY Gov. Cuomo: ‘Knock on doors,’ ‘put [people] in a car,’ ‘get that vaccine in their arm.’
Andrew Cuomo raised eyebrows this week with particularly aggressive
rhetoric aimed at getting the unvaccinated to take the shot.
ALBANY, New York, July 28, 2021 ( LifeSiteNews) — Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s community outreach plans have some Americans concerned. The New York governor this week described a “mission” to put unvaccinated New Yorkers in cars and “get that vaccine in their arm.”
“We have to get in those communities, and we have to knock on those doors, and we have to convince people, and put them in a car, and drive them, and get that vaccine in their arm,” Cuomo said during a COVID briefing at Yankee Stadium on Monday. “That is the mission.”
“In other words, he’s basically admitting that his administration would all but force New Yorkers to get an injection they’d otherwise be hesitant to get,” wrote Isa Cox in a commentary for the Western Journal.
“This is essentially what’s happening there,” Cox added. “We’re only a hair away from this degree of utter and total fascism.”
Cuomo made the startling comments even as 75% of New Yorkers are reportedly “fully vaccinated.”
The remaining 25% who haven’t gotten the jab account for about 3.5 million residents.
“These numbers can be hard to put into context, but 3.5 million is larger than 21 other states’ total population,” Cuomo said. “When you put this COVID delta variant — which is transmitted much easier than the normal COVID virus — you put that variant with 3.5 million people, that spells ‘spread of COVID.’”
The governor’s aggressive comments give life to the concerns many conservatives voiced when the Biden administration announced its controversial initiative to go door to door to convince Americans to get the jab.
“I won’t buy a magazine subscription door to door,” tweeted retired Major League Baseball player Aubrey Huff. “What makes you think I’d take a free poison into my body?”
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| Cdl. Burke: There are ‘many in the Church’ who are in ‘practical apostasy’ |
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Posted by: Deus Vult - 07-29-2021, 07:08 PM - Forum: In Defense of Tradition
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Cdl. Burke: There are ‘many in the Church’ who are in ‘practical apostasy’
The former head of the Vatican’s highest court declared that many in the Church
‘contradict the most fundamental truths of the faith’ by their lives.
ASHBURY, New Jersey, July 27, 2021 ( LifeSiteNews) — In a fiery homily, Cardinal Raymond Burke described the events to which the third secret of Fatima is referring as occurring currently, pointing to the “practical apostasy of our time, that is, the going away from Christ by many in the Church.”
The American cardinal delivered his homily at the National Blue Army Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima on July 13. The prelate noted how the third secret of Fatima, entrusted to Sr. Lucia by Our Lady in 1917, was “about the practical apostasy of our time, that is, the going away from Christ by many in the Church.”
These “many,” continued Burke, might not be formally heretical, but would “reject” the truth in their actions and through their very lives: “While they may not directly espouse heretical teachings, in practice they reject the truth and love which flows unceasingly and immeasurably from the glorious pierced Heart of Jesus, in order to embrace the falsehood and violence of contemporary culture. Their lives contradict the most fundamental truths of the faith.”
Abortion and LGBT ideology
Cardinal Burke highlighted the many aspects of the rejection of the “truths of the faith” which are exhibited by those falling away from Christ. He pointed first to abortion, decrying the “daily and widespread attack on innocent and defenseless human life with the resulting unprecedented violence in family life and in society, in general.”
In addition to this, the former Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the Church’s highest court, mentioned the “ever more virulent gender ideology.” This ideology has led to “total confusion” about even the human identity as “male and female,” added Burke.
With even just these first two points, Cardinal Burke might have referred to President Joe Biden, a self-professed “Catholic” who openly supports abortion as well as gender ideology. Biden’s promotion of abortion as an “essential health service” and wish to enshrine abortion into federal law, is in addition to his promotion of homosexuality and LGBT ideology.
A current ‘denial’ of freedom of religion
Burke further pointed to modern society’s attacks on “freedom of religion,” describing the “denial” of this freedom as an attempt to “snuff out completely, any public discourse about God and our necessary relationship with Him.”
Concomitant with such a societal change is the move to “force God-fearing individuals to act against their well-formed conscience, that is, against God’s law written upon the human heart.” Taking aim at the “supposedly free countries,” the cardinal commented how such a title was inaccurate.
[T]he government forces upon society practices of abortion, sterilization, contraception, euthanasia, and lack of respect for human sexuality, even to the point of indoctrinating small children in the iniquitous “gender theory.”
Meanwhile, as such promotion of policies contrary to “God’s law” sweep through society, “the embrace of atheistic materialism and relativism leads to the unscrupulous pursuit of wealth, pleasure and power, while the rule of law, dictated by justice, is trampled underfoot.”
Such a situation Burke described as “a pervasively disordered cultural condition” in which “the faith is abandoned, hope is lost, and love grows cold or is even extinguished.”
‘Catholic’ politicians give ‘scandal’ for violating ‘fundamental truths’
Once more, the 73-year-old American prelate took aim at Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and indeed any self-professed Catholic politician who does not adhere to Catholic teaching, noting the “scandal of Catholic legislators rebuking the Bishops of our country for seeking to apply the universal law of the Church regarding the worthy reception of the Holy Eucharist.”
His words come in light of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) proposed Eucharistic document, which Biden pre-emptively declared would not deal with the issue of pro-abortion politicians receiving Communion. Indeed, days later, the USCCB’s head of the Doctrine Committee, Bishop Kevin Rhoades, announce that the planned document would indeed not be instituting a “national policy on withholding Communion from politicians.”
Cardinal Burke defended bishops who seek to prevent the unworthy reception of Holy Communion, saying that by doing so, they “rightly seek to safeguard the sanctity of the Holy Eucharist, to prevent the faithful from committing sacrilege by the unworthy reception of the Holy Eucharist, and to stop the scandal caused by Catholic politicians presenting themselves to receive Holy Communion, while they obstinately persist in promoting legislation in violation of the most fundamental truths of the moral law.”
“These politicians, while grievously violating divine law, make themselves the law,” continued Burke. “Thus, they are offended by their Bishops, when they exercise their office of teachers of the faith and guardians of sacred discipline.”
‘ Only the Faith … can save man from the spiritual chastisements’
Returning once more to the description provided by Sr. Lucia of the not fully published third secret, Cardinal Burke highlighted the “martyrdom of those remaining true to Our Lord.”
He noted how “only the Faith,” by which man is united with the “Sacred Heart of Jesus, through the mediation of her Immaculate Heart, can save man from the spiritual chastisements which rebellion against God necessarily brings upon its perpetrators and upon the whole of society.”
Practicing this Faith in today’s “totally secularized culture,” entails a “readiness to accept ridicule, misunderstanding, persecution, exile and even death,” warned the prelate, if one is to “remain one with Christ in the Church under the maternal protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary.”
However, the cardinal, known for his prominent defense of traditional Catholic doctrine and the traditional Mass, also offered encouragement to the faithful. Urging them to remain close to Our Lady of Fatima, he recalled how “the intercession of the Virgin Mother of God and of all the saints will give us the strength and courage in what seems an impossible battle.”
Despite the hardships of which he warned for those wishing to remain true to the “Faith,” Burke closed by asking people to be “confident” and “trusting in the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus.”
The cardinal has previously issued vocal calls for Russia to be consecrated to Our Lady, according to the manner she requested in the apparitions at Fatima. At the 2017 Fatima Centennial Summit, in Irving, Texas, Burke stated: “Recognizing the necessity of a total conversion from atheistic materialism and communism to Christ, the call of Our Lady of Fatima to consecrate Russia to Her Immaculate Heart in accord with Her explicit instruction remains urgent.”
Adding that he did “not doubt for a moment the intention of Pope St. John Paul II to carry out the consecration on March 25, 1984,” the cardinal nevertheless stated that the “explicit instructions” remain uncompleted. As such, Burke declared, “It is evident that the consecration (of Russia) was not carried out in the manner requested by Our Lady.”
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| July 29th - St. Martha |
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Posted by: Stone - 07-29-2021, 06:04 AM - Forum: July
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July 29 – St Martha, Virgin
Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger (1841-1875)
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Magdalene this time was the first to meet our Lord. Scarcely a week had elapsed since her glorious passage, when she repaid her sister’s former kind office and came in her turn saying: “The Beloved is here and calleth for thee.” And Jesus preventing her, appeared himself and said: “Come, my hostess; come from exile, thou shalt be crowned.” Hostess of the Lord, then, is to be Martha’s title of nobility in heaven, as it was her privileged name on earth.
Into whatever city or town you shall enter, said the Man-God to his disciples, inquire who in it is worthy, and there abide. Now St. Luke relates that as they went, our Lord himself entered into a certain town, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. How could we give greater praise to Magdalene’s sister than by bringing together these two texts of the holy Gospel?
This certain town, where she was found worthy to give Jesus a lodging, this village, says St. Bernard, is our lowly earth, hidden like an obscure borough in the immensity of our Lord’s possessions. The Son of God had come down from heaven to seek the lost sheep; he had come into the world he had made, and the world knew him not; Israel, his own people, had not given him so much as a stone whereon to lay his head, and had left him in his thirst to beg water from the Samaritan. We, the Gentiles, whom he was thus seeking amid contradictions and fatigues, ought we not, like him, to show our gratitude to her who, braving present unpopularity and future persecution, paid our debt to him?
Glory, then, be to this daughter of Sion, of royal descent who, faithful to the traditions of hospitality handed down from the patriarchs and early fathers, was blessed more than all of them in the exercise of this noble virtue! These ancestors of our faith, pilgrims themselves and without fixed habitation, knew more or less obscurely that the Desired of Israel and the Expectation of the nations was to appear as a wayfarer and a stranger on the earth; and they honored the future Savior in the person of every stranger that presented himself at their tent door; just as we, their sons, in the faith of the same promises now accomplished, honor Christ in the guest whom his goodness sends us. This relation between him that was to come and the pilgrim seeking shelter made hospitality the most honored handmaid of divine charity. More than once did God show his approval by allowing Angels to be entertained in human form. If such heavenly visitations were an honor of which our earth was not worthy, how much greater was Martha’s privilege in rendering hospitality to the Lord of Angels! If before the Coming of Christ it was a great thing to honor him in those who prefigured him, and if now to shelter and serve him in his mystical members deserves an eternal reward, how much greater and more meritorious was it to receive in Person that Jesus, the very thought of whom gives to virtue its greatness and its merit. Again, as the Baptist excelled all the other Prophets by having pointed out as present the Messias whom they announced as future, so Martha, by having ministered to the Person of the Word made Flesh, ranks above all others who have ever exercised the works of mercy.
While Magdalene, then, keeps her better part at our Lord’s feet, we must not think that Martha’s lot is to be despised. As in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same office, so each of us has a different work to perform in Christ, according to the grace we have received, whether it be to prophesy or to minister. And the Apostle explaining this diversity of vocations, says: I say, by the grace that is given me, to all that are among you, not to be more wise than it behoveth to be wise, but to be wise unto sobriety, and according as God hath divided to every one the measure of faith. How many losses in souls, how many shipwrecks even, might be prevented by discretion, the guardian of doctrine and the mother of virtues.
“Whoever,” says St. Gregory with his usual discernment, “gives himself entirely to God must take care not to pour himself out wholly in works, but must stretch forward also to the heights of contemplation. Nevertheless, it is here very important to notice that there is a great variety of spiritual temperaments. One who could give himself peacefully to the contemplation of God would be crushed by works and fall; another, who would be kept in a good life by all the ordinary occupations of men, would be mortally wounded by the sword of a contemplation above his powers: either for want of love to prevent repose from becoming torpor, or for want of fear to guard him against the illusions of pride or of the senses. He who would be perfect must therefore first accustom himself on the plain to the practice of the virtues, in order to ascend more securely to the heights, leaving behind every impulse of the senses which can only distract the mind from its purpose, every image whose outline cannot adapt itself to the figureless light he desires to behold. Action first then, contemplation last. The Gospel praises Mary, but does not blame Martha, because the merit of the active life is great, though that of contemplation is greater.”
If we would penetrate more deeply into the mystery of the two sisters, let us notice that, though the preference is given to Mary, nevertheless it is not in her house, nor in that of their brother Lazarus, but in Martha’s house that the Man-God takes up his abode with those he loves. Jesus, says St. John, loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus. Lazarus, a figure of the penitents whom his all-powerful mercy daily calls from the death of sin to divine life; Mary, giving herself up even in this life to the occupation of the next; and Martha, who is here mentioned first as being the eldest, as first in order of time mystically, according to what St. Gregory says, and also as being the one upon whom the other two depend in that home of which she has the care.
Here we recognize a perfect type of the Church wherein, with the devotedness of fraternal love, and under the eye of our heavenly Father, the active ministry takes the precedence, and holds the place of government over all who are drawn by grace to Jesus. We can understand the Son of God showing a preference for this blessed house; he was refreshed from the weariness of his journeys by the devoted hospitality he there received, but still more by the sight of so perfect an image of that Church for whose love he had come on earth.
Martha, then, understood by anticipation, that he who holds the first place must be the servant, as the Son of Man came not to be ministered to, but to minister; and as, later on, the Vicar of Jesus, the Prince of Prelates in the holy Church, was to call himself the Servant of the servants of God. But in serving Jesus, as she served also with him and for him her brother and her sister, who can doubt that she had the greatest share in these promises of the Man-God: “He that ministers to me shall follow me, and where I am, there also shall my minister be, and my Father will honor him.”
And that beautiful rule of ancient hospitality which created a link like that of relationship between the host and a guest once received, could not have been passed over by our Emmanuel on this occasion, since the Evangelist says: As many as received him, he gave them power to be made the sons of God. And he himself declares that whoever receives him, receives also the Father who sent him.
The peace promised to every house deemed worthy of receiving the apostolic messengers, that peace which cannot be without the Spirit of adoption of sons, rested on Martha with surpassing fulness. The too human impetuosity she at first showed in her eager solicitude, had given our Lord an opportunity of showing his divine jealousy for the perfection of a soul so devoted and so pure. The sacred nearness of the King of peace stripped her lively nature of the last remnants of restless anxiety; while her service grew even more active and was well pleasing to him, her ardent faith in Christ, the Son of the living God, gave her the understanding of the one thing necessary, the better part which was one day to be hers. What a master of the spiritual life Jesus here showed himself to be; what a model of discreet formness, of patient sweetness, of heavenly wisdom in leading souls to the highest summits!
As he had counselled his disciples to remain in one house, the Man-God himself, to the end of his earthly career, continually sought hospitality at Bethania: it was from thence he set out to redeem the world by his dolorous Passion; and when leaving this world, it was from Bethania that he ascended into heaven. Then did this dwelling, this paradise on earth, which had given shelter to God himself, to his Virgin Mother, to the whole college of Apostles, seem too lonely to its inmates. Holy Church will tell us presently how the Spirit of Pentecost, in loving kindness to us Gentiles, led into Gaul this blessed family of our Lord’s friends.
On the banks of the Rhone, Martha was still the same: full of motherly compassion for every misery, spending herself in deeds of kindness. Always surrounded by the poor, says the ancient historian of the two sisters, she fed them with tender care, with food which heaven abundantly supplied to her charity, while she herself, the only one she forgot, was contended with herbs; and as in the glorious past she had served the Head of the Church in Person, she now served him in his members, and was full of loving kindness to all. Meantime she delighted in practices of penance that would frighten us. Martyred thus a thousand times over, Martha with all the powers of her holy soul yearned for heaven. Her mind lost in God, she spent whole nights absorbed in prayer. Ever prostrate, she adored him reigning gloriously in heaven, whom she had seen without glory in her own house. Often, too, she would travel through towns and villages, announcing to the people Christ the Savior.
Avignon and other cities of the province of Vienne were thus evangelized by her. She delivered Tarascon from the old serpent, who in the shape of a hideous monster not content with tyrannizing over the souls of men, devoured even their bodies. It was here at Tarascon, in the midst of the community of virgins she had founded, that she heard our Lord inviting her to receive hospitality from him in heaven, in return for that which she had given him on earth. Here she still rests, protecting her people of Provence, and receiving strangers in memory of Jesus. The peace of the blessed, which seems to breathe from her noble image, fills the heart of the pilgrim as he kisses her apostolic feet; and coming up from the holy crypt to continue his journey in this land of exile, he carries away with him, like a perfume of his fatherland, the remembrance of her simple touching epitaph: sollicita non turbatur; ever zealous, she is no longer troubled.
Quote:Martha was born of noble and wealthy parents, but she is still more illustrious for the hospitality she gave to Christ our Lord. After his Ascension into heaven, she was seized by the Jews, together with her brother and sister, Marcella her handmaid, and Maxima, one of the seventy-two disciples of our Lord, who had baptized the whole family, and many other Christians. They were put on board a ship without sails or oars, and left helpless on the open sea, exposed to certain shipwreck. But God guided the ship, and they all arrived safely at Marseilles.
This miracle, together with their preaching, brought the people of Marseilles, of Aix, and of the neighborhood to believe in Christ. Lazarus was made Bishop of Marseilles and Maximin of Aix. Magdalene, who was accustomed to devote herself to prayer and to sit at our Lord’s feet, in order to enjoy the better part, which she had chosen, that is, contemplation of the joys of heaven, retired into a deserted cave on a very high mountain. There she lived for thirty years, separated from all human intercourse; and every day she was carried to heaven by the Angels to hear their songs of praise.
But Martha, after having won the love and admiration of the people of Marseilles by the sanctity of her life and her wonderful charity, withdrew in the company of several virtuous women to a spot remote from men, where she lived for a long time, greatly renowned for her piety and prudence. She foretold her death long before it occurred; and at length, famous for miracles, she passed to our Lord on the 4thof the Calends of August. Her body which lies at Tarascon is held in great veneration.
Now that, together with Magdalene, thou hast entered forever into possession of the better part, thy place in heaven, O Martha, is very beautiful. For they that have ministered well, says St. Paul, shall purchase to themselves a good degree, and much confidence in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. The same service which the deacons, here alluded to by the Apostle, performed for the Church, thou didst render to the Church’s Head and Spouse; thou didst rule well thine own house, which was a figure of that Church so dear to the Son of God. But God is not unjust, that he should forget your work and the love which you have shown in his name, you who have ministered and do minister to the souls. And the Saint of saints himself, thy indebted guests, gave us to understand something of thy greatness when, speaking merely of a faithful servant set over the family to distribute food in due season, he cried out: Blessed is that servant whom when his lord shall come, he shall find so doing. Amen I say to you, he shall place him over all his goods. O Martha, the Church exults on this day, whereon our Lord found thee thus continuing to serve him in the persons of those little ones in whom he bids us seek him. The moment had come for him to welcome thee eternally. Henceforth the Host most faithful of all to the laws of hospitality, makes thee sit at his table in his own house, and girding himself, ministers to thee as thou didst minister to him.
From the midst of thy peaceful rest, protect those who are now carrying on the interests of Christ on earth, in his mystical Body, which is the entire Church, and in his wearied and suffering members the poor and the afflicted. Bless and multiply the works of holy hospitality; may the vast field of mercy and charity yield ever-increasing harvests. May the zeal displayed by so many generous souls lose nothing of its praiseworthy activity; and for this end, O sister of Magdalene, teach us all as our Lord taught thee, to place the one thing necessary above all else, and to value at its true worth the better part. After the word spoken to thee, for our sake as well as thine own, whosoever would disturb Magdalene at the feet of Jesus, or forbid her to sit there, would deserve to have his works frustrated by offended heaven.
Let us, in union with the Church, make a commemoration of Saints Simplicius and Faustinus, martyred in the persecution of Diocletian, together with their sister Viatrice, whose name was gracefully changed into Beatrice after she had gone to heaven. The sisters had time to bury her brothers; and after her own combat she was laid to rest beside them, by the last of the celebrated Lucinas. The hour for the triumph of the Church had not yet arrived; nevertheless the tomb of this illustrious trio, in the very grove of the Dea Dia of the Arvales, proclaims the victory of Christ over the most ancient superstitions of Rome. The holy Pontiff Felix, who shares the honors paid to this glorious company, suffered in the time of the Arians.
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Prayer
Præsta, quæsumus Comine, ut sicut populus christianus martyrum tuorum Felicis, Simplicii, Faustini, et Beatricis temporali solemnitate congandet: ita perfruatur æterna; et quod votic celebrat, comprehendat effectu. Per Dominum.
Grant, we beseech thee, O Lord, that as thy Christian people rejoice together in the temporal solemnity of thy martyrs Felix, Simplicius, Faustinus, and Beatrice, they may enjoy it in eternity, and may effectually attain to what they celebrate in desire. Through our Lord, &c.
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