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| Quotes by Pope St. Pius X |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-27-2021, 06:49 AM - Forum: The Saints
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Quotes by Pope St. Pius X
1) “Where is the road which leads us to Jesus Christ? It is before our eyes: it is the Church. It is our duty to recall to everyone, great and small, the absolute necessity we are under to have recourse to this Church in order to work out our eternal salvation.”
2) “I was born poor, I have lived in poverty, and I wish to die poor.”
3) “All the strength of Satan’s reign is due to the easygoing weakness of Catholics.”
4) “The Rosary is the most beautiful and the most rich in graces of all prayers, it is the prayer that touches most the Heart of the Mother of God … and if you wish peace to reign in your homes, recite the family Rosary.”
5) “Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to Heaven.”
6) “Without any doubt there is a desire in all hearts for peace. But how foolish is he who seeks this peace apart from God; for if God be driven out, justice is banished, and once justice fails, all hope of peace is lost.”
7) “It is necessary that children be nourished by Christ before they are dominated by their passions, so they can with greater courage resist the assaults of the devil, of the flesh, and their other enemies, whether internal or external.”
8) “Truly we are passing through disastrous times, when we may well make our own the lamentation of the Prophet: ‘There is no truth, and there is no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God in the land’ (Hosea 4:1). “Yet in the midst of this tide of evil, the Virgin Most Merciful rises before our eyes like a rainbow, as the arbiter of peace between God and man.”
9) “The greatest obstacle in the apostolate of the Church is the timidity, or rather the cowardice, of the faithful.”
10) “Let the storm rage and the sky darken – not for that shall we be dismayed. If we trust as we should in Mary, we shall recognize in her, the Virgin Most Powerful ‘who with virginal foot did crush the head of the serpent.'”
11) “Far, far from the clergy be the love of novelty!”
12) “...the great movement of apostasy being organized in every country for the establishment of a One-World Church which shall have neither dogmas, nor hierarchy, neither discipline for the mind, nor curb for the passions, and which, under the pretext of freedom and human dignity, would bring back to the world (if such a Church could overcome) the reign of legalized cunning and force, and the oppression of the weak, and of all those who toil and suffer. [...] Indeed, the true friends of the people are neither revolutionaries, nor innovators: they are traditionalists.
13) “The daily adoration or visit to the Blessed Sacrament is the practice which is the fountainhead of all devotional works”
14) “But since the Modernists (as they are commonly and rightly called) employ a very clever artifice, namely, to present their doctrines without order and systematic arrangement into one whole, scattered and disjointed one from another, so as to appear to be in doubt and uncertainty, while they are in reality firm and steadfast, it will be of advantage, Venerable Brethren, to bring their teachings together here into one group, and to point out the connexion between them, and thus to pass to an examination of the sources of the errors, and to prescribe remedies for averting the evil.”
15)“What will it cost you, oh Mary, to hear our prayer? What will it cost you to save us? Has not Jesus placed in your hands all the treasures of His grace and mercy? You sit crowned Queen at the right hand of your son: your dominion reaches as far as the heavens and to you are subject the earth and all creatures dwelling thereon. Your dominion reaches even down into the abyss of hell, and you alone, oh Mary, save us from the hands of Satan.”
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| US House passes pro-abortion ‘Equality Act’ to write transgenderism into civil rights law |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-27-2021, 06:42 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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US House passes pro-abortion ‘Equality Act’ to write transgenderism into civil rights law
'We are witnessing the greatest assault on religious freedom, biological reality, and parental rights ever seen in the U.S. Congress.'
WASHINGTON, February 25, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — The U.S. House of Representatives voted 224 to 206 today to pass the “Equality Act,” which would write transgenderism into federal civil rights law, compel medical professionals to commit abortions and transgender surgeries, and expand taxpayer-funded abortion on demand.
“On occasion, Congressional leaders will purposely misname a piece of legislation to disguise its true intention. The Equality Act is the epitome of this misrepresentation,” said Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO), who voted against the bill. “Should this bill become law, the wellbeing of our children, the role of parents, the privacy and safety of vulnerable women, the competitive edge of female athletes, the livelihoods of charities and businesses, and the integrity of our healthcare system will all be jeopardized. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.”
Three Republicans voted for the conscience-crushing legislation: Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Rep. John Katko of New York, and Rep. Tom Reed of New York. All House Democrats voted in favor of it.
“We are witnessing the greatest assault on religious freedom, biological reality, and parental rights ever seen in the U.S. Congress,” reacted Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. “The Act demands that faith be quarantined within your mind and says that’s where it must stay. However, Bible believers cannot set God’s Word aside to bow before the Equality Act.”
Abortion funding, crackdown on religious institutions, demolition of women’s sports
“This Trojan horse legislation makes a mockery of equality by enshrining a ‘right’ to abortion, the greatest violation of human rights today,” commented Marjorie Dannenfelser, President of the Susan B. Anthony List. “Catering to the most extreme elements of the abortion lobby, the bill’s definition of sex discrimination equates abortion with pregnancy and childbirth. If Democrats succeed in rolling back even modest pro-life protections, health care workers and institutions will be forced to participate in abortions.”
The bill, which the Catholic League’s Bill Donahue called “the most comprehensive assault on Christianity ever written into law,” would be used “as a sword to persecute those who do not embrace new sexual and gender ideologies,” said Ryan Anderson, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
Anderson noted the Equality Act “sacrifices the equality, safety, and privacy of women, while privileging men who identify as women: If this bill becomes law, they’d have a civil right to spend the night in a battered women’s shelter, disrobe in a women’s locker room, and compete on a women’s sports team — even children at K-12 public schools.”
“Religious institutions fare no better,” continued Anderson. “Religious schools, adoption agencies, and other charities would face federal sanction for operating according to basic biology and mainstream Biblical teaching on sex and marriage. Outrageously, this act exempts itself from the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.”
Lila Rose, founder and president of Live Action, called the Equality Act “a club to punish dissent.”
“As has been noted numerous times by now, this legislation would be devastating for women’s rights, forcing female athletes to compete against biological males and opening private women’s spaces to men, including bathrooms, locker rooms, and shelters,” said Terry Schilling of the American Principles Project.
The bill will need 60 votes to pass the U.S. Senate, unless Democrats change procedural rules and “nuke” the filibuster. Republicans could have done this in 2017 when they held the House, Senate, and White House, and thus easily enacted sweeping pro-life and conservative reforms, but they did not.
Eliminating the filibuster has long been a goal of the far-left, though. Just days ago, pro-abortion Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) tweeted, “If we don’t get rid of the filibuster, Senate Republicans could block progress on … the Equality Act.”
RELATED:
5 things to know about the anti-family Equality Act that could pass this week
Democrat Equality Act ‘the most comprehensive assault on Christianity ever written into law’
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| April 11th - St. Gemma Galgani and St. Leo the Great |
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Posted by: Elizabeth - 02-26-2021, 10:52 PM - Forum: April
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Saint Gemma Galgani
Virgin
(1878-1903)
Saint Gemma Galgani was born at Camigliano in Tuscany, Italy, in 1878. Her mother died when she was seven years old, and from that time on her life was one of continuous suffering. Her afflictions were caused by ill-health, by the poverty into which her family fell, by the scoffing of those who took offense at her practices of devotion, and finally, by the physical attacks of the devil. Through it all, however, she remained at peace and enjoyed constant communion with our Lord, who spoke to her as if He were bodily present. She earnestly desired to be a Passionist nun, but was not accepted because of her physical infirmities.
She was the subject of various extraordinary supernatural phenomena — visions, ecstasies, revelations, supernatural knowledge, conversations with her visible Guardian Angel, prophecy and miracles. Her director verified that letters which she wrote and committed to the care of her good Angel were infallibly delivered. Saint Gemma had periodically occurring stigmata between 1899 and 1901. At one time during her sufferings, she was asked: If Jesus gave you the choice between two alternatives, either going immediately to heaven and having your sufferings disappear, or else remaining here in suffering to procure still more glory for the Lord, which would you choose? She answered: I prefer to remain here rather than going to heaven, when it is a question of suffering for Jesus and His glory. She died on Holy Saturday in 1903 and was canonized in 1940.
Saint Leo the Great
Pope
(398-461)
Saint Leo was born in Rome. He embraced the sacred ministry, was made Archdeacon of the Roman Church by Pope Saint Celestine, and under the same Vicar of Christ and Saint Sixtus III, had a large share in governing the Church. On the death of Sixtus, Leo was chosen Pope, and consecrated on Saint Michael's day, 440, amid great joy.
It was the time of terrible trial which preceded by thirty years the definitive fall of the Roman Empire. Vandals and Huns were wasting the provinces of the empire, and Nestorians, Pelagians, and other heretics wrought still more grievous havoc in souls. While Leo's zeal was making headway against these perils, there arose the new heresy of Eutyches, who confounded the two natures of Christ. At once the vigilant pastor proclaimed the true doctrine of the Incarnation in his famous tome; but fostered by the Byzantine court, the heresy gained a strong hold upon the Eastern monks and bishops. After three years of unceasing toil, Saint Leo brought about its solemn condemnation by the Council of Chalcedon, the Fathers all signing his tome, and exclaiming, Peter has spoken by Leo.
Soon after, Attila with his Huns broke into Italy, and marched through its razed cities upon Rome. Leo went out boldly to meet him, and prevailed on him to turn back. His chieftains were astonished to see the terrible Attila, the Scourge of God, fresh from the sack of Aquileia, Milan and Pavia and with the rich prize of Rome within his grasp, turn his great host back to the Danube at the Saint's word. They asked him why he had acted so strangely. He told them he had seen two venerable personages — who are generally supposed to be Saints Peter and Paul — standing behind Saint Leo; and impressed by this vision, he withdrew. Two years later the city fell a prey to the Vandals, but Leo saved it again from total destruction. He died in 461 after having ruled the Church for a little over twenty years.
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| Prayer to the Immaculate Virgin Mary by Pope St. Pius X |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-26-2021, 07:42 AM - Forum: In Honor of Our Lady
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Prayer of St. Pius X to the Immaculate Virgin Mary
![[Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Foneintheirhearts.files....f=1&nofb=1]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Foneintheirhearts.files.wordpress.com%2F2015%2F11%2Fimmaculate-conception-novena-first-day-she-whose-heel-crushes-the-head-of-the-serpent1.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)
O most holy Virgin who didst find favor in God’s sight and hast become His Mother; O Virgin, immaculate in body and soul, in thy faith and in thy love, look down with pity on the wretched who in our need seek thy powerful protection.
The evil serpent on whom was cast the primal curse continues, alas, to attack and ensnare the poor children of Eve. But thou, our Blessed Mother, our Queen and our Advocate, thou who from the first instant of thy conception didst crush the head of this cruel enemy, receive our prayers. United to thee with one heart, we beseech thee to present them before the throne of God.
May we never be caught in the snares around us, but rather may we all reach the harbor of salvation. Despite the awesome perils which threaten, may God’s Church and all Christian society sing out once again the hymn of deliverance, of victory and of peace. Amen.
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| To Jesus carrying His Cross - Devotion to the Passion |
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Posted by: Hildegard of Bingen - 02-25-2021, 12:52 PM - Forum: In Honor of Our Lord
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DEVOTION TO THE PASSION
To Jesus carrying His Cross.
Jesus goeth before us, as our Captain, with His cross; under this standard
we must follow Him, each bearing his own cross.
(Taken from St. Alphonsus’ Prayer-Book – pages 449-450)
My Jesus, since God has burdened Thee with all the sins of men, my sins, alas! Have added to the weight of the cross that Thou didst bear to Calvary. Ah, my sweetest Saviour, Thou didst even then foresee all the wrongs that I should do Thee; yet Thou didst not cease to love me, or to prepare for me all mercies that Thou hast since employed towards me. If, then, I, a most vile and ungrateful sinner who has so much offended Thee, am dear to Thee, it is but just hat Thou shouldst be dear to me, -- Thou, my God, Who art infinite in beauty and goodness, and Who hast loved me so much. Ah, would that I had never displeased Thee! Now, my Jesus, do I know the wrong that I have done Thee. O ye accursed sins of mine, what have you done? You have caused me to sadden the loving heart of my Redeemer. Thou dost go before me with Thy cross, innocent as Thou art, and dost invite me to follow Thee with mine; go forward, then, for I will not abandon Thee. If, in time past, I have abandoned Thee, I confess that I have done wrong. Give me now whatever cross Thou wilt, and, whatsoever it may be, I will embrace it and accompany Thee with it even unto death: “Let us go forth from the camp, bearing His reproach.” And how O Lord, how can it be possible for us not to love sufferings and shame out of love fore Thee, since Thou didst love them so well for our salvation? But since Thou dost invite us to follow Thee, it is our wish to follow Thee and to die with Thee: give us only the strength to carry out our desire. This strength we ask of Thee and hope for by Thy merits. I love Thee, O my Jesus, I love Thee with all my soul, and I will never abandon Thee more; too long have I gone astray from Thee. Bind me now to Thy cross. If I have despised Thy love, I repent of it with all my heart; and I now prize it above every good. Help me, O my Jesus, to be ever making acts of love towards Thee, and to depart out of this life while making an act of love, that so I may arrive at loving. Thee without imperfection and without interruption, and with all my powers, to all eternity, O Mother of God, pray for me. Amen.
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| April 10th - St. Michael de los Santos and St. Bademus |
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Posted by: Elizabeth - 02-25-2021, 12:45 AM - Forum: April
- Replies (1)
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Saint Michael de los Santos
Trinitarian Priest
(1591-1624)
Saint Michael was born in Spain in 1591 of parents notable both for their piety and their probity. Their son from his early childhood made a vow of perpetual chastity; his father, when he heard of it, one day with a smile proposed to him, to test him, a fine marriage. The child began to weep and hurried to an altar of the Blessed Virgin to renew his vow. At the age of six he fled to a cave to meditate on the Passion of Our Lord. When his father sent out a search party, he was obliged to return, but continued to live only for heaven, keeping himself constantly in the presence of God. He chose Saint Francis of Assisi for his model and practiced extreme mortifications to imitate Jesus crucified.
At the age of twelve he presented himself at the novitiate of the Trinitarians of Barcelona, who admitted him. He made his perpetual vows in 1607, and assisted in the reform of the Order, in progress at that time. He never ceased to practice the primitive rule of the Institute. Saint Michael never had more than one tunic; beneath it he wore rude hair shirts. He practiced a perpetual fast and imposed constant disciplines on his flesh.
He was ordained a priest, and then it was at the altar that he received the most signal favors from heaven and inspired in those in attendance a most remarkable devotion. Twice Saint Michael was named Superior of the houses where he resided, yet he never became inflated with pride; on the contrary he believed himself worse than the demons. It seemed that heaven envied the earth in the possession of this Saint; he died at the age of thirty-three. Miracles followed at his tomb, and he was canonized in 1862 by Pope Pius IX.
Saint Bademus
Martyr
(† 376)
Bademus was originally a rich and noble citizen of Bethlapeta in Persia, who sold his rich possessions to follow Christ, then gave the greater part of the proceeds to the poor. He reserved just enough to found a monastery near that city, to which he retired with several other persons, and then governed it with great sanctity. He conducted his religious in the paths of perfection with sweetness, prudence, and charity.
To crown his virtue, God permitted him, with seven of his monks, to be apprehended by the followers of King Sapor in the thirty-sixth year of that king's persecution. He lay four months in a dungeon, loaded with chains, and during this lingering martyrdom received every day a cruel flagellation. But he triumphed over his torments by the patience and joy with which he suffered them for Christ.
At the same time a prince named Nersan, who was a Christian, was cast into prison and his goods confiscated because he refused to adore the sun. At first he seemed resolute, but at the sight of tortures his constancy failed him, and he promised to conform if he could be delivered. The king, to test whether his change was sincere, ordered Bademus to be brought where Nersan was kept in the royal palace, and sent word to Nersan that if he would slay the abbot, he would be restored to his liberty and former dignities. The apostate accepted the condition; a sword was put into his hand, and he advanced to plunge it into the breast of the abbot. But being seized with a sudden terror, he stopped short, and remained some time unable to lift up his arm to strike; he had neither courage to repent, nor heart to accomplish his crime.
Finally he hardened himself and continued with a trembling hand to aim at the martyr's sides. Fear, shame, remorse, and respect made his strokes forceless and unsteady; and so great was the number of his victim's wounds that the bystanders were in admiration at his invincible patience. Saint Bademus reproached his executioner, saying, What will you do on the day when you will have to render an account of your actions, and hear the sentence of your condemnation? I offer myself willingly to die for the glory of my Lord Jesus Christ, but I would prefer to die by another hand than yours! The pagans themselves were horrified at the cruelty of the king, the long martyrdom, and the perfidious acts of the apostate.
Saint Bademus suffered on the 10th of April in the year 376. His body was cast out of the city, but secretly carried away and interred by the Christians. A short time afterwards Nersan fell into public disgrace, and perished by the sword. The disciples of the Saint were released from their chains four years later, at the death of King Sapor.
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| Easter Sunday Holy Mass Schedule [2021] |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-24-2021, 05:34 PM - Forum: Event Schedule
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Holy Sacrifice of the Mass - Easter Sunday [April 4, 2021]
![[Image: ?u=http%3A%2F%2Fcatholicphilly.com%2Fmed...f=1&nofb=1]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fcatholicphilly.com%2Fmedia-files%2F2013%2F03%2FResurrection_of_Christ-2-300x296.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)
✠ ✠ ✠ First Mass ✠ ✠ ✠
Time: Confessions - 7:30 AM
Holy Mass - 8:00 AM
Location: Avonlea Highland Apartments
950 East Main Street
Apt. #615
Cartersville, GA 30121
Contact: Tim Cline
404-379-6393
tcline0617@gmail.com
✠ ✠ ✠ Second Mass ✠ ✠ ✠
Time: Confessions - 1:00 PM
Holy Mass - 1:30 PM
Location: 752 County Highway 47
Blountsville, AL 35031
Contact: Ron 205-429-4087
✠ ✠ ✠ Third Mass ✠ ✠ ✠
Time: Confessions - 7:00 PM
Holy Mass - 7:30 PM
Location: Buchanan Log House
2910 Elm Hill Pike
Nashville, TN 37214
Contact: 510-368-4994
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| US doctors propose ‘Vaccine Bill of Rights’ to protect citizens from forced shots |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-24-2021, 12:17 PM - Forum: COVID Vaccines
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US doctors propose ‘Vaccine Bill of Rights’ to protect citizens from forced shots
‘No one – not the government, employers, nor any individual – should maintain the authority to force anyone to get vaccinated,
and a Vaccine Bill of Rights in your state will ensure that they don’t.‘
February 24, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — With a push for vaccine mandates on the rise, America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS) has provided a tool to assist state law makers in protecting the rights and dignity of their constituents in the face of such intrusive, dangerous and unnecessary proposals.
The “Vaccine Bill of Rights” (VBOR) was composed “so that state legislatures can re-affirm their commitment to individual rights of conscience, assembly, and movement,” an AFLDS announcement states.
With this draft resolution, AFLDS encourages their readers: “You are now armed with the tools to fight for your freedom. THIS IS YOUR MISSION.”
AFLDS urges everyone to contact their “state representative with a copy of the VBOR urging him/her to pass the resolution immediately.”
In order to help facilitate the dissemination of this critical and urgent appeal to state representatives, the LifeSite Action Center has sponsored a nation-wide “Alert” on its Voter Voice platform, which allows constituents to contact their state legislators in one easy step using a single simple contact form. This system will automatically match citizens to their representatives’ email and / or Twitter accounts, and with a single click they can send their message to them directly. Calling the legislators’ offices is an option provided as well.
The VBOR itself seeks to ensure “six general categories of protections for individuals against overweening government and attempted interventions by private businesses and organizations.” These protections include the following:
- No persons will be mandated, coerced, forced or pressured to take a COVID-19 vaccine.
- No physician or nurse shall be asked by their employer to promote a COVID-19 vaccine.
- All persons reserve the right, at all times, to determine what is in their own best medical interest without threat to their livelihood or freedom of movement.
- All persons must be given access to independent information to help them determine what is in their own best medical interest, including the risk of death based upon age/condition from contracting COVID-19 naturally. This information must include information from sources that are independent of a conflict of interest such as a government, political or commercial entity. Such information can be included but cannot be the sole source of information.
- The elderly are additionally entitled to a knowledgeable, independent advocate with medical training to help them determine their own medical interest.
- Private businesses operating within the jurisdiction have no legal authority to require or mandate or coerce medication or experimental medication for any persons.
In a press release announcing the VBOR, AFLDS went on to state, “Mandates, ‘passports’ or any effort to intimidate Americans into taking a vaccine for a virus with a 99.7% survival rate not only is damaging to individual liberty, it also contradicts safe medical practice. Yet state governments, along with powerful private interests, are moving in the direction of requiring inoculations for large segments of our society as a condition to return to a ‘normal’ life. This is wrong.”
“As part of the AFLDS commitment to science-based information exchange, transparency, and accountability, our organization developed this Vaccine Bill of Rights so that state legislatures can re-affirm their commitments to individual rights of conscience, assembly, and movement. America’s Frontline Doctors encourages our representatives to immediately pass this critical measure, direct public health officials to comply, and preserve the freedom of their constituents.”
The LifeSite Action Alert clarifies that the fundamental rights listed above are “at risk of total violation thanks to extreme government efforts around the world to force people to get vaccinated.”
“The AFLDS proposal is a reasonable, responsible, and reassuring step in the right direction as we move into the next phase of the pandemic, and state legislators should either introduce its provisions as legislation or model their proposal after them,” the Alert states.
“No one – not the government, employers, nor any individual – should maintain the authority to force anyone to get vaccinated, and a Vaccine Bill of Rights in your state will ensure that they don’t.
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| Operation Choke Point |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-24-2021, 09:09 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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Political article with wide-ranging implications/extrapolations:
Biden Administration Prepares Way For Banks To Refuse Service To Democrats’ Enemies
By abusing the powers of federal regulators, Operation Choke Point 2.0 would stifle the bipartisanship, unity, and healing President Biden claims to desire.
The Federalist | February 19, 2021
Amongst the record-breaking number of executive actions taken by President Joe Biden was one related to a little-known, frightening Obama-era program called Operation Choke Point. The program, dubbed so under former Attorney General Eric Holder, uses the power of the federal government to target legal yet leftist-disfavored businesses. These include gun sellers, pawnshops, and short-term money lenders.
The Trump administration did its best to end this blatantly unconstitutional program that sought to discriminate against legal industries. In 2017, the Justice Department declared the program “formally over.” At the end of Trump’s term, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency established the Fair Access rule to solidify its culmination.
But on Jan. 28, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency under President Biden announced it would pause the Trump-era rule intended to prevent another Operation Choke Point from happening again.
The Backstory of Operation Choke Point
The Obama administration rule appeared innocuous enough, instructing banks to “conduct risk assessments of individual customers, rather than make broad-based decisions affecting whole categories or classes of customers when providing access to services, capital, and credit.”
Under Operation Choke Point, federal regulators instructed banks to do the opposite — to openly discriminate against entire industries the Obama administration found objectionable.Weaponizing the power of banking regulators at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of Comptroller of the Currency, the Obama administration realized it could block entire industries from the banking system that it didn’t like. This made it difficult — if not impossible — for politically unfavored businesses such as gun sellers and short-term lenders to operate.
Essentially, by using the power of federal banking regulators to intimidate banks from providing their services to these industries, the administration choked off their access to the financial system, leaving them paying more for essential banking services, or unable to use a bank at all.
The Obama administration claimed the program was intended to root out fraud by cutting off “high risk” industries from the banking system. But the administration didn’t make any differentiation between legal and illegal “high risk” industries, intentionally grouping lawful industries such as firearms sellers with patently illegal activities like Ponzi and credit-card schemes.
Different agencies within the Obama administration denied wrongdoing in various ways. At least one bank, however, admitted to choking off three legal enterprises at the government’s behest. Dozens of business owners — many of them gun sellers and short-term lenders — said their bank accounts and access to credit card processing platforms were suddenly stymied or shut down with no explanation and no opportunity for recourse.
Given its stained reputation, we shouldn’t expect the Biden administration to bring back Operation Choke Point under the same shameless name. But the return of the larger strategy behind Operation Choke Point appears here to stay.
Whereas seven years ago the idea of using the powers of the federal government to choke certain Americans from public life was controversial enough for the Obama administration to deny wrongdoing, in today’s era of social justice and cancel culture, it’s applauded.
Build Your Own Banks
Within corporate America, an employee was run out of Boeing over an article he published 33 years beforehand arguing women shouldn’t serve in combat (a position many Americans hold today). In the media, a Jewish, pro-Israel, pro-choice, bisexual writer was choked from The New York Times for not being leftist enough.
In Hollywood, a conservative actress was choked from Disney for expressing politically incorrect views on her private social media account. In the beauty blogging world, a conservative blogger was ousted from her role as a Sephora representative.
For all intents and purposes, Operation Choke Point is happening every day on a massive scale. Yet instead of “just” choking off access to capital and banking services, we’re witnessing a stranglehold on information, speech, and the broader marketplace of ideas. Concerningly, the government is now playing an active role.
As exemplified by Parler and the recent Twitter purge, Big Tech is choking conservatives off their social media platforms while Democrats cheer it on. In an attempt to choke conservatives out of entire industries of employment, critical race theory training and pledges are being forced on schools, government workplaces, and the armed forces.
This Dynamic Is Now Worse
Signs of Operation Choke Point’s formal resurrection are symbolic of the larger attempt by government actors to choke politically disfavored industries and individuals from the mainstream. While cancel culture has led to a politicized economy, the federal government’s arbitrarily targeting of individuals, groups, and entire companies will increase the politicization of the country, where the only acceptable views are from those in power.
Operating in the dark corners of the federal bureaucracy, Operation Choke Point bypasses public input and the legislative process, leaving politically unpopular individuals and businesses to fend for themselves. If the Biden administration’s rule reversal is any sign, the next four years won’t be about unifying the country to “Build Back Better.”
After being choked from essential services in the economy, conservatives and right-of-center businesses will have no choice but to Build Your Own — if that’s even still tolerated or allowed. Build your own banks, build your own credit card processing companies, build your own web hosting platforms, build your own social media platforms, build your own companies, build your own media, build your own schools, and build your own country — because you’re choked from “ours.”
Of course, all this will do nothing to further the causes of bipartisanship, unity, and healing President Biden claims to desire. Capitalizing on the trend of cancel culture, a return of Operation Choke Point would devastate an already damaged country. By abusing the powers of federal regulators, Operation Choke Point 2.0 would solidify what most right-of-center Americans already know: Instead of unity, Democrats want you choked from everyday life.
Three years ago, former President Obama infamously claimed his administration “didn’t have a scandal that embarrassed us.” While it’s tempting to point to Operation Choke Point to refute this, perhaps Obama was right. With Biden sitting by Obama’s side, the Obama administration wasn’t the least bit embarrassed about using its powers to choke legal businesses from existence. Indeed, it was the entire goal and they appear poised to do it again.
[Emphasis mine.]
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| Big Tech project to judge 'truthfulness' of online information |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-24-2021, 08:51 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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Microsoft heads Big Tech project to judge truthfulness of online information
Critics view the Big Tech coalition's 'content provenance specifications' as the makings of a dystopian future in which free thought is effectively banned.
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February 23, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — Several of the world’s largest tech and media companies have joined forces in a new globalist effort to combat “disinformation, misinformation and online content fraud” in a move that has raised concerns about the complete governance of the internet.
A press release issued February 22 by Microsoft stated that the computer and software company would be joined by Adobe, Arm, BBC, Intel, Microsoft, and Truepic, who would together form the “Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA).” The C2PA would have as its aim the tackling of what Microsoft termed the “prevalence of disinformation, misinformation and online content fraud through developing technical standards for certifying the source and history or provenance of media content.”
In order to effect this, the C2PA announced its plan to “establish a standardized provenance solution with the goal of combating misleading content.” Under the “solution” mentioned, the C2PA seeks to enable vast numbers of internet users to take part in locating any piece of information deemed “misinformation.” The statement reads: “C2PA member organizations will work together to develop content provenance specifications for common asset types and formats to enable publishers, creators and consumers to trace the origin and evolution of a piece of media, including images, videos, audio and documents.”
C2PA’s announcement pointed to the nature of the internet necessitating such an organization to build “trust” and stressed the need for collaboration among companies, whose purview extended to nearly all corners of the digital world: “Collaboration with chipmakers, news organizations, and software and platform companies is critical to facilitate a comprehensive provenance standard and drive broad adoption across the content ecosystem.”
The C2PA is not a novel idea, as Microsoft acknowledges that it builds upon the similar, pre-existing Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) and Project Origin. The latter is a joint effort of Microsoft, the BBC, CBC/Radio Canada, and the New York Times. These four organizations referred to the “growing threat” of “misinformation” and wrote that Project Origin would “establish a foundation for trust in media.”
“With the foundation of the C2PA, technical standards will be unified while these two entities [CAI and Project Origin] continue to pursue adoption, prototyping and education within their respective communities,” Microsoft announced.
Microsoft’s chief scientific officer and Project Origin executive sponsor Eric Horvitz mentioned that there was a “critical need to address widespread deception in online content.” In a blog post about the C2PA, Horvitz revealed that the organization is a brain child of the 2019 Davos meeting, the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting to organize and promote globalist agendas and social engineering.
Horvitz wrote that a key part of the “fight against disinformation is to develop and field technologies for certifying the origin, authenticity and history of online media.” With the arrival of the C2PA, headed by the U.K. news group BBC and software company Microsoft, online media looks set to be subject to the certifying, and authentication of organisations which are part of the C2PA, or merely conform to its directives and standards.
Such news of the formation of C2PA met with backlash from some online, as people were quick to comment on the potential dangers of the new organization. “‘Combat disinformation’ = ‘information we deem fit to be released to the pleb’,” wrote one Twitter user.
Irish media outlet Gript noted that the plans to vet information on the internet raise “all sorts of potential issues surrounding the accuracy and trustworthiness of so-called “official” information.” Gript noted the example of the World Health Organization’s messages in early January 2020 claiming that there was no evidence of any person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 before having to change its “official” statements shortly after.
The formation of the C2PA comes shortly after an opinion piece in the New York Times, one of the four members of the C2PA’s parent group Project Origin, advocated for the appointing of a “reality czar,” who would “tackle disinformation and domestic extremism.” The author, Kevin Roose, called for U.S. president Joe Biden to appoint someone who would solve what Roose styled a “reality crisis,” particularly with regard to COVID-19 and the recent U.S. presidential election.
One of the “experts” Roose appealed to in making his self-confessed “dystopian” argument mentioned how a “centralized task force” would join with “tech platforms” and thus “push for structural changes that could help those companies tackle their own extremism and misinformation problems.”
Only days before, Fox News host Tucker Carlson had warned that a “profound change” was taking place due to moves by the Biden regime to eradicate “forbidden ideas” — namely, those held especially by conservatives. “Your mind belongs to you. It is yours and yours alone,” stated Carlson. “Once politicians attempt to control what you believe, they are no longer politicians. They are by definition, dictators. And if they succeed in controlling what you believe, you are no longer a citizen. You are not a free man. You are a slave.”
Big Tech is increasingly censoring conservative and pro-life voices, particularly since the November presidential election. LifeSiteNews itself was recently completely banned from YouTube, resulting in the deletion of all videos from the channel, which had over 300,000 followers.
[Emphasis mine.]
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| April 9th - St. John the Almsgiver and St. Mary of Egypt |
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Posted by: Elizabeth - 02-23-2021, 11:54 PM - Forum: April
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Saint John the Almsgiver
Patriarch of Alexandria
(556-619)
Saint John, born on the Island of Cyprus, was married, but when his wife and two children died he considered it a call from God to lead a perfect life. He gave away all he possessed in alms, and became known throughout the East as the Almsgiver. He was appointed Patriarch of Alexandria; but before he would take possession of his see, he told his servants to comb the town and bring him a list of his lords — meaning the poor. They brought word that there were seventy-five hundred of them, and these he undertook to feed every day.
On Wednesdays and Fridays of every week he sat on a bench before the church, to hear the complaints of the needy and aggrieved; he would not permit his servants to taste food until the wrongs were redressed. A man whom he had helped thanked him for his assistance one day, but he interrupted him, saying: My brother, I have not yet shed my blood for you, as Jesus Christ, my Saviour and my God, commands. On another occasion, after he gave his habit to a poor man who passed by, a person he did not know appeared immediately afterwards and gave him a sack containing a hundred gold pieces. After that, when he gave an alms, he always said, I am going to see whether Jesus Christ will fulfill His promise of giving me a hundredfold. The accomplished promise occurred so many times that he ceased to say these words, which were, in any case, for the benefit of those surrounding him.
Saint John never spoke an idle word. He put out of the church those whom he saw talking, and forbade all detractors to enter his house. He left seventy churches in Alexandria, where he had found but seven.
A merchant received from Saint John five pounds in gold to buy merchandise. Having suffered shipwreck and lost all, he had again recourse to the Almsgiver, who said, Some of your merchandise was ill-gotten; and he gave him ten pounds more. But at the next voyage the man lost his ship as well as its cargo. John then said, The ship was wrongfully acquired. Take fifteen pounds of gold, buy grain with it, and put it on one of my ships. This time the merchant was carried by the winds to England, where there was a famine. He sold the grain for its weight in tin, and on his return to Egypt he found the tin changed to fine silver.
Saint John was solicited to come to Constantinople to give his blessing to the emperor Heraclius, about to go to war against pagan neighbors; but the great bishop was called to his reward during the voyage, and died while praying on his knees, in Cyprus, his birthplace. The year was 619. The final resting-place of his relics was Presbourg, a city of Hungary, where they were transferred in 1632.
Saint Mary of Egypt
Penitent
(† 421)
At the tender age of twelve, Mary left her father's house that she might be without restraint in her life of debauchery, which she pursued for seventeen years at Alexandria. Then she accompanied a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. She was in that city on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and went with the crowd to the church which contained the precious wood. The others entered and adored; but Mary was invisibly held back. In that instant her misery and degradation burst upon her. Turning to the Immaculate Mother, whose portrait faced her in the portico, she vowed to do penance if she might enter and stand like Magdalene beside the Cross. And then she was able to enter.
As she knelt before Our Lady before leaving the church, a voice said to her, Pass over the Jordan, and you will find rest. She went into the wilderness and there, in the year 420, forty-seven years later, the Abbot Zosimus met her. She told him that for seventeen years the old songs and scenes had haunted her; but since then she had had perfect peace. At her request he brought her Holy Communion on Holy Thursday. She asked him to return again after a year, and this time he found her corpse upon the sand, with an inscription saying, Bury here the body of Mary the sinner.
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| To Jesus crowned with Thorns - Devotion to the Passion |
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Posted by: Hildegard of Bingen - 02-23-2021, 11:49 AM - Forum: In Honor of Our Lord
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DEVOTION TO THE PASSION
To Jesus crowned with Thorns.
Our sins, our evil thoughts, were the wicked thorns which pierced the head of Jesus Christ.
(Taken from St. Alphonsus’ Prayer-Book – pages 448-449)
O Sinful thoughts of men! It was you that pierced the head of the Redeemer. Yes, my Jesus, by our criminal consent to sin we have formed Thy crown of thorns. I now detest this compliance with sin and abhor it more than death or any other evil. To you, O thorns, consecrated with the blood of the Son of God, I again turn with an humble heart; ah, pierce this soul of mine, make it always sorrowful for having offended so good a God. O my afflicted Saviour! O King of the world! To what do I see Thee reduced? I behold Thee a king of mockery and sorrow! In a word, I see the laughing-stock of all Jerusalem! From the wounded head of Our Lord streams of blood flow down His face and breast. I am filled with astonishment, O my Jesus! At the cruelty of Thy enemies, who are not content with having, as it were, excoriated Thy flesh from head to foot, but still continue to torment Thee with fresh cruelties and insults; but I admire still more Thy meekness and Thy love in suffering and accepting all with so much patience for the love of us: “Who when He was reviled, did not revile; when He suffered, He threatened not; but delivered Himself to him that judged Him unjustly (I Peter ii. 23). Ah, my Jesus, true, indeed, it is that love makes Thee sweet and merciful, as regards us, sowing Thee to be a passionate lover of our souls; but it makes Thee pitiless towards Thyself, causing Thee to suffer such bitter torments. Thou wast willing to be crowned with thorns to obtain for us a crown of glory in heaven: “He was crowned with thorns, that we may be crowned with the crown that is to be given to the elect in heaven.” O my sweetest Saviour, I hope to be Thy crown in paradise, obtaining my salvation through the merits of Thy sufferings; there will I forever praise Thy love and Thy mercies: “The mercies of the Lord will I forever sing; yea, I will sing them forever.” Amen.
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| China is buying up British schools to teach positive view of Chinese politics |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-23-2021, 08:27 AM - Forum: Socialism & Communism
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China is buying up British schools to teach positive view of Chinese politics
An investigation by conservative British tabloid Daily Mail discovered increasing influence of China on British education and its institutions.
February 22, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — An increasing number of expensive independent schools in the U.K. have been bought by Chinese investors whose objectives are far from being merely economic, according to an investigation by conservative British tabloid Daily Mail.
While the trend has been visible over the last four years, with seventeen deals being put through by Chinese companies, many of them linked to high-ranking Communist Party officials, it is expected that further “hundreds” of schools are presently being targeted, as many face a substantial shrinkage of their revenue due to COVID-19 restrictions, including lockdown. According to the Daily Mail, the new Chinese owners are in some cases using their position to foster a positive view of Chinese politics and commercial initiatives.
Fall of assets was caused by a decrease in enrollments, but also in fees, as children remained at home because of lockdowns, bringing down the amounts charged for boarding and on-the-spot tuition: 20 percent less for day-pupils and up to 35 percent less for boarders. At the same time, tuition expenditures could not be slashed because the schools needed to continue giving classes to “online pupils” and to welcome children of key workers who could not follow school from home.
Bringing schools onto the market is a corollary of the fact that they can be “for profit” companies with high tuition and boarding fees seeking the patronage of the wealthy and powerful. They are often designed to cater to the offspring of an actual or perceived elite, both British and from abroad, offering their academic excellence to help pupils achieve enrollment in the most desirable universities in the U.K. and in the U.S.
This means that the kind of education they give will ultimately express itself in the private or public careers in which their students hope to succeed – leaving their mark on the world inhabited by lesser mortals.
The Mail on Sunday’s latest edition — the Sunday edition of the Daily Mail — began its story with a dire warning: “The British schools selling out to Beijing: Not only are private institutions being bought by Chinese firms but some are giving communist-approved lessons that are a threat to free speech.”
It added that “experts anticipate a ‘feeding frenzy’ as firms, including some run by high-ranking members of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, seek to expand their influence over Britain’s education system.” The newspaper’s investigation revealed that “nine of the 17 schools” already under Chinese control “are owned by firms whose founders or bosses are among China’s most senior Communist Party members.”
One of the key companies buying up schools in Great Britain is Bright Scholar, which acquired Bournemouth Collegiate School, St Michael’s School in Llanelli, Carmarthanshire, and Bosworth Independent College in Northampton in 2018 and 2019. Its owner is Yang Huiyan, the richest woman in Asia with a reported net worth of almost 30 billion dollars, and heiress of the business founded by her father, Yang Guoqiang, a member of the Communist Party’s highest-ranking advisory council, revealed the Mail.
Bright Scholar is one of the largest “education providers” in China and is also listed on the New York Stock Exchange; its aim is “to educate the future leaders of China as well as the future backbone of Chinese society.”
A Financial Times story in 2019 showed that the group was already gaining revenue from its international acquisitions and that these are also aimed at offering foreign students, many of which come from China, a better chance of entering the best universities in the U.K. and the U.S. Its schools in China are operated in full concord with the communist authorities and the mandated teaching curriculum.
Two further independent schools, Bedstone College (the equivalent of an American high school) in Shropshire and Ipswich High School (where famous author Enid Blyton was educated) are now owned by Chinese Wanda Group, the Daily Mail notes. Wanda was founded by Wang Jianlin, a former People’s Liberation Army soldier whose fortune is estimated at some $15 billion. He is a member of China’s senior Communist Party advisory council.
Other communist party officials quoted by the Daily Mail include senior members on the board of China First Capital Group (CFCG), whichs owns Kingsley School in Devon and Heathfield Knoll School in Worcestershire. CFCG specialized in the automotive parts business until 2014, when it expanded its main activities to financial services.
Two years later, the Group “continued to diversify its business, with a mission of ‘Finance Empowers Education, Education Lights Up Future’ and to establish a trinitarians [sic] interactive business mode, which capitalised educational investment as base and both educational management service and educational financial service as cradles. The Group aspires to become ‘a globally influential financial services group focusing on education,’” to quote its own company overview.
This overall Chinese influence on British education is set to grow as schools in England face financial difficulties linked to lockdown and hyper-rich Chinese groups have the wherewithal to help them bridge the gap to better times.
It should not be forgotten that lockdowns as a response to COVID-19 “originated on the order of Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, and were propagated into global policy by the World Health Organization with little analysis or logic,” according to a noteworthy analysis by a group of lawyers and politicians who believe that “China tricked the world into committing economic suicide.”
The Daily Mail does not hesitate to claim that British schools owned by Chinese groups “are using educational tools for teaching children a ‘whitewashed view of China.’”
The Ray Education Group, which bought the Adcote School for Girls near Shrewsbury in England and the Myddelton College in Wales in 2018, has plans to use its British schools to expand to other countries as part of Communist China’s president Xi Jinping “Belt and Road Initiative” to boost China’s global economic and political influence. Calling the groups’ schools a “brand,” Ray Education’s chief executive James Hu, secretary of the Communist Party’s Hongkou district committee, called the Adcote acquisition part of its “global campus plan.” Ray’s website makes clear that the group is “relying on British brand schools and responding to the Belt and Road call to target expansion in Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Thailand, South Africa, Nigeria and other countries.”
The Belt and Road initiative aims at creating terrestrial and maritime routes linking China with the rest of the Eurasian continent to promote exports and Chinese influence right into the heart of Western Europe, as well as East Africa and Australia, to “enhance regional connectivity and embrace a brighter future” with China at the heart of a new international trade network: a super-regional unified market stretching from Ireland to Australia and East-Africa to Vladivostok.
The network of China-owned schools will add to the already existing, openly (communist) Sinophile “Confucius Institutes.”
LifeSite columnist Steven Mosher told EWTN that China “has set up ‘about a thousand’ schools across the USA, called ‘Confucius Institutes,’ which teach American students the Chinese government’s take on Chinese history and culture,” noted Dorothy Cummings McLean last December.
Confucius Institutes are at present under scrutiny in the United Kingdom and other Western countries because of claims that their educational resources are used as propaganda for Communist China.
The Mail on Sunday concluded its story about British schools being bought by Chinese capital with an op-ed by Nigel Farage, head of the anti-lockdown Brexit Party.
Calling for action on the part of the British government at a time when “the integrity of the education of thousands of British children [is] at stake,” he wrote:
Quote:The world is being taken over by stealth by the Chinese Communist Party. Under a neo-colonial project, President Xi Jinping hopes to achieve global economic domination via massive international investments.
It extends way beyond buying up mineral assets or Western telecommunication systems. There’s a cultural dimension that reeks of propaganda and indoctrination.
Not content with financing some British universities, we now learn that Chinese companies directly linked to the highest ranks of the Communist Party have serious financial interests in our schools …
The Government must wake up to the dangers and act quickly.
The Mail on Sunday published the results of a similar investigation last December, following a leak of 1.95 million (out of a total of 92 million) CCP member identities showing that faithful Chinese Communist Party members have “massively infiltrated” major British and European countries, including AstraZeneca, producer of one of the COVID-19 vaccines, Rolls Royce, HSBC, Jaguar and Land Rover, and that others are working in British consulates, universities and large companies.
While it is true that Communist party membership — with its requirement of secrecy and loyalty to the CCP — is a prerequisite for any kind of professional success or access to public employment in China, the Mail underscored that it is impossible to believe that at least some of these people are not involved in espionage for China.
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| Pope Francis accepts resignation of traditionalist African Cardinal Sarah |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-23-2021, 08:07 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
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Francis accepts resignation of traditionalist African Cardinal Sarah
Various mainstream media sources interpreted the event as Francis removing a vocal opponent to his vision for the Catholic Church.
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ROME, February 22, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – Pope Francis unexpectedly accepted the resignation of Cardinal Robert Sarah as prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments eight months after Sarah submitted his resignation, as is customary, on the occasion of his 75th birthday.
Last June, when the Cardinal submitted his resignation, he stated publicly at the time that he was “happy to continue my work within the Congregation for Divine Worship.” It is not unusual for a pope to let a cardinal serve a few years beyond his 75th birthday, as is the case with Cardinal Marc Ouellet, who at 76 still heads the Congregation for Bishops, and Cardinal Beniamino Stella, who at 79 still heads the Congregation for Clergy.
The Vatican Press Office announced Cardinal Sarah’s departure on Saturday without naming, as is usually the case, who will take his place.
“Today, the Pope accepted the resignation of my office as Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship after my seventy-fifth birthday,” tweeted the Cardinal.
“I am in God's hands. The only rock is Christ. We will meet again very soon in Rome and elsewhere,” he added.
Vatican observers may see some similarity between the Pope’s acceptance of Sarah’s resignation and the Pope’s 2017 acceptance of the resignation of traditional-minded Cardinal Gerhard Müller as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the end of his five-year term. With outspokenly orthodox Cardinal Raymond Burke being demoted by Pope Francis from the Vatican’s highest court in 2014, there are now three less traditionally-minded voices within the Curia.
Sarah was born in Guinea in 1945. He was ordained a priest in 1969. Pope John Paul II appointed him Archbishop of Conakry 10 years later, when Sarah was 34. He was appointed secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in 2001. Nine years later, Benedict XVI appointed Sarah president of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum.” He was made a Cardinal in 2010. Pope Francis appointed Sarah Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in 2014.
Various mainstream media sources interpreted the event as Francis removing a vocal opponent to his vision for the Catholic Church.
“In accepting Cardinal Sarah’s resignation, the pope has removed a subordinate out of step with his approach to liturgy, homosexuality and relations with the Muslim world,” wrote Francis Rocca in The Wall Street Journal.
NPR shared the Journal’s perspective.
“Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea as head of the Vatican's liturgy department, removing a conservative who was seen as an opponent of the pontiff's vision for the church,” reported NPR, adding later in its report, “By accepting the cardinal's resignation, Pope Francis ousted a proponent of more traditional Catholic liturgy.”
Even so-called Catholic media saw a similar significance to the Pope’s action. The Jesuit-run America magazine that carries articles by pro-LGBT priest James Martin said Sarah’s views “contrasted” with those of the Pope.
“A number of the cardinal’s public statements on the liturgy and other topics reflected a pre-Vatican II traditionalist outlook that at times openly contrasted with the direction given by Pope Francis, who is continuing to implement the teachings of the Second Vatican Council,” wrote Gerard O’Connell.
Cardinal Sarah has defended traditional Catholic practices, such as receiving Holy Communion kneeling and on the tongue and celebrating Mass facing the east (ad Orientem). He has warned that the Church is facing a “grave risk” of schism over morality. He has told priests that they cannot shy away from the “hard” teachings of the Church on abortion and homosexuality. He has rebuked Martin for misrepresenting the Church’s teaching on homosexuality, saying that same-sex attraction is “at odds with human nature” and same-sex relations are “gravely sinful and harmful to the well-being of those who partake in them." He has called Catholics to “revolt” against lies that attack traditional family values.
In his 2017 book The Power of Silence, Sarah outlined what he saw as a crisis in the Church.
“The Church today is going through unprecedented exterior and interior trials. Something like an earthquake is seeking to demolish her doctrinal foundations and her centuries-old moral teachings,” he wrote.
He wrote that he opposes shepherds within the Church who no longer believe in the Bible and who depart from Catholic teaching and sacred tradition.
“I will untiringly denounce those who are unfaithful to the promise of their ordination. In order to make themselves known or to impose their personal views, both on the theological and the pastoral level, they speak again and again. These clerics repeat the same banal things. I could not affirm that God dwells within them,” he wrote. Sarah wrote that “Bishops that scatter the sheep that Jesus has entrusted to them will be judged mercilessly and severely by God.”
In a 2019 interview, however, Sarah said that it is not correct to say that he opposes the Pope.
“The truth is that many write not to bear witness to the truth, but to pit people against each other, to damage human relations. They don’t care about the truth. The truth is that those who oppose me to the Holy Father cannot present a single word of mine, a single phrase of mine, or a single attitude of mine to support their absurd, and I would say diabolical statements. The Devil divides, pits people against one another. The truth is that the Church is represented on earth by the Vicar of Christ, that is, the Pope. And whoever is against the Pope is ipso facto outside the Church,” he said.
While Sarah may not oppose the Pope, the Pope has certainly opposed the Cardinal.
In 2017, Pope Francis issued a public correction to Sarah over the cardinal’s attempt to interpret the Pope’s liturgy reform in an orthodox manner. Sarah had claimed in an article that the pope's directives on the Liturgy, titled Magnum Principium, did not allow bishops’ conferences, but the Vatican, to have the final word on Mass translations. He was simply reading the Pope’s directives through the lens of a 2001 instruction titled Liturgiam Authenticam. But the Pope told Sarah that those norms had been abrogated and that the Cardinal had misunderstood the Pope’s directives.
In 2016, the Vatican made it clear that it had rejected the Cardinal’s invitation to priests around the world to begin celebrating Mass facing the east (ad Orientem) during Lent the following year.
While Sarah has issued strong words defending traditional practices of the Church, he has nevertheless, as head of the Congregation for Divine Worship, overseen the introduction of novel practices within the Church that would be unthinkable in previous generations. This includes overseeing in 2016 the “innovation,” at the request of Pope Francis, of allowing women to participate in the Holy Thursday ceremony of the washing of the feet. Until that point, the ceremony was reserved exclusively for men following the historical example of Christ, who washed his male apostles’ feet during the last supper prior to making them priests.
Last December, the Congregation for Divine Worship backed a decision of a U.S. priest to ban reception of Holy Communion on the tongue in his diocese on account of the coronavirus outbreak. The statement, from which Sarah’s signature was missing, contradicted a 2009 letter from the same Congregation regarding the same question in the midst of the H1N1 influenza pandemic. At that time, the Vatican under Pope Benedict wrote that Church law on the subject stipulates “each of the faithful always has the right to receive Holy Communion on the tongue" and that this law may not be abrogated.
The Cardinal was the center of two significant controversies last year that may have complicated his relationship with Pope Francis.
Sarah found himself at the center of controversy last May after a historic appeal of Catholic prelates and lay leaders decrying the crackdown on basic freedoms over the coronavirus was published with the Cardinal being listed as one of the signers. Sarah claimed that he had withdrawn his signature at the last moment despite the appeal’s organizer, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, claiming that he had evidence to the contrary.
A few months earlier, Sarah found himself facing attack over his publication of a book co-authored with Pope Benedict that defended the male priesthood and priestly celibacy just months after the Church had concluded the Amazon Synod, which was viewed by many observers as setting the stage to an acceptance of female deacons and married priests.
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