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| Connecticut governor signs law allowing non-physicians to perform abortions |
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Posted by: Stone - 05-10-2022, 04:11 PM - Forum: Abortion
- No Replies
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Connecticut governor signs law allowing non-physicians to perform abortions
Ned Lamont moves to insulate Connecticut from a potential overturn of Roe v. Wade.
Tue May 10, 2022
HARTFORD (LifeSiteNews) – Connecticut Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont has signed into law legislation that will allow more non-physicians to perform abortions and shield abortionists from potential lawsuits for violating the pro-life laws of other states.
HB 5414 establishes that the governor can only extradite Connecticut residents for violating other states’ laws if those violations are also illegal in Connecticut (while placing similar limits on courts, public agencies, and health providers), allows abortionists sued by out-of-staters for violating those states’ abortion laws to counter-sue to recover certain costs, and empowers advanced practice registered nurses, nurse-midwives, and physician assistants to commit first-trimester aspiration abortions as well as dispense abortion-inducing drugs.
Supporters of the measure frame it as making Connecticut into a “sanctuary” for abortion in anticipation of a potential Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, which would eliminate the judicially-imposed “right” to abortion and fully restore states’ ability to set their own abortion laws.
“I am very appreciative to the majority of lawmakers in Connecticut who had the foresight to draft this legislation at a time when the right to a safe and legal abortion in America is in jeopardy,” Lamont said in a statement on signing the bill, CNN reports. “I am proud to stand up for access to reproductive health care and reproductive freedom. As long as I am governor of this great state, we’ll never waiver on the right to choose and the belief that medical decisions should be made between a patient and their doctor.”
“I think you’ve heard a lot about what’s coming out of the Supreme Court and a preliminary ruling that looks like they may be on the edge of ending a woman’s right to choose,” Lamont added. “That’s not going to happen in the state of Connecticut.”
Pro-lifers have criticized the new law, with House Republican leader Vincent Candelora suggesting that it runs afoul of the the Full Faith & Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which requires that “Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings” of every other state. “We honor each other’s laws. We’re the United States of America,” Candelora said.
Pro-lifers also argue that laws allowing non-physicians to commit abortions not only increase the number of innocent lives lost to abortion but also put the women seeking abortions in greater danger by subjecting them to abortionists with less training or experience.
The danger was most dramatically illustrated by the case of infamous Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, who delegated parts of the abortion process, such as administering anesthesia, to non-physician employees, one of whom was only 15 years old. In 2015, Gosnell was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the overdose death of one patient, and of first-degree murder of three born-alive infants.
Even when abortions are committed by fully-licensed physicians, they are frequently anything but safe for the mother, as evidenced by the records of numerous abortion facilities across the country, including chains embraced by abortion allies as leaders for their cause.
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| St. Alphonsus Liguori: The Glories of Mary |
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Posted by: Stone - 05-10-2022, 03:33 PM - Forum: Our Lady
- Replies (73)
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CONTENTS
Protest of the author
Petition of the author to Jesus and Mary
To the reader
Introduction
Prayer to the blessed Virgin to obtain a good death
CHAPTER I: SALVE REGINA, MATER MISERICORDAE. Hail queen, Mother of mercy
SECTION 1. Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy! of the great confidence we should have in Mary, because she is the Queen of Mercy
SECTION 2. How much greater should be our confidence in Mary, because she is our mother
SECTION 3. How great is the love of our mother for us
SECTION 4. Mary is also mother of penitent sinners
CHAPTER II: VITA, DULCEDO. Our life, our sweetness
SECTION 1. Our life, our sweetness! Mary is our life, because she obtains for us the pardon of our sins
SECTION 2. Mary is again our life, because she obtains for us perseverance
SECTION 3. Mary renders death sweet to her servants
CHAPTER III: SPES NOSTRA SALVE. Hail, our hope
SECTION 1. Hail, our hope! Mary is the hope of all
SECTION 2. Mary, the hope of sinners
CHAPTER IV: AD TE CLAMAMUS EXULES FILII HEVAE. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve
SECTION 1. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve! How ready is Mary to succor those who call upon her
SECTION 2. How powerful is Mary to protect those who invoke her in temptations of the devil
CHAPTER V: AD TE SUSPIRAMUS GEMENTES ET FLENTES lN HAC LACRYMARUM VALLE. To thee do we send up our sighs, groaning and weeping In this valley of tears
SECTION 1. The need we have of the intercession of Mary for our salvation
SECTION 2. The same subject continued
CHAPTER VI: EIA ERGO ADVOCATA NOSTEA. Ah, then, our advocate
SECTION 1. Mary is an advocate powerful to save all
SECTION 2. Mary is a merciful advocate, who does not refuse to defend the cause of the most miserable sinners
SECTION 3. Mary is the peace-maker between sinners and God
CHAPTER VII: LOS TUOS MISERICORDES OCULOS AD NOS CONVERTE. Turn thy eyes of mercy towards us
SECTION 1. Mary is all eyes, to pity and relieve our miseries
CHAPTER VIII: ET JESUM BENEDICTUM FRUCTUM VENTRIS TUI NOBIS POST HOC EXILIUM OSTENDE.
And after this our exile, show us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus
SECTION 1. Mary rescues her servants from hell
SECTION 2. Mary assists her servants in purgatory
SECTION 3. Mary conducts her servants to paradise
CHAPTER IX How great is the clemency and mercy of Mary
CHAPTER X How sweet is the name of Mary in life and in death!
Some Devout Prayers Of Various Saints to the Holy Mother
PART II.
Which treats of her principal Festivals; of her dolors in general, and of each of her seven dolors in particular; of her virtues; and lastly, of devotion to be practised in her honor.
Discourses on the seven principal feasts of Mary and her Dolors.
DISCOURSE I. On the Immaculate Conception of Mary
DISCOURSE II. On the birth of Mary
DISCOURSE III. On the presentation of Mary
DISCOURSE IV. On the Annunciation of Mary
DISCOURSE V. On the visitation of Mary
DISCOURSE VI. On the purification of Mary
DISCOURSE VII. On the Assumption of Mary
DISCOURSE VIII. Another discourse on the Assumption of Mary
DISCOURSE IX. On the Dolors of Mary
Reflections on each of the Seven Dolors of Mary in particular
ON THE FIRST DOLOR. Of St. Simeon’s prophecy.
ON THE SECOND DOLOR. Of the flight of Jesus into Egypt
ON THE THIRD DOLOR. Of the loss of Jesus in the temple
ON THE FOURTH DOLOR. Of the meeting of Mary with Jesus when He went to death
ON THE FIFTH DOLOR. Of the death of Jesus
ON THE SIXTH DOLOR. The piercing of the side of Jesus and His descent from the cross.
ON THE SEVENTH DOLOR. The burial of the body of Jesus
Of the virtues of Mary
SECTION 1. Of the humility of Mary
SECTION 2. Of the charity of Mary towards God.
SECTION 3. Of the charity of Mary for her neighbors
SECTION 4. Of the faith of Mary
SECTION 5. Of the hope of Mary
SECTION 6. Of the chastity of Mary
SECTION 7. Of the poverty of Mary
SECTION 8. Of the obedience of Mary
SECTION 9. Of the patience of Mary
SECTION 10. Of the prayer of Mary
Various practices of devotion to the Divine Mother
DEVOTION I. Of the “Hail Mary”
DEVOTION II. Of Novenas
DEVOTION III. Of the Rosary and Office
DEVOTION IV. Of Fasting
DEVOTION V. Of visiting the images of Mary
DEVOTION VI. Of the Scapular
DEVOTION VII. Of entering into the Confraternities of Mary
DEVOTION VIII. Of Alms in honor of Mary
DEVOTION IX. Of frequent recourse to Mary
DEVOTION X. Tenth and last devotion
Various additional examples appertaining to the most Holy Mary.
Examples 1-10
11-20
21-30
31-40
41-50
51-60
61-70
71-80
81-89
NOVENA OF MEDITATIONS FOR THE NINE DAYS PRECEDING THE FEAST OF THE PURIFICATION OF MARY, WHICH COMMENCES ON THE 24TH OF JANUARY.
FIRST DAY
SECOND DAY
THIRD DAY
FOURTH DAY
FIFTH DAY
SIXTH DAY
SEVENTH DAY
EIGHTH DAY
NINTH DAY
Meditations for various feasts of Mary
Meditation for the day of the Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Jesus.
Meditation for the 25th of March the Annunciation to Mary.
Meditation for the 2nd of July on the Feast of the Visitation of Mary
Meditation for the 15th of August on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven.
Meditation for the 8th of September on the Feast of the Nativity of Mary
Meditation for the 21st of November on the Feast of the Presentation of Mary.
Meditation for the 8th of December on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Prayers to the divine Mother for every day of the week
Sunday -Prayer to the most holy Mary to obtain the pardon of sins.
Monday -Prayer to the most holy Mary to obtain holy perseverance
Tuesday -Prayer to Mary most holy to obtain a good death.
Wednesday -Prayer to Mary most holy to obtain deliverance from hell.
Thursday -Prayer to the most holy Mary to obtain paradise.
Friday -Prayer to the most holy Mary to obtain love towards her and Jesus Christ
Saturday -Prayer to the most holy Mary to obtain her patronage.
Little Rosary of the Seven Dolors of Mary
Little Rosary of the Immaculate Mary
Dedication of oneself to Mary
Dedication of a family to Mary
Various prayers to Mary
Prayer of St. Ephrem to Mary (abbreviated)
Prayer of St. Thomas of Aquinas
Prayer of St. Blosius to the Blessed Virgin
Another Prayer
Ejaculations to the most holy Mary
Acclamations in praise of Mary
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| Pope Francis answers three questions put to him by Fr. James Martin |
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Posted by: Stone - 05-10-2022, 07:02 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
- Replies (2)
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Pope to LGBT Catholics: 'God is Father who does not disown any of his children'
Pope Francis answers three questions put to him by Jesuit Father James Martin whose pastoral ministry involves the LGBT community.
Vatican News | May 9, 2022
On 5 May Father Martin had written to the Pope in Spanish asking him to answer some questions that he is most commonly asked by LGBT Catholics and their families.
He received a hand-written response a couple of days afterward, that was published in the form of a short interview on Father Martin’s website “Outreach”.
“With respect to your questions,” the Pope wrote, “a very simple response occurs to me.”
Outreach: What would you say is the most important thing for LGBT people to know about God?
Pope Francis: God is Father and he does not disown any of his children. And “the style” of God is “closeness, mercy and tenderness.” Along this path you will find God.
Outreach: What would you like LGBT people to know about the Church?
Pope Francis: I would like for them to read the book of the Acts of the Apostles. There they will find the image of the living Church.
Outreach: What do you say to an LGBT Catholic who has experienced rejection from the Church?
Pope Francis: I would have them recognize it not as “the rejection of the church,” but instead of “people in the church.” The church is a mother and calls together all her children. Take for example the parable of those invited to the feast: “the just, the sinners, the rich and the poor, etc.” [Matthew 22:1-15; Luke 14:15-24]. A “selective” church, one of “pure blood,” is not Holy Mother Church, but rather a sect.
Pope's words in July 2021
Last year in July Pope Francis had sent Father Martin a letter on the occasion of the webinar “Outreach 2021” in which he said that “God is close to and loves each and every one of his children. His heart is open to all. He is the Father.”
"Thinking about your pastoral work," the Pope wrote, "I see that you continually try to imitate this style of God. You are a priest for everyone, as God is Father of everyone. I pray for you that you may continue in this way, being close, compassionate and full tenderness."
"I pray for your faithful, your 'parishioners,'" the Pope had concluded, "for all those whom the Lord has placed beside you so that you may care for them, protect them and make them grow in the love of our Lord Jesus Christ.
+++
The following is from the SiSiNoNo series on the Errors of Vatican II, highlighting the error promoted by Pope Francis, which as always, stems from Vatican II ecclesiology:
- Vatican II is guilty of the deadly Article 39 in Gaudium et Spes which in the conclusion of its third chapter titled "Man's Activity in the Universe" (GS §§33-39), proposes a final perversion of the idea of the Kingdom of God taught by the Church. This Chapter III contains the outline of the idea of the collective salvation of humanity, and also that all of God's creation was made for man. This is achieved by misinterpreting Romans 8:21 to say that "all of creation," created by God to serve man, will equally obtain eternal salvation.
We know neither the moment of the consummation of the earth and of man nor the way the universe will be transformed. The form of this world, distorted by sin, is passing away and we are taught that God is preparing a new dwelling and a new earth in which righteousness dwells, whose happiness will fill and surpass all the desires of peace arising in the hearts of men. Then with death conquered the sons of God will be raised in Christ and what was sown in weakness and dishonor will put on the imperishable: charity and its works will remain and all of creation, which God made for man, will be set free from its bondage to decay (LG §39).
Article 39 continues with another strange idea:
Quote:We have been warned, of course, that it profits man nothing if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself. Far from diminishing our concern to develop this earth, the expectancy of a new earth should spur us on, for it is here that the body of a new human family grows, foreshadowing in some way the age which is to come. That is why, although we must be careful to distinguish earthly progress clearly from the increase of the kingdom of Christ, such progress is of vital concern to the kingdom of God, insofar as it can continue to the better ordering of human society.
This appears to mean that the "new earth" is already present in the "present earth," since "the body of the new human family grows [here], foreshadowing in some way the age which is to come." Take note that the prefiguring of the Kingdom of God is not given by the Church Militant (which is the orthodox teaching), but by the growth of "the body of a new family." And this growth of the body of a new human family is calculated on universal progress, universal fraternity, and to human and Christian freedom (LG§§13,36; GS §§30,34,38).
This is to say, the Kingdom of God which is partially realized is this world, is no longer made up of the Church Militant, but of humanity. Humanity is the subject which brings about the Kingdom, and which will enter it one day en masse. In fact, Article 39 of LG concludes:
Quote:When we have spread on earth the fruits of our nature and our enterprise-human dignity, brotherly communion, and freedom-according to the command of the Lord and in his Spirit, we will find them once again, cleansed this time from the stain of sin, illuminated and transfigured, when Christ presents to his Father and eternal and universal kingdom "of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace." Here on earth the kingdom is mysteriously present; when the Lord comes it will enter into its perfection.
This is a naturalistic, millenarian vision that calls for the religion of Humanity. It is completely foreign to anything the Catholic Church has ever taught. It is the complete antithesis to the exclusively supernatural reality of the Kingdom of God and of the consummation of the end of time which has been revealed to us by Our Lord and always maintained by the Church.
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| Catholic church vandalized with pro-abortion graffiti in Houston on Mother’s Day |
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Posted by: Stone - 05-10-2022, 06:41 AM - Forum: Anti-Catholic Violence
- Replies (1)
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Catholic church vandalized with pro-abortion graffiti in Houston on Mother’s Day
‘This is what the angry, hateful anti-Catholic pro-choice activists did to our church doors last night.'
Mon May 9, 2022
HOUSTON (LifeSiteNews) — A Catholic church in Texas was vandalized Sunday after pro-abortion activists publicly called for protests at Catholic churches on Mother’s Day.
The words “Pro-choice is pro-life” were spray-painted on the front doors of Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Houston on Sunday night, according to the parish Facebook page.
“This is what the angry, hateful anti-Catholic pro-choice activists did to our church doors last night,” wrote Friar Mariano D. Veliz, O.P., on the social media platform.
“The choice to murder unborn babies is not pro-life,” he wrote, calling on supporters to “Pray for an end to this evil” and closing his post with: “In Christ with Blessed Mary.”
In a later update to the original post, Veliz added that the “same message” which was painted on the front doors of the church had also been spray-painted on its side doors, which he had not initially seen.
Quote: Guess I spoke too soon…
Holy Rosary Church, Houston: pic.twitter.com/A6zwnGuSsP
— Sidge S. Mondo ن (@Magister_Pownd) May 9, 2022
Holy Rosary secretary Dianne Gongora told LifeSiteNews on Monday the parish filed a report with the Houston Police Department (HPD) regarding the incident.
HPD public information officer Victor Senties affirmed in a phone call that the department took a report of the vandalism Monday morning and is in the early stages of investigating. Senties said the vandalism is estimated to have occurred between 9 and 11 p.m. May 8.
Holy Rosary pastor Fr. Peter Damian Harris did not immediately respond to LifeSite’s request for comment.
“[P]ro-abortionists show their true colors by sneaking around in the middle of the night, vandalizing sacred places, and stealing the blessed sacrament,” a parishioner of Holy Rosary named Lawrence told LifeSite via social media Monday.
“The fact that the city of Houston seems to have little interest in protecting Catholics from targeted harassment is a crying shame,” he added. “Catholics should defend the House of God and the Body of Christ from those who defend the murder of our society’s children.”
Quote: I wish this was still true. My parish was vandalized and another parish in my city has its tabernacle stolen. Please pray. https://t.co/ajeRxAv4bh
— Lawrence of Appalachia (@mythanthrope) May 9, 2022
Holy Rosary, which is part of the archdiocese of Galveston-Houston and is staffed by Dominican friars of the Province of St. Martin de Porres, serves a large parish community and offers six Masses, including a Latin Mass, every Sunday.
While it’s unclear who vandalized the church, the graffiti appeared on Mother’s Day, the day pro-abortion activists affiliated with the group “Ruth Sent Us” had encouraged those opposed to protections for the unborn to “[s]tand at or in a local Catholic Church” to protest the potential overturning of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that established a federal “right to abortion” throughout all 50 states.
Quote: Whether you’re a “Catholic for Choice”, ex-Catholic, of other or no faith, recognize that six extremist Catholics set out to overturn Roe. Stand at or in a local Catholic Church Sun May 8.
#WarOnWomen #MothersDayStrike pic.twitter.com/v2vtpd12Gp
— Ruth Sent Us ? (@RuthSentUs) May 3, 2022
Activists like those associated with Ruth Sent Us, which was named for the late pro-abortion Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, have ramped up their efforts after the unprecedented leak of the Supreme Court’s majority opinion draft in the crucial Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case last week.
Dobbs concerns Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks’ gestation, which has inspired a bevy of similar pro-life laws in Republican-led states nationwide.
According to the leaked draft opinion, whose authenticity was later confirmed by Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court is angled to rule in favor of Mississippi by overturning both Roe v. Wade along with Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), which upheld Roe.
After the leak of the document, Ruth Sent Us published the home addresses of six pro-life Supreme Court justices’ on their website and called for pro-abortion protests at Catholic churches.
Pro-abortion activists have subsequently protested outside the homes of the Supreme Court justices in an effort to sway the opinion of the Court to uphold Roe, and targeted Catholic churches and pregnancy centers over Mother’s Day weekend.
RELATED: Pro-abortion protesters escorted out of Los Angeles church after disrupting Sunday Mass
Holy Rosary in Houston wasn’t the only Catholic church in the Lone Star State to be targeted this past weekend. St. Bartholomew Catholic Church in nearby Katy, Texas, was also attacked Sunday.
St. Bartholomew’s pastor, Father Christopher Plant, said in a Monday tweet that the church’s tabernacle had been stolen the previous night, noting that law enforcement officers are currently investigating the theft.
“Please pray for us and for those who committed this criminal sacrilege,” Fr. Plant wrote, encouraging anyone with information to contact the parish office.
Quote:Our tabernacle was stolen last night. We don’t know who did it but the police are investigating. Please pray for us and for those who committed this criminal sacrilege. If you have any information that can help in the investigation, please call our office: 281-391-4758
Fr.Christopher Plant (@FrPlant) May 9, 2022
Meanwhile, in Denton, Texas, pro-life pregnancy center Loreto House was vandalized with pro-abortion graffiti reading: “Not a clinic” and “Forced birth is murder.”
Before the reported vandalism and theft in Texas, Ruth Sent Us had lashed out at Catholics for their “weaponized prayer,” saying the radical pro-abortion activists would “remain outraged after this weekend” and promising that they will “be burning the Eucharist to show our disgust for the abuse Catholic Churches have condoned for centuries.”
LifeSiteNews reached out to the office of Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner for a statement regarding the vandalism of Holy Rosary Catholic Church but has yet to hear back.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact the Houston Police Department at (713) 884-3131.
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| FDA: Americans Should Treat COVID-19 Like The Flu |
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Posted by: Stone - 05-09-2022, 04:05 PM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
- No Replies
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FDA: Americans Should Treat COVID-19 Like The Flu
ZH | MAY 09, 2022
Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,
Several top Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials, including Commissioner Robert Califf, admitted that Americans will now have to accept COVID-19 as another respiratory virus, comparing it to influenza.
Califf, Principal Deputy Commissioner Janet Woodcock, and top vaccine official Dr. Peter Marks wrote for the Journal of the American Medical Association that COVID-19 will be around for the foreseeable future while suggesting that it will require yearly vaccines targeting the most threatening variations of the virus.
Quote:“Widespread vaccine- and infection-induced immunity, combined with the availability of effective therapeutics, could blunt the effects of future outbreaks,” the officials said, referring to another name for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.
“Nonetheless, it is time to accept that the presence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is the new normal.”
The virus “will likely circulate globally for the foreseeable future, taking its place alongside other common respiratory viruses such as influenza. And it likely will require similar annual consideration for vaccine composition updates in consultation with the [FDA],” they continued.
It’s a departure from the rhetoric that was expressed by public health officials in 2020 and 2021.
In late October 2020, for example, current White House COVID-19 adviser Anthony Fauci said that President Donald Trump’s comparisons to the flu were false, telling NBC at the time “it is not correct to say it’s the same as flu.”
About a year later, Fauci told CBS News that Americans will “likely” have to deal with COVID-19 in a similar manner as influenza.
Quote:“That’s entirely conceivable and likely, as a matter of fact, we are not going to be in a situation of this degree of intensity indefinitely,” he said when asked about the Omicron variant.
Data published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that while cases have trended slightly upward in the United States, the numbers are a fraction of the cases that were reported in mid-January when the seven-day average stood at around 800,000 per day. As of May 6, the seven-day average was about 68,000 per day.
In the Journal of the American Medical Association article, the three FDA officials proclaimed that by the summer of 2022, decisions will have to be issued “about who should be eligible for vaccination with additional boosters and regarding vaccine composition.”
“Administering additional COVID-19 vaccine doses to appropriate individuals this fall around the time of the usual influenza vaccine campaign has the potential to protect susceptible individuals against hospitalization and death, and therefore will be a topic for FDA consideration,” they added.
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| Michigan Catholic Church Vandalized in Wake of SCOTUS Leak |
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Posted by: Stone - 05-09-2022, 06:16 AM - Forum: Anti-Catholic Violence
- Replies (1)
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Michigan Catholic Church Vandalized in Wake of SCOTUS Leak
![[Image: Saint-Josephs-Church-and-Academy_840x480.jpg]](https://tennesseestar.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Saint-Josephs-Church-and-Academy_840x480.jpg)
Tennessee Star | May 7, 2022
In the wake of a leaked draft opinion from a Supreme Court case that could overturn Roe v. Wade, a Catholic church and school in Michigan has been vandalized with vulgar graffiti.
Activist Dave Reilly shared photos of the destruction of Saint Joseph’s Church and Academy in Armada on his Twitter account Friday.
St. Joseph’s is an SSPX church in Armada, Michigan.
The images show multiple slurs, including “F*g Republicans Dead,” along with the numbers “666,” and the pentagram, both of satanic significance.
Also, the word “Gay” was spray-painted onto the church and school’s sign.
The church did not return a Friday comment request.
The office of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer did not immediately return a comment request.
The vandalism of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church follows a pattern of Catholic churches across North America being vandalized, including two that were burned to the ground in a span of days in Canada last summer.
A Catholic Church in Boulder, Colorado was also vandalized this week after the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion. It was defaced with pro-abortion graffiti, including the slogan “My Body, My Choice.”
In February, three Catholic cemeteries in Pennsylvania were spray painted with graffiti.
In the same month, another cemetery in Massachusetts was vandalized. It had previously been vandalized last October.
Firefighters responded to the attempted arson of an Ohio Catholic church in February, which caused $1 million in damage to the church.
Other incidents occurred in Georgia and New Mexico, also in February, according to the National Catholic Register.
“On Feb. 17 in Milledgeville, Georgia, a vandalism attack at Sacred Heart Catholic Church knocked over two statues of angels and damaged them,” that outfit said. “Father Young Nguyen, the church pastor, heard noises from the vandalism but when he went outside he did not see anyone but discovered the damage.”
“In Albuquerque, New Mexico, four stained-glass windows at the Shrine of the Little Flower, also known as St. Therese of the Infant of Jesus Parish, were broken around 2am on Feb. 14,” according to the publication. “Trash was strewn around the building and there was some damage to the church’s clay roof tiles.”
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| Rediscovering the Ideal Healthcare Plan |
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Posted by: Stone - 05-08-2022, 08:44 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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Rediscovering the Ideal Healthcare Plan
![[Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.fineartamerica.c...f=1&nofb=1]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.fineartamerica.com%2Fimages-medium-large-5%2Fspain-medieval-hospital-granger.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)
JOHN HORVAT II | 2016
[From a 'conservative' Novus Ordo magazine but a good reminder of how things generally functioned in a world oriented towards Christ as in the European Middle Ages. - The Catacombs]
Many people do not realize that the hospital as it is known today was an invention of the Middle Ages. They were established from the desire to extend Christian charity to the poor and needy.
There is a prevailing idea that healthcare plans are necessarily complex and expensive schemes. There was, however, an ideal healthcare plan in the distant past that was amazingly simple. The plan did not list its benefits, clinical metrics or financial data. The main emphasis of this plan was not so much on a plan but care and the health of both body and soul.
Faith Wallis describes this plan in her book called Medieval Medicine: A Reader. Looking at this "medieval healthcare plan" is a refreshing glimpse at the kind of care that is sadly lacking today.
By proposing a medieval healthcare plan as an ideal, it does not mean to say that medieval medicine, primitive as it was, is the ideal formula for the present. Medieval medicine was advanced for its time but certainly not for today. However, the spirit with which people were treated does present an ideal that can and should be imitated.
Hospitals Return to Roots
Many people do not realize that the hospital as it is known today was an invention of the Middle Ages. They were established from the desire to extend Christian charity to the poor and needy. In the early Middle Ages, hospitals first became attached to monasteries where monks would minister to the sick and dying. No other civilization was able to develop anything remotely comparable.
Medieval hospitals provided free care to the poor and needy. They were usually under the supervision of a religious order that had members with vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. They dedicated their lives to God and the cheerful service of all that sought their care — including non-Christians.
Not content with those who came to their doors, hospital attendants were obliged regularly to go out into the streets and bring in all those found in need of treatment.
Reception of Patients
The reception of patients was extremely touching in the broad charity extended to them.
Every possible effort was made to take care of their spiritual needs. Upon entering the hospital, the patient, when a Catholic, went to confession and received Holy Communion, as the first steps in the healing process. This provided spiritual peace of mind that often had its repercussion in the physical health of the body.
Once admitted, the patient was seen as another Christ. Each was treated as the master of the house, for so each was, according to the hospital's bylaws. Every need was taken care of as if Christ himself were being served.
During a visit to the 2,000-bed Jerusalem Hospital of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, one cleric noted: "It has happened on a number of occasions that when the space … proves insufficient for the multitude of the suffering, the dormitory of the brethren is taken over by the sick and the brethren themselves sleep on the floor."
Those who attended the care of the sick did not see their role as just a job to be performed. They did not think about their pleasure or profit. They saw their service as something that gave meaning and purpose to their lives. Caring for others was an important means to secure their salvation.
Excellent Care
Thus, the care was as excellent as it could be for the times. Specialists were brought in to take care of extraordinary cases. Doctors made the rounds daily to check on the progress of those in their care. Regulations required that patients should never be left without an attendant and that nurses be on duty at all times both day and night.
The environment was clean and refreshing. In fact, major works of art were often painted on the hospital walls and ceilings to delight and edify the patients, using the same artistic skills that were employed to adorn churches.
The environment was clean and refreshing. In fact, major works of art were often painted on the hospital walls and ceilings to delight and edify the patients, using the same artistic skills that were employed to adorn churches. Such masterpieces can still be seen today in the buildings that survive.
Special attention was paid to cleanliness, ventilation and comfort. Patients were supplied with clean mattresses, white linen sheets and "fleecy blankets." Care was so excellent that the cleric at the Jerusalem Hospital reported that there were "wealthy people who pretended to be poor to stay in the hospital."
Solicitude for the sick was not limited to the doctors and attendants. Likewise, all Christians saw the sick in a similar Christ-like manner. Patients in ordinary hospitals were often heartened by the visits of persons of high or noble rank and charitable disposition. Visitors might include even personages like Catherine of Sweden, Margaret, Queen of Scotland, or King Saint Louis IX of France.
A Touching Reciprocity
However, the sick were not just the recipients of charity. They also had their duties inside the hospital whereby they extended charity to those around them.
Mindful of how God especially hears the prayers of the suffering, the patients, when Christian, were enjoined to intercede for their benefactors, the authorities and all in distress. To the extent that they could, theirs was the duty of prayer, Mass attendance and reception of the sacraments. At night-fall, the wards might end the day with litanies where the "sick lords" of the house would pray for those in need of prayers. In this way, the sick gave their best to reciprocate for the enormous charity extended to them. Above all, this offering gave meaning and purpose to their suffering.
Hospitals Flourish
As a result of practices like these, the hospitals of the Middle Ages flourished. Every diocese and monastery was encouraged to have hospitals attached to them. The Benedictine order alone is credited with founding 2,000 hospitals. Imbued with this spirit of Christian charity, individuals, guilds, brotherhoods, and municipalities also established and generously endowed hospitals of their own. The result was an extensive system of healthcare that provided for the care of body and soul on a scale never seen before in history.
This impressive system was largely destroyed by the upheavals of the sixteenth century when the Church and her hospitals were despoiled and plundered. The infamous suppression of the monasteries by England's Henry VIII in 1540 also suppressed the English healthcare system, leaving the poor in misery and putting an end to hospital building in that country for some 200 years.
In modern times, religious orders that once cared for the sick in this manner now face dwindling membership since they adhered to more "up-to-date" theological currents that focus more on quixotic and "liberating" social justice than concrete medical Christ-like care.
A Lost Ideal Never to Return?
With all the talk about rising premiums and healthcare costs, perhaps it is time to rediscover the ideal medieval healthcare system. The dedicated spirit of this care is so needed in face of today's ever-expanding medical bureaucracies. Perhaps the massive number of complex government regulations and mandates might be better replaced by the selfless work of dedicated men and women who simply treat the sick as if each one is the Person of Christ Himself.
As a result of practices like these, the hospitals of the Middle Ages flourished. Every diocese and monastery was encouraged to have hospitals attached to them.
Someone might object that such an ideal system is impossible in today's secular and hedonistic age. People simply will not dedicate themselves to the service of the sick and needy. The ideal medieval healthcare plan is a dream that will never again reappear.
This is not true. Religious congregations like the Little Sisters of the Poor are flooded with youthful and cheerful young women who minister to the elderly poor in the medieval tradition. Ironically, these same sisters are being prosecuted by the government for failure to comply with government healthcare mandates that would make them complicit in distributing abortion-causing drugs to their employees.
The problem is not the lack of people or even money, but a failure to present the ideal. The ideal healthcare plan will be rediscovered when the Christian Faith is revived in society. Until that return to order comes, there will always be the seeds of this plan inside the Christian souls that await that blessed day.
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| Irish couple vows to go to jail rather than pay fine for attending Mass during lockdown |
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Posted by: Stone - 05-06-2022, 06:12 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Spiritual]
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Irish couple vows to go to jail rather than pay fine for attending Mass during lockdown
‘God’s law was more important to me than Man’s.’
Joe and Ann Ryan
Thu May 5, 2022
DONAMON, Ireland (LifeSiteNews) – A Catholic couple has said that they would rather go to jail than pay a fine for breaking COVID-19 restrictions by going to Mass.
Catholic couple Jim Ryan, 64, and his wife Ann, 59, broke COVID-19 regulations on Palm Sunday, March 28, 2021, by driving over 5 km from their home.
In April, the couple was charged for this alleged offense by Judge Raymond Finnegan at Cavan District Court. According to Independant.ie, the judge ruled that they must each pay a €300 fine.
“I will go to jail before I pay it. I would rather go to jail, without a shadow of a doubt,” Jim, a retired firefighter, reported. “I have no intention of paying them a fine for me going to Mass – for doing what I have done my whole life.”
Up until this point, the couple has led a law-abiding and quiet life in their stone cottage bordering a railway line in Donamon.
“We’re 64 and 59 years old,” said Ann, a retired nurse, and “have never had any convictions, are quiet-living people and are not affiliated to any organizations.”
“We’re just ordinary Joe Soaps – but with one difference, we honor God and we believe in God,” Anne continued.
The couple struggled to be able to attend in-person Mass because of the COVID-19 restrictions. “On one occasion, we went to a church near here and we actually got thrown out,” said Jim.
“The priest was filming a Mass to put on Facebook and when we saw it was on we went in,” he recalled. “But the priest came down to me and said we had to get out of the church.”
“For the sake of keeping the peace, I left the church, but that was the state we were in,” Jim continued.
‘The guards were waiting for us’
In March 2021, Fr. P.J. Hughes announced that he would celebrate Mass on the Feast of Palm Sunday at Our Lady of Lourdes in Mullahoran, County Cavan. This Mass would be open to everyone.
This decision was in contradiction to the Level 5 restriction which closed places of worship. “I will exercise my constitutional right even though people are complaining,” Fr. Hughes said while acknowledging that this was contrary to his bishop’s directives.
“We are committing a grave mistake by rejecting our Lord and God Jesus Christ by staying away because government officials say we must,” Fr. Hughes said in the lead-up to Palm Sunday.
News of this decision reached local media and several checkpoints were set up on the way to the church. “We read online that Fr. Hughes was saying mass at Mullahoran church and that he was going to turn no-one away,” recalled Jim.
“This was Psalm Sunday … the day Jesus rode into Nazareth on a donkey knowing the terrible torture and death he was facing and He kept going for our sins,” he continued.
“Going to mass that Sunday was extremely important to us,” Jim explained. “Ann had just gone through a life-saving medical procedure and we wanted to say thank you to God.”
Accordingly, Jim and Ann determined to travel 70 km to attend this Mass on this major Catholic feast. On the road, they were stopped at a checkpoint by an officer, Barry Mulligan, who instructed them not to continue to the church.
However, the couple continued their journey and participated in “an absolutely beautiful mass.” When it finished, Jim recalled, “the guards were waiting for us.”
The guards “took all the registration numbers and, I’d say afterwards, they contacted the different checkpoints and gave them the list of the cars.”
This April, the couple were called to court to face their charges. Immediately after being charged, the couple filed an appeal.
Jim explained that the restrictions violated their basic rights, saying, “Article 44 of the constitution says that we have the right to practice our religion in public.”
“It also says in Article 15 that the Dáil cannot impose a law that goes against the constitution – and this law did,” he continued.
Additionally, Anne said she chose to obey God’s law above man’s. “I decided on that morning that I was going to honor one of the ten commandments,” she said, “which was to honor the Sabbath Day.”
“On the balance of things, God’s law was more important to me than Man’s,” Ann said, adding, “Man’s law is fallible. God’s is not.”
Outside the court house, Jim told the Anglo-Celt, “Fr. P.J. Hughes, is a very honorable man, and a true priest, who has honored his vocation.”
“The judge said in there that that wasn’t our local church,” he explained. “It was our local church because it was the nearest church to us that was open. All the rest of them were closed and in defiance of the constitution.”
Ireland has had some of the most strict lockdowns and COVID related restrictions, as the country has drifted further and further from Catholicism.
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| Catholic church in Colorado attacked after leaked Supreme Court opinion on Roe v. Wade |
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Posted by: Stone - 05-06-2022, 06:08 AM - Forum: Anti-Catholic Violence
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Catholic church in Colorado attacked after leaked Supreme Court opinion on Roe v. Wade
‘It’s unfortunate to see people acting out like this,’ lamented an archdiocese spokesman.
![[Image: FR7WBs7VsAINygs-810x500.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/FR7WBs7VsAINygs-810x500.jpg)
Thu May 5, 2022
BOULDER, Colorado (LifeSiteNews) – Sacred Heart of Mary’s Catholic church in Boulder, Colorado, was vandalized with pro-abortion graffiti on Wednesday just days after a Supreme Court draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked.
According to the Denver Gazette, the vandals spray-painted pro-abortion messages such as “My body my choice,” “Keep your religion off our bodies,” and the self-contradictory statement, “Abortion Saves Lives,” in light blue paint across the outside of the church.
The vandals also desecrated the hands and eyes of a bronze statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Child Jesus with red paint, according to the local report.
“It’s unfortunate to see people acting out like this. We certainly understand the highly emotional nature of the pro-life, pro-abortion debate as the news from the Supreme Court leaked on the potential outcome,” Mark Haas, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Denver said in response to the assault.
Haas further stated that this is just one of at least 30 attacks against Catholic churches in Colorado over the past two years, with Sacred Heart of Mary being the target of a previous attack last September.
“This is very bad for the people who have to see this and we do talk internally that this is not new for the Church,” Haas added. “The Church has been attacked for 2,000 years.”
Both Haas and investigators think there may be a connection between the September attack and Wednesday’s attack, but police have yet to make an arrest.
RELATED: US churches, cemeteries vandalized and burned during anti-Catholic crime wave in February
The state of Colorado has very lax abortion laws, with Boulder, in particular, being home to one of a handful of clinics in the country that openly advertises that they provide late-term, third trimester abortions.
According to the Boulder Abortion Clinic’s website, they receive “referrals from across the country and internationally” for their services.
While proponents of abortion often state that late-term abortions are “extremely rare,” statistics from the Boulder clinic show that hundreds of these third trimester abortions were carried out between 1992 and 2012, with several occurring as late as week 38 or 39 of pregnancy.
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| Hong Kong Catholic priest speaks out publicly for the first time about the persecution of the Church |
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Posted by: Stone - 05-05-2022, 06:18 AM - Forum: Anti-Catholic Violence
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Hong Kong Catholic priest speaks out publicly for the first time about the persecution of the Church in China
(The following was published in The Wanderer Catholic Newspaper on March 10 and
marks the first time Father Woo chose to speak out publicly about the persecution of the Church in his native country.)
Taken from here.
By Rev Vincent Woo, JCD (Cand.)
In 1917, Our Lady appeared in Fatima and warned us that if we do not repent from our sins, the errors of Russia will spread. How true it is, given what has been going on in the past few days in Ukraine. Yet, the errors of Russia are present in other parts of the world like China as well. The Chinese Communist Party is notorious for its complete lack of respect for human dignity. One example is the restriction of religious freedom. Instead of killing early Christians like the Romans did, the CCP took a different strategy by avoiding to create martyrs. It established a state-run church independent from Rome—called the Patriotic Association—and it desired to corrupt the faith from within. The CCP really wanted Cardinal Kung—then bishop of Shanghai—to lead this national church that pledged allegiance to the state. Cardinal Kung was adamant that he would never betray his faith. The CCP arrested him in 1955, together with hundreds of Shanghai priests, religious, and lay Catholics. Cardinal Kung, together with many of these heroes of the faith, was jailed for 33 years.
Therefore, we are gathered here today for three reasons. First, to pray for the repose of the soul of Cardinal Kung. Second, to pray for the persecuted Christians in the present day and their persecutors. Third, to preserve the authentic history of the underground Church in China.
First, we pray for Cardinal Kung and those who have died because of religious persecutions in China. One distinctive feature of Catholic theology is that we do not assume that the deceased go to heaven immediately. We are obliged by justice to pray for those who have passed away, so that they can be purified from their sins and enter into heaven as soon as possible. For each sin that we commit, we have to make reparation either in this life or in purgatory before we can see God face to face. We should pray for Cardinal Kung, so that he can be with God as soon as possible. Cardinal Kung truly began his purgatory on earth, as Chinese prisons and labor camps are probably the closest thing on earth to purgatory. The Chinese labor camps, known as laogai—that is re-education through labor—is the Chinese equivalent of the Soviet gulag. Prisoners have to perform hard labors—often 16 hours per day—apart from receiving Communist indoctrination, so that they would eventually conform their minds to the socialist ideology. How did these men and women of faith survive without losing their minds? It is their belief in eternal life. Only the thought of heaven kept them going and prevent them from committing suicide. It is their belief that all these pains and sufferings have redemptive values in God’s plan. They can offer up these difficulties to God for the salvation of souls and the conversion of the persecutors. Many of these Shanghai Catholics were college students when they were arrested. Some of them were jailed for 20-30 years. Friends, whenever you feel that life is hard and you want to give up, think about these young men and women who suffered so much for Christ.
Second, please continue to pray for the underground Catholics and their persecutors. For a period of time after the 1980s, there was a greater degree of religious freedom in China. However, the CCP has really tightened its control on religions again in the past few years. The CCP persecutes all religions: Christians, Buddhists, Muslims; no one is exempt. Just last May, a hundred armed policemen raided an underground seminary in Henan province because the bishop and priests refused to join the Patriotic Association. Out of Christian charity, we Christians in the free world must speak out against these atrocities because persecuted Christians are our brothers and sisters in the mystical body of Christ. Just imagine if you have a cousin who is abused by her father, how can you not speak out for her? By charity and justice, we need to make the ongoing persecution in China known to the rest of the world: not just the persecutions of Christians, but also the genocide of the Uyghurs that is ongoing at this moment. At least one million Uyghurs are locked up and systemically persecuted. Therefore, my friends, it is out of charity and justice that we speak out for those persecuted, so that Christians would persevere in their faith and never cave in to the unjust demands of the CCP. It is by perseverance that they will save their souls.
In fact, when we speak out we are acting out of charity toward the persecutors as well. We perform a spiritual work of mercy when we correct the evil behavior of others. In contrast, if we remain silent and refrain from saying anything, we are not exercising charity toward those persecutors. We fail to be merciful toward them. They need to know that what they are doing is really wrong so that they would repent before they die. It is out of love, not out of hatred, that we should call these bad actors responsible for their evil actions.
Third, we have to preserve the authentic history of the underground Church in China, as the CCP has been trying its best to manipulate the historical narratives of what happened in the 1950s. It attempts to rewrite the history of the Church in China by claiming that the conflict between the underground Church and the Patriotic Association is merely some human conflict between two groups of Catholics. In fact, some clergy fell into the trap of this false narrative as well. Recently, a Vatican diplomat said: “what blocks Catholics in the underground church is a psychological barrier resulting from being suddenly asked to change their five-decades-old perception of the state-run Church.” According to this official, there are really no dogmatic differences between these two entities. Sadly, this is not the truth. While acknowledging that not all Catholics who belong to the Patriotic Association are bad people, I must forcefully point out that the Patriotic Association as an entity is a state-run Church that is heavily controlled by the government. It was started by some bishops who pledged allegiance to the CCP. Under Chinese law, people under 18 cannot enter into these churches. On the other hand, the underground Church includes bishops, priests, and lay Catholics who try their best to resist the unjust control of the government and remain true to the faith. This is the history of these two entities that no one can deny. As the survivors of the Shanghai persecution are advanced in age, we must preserve this history and not be deceived by the CCP.
I would conclude today’s homily with a personal testimony of Cardinal Kung. After his release, Cardinal Kung was asked what the most difficult moment was in his three decades in jail. According to the Cardinal, the most painful time for him was this: Jesuit Father Jin, who was imprisoned for more than two decades, eventually caved in to the CCP and was illicitly ordained a patriotic bishop of Shanghai; and after ordination, the CCP sent this Jesuit bishop to visit Cardinal Kung, in an attempt to persuade the Cardinal to change his mind and join the Patriotic Association. This was the deepest pain suffered by the Cardinal in his 33 years of imprisonment. This speaks a lot about the Cardinal’s attitude toward the nature of the Patriotic Association, which has remained unchanged in its essence until the present day.
In 1917, Our Lady asked us to pray and fast, otherwise the errors of Russia would spread. Despite the fall of Soviet Union, the errors of Russia are still around. Dear friends, please take heed of the call of Our Lady of Fatima by praying and fasting. If we do not follow the command of Our Lady, the consequence will be very grave. Let’s do our part and trust in Our Lord and Our Lady, for the Immaculate Heart will triumph in the end.
(This column published by The Wanderer was drawn from remarks Father Woo delivered in a homily at a 2022 Solemn Requiem Mass for Ignatius Cardinal Kung at St. Anthony Church in Washington DC.)
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| Excerpt: The Anti-Liturgical Heresy by Dom Prosper Guerange |
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Posted by: Stone - 05-05-2022, 05:59 AM - Forum: Church Doctrine & Teaching
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[Emphasis mine.]
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Dom Prosper-Louis-Pascal Gueranger, founder of the Benedictine Congregation of France and first abbot of Solesmes after the French revolution, wrote in 1840 his Liturgical Institutions in order to restore among the clergy the knowledge and the love for the Roman Liturgy.
Here we present to our readers a fragment of the Liturgical Institutions, where Dom Gueranger summarizes what he calls the anti-liturgical heresy, a summary of the doctrine and liturgical practice of the Protestant sect, from the XIVth to the XVIIIth century.
As it can easily be seen, many of these principles have a striking similitude with the post-Conciliar liturgical reform.
1. The first characteristic of the anti-liturgical heresy is HATRED OF TRADITION AS FOUND IN THE FORMULAS USED IN DIVINE WORSHIP. One cannot fail to note this special characteristic in all heretics, from Vigilantus to Calvin, and the reason for it is easy to explain.
Every sectarian who wishes to introduce a new doctrine finds himself, unfailingly, face to face with the Liturgy, which is Tradition at its strongest and best, and he cannot rest until he has silenced this voice, until he has torn up these pages which recall the faith of past centuries.
As a matter of fact, how could Lutheranism, Calvinism, Anglicanism establish themselves and maintain their influence over the masses? All they had to do was substitute new books and new formulas in place of the ancient books and formulas, and their work was done. There was nothing that still bothered the new teachers; they could just go on preaching as they wished: the faith of the people was henceforth without defense.
Luther understood this doctrine with a shrewdness worthy of the Jansenists, since he, at the beginning of his innovations, at the time he still felt he should maintain a part of the external form of the Latin cult, gave the following rule for the reformed Mass:
Quote:“We approve and preserve the Introits of Sundays and of the feasts of Our Lord, that is to say Easter, Pentecost and Christmas. We should much prefer that the entire Psalms from the Introits should be taken, as was done in former times; but we will gladly conform to the present usage. We do not blame even those who would wish to keep even the Introits of the Apostles, of the Blessed Virgin and other Saints, since these three Introits are taken from the psalms and other places in Scripture.”
He hated too much the sacred songs composed by the Church herself as the public expression for her faith. He felt too much in them the vigor of Tradition, which he wanted to ban. If he granted to the Church the right to mix her voice with the oracles of the Scripture in the holy assemblies, he would expose himself thereby to have to listen to millions of mouth anathematizing his new dogmas. Therefore, his hatred for everything in Liturgy which does not exclusively derive from Holy Scripture.
2. This, as matter of fact, is the second principle of the anti-liturgical sect: to substitute for the formulas of the ecclesiastical teachings readings from the Holy Scripture.
This involves two advantages: first, to silence the voice of Tradition of which sectarians are always afraid. Then, there is the advantage of propagating and supporting their dogmas by means of affirmation and negation. By way of negation, in passing over in silence, through cunning, the texts which express doctrine opposed to errors they wish to propagate; by way of affirmation, by emphasizing truncated passages which show only one side of the truth, hide the other the eyes of the unlearned. Since many centuries we know that the preferences given by all heretics to holy Scripture, over Church definitions, has no other reason than to facilitate making the word of God say all they want it to say, and manipulating it at will.
( . . . ) Protestants . . . have nearly reduced the whole Liturgy to the reading of Scripture, accompanied by speeches in which one interprets by means of reason. As to the choice and determination of the canonical books, these have ended by falling under the caprice of the reformer, who, in final analysis, decides the meaning of the word itself. Thus Luther finds that in his system of pantheism, the ideas of the uselessness of good works and faith alone sufficing should be established as dogmas, and so, from now on, he will declare that the Epistle of St. James is a “straw epistle” and not canonical, for the simple reason that it teaches the necessity of good works for salvation.
In every age, and under all forms of sectarianism, it will be the same: No ecclesiastical formulas, only Holy Scripture, but interpreted, selected, presented by the person or persons who are seeking to profit from innovation. The trap is dangerous for the simple, and only a long time afterwards one becomes aware of having been deceived and that the word of God, “a two-edged sword”, as the Apostles calls it, has caused great wounds, because it has been manipulated by the sons of perdition.
3. The third principle of the heretics concerning the reform of the Liturgy is, having eliminated the ecclesiastical formulas and proclaimed the absolute necessity of making use only of the words of Scripture in divine worship and having seen that Holy Scripture does not always yield itself to all their purposes as they would like, their third principle, we say, is to fabricate and introduce various formulas, filled with perfidy, by which the people are more surely ensnared in error, and thus the whole structure of the impious reform will become consolidated for the coming centuries.
4. One will not be astonished at the contradictions which heresy shows in its works, when one knows that the fourth principle, or, if you will, the fourth necessity imposed on the sectarians by the very nature of their rebellious state is an habitual contradiction of their own principles. It must be this way for their confusion on that great day, which will come sooner or later, when God will reveal their nakedness to the view of the people whom they have seduced; moreover, it is not in the nature of man to be consistent. Truth alone can be consistent.
Thus, all the sectarians without exceptions begin with the vindication of the rights of antiquity. They want to cut Christianity off from all that the errors and passions of man have mixed in; from whatever is “false” and “unworthy of God”. All they want is the primitive and they pretend to go back to the cradle of Christian Institutions. To this end, they prune, they efface, they cut away; everything falls under their blows, and while one is waiting to see the original purity of the divine cult reappear, one finds himself encumbered with new formulas dating only from the night before, and which are incontestably human, since the one who created them is still alive.
Every sect undergoes this necessity. We saw this with the Monophysites and the Nestorians; we find the same in every branch of Protestantism. Their preference for preaching antiquity led only to cutting them off from the entire past. Then they placed themselves before their seduced people and they swore to them that now all was fine, that the papist accretions had disappeared, that the divine cult was restored to its primitive form . . .
5. Since the liturgical reform is being undertaken by the sectarians with the same goal as the reform of dogma, of which it is the consequence, it follows that as Protestants separated from unity in order to believe less, they found themselves led to cut away in the Liturgy all the ceremonies, all the formulas which express mysteries.
They called it superstition, idolatry, everything that did not seem to be merely rational, thus, limiting the expression of faith, obscuring by doubt and even negation all the views, which open on the supernatural world. Thus, no more Sacraments, except Baptism, preparing the way for Socialism, which freed its followers even from Baptism. No more sacramentals, blessings, images, relics of Saints, processions, pilgrimages, etc. No more altar, only a table, no more sacrifice as in every religion, but only a meal. No more church but only a temple, as with the Greeks and Romans. No more religious architecture, since there is no more mystery. No more Christian paintings and sculpture, since there is no more sensible religion. Finally no more poetry in a cult which is no longer impregnated by love or faith.
6. The suppression of the mystical element in the Protestant liturgy was bound to produce, infallibly, the total extinction of that spirit of prayer, which in Catholicism, we call unction. A heart in revolt can no longer love, a heart without love will be all the more able to produce passable expression of respect or fear, with the cold pride of the Pharisee. Such is Protestant liturgy.
7. Pretending to treat nobly with God, Protestant liturgy has no need of intermediaries. To invoke the help of the Blessed Virgin, or the protection of Saints, would be, for them, a lack of respect due to the Supreme Being. Their liturgy excludes that entire “papist idolatry” which asks from a creature what only should be asked from God. It purges the calendar of all those names of men, which the Roman Church so boldly inscribes next to the name of God. It has a special horror for those names of monks and other persons of later times who one can find figuring next to the names of the Apostles, whom Jesus Christ had chosen, and by whom was founded this primitive Church which alone was pure in faith and free from all superstition in cult and from every relaxation in morals.
8. Since the liturgical reform had for one of its principal aims the abolition of actions and formulas of mystical signification, it is a logical consequence that its authors had to vindicate the use of the vernacular in divine worship. This is in the eyes of sectarians a most important item. Cult is no secret matter. The people, they say, must understand what they sing. Hatred for the Latin language is inborn in the hearts of all the enemies of Rome. They recognize it as the bond among Catholics throughout the universe, as the arsenal of orthodoxy against all the subtleties of the sectarian spirit. ( . . .)
The spirit of rebellion which drives them to confide the universal prayer to the idiom of each people, of each province, of each century, has for the rest produced its fruits, and the reformed themselves constantly perceive that the Catholic people, in spite of their Latin prayers, relish better and accomplish with more zeal the duties of the cult than most do the Protestant people. At every hour of the day, divine worship takes place in Catholic churches. The faithful Catholic, who assists, leaves his mother tongue at the door. Apart form the sermons, he hears nothing but mysterious words which, even so, are not heard in the most solemn moment of the Canon of the Mass. Nevertheless, this mystery charms him in such a way that he is not jealous of the lot of the Protestant, even though the ear of the latter doesn’t hear a single sound without perceiving its meaning.(...)
We must admit it is a master blow of Protestantism to have declared war on the sacred language. If it should ever succeed in ever destroying it, it would be well on the way to victory. Exposed to profane gaze, like a virgin who has been violated, from that moment on the Liturgy has lost much of its sacred character, and very soon people find that it is not worthwhile putting aside one’s work or pleasure in order to go and listen to what is being said in the way one speaks on the marketplace. ( . . .)
9. In taking away from the Liturgy the mystery which humbles reason, Protestantism took care not to forget the practical consequence, that is to say, liberation from the fatigue and the burden of the body imposed by the rules of the papist Liturgy. First of all, no more fasting, no more abstinence, no more genuflections in prayer. For the ministers of the temple, no more daily functions to carry out, no more canonical prayers to recite in the name of the Church. Such is one of the principal forms of the great Protestant emancipation: to diminish the sum of public and private prayers.
The course of events has quickly shown that faith and charity, which are nourished by prayers, were extinguished in the reform, whereas among Catholics both still nourish all the acts of devotion to God and men, since they are impregnated by the ineffable resources of liturgical prayer as accomplished by the secular and regular clergy, and in which the community of the faithful participate.
10. Since Protestantism had to establish a rule in order to distinguish among the papist institutions those which could be the most hostile to its principle, it had to rummage around in the foundations of the Catholic structure to find the corner stone on which everything rests. Its instinct caused it to discover first of all that dogma which is irreconcilable with every innovation: Papal authority. When Luther wrote on his flag: “Hatred for Rome and its laws”, he only promulgated once more the underlying principle of every branch of the anti-liturgical sect. From then on he had to abrogate, ‘en masse’ both cult and ceremonies as the idolatries of Rome.
The Latin language, the Divine Office, the calendar, the breviary: all were abominations of the great Harlot of Babylon. The Roman Pontiff weighs down reason by his dogmas and the sense by his ritual practices. Therefore, it must be proclaimed that his dogmas are only blasphemy and error, and his liturgical observances nothing but a means of establishing more firmly a usurped and tyrannical domination. (. . .) One should here bring to mind the marvelous reflections of Joseph de Maistre in his book The Pope, where he demonstrates with so much wisdom and depth that, in spite of the disagreement which should isolate the diay aent sects, there is one thing in which they are all alike, namely, they are non-Roman.
11. The anti-liturgical heresy needed, in order to establish its reign for good, the destruction in fact and in principle of all priesthood in Christianity. For it felt that where there is a Pontiff, there is an Altar, and where there is an Altar there is a sacrifice and the carrying on of a mysterious ceremonial.
Having abolished the office of Supreme Pontiff, they had to annihilate the character of the bishopric, from which emanates the mystical imposition of hands, which perpetuates the sacred hierarchy. From this derives a great presbyterianism, which is nothing other than the immediate consequence of the suppression of the Supreme Pontiff. From now on there is no longer a priest, properly speaking. How could simple election without consecration make a man sacred? Luther’s and Calvin’s reforms only know of ministers of God, or of men, as you prefer. But this is not enough. Chosen and established by laymen, bringing into the temple the robe of a certain bastard ministry, the minister is nothing but a layman clothed with accidental functions. In Protestantism there exit only laymen, and this necessarily so, since there is no longer a Liturgy. (. . .)
Such are the principal maxims of the anti-liturgical sect. We certainly did not exaggerate in any way. All we did was to reveal the hundred times professed doctrines of the writings of Luther, Calvin, the One Hundred Signers of Magdeburg, of Hospinien, Kemnitz, etc. These books are easy to consult. That is to say that what comes out of them is under the eyes of all the world. We thought it useful to throw light on the principal features of sectarianism. It is always profitable to know error.
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| CDC Tracked Millions of Phones to See If Americans Followed COVID Lockdown Orders |
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Posted by: Stone - 05-04-2022, 07:17 PM - Forum: General Commentary
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CDC Tracked Millions of Phones to See If Americans Followed COVID Lockdown Orders
Newly released documents showed the CDC planned to use phone location data to monitor schools and churches, and wanted to use the data for many non-COVID-19 purposes too.
Vice.com | May 3, 2022
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) bought access to location data harvested from tens of millions of phones in the United States to perform analysis of compliance with curfews, track patterns of people visiting K-12 schools, and specifically monitor the effectiveness of policy in the Navajo Nation, according to CDC documents obtained by Motherboard. The documents also show that although the CDC used COVID-19 as a reason to buy access to the data more quickly, it intended to use it for more general CDC purposes.
Location data is information on a device’s location sourced from the phone, which can then show where a person lives, works, and where they went. The sort of data the CDC bought was aggregated—meaning it was designed to follow trends that emerge from the movements of groups of people—but researchers have repeatedly raised concerns with how location data can be deanonymized and used to track specific people.
The documents reveal the expansive plan the CDC had last year to use location data from a highly controversial data broker. SafeGraph, the company the CDC paid $420,000 for access to one year of data to, includes Peter Thiel and the former head of Saudi intelligence among its investors. Google banned the company from the Play Store in June.
The CDC used the data for monitoring curfews, with the documents saying that SafeGraph’s data “has been critical for ongoing response efforts, such as hourly monitoring of activity in curfew zones or detailed counts of visits to participating pharmacies for vaccine monitoring.” The documents date from 2021.
Zach Edwards, a cybersecurity researcher who closely follows the data marketplace, told Motherboard in an online chat after reviewing the documents that “The CDC seems to have purposefully created an open-ended list of use cases, which included monitoring curfews, neighbor to neighbor visits, visits to churches, schools and pharmacies, and also a variety of analysis with this data specifically focused on ‘violence.’” (The document doesn’t stop at churches; it mentions “places of worship.”)
Motherboard obtained the documents through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the CDC.
The documents contain a long list of what the CDC describes as 21 different “potential CDC use cases for data.” They include:
- “Track patterns of those visiting K-12 schools by the school and compare to 2019; compare with epi metrics [Environmental Performance Index] if possible.”
- “Examination of the correlation of mobility patterns data and rise in COVID-19 cases [...] Movement restrictions (Border closures, inter-regional and nigh curfews) to show compliance.”
- “Examination of the effectiveness of public policy on [the] Navajo Nation.”
At the start of the pandemic, cell phone location data was seen as a potentially useful tool. Multiple media organizations, including the New York Times, used location data provided by companies in the industry to show where people were traveling to once lockdowns started to lift, or highlight that poorer communities were unable to shelter in place as much as richer ones.
The COVID-19 pandemic as a whole has been a flashpoint in a broader culture war, with conservatives and anti-vaccine groups protesting against government mask and vaccine mandates. They've also expressed a specific paranoia that vaccine passports would be used as a tracking or surveillance tool, framing vaccine refusal as a civil liberties issue. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Children's Health Defense, one of the more influential and monied anti-vaccine groups in the U.S., has promoted fears that digital vaccine certificates could be used to surveil citizens. QAnon promoter Dustin Nemos wrote on Telegram in December that vaccine passports are "a Trojan horse being used to create a completely new type of controlled and surveilled society in which the freedom we enjoy today will be a distant memory."
Against that inflamed backdrop, the use of cell phone location data for such a wide variety of tracking measures, even if effective for becoming better informed on the pandemic’s spread or for informing policy, is likely to be controversial. It's also likely to give anti-vaccine groups a real-world data point on which to pin their darkest warnings.
![[Image: 1651520756653-cdc-uses.png?resize=800:*]](https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1651520756653-cdc-uses.png?resize=800:*)
A SCREENSHOT OF THE USE CASES PROPOSED BY THE CDC. IMAGE: MOTHERBOARD.
The procurement documents say that “This is an URGENT COVID-19 PR [procurement request],” and asks for the purchase to be expediated.
But some of the use cases are not explicitly linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. One reads “Research points of interest for physical activity and chronic disease prevention such as visits to parks, gyms, or weight management businesses.”
Another section of the document elaborates on the location data’s use for non-COVID-19 related programs.
“CDC also plans to use mobility data and services acquired through this acquisition to support non-COVID-19 programmatic areas and public health priorities across the agency, including but not limited to travel to parks and greenspaces, physical activity and mode of travel, and population migration before, during, and after natural disasters,” it reads. “The mobility data obtained under this contract will be available for CDC agency-wide use and will support numerous CDC priorities.”
The CDC did not respond to multiple emails requesting comment on which use cases it did deploy SafeGraph data for.
SafeGraph is part of the ballooning location industry, and SafeGraph has previously shared datasets containing 18 million cell phones from the United States. The documents say this acquisition is for data that is geographically representative, “i.e., derived from at least 20 million active cellphone users per day across the United States.”
Generally, companies in this industry ask, or pay, app developers to include location data gathering code in their apps. The location data then funnels up to companies who may resell the raw location data outright or package it into products.
SafeGraph sells both. On the developed product side SafeGraph has several different products. “Places” concerns points of interest (POIs) such as where particular stores or buildings are located. “Patterns” is based on mobile phone location data that can show for how long people visit a location, and “Where they came from” and “Where else they go,” according to SafeGraph’s website. More recently SafeGraph has started offering aggregated transaction data, showing how much consumers typically spend at specific locations, under the “Spend” product. SafeGraph sells its products to a wide range of industries, such as real estate, insurance, and advertising. These products include aggregated data on movements and spends, rather than the location of specific devices. Motherboard previously bought a set of SafeGraph location data for $200. The data was aggregated, meaning it was not supposed to pinpoint the movements of specific devices and hence people, but at the time, Edwards said "In my opinion the SafeGraph data is way beyond any safe thresholds [around anonymity]." Edwards pointed to a search result in SafeGraph’s data portal that displayed data related to a specific doctor’s office, showing how finely tuned the company’s data can be. Theoretically, an attacker could use that data to then attempt to unmask the specific users, something which researchers have repeatedly demonstrated is possible.
In January 2019, the Illinois Department of Transportation bought such data from SafeGraph that related to over five million phones, activist organization the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) previously found.
The CDC documents show that the agency bought access to SafeGraph’s “U.S. Core Place Data,” “Weekly Patterns Data,” and “Neighborhood Patterns Data. That last product includes information such as home dwelling time, and is aggregated by state and census block.
“SafeGraph offers visitor data at the Census Block Group level that allows for extremely accurate insights related to age, gender, race, citizenship status, income, and more,” one of the CDC documents reads.
Both SafeGraph and the CDC have previously touched on their partnership, but not in the detail that is revealed in the documents. The CDC published a study in September 2020 which looked at whether people around the country were following stay-at-home orders, which appeared to use SafeGraph data.
SafeGraph wrote in a blog post in April 2020 that “To play our part in the fight against the COVID-19 health crisis—and its devastating impact on the global economy—we decided to expand our program further, making our foot traffic data free for non-profit organizations and government agencies at the local, state, and federal level.” Multiple location data companies touted their data as a potential mitigation to the pandemic during its peak in the United States, and provided data to government and media organizations.
A year later, the CDC purchased access to the data because SafeGraph no longer wanted to provide it for free, according to the documents. The Data Use Agreement for the in-kind provided data was set to expire on March 31, 2021, the documents add. The data was still important to access as the U.S. opened up, the CDC argued in the documents.
“CDC has interest in continued access to this mobility data as the country opens back up. This data is used by several teams/groups in the response and have been resulting in deeper insights into the pandemic as it pertains to human behavior,” one section reads.
Researchers at the EFF separately obtained documents concerning the CDC’s purchase of similar location data products from a company called Cubeiq as well as the SafeGraph documents. The EFF shared those documents with Motherboard. They showed that the CDC also asked to speed up the purchase of Cubeiq’s data because of COVID-19, and intended to use it for non-COVID-19 purposes. The documents also listed the same potential use-cases for Cubeiq’s data as in the SafeGraph documents.
Google banned SafeGraph from its Google Play Store in June. This meant that any app developers using SafeGraph’s code had to remove it from their apps, or face having their app removed from the store. It is not entirely clear how effective this ban has been: SafeGraph has previously said it obtains location data via Veraset, a spin-off company which interfaces with the app developers.
SafeGraph did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
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| The Solemnity of St. Joseph [Pre-1955] |
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Posted by: Stone - 05-04-2022, 05:37 AM - Forum: Easter
- Replies (4)
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If you are following the pre-1955 Missal, today is the Feast of the Solemnity of St. Joseph (double first class).
The following are a few brief descriptions of the history of this Feast in the liturgical year:
The Solemnity of Saint Joseph
Between 1870 and 1955, an additional Feast was celebrated in honour of Saint Joseph as Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Patron of the Universal Church, the latter title having been given to him by Pope Pius IX. Originally celebrated on the third Sunday after Easter with an octave, after Divino Afflatu of Saint Pius X (see Reform of the Roman Breviary by Pope Pius X), it was moved to the preceding Wednesday (because Wednesday is the day of the week specifically dedicated to St Joseph, St John the Baptist and local Patrons). The Feast was also retitled The Solemnity of Saint Joseph. This celebration and its accompanying Octave were abolished during the modernisation of rubrics under Pope Pius XII in 1955 [emphasis mine]. Source
The Solemnity of St Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church
Regarding the various graces conferred upon a rational creature, it is the general rule that whenever the divine grace chooses someone for a particular grace, or for a particular exalted state, it also endows that person with all the gifts of grace which are necessary for the person so chosen, and for the duty (to which he is called), and does so in abundance. This is most especially verified in the case of Saint Joseph, the putative father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and true spouse of the Queen of the world, and Lady of Angels. He was chosen by the Eternal Father as the faithful protector and guardian of His chief treasures, namely, His Son, and Joseph’s own Wife. This duty Joseph discharged most faithfully, wherefore the Lord hath said to him: Good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.
Remember us, therefore, o blessed Joseph, and by the support of thy prayers, intercede for us with thy supposed Son! And also make gracious to us thy Virgin Spouse, t
he Mother of Him Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit, liveth and reigneth though all ages. Amen. (From the sermon at Matins, by St Bernardin of Siena.)
The feast of St Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church, was originally called “the Patronage of St Joseph,” and fixed to the Third Sunday after Easter. It was kept by a great many dioceses and religious orders, particularly promoted by the Carmelites, before it was extended to the universal Church by Bl. Pope Pius IX in 1847, and later granted an octave. When the custom of fixing feasts to particular Sundays was abolished as part of the Breviary reform of Pope St Pius X, it was anticipated to the previous Wednesday, the day of the week traditionally dedicated to Patron Saints. It was removed from the general Calendar in 1955 and replaced by the feast of St Joseph the Worker, one of the least fortunate aspects of the pre-Conciliar liturgical changes; the new feast itself was then downgraded from the highest of three grades (first class) in the 1962 Missal to the lowest of four (optional memorial) in 1970 [emphasis mine]. Source
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