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| Merck Asks FDA For Emergency Approval Of New COVID Drug Despite Safety Concerns |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-11-2021, 08:12 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
- No Replies
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Merck Asks FDA For Emergency Approval Of New COVID Drug Despite Safety Concerns
![[Image: merck30.jpg?itok=9DDeBas1]](https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/merck30.jpg?itok=9DDeBas1)
ZH [Emphasis mine.]| OCT 11, 2021
Despite warnings from scientists that its new COVID drug could have seriously harmful side effects like causing cancers and birth defects, Merck officially submitted the drug, Molnupiravir, to the FDA for approval. If it's approved, it would be the first antiviral pill to treat the virus.
According to the NYT, the drug would revolutionize COVID treatment since it would be able to relatively inexpensively treat many more high-risk patients sick with COVID, especially those that haven't been vaccinated (the drug was only tested on patients who hadn't been vaccinated). Still, the drug will be a cash cow for Merck, since Merck is planning to charge customers 40x the cost to make the drug.
Despite the price, countries are lining up for deals with Merck even before the drug has been approved. Merck has struck deals with the US government, as well as South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and others.
The $700 course of the pill is meant to be taken at home as four capsules twice a day for five days, constituting a total of 40 pills. Per the trial data released by Merck - which was greeted with fawning from doctors and scientists - it halved hospitalizations and deaths (though the trial was cut short by a supervisory board who claimed the data was so positive it would be unethical to withhold the drug from the placebo group). The approval could come within weeks, per the NYT.
As many as 10MM Americans would be eligible for the drug if approved, but the supply will likely be slim initially; the US has ordered 1.7MM courses already.
Fortunately, other companies are nearly ready to release data from their own antiviral pill trials. An antiviral pill being developed by Pfizer and one from Atea Pharmaceuticals teamed up with Roche will report study results in the next months.
The FDA has many decisions to make beyond just approving the drug, or not. It must decide whether pregnant women - and any other at-risk groups - will be eligible. Initially, Merck is seeking authorization for its pill to be given only to high-risk adults, including people with any of the following characteristics: over 60, have obesity, diabetes or heart disease.
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| Feast of the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary - October 11th |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-11-2021, 08:07 AM - Forum: Our Lady
- Replies (1)
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October 11 – The Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary
In the sixteenth century, even amidst their many divergences, the so-called Reformers agreed in utterly rejecting all the honors paid by the Catholic Church to the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the grounds that such veneration of the Mother detracted from the supreme worship due to her Divine Son. Four centuries have more than sufficed to show the result of so doing: the Son has followed the Mother! The descendants of those who refused to Mary the title and rights of Theotokos,—Mother of God—refuse to Jesus the title of Son of God in the traditional sense of the term. Many reject His Godhead altogether, placing Him merely at the head of the line of great moral and social world-teachers; others still retain the word “divinity” with respect to Him, but for them it is no longer synonymous with “deity.”
Holy Scripture tells us that those who first came to adore him who is Son of God and Son of Mary found him “with Mary his Mother.” At the scene of the first miracle at Cana, which marked the opening of his public life, “the Mother of Jesus was there.” In the tremendous hour when all was consummated, when types and shadows gave place to the mighty reality, “there stood by the Cross of Jesus His Mother.” And when the little flock who were to be the nucleus of the Church of God awaited in prayer the coming of the Paraclete, Who would teach them all truth, again it was in company with “Mary the Mother of Jesus.” Far from taking from the honor and love due to the Word Incarnate, devotion to Mary is a strong bulwark protecting the central doctrine. He is ever found with his Mother; where Mary is denied her rights, sooner or later Jesus is denied his; they stand or fall together.
This was realized in the year 431 when, at the General Council of Ephesus, the Church condemned the Nestorian heresy, whereby the Patriarch of Constantinople, Nestorius, had taught that, since in Christ there are two persons, a Divine and a human, Mary was mother only of the Man “Christ,” and therefore could not be called ”Mother of God.” He therefore denied ”that wondrous and substantial union of the two natures which we call hypostatic.”
On the occasion of the fifteenth centenary of the Council of Ephesus, the Sovereign Pontiff, Pius XI, issued the Encyclical Lux Veritatis, recalling the history of the heresy and commenting thus upon the dogma of the hypostatic union: “When once the doctrine of the hypostatic union is abandoned, whereon the dogmas of the Incarnation and of man’s Redemption rest and stand firm, the whole foundation of the Catholic religion falls and comes to ruin … When once this dogma of the truth is securely established, it is easy to gather from it that, by the mystery of the Incarnation, the whole aggregate of men and of mundane things has been endowed with a dignity than which certainly nothing greater can be imagined, and surely grander than that to which it was raised by the work of creation.”
Proceeding to speak of the special dignity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Pope emphasizes that, “because she brought forth the Redeemer of mankind, she is also in a manner the most tender Mother of us all, whom Christ our Lord deigned to have as his brothers; wherefore we may confidently entrust to her all things that are ours, our joys, our troubles, our hopes; especially if more difficult times fall upon the Church—if faith fail because charity has grown cold, if private and public morals take a turn for the worse.”
In this last connection we are reminded of another result of the loss of devotion to the Mother of God. Frequently and truly we hear and speak of the “paganism” of the present age. The decay of faith has been followed inevitably by a decline in morality, and our elaborate and complex civilization is threatened with the dissolving agent which contributed in no small measure to the overthrow of the magnificent civilization of old Rome: namely, the loss of the domestic virtues, the disappearance of healthy, normal family life, consequent upon the abandonment of the Christian ideals of marriage and parenthood.
It is a truism that one of the greatest social effects of Christianity was to raise the status of womanhood. Her legal position in the Ancient World was little better than that of a slave, and although classical literature furnishes us with examples of women who, in pagan homes, yet enjoyed high honor and affection, such are few indeed, and but serve to prove the rule. Divorce, infanticide, general degradation of womanhood, and not infrequently of childhood, were accepted features of pagan social order. The ideal and model of the “new woman” of the Christian dispensation was the Mother of God. It was Mary, “Mother of fair love,” “Madonna,” “our Lady,” who ennobled the degenerate old civilization, just as she tamed the fierce barbarian peoples; she it was who inspired the ideals of the later chivalry. In Mary, all her sex was uplifted; in her motherhood all motherhood became blessed. Now again the world needs the hallowing influence of the Mother of God and of men, if “the life of the family, the beginning and the foundation of all human society” is to be preserved in all its nobility and its purity.
Desirous “to mark the commemoration, and help to nourish the piety of clergy and people towards the great Mother of God,” His Holiness concludes the Encyclical by establishing the new feast of the Divine Motherhood, to be celebrated on October 11 by the universal Church.
Introit
Ecce, Virgo concipiet, et pariet Filium, et vocabitur nomen ejus Emmanuel.
Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel.
Cantate Domino canticum novum, quia mirabilia fecit. Gloria Patri. Ecce.
Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle: because he hath done wonderful things. Glory be to the Father. Behold.
Collect
Deus, qui de beatæ Mariæ Virginis utero Verbum tuum, angelo nuntiante, carnem suscipere voluisti: præsta supplicibus tuis; ut, qui vere eam Genetricem Dei credimus, ejus apud te intercessionibus adjuvemur. Per eumdem Dominum.
O God, who wast pleased that at the message of an angel, thy Word should take flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary: grant that we, thy suppliants, who believe her to be truly the Mother of God, may be helped by her intercession with thee. Through the same.
Epistle
Lesson from the book of Wisdom. Ch. xxiv.
As the vine I have brought forth a pleasant odour: and my flowers are the fruit of honour and riches. I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. In me is all grace of the way and of the truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue. Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with my fruits. For my spirit is sweet above honey, and my inheritance above honey and the honeycomb. My memory is unto everlasting generations. They that eat me, shall yet hunger: and they that drink me, shall yet thirst. He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me, shall not sin. They that explain me shall have life everlasting.
Gradual
Egredietur virga de radice Jesse, et flos de radice ejus ascendet.
There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root.
℣. Et requiescet super eum Spiritus Domini.
℣. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.
Alleluial, alleluia. ℣. Virgo Dei Genetrix, quem totus non capit orbis, in tua se clausit viscera factus homo. Alleluia.
Alleluia, alleluia. ℣. O Virgin Mother of God, the world sufficeth not to contain him who, made man, was shut up in thy womb. Alleluia.
Gospel
Sequel of the holy Gospel according to St. Luke. Ch. ii.
At that time: When they returned, the child Jesus remained in Jerusalem; and his parents knew it not. And thinking that he was in the company, they came a day’s journey, and sought him among their kinsfolks and acquaintance. And not finding him, they returned into Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass, that, after three days, they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his wisdom and his answers. And seeing him, they wondered. And his mother said to him: Son, why hast thou done so to us? behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said to them: How is it that you sought me? did you not know, that I must be about my father’s business? And they understood not the word that he spoke unto them. And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them.
Offertory
Cum esset desponsata mater ejus Maria Joseph inventa est in utero habens de Spiritu Sancto.
When his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
Secret
Tua, Domine, propitiatione, et beatæ Mariæ semper Virginis, Unigeniti tui matris, intercessione, ad perpetuam atque præsentem hæc oblatio nobis proficiat prosperitatem et pacem. Per eumdem Dominum.
Through thy merciful forgiveness, O Lord, and through the intercession of Blessed Mary ever Virgin, may this oblation avail us to the ensuring, now and always, of prosperity and peace. Through the same.
Preface of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Et te in festivitate.
Communion
Beata viscera Mariæ Virginis, quæ portaverunt æterni Patris Filium.
Blessed is the womb of Mary the Virgin, which bare the Son of the eternal Father.
Postcommunion
Hæc nos communio, Domine, purget a crimine: et, in tercedente beata Virgine Dei Genetrice Maria, cælestis remedii faciat esse consortes. Per eumdem Dominum.
May this communion, O Lord, cleanse us from sin: and by the intercession of Blessed Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, may it unite us in him who is the heavenly healer of our souls. Through the same.
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| Feast of the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary - October 11th |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-11-2021, 08:07 AM - Forum: October
- No Replies
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October 11 – The Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary
In the sixteenth century, even amidst their many divergences, the so-called Reformers agreed in utterly rejecting all the honors paid by the Catholic Church to the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the grounds that such veneration of the Mother detracted from the supreme worship due to her Divine Son. Four centuries have more than sufficed to show the result of so doing: the Son has followed the Mother! The descendants of those who refused to Mary the title and rights of Theotokos,—Mother of God—refuse to Jesus the title of Son of God in the traditional sense of the term. Many reject His Godhead altogether, placing Him merely at the head of the line of great moral and social world-teachers; others still retain the word “divinity” with respect to Him, but for them it is no longer synonymous with “deity.”
Holy Scripture tells us that those who first came to adore him who is Son of God and Son of Mary found him “with Mary his Mother.” At the scene of the first miracle at Cana, which marked the opening of his public life, “the Mother of Jesus was there.” In the tremendous hour when all was consummated, when types and shadows gave place to the mighty reality, “there stood by the Cross of Jesus His Mother.” And when the little flock who were to be the nucleus of the Church of God awaited in prayer the coming of the Paraclete, Who would teach them all truth, again it was in company with “Mary the Mother of Jesus.” Far from taking from the honor and love due to the Word Incarnate, devotion to Mary is a strong bulwark protecting the central doctrine. He is ever found with his Mother; where Mary is denied her rights, sooner or later Jesus is denied his; they stand or fall together.
This was realized in the year 431 when, at the General Council of Ephesus, the Church condemned the Nestorian heresy, whereby the Patriarch of Constantinople, Nestorius, had taught that, since in Christ there are two persons, a Divine and a human, Mary was mother only of the Man “Christ,” and therefore could not be called ”Mother of God.” He therefore denied ”that wondrous and substantial union of the two natures which we call hypostatic.”
On the occasion of the fifteenth centenary of the Council of Ephesus, the Sovereign Pontiff, Pius XI, issued the Encyclical Lux Veritatis, recalling the history of the heresy and commenting thus upon the dogma of the hypostatic union: “When once the doctrine of the hypostatic union is abandoned, whereon the dogmas of the Incarnation and of man’s Redemption rest and stand firm, the whole foundation of the Catholic religion falls and comes to ruin … When once this dogma of the truth is securely established, it is easy to gather from it that, by the mystery of the Incarnation, the whole aggregate of men and of mundane things has been endowed with a dignity than which certainly nothing greater can be imagined, and surely grander than that to which it was raised by the work of creation.”
Proceeding to speak of the special dignity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Pope emphasizes that, “because she brought forth the Redeemer of mankind, she is also in a manner the most tender Mother of us all, whom Christ our Lord deigned to have as his brothers; wherefore we may confidently entrust to her all things that are ours, our joys, our troubles, our hopes; especially if more difficult times fall upon the Church—if faith fail because charity has grown cold, if private and public morals take a turn for the worse.”
In this last connection we are reminded of another result of the loss of devotion to the Mother of God. Frequently and truly we hear and speak of the “paganism” of the present age. The decay of faith has been followed inevitably by a decline in morality, and our elaborate and complex civilization is threatened with the dissolving agent which contributed in no small measure to the overthrow of the magnificent civilization of old Rome: namely, the loss of the domestic virtues, the disappearance of healthy, normal family life, consequent upon the abandonment of the Christian ideals of marriage and parenthood.
It is a truism that one of the greatest social effects of Christianity was to raise the status of womanhood. Her legal position in the Ancient World was little better than that of a slave, and although classical literature furnishes us with examples of women who, in pagan homes, yet enjoyed high honor and affection, such are few indeed, and but serve to prove the rule. Divorce, infanticide, general degradation of womanhood, and not infrequently of childhood, were accepted features of pagan social order. The ideal and model of the “new woman” of the Christian dispensation was the Mother of God. It was Mary, “Mother of fair love,” “Madonna,” “our Lady,” who ennobled the degenerate old civilization, just as she tamed the fierce barbarian peoples; she it was who inspired the ideals of the later chivalry. In Mary, all her sex was uplifted; in her motherhood all motherhood became blessed. Now again the world needs the hallowing influence of the Mother of God and of men, if “the life of the family, the beginning and the foundation of all human society” is to be preserved in all its nobility and its purity.
Desirous “to mark the commemoration, and help to nourish the piety of clergy and people towards the great Mother of God,” His Holiness concludes the Encyclical by establishing the new feast of the Divine Motherhood, to be celebrated on October 11 by the universal Church.
Introit
Ecce, Virgo concipiet, et pariet Filium, et vocabitur nomen ejus Emmanuel.
Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel.
Cantate Domino canticum novum, quia mirabilia fecit. Gloria Patri. Ecce.
Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle: because he hath done wonderful things. Glory be to the Father. Behold.
Collect
Deus, qui de beatæ Mariæ Virginis utero Verbum tuum, angelo nuntiante, carnem suscipere voluisti: præsta supplicibus tuis; ut, qui vere eam Genetricem Dei credimus, ejus apud te intercessionibus adjuvemur. Per eumdem Dominum.
O God, who wast pleased that at the message of an angel, thy Word should take flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary: grant that we, thy suppliants, who believe her to be truly the Mother of God, may be helped by her intercession with thee. Through the same.
Epistle
Lesson from the book of Wisdom. Ch. xxiv.
As the vine I have brought forth a pleasant odour: and my flowers are the fruit of honour and riches. I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. In me is all grace of the way and of the truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue. Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with my fruits. For my spirit is sweet above honey, and my inheritance above honey and the honeycomb. My memory is unto everlasting generations. They that eat me, shall yet hunger: and they that drink me, shall yet thirst. He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me, shall not sin. They that explain me shall have life everlasting.
Gradual
Egredietur virga de radice Jesse, et flos de radice ejus ascendet.
There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root.
℣. Et requiescet super eum Spiritus Domini.
℣. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.
Alleluial, alleluia. ℣. Virgo Dei Genetrix, quem totus non capit orbis, in tua se clausit viscera factus homo. Alleluia.
Alleluia, alleluia. ℣. O Virgin Mother of God, the world sufficeth not to contain him who, made man, was shut up in thy womb. Alleluia.
Gospel
Sequel of the holy Gospel according to St. Luke. Ch. ii.
At that time: When they returned, the child Jesus remained in Jerusalem; and his parents knew it not. And thinking that he was in the company, they came a day’s journey, and sought him among their kinsfolks and acquaintance. And not finding him, they returned into Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass, that, after three days, they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his wisdom and his answers. And seeing him, they wondered. And his mother said to him: Son, why hast thou done so to us? behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said to them: How is it that you sought me? did you not know, that I must be about my father’s business? And they understood not the word that he spoke unto them. And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them.
Offertory
Cum esset desponsata mater ejus Maria Joseph inventa est in utero habens de Spiritu Sancto.
When his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
Secret
Tua, Domine, propitiatione, et beatæ Mariæ semper Virginis, Unigeniti tui matris, intercessione, ad perpetuam atque præsentem hæc oblatio nobis proficiat prosperitatem et pacem. Per eumdem Dominum.
Through thy merciful forgiveness, O Lord, and through the intercession of Blessed Mary ever Virgin, may this oblation avail us to the ensuring, now and always, of prosperity and peace. Through the same.
Preface of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Et te in festivitate.
Communion
Beata viscera Mariæ Virginis, quæ portaverunt æterni Patris Filium.
Blessed is the womb of Mary the Virgin, which bare the Son of the eternal Father.
Postcommunion
Hæc nos communio, Domine, purget a crimine: et, in tercedente beata Virgine Dei Genetrice Maria, cælestis remedii faciat esse consortes. Per eumdem Dominum.
May this communion, O Lord, cleanse us from sin: and by the intercession of Blessed Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, may it unite us in him who is the heavenly healer of our souls. Through the same.
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| Pope Pius XI : Lux Veritatis - On the Council of Ephesus [Feast of Divine Maternity] |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-11-2021, 07:59 AM - Forum: Encyclicals
- No Replies
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To Our Venerable Brethren, Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, and other Local Ordinaries enjoying Peace and Communion with the Apostolic See.
Venerable Brethren and Beloved Children, Health and Apostolic Benediction.
History, the light of truth, and the witness of the ages, if only it be rightly discerned and diligently examined, teaches us that the divine promise of Jesus Christ: “I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world” (Matthew xxviii, 20), has never failed the Church His Bride, and therefore that it will never fail her in time to come. Nay, further, the more turbulent the waves by which the divine bark of Peter is tossed, in the course of ages, the more present and powerful is her experience of the help of heavenly grace. This happened more especially in the first age of the Church, not only when the Christian name was regarded as an execrable crime, to be punished by death, but also when the genuine faith of Christ, confounded by the perfidy of the heretics who were spreading, chiefly in the eastern regions, was placed in grave jeopardy. For even as the persecutors of the Catholic name, one after another, perished miserably, and the Roman Empire itself came to ruin, so all the heretics, as withered branches (cf. John xv, 6) torn from the divine vine, could neither drink the sap of life nor bring forth fruit.
2. The Church of God, on the contrary, in the midst of so many storms and the vicissitudes of things that perish, trusting in God alone, has ever gone on her way, with firm, secure steps, and has never ceased from her strenuous defence of the integrity of the sacred deposit of Gospel truth, entrusted to her by her Founder.
3. These things come to our mind, Venerable Brethren, when we are about to speak to you, in these letters, concerning that most auspicious event, namely, the Ecumenical Synod which was held at Ephesus, fifteen hundred years ago; for there, assuredly, the crafty perversity of those who erred was exposed, and there, too, was manifest the most firm faith of the Church upheld by heavenly aid.
4. We know, indeed, that two Committees of distinguished men have been set up, at Our desire, to secure that this centenary commemoration may be worthily celebrated not only here in the city which is the capital of the Catholic world, but also among all nations. (See the letter to the most eminent Cardinals, B. Pompili and A. Sincero, December 25, 1930. Acta Apostolicae Sedis, Vol. XXIII, pp. 10-12). And we are well aware that those to whom we have committed this special office have spared no care and labour and have used every effort to secure its successful accomplishment. These generous efforts have, almost everywhere, met with a willing and spontaneous response, with remarkable unanimity, from both Pastors and people; all which is a matter for heartfelt congratulation, because we are confident that it will prove to be a source of no mean benefits to the cause of Catholicism.
5. But when we carefully consider this event and all the facts and circumstances connected therewith, we feel that it becomes the office commited to Us by God, that We Ourselves should speak with you in these Encyclical Letters concerning this most important matter, before the end of the celebration, and just when we have come again to the sacred season when the Blessed Virgin Mary brought forth our Saviour for us. For We cherish a good hope that not only will these words of ours be pleasing and profitable to you and to your flock; but also that if the same are considered and weighed by some of those who differ from the Apostolic See, brethren and sons most dear to us, moved thereto by the desire of the truth, it may well be that, taught by history the guide of life, they will at least be affected by a longing, or nostalgia, for the one fold and the one Shepherd, and for embracing that genuine faith which is ever preserved safe and whole in the Roman Church. For in the plan which the fathers of the council followed in their attack on the Nestorian heresy, and in the whole celebration of the Ephesian Synod, three dogmas of the Catholic religion, with which we are chiefly concerned here, were luminously manifest to the eyes of all; namely, that there is one person in Jesus Christ and this is Divine; that the Blessed Virgin Mary is to be acknowledged and venerated by all as really and truly the Mother of God; and likewise that in matters of faith and morals, the Roman Pontiff has a God-given authority, supreme, high, and subject to none over all and several faithful Christians.
6. Wherefore, let us pursue the subject in order, taking as our beginning the doctrine and the admonition which the Apostle of the Gentiles addressed to the Ephesians: “Until we all meet into the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ: That henceforth we be no more children tossed to and from, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the wickedness of men, by cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive. But doing the truth in charity, we may in all things grow up in Him who is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body being compacted and fitly joined together, by what ever joint supplieth, according to the operation in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edi*ing of itself in charity.” (Ephesians iv, 13-16.)
7. Now, even as the Fathers of the Synod of Ephesus followed these apostolic injunctions by that wonderful union of minds, so we would fain have all, without distinction, and laying aside prejudiced opinions, take these words as addressed to themselves and happily put them into practice.
8. As all know, Nestorius was the author of the whole controversy; not that he had produced a new doctrine by his own ingenuity and study; for he had, rather, borrowed it from Theodore the Mopsuestine Bishop; and having developed it more fully, and clothed it with an appearance of novelty, with a great apparatus of words and sentences-for he was gifted with a flow of eloquence-he began to proclaim it, and used every effort to spread it abroad. Born at Germanicia, a town in Syria, he went to Antioch as a youth, in order that he be educated there in sacred and profane learning. In this city, which was very famous in that age, he first of all entered the monastic life; and then left it, from mobility of mind; and being made a priest, gave himself wholly to the office of preaching, desiring the applause of men rather than the glory of God. But the fame of his eloquence so affected the people, and spread so far and wide, that he was called to Constantinople, which was then widowed of its Pastor: and, amid great expectations on the part of all, he was raised to the episcopal dignity. Seated in this famous See, far from abandoning his novel doctrine, he persisted in teaching it and propagating it, with greater authority and more arrogance of mind.
9. In order that the case may be rightly understood it may be well to touch briefly on the chief points of the Nestorian heresy. For that arrogant man, thinking that two whole hypostases, namely, that of Jesus which was human and that of the Word which was divine, came together in one “prosopon,” as he called it, denied that wondrous and substantial union of the two natures which we call hypostatic; and for this reason he asserted that the Only begotten Word of God was not made man but was in human flesh, by indwelling, by good pleasure and by the power of operation. Wherefore he was to be called “Theophoros,” or God-bearer, in much the same way as prophets and other holy men can be called God-bearers by reason of the divine grace imparted to them.
10. From these perverse novelties of Nestorius it was an easy step to recognize two persons in Christ, one divine and the other human; and it followed further by necessity that the Blessed Virgin Mary was not truly the Mother of God or Theotocos; but was, rather, the Mother of the man Christ, or Christotocos, or at most Theodocos; that is to say, the receiver of God (cf. Mansi Conciliorum Amplissima Collectio IV, I.c. 1007; Schwartz, Acta Conciliorum Ecumenicorum, 1, 5, p. 408).
11. These evil dogmas, which were not taught now covertly and obscurely by a private individual, but were openly and plainly prodaimed by the Bishop of the Constantinopolitan See himself, caused a very great disturbance of the minds of men, more especially in the Eastern Church. And among the opponents of the Nestorian heresy, some of whom were found in the capital city of the Eastern Empire, the foremost place was undoubtedly taken by that most holy man, the champion of Catholic integrity, Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria. For as he was most zealous in his care of his own sons and likewise in that of erring brethren, he had no sooner heard of the perverse opinion of the Bishop of Constantinople than he strenuously defended the orthodox faith in the presence of his own flock, and also addressed letters to Nestorius and endeavoured in the manner of a brother to lead him back to the rule of Catholic truth.
12. But when the hardened pertinacity of Nestorius had frustrated this charitable attempt, Cyril, who understood and strenuously maintained the authority of the Roman Church, would not himself take further steps, or pass sentence in such a very grave matter, until he had first applied to the Apostolic See and had ascertained its decision. Accordingly he addressed most dutiful letters to “the most blessed Father Celestine, beloved of God,” wherein among other things he writes as follows: “The ancient custom of the Churches admonishes us that matters of this kind should be communicated to Your Holiness. . . ” (Mansi, l.c. IV. 1011.) “But we do not openly and publicly forsake his Communion (i.e. Nestorius’) before indicating these things to your piety. Vouchsafe, therefore, to prescribe what you feel in this matter so that it may be clearly known to us whether we must communicate with him or whether we should freely declare to him that no one can communicate with one who cherishes and preaches suchlike erroneous doctrine. Furthermore, the mind of Your Integrity and your judgment on this matter should be clearly set forth in letters to the Bishops of Macedonia, who are most pious and devoted to God, and likewise to the Prelates of all the East.” (Mansi, l.c. IV. 1015.)
13. Nor was Nestorius ignorant of the supreme authority of the Roman Bishop over the universal Church, for more than once in letters addressed to Celestine he attempted to justify his own teaching and to prevent the mind of the most holy Pontiff and win it over to himself. But all in vain; for the ill-considered words of the heresiarch contained serious errors, and when once the Bishop of the Apostolic See clearly discerned them he forthwith applied his hand to a remedy, and lest the plague of heresy should become more perilous through delay he had them examined by a synodical judgment and solemnly condemned them, and decreed that they must be condemned by all.
14. And here, Venerable Brethren, We would have you consider carefully how much the Roman Pontiff’s manner of acting in this case differed from that which had been followed by the Bishop of Alexandria. For the latter, although he occupied the See which was held to be the first in the Eastern Church, would not, as we have said, decide a very grave controversy concerning the Catholic faith for himself before he had certain knowledge of judgment of the Apostolic See. Celestine, on the contrary, having summoned a Roman Synod and weighed the matter maturely in virtue of his supreme and absolute authority over the whole of the Lord’s flock, made and solemnly sanctioned these decrees concerning the Bishop of Constantinople: “Know clearly, therefore,” he wrote to Nestorius, “that this is Our judgment: that unless you preach concerning Christ our God those things which are held by
the Romans, the Alexandrian and the whole Catholic Church, and which the holy Church of the City of Constantinople most rightly held up till your time; and unless you shall condemn in an open and written confession this perfidious novelty which seeks to separate that which the venerable Scripture joins together; within ten days, to be numbered from the first day on which this decision becomes known to you, you are cast out from the communion of the Universal Catholic Church. We have sent this form of Our judgment to you by Our said son, the deacon Possidonius, together with all the documents addressed to Our holy brother priest, the aforesaid Bishop of the city of Alexandria, who has given us further information on this matter; we have sent these so that he may act in Our place so that Our statute may be known, whether to you or to all the brethren; for all ought to know what is being done in a matter wherein the cause of all is concerned.” (Mansi, I.c. IV. 1034 sq.)
15. The Roman Pontiff ordered the Patriarch of Alexandria to execute his sentence in the following grave words: “Wherefore in virtue of the authority of Our See, and acting in Our stead, you will strictly enforce this sentence that he must either within ten days to be numbered from the day of this decision condemn his evil preachments in a written profession, and prove that he holds the same faith concerning the birth of Christ our God which is held by the Roman Church and that of your holiness and by the devotion of all; or if he will not do this, then your holiness to make provision for that Church, must know that he must by all means be removed from our body.” (Migne, P.L. 50, 463; cf. Mans, I.c. IV. 1019 sq.)
16. But some writers of the past age and of more recent days, seeking to evade the luminous authority of the documents which we have cited, have given the following account of the whole matter, which they often set forth in somewhat arrogant fashion. It may be granted, they say readily, that the Roman Pontiff issued a peremptory and absolute judgment which the Bishop of Alexandria had provoked in his animosity for Nestorius, and which he very gladly made his own; none the less, the council afterwards summoned at Ephesus took the matter already judged and together condemned by the Apostolic See, and judged it afresh from the beginning and
decreed by its supreme authority what must be believed about it by all. From this they say it may be gathered that an Ecumenical Council is possessed of rights altogether more powerful and more valid than the authority of the Roman Bishop.
17. But in this they have constructed a fabric of falsehood clothed with a specious appearance of truth. This may be readily seen by any one who, laying aside preconceived opinions, looks at the faithful record of fact and diligently examines the documentary evidence. For, in the first place, it must be observed that when the Emperor Theodosius, acting also in the name of his colleague Valentinian, summoned the Ecumenical Council, the judgment of Celestine had not yet arrived at Constantinople, and nothing was known about it there. Moreover, when Celestine found that a Synod at Ephesus had been ordered by the Emperors, he made no manner of objection against it; nay, more, in letters to Theodosius (Mansi, I.c. IV. 1291) and to the Bishop of Alexandria (Mansi, I.c. IV. 1292) he both praised this proposal and delegated and proclaimed his legates who were to preside at the Council, namely, the Patriarch Cyril, the Bishops Arcadius and Projectus, and the Priest Philip. But by acting thus the Pontiff did not leave an unjudged case to the decision of the Council; but, as he said himself, the things which he had already decreed (Mansi, I.c. IV. 1287) were still to remain, and he ordered the Fathers of the Council to execute the sentence passed by himself, yet so that, by taking counsel together, and offering prayers to God, they were to strive, as far as possible, to bring back the erring Bishop of Constantinople to the unity of the faith. Thus, when Cyril asked the Pontiff how he was to act in this matter, that is to say, “whether the holy Synod ought to receive the man on his condemning the things which he had preached, or whether, because the appointed time had now run out, the sentence long since passed must abide,” Celestine answered as follows: “It is for your holiness, together with the venerable council of brethren, to see that the disturbances that have arisen in the Church may be repressed, and when by the help of God the matter is finished, We may learn this from the correction which has been decided. We do not say that We are absent from your assembly; for We cannot be absent from those with whom, wheresoever they may be, We are joined together by one faith. . . We are there because We are thinking that which is being done there for all; We do that spiritually which We seem not to do in a bodily manner. We yearn for Catholic peace; We yearn for the salvation of him who is perishing, yet so if he will but confess his sickness. We say this that We may not seem to be wanting to one who is willing to correct himself. May he prove that We do not have feet swift to shed blood, when he knows that a remedy is offered also to him.” (Mansi, l.c. IV. 1292.)
18. But if these words of Celestine show us his fatherly heart, and make it abundantly clear that he desired nothing more earnestly than that the light of the true faith should illuminate the eyes that were blinded, and that he would rejoice when those who were in error came back to the Church, at the same time, the instructions which he gave to his Legates, when they were setting out for Ephesus, prove how great was the Pontiff’s care and solicitude in bidding them preserve the divinely given rights of the Roman See safe and intact. Thus, among other things, he says: “We command you that the authority of the Apostolic See ought to be safeguarded; for the instructions delivered to you tell you this, that you are to be present in the assembly, and if they come to a discussion you are to judge of their opinions but are not to engage in the contest.” (Mansi, 1.c. IV. 556.)
19. And the Legates acted in this way with the assent of the Fathers of the sacred Synod. For, following firmly and faithfully the aforesaid absolute commands of the Pontiff when they arrived at Ephesus after the first act was completed, they demanded that all the things decreed in the previous assembly should be submitted to them so that they might be confirmed and ratified in the name of the Apostolic See: “We pray you to order that all things that have been done in this holy Synod before our arrival may be shown to us, so that we also may confirm them according to the judgment of our blessed Pope and of this present holy Synod. . . ” (Mansi, 1.c. IV. 1290.)
20. Philip the Priest also, in the presence of the whole Council, gave utterance to that excellent pronouncement on the Primacy of the Roman Church which is cited in the dogmatic Constitution Pastor Aetemus of the Vatican Council (Conc. Vatic. sess. IV. cap. 2): Namely: “No one doubts, as it was known in all ages, that
the holy and most blessed Peter, the prince and head of the Apostles, the pillar of the faith, and the foundation of the Catholic Church, received from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of mankind, the keys of the kingdom; and the power of binding and loosing sins was given to him; and unto this time, and ever, he lives and exercises judgment in his successors.” (Mansi, I.c. IV. 1295.)
21. What more need be said? Did the Fathers of the Ecumenical Council make any objection to this manner of acting adopted by Celestine and his Legates, or oppose it in any way? By no manner of means. On the contrary, written monuments remain which plainly show their own dutiful observance and reverence. For when, in the second session of the sacred synod, the Papal Legates, reading the letters of Celestine, said among other things: “In Our solicitude, We have sent to you our holy brothers and fellowpriests of one mind with Ourselves, those trustworthy men Arcadius and Projectus the Bishops, and Philip our Priest, that they may be present at what is being done, and may execute the things which have already been decreed by Us; whereunto we doubt not that your holiness will give your consent” (Mansi, 1.c., IV. 1287); the Fathers of the Council were so far from refusing this sentence as it were of a supreme judge that, praising it with one voice, they saluted the Roman Pontiff with these abundant acclamations: “This is a just judgment! The whole synod gives thanks to Celestine the new Paul, to Cyril the new Paul, to Celestine the guardian of the faith, to Celestine one at heart with the Synod, to Celestine the whole Synod gives thanks; there is one Celestine, one Cyril, one faith of the Synod, one faith of the whole world.” (Mansi, 1.c., IV. 1287.)
22. But when they came to the condemnation and rejection of Nestorius, the same Fathers of the Council did not think that they were free to judge the whole cause afresh; but openly profess that they are prevented and compelled by the sentence of the Roman Pontiff: “Understanding that he (Nestorius) thinks and preaches impiously, and compelled by the sacred canons and by the letter of our most holy Father and fellowminister Celestine the Bishop of the Roman Church, we come of necessity, and with tears, to this lamentable sentence against him. Wherefore our Lord Jesus Christ, who was assailed by this
man’s words of blasphemy, has declared, through this most holy Synod, that the said Nestorius is deprived of the Episcopal dignity, and is a stranger to the whole fellowship and company of Priests.” (Mansi, 1.c. IV. 1294 sq.)
23. And in the second session of the Council, Firmus Bishop of Caesarea, in like manner, openly professed the same thing in these words: “The Apostolic and Holy See, through the letters of the most Holy Bishop Celestine, which he sent to the most religious Bishops, prescribed beforehand the judgment and rule concerning the present matter, which we also have followed; and because Nestorius, having been cited by us has not appeared, we have put that form in execution, declaring the canonical and apostolic judgment against him.” (Mansi, 1.c., IV. 1287 sq.)
24. Now all the various documents which have been rehearsed by Us, one after another, prove so expressly and significantly that already, throughout the universal Church, there was a strong and common faith in the authority of the Roman Pontiff over the whole flock of Christ, an authority subject to no one and incapable of error, so that these things bring back to Our mind the clear and luminous words of Augustine, uttered a few years before this, concerning the judgment passed by Pope Zosimus against the Pelagians in his Epistula Tractatoria: “In these words of the Apostolic See, the Catholic faith is so venerable, so firmly founded, so certain and so clear, that it were impious for a Christian to doubt of it.” (Epist. 190; Corpus Scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum, 57, p. 159 sq.)
25. Would that that most holy Bishop of Hippo could have been present at the Synod of Ephesus; how much his marvellously acute intellect, perceiving the dividing line in the discussions, would have illustrated the dogmas of Catholic truth, and how he would have defended them with all his strength of mind! But when the imperial legates, bearing the letters of invitation, arrived at Hippo, there was nothing left them to do but to lament that that great luminary of Christian wisdom was extinguished and that his See was laid waste by the Vandals.
26. We are well aware, Venerable Brethren, that some of those who, especially in the present age, devote themselves to historical research, use every effort to clear Nestorius from the stain of heresy; and that they also accuse the most holy Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, of unjust animosity, saying that, because Nestorius was obnoxious to him, he calumniated him and strove with all his strength to procure his condemnation for things which he had never taught. Our most blessed predecessor Celestine, whose simplicity is said to have been abused by Cyril, and the holy Synod of Ephesus also, are involved in this most grave accusation by these defenders of the Bishop of Constantinople.
27. The Church, however, protests against this futile and temerarious attempt; for she has at all times acknowledged the condemnation of Nestorius as rightly and deservedly decreed; and has regarded the doctrine of Cyril as orthodox; and has counted the Council of Ephesus among the Ecumenical Synods, celebrated under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and has held it in veneration. For, to omit very many luminous monuments of documentary evidence, all know, assuredly, that many associates of Nestorius, who had seen with their own eyes the whole course of events, and who had no friendly intimacy with Cyril: despite the fact that they were drawn to the opposite side, by their friendship with Nestorius, by the great charm of his writings, and by the very heat engendered in the disputations; nevertheless, after the Synod of Ephesus, moved as it were by the light of truth, gradually deserted the heretical Bishop of Constantinople, who by the just law of the Church was to be avoided. Some of these were certainly still living when Our predecessor of happy memory, Leo the Great, wrote in these terms to Paschasinus, Bishop of Lilybeta, and his own legate to the Council of Chalcedon: “Know that the whole Church of Constantinople, with all its monasteries and many Bishops, has given its consent, and has subscribed to the anathematization of Nestorius and Eutyches and their dogmas” (Mansi, 1.c. VI. 124); but in his dogmatic letter to the Emperor Leo, he quite openly rebukes Nestorius as a heretic and a teacher of heresy, without any one gainsaying it; for he says: “Let Nestorius, therefore, be anathematized, who believed the Blessed Virgin Mary to be the mother, not of God, but of man only, so that he made one person of the flesh, and another of the Godhead, and did not perceive that there was but one Christ, in the Word of God and in the flesh; but preached separately and severally one the Son of God, and the other of man.” (Mansi, 1.c. VI. 351-354.) The same thing, as every one knows,
was solemnly sanctioned by the Council of Chalcedon, when it condemned Nestorius again, and praised the teaching of Cyril. And Our most holy predecessor Gregory the Great, when he had just been raised to the Chair of Blessed Peter, in his synodical letter to the Eastern Churches, having mentioned these four Ecumenical Councils, namely, those of Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon, speaks of them in these words of great moment and nobility: ” . . . On these, as on a four square stone, the structure of the holy faith arises; and of whatever life or office he may be, whosoever does not hold their solidity, even though he is seen to be a stone, yet he lieth outside the edifice.” (Migne, P.L. 77, 478; cf. Mansi, l.c. IX. 1048.) Wherefore all should hold it as certain that Nestorius really preached heretical novelties; that the Patriarch of Alexandria was a strenuous defender of the Catholic faith; and that the Pontiff Celestine, together with the Synod of Ephesus, maintained both the ancient doctrine of the fathers and the supreme authority of the Apostolic See.
II
28. But now, Venerable Brethren, let us examine more deeply those points of doctrine which the Synod of Ephesus, by the very fact of its condemnation of Nestorius, openly professed and sanctioned by its authority. Now, apart from the rejection of the Pelagian heresy and the condemnation of those who favoured it-one of whom, without doubt, was Nestroius-there was one matter mainly in question, and it was solemnly and almost unanimously confirmed by the Fathers, that is to say that the opinion of this heresiarch was wholly impious and repugnant to the Sacred Scriptures; and that, therefore, that which he denied was altogether certain, namely, that there is one Person in Christ, and that the same is Divine. For when Nestorius, as We have said, obstinately contended that the Divine Word was not united to the human nature in Christ substantially and hypostatically, but by a certain accidental and moral bond, the Fathers of Ephesus, in condemning Nestorius, openly professed the right doctrine concerning the Incarnation, which must be firmly held by all. And indeed, Cyril in the letters and chapters already addressed to Nestorius beforehand, and inserted in the acts of this Ecumenical Synod, in wonderful agreement with the Roman Church, maintained these things in eloquent and reiterated words: “In no wise, therefore, is it lawful to divide the one Lord Jesus Christ into two Sons…. For the Scripture does not say that the Word associated the person of a man with Himself, but that He was made flesh. But when it is said that the Word was made flesh, that means nothing else but that He partook of flesh and blood, even as we do; wherefore, He made our body His own, and came forth man, born of a woman, at the same time without laying aside His Godhead, or His birth from the Father; for in assuming flesh He still remained what He was.” (Mansi, l.c. IV. 891.)
29. For we are taught, by Holy Scripture and by Divine Tradition, that the Word of God the Father did not join Himself to a certain man already subsisting in Himself, but that Christ the Word of God is one and the same, enjoying eternity in the bosom of the Father, and made man in time. For, indeed, that the Godhead and Manhood in Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of mankind, are bound together by that wondrous union which is justly and deservedly called hypostatic, is luminously evident from the fact that in the Sacred Scriptures the same one Christ is not only called God and man, but it is also clearly declared that He works as God and also as man, and again that He dies as man and as God He arises from the dead. That is to say, He who is conceived in the Virgin’s womb by the operation of the Holy Ghost, who is born, who lies in a manger, who calls Himself the son of man, who suffers and dies, fastened to the cross, is the very same who, in a solemn and marvellous manner, is called by the Eternal Father “my beloved Son” (Matthew iii. 17; xvii. 5; 2 Peter i. 17), who pardons sins by His divine authority (Matt. ix. 2-6; Luke v. 20-24; vii. 48; and elsewhere), and likewise by His own power recalls the sick to health (Matt. viii. 3; Mark i. and 41; Luke v. 13; John ix; and elsewhere). As all these things show clearly that in Christ there are natures by which both divine and human works are performed, so do they bear witness no less clearly that the one Christ is at once both God and man because of that unity of person from which He is called “Theanthropos” (God-Man).
30. Moreover, this doctrine which has ever been handed down may be proved and con firmed, as all can see, from the dogma of man’s Redemption. For how indeed could Christ be
called “the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans viii. 29), or be wounded because of our iniquities (Isaias liii. 5; Matt. viii. 17), and redeem us from the servitude of sin, unless He had a human nature like as we have? And so, too, how could He make perfect satisfaction to the justice of the Heavenly Father which had been violated by mankind, unless He possessed an immense and infinite dignity by reason of His Divine Person?
31. Nor can this point of Catholic truth be disputed on the ground that, if our Redeemer had no human person, then it would seem that some perfection would be wanting to His human nature, which would make Him as man less than we are. For as it is acutely and sagaciously observed by Aquinas, “personality pertains to the dignity and perfection of any thing in so far as it pertains to the dignity and perfection of any thing that it should exist by itself, which is what we understand by the name of personality; but there is more dignity in any thing if it exists in another of greater dignity than itself, than if it existed by itself, and therefore there is more dignity in the human nature of Christ than in ours, on this very ground, that in us it has its own personality, as existing by itself, but in Christ it exists in the person of the Word; even as it pertains to the dignity of a form to be completive of the species; nevertheless, the sensitive is more noble in man, because of the conjunction with the more noble completive form, than it can be in a brute animal, in which it is itself the completive form.” (Summ. Theol., III. ii. 2.)
32. Moreover, it may be worth while to remark here that, just as Arius, that most crafty subverter of Catholic unity, attacked the Word’s Divine nature consubstantial to the Eternal Father, so Nestorius, taking quite another way, namely by rejecting the Redeemer’s hypostatic union, denied the full and perfect divinity of Christ, though not of the Word. For if, as he wrongly imagined, it was only by a moral union that the divine and human nature were joined together in Christ-to which, indeed, as We have said, the prophets, also, and the other heroes of Christian sanctity, have in some manner attained, according to their respective union with God-the Saviour of mankind would differ but little, or not at all, from those whom He redeemed by His grace and by His precious blood. Thus, when once the doctrine of the hypostatic union is abandoned, whereon the dogmas of the Incarnation and of man’s Redemption rest and stand firm, the whole foundation of the Catholic religion falls and comes to ruin. Wherefore, we do not wonder that, when the peril of the Nestorian heresy arose, the whole Catholic world was shaken: We do not wonder that, when the Bishop of Constantinople rashly and wrongly opposed the faith of the fathers, the Synod of Ephesus keenly contended against him, and carrying out the sentence of the Roman Pontiff, struck him down with a dire anathema.
33. We, therefore, in full accordance with all the ages of Christian history, venerate the Redeemer of mankind not as “Elias . . . or one of the Prophets,” in whom the heavenly Godhead dwelt by His grace, but together with the Prince of the Apostles, who knew this mystery by divine revelation, we make profession with one voice: “Thou are Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matt. xvi. 16.)
34. When once this dogma of the truth is securely established, it is easy to gather from it that by the mystery of the Incamation the whole creation of men and of mundane things has been endowed with a dignity than which, certainly, nothing greater can be imagined, and surely grander than that to which it was raised by the work of creation. For here in the race of Adam we have one, namely Christ, who has attained unto the eternal and infinite Godhead, and is joined thereto in a most close and mysterious manner; Christ, indeed, we call our brother, endowed with human nature, but also God with us, or Emmanuel, who by His grace and His merits, draws us all back to our divine Author and also recalls us to that heavenly beatitude from which we had miserably fallen away by original sin. Let us, therefore, turn to Him with a thankful heart; let us follow His precepts; let us imitate His examples. For thus shall we become sharers of His divinity “who deigned to become a partaker of our humanity” (Roman Missal).
35. But if, as We have said, at all times throughout the course of ages, the true Church of Christ has most diligently defended this genuine and uncorrupted doctrine concerning the personal unity and the divinity of her Founder, it has not been so, alas! with those who wander unhappily outside the one fold of Christ. For whenever anyone pertinaciously withdraws himself from
the infallible teaching authority of the Church, We grieve to say that he gradually loses the true and certain doctrine concerning Jesus Christ. And, indeed, with regard to the many and various religious sects, especially those dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which still bear the Christian name, and which, at the beginning of their separation, firmly professed that Christ is God and man; if we ask them now what they hold about Him, we shall certainly receive diverse and contradictory answers. For a few among them, indeed, have kept the full doctrine and the full faith concerning the person of our Redeemer; but others, if in a manner they affirm something like it, yet they seem to savour of vaporous scents whose reality is departed. For they set Jesus Christ before us as a man endowed with divine gifts and in a mysterious manner united to the Divinity beyond all others and very near to God; but they are far removed from the full and sincere profession of the Catholic faith. Others again, recognising nothing of the Divine in Christ, profess that He is a mere man, adorned indeed with excellent gifts of soul and body, but subject to errors and to human infirmity. From which it is clearly seen that all these, no less than Nestorius, make a temerarious attempt to “dissolve Christ,” and that, therefore, on the testimony of John the Evangelist, they are not of God (cf. 1 John iv. 3).
36. Wherefore, with a fatherly heart, from the summit of this Apostolic See, We exhort all those who glory in being the followers of Christ, and who place in Him their own hope and salvation and that of human society, that they should ever join themselves more firmly and more closely to this Roman Church, in which alone Christ is believed in with whole and perfect faith, is worshipped with the sincere worship of adoration, and is beloved with the perpetual flame of burning charity. Let them remember, and in particular those who preside over a flock separated from Us, that the faith which their fathers solemnly professed at Ephesus is preserved unchanged and is strenuously defended, as in past ages so also in the present, by this supreme Chair of Truth. Let them remember that the unity of this genuine faith rests and stands firm only on the one rock set by Christ, and can be preserved safe and intact by the supreme authority of the successors of Blessed Peter.
37. We spoke more fully, indeed, on this unity of the Catholic religion, a few years ago, in Our Encyclical letter Mortalium animos; still it may be useful to recall the matter briefly here; for the hypostatic union of Christ, solemnly confirmed in the Synod of Ephesus, bears and sets before us the image of that unity with which our Redeemer willed that His mystical body, that is to say the Church, should be adorned; “one body” (I Corinthians xii. 12) “compacted and fitly joined together” (Ephesians iv. 16). For if the personal unity of Christ is the mystical exemplar to which He Himself willed that the union of Christian society should be conformed, every wise man will see that this can only arise, not from any pretended conjunction of many disagreeing among themselves, but from one hierarchy, from one supreme teaching authority, from one law of believing, and from one faith of Christians. (See the Encyclical Letter Mortalium animos.) To this unity of the Church, consisting in communion with the Apostolic See, Philip, the Legate of the Roman Bishop, bore admirable testimony in the Synod of Ephesus; for when the Fathers of the Council, with one voice, were applauding the letters sent by Celestine, he addressed them in these memorable words: “We give thanks to the holy and venerable Synod that, when the letters of our holy Pope were recited, as holy members by your holy voices and exclamations, ye joined yourselves to the Holy Head. For your beatitude is not ignorant that the Blessed Peter is the head of the whole faith, as also of the Apostles.” (Mans, I.c. IV 1290.)
38. But if at any time, now more than ever, does it behove all the good to bind themselves by a sincere profession of faith to Jesus Christ and to the Church, His mystical Bride, now when so many men everywhere are striving to cast off the sweet yoke of Christ, when they reject the light of His doctrine, spurn the streams of His grace, and repudiate the divine authority of Him who has become, according to the words of the Gospel, “a sign which shall be contradicted” (Luke ii. 34). And now, since numberless and daily growing evils come forth from this lamentable falling away from Christ, let all seek an opportune remedy from Him who alone under heaven has been given to men whereby we must be saved (Acts iv. 12). For it is in this way only, when the Sacred Heart of Jesus inspires the minds of mortal men,
that happier times can arise for each of us one by one, for family life, and for civil society, at present so sadly disturbed.
III
39. Now from this head of Catholic doctrine upon which We have touched hitherto, there follows of necessity the dogma of the divine maternity which We preach as belonging to the Blessed Virign Mary. “Not that the nature of the Word or His Godhead”-as Cyril admonishes us-“took the source of its origin from the holy Virgin; but because He derived from her that sacred body, perfected by an intellectual soul, whereto the Word of God was hypostatically united, and therefore is said to be born according to the flesh.” (Mansi, I.c. IV. 891.)
And, indeed, if the Son of the Blessed Virgin Mary is God, assuredly she who bore him is rightly and deservedly to be called the Mother of God. If there is only one person in Christ, and this is Divine, without any doubt Mary ought to be called, by all, not the mother of Christ the man only, but Theotocos, or God-bearer. Let us all, therefore, venerate the tender Mother of God, whom her cousin Elizabeth saluted as “the Mother of my Lord” (Luke i. 43), who, in the words of Ignatius Martyr, brought forth God (Ad Ephes. vii. 18-20); and from whom, as Tertullian professes, God was born; whom the Eternal Godhead has gifted with the fulness of grace and endowed with such great dignity.
40. Nor can anyone reject this truth, handed down from the first age of the Church, on the pretext that the Blessed Virgin Mary did, indeed, supply the body of Jesus Christ, but did not produce the Word of the Heavenly Father; since, as Cyril already rightly and lucidly answered in his time (cf. Mansi, I.c. IV. 599), even as those in whose womb our earthly nature, not our soul is procreated, are rightly and truly called our mothers; so did she, from the unity of her Son’s person, attain to divine maternity.
41. Wherefore, the impious opinion of Nestorius, which the Roman Pontiff, led by the Holy Spirit, had condemned in the preceding year, was deservedly and solemnly condemned again by the Synod of Ephesus. And the populace of Ephesus were drawn to the Virgin Mother of God with such great piety, and burning with such ardent love, that when they understood the judgment passed by the Fathers of the Council, they hailed them with overflowing gladness of heart, and gathering round them in a body, bearing lighted torches in their hands, accompanied them home. And assuredly, the same great Mother of God looked down from heaven on this spectacle, and smiling sweetly on these her children of Ephesus, and on all the faithful Christians throughout the Catholic world, who had been disturbed by the snares of the Nestorian heresy, embraced them with her most present aid and her motherly affection.
42. From this dogma of the divine maternity, as from the outpouring of a hidden spring, flow forth the singular grace of Mary and her dignity, which is the highest after God. Nay more, as Aquinas says admirably: “The Blessed Virgin, from this that she is the Mother of God, has a certain infinite dignity, from the infinite good which is God.” (Summ. Theo., III. a.6.) Cornelius a Lapide unfolds this and explains it more fully, in these words: “The Blessed Virgin is the Mother of God; therefore she is far more excellent than all the Angels, even the Seraphim and Cherubim. She is the Mother of God; therefore she is most pure and most holy, so that under God no greater purity can be imagined. She is the Mother of God; therefore whatever privilege (in the order of sancti*ing grace) has been granted to any one of the Saints, she obtains it more than all” (In Matt. i. 6).
43. Why, therefore, do the Reformers (Novatores) and not a few nonCatholics bitterly condemn our piety towards the Virgin Mother of God, as though we were withdrawing the worship due to God alone? Do they not know, or do they not attentively consider that nothing can be more pleasing to Jesus Christ, who certainly has an ardent love for his own Mother, than that we should venerate her as she deserves, that we should return her love, and that imitating her most holy example we should seek to gain her powerful patronage?
44. Here, however, We would not omit to mention a matter which has given Us no little consolation, namely that in the present time, even among the Reformers, some understand the dignity of the Virgin Mother of God better, and are led and moved to reverence her duly, and hold her in honour. This, when it comes from the inward and sincere conscience, and is not as
sometimes happens effected to conciliate the minds of Catholics, bids Us hope that by the prayers and efforts of all the good, and by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, who cherishes a mother’s love for her erring children, they may at length be brought back to the one true flock of Jesus Christ, and therefore to Us who, though unworthily, hold His place and His authority on earth.
45. But there is another matter, Venerable Brethren, which We think We should recall in regard to Mary’s office of Maternity, something which is sweeter and more pleasing; namely that she, because she brought forth the Redeemer of mankind, is also in a manner the most tender mother of us all, whom Christ our Lord deigned to have as His brothers (Romans viii. 29). As Our predecessor of happy memory, Leo XIII, says: “Such a one God has given as one to whom by the very fact that He chose her as the Mother of His only begotten Son, He clearly gave the feelings of a mother, breathing nothing but love and pardon-such did Jesus Christ show her to be, by His own action, when He spontaneously chose to be under her, and submit to her as a son to a mother; such did He declare her to be, when, from the Cross, He committed all mankind, in the person of His disciple John, to her care and protection; and as such, lastly, she gave herself, when embracing with a great heart, this heritage of immense labour from her dying Son, she began at once to fulfil all a mother’s duties to us all.” (Encyclical Letter Octobri mense adveniente. September 21, 1892.) From this it comes that we are all drawn to her by a powerful attraction, that we may confidently entrust to her all things that are ours-namely our joys, if we are gladdened; our troubles, if we are in anguish; our hopes, if we are striving to reach at length to better things. From this it comes that if more difficult times fall upon the Church; if faith fail, if charity have grown cold, if private and public morals take a turn for the worse; if any danger be hanging over the Catholic name and civil society, we all take refuge with her, imploring heavenly aid. From this it comes lastly that in the supreme crisis of death, when no other hope is given, no other help, we lift up to her our tearful eyes and our trembling hands, praying through her for pardon from her Son, and for eternal happiness in heaven.
46. Let all, therefore, with more ardent zeal in the present necessities with which we are afflicted, go to her and beseech her with instant supplication “that, through her prayers to her Son, the erring nations may return to the Christian institutions and precepts, which are the firm support of public safety, and from which arises an abundance of much desired peace and of true happiness. Let them implore of her the more earnestly, what ought to be desired above all things by all the good, namely that the Church our mother may gain and tranquilly enjoy her liberty; which she always uses for the best advantage of men, and from which individuals and states have never suffered any losses, but have at all times experienced very many and very great benefits.” (From the aforesaid Encyclical Letter.)
47. But one thing in particular, and that indeed one of great importance, We specially desire that all should implore, under the auspices of the heavenly Queen. That is to say, that she who is loved and worshipped with such ardent piety by the separated peoples of the East would not suffer them to wander and be unhappily ever led away from the unity of the Church, and therefore from her Son, whose Vicar on earth We are. May they return to the common Father, whose judgment all the Fathers of the Synod of Ephesus most dutifully received, and whom they all saluted, with concordant acclamations, as “the guardian of the faith”; may they all turn to Us, who have indeed a fatherly affection for them all, and who gladly make Our own those most loving words which Cyril used, when he earnestly exhorted Nestorius that “the peace of the Churches may be preserved, and that the bond of love and of concord among the priests of God may remain indissoluble.” (Mansi, I.c. IV. 891.)
48. And would that that most happy day might speedily dawn upon us when the Virgin Mother of God, who is admirably depicted in the tessellated work of Our predecessor, Sixtus III, in the Liberian Basilica-which We Ourselves have had restored to its pristine beauty-may see all the sons separated from Us returning, that they may venerate her along with Us with one mind and with one faith. This will assuredly be for Us a source of the very greatest pleasure.
49. Moreover, We may well regard it as a happy omen, that it has fallen to Us to celebrate this fifteenth centenary: to Us, We say, who have defended the dignity and the sanctity of chaste wedlock against the encroaching fallacies of every kind (Encyclical Letter, Casti connubii, December 21, 1930), and who have both solemnly vindicated the sacred rights of the Catholic Church over the education of youth, and have declared and explained the manner in which it should be given, and the principles to which it should be conformed. (Encyclical Letter, Divini illius Magistri, December 21, 1929.) For the precepts which We have set forth, concerning both these matters, have in the office of the divine maternity, and in the family of Nazareth, an excellent example proposed for the imitation of all. As Our predecessor, Leo XIII of happy memory, says: “Fathers of families indeed have in Joseph a glorious pattern of vigilance and paternal prudence; mothers have in the most holy Virgin Mother of God a remarkable example of love and modesty and submission of mind, and of perfect faith; but the children of a family have in Jesus, who was subject to them, a divine model of obedience, which they may admire, and worship and imitate.” (Apostolic Letter, Neminem fugit, January 14, 1882.)
50. But in a more special manner it is fitting that those mothers of this our age, who being weary, whether of offspring or of the marriage bond, have the office they have undertaken degraded and neglected, may look up to Mary and meditate intently on her who has raised this grave duty of motherhood to such high nobility. For in this way there is hope that they may be led, by the help of grace of the heavenly Queen, to feel shame for the dishonour done to the great sacrament of matrimony, and may happily be stirred up to follow after the wondrous praise of her virtues, by every effort in their power.
51. If all these things prosper according to Our purpose, that is to say if the life of the family, the beginning and the foundation of all human society, is recalled to this most worthy model of holiness, without doubt We shall at length be able to meet the formidable crisis of evils confronting Us, with an effective remedy. In this way, it will come to pass that “the peace of God which passeth all understanding” may “keep the hearts and minds” of all (Phil. iv. 7), and that the much desired Kingdom of Christ, minds and forces being joined together, may be everywhere established.
52. We will not close this Encyclical Letter, Venerable Brethren, without mentioning a matter which will surely be pleasing to you all. Desiring that there may be a liturgical monument of this commemoration, which may help to nourish the piety of clergy and people towards the great Mother of God, We have commanded Our supreme council presiding over Sacred Rites to publish an Office and Mass of the Divine Maternity, which is to be celebrated by the universal Church. And, meanwhile, as an earnest of heavenly gifts, and a pledge of Our paternal affection, We impart the Apostolic Benediction, very lovingly in the Lord, to you, Venerable Brethren, one and all, and to your clergy and people.
Given at Rome, at St. Peter’s, December 25, the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the year 1931, the tenth of Our Pontificate.
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| Doctor Says Physicians Are Being "Hunted" For Speaking Out By Press & Medical Boards |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-11-2021, 06:50 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
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Doctor Says Physicians Are Being "Hunted" For Speaking Out By Press & Medical Boards
ZH | OCT 11, 2021
Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,
Dr Robert Malone, the inventor of mRNA vaccines, says he was branded a “terrorist” by the media in Italy and warns that physicians who speak out are being “hunted via medical boards and the press.”
“I am going to speak bluntly,” tweeted Malone. “Physicians who speak out are being actively hunted via medical boards and the press. They are trying to deligitimize and pick us off one by one. This is not a conspiracy theory – this is a fact. Please wake up. This is happening globally.”
“I was labeled as a ‘terrorist’ in the Italian press when I was in Rome for the International COVID Summit. My crime? Advocating for early treatment of COVID-19 disease. I suggest that merits a bit of meditation,” he added.
Malone is one of many doctors who have been completely persecuted merely for discussing issues relating to COVID treatments and vaccine side-effects.
He has faced fierce opposition for his assertion that children shouldn’t be given COVID-19 vaccines and has also consistently highlighted concerns over links to myocarditis risk.
Those concerns are now being justified by Finland, Denmark and Sweden halting the Moderna jab for for younger males after reports of cardiovascular side effects.
Despite such concerns being regularly voiced by doctors, the Federation of State Medical Boards announced back in July that it would consider pulling medical licenses of doctors who traffic in “misinformation” about COVID.
In another stunning development, Malone’s IP address was blocked by the New England Journal of Medicine so he couldn’t read studies on their website.
The doctor said he was aware of how to get around the IP block, but called the move a “petty act.”
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| Massive Protests Erupt Worldwide Against Vaccine Passports & Lockdown Tyranny |
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Posted by: Scarlet - 10-10-2021, 08:18 PM - Forum: COVID Passports
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EPIC! Massive Protests Erupt Worldwide Against COVID Vaccine Passports & Lockdown Tyranny
Massive protests erupted across Europe and Australia on Saturday against mandatory COVID passports and continuing lockdowns.
Protests- across Italy, France, Finland, Australia, Japan, England, Greece, Ireland, Spain, Netherlands, Switzerland
Article link -with video clips from all these countries
Europe
Tens of thousands of people are mobilizing in demonstrations in England, France, Italy, Australia, and even Finland in retaliation of their government’s announcing draconian “health passes” to determine the vaccination status of citizens. Today over 275 huge protests against vaccine passports reportedly expected all over France ?? and Italy ?? And many other European countries.
Australia- Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane
Huge protests are being documented in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane after the government’s announced more nationwide lockdowns following the country’s third COVID death in 2021, all of whom were at least 70 years old.
England - London
Thousands of people are campaigning against vaccine passports, face masks and further lockdowns in Trafalgar Square today as part of The Worldwide Rally For Freedom.
France - Paris, Valence,
In France tensions rising at one of the hundreds of protests. People have had enough of tyranny
Protests have been ongoing in France for the last week after President Emmanuel Macron announced that citizens face 6 months of jail time if they refuse to provide their vaccination status at places like bars or restaurants.
Scenes in Paris, Valence, and other cities on Saturday show an enormous number of protesters in the streets, with police retaliating violently with batons and water cannons in some cases.
Italy - Milan, Rome, Turin
Similarly, Italy’s recent announcement of COVID health passes also sparked massive protests in the country.
Japan
Although Japan has resisted harsh lockdowns in anticipation of the upcoming Olympics, many residents still protested against the vaccine after seeing the creeping tyranny finally show its face in Europe.
Japan is out protesting … medical tyranny is being strongly rejected globally.
EPIC! Massive Protests Erupt Worldwide Against COVID Vaccine Passports & Lockdown Tyranny
Massive protests erupted across Europe and Australia on Saturday against mandatory COVID passports and continuing lockdowns.
Tens of thousands of people are mobilizing in demonstrations in England, France, Italy, Australia, and even Finland in retaliation of their government’s announcing draconian “health passes” to determine the vaccination status of citizens.
Australia
Huge protests are being documented in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane after the government’s announced more nationwide lockdowns following the country’s third COVID death in 2021, all of whom were at least 70 years old.
England
Protests kicked off in Trafalgar Square in London after Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared on “Freedom Day” that lockdowns will continue and that vaccines will be required.
https://twitter.com/DarrenPlymouth
France
Protests have been ongoing in France for the last week after President Emmanuel Macron announced that citizens face 6 months of jail time if they refuse to provide their vaccination status at places like bars or restaurants.
Scenes in Paris, Valence, and other cities on Saturday show an enormous number of protesters in the streets, with police retaliating violently with batons and water cannons in some cases.
In France tensions rising at one of the hundreds of protests. People have had enough of tyranny
Today over 275 huge protests against vaccine passports reportedly expected all over France ?? and Italy ?? And many other European countries.
Massive protests erupted across Europe and Australia on Saturday against mandatory COVID passports and continuing lockdowns.
Tens of thousands of people are mobilizing in demonstrations in England, France, Italy, Australia, and even Finland in retaliation of their government’s announcing draconian “health passes” to determine the vaccination status of citizens.
Ireland
The world is waking up! Will the globalists back down, or double down?
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| Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-10-2021, 07:41 AM - Forum: Pentecost
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INSTRUCTION ON THE TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
From Fr. Leonard Goffine's Explanations of the Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays, Holydays, and Festivals throughout the Ecclesiastical Year 36th edition, 1880
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THE Introit of the Mass is a humble prayer, by which we acknowledge that we are punished for our disobedience: All that thou hast done to us, O Lord, thou hast done in true judgment: because we have sinned against thee, and have not obeyed thy commandments: but give glory to thy name, and deal with us according to the multitude of thy mercy. (Dan. iii. 28.) Blessed are the undefiled in the way: who walk in the law of the Lord. (Ps. cxviii.) Glory, &c.
PRAYER OF THE CHURCH. Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord, in Thy mercy to Thy faithful pardon and peace; that they may both be cleansed from all their offences, and serve Thee with a quiet mind. Thro'.
EPISTLE. (Ephes.v. 15 — 21.) Brethren, See how you walk circumspectly, not as unwise, but as wise: redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore, become not unwise, but understanding what is the will of God. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is luxury: but be ye filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord: giving thanks always for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God and the Father; being subject one to another in the fear of Christ.
Quote:How may we redeem time?
By employing every moment to gain eternal goods, even should we lose temporal advantages thereby; by letting no opportunity pass without endeavoring to do good, to labor and suffer for love of God, to improve our lives and increase in virtue.
Do you wish to know, says the pious Cornelius a Lapide, how precious time is: Ask the damned, for these know it from experience. Come, rich man, from the abyss of hell, tell us what you would give for one year, one day, one hour of time! I would, he says, give a whole world, all pleasures, all treasures, and bear all torments, if only one moment were granted me to have contrition for my sins, to obtain forgiveness of my crimes, I would purchase this moment with every labor, with any penance, with all punishments, torments, and tortures which men ever suffered in purgatory or in hell, even if they lasted hundreds, yes, thousand millions of years! O precious moment upon which all eternity depends! O, how many moments did you, my dear Christian, neglect, in which you could have served God, could have done good for love of Him, and gained eternal happiness by them, and you have lost these precious moments. Remember, with one moment of time, if you employ it well, you can purchase eternal happiness, but with all eternity you cannot purchase one moment of time!
ASPIRATION. Most bountiful God and Lord! I am heartily sorry, that I have so carelessly employed the time, which Thou hast given me for my salvation. In order to supply what I have neglected, as far as I am able, I offer to Thee all that I have done or suffered from the first use of my reason, as if I had really to do and suffer it still; and I offer it in union with all the works and sufferings of our Saviour, and beg fervently, that Thou wilt supply, through His infinite merits, my defects, and be pleased with all my actions and sufferings.
Be not drunk with wine, wherein is luxury! [On the vice of drunkenness see the third Sunday after Pentecost. Here we will only speak of those who make others drunk by encouragement.] The Persian King Assuerus expressly forbade, that any one should be urged to drink at his great banquet. (Esth. i. 8.) This heathen who knew from the light of reason, that it is immoral to lead others to intemperance, will one day rise in judgment against those Christians who, enlightened by the light of faith, would not recognize and avoid this vice. Therefore the Prophet Isaias (v. 22.) pronounces woe to those who are mighty in drinking and know how to intoxicate others; and St. Augustine admonishes us, by no means to consider those as friends, who by their fellowship in drinking would make us enemies of God.
GOSPEL. (John iv. 46 — 53.) At that time, There was a certain ruler whose son was sick at Capharnaum. He having heard that Jesus was come from Judea into Galilee, went to him, and prayed him to come down, and heal his son; for he was at the point of death. Jesus therefore said to him: Unless you see signs and wonders, you believe not. The ruler saith to him: Lord, come down before my son die. Jesus saith to him: Go thy way, thy son liveth. The man believed the word which Jesus said to him, and went his way. And as he was going down, his servants met him, and they brought word, saying that his son lived. He asked therefore of them the hour wherein he grew better. And they said to him: Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. The father therefore knew that it was at the same hour that Jesus said to him: Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house.
Quote:INSTRUCTIONS
I. God permitted the son of the ruler to become sick that he might ask Christ for the health of his son, and thus obtain true faith and eternal happiness. In like manner, God generally seeks to lead sinners to Himself, inasmuch as He brings manifold evils and misfortunes either upon the sinner himself or on his children, property, &c. Hence David said: It is good for me that thou hast humbled me, that I may learn thy justifications, (Ps. cxviii. 71.) and therefore he also asked God to fill the faces of sinners with shame, that they should seek His name. Ps. lxxxii. 17.1 This happened to those of whom David says: Their infirmities were multiplied.-afterwards they hastened in returning to God. (Ps. xv. 4.) O, would we only do the same! When God sends us failure of crops, inundations, hail-storms, dearth, war, &c, He wishes nothing else than that we abandon sin, and return to Him. But what do we? Instead of hastening to God, we take refuge in superstition, or we murmur against Him, find fault with or even blaspheme His sacred regulations; instead of removing our sins by sincere penance, we continually commit new ones, by murmuring and impatience, by hatred and enmity, by rash judgments, as if the injustice and malice of others were the cause of our misfortune. What will become of us if neither the benefits nor the punishments of God make us better?
II. Christ said to this ruler: Unless you see signs and wonders, you believe not. This was a reprimand for his imperfect faith; for if he had truly believed Christ to be the Son of God, he would not have asked Him to come to his house, but, like the centurion, would have believed Him able, though absent, to heal His son. {Matt, viii.) Many Christians deserve the same rebuke from Christ, because they lose nearly all faith and confidence in God, when He does not immediately help them in their troubles, as they wish. He proves to us how displeasing such a want of confidence is to Him by withdrawing His assistance and protection from the fickle and distrustful. (Ecclus. ii. 15.)
III. How much may not the example of the father of a family accomplish! This ruler had no sooner received the faith, than his whole household was converted and believed in Christ. Fathers and mothers by their good example, by their piety, frequent reception of the Sacraments, by their meekness, temperance, modesty and other virtues, may accomplish incalculable good among their children and domestics.
CONSOLATION IN SICKNESS
There was a certain ruler whose son was sick. (John iv. 16.)
AS a consolation in sickness, you should consider that God sends you this affliction for the welfare of your soul, that you may know your sins; or if you be innocent, to practice patience, humility, charity, &c., and increase your merits. Therefore a holy father said to one of his companions, who complained, because he was sick: "My son! if you are gold, then you will be proved by sickness, but if you are mixed with dross, then you will be purified." "Many are vicious in health," says St. Augustine, "who would be virtuous in sickness;" and St. Bernard says: "It is better to arrive at salvation through sickness, than to have health and be damned."
It is also a powerful means of consolation in sickness, to represent the suffering Redeemer to ourselves, who had no soundness from the top of His head to the sole of His foot, and contemplating whom St. Bonaventure used to cry out: "O Lord, I do not wish to live without sickness, since I see Thee wounded so much."
When sick, we should carefully examine, whether we possess any ill-gotten goods, or have any other secret sin on our conscience; and if we are conscious of any, we should quickly free ourselves from it by a contrite, sincere confession, and by restoring the things belonging to others. Sins are very often the cause of disease, and God does not bless the medicine unless the sickness has its purpose, that is, the sinners amendment. Still less can we expect help, but rather temporal and eternal misfortune, if we have recourse to superstition and spells, as the King Ochozias experienced, who was punished with death, because in sickness he had recourse to the idol Beelzebub, (iv Kings i.)
PRAYER. O Jesus, Thou true physician of souls, who dost wound and heal us, yea, dost even permit sorrows and adversities to visit us that our souls may have health, grant us the grace to use every bodily pain according to Thy merciful designs for the promotion of our salvation.
INSTRUCTION ON CARE OF THE SICK
Come down before my son die. (John iv. 49.)
ALL who have the charge of sick persons, should be like this father, that is, they should first of all endeavor to call upon Jesus to come in the most holy Sacrament, before the sick person is unable to receive Him. The devil seeks to hinder nothing more than this. He excites the imagination of the sick person, making him believe that he can live longer, that he will certainly get well again, in order to ruin him easier afterwards, because he defers his conversion. Those contribute to this end who through fear of frightening the sick person or of annoying him, fail to call the priest at the right time. This is cruel love, which deprives the sick person of the salvation of his soul and eternal happiness, and brings with it a terrible responsibility. Where there is question of eternity, no carefulness can be too great. We should, therefore, choose the safest side, because the suffering may easily increase and finally make the sick person unable to attend to the affairs of his soul. We should, therefore, not conceal from him the danger in which he is, and if he has still the use of his reason, should call in the priest that he may receive the Last Sacraments. He will not die sooner on that account, but rather derive the greatest benefit therefrom, since his conscience will be cleansed from sin, which may be the cause of his sickness, and perhaps, he may regain his health, or at least be strengthened by the newly received grace of God, to bear his pains with greater patience and to die far easier, securer, and more consoled.
We should also endeavor to encourage the sick person to resignation, and a childlike confidence in God, should pray with him to strengthen him against desponding thoughts, and the temptations of the devil; we should present him a crucifix to kiss;repeat the holy names of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and other consolatory ejaculations, such as are found in prayer-books; should sign him with the sign of the cross; sprinkle him with holy water, and above all pray for a happy death. We should not weep and lament, by which death is only made harder for him, nor should we hold useless, idle and worldly conversations with him which will prevent him from thinking of God and the salvation of his soul, and from preparing himself for the last dangerous struggle. Finally, we should by no means suffer in his presence persons who have given him occasions of committing sin, because they would be obstacles to his sincere conversion.
There is truly no greater work of charity than to assist our neighbor to a happy death.
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| Channeling Pachamama: 'Earth Altar Table' in Germany |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-09-2021, 07:01 AM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism
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From gloria.tv - October 8, 2021
Germany: Pachamama Comedy During Eucharist
Father Markus Krauth of the notorious parish Maria Geburt in Aschaffenburg, Germany, came up with an “Earth Altar Table” on October 3.
The comedy started with a big pile of earth in the nave. Then, people shovelled earth into green buckets until a table hidden inside the pile became visible.
Finally a cloth was put on the table and Krauth presided the Eucharist. For October 10, the parish plans a liturgy entitled “The De-Clericalisation of the People of God.”
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| October 9th – St Dionysius, Bishop & Martyr; and Ss Rusticus & Eleutherius, Martyrs |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-09-2021, 06:56 AM - Forum: October
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October 9 – St Dionysius, Bishop & Martyr; and Ss Rusticus & Eleutherius, Martyrs
Ushered in by Bridget the northern prophetess, Dionysius appears as the brightest star in that constellation of mystics, which illumines the close of the cycle with the first glimmers of eternal union. Soon we shall salute Teresa of Jesus, and her guide Peter of Alcantara; while from the shades of his Obscure night, John of the cross will rise in glory next month near to the great St. Gertrude.
The Man-God began to do and to teach, gave us first example then doctrine; so too the Church, in her liturgical year, first sets before us the examples of the saints, and afterwards teaches us the rules of sanctity as formulated by these holy ones themselves. Strong in the results she has obtained, she now seems to rest in the security gained by experience, and, as in the proper of the time, of which that of the saints is the faithful echo, she yields to her desire of seeing her children able to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth. To know also the charity of Christ, which surpasseth all knowledge, that they may be filled unto all the fullness of God. Is not this the good work which the apostle prays may be perfected in us by that last day, for which these weeks after Pentecost are preparing us, viz: the perfect justice, the fruit of love in its full development? But this development of love cannot be without the progress of the soul in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; and that approving of better things, of which St. Paul speaks, can be acquired only by the imitation of the saints or the study of their works.
Today the incomparable teacher Dionysius presides over the assembly of the faithful. With east and west let us keep silence; for it behooveth the master to speak and teach, and it beseemeth the disciple to hold his peace and listen.
“Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights. Every emanation of splendor overflowing from the divine goodness upon man, reacts in him as a principle of spiritual simplification and of heavenly union; and by its own power leads him back towards the sovereign unity and godlike simplicity of the Father. For all things come from God, and return to God.
“By the very fact that they exist, inanimate objects partake of God, who, by the sublimity of His Essence, is the being of all that is. Living things partake of His vital energy, which is superior to all life. Rational and intellectual creatures partake of His wisdom, which surpasses all reason and intelligence. The various beings approach nearer to the Divinity, in proportion as they partake of It in more ways.
“It is a general law, that divine graces are communicated to the lower orders through the ministry of the higher. The indivisible Trinity, who possesses Divinity by nature, has established the hierarchy of the deification of all beings, whether rational or purely spiritual. For salvation is possible only to deified spirits. As deification is nothing else but the attainment of union with God, and resemblance to Him, the aim of the hierarchy is to assimilate and unite to God; first of all by the absolute retrenchment of all that is contrary to His love; then by the knowledge of sacred truths; by the participation in the simplicity of Him who is One, and by the nuptial banquet of the vision.
“The order of all hierarchy is therefore this: that some should be purified, and others should purify; that some should be enlightened, and others should enlighten; that some should be perfected, and others should work that perfection. Every function it imposes, tends to the twofold end of receiving and of giving purity, light, and perfect holiness.
“The first hierarchy of blessed spirits receives the first influx of the virtues of Jesus the supreme initiator, and imitates Him in the highest manner. This first hierarchy is obeyed by the second, the second by the third, and the third by the hierarchy of men. And thus, by a divine harmony they rise, one by means of another, towards Him who is the beginning and the end of all beautiful order.
“As each hierarchy includes Powers of three different ranks, the same wonderful harmony exists between these several ranks. Moreover, in every intelligence, human or angelic, are to be found faculties corresponding to the three orders of each hierarchy. It is by passing through these successive degrees, that spirits partake, according to their capacity, of purity, light, and unlimited perfection. For nothing is perfect in itself; nothing is incapable of further progress, save Him who is the primitive and infinite perfection.
“The blessed inhabitants of heaven, who have nothing sensible or corporeal, God attracts and raises to divine things, not by exterior means; He causes the pure rays and intelligible splendors of His adorable will to shine within them. What is thus imparted to them directly and in unity, is transmitted to us as it were in fragments, under the multiplicity of varied symbols: in the holy Scripture; in the figures wherein our hierarchy, adapting itself to human nature, shrouds for us the mystery of divine regeneration and all the other holy mysteries; and again, in the harmony of the universe, which shows forth the images and footprints of the divine ideas.
“Though all things speak of God to man, not one of them speaks aright. God is accessible to the understanding, to reason, to science; He is discerned by the sensibility, by thought, by the imagination; in a word, He can be named; nevertheless He is incomprehensible, ineffable, nameless. Everything reveals Him to all men, and yet nothing manifests Him to anyone. Everything may be predicated of Him, as being the universal cause; but as He is beyond all expression, everything may be more truly denied of Him.
“Hence many, in their progress towards God, are not content with passing beyond the starting point of exterior senses necessary to our nature, but rise beyond the manifold operations of reasoning and argumentation. As the senses are a hindrance, when the soul applies herself to intelligible things by the pure understanding; so the intellectual faculty itself becomes useless when the divinized soul, sublimely ignorant, forgetful of all things, plunges herself into the abyss of unfathomable wisdom. The simple adhesion of the angelic natures to Him who surpasses all knowledge, has become the property of these souls; emulating the angels, they have attained the aim of all hierarchy, by becoming as entirely as possible united with God.
“Guide of Christians in sacred wisdom, O Trinity, sovereignly good, lead us to that height, where all light is outshone by a darkness which coruscates in brilliant lightnings, and, though it can be neither seen nor grasped, inundates with the beauty of its fires the blessedly blinded spirits.”
Could we presume to add anything? As we have already remarked, the Church herself, at this season which prepares the world for the last coming of the Spouse, moderates her voice. Especially ought we to imitate her today, when the divinely inspired Areopagite, oppressed with the weight of his own powerlessness, cries out: “Our language is the more redundant in proportion as it is less pertinent to God. As man rises nearer to heaven, the glance he casts upon the spiritual world becomes simplified and his speech abridged; nigh to the summit, not only do words grow fewer, but all language, nay thought itself, at length fails. Formerly our discourse expanded in proportion to the height whence it descended; as it ascends, it must equally diminish, until, arrived at the full term, it will altogether cease and be lost in the ineffable.”
Meanwhile, Rome will tell us how the revealer of the heavenly hierarchies, coming from Athens into the west, watered with his generous blood the seed he sowed in the future capital of France. Enriched with his sacred body, the humble borough now known as Saint-Denis long surpassed in renown its neighbor Lutetia (Paris). France repaid her apostle’s devotedness by the glory wherewith she surrounded him; it would seem as if, by a chivalrous inspiration, she had undertaken to compensate him for having abandoned his native country for her sake. Immense was the concourse of people to his holy tomb; and still greater was the piety of the kings. The martyr’s banner, the oriflamme, was their standard, Mountjoy St. Denys their battle cry, in every clime whither victory led them. As in life they never quitted the kingdom without entrusting it to the protector of France in his abbey, so at death they bequeathed to him their mortal remains. In spite of sacrilegious profanations, what a sublime spectacle will the holy necropolis present to the world on the last day, when, before the eyes of Adrian and his prefects, he whom they executed at Montmartre and condemned to infamy, will rise from his tomb escorted by three dynasties of monarchs proud to form, at the resurrection, the court of him whom they deemed it an honor to surround in death. Thy friends, O God, are made exceedingly honorable!
The account given by Rome of St. Dionysius and his companions, is the same as that in the Menæa of the Greek Church, though the latter keeps their Feast on October 3.
Quote:Dionysius, an Athenian, was one of the judges of the Areopagus, and a man learned in every science. It is related of him that, on the day Christ our Lord was crucified, he, though still a pagan, on perceiving the unnatural eclipse of the sun, cried out: “Either the God of nature is suffering, or the world is coming to an end.” Paul the apostle, coming to Athens, was brought before the Areopagus, to give an account of the doctrine he preached. He there proclaimed that Christ our Lord had risen from the tomb, and that the dead would all live again. Many thereupon believed in Christ, and among them Dionysius.
He was baptized by St. Paul, and appointed to govern the Church of Athens. Later on he came to Rome; whence Pope Clement sent him to preach the Gospel in Gaul; Rusticus a priest, and Eleutherius a deacon, accompanying him as far as Paris. As he converted many in that town to Christianity, Fescennius the prefect commanded him and his companions to be beaten with rods; but continuing to preach the faith as zealously as before, they were placed on hot gridirons, and suffered several other tortures.
Finally Dionysius, who was a hundred and one years old, was beheaded with his companions, on the seventh of the Ides of October. It is related of Dionysius, that after his decapitation, he took up his head and carried it in his hands for two miles. He wrote some wonderful and truly heavenly books on the divine names, on the celestial and the ecclesiastical hierarchy, on mystical theology, and several others.
Honor to thee on this day of thy triumph! Honor to the apostle of the Gentiles, who comes to meet thee, as his noble conquest, on the threshold of eternity. From early youth how thy soul yearned for that unknown God, whom the apostle at length revealed to the longing aspirations of thy grand, upright nature! To the darkness of polytheism, to the doubts of philosophy, to the vague glimmers of confused traditions, suddenly succeeded the light of truth; and its triumph was complete. Thou, O Christian Plato, didst enlarge the horizon of philosophy, and didst so rectify its formulas that in them truth could be fittingly clothed. Thou, in thy turn, didst become an apostle; the distinction of Greek and barbarian, that law of the ancient world, was lost in the common origin assigned by St. Paul to all peoples; to the eyes of thy faith, slaves and freemen were equal in that nobility which makes the human race the race of God; while the charity, which overflowed in thy heart, filled it with the immense pity of God Himself for the long ages of ignorance in which mankind had been plunged.
Thus in thy zeal, obeying the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, thou, like a cloud laden with the blessings of the Lord, didst bring fertility to the far west. The people of Gaul learned from thee to seek God, to find Him, and to live in Him; and this new church had no reason to envy the earlier ones built on the foundations of prophets and apostles. O chosen stone, good for the foundations, so intimately united to the Corner-Stone that every construction thou upholdest becomes a holy temple of the Lord: the church of France built upon thee, is also the house of God.
O Dionysius, quicken again the divine seed thou didst sow. Restore to Paris and to France their traditions, now forgotten in the fever of gain and pleasure. Bring back Athens to the communion of Christ’s vicar, the indispensable condition of union with our Lord. For every church under heaven obtain such pastors as thou didst describe in the following lines which reveal thyself: “By the holy love which draws us to Him, Jesus calms the tempest of distracting cares; and recalling our souls to the unity of the divine life, He confirms us in the permanent fruitfulness of this noble ministry. Soon, by the exercise of the sacred functions, we draw nigh to the angels, striving to set ourselves, like them, in the fixed state of unchangeable holiness. Thence, gazing upon the divine splendors of the blessed Jesus, and enriched with the profound knowledge of mystical contemplation, we become fitted to be ourselves consecrated in order that we may consecrate, to receive light in order to communicate it, to become perfect in order to lead others to perfection.”
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| Cells from hundreds of aborted fetuses could have been used to develop COVID vaccines |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-08-2021, 01:37 PM - Forum: Abortion
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Cells from hundreds of aborted fetuses could have been used to develop COVID vaccines
The continuing exploitation of countless hundreds of aborted babies is widespread. It’s a lucrative industry.
Western Standard | October 7, 2021
We were told fetal tissue from only two healthy aborted babies led to the development of many vaccines.
They were sacrificed decades ago, so it’s old news. Therefore, any concerns about ethics or morality are unfounded, or at least, overstated.
We were also told that Johnson & Johnson used fetal cell cultures from one of those fetuses to develop its COVID-19 vaccine, but Pfizer and Moderna did not.
As it turns out, that’s not so.
“The argument saying it all has to do with couple of babies from many years ago and none of this stuff is going on, that’s a lie,” said Dr. Jose Trasancos, CEO of the Texas-based non-profit Children of God for Life, which is devoted to ending the use of aborted children in biomedical research and commerce.
One cell line doesn’t equal one baby; but the continuing exploitation of countless hundreds of aborted babies is widespread. It’s a lucrative industry.
“Let’s just keep it to medical research because if we start talking about the use of fetal tissue in cosmetics or in food research, the river very quickly overflows with angst,” said Trasancos, widely regarded as a leading expert in this field.
“All three of the available COVID-19 vaccines in the United States — I’m not sure beyond Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna what’s available in Canada — made use of these aborted fetal cell lines in their research, in their foundational research, in their development, and in their testing before the initiated clinical trials,”
Canada also approved AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine.
“For now, all vaccines for the COVID-19 virus being distributed are produced and/or tested with cell lines that originated from an aborted child.”
He relies solely on information from peer-reviewed and published literature by scientists involved in research and development. He uses their own words.
An explosive report released Wednesday by Project Veritas adds credence to his claim.
It exposed Pfizer’s attempts to hide the truth about using human embryonic kidney cells from aborted fetuses in its testing programs.
Whistleblower Melissa Strickler, a quality auditor with Pfizer, leaked company executives’ emails.
One read: “One or more cell lines with an origin that can be traced back to human fetal tissue has been used in laboratory tests associated with the vaccine program.”
“We’ve been trying as much as possible not to mention the fetal cell lines,” wrote Vanessa Gelman, Pfizer’s senior director of Worldwide Research, Development, and Medical Communication.
Many, including the Vatican, shrug off cell lines from those early abortions as necessary to combat viruses, organ failure, and disease. They pronounce it morally acceptable.
Molecular biologist and Catholic priest, Father Nicanor Austriaco, advanced the unfounded speculation that these cell lines were sourced from miscarriages.
“It took me about 15 minutes with a college-level biology textbook to referentially prove what he said is impossible. The tissues expelled from a miscarriage are days old. It’s dead tissue. You can’t establish a living cell line from dead tissue,” said Trasancos.
The fetal cell lines used to produce some of the COVID-19 vaccines come from two sources.
HEK-293 (Human Embryonic Kidney) is a kidney cell line isolated from a fetus in 1973 in the Netherlands.
PER.CA, a retinal cell line isolated from an aborted fetus in 1985, is the cell line Johnson & Johnson used to develop its COVID-19 vaccine.
“The narrowing of the argument to justify the cell lines is intellectually dishonest. It obscures the truth about the exploitation of aborted children in science and research,” said Trasancos.
“One baby was the source of the tissue that established a cell line. But how many babies were involved in the entire effort is really the question.”
HEK 293 is the most common one used in biomedical research. Its records went missing.
“Let’s focus on 293, which signifies the 293rd experiment in the series. The number of aborted children involved in the establishment of that cell line lies somewhere between one and 293. It was certainly more than one.”
“Here it kind of crosses the line into untruths. You are ignoring the facts of how those cell lines came to be. You’re also ignoring what’s happening today in the field of aborted fetal tissue research.”
Cell strains from aborted fetuses are used to develop numerous vaccines.
There are 1,559 catalogued cell strains representing a “far larger” number of abortions.
“A cell line is immortal. Most of what’s available in the marketplace and most of what’s used in many areas of research is called a cell strain. They do wear out and need to be replaced,” said Trasancos.
They replicate over a period consistent with the human life span, then age and stop.
“It’s a fact, not conjecture, that aborted fetal tissue is sought after and in demand and the medical research community has invested in techniques to improve the quality and the integrity of the tissues they harvest.”
“Aborted children are fed to this industry every single day.”
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| Leaked Emails Reveal Pfizer Execs Sought To Conceal Use Of Aborted Fetal Cells |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-08-2021, 01:33 PM - Forum: COVID Vaccines
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Leaked Emails Reveal Pfizer Execs Sought To Conceal Use Of Aborted Fetal Cells In Covid-19 Vaccine Program
![[Image: fet1.JPG?itok=3ARZ3e4g]](https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/fet1.JPG?itok=3ARZ3e4g)
ZH | OCT 07, 2021
A Pfizer employee turned whistleblower has come forward with leaked internal emails which reveal corporate executives wanted staff to conceal the company's use of human fetal tissue in laboratory testing of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Melissa Strickler, a manufacturing quality auditor, sat down with Project Veritas for the fifth installment of their COVID vaccine investigative series, where she described the executives as being "deceptive in their emails."
For example:
"From the perspective of corporate affairs, we want to avoid having the information on fetal cells floating out there…The risk of communicating this right now outweighs any potential benefit we could see, particularly with general members of the public who may take this information and use it in ways we may not want out there. We have not received any questions from policy makers or media on this issue in the last few weeks, so we want to avoid raising this if possible," wrote Vanessa Gelman, Pfizer Senior Director of Worldwide Research.
"We have been trying as much as possible to not mention the fetal cell lines…One or more cell lines with an origin that can be traced back to human fetal tissue has been used in laboratory tests associated with the vaccine program," Gelman added.
It appears that the company wanted to avoid handing pro-life individuals opposed to the vaccine with a religious exemption.
Pfizer Chief Scientific Officer, Philip Dormitzer, wrote: "HEK293T cells, used for the IVE assay, are ultimately derived from an aborted fetus. On the other hand, the Vatican doctrinal committee has confirmed that they consider it acceptable for Pro-Life believers to be immunized. Pfizer’s official statement couches the answer well and is what should be provided in response to an outside inquiry."
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| Anonymous Priest: Apostasy ‘very probably’ ushering in the apocalypse and rise of the antichrist |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-08-2021, 12:04 PM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Spiritual]
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The Catacombs doesn't not normally promote the Catholic Identity Conferences (CIC) as they are trad-ecumenical events, inviting speakers who are in varying stages of cooperation with the Conciliar religion.
But we are reproducing the following anonymous statement by a priest speaker at this year's CIC last week. He echoes the same warnings about what has unfolded during these last two years as Fr. Hewko, Fr. Ruiz, Archbishop Viganò, and other traditional clergy.
For your consideration...
Apostasy ‘very probably’ ushering in the apocalypse and rise of the antichrist: faithful priest
The 'parking lot priest' said the Traditional Mass 'seems to be all that’s left between us and the rise of antichrist.'
![[Image: Pachamama_in_Saint_Peters_basilica_for_a...10x500.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Pachamama_in_Saint_Peters_basilica_for_amazon_synod-810x500.jpg)
A boat carrying a wooden statue of a naked woman with child ('Pachamama') is carried by indigenous people in St. Peter's Basilica during the opening ceremony for the Amazon Synod, Rome, Oct. 7, 2019.
Fri Oct 8, 2021
PITTSBURGH, PA (LifeSiteNews) — A faithful priest has warned that the events of the Book of the Apocalypse may be unfolding.
This “parking lot priest,” one of the pastors who continued to say Mass during the 2020 church lockdowns, believes the current scourges have been ushered by the veneration of the pagan goddess Pachamama in the Vatican, which the cleric describes as “the most terrible crime” in “all of Christian history.”
During this past weekend’s Catholic Identity Conference in Pittsburgh, the priest argued that just as apostasy and idolatry triggered the destruction of Jerusalem’s temple, modern-day idolatry and sacrilege in the Church have triggered events that may be leading to the final apocalypse.
“Many believe, and I do as well, that the Apocalypse, the last book of the Bible, is describing the destruction of Jerusalem, but also the end of the world,” he said. He added that he believes the temple destruction in 70 AD is a “prototype or foreshadowing of the final apocalypse, in many ways.”
The priest described how the massacre of the Jews and destruction of the temple by the Romans at the time was so utterly devastating, a surviving Jewish historian called it “the end of the world.”
Radical Jews known as the Sicarii — Hebrew for “someone who carries a dagger” — “would assassinate anyone who would not comply with their desire to overthrow Rome and [re-]establish a Jewish kingdom on earth,” the priest said.
But the Romans’ retaliation for the Jewish rebellion was terrible.
“There were so many ship battles on the sea of Galilee that it’s said the Jordan River flowed red with blood.”
It’s been said that, once the Romans reached Jerusalem, “as Jews tried to escape, they were captured, and the Romans would crucify up to 500 a day on that hill, for those inside to see it and be in panic,” the priest recounted.
“There was cannibalizing [of] infants, as they were starving to death. And when the Romans finally broke through, they killed them all. They desecrated the temple, though I believe the temple was already abandoned by God.”
According to the priest, this “apocalypse” happened not just because of the zealots, or because the pagan empire was bad, as “every empire was bad for centuries and millennia.”
“It was apostasy,” he declared.
“It was a falling away from true religion of massive numbers of the majority of the faithful under the wicked, corrupt hierarchy. That’s why they were punished. That was the trigger for this to happen.”
He pointed out that from 6 AD to 66 AD, Annas the High Priest was the figurehead behind the Temple priesthood.
“That’s a 60 year reign of a totally corrupt high priesthood,” he said.
“So when we talk about what’s happening now, the triggers may have just happened, but it’s been in the works for at least 60 years. And that was true in the time of Christ.”
The priest said that the reign of corrupt priesthood in Jerusalem “culminated in a particular trigger.”
“If there’s one point where you would look at what triggered and was the formal act of apostasy recorded by St. John, it was when Pilate presented Jesus to the corrupt leadership and the mob that they had [assembled] and asked, ‘Shall I crucify your king?’ Their response was, ‘We have no king but Caesar’,” the priest stated.
This meant the Jews were guilty of the grave offense of embracing an idol because “Caesar had declared himself a god,” he continued.
“He had temples and worship and honors afforded him. So in effect, the priesthood and hierarchy, with some exceptions, openly went into apostasy and idolatry.”
The priest asserted that they had chosen a false god and, in a sense, an idol over the one true God, and this both triggered and was the “root cause” of the destruction of both the temple and the city. He also interpreted these events as a fulfillment of Christ’s prophecy, “The Son of man will come in power before this generation passes.”
“A generation is about 40 years. [Christ] said that in 33 AD, so 37 years later, before the passing of a generation, they had their apocalypse, He came in power,” the cleric said.
Severe punishment of idolatry and apostasy by God was always a historical reality, the priest asserted. God had punished the idolatry of the Israelites at Mt. Sinai by extending their journey from 40 days to 40 years, so that most of the thousands of adult males who set out from Egypt died on their way to the Holy Land. God punished King Solomon’s idolatry by splitting his kingdom.
“A thousand years of God’s own people split — ten tribes to the north, two to the south,” the parking lot priest recollected.
Post-Council apostasy, Pachamama idolatry
Our own day and age is no exception to God’s just punishment, the priest asserted, adding “Why would we think that now apostasy and idolatry would be overlooked by God?”
He pointed out that the word “apostasy” means “falling away,” and this is exactly what has happened in the Catholic Church.
“It started with the Council. You all know which one,” said the parking lot priest.
“Upwards of 100,000 priests abandoned their ministry, as well as countless religious and the faithful,” he added.
“We go from about 75 to 80% of Catholics attending Mass in the [19]50s to — pre-COVID, it was about 25%, post-COVID, we still don’t know — [perhaps] 10 to 15 [%] in this country. And in European countries, it’s much worse.”
Then came the idolatry of the pagan goddess Pachamama in the Vatican during October of 2019, he recalled.
“Not long after, all hell was unleashed on us,” he said.
The priest recounted how the Pachamama idol was placed in front of the altar of sacrifice in St Peter’s Basilica itself, over the tomb of St. Peter. He indicated that he believes Pope Francis “specifically directed” this action. The pontiff himself said prayers in a ceremony involving this image and then joined in this procession.
This idolatry was a sacrilege against the Blessed Mother, the priest said, for it occurred “on the day that the Church honors the Blessed Mother,” October 7, the feast of the Holy Rosary.
According to Chinese dissident and former Chinese Communist Party insider Wei Jingsheng, it was soon after this event, that is, during the second half of October 2019, that the “weaponized virus” of COVID-19 was intentionally released into an international gathering of the World Military Games. In recalling this, the priest referred to a recent LifeSiteNews report on the Sky News documentary on the virus’ origins.
Jingsheng’s claims were supported by Miles Yu, a former Principal China Adviser to the U.S. State Department, who said that French, German, and American athletes all had symptoms similar to those of COVID-19.
The priest went on to say that if Jingsheng were correct, not only did the virus appear within a week of the Pachamama “desecration, idolatry, sacrilege,” but it was also “the occasion for the war of the Prince of Darkness and the globalists against us.”
Further adding to the gravity of the apostasy in the Church, he said, is the Vatican’s collaboration with secular, morally compromised, anti-life global powers like Anthony Fauci, Jeffrey Sachs, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Clintons, Big Pharma, business, and banking, even taking them on as advisors.
“This is another thing that happened in ancient times, [and] why I see an apocalypse coming: because the apostate religion collaborated with the Roman Empire to persecute Christ and then the Church,” said the parking lot priest.
“And for a while that worked, but then the Enemy turned and punished the apostates. And that’s what we’re doing today. Same thing.”
The restraining force holding back the antichrist
The priest believes that the virus outbreak was the “occasion for the war” of the globalists against the world and that it involves “murder, sterilization, tyranny,” and “control of whoever is left.”
“How many are dying from the death jab already, and from a gain of function military virus that doesn’t follow the rules?” he asked.
“This is the first time in human history that you could actually have world control,” he continued.
“These people intend [to control] the entire world, and knowingly or not, it would be the rise of the Luciferian rule, and I think very probably, the antichrist, not just an antichrist.”
The parking lot priest drew attention to a point made by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò: that this war of the globalists is being waged “by forces who hate not only the health of the body, but also and above all, the salvation of the soul.”
St. Paul mentions a “restraining force” that “holds back the antichrist” in 2 Thessalonians, the priest recalled. While there was no agreement among the Church Fathers as to what that restraining force is, the priest speculated what it may relate to.
“I’m sure it’s caught up with the Church, and it could be caught up with Tradition, which is why [Pope Francis] wants to destroy it: because it’s still restraining,” he said.
“When you want to restrain Satan or his demons when they possess someone, you use sacramentals, right? The power of the church. You use holy water, and rituals, and prayers, the rosary, and so on — the Holy Eucharist.”
He added that “good exorcists will always want to use the old rite … because they know Latin and the traditional form is much more powerful.”
“But at any rate look what happened [to] the restraining force. For nearly a year the Mass was almost entirely shut down, except for those of us that went into parking lots, or into basements … or wherever we could,” he continued.
“I believe Bishop Athanasius Schneider said [that] it’s because of the weakness of faith of the bishops who rolled over, starting with [the pontiff], and when [he] went down, right away, within a week, almost the whole [episcopate] had ceased the Mass and the Sacraments. No wonder the powers of evil could rise so powerfully and so swiftly.”
But there was good that came from the evil of the church closures, said the parking lot priest: it was the influx of Catholics to Traditional Latin Masses. It was so large that his numbers “doubled, easily, if not tripled,” and he had to add two Masses and open up his church hall to accommodate everyone.
The priest believes that this is behind the promulgation of Traditionis Custodes.
“In the face of this phenomenon, when traditional ranks have swelled, [Pope Francis] comes out with his motu proprio: No more traditional Mass. Isn’t it counterintuitive? Isn’t it ironic?” the parking lot priest asked his audience.
“The one group that remained steadfast, and even doubled and tripled in some places — now we will take that away from you. And for all we know, that is the restraining force. That seems to be all that’s left between us and the consummation of evil and rise of antichrist.”
The Book of the Apocalypse and Today
“The Apocalypse talks about an unholy alliance between the secular fallen world and an apostate religion,” the priest said.
He added that the Book of Revelation presents a “false prophet…whose role is to mislead people out of true religion” into what the priest refers to as “humanism, an inter-religious humanism. That’s what we’re being spoon-fed now.”
“The false prophet’s role is to mislead people out of true religion and others to a false religion,” he continued.
“I believe that that could very well be going on now. And that paves the way for the antichrist.”
He flagged also the book’s reference to a “beast of the land” which, if applied to the present time, would refer to an “apostate counterfeit Church, the leadership.”
“In fact the image gets even more vivid, [Revelation says] that the beast of the land has this prostitute riding on it. A whore, all decked out,” he said.
“Recognize that, biblically, that’s not an image for a pagan world. That’s an image for apostate religion. In the Old Testament, when the prophets denounced God’s people, they did it by describing them as prostitutes because God is the husband, and now His people are prostituting themselves to false gods and false religions,” he continued.
“So the whore of Babylon, which the Protestants, some of them, used to say, is the Catholic Church. I don’t laugh at that so much, as it could be a counterfeit Catholic church. Because the true Church remains the bride of Christ, at all times. And will be unspoiled until the end of time, even if it’s only a remnant.”
Going on to address the mark of the beast, the priest noted that both “Archbishop Viganò and Bishop Athanasius Schneider have associated the mark of the beast with the vax.” Although they “have not said it is the mark … it could be symbolically at least that and moving towards it.”
The parking lot priest believes that the crisis is leading to more than a simple inoculation because the current rollout of Green Passes and vaccine passports will lead to a situation in which people cannot buy, sell, travel or “do anything, if that’s what they want, without it.”
What are we to do?
The parking lot priest believes we need to “unite the clans,” as Michael Matt, editor of the Remnant newspaper, has long called for. He also advised that these times could require disobedience.
“As Archbishop Viganò says, ‘When authority becomes corrupted, it no longer needs to be obeyed.’ And that’s true especially with the counterfeit church,’” said the priest.
While the priest advised that we prepare ourselves physically, he also noted early on that we “need to be reminded we never know what’s coming,” or when our life will be taken, and that we “should always think in terms of an apocalypse personally,” that is, “when we meet the Lord.”
“That’s where whether we’ve lived and died in grace or not matters,” he warned his hearers.
“We’re not all protected physically, but we are spiritually. There will be persecution. That’s happening now and it will get worse. There will be betrayal, including by our family members. There will always be a remnant. That remnant must resist in every possible way,” he continued.
“If you’ve ever asked yourself, what would you do if you were alive at the time of Christ? Would you have wiped with a veil His face? Would you have carried the cross like Simon of Cyrene? Would you have stood beneath the cross like Mary and the women and the beloved disciple? Or would you have run off in hiding? Or would you have called for His crucifixion?”
“Each of us in a sense answers for that, because if you wondered what you would do, then the question is, what are you doing now? Because the mystical body of Christ is undergoing a passion. And if it’s the apocalypse, it will be a crucifixion. Stand with Christ, beneath the cross, through His passion, keep the faith, and pray the rosary.”
- The priest, whose identity is known LifeSiteNews, has requested anonymity.
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