| Welcome, Guest |
You have to register before you can post on our site.
|
| Online Users |
There are currently 289 online users.
» 0 Member(s) | 286 Guest(s)
Bing, Google, Yandex
|
|
|
| 'This Ends The Debate' - Israeli Study Shows Natural Immunity 13x More Effective Than Vaccines |
|
Posted by: Stone - 08-28-2021, 06:57 AM - Forum: COVID Vaccines
- Replies (2)
|
 |
'This Ends The Debate' - Israeli Study Shows Natural Immunity 13x More Effective Than Vaccines At Stopping Delta
ZH | AUG 27, 2021
Dr. Anthony Fauci and the rest of President Biden's COVID advisors have been proven wrong about "the science" of COVID vaccines yet again. After telling Americans that vaccines offer better protection than natural infection, a new study out of Israel suggests the opposite is true: natural infection offers a much better shield against the delta variant than vaccines.
The study was described by Bloomberg as "the largest real-world analysis comparing natural immunity - gained from an earlier infection - to the protection provided by one of the most potent vaccines currently in use." A few days ago, we noted how remarkable it was that the mainstream press was finally giving voice to scientists to criticize President Biden's push to start doling out booster jabs. Well, this study further questions the credibility of relying on vaccines, given that the study showed that the vaccinated were ultimately 13x as likely to be infected as those who were infected previously, and 27x more likely to be symptomatic.
Alex Berenson, a science journalist who has repeatedly questioned the efficacy of vaccines and masks at preventing COVID, touted the study as enough to "end any debate over vaccines v natural immunity."
Here's an excerpt from a report by Science Magazine:
Quote:The new analysis relies on the database of Maccabi Healthcare Services, which enrolls about 2.5 million Israelis. The study, led by Tal Patalon and Sivan Gazit at KSM, the system’s research and innovation arm, found in two analyses that people who were vaccinated in January and February were, in June, July, and the first half of August, six to 13 times more likely to get infected than unvaccinated people who were previously infected with the coronavirus. In one analysis, comparing more than 32,000 people in the health system, the risk of developing symptomatic COVID-19 was 27 times higher among the vaccinated, and the risk of hospitalization eight times higher.
This time, the data leave little doubt that natural infection truly is the better option for protection against the delta variant, despite the fact that the US won't acknowledge the already infected as having antibodies protecting them from the virus.
As the first country to achieve widepsread coverage by the vaccine, Israel is now in an unthinkable situation: daily case numbers have reached new record levels as the delta variant penetrates the vaccines' protection like a hot knife slicing through butter.
At the very least, the results of the study are good news for patients who have already successfully battled COVID but show the challenge of relying exclusively on immunizations to move past the pandemic.
"This analysis demonstrated that natural immunity affords longer lasting and stronger protection against infection, symptomatic disease and hospitalization due to the delta variant," the researchers said.
Unfortunately, the study also showed that any protection is time-limited. Protection offered by natural infection wanes over time, just like the protection afforded by vaccines: The risk of a vaccine-breakthrough delta case was 13x higher than the risk of developing a second infection when the original illness occurred during January or February 2021. That's significantly more than the risk for people who were ill earlier in the outbreak.
What's more, giving a single shot of the vaccine to those who had been previously infected also appeared to boost their protection. Still, the data don't tell us anything about the long-term benefits of booster doses.
This latest data showing the vaccines don't offer anywhere near the 90%+ protection that was originally advertised by the FDA after the emergency authorization. Other studies are finding harmful side effects caused by the mRNA jabs are also more prevalent than previously believed.
[Study can be viewed and downloaded here.]
|
|
|
| August 28th – St. Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church |
|
Posted by: Stone - 08-28-2021, 06:49 AM - Forum: August
- No Replies
|
|
August 28 – St. Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger (1841-1875
![[Image: 6.png?w=527&ssl=1]](https://i1.wp.com/sensusfidelium.us/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/6.png?w=527&ssl=1)
Today Augustine, the greatest and the humblest of the Doctors, is hailed by heaven, where his conversion caused greater joy than that of any other sinner; and celebrated by the Church, who is enlightened by his writings as to the power, the value, and the gratuitousness of divine grace.
Since that wonderful, heavenly conversation at Ostia, God had completed his triumph in the son of Monica’s tears and of Ambrose’s holiness. Far away from the great cities where pleasure had seduced him, the former rhetorician now cared only to nourish his soul with the simplicity of the Scriptures, in silence and solitude. But grace, after breaking the double chain that bound his mind and his heart, was to have still greater dominion over him; the pontifical consecration was to consummate Augustine’s union with that divine Wisdom, whom alone he declared he loved “for her own sole sake, caring neither for rest nor life save on her account.” From his height, to which the divine mercy had raised him, let us hear him pouring out his heart:
“Too late have I loved thee, O beauty so ancient and yet so new! Too late have I loved thee! And behold thou wast within me, and I, having wandered out of myself, sought thee everywhere without … I questioned the earth, and she answered me: I am not the one thou seekest; and all the creatures of earth made the same reply. I questioned the sea and its abyss and all the living things therein, and they answered: We are not thy God; seek above us. I questioned the restless winds, and all the air with its inhabitants replied: Anaximenes is mistaken, I am not God. I questioned the sky, the sun, the moon, the stars, and they said: We are not the God whom thou seekest. And I said to all these things that stand without at the gates of my senses: Ye have all confessed concerning my God that ye are not he, tell me now something about him. And they all cried with one great voice: It is he that made us. I questioned them with my desires, and they answered by their beauty.—Let the air and the waters and the earth be silent! Let man keep silence in his own soul! Let him pass beyond his own thought; for beyond all language of man or of Angels, he, of whom creatures speak, makes himself heard; where signs and images and figurative visions cease, there Eternal Wisdom reveals herself … Thou didst call and cry so loud that my deaf ears could hear thee; thou didst shine so brightly that my blind eyes could see thee; thy fragrance exhilarated me and it is after thee that I aspire; having tasted thee I hunger and thirst; thou hadst touched me and thrilled me and I burn to be in thy peaceful rest. When I shall be united to thee with my whole being, then will my sorrows and labors cease.”
To the end of his life Augustine never ceased to fight for the truth against all the heresies then invented by the father of lies; in his ever repeated victories, we know not which to admire most: his knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, his powerful logic, or his eloquence. We see too that divine charity which, while inflexibly upholding every iota of God’s rights, is full of ineffable compassion for the unhappy beings who do not understand those rights.
“Let those be hard upon you who do not know what labor it is to reach the truth and turn away from error. Let those be hard upon you, who know not how rare a thing it is, and how much it costs, to overcome the false images of the senses and to dwell in peace of soul. Let those be hard upon you who know not with what difficulty man’s mental eye is healed so as to be able to gaze upon the Sun of justice; who know not through what sighs and groans one attains to some little knowledge of God. Let those finally be hard upon you who have never known seduction like that whereby you are destroyed … As for me, who have been tossed about by the vain imaginations of which my mind was in search, and who have shared your misery and so long deplored it, I could not by any means be harsh to you.”
These touching words were addressed to the disciples of Manes, who were hemmed in on all sides even by the laws of the pagan emperors. How fearful is the misery of our fallen race when the darkness of hell can overpower the loftiest intellects! Augustine, the formidable opponent of heresy, was for nine years previously the convinced disciple and ardent apostle of Manicheism. This heresy was a strange variety of Gnostic dualism, which, to explain the existence of evil, made a god of evil itself; and which owed its prolonged influence to the pleasure taken in it by Satan’s pride.
Augustine sustained also a prolonged though more local struggle against the Donatists, whose teaching was based on a principle as false as the fact from which it professed to originate. This fact, which on the petitions presented by the Donatists themselves was juridically proved to be false, was that Cæcilianus, primate of Africa in 311, had received episcopal consecration from a traditor, i.e. one who had delivered up the sacred Books in time of persecution. No one, argued the Donatists, could communicate with a sinner without himself ceasing to form part of the flock of Christ; therefore, as the bishops of the rest of the world had continued to communicate with Cæcilianus and his successors, the Donatists alone were now the Church. This groundless schism was established among most of the inhabitants of Roman Africa, with its four hundred and ten bishops, and its troops of Circumcellions ever ready to commit murders and violence upon the Catholics on the roads or in isolated houses. The greater part of our Saint’s time was occupied in trying to bring back these lost sheep.
We must not imagine him studying at his ease in the peace of a quiet episcopal city chosen as if for the purpose by Providence, and there writing those precious works whose fruits the whole world has now enjoyed even to our days. There is no fecundity on earth without sufferings and trials, known sometimes to men, sometimes to God alone. When the writings of the saints awaken in us pious thoughts and generous resolutions, we must not be satisfied, as we might in the case of profane books, with admiring the genius of the authors, but think with gratitude of the price they paid for the supernatural good produced in our souls. Before Augustine’s arrival in Hippo, the Donatists were so great a majority of the population that, as he himself informs us, they could even forbid anyone to bake bread for Catholics. When the saint died, things were very different; but the pastor, who had made it his first duty to save, even in spite of themselves, the souls confided to him, had been obliged to spend his days and nights in this great work, and had more than once run the risk of martyrdom. The leaders of the schismatics, fearing the force of his reasoning even more than his eloquence, refused all intercourse with him; they declared that to put Augustine to death would be a praiseworthy action which would merit for the perpetrator the remission of his sins.
“Pray for us,” he said at the beginning of his episcopate, “pray for us who live in so precarious a state, as it were between the teeth of furious wolves. These wandering sheep, obstinate sheep, are offended because we run after them, as if their wandering made them cease to be ours.—Why dost thou call us? they say; why dost thou pursue us? —But the very reason of our cries and our anguish is that they are running to their ruin.—If I am lost, if I die, what is it to thee? what dost thou want with me? —What I want is to call thee back from thy wandering; what I desire is to snatch thee from death.—But what if I will to wander? what if I will to be lost? —Thou willest to wander? thou willest to be lost? How much more earnestly do I wish it not! Yea, I dare to say it, I am importunate; for I hear the Apostle saying: Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season. In season, when they are willing; out of season, when they are unwilling. Yes then, I am importunate: thou willest to perish, I will it not. And he wills it not who threatened the shepherds saying: That which was driven away you have not brought again, neither have you sought that which was lost. Am I to fear thee more than him? I fear thee not; the tribunal of Donatus cannot take the place of Christ’s judgment seat, before which we must all appear. Whether thou will it or not, I shall call back the wandering sheep, I shall seek the lost sheep. The thorns may tear me; but however narrow the opening may be it shall not check my pursuit; I will beat every bush, as long as the Lord gives me strength; so only I can get to thee wherever thou strivest to perish.”
Driven into their last trenches by such unconquerable charity, the Donatists replied by massacring clerics and faithful, since they could not touch Augustine himself. The bishop implored the imperial judges not to inflict mutilation or death upon the murderers lest the triumph of the martyrs should be sullied by such a vengeance. Such mildness was certainly worthy of the Church; but it was destined to be one day brought forward against her in contrast to certain other facts of her history, by a school of liberalism that can grant rights and even pre-eminence to error. Augustine acknowledges his first idea to have been that constraint should not be used to bring anyone into the unity of Christ; he believed that preaching and free discussion should be the only arms employed for the conversion of heretics. But on the consideration of what was taking place before his eyes, the very logic of his charity brought him over to the opinion of his more ancient colleagues in the episcopate.
“Who,” he says, “could love us more than God does? Nevertheless God makes use of fear in order to save us, although he teaches us with sweetness. When the Father of the family wanted guests for his banquet, did he not send his servants to the highways and hedges, to compel all they met to come in? This banquet is the unity of Christ’s Body. If, then, the divine goodness has willed that, at the fitting time, the faith of Christian kings should recognize this power of the Church, let the heretics brought back from the byways, and schismatics forced into their enclosures, consider not the constraint they suffer, but the banquet of the Lord to which they would not otherwise have attained. Does not the shepherd sometimes use threats and sometimes blows to win back to the master’s fold the sheep that have been enticed out of it? Severity that springs from love is preferable to deceitful gentleness. He who binds the delirious man and waked up the sleeper from his lethargy molests them both, but for their good. If a house were on the point of falling, and our cries could not induce those within to come out, would it not be cruelty not to save them by force in spite of themselves? and that, even if we could snatch only one from death because the rest, seeing it, obstinately hastened their own destruction: as the Donatists do, who in their madness commit suicide to obtain the crown of martyrdom. No one can become good in spite of himself; nevertheless, the rigorous laws, of which they complain, bring deliverance not only to individuals but to the whole cities, by freeing them from the bonds of untruth and causing them to see the truth, which the violence or the deceits of the schismatics had hidden from their eyes. Far from complaining, their gratitude is now boundless and their joy complete; their feasts and their chants are unceasing.”
Meanwhile the justice of heaven was falling upon the queen of nations; Rome, after the triumph of the Cross, had not profited of God’s merciful delay; now she was expiating under the hand of Alaric, the blood of the Saints which she had shed before her idols. Go out from her my people. At this signal the city was evacuated. The roads were all lined with barbarians; and happy was the fugitive who could succeed in reaching the sea, there to entrust to the frailest skiff the honor of his family and the remains of his fortune. Like a bright beacon shining through the storms, Augustine, by his reputation, attracted to the African coast the best of the unfortunates; his varied correspondence shows us the new links then formed by God between the Bishop of Hippo and so many noble exiles. At one time he would send, as far as Nola in Compania, charming messages mingled with learned questions and luminous answers, to greet his “dear lords and venerable brethren, Paulinus and Therasia, his fellow disciples in the school of our Lord Jesus.” Again it was to Carthage or even nearer home that his letters were directed, to console, instruct and fortify Albina, Melania, and Pinianus, but especially Proba and Juliana, the illustrious grandmother and mother of a still more illustrious daughter, the virgin Demetrias, the greatest in the Roman world for nobility and wealth, and Augustine’s dear conquest to the heavenly Spouse. “Oh! who,” he wrote on hearing of her consecration to our Lord, “who could worthily express the glory added this day to the family of the Anicii; for years, it has ennobled the world by the consuls its sons, but now it gives virgins to Christ! Let others imitate Demetrias; whosoever ambitions the glory of this illustrious family, let him take holiness for his portion!” Augustine’s desire was magnificently realized when, less than a century later, the gens Anicia gave to the world Scholastica and Benedict, who were to lead into intimate familiarity and union with God so many sould eager for true nobility.
When Rome fell, the shock was felt throughout the provinces and even beyond. Augustine tells us how he, a descendant of the ancient Numidians, groaned and wept in his almost inconsolable grief; so great, even in her decadence, was the universal esteem and love for the queen city, through the secret action of him who was holdin gout to her new and higher destinies. Meanwhile the terrible crisis furnished the occasion for Augustine’s most important writings. The City of God was an answer to the still numerous partisans of idolatry who attributed the misfortunes of the empire to the suppression of the false gods. In this great work he refutes, in the most complete and masterly way, the theology and also the philosophy of Roman and Grecian paganism; he then proceeds to set forth the origin, the history, and the end of the two cities, the earthly and the heavenly, which divide the world between them, and which are founded upon “two opposite loves: the love of self even to the despising of God, and the love of God even to the despising of self.”
But Augustine’s greatest triumph was that which earned for him the title of the Doctor of grace. His favorite prayer: Da quod jubes, et jube quod vis (Give me grace to do what Thou dost command, and command what Thou wilt), offended the pride of a certain British monk, whom the events of the year 410 had led into Africa. This was Pelagius, who taught that nature, all-powerful for good, was quite capable of working out salvation, and that Adam’s sin injured himself alone, and was not passed down to his posterity. We can well understand Augustine, who owed so much to the Divine mercy, feeling so strong an aversion for a system whose authors “seemed to say to God: Thou madest us men, but it is we that justify ourselves.”
In this new campaign no injuries were spared to the former convert; but they were his joy and his hope. He had already said, with regard to similar arguments adduced by other adversaries: “Catholics, my beloeved brethren, one flock of the one Shepherd, I care not how the enemy may insult the watchdog of the fold; it is not for my own defense, but for yours, that I must bark. Yet I must needs tell this enemy that, as to my former wanderings and errors, I condemn them, as everyone else does; I can but see therein the glory of him who has delivered me from myself. When I hear my former life brought forward, no matter with what intention it is done, I am not so ungrateful as to be afflicted thereat; for the more they show up my misery, the more I praise my physician.”
While he made so little account of himself, his reputation was spreading throughout the world, by reason of the victory he had won for grace. “Honor to you,” wrote the aged Saint Jerome from Bethlehem; “honor to the man whom the raging winds have not been able to overthrow! … Continue to be of good courage. The whole world celebrates your praises; the Catholics venerate and admire you as the restorer of the ancient faith. But what is a mark of still greater glory, all the heretics hate you. They honor me too, with their hatred. Not being able to strike us with the sword, they kill us in desire.”
These lines reveal the intrepid combatant with whom we shall make acquaintance in September and who, soon after writing them, was laid to rest in the sacred Cave near which he had taken refuge. Augustine had yet some years to continue the good fight, to complete the exposition of Catholic doctrine in contradiction to some even holy persons, who were inclined to think that at least the beginning of salvation, the desire of faith, did not require the special assistance of God. This was semi-pelagianism. A century later (529) the second Council of Orange, approved by Rome and hailed by the whole Church, closed the struggle, taking its definitions from the writings of the bishop of Hippo. Augustine himself, however, thus concluded his last work: “Let those who read these things give thanks to God, if they understand them; if not, let them pray to the teacher of our souls, to him whose shining produces knowledge and understanding. Do they think that I err? Let them reflect again and again, lest perhaps they themselves be mistaken. As for me, when the readers of my works instruct and correct me, I see therein the goodness of God; yes, I ask it as a favor, especially of the learned ones in the Church, if by chance this book should fall into their hands, and they deign to take notice of what I write.”
But let us return to the privileged people of Hippo, won over by Augustine’s devotedness, even more than by his admirable discourses. His door was open to every comer; and he was ever ready to listen to the requests, the sorrows, and the disputes of his children. Sometimes, at the instance of other churches, and even of councils, requiring of Augustine a more active pursuit of works of general interest, an agreement was made between the flock and the pastor, that on certain days of the week no one should interrupt him. Whoever wished could claim the attention of this loving and humble shepherd, beside whom the little ones especially knew well that they would never meet with a refusal. As an instance of this we may mention the fortunate child who, wishing to enter into correspondence with the bishop but not daring to take the initiative, received from him the touching letter which may be seen in his works.
Besides all his other glories, our saint was the institutor of monastic life in Roman Africa, by the monasteries he founded, and in which he lived before he became bishop. He was a legislator by his letter to the virgins of Hippo, which became the Rule whereon so many servants and handmaids of our Lord have formed their religious life. Lastly, together with the clerics of his church who lived with him a common life of absolute poverty, he was the example and the head of the great family of Regular Canons. But we must close these already lengthy pages, which will be completed by the narrative of the holy Liturgy.
Let us, then, read this authentic account. Independently of the present feast, the Church, in her martyrology makes special mention of Augustine’s conversion on the fifth of May.
Quote:Augustine was born at Tagaste in Africa of noble parents. As a child he was so apt in learning that in a short time he far surpassed in knowledge all those of his own age. When he was a young man he went to Carthage where he fell into the Manichæan heresy. Later on he journeyed to Rome, and was sent thence to Milan to teach rhetoric. Having frequently listened to the teaching of Ambrose the bishop, he was through his influence inflamed with a desire of the Catholic faith and was baptized by him at the age of thirty-three. On his return to Africa, as his holy life was in keeping with his religion, Valerius the bishop, who was then renowned for his sanctity, ordained him priest. It was at this time that he founded a religious community with whom he lived, sharing their food, and dress, and training them with the utmost care in the rules of the apostolic life and teaching. The Manichæan heresy was then growing very strong: he opposed it with great vigor and refuted one of its leaders named Fortunatus.
Valerius perceiving Augustine’s great piety made him his coadjutor in the bishopric. He was always most humble and most temperate. His clothing and his bed were of the simplest kind; he kept a frugal table which was always seasoned by reading or holy conversation. Such was his loving kindness to the poor, that when he had no other resource, he broke up the sacred vessels, for their relief. He avoided all intercourse and conversation with women, even with his sister and his niece for he used to say that though such near relations could not give rise to any suspicion, yet might the women who came to visit them. Never, except when seriously ill, did he omit preaching the word of God. He pursued heretics unremittingly both in public disputations and in his writings, never allowing them to take foothold anywhere; and by these means he almost entirely freed Africa from the Manichees, Donatists, and other heretics.
His numerous works are full of piety, deep wisdom and eloquence, and throw the greatest light on Christian doctrine, so that he is the great master and guide of all those who later on reduced theological teaching to method. While the Vandals were devastating Africa, and Hippo had been besieged by them for three months, Augustine was seized with a fever. When he perceived that his death was at hand, he had the Penitential Psalms of David placed before him and used to read them with an abundance of tears. He was accustomed to say that no one, even though not conscious to himself of any sin, ought to be presumptuous enough to die without repentance. He was in full possession of his faculties and intent on prayer to the end. After exhorting his brethren who were around him, to charity, piety and the practice of every virtue, he passed to heaven, having lived seventy-six years, and thirty-six as bishop. His body was first of all taken to Sardinia, afterwards Luitprand, king of the Lombards, translated it to Pavia, where it was honorably entombed.
What a death was thine, O Augustine, receiving on thy humble couch nought but news of disasters and ruin! Thy Africa was perishing at the hands of the barbarians, in punishment of those nameless crimes of the ancient world, in which she had so large a share. Together with Genseric, Arius triumphed over that land, which nevertheless, thanks to thee, was to produce, for yet a hundred years, admirable martyrs for the Consubstantiality of the Word. When Balisarius restored her to the Roman world, God seemed to be offering her, for the martyr’s sake, an opportunity of returning to her former prosperity; but the inexperienced Byzantines, preoccupied with their theological quarrels and political intrigues, knew not how to raise her up, nor to protect her against an invasion more terrible than the first; and the torrent of Mussulman infidelity soon swept all before it.
At length, after twelve centuries, the Cross reappeared in those places where the very names of so many flourishing churches had perished. May the nation on which thy country is now dependent, show that it is proud of this honor, and understand its consequent obligations!
During all that long night which overhung thy native land, thy influence did not cease. Throughout the entire world, thy immortal works were enlightening the minds of men and arousing their love. In the basilicas served by thy sons and imitators, the splendor of divine worship, the pomp of the ceremonies, the perfection of the sacred melodies, kept up in the hearts of the people the same supernatural enthusiasm which took possession of thine own, when, for the first time in our West, St. Ambrose instituted the alternate chanting of the Psalms and sacred Hymns. Throughout all ages the perfect life, in its many different ways of exercising the double precept of charity, draws from the waters of thy fountains. Continue to illumine the Church with thine incomparable light. Bless the numerous religious families which claim thine illustrious patronage. Assist us all by obtaining for us the spirit of love and of penance, of confidence and of humility, which befits the redeemed soul. Give us to know the weakness of our nature and its unworthiness since the Fall, and at the same time the boundless goodness of our God, the superabundance of his Redemption, the all-powerfulness of his grace. May we all, like thee, not only recognize the truth, but be able loyally and practically to say to God: “Thou hast made us for thyself, and our heart is ill at ease till it rest in thee.”
According to the most ancient monuments of the Roman Church, another Saint has always been honored on this same day, viz: Hermes, a Roman magistrate, who bore witness to Christ under Trajan. The crypt constructed, less than half a century after the death of the Apostles, to receive this martyr’s relics, is remarkable for its majestic and ample proportions not usually found in the subterranean cemeteries. It was his sister Theodora, who received from Balbina, daughter of the tribune Quirinus, the venerable chains of St. Peter.
Deus, qui beatum Hermetem, Martyrem tuum, virtute constantiæ in passione roborasti: ex ejus nobis imitatione tribue, pro amore tuo prospera mundi despicere, et nulla ejus adversa formidare. Per Dominum.
O God, who didst strengthen blessed Hermes, thy martyr, with the virtue of constancy in suffering; grant us in imitation of him to despise worldly prosperity for the love of thee, and not to fear any of its adversity. Through our Lord, etc.
|
|
|
|
| August 27th – St. Joseph Calasanctius, Confessor |
|
Posted by: Stone - 08-28-2021, 06:44 AM - Forum: August
- No Replies
|
|
August 27 – St. Joseph Calasanctius, Confessor
Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger (1841-1875)
![[Image: saint-joseph-de-calasanz-calasanctius-jo...=369&ssl=1]](https://i2.wp.com/sensusfidelium.us/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/saint-joseph-de-calasanz-calasanctius-josep-de-calassanc1.jpg?w=369&ssl=1)
To thee is the poor man left: thou wilt be a helper to the orphan. Proud Venice has already seen these words realized in her noble son Jerome Æmilian: today they indicate the sanctity of another illustrious person, descended from the first princes of Navarre, but of still higher rank in the kingdom of charity.
God, who waters the trees of the field as well as the cedars of Libanus, because it is he that planted them all, takes care also of the little birds that do not gather into barns: will he then forget the child, who is of much more value than the birds of the air? Or will he give him corporal nourishment, and neglect the soul hungering for the bread of the knowledge of salvation, which strengthens the heart of man? In the 16th century one might have been tempted to think our heavenly Father’s granaries were empty. True, the Holy Spirit soon raised up new Saints; but the reviving charity was insufficient for the number of destitute; how many poor children, especially, were without schools, deprived of the most elementary education which is indispensable to the fulfillment of their obligations and to their nobility as children of God: and there was no one to break to them the bread of knowledge!
More fortunate than so many other countries overrun with heresy, Spain was at her apogee, enjoying the hundredfold promised to those who seek first the kingdom of God. She seemed to have become our Lord’s inexhaustible resource. A little while ago she had given Ignatius Loyola to the world; she had just enriched heaven by the precious death of Teresa of Avila, when the Holy Ghost drew once more from her abundance to add to the riches of the capital of the Christian world, and to supply the wants of the little ones in God’s Church.
The descendant of the Calassanz of Petralta de la Sal was already the admired Apostle of Aragon, Catalonia and Castile, when he heard a mysterious voice speaking to his soul: “Go to Rome; go forth from the land of thy birth; soon shall appear to thee, in her heavenly beauty, the companion destined for thee, holy poverty, who now calls thee to taste of her austere delights; go, without knowing whither I am leading thee; I will make thee the father of an immense family; I will show thee all that thou must suffer for my name’s sake.”
Forty years of blind fidelity, in unconscious sanctity had prepared the elect of heaven for his sublime vocation. “What can be greater,” asks St. John Chrysostom, “than to direct the souls and form the characters of children? Indeed I consider him greater than any painter or sculptor, who knows how to fashion the souls of the young.” Joseph understood the dignity of his mission: during the remaining fifty-two years of his life, he, according to the recommendations of the holy Doctor, considered nothing mean or despicable in the service of the little ones; nothing cost him dear if only it enabled him, by the teaching of letters, to infuse into the innumerable children who came to him, the fear of the Lord. From St. Pantaleon, his residence, the Pious Schools soon covered the whole of Italy, spread into Sicily and Spain, and were eagerly sought by kings and people in Moravia, Bohemia, Poland, and the northern countries.
Eternal Wisdom associated Calasanctius to her own work of salvation on earth. She rewarded him for his labors as she generally does her privileged ones, by giving him a strong conflict, that he might overcome, and know that wisdom is mightier than all. It is a conflict like that of Jacob at the ford of Jaboc which represents the last obstacle to the entrance into the promised land, when all the pleasures and goods of the world have been sent on before by absolute renouncement; it is a conflict by night, wherein nature fails and becomes lame; but it is followed by the rising of the sun, and sets the combatant at the entrance of eternal day; it is a conflict with God hand to hand, under the appearance, it is true, of a man or of an angel; but it matters little under what form God chooses to hide himself, provided it takes nothing from his sovereign dominion. Why dost thou ask my name? said the wrestler to Jacob; thine shall be henceforth Israel, strong against God.
Our readers may consult the historians of St. Joseph Calasanctius for the details of the trials which made him a prodigy of fortitude, as the church calls him. Through the calumnies of false brethren the saint was deposed, and the Order reduced to the condition of a secular congregation. It was not until after his death that it was re-established, first by Alexander VII and then by Clement IX as a Regular Order with solemn vows. In his great work on the Canonization of Saints, Benedict XIV speaks at length on this subject, delighting in the part he had taken in the process of the servant of God, first as consistorial advocate, then as promoter of the faith, and lastly as Cardinal giving his vote in favor of the cause. We shall see in the lessons that it was he also that beatified him.
Let us now read the life of the founder of the Poor Regular Clerks of the Pious Schools of the Mother of God.
Quote:Joseph Calasanctius of the Mother of God was born of a noble family at Petralta in Aragon, and from his earliest years gave signs of his future love for children and their education. For, when still a little child, he would gather other children round him and would teach them the mysteries of faith and holy prayer. After having received a good education in the liberal arts and divinity, he went through his theological studies at Valencia. Here he courageously overcame the seductions of a noble and powerful lady, and by a remakable victory preserved unspotted his virginity which he had already vowed to God. He became a priest in fulfillment of a vow; and several bishops of New Castile, Aragon and Catalonia availed themselves of his assistance. He surpassed all their expectations, corrected evil living throughout the kingdom, restored ecclesiastical discipline, and was marvelously successful in putting an end to enmities and bloody factions. But urged by a heavenly vision, and after having been several times called by God, he went to Rome.
Here he led a life of great austerity; fasting and watching, spending whole days and nights in heavenly contemplation, and visiting the seven basilicas of the City almost every night. This last custom he observed for many years. He enrolled himself in pious associations, and with wonderful charity devoted himself to aiding and consoling the poor with alms and other works of mercy, especially those who were sick or imprisoned. When the plague was raging in Rome, he joined St. Camillus, and not content in his ardent zeal, with bestowing lavish care upon the sick poor, he even carried the dead to the grave on his own shoulders. But having been divinely admonished that he was called to educate children, especially those of the poor, in piety and learning, he founded the Order of the Poor Regular Clerks of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools, who are specially destined to devote themselves to the instruction of youth. This Order was highly approved by Clement VIII, Paul V, and others of the Roman Pontiffs, and in a wonderfully short space of time it spread through many of the kingdoms of Europe. But in this undertaking Joseph had to undergo many sufferings and labors, and he endured them all with so much constancy, that every one proclaimed him a miracle of patience and another Job.
Though burdened with the government of the whole Order, he nevertheless devoted himself to saving souls, and moreover never gave over teaching children, especially those of the poorer class. He would sweet their schools and take them to their homes himself. For fifty-two years he persevered in this work, though it called upo nhim to practice the greatest patience and humility, and although he suffered from weak health. God rewarded him by honoring him with many miracles in the presence of his disciples; and the Blessed Virgin appeared to him with the Infant Jesus, who blessed his children while they were praying. He refused the highest dignities, but he was made illustrious by the gifts of prophecy, of reading the secrets of hearts, and of knowing what was going on in his absence. He was favored with frequent apparitions of the citizens of heaven, particularly of the Virgin Mother of God, whom he had loved and honored most especially from his infancy, and whose cultus he had most strongly recommended to his disciples. He foretold the day of his death and the restoration and propagation of his Order, which was then almost destroyed; and in his ninety-second year he fell asleep in our Lord at Rome, on the 8th of the Calends of September, in the year 1648. A century later, his heart and tongue were found whole and incorrupt. God honored him by many miracles after his death. Benedict XIV granted him the honors of the Blessed, and Clement XIII solemnly enrolled him among the saints.
The Lord hath heard the desire of the poor, by making thee the depositary of his love, and putting on thy lips the words he himself was the first to utter: Suffer the little children to come unto me. How many owe and will yet owe, their eternal happiness to thee, O Joseph, because thou and thy sons have preserved in them the divine likeness received in baptism, man’s only title to heaven! Be thou blessed for having justified the confidence Jesus placed in thee by entrusting to thy care those frail little beings, who are the objects of his divine predilection. Be thou blessed for having still further corresponded to that confidence of our Lord, when he suffered thee, like Job, to be persecuted by Satan, and with yet more cruel surprises than those of the just Idumæan. Must not God be able to count unfailingly upon those who are his? Is it not fitting that, amidst the defections of this miserable world, he should be able to show his Angels what grace can do in our poor nature, and how far his adorable will can be carried out in his Saints?
The reward of thy sufferings, which thy unwavering confidence expected from the Mother of God, came at the divinely appointed hour. O Joseph, now that the Pious Schools have been long ago re-established, bless the disciples whom even our age continues to give thee; obtain for them and for the countless scholars they train to Christian science, the blessing of the Infant Jesus. Give thy spirit and thy courage to all who devote their labors and their life to the education of the young; raise us all to the level of the teaching conveyed by thy heroic life.
|
|
|
|
| Job boards for workplaces that specifically don't require COVID-19 vaccinations are popping up |
|
Posted by: Stone - 08-27-2021, 01:44 PM - Forum: General Commentary
- No Replies
|
|
Job boards for workplaces that specifically don't require COVID-19 vaccinations are popping up as more employers have started requiring the shot
Business Insider | August 27, 2021
Job boards for sharing open roles at companies that do not require employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 have been popping up online as vaccine mandates are becoming more common.
One board is hosted on Gab, the social media platform that has been embraced by some conservatives and members of the far-right. In an email sent to users on Wednesday, Gab CEO Andrew Torba announced the "No Vax Mandate Job Board."
"This job board is for sharing job openings that do not require employees to inject themselves with an experimental substance or violate their bodily autonomy and religious beliefs in order to retain employment," he wrote, adding that job seekers are welcome to post their resumes in the group.
The group, which had nearly 30,000 members after just two days, was filled with messages from people looking for work that won't require them to be vaccinated.
"Blue state SR Talent Acquisition (Corp recruiter) in large Healthcare company. Have worked remote for several years but mandatory jab required. I won't comply," one post said. "I'm professional and have always received excellent reviews. Anyone need a great recruiter?"
Torba said Gab created the group in light of President Joe Biden urging businesses to implement vaccine mandates after Pfizer-BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine received full approval from the Food and Drug Administration on Monday.
"I'm calling on more companies in the private sector to step up with vaccine requirements that will reach millions more people," Biden said during remarks at the White House.
Some businesses have done so, with more and more announcing plans to mandate vaccines for employees. Chevron, CVS Health, and Disney World all announced COVID-19 vaccine mandates after the FDA approval.
Some local governments have also instituted mandates for employees, including Chicago and Los Angeles, while more may follow. The mandates typically allow for health and religious exemptions.
Another site marketing itself to job seekers who are looking to avoid vaccine mandates, NoVaxMandate.org, says it believes "no right is more sacred than the right of every individual to the control of their own person, free from all restraint or interference of others."
The openings listed on the site range from a Pizza Hut delivery driver in Texas to a Hairstylist at a "patriot run small business" in Arizona. There are multiple openings for nurses at rural nursing homes in Wisconsin and Minnesota, with listings that read: "No Jab required. We are awake and serve God."
Other listings included openings in healthcare settings in Texas, New York, and Michigan.
A third site, RedBalloon, touts itself as "the nation's first and only free speech job site." It said it would be "taking a stand against forced vaccinations," announcing in a blog post it would be "ramping up" its operations to connect employers who are looking for employees "regardless of their vaccination status."
Public health officials continue to encourage Americans to get vaccinated as the US confronts a surge in COVID-19 cases driven by the more transmissible Delta variant. A CDC study released Tuesday found unvaccinated people were 29 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than those who were vaccinated.
As of Thursday, 51.9% of Americans were fully vaccinated, while 61.1% had received at least one dose, according to the CDC. Officials have expressed hope that the full FDA approval granted this week would result in more people getting the shot.
|
|
|
|
| Regional COVID-19 quarantine facility to be built near Wellcamp Airport in Queensland |
|
Posted by: Stone - 08-26-2021, 11:08 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
- No Replies
|
|
Regional COVID-19 quarantine facility to be built near Wellcamp Airport in Queensland
abc.net.au | August 26, 2021
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the facility would have 1,000 beds by the end of the first quarter of 2022.
The Queensland government is pushing ahead with its own regional dedicated COVID-19 quarantine facility.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced on Thursday that Cabinet has approved the project on vacant land owned by Wagner Corporation, just outside Toowoomba, west of Brisbane.
The announcement came as the state recorded two new cases of COVID-19, both in hotel quarantine.
Quote:Queensland COVID-19 snapshot:
Confirmed cases so far: 1,972
Deaths: 7
Tests conducted: 3,956,048
Active cases: 35
Latest information from Queensland Health.
Construction started at the site near Wellcamp Airport on Thursday, with 500 beds to be available by the end of the year and a total capacity of 1,000 by March next year.
Construction firm Wagners first submitted the plan to use its Wellcamp Airport as the landing point for some of the Australians stranded overseas in January.
The financial arrangement between the state government and the Wagner family will be commercial-in-confidence, but the state government has signed a one-year lease, with the option of extending to two or three years.
"Our hotels were not built for the Delta strain of this virus," Ms Palaszczuk said.
"This is going to be a great boost for our defence against the Delta virus in this country, and in fact I believe we need regional facilities, right across the country.
"I have been advocating for this for a long, long time. It is a no-brainer."
Construction vehicles on site the Wellcamp Business Park, where a COVID-19 quarantine facility has been proposed
Work has started at the Wellcamp Business Park site. (ABC News: David Chen)
Deputy Premier Steven Miles said he hoped the facility would prevent future lockdowns sparked by the virus leaking out of hotel quarantine.
"When you consider that the last lockdown alone cost more than a billion dollars in economic impact, and compensation, you can see just what fantastic value it will be," he said.
'Much safer than non-purpose-built hotel quarantine'
The federal government has made it clear that it would not pay for a quarantine facility at Wellcamp.
In June, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the site did not meet the criteria for a Commonwealth-funded quarantine compound because it was not within easy access of a passenger airport terminal or tertiary hospital.
![[Image: 0b2a240ec82a4c2750b7ef4b8c786cea?impolic...height=575]](https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/0b2a240ec82a4c2750b7ef4b8c786cea?impolicy=wcms_crop_resize&cropH=427&cropW=640&xPos=0&yPos=33&width=862&height=575)
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and businessman John Wagner at the site of the Wellcamp quarantine facility.(ABC News: David Chen)
He knocked back the plan and instead proposed a facility at the Damascus Barracks, about 5 minutes' drive from Brisbane Airport.
A feasibility study by consultancy group AECOM found the Pinkenba facility could be up and running for the first 500 travellers by March 31, although some challenges posed a "significant risk" to this timeframe – including modifying accommodation to mitigate aircraft noise.
On Thursday, Mr Morrison said despite the Wellcamp facility not meeting national guidelines, Ms Palaszczuk has "been at liberty" to build the site "for months".
The state government has signed a one-year lease with the Wagner family for use of its Wellcamp airport. (ABC News: David Chen)
"We've made it very clear that that facility did not seek to meet the national guidelines and that's why we're going together, forward together, at Pinkenba," he said.
"They've made that decision and they could have done that months ago if that's what they wish to do, but it's good for them and I wish them every success."
Ms Palaszczuk has previously said the federal government-funded Damascus facility as well as one at Wellcamp could eliminate the need for quarantine hotels.
Health Minister Yvette D'Ath said had the Wellcamp facility been built earlier, the Queensland government may not have had to pause arrivals from interstate hotspots for the next fortnight.
"If this had been built months ago when we first asked the Commonwealth to partner with us and the Wagners, we potentially may not have had to make the very difficult decision that we made [on Wednesday]," Ms D'Ath said.
Travellers could arrive for quarantine by bus
Mr Miles said once the Wellcamp facility was operational, travellers would be taken by bus to the site from Brisbane Airport, if the Commonwealth government decided not to allow flights to land at Wellcamp Airport.
"We currently bus arriving travellers from Brisbane to hotel quarantine accommodation on the Gold and Sunshine Coast, and so that would remain an option to get people here safely," he said.
The design is being modelled on the Howard Springs quarantine facility in the Northern Territory.
Mr Miles said there would be a mix of single, double and family-sized rooms in the design of cabins and all rooms will have balconies.
"Importantly no hallways adjoining rooms, which we have seen as vectors in hotel quarantine for the virus," Mr Miles said.
Travellers who test positive for the virus and require hospitalisation will be transported to one of five hospitals in Queensland with COVID wards.
![[Image: 5ea15fd98546be391d606143bacd9a2b?impolic...height=575]](https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/5ea15fd98546be391d606143bacd9a2b?impolicy=wcms_crop_resize&cropH=1954&cropW=2931&xPos=0&yPos=0&width=862&height=575)
A sign outside Wellcamp Airport
The Queensland government had been pushing to create a quarantine facility at Wellcamp Airport.(David Chen)
Millionaire businessman John Wagner said the facility would create local jobs.
"Just by the fact that we have to produce 3,000 meals a day, [the region] will really benefit from this," he said.
"As the landlord of this facility to the Queensland government, we are working through the final design criteria to make sure that we have the best fit-for-purpose regional accommodation facility for return travellers that there is in the country or in fact the world."
Sewage testing detects virus on Palm Island
Health authorities have detected COVID-19 in wastewater on Palm Island for a second time this week.
Coronavirus was initially picked up in the island's sewerage system on Wednesday, but late Thursday afternoon a second test came back positive.
Ms D'Ath said precautionary testing was being done on Palm Island in north Queensland after sewage test results showed fragments of the virus that causes COVID-19.
"That could be just someone who is shedding, who has had the virus previously, but we're not aware of anyone on the island who is a former positive case," Ms D'Ath said.
"What we have set up, starting [Thursday] morning, is extra capacity to ask every person on Palm Island, who has any symptoms whatsoever, to come forward and get tested, so we can rule out that there are any positive cases there."
About 100 residents were tested Thursday.
|
|
|
|
| August 26th – St Zephyrinus, Pope & Martyr |
|
Posted by: Stone - 08-26-2021, 09:07 AM - Forum: August
- No Replies
|
|
August 26 – St Zephyrinus, Pope & Martyr
Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger (1841-1875)
![[Image: ZephyrinusI.jpg?resize=768%2C929&ssl=1]](https://i1.wp.com/sensusfidelium.us/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/ZephyrinusI.jpg?resize=768%2C929&ssl=1)
Zephyrinus was the first Pontiff to be buried in the celebrated crypt where the Popes of the third century came after their combat to sleep their last sleep. The catacomb which thus succeeded the Vatican cemetery in the honor of sheltering the Vicars of Christ had been opened thirty years before by the virgin martyr Cæcelia. As when at the point of death she had consecrated her palace into a church, so now from her tomb she caused her family burial-place to pass into the hands of the Church. This gift of the Cæcilii was the inauguration, in the very face of the pagan government, of common Church property officially recognized by the State. Zephyrinus entrusted the administration of the new cemetery to the person who ranked next to himself in the Roman Church, viz: the archdeacon Callixtus. The holy Pontiff witnessed the growth of heresy concerning the Unity of God and the Trinity of the Divine Persons; without the help of the special vocabulary, which was later on to fix even the very terms of theological teaching, he knew how to silence both the Sabellians to whom the Trinity was but a name, and the precursors of Arius, who revenged themselves by reviling him.
Quote:Zephyrinus, a Roman by birth, was chosen to govern the Church during the reign of the Emperor Severus. He ordained that, according to custom, Holy Orders should be conferred on candidates at a fitting time and in presence of many both clergy and laity; and also that learned and worthy men should be chosen for that dignity. Moreover he decreed that when the bishop was offering the Holy Sacrifice, he should be assisted by all the priests. He also ordained that neither patriarch, primate nor metropolitan might condemn a bishop without the authority of the Apostolic See. His pontificate lasted eighteen years and eighteen days. In four ordinations which he held in the month of December, he ordained thirteen priests, seven deacons and thirteen bishops for divers places. He was crowned by martyrdom under the Emperor Antoninus, and was buried on the Appian Way, near the cemetery of Callixtus, on the seventh of the Calends of September.
Victor I was the Pontiff of the Pasch; and thou also, his successor, wast devoured by the zeal of God’s house, to maintain and increase the regularity, the dignity, and the splendor of the divine worship on earth. In heaven the court of the Conqueror of death gained, during thy pontificate, many noble members, such as Irenæus, Perpetua, and the countless martyrs who triumphed in the persecution of Septimus Severus. In the midst of dangerous snares, thou wast the divinely assisted guardian of the truth, whom our Lord had promised to his Church. Thy fidelity was rewarded by the increasing advancement of the Bride of Jesus, and by the definitive establishment of her foothold upon the world which she is to gain over wholly to her Spouse. We shall meet thee again in October, in company with Callixtus, who is now thy deacon, but will then, in his turn, be Vicar of the Man-God. Today give us thy paternal blessing; and make us ever true sons of St. Peter.
|
|
|
|
| STUDY: Fully Vaccinated Carry 251 Times The Normal Viral Load Of COVID-19, May Be Super Spreaders |
|
Posted by: Stone - 08-26-2021, 07:59 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
- No Replies
|
|
STUDY: Fully Vaccinated Carry 251 Times The Normal Viral Load Of COVID-19, May Be Super Spreaders
Fully vaccinated people carry 251 times the viral load of COVID-19, according to a new study.
National File | August 25, 2021
A new study has revealed that people who are “fully vaccinated” carry a staggering 251 times the normal viral load of COVID-19. Experts are concerned that this may pose a risk to those who have not received the COVID-19 vaccine, and it also seems likely these increased viral loads could result in more so-called “breakthrough” cases of those who have been vaccinated contracting COVID-19.
A study by the Oxford University Clinical Research Group published on August 10th in The Lancet found that fully vaccinated people carry 251 times the viral load of coronavirus as compared to those who have not received one of the controversial vaccines. “Viral loads of breakthrough Delta variant infection cases were 251 times higher than those of cases infected with old strains detected between March-April 2020,” reads the study.
The vaccines seem to allow vaccinated individuals to carry unusually high viral loads without becoming sick, transforming them into super spreaders who experience symptoms later on, as reported by Daily Veracity:
Quote:The study focused on healthcare workers who were unable to leave the hospital for two weeks. The study showed that fully vaccinated workers, about two months after injection, carried and transmitted the virus to their vaccinated colleagues after infection.
They also passed the virus to unvaccinated people, including their patients. The vaccine used in the study was the Oxford/AstraZeneca (AZD1222) vaccine.
In reaction to the study, Congressman Paul Gosar (R-AZ), tweeted “as we have said—side effects and efficacy are measured in years. Not weeks and months. Another study that should cause all reasonable people to pause.”
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday granted full approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, opening the door for vaccine mandates across the US. This comes just days after the Director of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) Rochelle Walensky admitted that COVID-19 “vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 is waning,” adding that those who were “vaccinated early” are at an “increased risk of severe disease.”
SEC filings have shown that Moderna has made $12 billion as the government and major institutions push for forced vaccinations, as was previously reported by National File. Stéphane Bancel, the Chief Executive Officer of Moderna said they are “looking forward towards our vision of a single dose annual booster that provides protection against COVID-19, flu and RSV for adults. I look forward to the start of our Phase 3 trial for CMV this year and to clinical proof of concept data in the coming quarters from our therapeutics pipeline. We believe this is just the beginning.”
|
|
|
|
| Untruths & Consequences |
|
Posted by: Stone - 08-26-2021, 07:33 AM - Forum: General Commentary
- No Replies
|
|
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us...we deserve all this. If it is true, as St. John Eudes says, that people get the priests they deserve, then surely the same applies to a nation getting the political leaders they deserve.
Untruths & Consequences
![[Image: 231902_5_.jpg?itok=EwzYkYac]](https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/231902_5_.jpg?itok=EwzYkYac)
WEDNESDAY, AUG 25, 2021
Authored by Eric Utter via AmericanThinker.com [emphasis in the original].
To any sane person, it appears our elites and their media sycophants are engaging in an unprecedented preposterous statement tournament.
They must get up every day, snicker once or twice, and try to think of the most ridiculous, least verifiable piece of ludicrous prevarication they can attempt to pass off as truth.
And why shouldn't they? A significant percentage of Americans seem willing to believe anything at all.
So President Biden says there are no Americans trapped in Kabul. All right, now tell us the one about the three bears. His press secretary, Jen Psaki, says we need to get the military out of Afghanistan first, so we don't risk anyone getting hurt. Yes, forget about the thousands of American civilians trapped in Kabul. Ignore the pictures of mothers throwing their babies over fences. Um, Jen, we send our troops to places specifically to confront danger and instability...and often to fight the bad guys. That's why, unlike civilians, they are armed to the teeth and wear body armor. That's why they have attack helicopters, A-10 Warthogs, missiles, rocket launchers, grenades, and submachine guns. Or used to, before the Biden administration decided to donate them to the Taliban. But we are told we can trust the Taliban, that its members are turning over a new leaf. (Perhaps moving from the 8th century to the 9th century?)
We are told the vaccines work wonderfully and are totally safe. And then told we need to start wearing masks again. And that hospitals are filling up again. And that we need a "booster" shot. We are virtually assured the coronavirus didn't come from a laboratory in Wuhan. Until we were told that it might very well have come from a laboratory in Wuhan. But, Biden says, the Chinese are Hunter's our friends., and Iran, too, poses no serious threat.
Then the Los Angeles Times trots out a headline averring: "Larry Elder is the Black face of white supremacy. You've been warned." Gee, Times, thanks for the tip. Does it make sense, though, that a Black man is the spokesperson for white supremacy? Apparently, this is not your grandfather's White supremacy movement. (Were there many Black Imperial Wizards in the Ku Klux Klan?) I mean, did the rank and file not notice that their precious White supremacy organization was filling up with Black folks? If they did and didn't care, and if they like Larry Elder, they really aren't particularly racist, are they? Have they just not been paying attention, or have they gone soft? Or maybe there isn't that big of a problem here, and everyone can just settle down and go home.
What can be said with certainty is that "The Los Angeles Times is the face of media idiocy."
It has been said over the decades that Americans have lost their innocence, that we are terribly jaded and cynical. The past few years have proved that this, too, is incorrect. A disheartening number of Americans have bought the lies of the government and media that despise them:
- "Trump colluded with Russia!"
- "The 2020 election was the fairest of them all."
- "Kamala Harris will be a great vice president."
- "Hunter is the smartest guy I know."
- "It's all Trump's fault."
The United States was founded on a healthy — and historically deeply warranted — distrust of government.
Today, the only thing many Americans are skeptical about is the truth.
Past this point, no free republic, indeed no viable society, can long continue.
|
|
|
|
| Vaccine Mandates & The "Great Reset" |
|
Posted by: Stone - 08-26-2021, 07:23 AM - Forum: Great Reset
- No Replies
|
|
Vaccine Mandates & The "Great Reset"
Authored by Philipp Bagus via The Mises Institute,
Pressure on the unvaccinated grows. While the vaccinated in some countries are getting back some of their freedoms taken away by the covid interventions, the unvaccinated are not so well off. They are being targeted for discrimination. Access to public spaces and traveling is being made more difficult for them. In some countries there is even mandatory vaccination for some professions.
But why is the vaccination campaign so important to governments that they are increasing the pressure to such an extent? And who has an interest in the global vaccination campaign?
To answer these questions, it is necessary to analyze the prevalent vaccination narrative and ask who benefits from it.
In doing so, the alliance of interests between the state, the media, the pharmaceutical industry, and supranational institutions must be addressed.
Let us start with the pharmaceutical industry.
It has an obvious economic interest in the vaccination campaign. It makes enormous profits from widespread vaccination.[/size]
What about the state?
In the covid-19 crisis, politicians have systematically amplified fear and hysteria. This was no accident and is unsurprising, for the state builds its raison d'être on the argument that it protects the population from internal and external dangers. The state is built upon fear. The narrative is that without the help of the state, the citizen would be defenseless against hunger, poverty, accidents, war, terrorism, disease, natural disasters, and pandemics. It is, therefore, in the state's interest to instill fear of possible dangers, which it then pretends to resolve, expanding its power in the process. A relatively recent example is the restriction of civil liberties in the US in response to the threat of terrorism after the 9-11 attacks and the second Iraq war. Similarly, it was in the interest of governments to purposefully instill fear and portray covid-19 as a unique killer virus in order to expand state power to an extent unknown in peacetime at the expense of citizens' fundamental rights.
When the corona crisis started and not much was known about the virus's potential danger politicians were faced with an asymmetric payoff. If politicians underestimate a danger and do not react, they are held responsible for the underestimation. They lose elections and power. Especially if they can be blamed for deaths. Photos of mass burials aside, the consequences of underestimating danger and failing to act are politically fatal. In contrast, overestimating the danger and taking decisive action are politically much more attractive.
If it really is an unprecedented threat, politicians are celebrated for their tough measures such as lockdowns. And politicians can always argue that without their decisive action, there would indeed have been a disaster. If the measures ultimately turn out to have been exaggerated because the hazard was not so great after all, the possible negative consequences of the measures are not as directly associated with the politicians as the photos of mass burials, because these consequences are more indirect and long term. The indirect and long-term health costs of lockdowns include suicides, depression, alcoholism, stress-related illnesses, earlier deaths from canceled surgeries and screenings, and a generally lower standard of living. However, these costs are not directly associated with the drastic interventions and blamed on the policy. Many of these consequences will occur after the next elections or even later and are not visible. For instance, we cannot observe to what extent a higher standard of living would have increased life expectancy. And if someone dies six years from now from alcoholism or depression developed in the wake of lockdowns, most people probably will not make the lockdown politicians responsible, and if they do, these politicians will possibly already be out of office. Thus, it is in the interest of politicians to overestimate a threat and overreact.
In order to justify and defend the harsh measures such as lockdowns that are so attractive to politicians, it is necessary to stir up fear. When politicians stoked fear and hysteria during the covid-19 crisis, implementing highly restrictive measures such as lockdowns, the damage to the economy and social fabric was immense. Yet a society cannot be cannot be locked down forever, as the costs keep rising. At some point, it must exit lockdown and return to some normality. However, how can one at the same time stir up fear of the threat of a killer virus and return to normalcy?
The way out is vaccination.
With to the vaccination campaign the state can stage itself as the savior from the great danger. The state organizes vaccination for its citizens and gives the vaccinations to the citizens for "free." Without this "vaccination rescue" and in a permanent lockdown, the negative economic and social consequences of the restrictions on civil rights would be so great that resentment among the population would continue to grow and ultimately unrest would threaten. So, sooner or later, the lockdown must be ended. If, however, the state authorities were to back out of the lockdowns and restrictions without further explanation and imply that the danger was not so great after all and that the restrictions were an exaggeration and a mistake, they would lose a great deal of support and trust among the population. Consequently, from a governmental perspective, a good and face-saving "exit scenario" from the most severe restrictions is needed, and the vaccination campaign provides it.
Through state-provided vaccination, the state can continue to hold on to the narrative of the great threat and still get out of the lockdown. At the same time, it can pass itself off as a savior that is making somewhat more normality possibly through vaccination. To do this, it is necessary that as large a proportion of the population as possible also get vaccinated, because if only a fraction of the population gets vaccinated, the vaccination campaign cannot be sold as a necessary step toward opening up. Thus, it is in the state's interest to get a major part of the population vaccinated.
If this strategy works, the state will have set a precedent, expanded its power, and also made citizens more dependent. Citizens will believe that the state has rescued them from a mortal predicament and that they will need its help in the future. In return, they will be willing to give up some of their liberties permanently. The announcement that a state-organized annual vaccination booster is needed will perpetuate the citizens' dependence.
The mass media have fallen in line and actively support the vaccination narrative.
The state and mass media are closely linked. Framing by the leading media and targeting the population have a long tradition. Already in 1928 Edward Bernays advocated the intelligent manipulation of the masses in his classic book Propaganda. In modern states, the mass media help to construct popular approval for political measures such as in the case of covid-19.
The mass media's support of the state is due to several reasons. Some media are directly owned by the state, others are highly regulated or require state licenses. Furthermore, media houses are staffed with graduates from state educational institutions. In addition, especially in times of crisis, a good connection to the government offers advantages and privileged access to information. The willingness to carry the state's fear narrative also comes from the fact that negative news and the exaggeration of dangers bring attention.
In the corona crisis, the one-sided media coverage that proliferated through social media and muted critical voices contributed to fear and panic and created great psychological stress among the population. However, it is not only negative news that is attractive to the media; the narrative of the state rescuing the population from a major crisis also sells well. Thus, the vaccination narrative plays into the hands of the mass media.
In addition to nation-states, the media, and pharmaceutical companies, supranational organizations also have an interest in ensuring that the world's population is vaccinated.
Supranational organizations are actively pursuing an agenda in which global vaccination campaigns play an important role. These organizations include the World Economic Forum (WEF), the United Nations (UN), the EU, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Health Organization (WHO), which are closely interconnected.
Some of these organizations have set as their goal a great reset, or a great transformation. In the areas of pandemic and climate protection, gender, migration, and the financial system, these organizations want to find coordinated answers for the benefit of all people worldwide. They emphasize shared responsibility and global solidarity. The central control of vaccination, climate change, and financial and migration flows bears the hallmarks of a new world order. For example, the theme of the 2019 annual meeting of the WEF was "Globalization 4.0: Shaping a New Global Architecture in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution." Another example of supranational planning is the UN's "Global Compact for Migration." At the national level, these radical ideas are supported, as shown by the German Advisory Council on Global Change's Welt im Wandel – Gesellschaftsvertrag für eine Große Transformation (World in transition: Social contract for a great transformation) policy paper.
Raymond Unger (2021, pp. 84–89) sees this drive for supranational planning as part of a culture war envisioned by Antonio Gramsci and Herbert Marcuse. A global management of opinion and outrage is combined with scenes of fear and horror, especially in the fields of climate change and corona, to establish a new socialist world order. In fact, the WHO, the IMF, and the UN are led by former communists. The WEF is financed by global companies, including the pharmaceutical industry and the big tech companies. The WEF, for its part, significantly finances the UN's 2030 Agenda. The WHO is also significantly funded by pharmaceutical companies and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which spearheads global vaccination campaigns. During the covid-19 crisis, the pharmaceutical industry also exerted its influence on the WHO. And the IMF only aided nation-states if they complied with WHO recommendations.
These interconnected supranational organizations see the covid-19 crisis as an opportunity to advance their agendas. The UN policy paper Shared Responsibility, Global Solidarity: Responding to the Socio-economic Impacts of COVID-19 views covid-19 as a turning point for modern society. The intention is to seize the opportunity and act in a globally coordinated manner. The major tech companies support these agendas. They are also members of the WEF and censored disagreeable information related to covid-19 on their platforms (Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook), just like the mass media. Videos critical of vaccination are particularly quickly deleted on YouTube.
The title of a keynote speech by IMF director Kristalina Georgieva, "From Great Lockdown to Great Transformation" also underscores the idea that supranational organizations want to use the corona crisis for their agendas. Klaus Schwab, founder of the WEF, argues that the covid-19 crisis represents a "rare opportunity" to "lay new foundations for our economic and social systems." In COVID-19: The Great Reset, coauthored with Thierry Malleret, Schwab speaks of a defining moment and claims a new world will emerge. According to Schwab, it is time for a fundamental reform of capitalism.
Thus, the globally coordinated vaccination program can be interpreted as a building block in a supranational strategy of a great reset.
Global vaccination structures are being established that can be used for subsequent global vaccination campaigns. From the perspective of advocates of a great reset, globally coordinated covid-19 vaccination underscores the need for global structures and organizations that can then be used for other global purposes, such as effectively combating "climate change" and pushing for a great reset. In short, the state, the media, the pharmaceutical industry, and supranational organizations are closely intertwined and have a common interest in the vaccination narrative.
From this perspective, the mounting pressure on the vaccine-free is unsurprising.
|
|
|
|
| Costa Rican priest suspended, sent for psychological treatment for celebrating new Mass in Latin |
|
Posted by: Stone - 08-25-2021, 12:26 PM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism
- No Replies
|
|
Costa Rican priest suspended, sent for psychological treatment for celebrating new Mass in Latin facing altar
Father Sixto Eduardo Varela Santamaría had been obedient to his bishop and stopped celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass.
Tue Aug 24, 2021
ALAJUELA, Costa Rica (LifeSiteNews) – A Costa Rican bishop suspended a priest in his diocese and sent the cleric to a psychological treatment clinic for celebrating the Mass according to the Missal of Paul VI while using Latin and facing ad orientem.
Father Sixto Eduardo Varela Santamaría has had his ministries restricted and been placed on a mandatory six-month “sabbatical” by Bishop Bartolomé Buigues Oller of Alajuela after he offered the Novus Ordo Missae (NOM) in the traditional (and still official) tongue of the Church and following the rubrical direction of facing ad orientem, according to Catholic World Report.
A letter from the diocesan communications director, Father Luis Hernández Solís, explained that Varela had already been warned by the bishop “two previous times” against celebrating the NOM in Latin, following one instance thereof. Varela previously celebrated the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) according to the 1962 Missal but reportedly ceased to do so after Buigues ordered him to stop, owing to the Pope’s most recent motu proprio Traditionis Custodes.
The Pope declared in his July 16 directive that the missals promulgated by Paul VI and John Paul II “are the unique expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite,” granting permission to diocesan bishops to regulate and restrict the use of missals prior to the reforms of 1970.
The Alajuela communications director alleged that Varela “continued to celebrate the Tridentine (TLM) after the publication of Pope Francis’ motu proprio Traditionis Custodes” and that his punishments, such as being removed from his parish and enrolled in a psychological treatment center, “are expected to be measures that will restore the ecclesial communion and the priest’s well-being.”
“[F]or this,” Solís said, “we ask all to unite in fervent prayer.”
But according to Canon 928 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, “[t]he eucharistic celebration is to be carried out in the Latin language or in another language provided that the liturgical texts have been legitimately approved,” meaning that Varela was acting within the bounds of the law when celebrating the NOM in Latin.
Furthermore, testimony from the Summorum Pontificum Association in Costa Rica affirms Varela’s obedience to the bishop’s command to stop celebrating the TLM, and that the priest subsequently celebrated the NOM exclusively, using Latin and facing ad orientem. Of Varela’s celebration of the NOM, the association said that Latin is “not only permitted by the existing liturgical norms but not addressed at all by Pope Francis in his Motu Proprio.”
The Summorum Pontificum Association told ACI Prensa that they had requested permission from Bishop Buigues to have Varela continue to offer the TLM after Francis’ restrictions, “something that the group has been doing for eight years, but the request was denied.”
The association explained that Buigues provided “a truly confusing reason” for his decision to restrict the Latin Mass. The group said permission would only be granted by the bishop if they had been “in existence before 1970” or were “related to the schismatic Society of St. Pius the X (SSPX) something that is not mentioned either by Summorum Pontificum or Traditionis Custodes.”
Varela explained in an audio recording obtained by Catholic World Report that he is being sent to Mexico for three months “to an institute that the bishop has designated so that they can accompany me spiritually, psychologically, and medically.”
Varela confirmed in the voice message that he had not celebrated the TLM “since the bishop’s decree … but did continue to celebrate in Latin the Novus Ordo as a way to accompany some of the faithful.”
Given that no canonical procedure was broken, Varela recognized that he could contest the bishop’s decision, “but I will do none of that. I love the Church,” he said.
The Costa Rican Bishops’ Conference responded swiftly and harshly after the Pope’s restriction of the TLM, issuing a decree that “there is no objective justification for the use among us of the liturgy prior to the reform of 1970” within days of the motu proprio’s release.
The Conference moved to ban not only the Latin Mass outright within Costa Rica’s eight dioceses but also the “prayers, vestments or rites” associated with the pre-1970 missal. The Mass promulgated after the Second Vatican Council “must be preserved from any element coming from the ancient form,” the bishops wrote.
According to the nation’s bishops, “[s]ince the previous norms, instructions, concessions, and customs are ‘abrogated,’” per article 8 of the motu proprio, “the use of the Missale Romanum of 1962 or any other of the expressions of the liturgy prior to 1970 is no longer authorized,” and “no priest is authorized to continue to celebrate according to the old liturgy.”
Experts and commentators have since questioned the legal basis and legitimacy of the Pope’s attempted restrictions on the TLM. Theologian and liturgical expert Dr. Peter Kwasniewski argued that the document’s “foundational falsehoods” suggest a lack of binding authority. “An instrument is vitiated if it is promulgated on a false basis, resulting from the legislator’s lack of due knowledge and regnative prudence,” he wrote.
Dr. Joseph Shaw, chairman of the Latin Mass Society, raised questions over the motu proprio’s faithfulness to the documents of the Second Vatican Council, highlighting the possibility of contradictions between the Pope’s directions within Traditionis Custodes and both Sacrosanctum Concilium and Orientalium Ecclesiarum, despite his vigorous defense of the “binding character of Vatican Council II.”
|
|
|
|
| Pope Pius XII on the Moral Limits of Medical Treatment and Experimentation 1952 |
|
Posted by: Stone - 08-25-2021, 08:42 AM - Forum: Church Doctrine & Teaching
- No Replies
|
|
Pope Pius XII on the Moral Limits of Medical Treatment and Experimentation
NOW [sedevacantist website] | August 20, 2021
On Sep. 14, 1952, Pope Pius XII gave an address to the First International Congress on the Histopathology of the Nervous System.
In it, the Holy Father speaks to scientists and doctors about the moral limits of medical research and treatment, specifically with regard to new methods, procedures, and technologies being tried. Pope Pius also addresses the question of what rights the patient has over his own body and psyche, what rights the doctor has over the patient, and, perhaps most importantly of all, what rights the lawful public authority has over individuals in view of the common good — and doesn’t have.
Contrary to what the false pope who currently occupies the Vatican buildings with his lackeys may have to say on this subject, in Pope Pius XII we hear from a real Pope, a true Vicar of Christ, speaking with the voice of Saint Peter, which necessarily echoes that of the Good Shepherd (cf. Jn 10:27; Lk 10:16; Mt 16:19).
As his predecessor, Pope Pius XI, taught, “a characteristic of all true followers of Christ, lettered or unlettered, is to suffer themselves to be guided and led in all things that touch upon faith or morals by the Holy Church of God through its Supreme Pastor the Roman Pontiff, who is himself guided by Jesus Christ Our Lord” (Encyclical Casti Connubii, n. 104).
We can be certain, then, that the words of Pope Pius XII are a reliable and safe guide for all Christians to a truly moral life.
The full text of Pius XII’s address to the scientific congress is available in English here.
Below we merely reproduce those passages we believe to be the most relevant to the current situation in the world. The paragraph numbers correspond to the numbers given in the original text. Italics are reproduced as in the original. Underlining has been added.
Pope Pius XII
The Moral Limits Of Medical Research And Treatment
September 14, 1952
…
2. You do not expect Us to discuss the medical questions which concern you. Those are your domain. During the past few days you have taken a general view of the vast field of research and work which is yours. Now, in answer to the wish you yourselves have expressed, We want to draw your attention to the limits of this field — not the limits of medical possibilities, of theoretical and practical medical knowledge, but the limits of moral rights and duties. We wish to make Ourself the interpreter of the moral conscience of the research worker, the specialist and the practioner and of the man and Christian who follows the same path.
…
5. In order to justify the morality of new procedures, new attempts and methods of research and medical treatment, three main principles must be kept in mind:
1) The interests of medical science.
2) The interests of the individual patient to be treated.
3) The interests of the community, the “bonum commune” [common good].
…
8. But this does not mean that all methods, or any single method, arrived at by scientific and technical research offers every moral guarantee. Nor, moreover, does it mean that every method becomes licit because it increases and deepens our knowledge. Sometimes it happens that a method cannot be used without injuring the rights of others or without violating some moral rule of absolute value. In such a case, although one rightly envisages and pursues the increase of knowledge, morally the method is not admissible. Why not? Because science is not the highest value, that to which all other orders of values — or in the same order of value, all particular values — should be subordinated. Science itself, therefore, as well as its research and acquisitions, must be inserted in the order of values. Here there are well defined limits which even medical science cannot transgress without violating higher moral rules. The confidential relations between doctor and patient, the personal right of the patient to the life of his body and soul in its psychic and moral integrity are just some of the many values superior to scientific interest. This point will become more obvious as We proceed.
…
12. In the first place it must be assumed that, as a private person, the doctor can take no measure or try no course of action without the consent of the patient. The doctor has no other rights or power over the patient than those which the latter gives him, explicitly or implicitly and tacitly. On his side, the patient cannot confer rights he does not possess. In this discussion the decisive point is the moral licitness of the right a patient has to dispose of himself [=make decisions regarding himself]. Here is the moral limit to the doctor’s action taken with the consent of the patient.
13. As for the patient, he is not absolute master of himself, of his body or of his soul. He cannot, therefore, freely dispose of himself as he pleases. Even the reason for which he acts is of itself neither sufficient nor determining. The patient is bound to the immanent teleology laid down by nature. He has the right of use, limited by natural finality, of the faculties and powers of his human nature. Because he is a user and not a proprietor, he does not have unlimited power to destroy or mutilate his body and its functions. Nevertheless, by virtue of the principle of totality, by virtue of his right to use the services of his organism as a whole, the patient can allow individual parts to be destroyed or mutilated when and to the extent necessary for the good of his being as a whole. He may do so to ensure his being’s existence and to avoid or, naturally, to repair serious and lasting damage which cannot otherwise be avoided or repaired.
14. The patient, then, has no right to involve his physical or psychic integrity in medical experiments or research when they entail serious destruction, mutilation, wounds or perils.
15. Moreover, in exercising his right to dispose of himself, his faculties and his organs, the individual must observe the hierarchy of the orders of values — or within a single order of values, the hierarchy of particular rights — insofar as the rules of morality demand. Thus, for example, a man cannot perform on himself or allow doctors to perform acts of a physical or somatic nature which doubtless relieve heavy physical or psychic burdens or infirmities, but which bring about at the same time permanent abolition or considerable and durable diminution of his freedom, that is, of his human personality in its typical and characteristic function. Such an act degrades a man to the level of a being reacting only to acquired reflexes or to a living automation. The moral law does not allow such a reversal of values. Here it sets up its limits to the “medical interests of the patient.”
…
18. Up to now We have spoken directly of the patient, not of the doctor. We have explained at what point the personal right of the patient to dispose of himself, his mind, his body, his faculties, organs and functions, meets a moral limit. But at the same time We have answered the question: Where does the doctor find a moral limit in research into and use of new methods and procedures in the “interests of the patient?” The limit is the same as that for the patient. It is that which is fixed by the judgment of sound reason, which is set by the demands of the natural moral law, which is deduced from the natural teleology inscribed in beings and from the scale of values expressed by the nature of things. The limit is the same for the doctor as for the patient because, as We have already said, the doctor as a private individual disposes only of the rights given him by the patient and because the patient can give only what he himself possesses.
19. What We say here must be extended to the legal representatives of the person incapable of caring for himself and his affairs: children below the age of reason, the feebleminded and the insane. These legal representatives, authorized by private decision or by public authority have no other rights over the body and life of those they represent than those people would have themselves if they were capable. And they have those rights to the same extent. They cannot, therefore, give the doctor permission to dispose of them outside those limits.
…
22. Nevertheless, for the third time we come back to the question: Is there any moral limit to the “medical interests of the community” in content or extension? Are there “full powers” over the living man in every serious medical case? Does it raise barriers that are still valid in the interests of science or the individual? Or, stated differently: Can public authority, on which rests responsibility for the common good, give the doctor the power to experiment on the individual in the interests of science and the community in order to discover and try out new methods and procedures when these experiments transgress the right of the individual to dispose of himself? In the interests of the community, can public authority really limit or even suppress the right of the individual over his body and life, his bodily and psychic integrity?
23. To forestall an objection, We assume that it is a question of serious research, of honest efforts to promote the theory and practice of medicine, not of a maneuver serving as a scientific pretext to mask other ends and achieve them with impunity.
24. In regard to these questions many people have been of the opinion and are still of the opinion today, that the answer must be in the affirmative. To give weight to their contention they cite the fact that the individual is subordinated to the community, that the good of the individual must give way to the common good and be sacrificed to it. They add that the sacrifice of an individual for purposes of research and scientific investigation profits the individual in the long run.
25. The great postwar trials [i.e. after World War II] brought to light a terrifying number of documents testifying to the sacrifice of the individual in the “medical interests of the community.” In the minutes of these trials one finds testimony and reports showing how, with the consent and, at times, even under the formal order of public authority, certain research centers systematically demanded to be furnished with persons from concentration camps for their medical experiments. One finds how they were delivered to such centers, so many men, so many women, so many for one experiment, so many for another. There are reports on the conduct and the results of such experiments, of the subjective and objective symptoms observed during the different phases of the experiments. One cannot read these reports without feeling a profound compassion for the victims, many of whom went to their deaths, and without being frightened by such an aberration of the human mind and heart. But We can also add that those responsible for these atrocious deeds did no more than to reply in the affirmative to the question We have asked and to accept the practical consequences of their affirmation.
26. At this point is the interest of the individual subordinated to the community’s medical interests, or is there here a transgression, perhaps in good faith, against the most elementary demands of the natural law, a transgression that permits no medical research?
…
28. In the above mentioned cases, insofar as the moral justification of the experiments rests on the mandate of public authority, and therefore on the subordination of the individual to the community, of the individual’s welfare to the common welfare, it is based on an erroneous explanation of this principle. It must be noted that, in his personal being, man is not finally ordered to usefulness to society. On the contrary, the community exists for man.
29. The community is the great means intended by nature and God to regulate the exchange of mutual needs and to aid each man to develop his personality fully according to his individual and social abilities. Considered as a whole, the community is not a physical unity subsisting in itself and its individual members are not integral parts of it. Considered as a whole, the physical organism of living beings, of plants, animals or man, has a unity subsisting in itself. Each of the members, for example, the hand, the foot, the heart, the eye, is an integral part destined by all its being to be inserted in the whole organism. Outside the organism it has not, by its very nature, any sense, any finality. It is wholly absorbed by the totality of the organism to which it is attached.
30. In the moral community and in every organism of a purely moral character, it is an entirely different story. Here the whole has no unity subsisting in itself, but a simple unity of finality and action. In the community individuals are merely collaborators and instruments for the realization of the common end.
31. What results as far as the physical organism is concerned? The master and user of this organism, which possesses a subsisting unity, can dispose directly and immediately of integral parts, members and organs within the scope of their natural finality. He can also intervene, as often as and to the extent that the good of the whole demands, to paralyze, destroy, mutilate and separate the members. But, on the contrary, when the whole has only a unity of finality and action, its head — in the present case, the public authority — doubtlessly holds direct authority and the right to make demands upon the activities of the parts, but in no case can it dispose of its physical being. Indeed, every direct attempt upon its essence constitutes an abuse of the power of authority.
32. Now medical experiments — the subject We are discussing here — immediately and directly affect the physical being, either of the whole or of the several organs, of the human organism. But, by virtue of the principle We have cited, public authority has no power in this sphere. It cannot, therefore, pass it on to research workers and doctors. It is from the State, however, that the doctor must receive authorization when he acts upon the organism of the individual in the “interests of the community.” For then he does not act as a private individual, but as a mandatory of the public power. The latter cannot, however, pass on a right that it does not possess, save in the case already mentioned when it acts as a deputy, as the legal representative of a minor for as long as he cannot make his own decisions, of a person of feeble mind or of a lunatic.
33. Even when it is a question of the execution of a condemned man, the State does not dispose of the individual’s right to life. In this case it is reserved to the public power to deprive the condemned person of the enjoyment of life in expiation of his crime when, by his crime, he has already disposed himself of his right to live.
36. Our plan was to draw your attention to certain principles of deontology which define the limits and confines of research and experimentation in regard to new medical methods to be immediately applied to living men.
37. In the domain of your science it is an obvious law that the application of new methods to living men must be preceded by research on cadavers or the model of study and experimentation on animals. Sometimes, however, this procedure is found to be impossible, insufficient or not feasible from a practical point of view. In this case, medical research will try to work on its immediate object, the living man, in the interests of science, in the interests of the patient and in the interests of the community. Such a procedure is not to be rejected without further consideration. But you must stop at the limits laid down by the moral principles We have explained.
38. Without doubt, before giving moral authorization to the use of new methods, one cannot ask that any danger or any risk be excluded. That would exceed human possibilities, paralyze all serious scientific research and very frequently be to the detriment of the patient. In these cases the weighing of the danger must be left to the judgment of the tried and competent doctor. Nevertheless, as Our explanation has shown, there is a degree of danger that morality cannot allow. In doubtful cases, when means already known have failed, it may happen that a new method still insufficiently tried offers, together with very dangerous elements, appreciable chances of success. If the patient gives his consent, the use of the procedure in question is licit. But this way of acting cannot be upheld as a line of conduct in normal cases.
|
|
|
|
| Example of a Religious Exemption Form for Colleges |
|
Posted by: Stone - 08-25-2021, 08:26 AM - Forum: COVID Passports
- No Replies
|
|
An example of a religious exemption form for colleges and universities (Protestant - can be adapted to be Catholic):
Religious Exemption Template For College Students
To whom it may concern,
I am requesting a religious exemption from the University’s vaccine mandate. The Bible tells us that before God formed us in the womb He knew us (Jeremiah 1:5) and that children are a heritage from the Lord (Psalm 127:3-5.)
In Proverbs 6:16-19 God tells us that there are six things the Lord hates and seven that are detestable to Him, one of those being the shed of innocent blood. Psalm 139:13-16 tells us that God knits us together in our mother’s womb and I believe that abortion is a sin.
God cherishes all life in His Creation, including the life of the unborn, and as a Christian I follow and obey God’s Word. I have prayed about this issue and have come to the conclusion that I cannot take this vaccine in good faith.
Each of the manufactures of the Covid vaccines currently available developed and confirmed their vaccines using fetal cell lines, which originated from aborted fetuses. (https://lozierinstitute.org/an-ethics-as...-programs/)
Partaking in a vaccine that utilized aborted fetuses makes me complicit in an action that offends my religious faith and belief that all life, including the life of unborn children, is sacred and Holy.
In addition, any coerced medical treatment goes against my religious faith and the right of conscience to control one’s own medical treatment, free of coercion or force.
It is my sincere belief that forcing anyone take a vaccine that runs counter to their religious beliefs is unethical, inhumane, and in violation of my Christian faith. When I was a young child I had no say in the matter as to which vaccines were given to me, but as an adult I have made the moral and conscious decision to not partake in any vaccines going forward that utilize fetal cell lines at any stage of development or testing.
Please provide a reasonable accommodation to my belief, as I wish to continue to be a good student and eventually a proud graduate of this institution.
Sincerely,
________________________________
Taken from here.
|
|
|
|
| Job Search Company w/o the Cancel Culture |
|
Posted by: Stone - 08-25-2021, 08:12 AM - Forum: General Commentary
- No Replies
|
|
There are a lot of people trying to find jobs now that don't mandate vaccines. This company came up as a helpful site for that. In case it helps ...
"Where we connect employers who value freedom with employees who value it too. We envision a world beyond cancel culture, where employees are free to just...work...without fear that they will find themselves on the wrong side of their employer’s politics."
|
|
|
|
|
![[Image: wrongdirection.jpg?itok=_07If9uB]](https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/wrongdirection.jpg?itok=_07If9uB)
![[Image: Father-Sixto-Costa-Rica-810x500.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Father-Sixto-Costa-Rica-810x500.jpg)
![[Image: Capture.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/VvfBCKtg/Capture.png)
