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| Job boards for workplaces that specifically don't require COVID-19 vaccinations are popping up |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-27-2021, 01:44 PM - Forum: General Commentary
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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.
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| Regional COVID-19 quarantine facility to be built near Wellcamp Airport in Queensland |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-26-2021, 11:08 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
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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.
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| August 26th – St Zephyrinus, Pope & Martyr |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-26-2021, 09:07 AM - Forum: August
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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.
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| STUDY: Fully Vaccinated Carry 251 Times The Normal Viral Load Of COVID-19, May Be Super Spreaders |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-26-2021, 07:59 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
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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.”
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| Untruths & Consequences |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-26-2021, 07:33 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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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.
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| Vaccine Mandates & The "Great Reset" |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-26-2021, 07:23 AM - Forum: Great Reset
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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.
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| Costa Rican priest suspended, sent for psychological treatment for celebrating new Mass in Latin |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-25-2021, 12:26 PM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism
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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.”
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| Pope Pius XII on the Moral Limits of Medical Treatment and Experimentation 1952 |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-25-2021, 08:42 AM - Forum: Church Doctrine & Teaching
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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
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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.
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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].
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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| Example of a Religious Exemption Form for Colleges |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-25-2021, 08:26 AM - Forum: COVID Passports
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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.
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| Job Search Company w/o the Cancel Culture |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-25-2021, 08:12 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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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."
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| August 25th – St. Louis, King of France, Confessor |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-25-2021, 07:07 AM - Forum: August
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August 25 – St. Louis, King of France, Confessor
It was his Christian faith that made Louis IX so great a prince. “You that are the judges of the earth, think of the Lord in goodness, and seek Him in simplicity of heart.” Eternal Wisdom, in giving this precept to kings, rejoiced with divine foreknowledge among the lilies of France, where this great saint was to shine with so bright a luster.
Subject and prince are bound to God by a common law, for all men have one entrance into life, and the like going out. Far from being less responsible to the divine authority than his subjects, the prince is answerable for every one of them as well as for himself. The aim and object of creation is that God be glorified by the return of all creatures to their Author, in the manner and measure that He wills. Therefore, since God has called man to a participation in His own divine life, and has made the earth to be to him but a place of passage, mere natural justice and the present order of things are not sufficient for him. Kings must recognize that the object of their civil sovereignty, not being the last end of all things, is, like themselves, under the direction and absolute rule of that higher end, before which they are but as subjects. Hear therefore, ye kings, and understand: a greater punishment is ready for the more mighty. Thus did the divine goodness give merciful warnings under the ancient Covenant.
But not satisfied with giving repeated admonitions, Wisdom came down from her heavenly throne. Henceforth the world belongs to her by a twofold title. By the right of her divine origin, she held the principality in the brightness of the saints, before the rising of the day star; she now reigns by right of conquest over the redeemed world. Before her coming in the flesh, it was already from her that kings received their power, and that equity which directs its exercise. Jesus, the son of Man, whose Blood paid the ransom of the world, is now, by the contract of the sacred nuptials which united Him to our nature, the only source of power and of all true justice. And now, once more, O ye kings, understand: says the psalmist; receive instruction, you that judge the earth. “It is Christ who speaks:” says St. Augustine. “Now that I am king in the name of God My Father, be not sad, as though you were thereby deprived of some good you possessed; but rather acknowledging that it is good for you to be subject to Him who gives you security in the light, serve this Lord of all with fear, and rejoice unto Him.”
It is the Church that continues, in the name of our ascended Lord, to give to kings this security which comes from the light: the Church who, without trespassing upon the authority of princes, is nevertheless their superior as mother of nations, as judge of consciences, as the only guide of the human race journeying towards its last end. Let us listen to the sovereign Pontiff Leo XIII, speaking with the precision and power which characterize his infallible teaching: “As there are on earth two great societies: the one civil, whose immediate end is to procure the temporal and earthly well-being of the human race; the other religious, whose aim is to lead men to the eternal happiness for which they were created: so also God has divided the government of the world between two powers. Each of these is supreme in its kind; each is bounded by definite limits drawn in conformity with its nature and its peculiar end. Jesus Christ, the founder of the Church, willed that they should be distinct from one another, and that both should be free from trammels in the accomplishment of their respective missions; yet with this provision, that in those matters which appertain to the jurisdiction and judgment of both, though on different grounds, the power which is concerned with temporal interests, must depend, as is fitting, on that power which watches over eternal interests. Finally, both being subject to the eternal and to the natural Law, they must in such a manner mutually agree in what concerns the order and government of each, as to form a relationship comparable to the union of the soul and body in man.’
In the sphere of eternal interests, to which no one may be indifferent, princes are bound to hold not only themselves but their people also in subjection to God and to His Church. For “since men united by the bonds of a common society depend on God no less than individuals, associations whether political or private cannot, without crime, behave as if God did not exist, nor put away religion as something foreign to them, nor dispense themselves from observing, in that religion, the rules according to which God has declared that He wills to be honored. Consequently, the heads of the State are bound, as such, to keep holy the name of God, make it one of their principal duties to protect religion by the authority of the laws, and not command or ordain anything contrary to its integrity.” (q.v. Epist. Encycl. Immortale Dei, & Arcanum divinæ sapientiæ)
Let us now return to St. Augustine’s explanation of the text of the Psalm: “How do kings serve the Lord with fear, except by forbidding and punishing with a religious severity all acts contrary to the commands of the Lord? In his twofold character as man and as prince, the king must serve God: as man, he serves Him by the fidelity of his life; as king, by framing or maintaining laws which command good and forbid evil. He must act like Ezechias and Josias, destroying the temples of the false gods and the high places that had been constructed contrary to the command of the Lord; like the king of Ninive obliging his city to appease the Lord; like Darius giving up the idol to Daniel to be broken, and casting Daniel’s enemies to the lions, like Nabuchodonosor forbidding blasphemy throughout his kingdom by a terrible law. It is thus that kings serve the Lord as kings, viz: when they do in His service these things which only kings can do.”
In all this teaching we are not losing sight of today’s feast; for we may say of Louis IX as an epitome of his life: “He made a covenant before the Lord to walk after Him and keep His commandments; and cause them to be kept by all.” God was his end, faith was his guide: herein lies the whole secretof his government as well as of his sanctity. As a Christian he was a servant of Christ, as a prince he was Christ’s lieutenant; the aspirations of the Christian and those of the prince did not divide his soul; this unity was his strength, as it is nw his glory. He now reigns in heaven with Christ, who alone reigned in him and by him on earth. If then your delight be in thrones and scepters, O ye kings of the people, love wisdom, that you may reign for ever.
Louis was anointed king at Rheims on the first Sunday of Advent 1226; and he laid to heart for his whole life the words of that day’s Introit: “To Thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul: in Thee, O my God, I put my trust!” He was only twelve years old; but our Lord had given him the surest safeguard of his youth, in the person of his mother, that noble daughter of Spain, whose coming into France, says William de Nangis, was the arrival of all good things. The premature death of her husband Louis VIII left Blanche of Castille to cope with a most formidable conspiracy. The great vassals, whose power had been reduced during the preceding reigns, promised themselves that they would profit of the minority of the new prince, in order to regain the rights they had enjoyed under the ancient feudal system to the detriment of the unity of government. In order to remove this mother, who stood up single-handed between the weakness of the heir to the throne and their ambition, the barons, everywhere in revolt, joined hands with the Albigensian heretics; and made an alliance with the son of John Lackland, Henry III, who was endeavoring to recover the possessions in France lost by his father in punishment for the murder of prince Arthur. Strong in her son’s right and in the protection of Pope Gregory IX, blance held out; and she, whom the traitors to the country called the foreigner in order to palliate their crime, saved France by her prudence and her brave firmness. After nine years of regency, she handed over the nation to its king, more united and more powerful than ever since the days of Charlemagne.
We cannot here give the history of an entire reign; but, honor to whom honor is due: Louis, in order to become the glory of heaven and earth on this day, had but t walk in the footsteps of Clanche, the son had but to remember the precepts of his mother.
There was a graceful simplicity in our saint’s life, which enhanced its greatness and heroism. One would have said he did not experience the difficulty that others feel, though far removed from the throne, in fulfilling those words of our Lord: Unless you become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Yet who was greater than this humble king, making more account of his Baptism at Poissy than of his anointing at Rheims; saying his Hours, fasting, scourging himself like his friends the Friars Preachers and Minors; ever treating with respect those whom he regarded as God’s privileged ones, priests, religious, the suffering and the poor? The great men of our days may smile at him for being more grieved at losing his breviary than at being taken captive by the Saracens. But how have they behaved in the like extremity? Never was the enemy heard to say of any of them: “You are our captive, and one would say we were rather your prisoners.” They did not check the fierce greed and bloodthirstiness of their jailers, nor dictate terms of peace as proudly as if they had been the conquerors. The country, brought into peril by them, has not come out of the trial more glorious. It is peculiar to the admirable reign of St. Louis, that disasters made him not only a hero but a saint; and that France gained for centuries in the east, where her king had been captive, a greater renown than any victory could have won for her.
The humility of holy kings is not forgetfulness of the great office they fulfill in God’s name; their abnegation could not consist in giving up rights which are also duties, any more than charity could cast out justice, or love of peace could oppose the virtues of the warrior. St. Louis, without an army, felt himself superior as a Christian to the victorious infidel, and treated him accordingly; moreover the west discovered very early, and more and more as his sanctity increased with his years, that this king, who spent his nights in prayer, and his days in serving the poor, was not the man to yield to anyone the prerogatives of the crown. “There is but one king in France,” said the judge of Vincennes rescinding a sentence of Charles of Anjou; and the barons at the castle of Bellême, and the English at Taillebourg, were also aware of it; so was Frederick II who, threatening to crush the Church and seeking aid from the French, received this answer: “The kingdom of France is not so weak as to suffer itself to be driven by your spurs.”
Louis’s death was like his life, simple and great. God called him to Himself in the midst of sorrowful and critical circumstances, far from his own country, in that African land where he had before suffered so much; these trials were sanctifying thorns, reminding the prince of his most cherished jewel, the sacred crown of thorns which he had added to the treasures of France. Moved by the hope of converting the king of Tunis to the Christian faith, it was rather as an apostle than a soldier that he had landed on that shore where his last struggle awaited him. “I challenge you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of His lieutenant Louis king of France;” such was the sublime provocation hurled against the infidel city, and it was worthy of the close of such a life. Six centuries later, Tunis was to see the sons of those same Franks unwittingly following up the challenge of the saintly king, at the invitation of all the holy ones resting in the now Christian land of ancient Carthage.
The Christian army, victorious in every battle, was decimated by a terrible plague. Surrounded by the dead and dying, and himself attacked with the contagion, Louis called to him his eldest son, who was to succeed him as Philip III, and gave him his last instructions:
“Dear son, the first thing I admonish thee is that thou set thy heart to love God, for without that nothing else is of any worth. Beware of doing what displeases God, that is to say mortal sin; yea rather oughtest thou to suffer all manner of torments. If God send thee adversity, receive it in patience, and give thanks for it to our Lord, and think that thou hast done Him ill service. If He give thee prosperity, thank Him humbly for the same and be not the worse, either by pride or in any other manner, for that very thing that ought to make thee better; for we must not use God’s gifts against Himself. Have a kind and pitiful heart towards the poor and the unfortunate, and comfort and assist them as much as thou canst. Keep up the good customs of thy kingdom, and put down all bad ones. Love all that is good and hate all that is evil of any sort. Suffer no ill word about God or our Lady or the saints to be spoken in thy presence, that thou dost not straightway punish. In the administering of justice be loyal to thy subjects, without turning aside to the right hand or to the left; but help the right, and take the part of the poor until the whole truth be cleared up. Honor and love all ecclesiastical persons, and take care that they be not deprived of the gifts and alms that thy predecessors may have given them. Dear son, I admonish thee that thou be ever devoted to the Church of Rome, and to the sovereign Bishop our father, that is the Pope, and that thou bear him reverence and honor as thou oughtest to do to thy spiritual father. Exert thyself that every vile sin be abolished from thy land; especially to the best of thy power put down all wicked oaths and heresy. Fair son, I give thee all the blessings that a good father can give to a son; may the blessed Trinity and all the saints guard thee and protect thee from all evils; may God give thee grace to do His will always, and may He be honored by thee, and may thou and I after this mortal life be together in His company and praise Him without end.”
“When the good king,” continues Joinville, “had instructed his son my lord Philip, his illness began to increase greatly; he asked for the Sacraments of holy Church, and received them in a sound mind and right understanding, as was quite evident; for when they were anointing him and saying the seven Psalms, he took his own part in reciting. I have heard my lord the Count d’Alençon his son relate, that when he drew nigh to death, he called the saints to aid and succor him, and in particular my lord St. James, saying his prayer which begins: Este Domine; that is to say: O God, be the sanctifier and guardian of thy people. Then he called his aid my lord St. Denis of France, saying his prayer, which is as much as to say: Sire God, grant that we may despise the prosperity of this world, and may fear no adversity! And I heard from my Lord d’Alençon (whom God absolve), that his father next invoked Madame St. Genevieve. After this the holy king had himself laid on a bed strewn with ashes, and placing his hands upon his breast and looking towards heaven, he gave up his soul to his Creator, at the same hour wherein the Son of God died on the cross for the salvation of the world.”
Let us read the short notice consecrated by the Church to her valiant eldest son.
Quote:Louis IX, king of France, having lost his father when he was only twelve years old, was educated in a most holy manner by his mother Blanche. When he had reigned for twenty years he fell ill and it was then he conceived the idea of regaining possession of Jerusalem. On his recovery therefore he received the great standard from the bishop of Paris and crossed the sea with a large army. In a first engagement he repulsed the Saracens; but a great number of his men being struck down by pestilence, he was conquered and made prisoner.
A treaty was then made with the Saracens, and the king and his army were set at liberty. Louis spent five years in the east. He delivered many Christian captives, converted many of the infidels to the faith of Christ, and also rebuilt several Christian towns out of his own resources. Meanwhile his mother died, and on this account he was obliged to return home, where devoted himself entirely to good works.
He built many monasteries and hospitals for the poor; he assisted those in need and frequently visited the sick, supplying all their necessities at his own expense and even serving them with his own hands. He dressed in a simple manner and subdued his body by continual fasting and wearing a hair-cloth. He crossed over to Africa a second time to fight with the Saracens, and had pitched his camp in sight of them when he was struck down by a pestilence and died while saying this prayer: “I will come into thy house; I will worship towards thy holy temple and I will confess to thy name.” His body was afterwards translated to Paris and is honorably preserved in the celebrated church of St. Denis; but the head is in the Sainte-Chapelle. He was celebrated for miracles, and Pope Boniface VIII enrolled his name among the saints.
Jerusalem, the true Sion, at length opens her gates to thee, O Louis, who for her sake didst give up thy treasures and thy life. From the eternal throne whereon the Son of God gives thee to share His own honors and power, ever promote the kingdom of God on earth; be zealous for the faith; be a strong arm to our mother the Church. Thanks to thee, the infidel east, though it adores not Christ, at least respects His adorers, having but one name for Christian and Frank. For this reason our present rulers would remain protectors of Christianity in those lands, while they persecute it at home; a contradiction no less fatal to the country than opposed to its traditions of liberty, and its reputation for honor and honesty. How can they be said to know our traditions and our history, or to understand the national interests, who misunderstood the God of Clovis, of Charlemagne, and of St. Louis? In that Egypt, the scene of thy labors, what has now become of the patrimony of glorious influence which has been held by thy nation for centuries?
Thy descendants are no longer here to defend us against these men who use the country for their own purposes and exile those who have been the makers of it. But how terrible are the judgments of the Lord! Thou thyself hast said: “I would rather a stranger than my own son should rule my people and kingdom, if my son is to rule amiss.” Thirty years after the Crusade of Tunis, an unworthy prince, Philip IV thy second successor, outraged the Vicar of Christ. Straightway he was rejected by heaven, and his direct male line became extinct. The withered bough was replaced by another branch, though still from the same root. But the nation had to suffer for its kings, and to expiate the crime of Anagni: the judgment of God allowed a terrible war to be brought about through the political indiscretion of the same Philip the Fair (by marrying his daughter Isabelle to Edward II of England; which marriage after the death of Philip’s three sons Louis X, Philip V, and Charles IX, without male issue, furnished the plea for Isabella’s son Edward III to pretend to the crown of France), a prince as discreditable to the State as to the Church and to his own family. Then for a hundred years the country seemed to be on the brink of destruction; until by a wonderful protection of God over the land, the Maid of Orleans, blessed Joan of Arc, rescued the lily of France from the clutches of the English leopard.
Other faults alas! were to compromise still further, and then, twice over, to wither up or break the branches of the royal tree. Long did thy personal merits outweigh before God the scandalous immorality, which our princes had made their family mark, their odious privilege: a shame, which was transmitted by the expiring Valois to the Bourbons; which had to be expiated, but not effaced, by the blood of the just Louis XVI; and which so many illustrious exiles are still expiating in lowliness and sorrow in a foreign land. Would that thou couldst at least recognize these thy remaining sons by their imitation of thy virtues! For it is only by striving to win back this spiritual inheritance, that they can hope that God will one day restore them the other.
For God, who commands us to obey at all times the power actually established, is ever the master of nations and the unchangeable disposer of their changeable destinies. Then every one of thy descendants, taught by a sad experience, will be bound to remember, O Louis, thy last recommendation: “Exert thyself that every vile sin be abolished from thy land; especially, to the best of thy power, put down all wicked oaths and heresy.”
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| August 24th – St. Bartholomew, Apostle and Martyr |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-25-2021, 07:03 AM - Forum: August
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August 24 – St. Bartholomew, Apostle and Martyr
A witness of the Son of God, one of the princes who announced his glory to the nations, lights up this day with his apostolic flame. While his brethren of the sacred College followed the human race into all the lands whither the migration of nations had led it, Bartholomew appeared as the herald of the Lord, at the very starting point, the mountains of Armenia whence the sons of Noe spread over the earth. There had the figurative Ark rested; humanity, everywhere else a wanderer, was there seated in stillness, remembering the dove with its olive branch, and awaiting the consummation of the alliance signified by the rainbow which had there for the first time glittered in the clouds. Behold, blessed tidings awake in those valleys the echoes of ancient traditions: tidings of peace, making the universal deluge of sin subside before the Wood of salvation. The serenity announced by the dove of old was now far outdone. Love was to take the place of punishment. The ambassador of heaven showed God to the sons of Adam, as the most beautiful of their own brethren. The noble heights whence formerly flowed the rivers of Paradise were about to see the renewal of the covenant annulled in Eden, and the celebration, amid the joy of heaven and earth, of the divine nuptials so long expected, the union of the Word with regenerated humanity.
Personally, what was this Apostle whose ministry borrowed such solemnity from the scene of his apostolic labors? Under the name, or surname of Bartholomew, the only mark of recognition given him by the first three Gospels, are we to see, as many have thought, that Nathaniel, whose presentation to Jesus by Philip forms so sweet a scene of St. John’s Gospel?—a man full of uprightness, innocence and simplicity who was worthy to have had the dove for his precursor, and for whom the Man-God had choice graces and caresses from the very beginning.
Be this as it may, the lot which fell to our Saint among the twelve, points to the special confidence of the divine Heart; the heroism of the terrible martyrdom which sealed his apostolate reveals his fidelity; the dignity preserved by the nation he grated on Christ, in all the countries where it has been transplanted, witnesses to the excellence of the sap first infused into its branches. When, two centuries and a half later, Gregory the Illuminator so successfully cultivated the soil of Armenia, he did but quicken the seed sown by the Apostle, which the trials never wanting to that generous land had retarded for a time but could not stifle.
How strangely sad that evil men, nurtured in this turmoil of endless invasions, should have been able to rouse and perpetuate a mistrust of Rome among a race whom wars and tortures and dispersion could not tear from the love of Christ our Savior! Yet, thanks be to God! the movement towards return, more than once begun and then abandoned, seems now to be steadily advancing; the chosen sons of this illustrious nation are laboring perseveringly for so desirable a union by dispelling the prejudices of her people; by revealing to our lands the treasures of her literature so truly Christian, and the magnificences of her liturgy; and above all by praying and devoting themselves to the monastic state under the standard of the Father of Western Monks. Together with these holders of the true national tradition, let us pray to Bartholomew their Apostle; to the disciple Thaddeus who also shared in the first evangelization; to Ripsima the heroic virgin, who from the Roman territory led her thirty-five companions to the conquest of a new land; and to all the martyrs whose blood cemented the building upon the only foundation set by our Lord. Like these great forerunners, may the leader of the second apostolate, Gregory the Illuminator, who wished to see Peter in the person of St. Sylvester, and receive the blessing of the Roman Pontiff—may the holy kings the patriarchs and doctors of Armenia, become once more her chosen guides, and lead her back entirely and irrevocably to the one Fold of the one Shepherd!
We learn from Eusebius and from St. Jerome that before going to Armenia, his final destination, St. Bartholomew evangelized the Indies, where Pantænus a century later found a copy of St. Matthew’s Gospel in Hebrew characters, left there by him. St. Denis records a profound saying of the glorious Apostle, which he thus quotes and comments: “The blessed Bartholomew says of Theology, that it is at once abundant and succinct; of the Gospel, that it is vast in extent and at the same time concise; thus excellently giving us to understand that the beneficent Cause of all beings reveals or manifests himself by many words or by few, or even without any words at all, as being beyond and above all language or thought. For he is above all by his superior essence; and they alone reach him in his truth, without the veils wherewith he surrounds himself, who, passing beyond matter and spirit and rising above the summit of the holiest heights, leave behind them all reflections and echoes of God, all the language of heaven, to enter into the darkness wherein he dwelleth, as the Scripture says, who is above all.”
The city of Rome celebrates the feast of St. Bartholomew tomorrow, as do also the Greeks who commemorate on the 25th of August a translation of the Apostle’s relics. It is owing, in fact, to the various translations of his holy body and to the difficulty of ascertaining the date of his martyrdom that different days have been adopted for his feast by different churches both in the East and in the West. The 24th of this month, consecrated by the use of most of the Latin churches, is the day assigned in the most ancient martyrologies, including that of St. Jerome. In the 13th century, Innocent III, having been consulted as to the divergence, answered that local custom was to be observed.
The Church gives us the following notice of the Apostle of Armenia.
Quote:The Apostle Bartholomew was a native of Galilee. It fell to his lot to preach the Gospel in hither India; and he announced to those nations the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the Gospel of St. Matthew. But after converting many souls to Jesus Christ in that province and undergoing much labor and suffering he went into Eastern Armenia.
Here he converted to the Christian faith the king Polymius and his queen and twelve cities. This caused the pagan priests of that nation to be exceedingly jealous of him, and they stirred up Astyages the brother of king Polymius against the Apostle, so that he commanded him to be flayed alive and finally beheaded. In this cruel martyrdom he gave up his soul to God.
His body was buried at Albanapolis, the town of Eastern Armenia where he was martyred; but it was afterwards taken to the island of Lispari, and thence to Beneventum. Finally it was translated to Rome by the Emperor Otho III and placed on the island of Tiber in a Church dedicated to God under his invocation. His feast is kept at Rome on the 8th of the Kalends of September and during the eight following days that Basilica is much frequented by the faithful.
On this day of thy feast, O holy Apostle, the Church prays in her Collect for the Mass, for grace to love what thou didst believe and to preach what thou didst teach. Not that the Bride of the Son of God could ever fail either in faith or love; but she knows only too well that, though her Head is ever in the light, and her heart ever united to the Spouse in the Holy Spirit who sanctifies her, nevertheless her several members, the particular churches of which she is composed, may detach themselves from their center of life and wander away in darkness. O thou who didst choose our West as the place of thy rest; thou whose precious relics Rome glories in possessing, bring back to Peter the nations thou didst evangelize; fulfill the now reviving hopes of universal union; second the efforts made by the Vicar of the Man-God to gather again under the shepherd’s crook those scattered flocks whose pastures have become parched by schism. May thine own Armenia be the first to complete a return which she began long ago: may she trust the Mother-Church and no more follow the sowers of discord. All being reunited, may we together enjoy the treasures of our concordant traditions, and go to God, even at the cost of being despoiled of all things, by the course so grand and yet so simple taught us by thy example and by thy sublime theology.
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