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  Mass Protests in Greece in Response to Unvaccinated Being Banned From Social Life
Posted by: Stone - 07-15-2021, 11:55 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular] - No Replies

Mass Protests in Greece in Response to Unvaccinated Being Banned From Social Life
“Hands off our kids!”

[Image: 150721athens1.jpg]

Summit News |  15 July, 2021

Greece has become the latest European country to be hit with mass protests after the government announced the unvaccinated would be banned from visiting bars, restaurants, cinemas and other public places.

Thousands of demonstrators descended on Athens and Thessaloniki, with crowds chanting “Hands off our kids!” and holding signs that said “We say no to vaccine poison.”

All nursing home staff and hospital workers will be mandated to get the vaccine from August 16, while hospital workers also face losing their jobs unless they get the compulsory jab from September.



Teens as young as 15 will also be encouraged to get the vaccine with parental permission, another change that has angered protesters.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis effectively said that the new measures, which go into effect on Friday and will remain in place until the end of August, were a punishment for Greeks enjoying themselves too much and refusing to take the vaccine.

“After a year and a half, no one can claim ignorance about the coronavirus anymore,” said Mitsotakis. “The country will not shut down again due to attitudes adopted by certain people… It’s not Greece that’s a danger, but unvaccinated Greeks.”



As we highlighted yesterday, police in Paris were forced to used tear gas to disperse rioters who were irate at the government’s plan to impose similar measures, including banning the unvaccinated from public transport.

Cities across France were hit with unruly demonstrations, with the Yellow Vest movement, which ended as a result of the first lockdown in March 2020, seemingly being resurrected.

There are plans to implement some form of ‘vaccine passport’ in virtually every major western country, but judging by the response so far, it will face massive resistance from the public.

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  French bishops fail to denounce vaccine pass, country’s new ‘sanitary dictatorship’
Posted by: Stone - 07-15-2021, 11:40 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Spiritual] - No Replies

French bishops fail to denounce vaccine pass, country’s new ‘sanitary dictatorship’
Those who will be tasked with controlling the population’s compliance with the new rules will not be subject to them, 
perhaps because the government fears massive resignations and will need every hand on deck to keep track of citizens’ every movement.

[Image: French_vaccination_site_810_500_75_s_c1.jpg]
People stand in line outside the Paris Stade de France following its conversion into a Covid-19 vaccination site, on April 7, 2021 in Saint-Denis, France.

FRANCE, July 15, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – In a series of tweets on its official account presenting the very short communiqué of the Catholic Church in France, the French bishops made perfunctory comments about Emmanuel Macron’s announcement of what will be to all intents and purposes a coronavirus vaccine pass required for most everyday activities from August onward, if the Parliament adopts the law presently being drafted by the government.

Instead of pointing out the attempt to set up a fully-fledged sanitary dictatorship by way of mandatory inoculation of morally questionable experimental “vaccines,” the French bishops asked everyone to enter the fight against the coronavirus and to “take personal responsibility regarding the vaccine.”

Without going so far as to call on the entire population to get the COVID jab, the leaders of the Catholic Church in France at least suggested that the correct way to join the national effort against COVID was to consider vaccination.

One of them, Denis Moutel, bishop of Saint-Brieuc and Tréguier (Britanny), wrote a follow-up the tweet proclaiming: “To take personal responsibility means to get vaccinated if you haven’t done so already.” Most comments were critical, some energetically so.

Bishop Xavier Malle of Gap et Embrun (French Alps) tweeted this Wednesday: “Let it be known that my account is not a place to display your opinions against the vaccine. So I'm masking those comments. I have been vaccinated - first dose - and am looking forward to the second.”

To date, no statements condemning the vaccine pass have been forthcoming from individual French bishops.

Traditional institutes have kept a low profile on the issue.

Most remarkably, the French bishops have de facto condoned Emmanuel Macron’s Monday evening speech by failing to condemn compulsory vaccination of health workers and the wide extension of the “sanitary pass,” both of which Macron had personally promised would never happen during former declarations to the French citizens.

They have also remained silent about the grave moral issues raised by the four “vaccines” that are at present officially accepted in France: Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson. In varying degrees they are all linked to the use of fetal cell lines obtained through particularly heinous abortion procedures. And even though the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has ruled that in case of grave necessity for the protection of lives and in the absence of alternatives such vaccines can be licitly used, the CDF did underscore the need to denounce their manufacturing processes, if only by clear assertion of conscientious objection.

Nor did the operating mode of these shots, which modify the normal operating mode of human cells by tricking them into producing the Spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 in order to promote an immune response, receive a mention. Arguably, modifying the human body in order to make it produce foreign substances is a first incursion into transhumanism, and as such gravely immoral.

As to the dangers associated with the present experimental “vaccines,” they were not mentioned either.

The pastors are leaving their flock out in the open, facing its enemies alone.

The bishops’ statement, entitled: “COVID: after the declaration by the President of the Republic on July 12, 2021,” focused on the fact that the “sanitary pass” will not be required for religious worship.

It said:
Quote:Following announcements made by the President of the Republic on July 12 concerning sanitary measures, the French Bishops' Conference (CEF) notes that religions and their public practice have not been mentioned in the list of places that will require a sanitary pass for admission.

As a consequence, the CEF considers that the current rules remain valid: the use of hydro-alcoholic gel, the wearing of masks and all other sanitary measures related to the practice of worship.

Out of concern for the common good, the CEF continues to invite everyone to mobilize against the virus.

It calls on Catholics to take personal responsibility regarding the vaccine.

The CEF will remain vigilant, as it has been since the beginning of the crisis, with regard to the respect of freedom of worship.

That last sentence is a lie. During the first lockdown from March 17 to May 11 2020, the leaders of the Catholic Church in France did exactly nothing to obtain access to churches for public worship, while supermarkets remained open throughout the period. When measures were partially lifted, it was only because traditional Catholic associations such as the AGRIF (a French and Christian defense league) and others, and Ecclesia Dei religious institutes took the matter to the French administrative high court, the Conseil d’Etat, and obtained victory. Not a single bishop accepted to add his name to the list of applicants, although some were privately asked to do so by the original applicants.

Considering that these experimental jabs will already be widely necessary to buy and sell, as well as their moral questionability, it is hard not to see this as a prefiguration, at the least, of the ‘mark of the beast’ in France.

Since Macron’s announcements, the government has made clear that places of worship have not been included in the list of places where the sanitary pass will have to be shown. Responding to a request for clarification by Le Figaro, the Prime Minister’s office indicated that “places of worship are not affected by the sanitary pass because they enjoy constitutional protection.”

It is likely that the government wishes to avoid further litigation following the Conseil d’Etat’s ruling regarding the “fundamental liberty” of freedom of worship in May 2020.

But this is sparse comfort in a rapidly unfolding set-up of tyranny of a hitherto unknown form, where supposedly free citizens are being cornered into accepting the injection of a substance whose mid- and long-term effects are totally unknown, and whose adverse effects are reaching totally unheard-of proportions when compared with existing vaccines, even the more controversial ones.

Considering that these experimental jabs will already be widely necessary to buy and sell, as well as their moral questionability, it is hard not to see this as a prefiguration, at the least, of the “mark of the beast” in France.

In practice, insofar as it requires proof of vaccination or COVID-negative status for a large number of venues that will include all cultural and leisure spaces receiving over 50 people as of July 21, followed in August by restaurants, cafés, hotels, commercial centers (very large and large shopping malls), hospitals, homes for the elderly and the handicapped, airplanes, long-distance trains and buses and the like, the new rules will impose vaccination as the only possible solution. Macron has already stated that the list may be lengthened in the face of the extension of new COVID variants, particularly the “Delta” or Indian variant that is extremely contagious (but sends few to hospital and kills only a handful of those infected). Proving COVID-negative status on a permanent basis would require PCR or anti-genic testing every two days, and these tests will need to be paid out of pocket in the absence of a doctor’s prescription in case of symptoms as of October, to the tune of 30 to 50 euro per test.

In new developments, government sources have revealed that under new COVID measures, people testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 will need to observe 10 days’ isolation in the place of their choice, under control of the “liberty and detention judge” ordinarily responsible for the application of prison sentences, with a daily “exit permit” from 10 to 12 a.m., and verification by the police or the “gendarmerie” (a national police force linked to the army).

It has also been revealed that in all venues where the sanitary pass will be required, those in charge will incur a fine of up to 45,000 euro ($53,000 USD) and up to one year imprisonment for failure to check the pass of any individual traveler, guest, or customer.

All workers in these venues will need to show a sanitary pass, meaning that in practice workers in hospitals, cinemas, restaurants, cafés, hotels, transportation, museums, and many others will be required either to test every two days or to receive a COVID-“vaccine.”

All health workers will be obliged to receive a COVID-jab, under penalty of losing their job and unemployment benefits, but on the other hand some professions that were among those prioritized for reception of the “vaccine” last May have been explicitly excluded from the list of those for whom full “vaccination” will be mandatory as of September 15: the police and the “gendarmerie.”

In other words, those who will be tasked with controlling the population’s compliance with the new rules will not be subject to them, perhaps because the government fears massive resignations and will need every hand on deck to keep track of citizens’ every movement.

In a final twist, Emmanuel Macron will be visiting Lourdes on Friday, July 16. The sanctuary’s rector, Bishop Olivier Ribadeau-Dumas, stated on Tuesday that he is “delighted” that the French president has decided to visit the famous shrine – no other French head of state has done so to date. July 16 marks the anniversary of the Virgin Mary’s last of a series of 18 apparitions to Saint Bernadette Soubirous in 1858.

One of the shrine’s priests, Father Cayla, commented: “Even if Emmanuel Macron is not coming for a religious reason, the Virgin Mary knows how to make use of all events. In Lourdes, she made the afterlife glow, she wanted to build the Church there so that it would become a landmark, a rallying sign, a foretaste of eternal life in our society.”

After the adoption of a gravely transgressive bioethics law in June and now the bid to set up a tyranny of control and destruction of individual liberties in a matter of weeks, the question is rather: will the Blessed Mother of God give the leaders in France the courage to resist?

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  July 15th - St. Henry, Emperor
Posted by: Stone - 07-15-2021, 11:05 AM - Forum: July - No Replies

July 15 – St Henry, Emperor
Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger  (1841-1875)

[Image: henry-ii9.jpg?resize=366%2C599&ssl=1]

Henry of Germany, the second King, but the first Emperor of that name, was the last crowned representative of that branch of the house of Saxony descended from Henry the Fowler, to which God, in the tenth century, entrusted the mission of restoring the work of Charlemagne and Leo III. This noble stock was rendered more glorious by the flowers of sanctity adorning its branches, than for the deep and powerful roots it struck in the German soil by great and long-enduring institutions.

The Holy Spirit, who divideth his gifts according as he will, was then calling to the loftiests destinies that land, which, more than any other, had witnesses the energy of his divine action in the transformation of nations. Won to christ by St. Boniface and the continuators of his work, the vast country which extends beyond the Rhine and the Danube had become the bulwark of the West, and for many years had been the scene of devastation and ruin. Far from attempting to subjugate to her own rule the formidable tribes that inhabited it, pagan Rome, at the very zenith of her power, had had no higher ambition than to raise a wall of separation between them and the Empire: Christian Rome, more truly Mistress of the world, set up in their very midst the seat of the Holy Roman Empire re-established by her Pontiffs. The new Empire was to defend the rights of the common Mother, to protect Christendom from new inroads of barbarians, to win over to the Gospel or else to crush the successive hordes that would come down on her frontiers—Hungarians, Sclaves, Mongols, Tartars, and Ottomans. Happy had it been for Germany if she had always understood her true glory, if the fidelity of her princes to the Vicar of the Man-God had been equal to their people’s faith.

God, on his part, had not closed his hand. Today’s feast shows us the crowning point of the period of fruitful labor, when the Holy Ghost, having created Germany anew in the waters of the sacred font, would lead her up to the full development of a people’s perfect age. The historian, who would know what Providence requires of nations, must study them at such a period of truly creative formation. Indeed, when God creates, whether in the order of nature or of the supernatural vocation of men and societies, he first deposits in his work the principle of that grade of life for which it is destined: it is a precious germ, the development of which, unless thwarted, must lead that being to attain its end; and the knowledge of which, could we observe it before any alteration has taken place, would clearly indicate the divine intention with regard to that being. Now, many times already, since the coming of the Holy Ghost the Sanctifier, we have shown that the principle of life for Christian nations is the holiness of their beginnings: a holiness as manifold as is the Wisdom of God, whose instrument these nations are to be, and as peculiar to each as are their several destinies. This holiness, beginning as it does for the most part from the throne, possess a social character. The crimes also of princes will but too often bear this same mark, from the very fact of the princes being the representatives of their people before God. Then, too, we have seen how, in the name of Mary, who, through her divine Maternity, is the channel of life to the whole world, a mission has been intrusted to women: the mission of bringing forth to God the families of nations (familiæ gentium), which are to be the objects of his tenderest love. Whereas the princes, the apparent founders of Empires, stand with their mighty deeds in the foreground of history, it is she, that, by her secret tears and prayers, gives fruitfulness, a loftier aim and stability to their undertakings.

The Holy Ghost multiplies these imitators of the Mother of God; like Clotilde, Radegond, and Bathildis, giving the Franks to the Church in the midst of troublous times, there arose in another land another three, in honor of the Blessed Trinity: Matilda, Adelaide, and Cunigund superadded to the diadem of Germany the aureola of sanctity. Over the chaos of the tenth century whence Germany was to spring, they shone out like three bright stars, shedding their peaceful light over the Church and the world in that dark night, and thus doing more to suppress anarchy than could even the sword of an Otho. The eleventh century opened: Hildebrand had not yet arisen, and the angels of the sanctuary were weeping over many a desecrated altar, when the royal succession was brought to a beautiful close by a virginal union, as though, weary of producing heroes for the world, it would now bear fruit for heaven alone. Was such a step against the interests of Germany? No; for it drew down the mercy of God upon the country, which, in the midst of universal corruption, could offer Him the perfume of such a holocaust.

Let earth and heaven this day unite in celebrating the man who carried out to the full the designs of eternal Wisdom at this period of history. In his single person he discovered all the heroism and sanctity of the illustrious race, whose chief glory it is to have been for a century a worthy preparation for so great a man. Great before men, who knew not whether to admire more his bravery or the energetic activity which made him seem to be everywhere at once throughout his vast empire, he was ever successful, putting down internal revolts, conquering the Sclaves on his Northern frontier, chastising the insolence of the Greeks in southern Italy, assisting Hungary to rise from barbarism to Christianity, concluding with Robert the Pious a lasting peace between the Empire and the eldest daughter of the Church. But the virgin spouse of the virgin Cunigund was greater still before God, who never had a more faithful lieutenant upon earth. God in His Christ was in Henry’s eyes the only King; the interest of Christ and the Church, the one principle of his administration; the most perfect service of the Man-God, his highest ambition. He understood how the truest nobility was hidden in the cloister, where chosen souls, fleeing from the universal degradation, were averting the ruin and obtaining the salvation of the world. It was this thought that led him, on the morrow of his imperial coronation, to confide to the famous Abbey of Cluny the golden globe representing the world, which he, as soldier of the Vicar of Christ, was commissioned to defend. It was with the desire of imitating those noble souls, that he threw himself at the feet of the Abbot of Saint Vannes at Verdun, begging admission into his community, and then, constrained by obedience, returned with a heavy heart to resume the burden of government.

The following is the notice, necessarily incomplete, which the Church gives us concerning Saint Henry:

Quote:Henry, surnamed the Pious, Duke of Bavaria, became successively King of Germany, and Emperor of the Romans; but not satisfied with a mere temporal principality, he strove to gain an immortal crown, by paying zealous service to the eternal King. As emperor, he devoted himself earnestly to spreading religion, and rebuilt with great magnificence the Churches which had been destroyed by the infidels, endowing them generously both with money and lands. He built Monasteries and other pious establishments, and increased the income of others; the bishopric of Bamberg, which he had founded out of his family possessions, he made tributary to St. Peter and the Roman Pontiff. When Benedict VIII, who had crowned him emperor, was obliged to seek safety in flight, Henry received him and restored him to his See.

Once when he was suffering from a severe illness in the Monastery of Monte Cassino, St. Benedict cured him, by a wonderful miracle. He endowed the Roman Church with a most copious grant, undertook in her defense a war against the Greeks, and gained possession of Apulia, which they had held for some time. It was his custom to undertake nothing without prayer, and at times he saw the angel of the Lord, or the holy Martyrs, his patrons, fighting for him at the head of his army. Aided thus by the Divine protection, he overcame barbarous nations more by prayer than by arms. Hungary was still pagan; but Henry having given his sister in marriage to its King Stephen, the latter was baptized, and thus the whole nation was brought to the faith of Christ. He set the rare example of preserving virginity in the married state, and at his death restored his wife, St. Cunigund, a virgin to her family.

He arranged everything relating to the glory or advantage of his empire with the greatest prudence, and left scattered throughout Gaul, Italy, and Germany, traces of his munificence towards religion. The sweet odor of his heroic virtue spread far and wide, till he was more celebrated for his holiness than for his imperial dignity. At length his life’s work was accomplished and he was called by our Lord to the rewards of the heavenly kingdom, in the year of salvation, 1024. His body was buried in the Church of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul at Bamberg. God wished to glorify his servant, and many miracles were worked at his tomb. These being afterwards proved and certified, Eugenius III inscribed his name upon the catalogue of the Saints.

By me kings reign, by me princes rule. Thou, O Henry, didst well understand this language of heaven. In an age of wickedness, thou knewest where to find counsel and strength. Like Solomon thou didst desire wisdom alone, and like him thou didst experience that with her are riches and glory, glorious riches and justice; but more blessed than David’s son, thou didst not suffer thyself to be drawn away from Wisdom herself by those lower gifts, which were rather a test of thy love of God, than an expression of his love for thee. The test, O Henry, was decisive: thou didst walk to the very end in the right path, following up loyally every consequence of our Lord’s teaching; not content to mount, with many even of the best, by the gentler slopes, thou didst run with the perfect, following closely the footsteps of adorable Wisdom, in the midst of the paths of judgment.

Who can gainsay what God approves, what Christ counsels, what the Church has canonized in thee and thy noble spouse? Surely kings are not placed in so pitiable a condition that the call of the Man-God cannot reach them on their thrones? Christian equality requires that princes should not be less free than their subjects, to have high ambitions than those of earth. Thou didst prove to mankind that even for the world, the knowledge of the holy is true prudence. By claiming the right to the highest mansions in our Heavenly Father’s house (the baptismal birthright of every child of God), thou didst shine like a beacon-light under the darkest sky that ever overspread the Church; and thou didst rescue souls whom the salt of the earth, having lost its savor and being trodden under foot, could no longer preserve from corruption. It was not for thee in person to reform the sanctuary; but as chief servant of Mother Church, thou didst not fear to respect both her ancient laws and recent decrees, which are every worthy of the spouse, and holy as the Spirit who in every age dictates them. Thy reign was a period of sunshine before the satanic fury which was all too soon to break as a storm over the Church. While seeking first the Kingdom of God and his justice, thou didst not abandon thy fatherland, nor the nation that had placed thee at its head. To thee, above all others, Germany owes the establishment in her midst of that Empire which was her glory until in our times it fell, never to rise again. Long after thy departure from this earth, thy holy works were of sufficient weight in the scales of Divine justice to over-balance the crimes of a Henry IV or a Frederick II, which would have compromised forever the future of Germany. From thy throne in heaven, cast down a look of pity on thy extensive domain of the Holy Empire, which owed so much to thee, and which heresy has forever dismembered. Put to confusion those principles, unknown to Germany in happier days, which would reconstruct, for the benefit of earthly prosperity, the grandeurs of the past without the cement of the ancient faith. Return, O emperor of glorious days! return and fight for the Church; gather together the remains of Christendom upon the traditional ground of the interests common to all Catholic nations: then will the alliance, which thy able policy concluded, give to the world a security, a peace, a prosperity, which it can never enjoy so long as it remains on such a slippery footing, and exposed to the violence of every hostile agency.

[Image: henry-ii-tomb.jpg?resize=688%2C495&ssl=1]

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  Warren Buffett: ‘There will be another pandemic’ worse than COVID-19
Posted by: Stone - 07-15-2021, 09:31 AM - Forum: General Commentary - No Replies

Warren Buffett: ‘There will be another pandemic’ worse than COVID-19
Buffett’s prediction echoes Bill Gates warning in early 2021 that a future pandemic will be 'ten times worse.'

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July 12, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – Billionaire and pro-abortion philanthropist Warren Buffett has suggested a coming crisis worse than COVID-19, for which he believes society is unprepared.

According to the San Antonio Express News, on CNBC’s “Buffett & Munger: A Wealth of Wisdom” this week, Buffet warned, “We know that there is a nuclear, chemical, biological and now cyber threat. Each of them has dire possibilities.”

“It doesn't seem like it's something that society is fully prepared to deal with,” he said.

“I learned that people don't know as much as they think they do,” he continued. “But what is most learned is that the pandemic could be seen coming, and that this is not the worst that can be imagined.”

“Society has a hard time preparing for remote situations, which are possible and will happen sooner or later,” Buffett said.

Recently, the American billionaire Buffett retired from his position as the trustee of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. According to Forbes 2021 list, he is the sixth richest person in the world. Bill Gates is fourth in the list.

Similarly, in January 2021, Bill Gates predicted a future pandemic “10 times more serious” than COVID-19. Previously, he warned that pandemics could break out every 20 years.

Buffett’s comments are the latest warning from a host of political and global leaders of impending crises. In October 2019, then presidential candidate Joe Biden warned, “We are not prepared for a pandemic.”

Also in October 2019 the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation co-hosted “Event 201”, in which 15 global business, government, and public health leaders took part in a simulation exercise based on responding to an international “coronavirus” pandemic. The first report of COVID-19 subsequently occurred in November 2019.

In March 2021 global leaders called for a global pandemic treaty, purportedly in order to prevent future pandemics. Additionally, the 24 leaders predicted that there “will be other pandemics and other major health emergencies.”

Now, warnings about cyber-attacks are becoming more common. In July 2020 World Economic Forum (WEF) founder, Klaus Schwab, warned:

Quote:We all know, but still pay insufficient attention to, the frightening scenario of a comprehensive cyber attack, which would bring a complete halt to the power supply, transportation, hospital services, our society as a whole.

Schwab said that a COVID-19 crisis would be seen “as a small disturbance in comparison to a major cyber-attack.”

He hinted that COVID-19 should be used “as a timely opportunity to reflect on the lessons the cyber security can draw and improve our preparedness for a potential cyber pandemic.”

Last week the WEF hosted the “Cyber Polygon” event where “senior officials from international organisations and leading corporations” engaged in a simulated “targeted supply-chain attack.”

During the event Schwab said that “a lack of cybersecurity has become a clear and immediate danger to our society worldwide.”

“Citizens are feeling the repercussions of cyberattacks directly. Citizens are impacted by energy shortages, delayed medical treatment, and other effects this new breed of audacious cyberattacks causes,” he continued continued.

Again making the link between COVID-19 and potential future cyber attacks Schwab concluded his introductory speech for the event:

Quote:Finally, one of the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic is also the notion of resilience.

We have to protect ourselves not only against the virus, we also have to develop the ability to withstand a virus attack.

In other words, masks are not sufficient. We need vaccines to immunize ourselves.

The same is true for cyberattacks. Here, too, we have to move from simple protection to immunization.

We need to build IT infrastructures that have digital antibodies built-in inherently to protect themselves.

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  45 churches engulfed or attacked in ongoing anti-Christian terror campaign
Posted by: Stone - 07-15-2021, 09:18 AM - Forum: Anti-Catholic Violence - No Replies

45 churches engulfed or attacked in ongoing anti-Christian terror campaign

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Counter Signal | Jul 14

Terrorists are attacking and burning down churches across Canada with impunity.

It’s a reality most Canadians only thought possible for Middle Eastern countries like Syria, where ISIS has bombarded and razed dozens of Christian heritage sites in the name of Islam.

Now, after nearly six years of Liberals calling Canadians racist and fanning the flames of hatred, hate crimes are becoming commonplace against Christians in Canada. Things have gotten so bad that even our American neighbours are beginning to worry.

Rightly so.

The Counter Signal has kept a close eye on these terrorist attacks, reporting on the scene just hours after a fire in a refugee church.

Our information shows that since June, there have been 45 attacks on Christian and mainly Roman Catholic congregations. Of those, 17 of them have been scorched or burnt to a crisp in suspicious circumstances.

The fires and vandalism span six provinces and the Northwest Territories, some of which have been in the heartland of First Nations’ territory.



Churches serving Indigneous congregations like Saint kateri Tekakwitha on Spiekne’katik First Nations territory in Nova Scotia have not been spared the ire of the far-left terror campaign.

In fact, unlike the fake Catholic, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who sympathizes with the terrorists, First Nations elders and former residential school survivors have been some of the loudest voices calling for the attacks to end.

“There’s not many places on Siksika that you can point to that aren’t sacred. If anybody feels like they can come on the Siksika Nation and do any kind of damage or vandalism, they will be under surveillance,” said Chief of Siksika Nation Ouray Crowfoot on July 2.



This unprecedented anti-Catholic assault began soon after the unveiling of a residential school burial site in Kamloops, BC which was then followed by more unmarked grave discoveries at a former residential school site in Saskatchewan and elsewhere.

While the mainstream media refuses to call it what it is – a terror campaign – Christians are being forced to defend themselves or hire private security just to protect their holy places of worship.

The sole purpose of this full-fledged assault is to strike fear in ordinary Canadians who simply want to practice their faiths. Far-left shock troops are using First Nations tragedies to advance their political goals and normalize violence against Canadians.

Despite the deflection by the Liberal media corps, people are waking up to the hateful Marxist ideology shared by these terrorists and egged on by Canada’s progressive elites, and fortunately, more evidence is being uncovered to identify these terrorists and bring them to justice.

As I reported a few weeks ago, investigators found that the fire which burnt down the entire town of Lytton, BC was caused by a human. Now, new footage is beginning to surface revealing what everybody already realized – mostly white far-left radicals are behind these incidents.

Video footage by residents from West Kelowna recently captured a masked man tossing burning objects into the dry bush. While police have arrested the 36-year-old man responsible, they are protecting his identity.

Another video from July 2, shows two young women, one blonde and the other brunette splattering St Jude’s Parish in Vancouver with orange paint.

The truth is coming out and it's time for Canadians to demand justice and an end to the terror.

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  Prayer request for Tannersville, PA Coordinator
Posted by: SAguide - 07-14-2021, 01:03 PM - Forum: Appeals for Prayer - Replies (3)

Please pray for Joe's speedy recovery.

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  July 14th - St. Bonaventure, Cardinal and Doctor of the Church
Posted by: Stone - 07-14-2021, 07:47 AM - Forum: July - Replies (1)

July 14 – St Bonaventure, Cardinal & Doctor of the Church
Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger  (1841-1875)

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Four months after the Angel of the Schools, the Seraphic Doctor appears in the heavens. Bound by the ties of love when on earth, the two are now united forever before the Throne of God. Bonaventure’s own words will show us how great a right they both had to the heavenly titles bestowed upon them by the admiring gratitude of men.

As there are three hierarchies of Angels in heaven, so on earth there are three classes of the elect. The Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones, who form the first hierarchy, represent those who approach nearest to God by contemplation, and who differ among themselves according to the intensity of their love, the plenitude of their science, and the steadfastness of their justice; to the Dominations, Virtues, and Powers, correspond the prelates and princes; and lastly, the lowest choirs signify the various ranks of the faithful engaged in the active life. This is the triple division of men, which, according to St. Luke, will be made at the last day: Two shall be in the bed, two in the field, two at the mill; that is to say, in the repose of divine delights, in the field of government, at the mill of this life’s toil. As regards the two mentioned in each place, we may remark that in Isaias, the Seraphim, who are more closely united to God than the rest, perform two together their ministry of sacrifice and praise; for it is with the Angel as with man: the fullness of love, which belongs especially to the Seraphim, cannot be without the fulfillment of the double precept of charity towards God and one’s neighbor. Again our Lord sent His disciples two and two before His face; and in Genesis we find God sending two Angels where one would have sufficed. It is better therefore, says Ecclesiastes, that two should be together than one; for they have the advantage of their society.

Such is the teaching of Bonaventure in his book on the Hierarchy, wherein he shows us the secret workings of Eternal Wisdom for the salvation of the world and the sanctification of the elect. It would be impossible to understand aright the history of the thirteenth century, were we to forget the prophetic vision, wherein our Lady was seen presenting to her offended Son His two servants Dominic and Francis, that they might, by their powerful union, bring back to Him the wandering human race. What a spectacle for Angels when, on the morrow of the apparition, the two saints met and embraced: “Thou art my companion, we will run side by side,” said the descendant of the Gusmans to the poor man of Assisi; “let us keep together, and no man will be able to prevail against us.” These words might well have been the motto of their noble sons, Thomas and Bonaventure. The star which shone over the head of St. Dominic, shed its bright rays on Thomas; the Seraph who imprinted the stigmata in the flesh of St. Francis, touched with his fiery wing the soul of Bonaventure; yet both, like their incomparable fathers, had but one end in view: to draw men by science and love to that eternal life which consists in knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.

Both were burning and shining lamps, blending their flames in the heavens, in proportions which no mortal eye could distinguish here below; nevertheless, Eternal Wisdom has willed that the Church on earth should borrow more especially light from Thomas and fire from Bonaventure. Would that we might here show in each of them the workings of Wisdom, the one bond even on earth of their union of thoughts,—that Wisdom, who, ever unchangeable in her adorable unity, never repeats herself in the souls she chooses from among the nations to become the prophets and the friends of God. But today we must speak only of Bonaventure.

When quite a child, he was saved by St. Francis from imminent death; whereupon his pious mother offered him by vow to the Saint, promising that he should enter the order of Friars Minor. Thus, in the likeness of holy poverty, that beloved companion of the Seraphic Patriarch, did Eternal Wisdom prevent our Saint from his very cradle, showing herself first unto him. At the earliest awakening of his faculties he found her seated at the entrance of his soul, awaiting the opening of its gates, which are, he tells us, intelligence and love. Having received a good soul in an undefiled body, he preferred Wisdom before kingdoms and thrones, and esteemed riches nothing in comparison with the august friend, who offered herself to him in the glory of her nobility and beauty. From that first moment, without ever waning, she was his light. Peacefully as a sunbeam glancing through a hitherto closed window, Wisdom filled this dwelling, now become her own, as the bride on the nuptial day takes possession of the bridegroom’s house, filling it with joy, in community of goods, and above all of love.

For her contribution to the nuptial banquet, she brought the substantial brightness of heaven; Bonaventure on his part offered her the lilies of purity, so desired by her as her choicest food. Henceforth the feast in his soul was to be continual; and the light and the perfumes, breaking forth, were shed around, attracting, enlightening, and nourishing all. While still very young, he was, according to custom, sent, after the first years of his religious life, to the celebrated University of Paris, where he soon won all hearts by his angelic manners; and the great Alexander of Hales, struck with admiration at the union of so many qualities, said of him that it seemed as if in him Adam had not sinned. As a lofty mountain whose head is lost in the clouds, and from whose foot run fertilizing waters far and wide, Brother Alexander himself, according to the expression of the Sovereign Pontiff, seemed at that time to contain within himself the living fountain of Paradise, whence the river of science and salvation flowed over the earth. Nevertheless not only would he, the irrefragable Doctor, and the Doctor of doctors, give up his chair in a short time to the newcomer, but he would hereafter derive his greatest glory from being called father and master by that illustrious disciple (in II. Sent., dist. xxiii., art. 2, qu. 3, ad 7). Placed in such a position at so early an age, Bonaventure could say of Divine Wisdom, even more truly than of the great master who had had little to do but admire the prodigious development of his soul: “It is she that has taught me all things; she taught me the knowledge of God and of His works, justice and virtues, the subtleties of speeches and the solutions of arguments.”

Such indeed is the object of those Commentaries on the four Books of Sentences, first delivered as lectures from the chair of Paris, where he held the noblest intellects spellbound by his graceful and inspired language. This masterpiece, while it is an inexhaustible mine of treasures to the Franciscan family, bears so great testimony to the science of this doctor of twenty-seven years of age, that, though so soon called from his chair to the government of a great Order, he was worthy on account of this single work to share with his friend Thomas of Aquin, who was fortunately freer to pursue his studies, the honorable title of prince of Sacred Theology.

The young master already merited his name of Seraphic Doctor, by regarding science as merely a means to love, and declaring that the light which illuminates the mind is barren and useless unless it penetrates to the heart, where alone wisdom rests and feasts. St. Antoninus tells us also (in Chronicon partibus tribus distincta ab initio mundi ad MCCCLX, p. III., tit. xxiv., cap. 8), that in him every truth grasped by the intellect, passed through the affections, and thus became prayer and divine praise. “His aim,” says another historian, “was to burn with love, to kindle himself first at the divine fire, and afterwards to inflame others. Careless of praise or renown, anxious only to regulate his life and actions, he would fain burn and not only shine; he would be fire, in order to approach nearer to God by becoming more like to Him who is fire. Albeit, as fire is not without light, so was he also at the same time a shining torch in the House of God; but his special claim to our praise is, that all the light at his command he gathered to feed the flame of divine love.”

The bent of his mind was clearly indicated when, at the beginning of his public teaching, he was called upon to give his decision on the question then dividing the Schools: to some theology was a speculative, to others a practical science, according as they were more struck by the theoretical or the moral side of its teaching. Bonaventure, uniting the two opinions in the principle which he considered the one universal law, concluded that “Theology is an affective science, the knowledge of which proceeds by speculative contemplation, but aims principally at making us good.” For the wisdom of doctrine, he said, must be according to her name, something that can be relished by the soul; and he added (Prœmium in Sent. I, qu. 3), not without that gentle touch of irony which the saints know how to use: “There is a difference, I suppose, in the impressions produced by the proposition, Christ died for us, or the like, and by such as this: the diagonal and the side of a square cannot be equal to one another.” The graceful speech and profound science of our saint were enhanced by a beautiful modesty. He would conclude a difficult question thus (Sent. II., dist. xliv., art. 3, qu. 2, ad 6): “This is said without prejudice to the opinions of others. If anyone think otherwise, or better, as he may well do on this point as on all others, I bear him no ill-will; but if, in this little work, he find any thing deserving approval, let him give thanks to God, the Author of all good. Whatever, in any part, be found false, doubtful or obscure, let the kind reader forgive the incompetence of the writer, whose conscience bear him unimpeachable testimony that he has wished to say nothing but what is true, clear, and commonly received.” On one occasion, however, Bonaventure’s unswerving devotion to the Queen of Virgins modified with a gentle force his expression of humility: “If any one,” he says (Sent. IV, dist. xxviii., qu. 6, ad 5), “prefers otherwise, I will not contend with him, provided he say nothing to the detriment of the Venerable Virgin, for we must take the very greatest care, even should it cost us our life, that no one lessen in any way the honor of our Lady.” Lastly, at the end of the third book of this admirable Exposition of the Sentences, he declares (Sent. III, dist. xl., qu. 3, ad 6) that “charity is worth more than all science. It is enough, in doubtful questions, to know what the wise have taught; disputation is to little purpose. We talk much, and our words fail us. Infinite thanks be to the perfecter of all discourse, our Lord Jesus Christ, who taking pity on my poverty of knowledge and of genius, has enabled me to complete this moderate work. I beg of Him that it may procure me the merit of obedience, and may be of profit to my brethren: the twofold purpose for which the task was undertaken.”

But the time had come when obedience was to give place to another kind of merit, less pleasing to himself, but not less profitable to the brethren. At thirty-five years of age, he was elected Minister General. Obliged thus to quit the field of scholastic teaching, he entrusted it to his friend, Thomas of Aquin, who, younger by several years, was to cultivate it longer and more completely than he himself had been suffered. The Church would lose nothing by the change; for, Eternal Wisdom, who ordereth all things with strength and sweetness, thus disposed that these two incomparable geniuses, completing one another, should give us the fullness of that true science which not only reveals God, but leads to Him.

Give an occasion to the wise man, and wisdom shall be added to him. This sentence was placed by Bonaventure at the head of his treatise on “the Six Wings of the Seraphim,” wherein he sets forth the qualifications necessary for one called to the cure of souls; and well did he fulfil it in himself in the government of his immense Order, scattered by its missions throughout the whole Church. The treatise itself, which Father Claud Aquaviva held in such high estimation as to oblige the Superiors of the Society of Jesus to use it as a guide, furnishes us with a portrait of our Saint at this period. He had reached the summit of the spiritual life, where the inward peace of the soul is undisturbed by the most violent agitations from without; where the closeness of their union with God produces in the saints a mysterious fecundity, displayed to the world, when God wills, by a multiplicity of perfect works incomprehensible to the profane. Let us listen to Bonaventure’s own words: “The Seraphim exercise an influence over the lower orders, to draw them upwards; so the love of the spiritual man tends both to his neighbor and to God; to God that he may rest in Him; to his neighbor to draw him thither with himself. Not only then do they burn; they also give the form of perfect love, driving away darkness and showing how to rise by degrees, and to go to God by the highest paths.”

Such is the secret of that admirable series of opuscula, composed, as he owned to St. Thomas, without the aid of any book but his crucifix, without any preconceived plan, but simply as occasion required, at the request, or to satisfy the needs of the brethren and sisters of his large family, or again when he felt a desire of pouring out his soul. In these works Bonaventure has treated alike of the first elements of asceticism and of the sublimest subjects of the mystic life, with such fullness, certainty, clearness, and persuasive force, that Sixtus IV declared the Holy Spirit seemed to speak in him. On reading the Itinerary of the soul to God, which was written on the height of Alvernia, as it were under the immediate influence of the Seraphim, the Chancellor Gerson exclaimed (Epistolæ Fratri Minori. Lugd. an. 1426): “This opusculum, or rather this immense work, is beyond the praise of a mortal mouth.” And he wished it, together with that wonderful compendium of sacred science, the Breviloquium, to be imposed upon theologians as a necessary manual. “by his words,” says the great Abbot Trithemius in the name of the Benedictine Order, “the author of all these learned and devout works inflames the will of the reader no less than he enlightens his mind. Not the spirit of divine love and Christian devotion in his writings, and you will easily see that he surpasses all the doctors of his time in the usefulness of his works. Many expound doctrine, many preach devotion, few teach the two together; Bonaventure surpasses both the many and the few, because he trains to devotion by science, and to science by devotion. If then you would be both learned and devout, you must put his teaching in practice.”

But Bonaventure himself will tell us best the proper dispositions for reading him with profit. At the beginning of his Incendium amoris, wherein he teaches the three ways, purgative, illuminative, and unitive, which lead to true wisdom, he says: “I offer this book not to philosophers, not to the worldly-wise, not to great theologians perplexed with endless questions, but to the simple and ignorant who strive rather to love God than to know much. It is not by disputing, but by activity, that we learn to love. As to these men full of questions, superior in every science, but inferior in the love of Christ, I consider them incapable of understanding the contents of this book; unless putting away all vain show of learning, they strive, by humble self-renunciation, prayer, and meditation, to kindle within them the divine spark, which, inflaming their hearts and dispelling all darkness, will lead them beyond the concerns of time even to the throne of peace. Indeed by the very fact of their knowing more, they are better disposed to love, or at least they would be, if they truly despised themselves and could rejoice to be despised by others.”

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Although these pages are already too long, we cannot resist quoting the last words left us by St. Bonaventure. As the Angel of the School was soon, at Fossa Nova, to close his labors and his life with the explanation of the Canticle of Canticles, so his seraphic rival and brother tuned his last notes to these words of the sacred Nuptial Song: “King Solomon has made him a litter of the wood of Libanus: The pillars thereof he made of silver, the seat of gold, the going-up of purple.” “The seat of gold,” added our Saint, “is contemplative wisdom; it belongs to those alone who possess the column of silver, i.e. the virtues which strengthen the soul; the going-up of purple is the charity whereby we ascend to the heights and descend to the valleys.”

It is a conclusion worthy of Bonaventure, the close of a sublime but incomplete work, which he had not even time to put together himself. “Alas! alas! alas!” cries out with tears the loving disciple to whom we owe this last treasure, “a higher dignity, and then the death of our lord and master prevented the continuation of this work.” And then showing us, in a touching manner, the precautions taken by the sons lest they should lose anything of their father’s conferences: “What I here give,” he says, “is what I could snatch by writing rapidly while he was speaking. Two others took notes at the same time, but their papers are scarcely legible; whereas several of the audience were able to read my copy, and the master himself and many others made use of it; a fact for which I deserve some gratitude. And now at length, permission and time having been given to me, I have revised these notes, with the voice and gestures of the master ever in my ear and before my eyes; I have arranged them in order, without adding anything to what he said, except the indication of certain authorities.”

The dignity mentioned by the faithful secretary is that of Cardinal Bishop of Albano. After the death of Clement IV, and the succeeding three years of widowhood for the Church, our Saint, by his influence with the Sacred College, had obtained the election of Gregory X, who now imposed upon him in virtue of obedience the honor of the Cardinalate. Having been entrusted with the work of preparation for the Council of Lyons, convened for the Spring of 1274, Bonaventure had the joy of assisting at the reunion of the Latin and Greek Churches, which he, more than anyone else, had been instrumental in obtaining. But God spared him the bitterness of seeing how short-lived the reunion was to be: a union which would have been the salvation of that East which he loved, and where his name, translated into Eutychius, was still in veneration two centuries later at the Council of Florence. On the 15th of July of that year, 1274, in the midst of the Council, and presided at by the Sovereign Pontiff himself, took place the most solemn funeral the world has ever witnessed. “I grieve for thee, my brother Jonathan,” cried out before that mourning assembly gathered from East and West, the Dominican Cardinal Peter of Tarentaise. After fifty-three years spent in this world, the Seraph had cast of his robe of flesh, and spreading his wings had gone to join Thomas of Aquin, who had by a very short time preceded him to heaven.

There are only two proper lessons consecrated to St. Bonaventure, but the elegant conciseness with which much is said in few words somewhat compensates for their shortness.

Quote:Bonaventure was born at Bagnorea, in Tuscany. During his childhood his life was once endangered, and his mother vowed that if her son survived she would consecrate him to God in the Order of Blessed Francis. On this account, while still a youth, Bonaventure begged to be admitted among the Friars Minors. He had for master Alexander Hales, and became in a short time so eminent in learning that at the end of seven years he publicly, in Paris, explained the books of the Sentences, with great applause. Later on he published also excellent commentaries on the same book. After the lapse of six years, he was elected Minister General of his Order, at Rome, and he became the object of universal praise and admiration by the prudence and sanctity he displayed in the fulfillment of this office.

He wrote many works which, combining the greatest learning with the most ardent piety, at once instruct and move the reader. Urged by the renown of his sanctity and wisdom, Gregory X made him Cardinal Bishop of Albano. He was, while still living, called a Saint by Blessed Thomas of Aquin, who, finding him one day writing the life of St. Francis, said: “Let us allow one saint to labor for another.” Bonaventure departed this life on the day before the Ides of July, at the Council of Lyons, being fifty-three years of age. He performed many miracles, and was added to the number of the saints by the Sovereign Pontiff, Sixtus IV.

Thou hast entered, O Bonaventure, into the joy of thy Lord, and what must thy happiness be now, since, as thou thyself didst say: “By how much a man loves God on earth, by so much does he rejoice in him in heaven?” If the great St. Anselm, from whom thou didst borrow that word, added, that love is proportioned to knowledge, O thou, who wast at the same time a prince of sacred science and the doctor of love, show us how all light, in the order of grace and of nature, is intended to lead us to love. God is hidden in everything; Christ is the center of every science; and the fruit of each of them is to build up faith, to honor God, to regulate our life, and to lead to divine union by charity without which all knowledge is vain. For, as thou didst say, all the sciences have their fixed and infallible rules, which come down to our soul as so many reflections of the eternal law; and our soul, surrounded and penetrated with such brightness, is led, of her own accord, unless she is blind, to contemplate that eternal light. Wonderful light, reflected from the mountains of our fatherland into the furthermost valleys of our exile! In the eyes of the Seraphic Father Francis the world was truly noble, so that he called, as thou tellest us, even the lowest creatures by the name of brothers and sisters; by the traces left in creation by its Author he found his Beloved everywhere, and he made of them a ladder whereby to ascend to him.

Do thou, too, O my soul, open thine eyes, bend thine ear, unlock thy lips, and prepare thy heart, that in every creature thou mayest see thy God, hear him, praise him, love him, and honor him, lest the whole universe rise up against thee for not rejoicing in the works of his hands. Then from the world beneath thee, which has but the shadow of God and his presence, inasmuch as he is everywhere, pass on to thyself, his image by nature, reformed in Christ the Bridegroom. From the image rise to the truth of the first Beginning, in unity of Essence and trinity of Persons, that thou mayest attain the repose of that sacred night where both the shadow and the image are forgotten in an all-absorbing love. But first of all thou must know that the mirror of the external world will avail thee little, unless the interior mirror of thy soul be purified and bright, unless thy desire be aided by prayer and contemplation in order to kindle love. Know that here, reading without unction, speculation without devotion, labor without piety, knowledge without charity, intelligence without humility, study without grace, are nothing; and when at length, rising gradually by prayer, holiness of life, and the contemplation of truth, thou shalt have reached the mountain where the God of gods reveals himself, taught by the powerlessness of thy sight here on earth to endure splendors of which nature was too feeble to give thee an indication, let thy blind intelligence remain asleep, pass beyond it in Christ, who is the gate and the way, question no longer the master but the Bridegroom, not man but God, not the light but the all-consuming fire; pass from this world with Christ to the Father, who will be shown to thee, and then say with Philip: “It is enough for us.”

O Seraphic Doctor, lead us by this sublime ascent, of which every line of thy works discloses the secrets, the toils, the beauties, and the dangers. In the pursuit of that Divine Wisdom, which even in its feeblest reflections, no one can behold without ecstasy, guard us against mistaking for an end the satisfaction felt from the scanty rays sent down to us to draw us from the confusion of nothingness even to Itself. If these rays which proceed from the eternal Beauty be withdrawn from their focus and perverted from their object, there will be nothing but delusion, deception, vain knowledge, or false pleasures. Indeed, the more lofty the knowledge and the nearer it approaches to God as the object of speculative theory, the more in a certain sense is error to be feared. If a man in his progress towards true wisdom, which is possessed and relished for its own sake, is drawn aside by the charms of knowledge, and rests therein, thou, O Bonaventure, hesitatest not to compare such knowledge to a vile deceiver, who would withdraw the affections of the king’s son from his noble betrothed to fix them upon herself. Such an insult to an august queen would be equally grievous whether offered by a servant or by a lady of honor. Hence thou didst declare that “the passage from science to wisdom is dangerous, unless holiness intervene.” Help us to cross the perilous pass; let science ever be to us a means of attaining sanctity and acquiring greater love.

Thou hast still, O Bonaventure, the same thoughts in the light of God. Witness the predilection thou hast more than once shown in our time, for those centers , where, in spite of the fever of activity which must needs keep in motion every force of nature, divine contemplation is still appreciated as the better part, as the only end and aim of all knowledge. Deign to continue thy protection of thy devout and grateful clients. Defend, as heretofore, the life and prerogatives of all religious Orders which are now so persecuted. To thy own Franciscan family be still a cause of increase both in numbers and in sanctity; bless the labors undertaken by it, to the joy of all the world, to bring the light as they deserve thy history and thy works. Bring back the East a third time to unity and life, and that forever. May the whole Church be warmed by thy rays; may the divine fire thou didst so effectually nurture, enkindle the earth anew!

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  Well-sourced commentary from Navy Officer on Covid Vaccines in the Military
Posted by: Stone - 07-14-2021, 07:42 AM - Forum: COVID Vaccines - No Replies

From ThreadReaderApp (slightly adpated) - July 10, 2021


Melquíades

I'm a naval officer who's spent the last 15 years on active duty. I'm now potentially facing forcible discharge if I won't submit to taking the COVID vaccine. Here's a thread on just what a scandal that is. All data claims will be linked.

??
Last week the Army released an EXORD (execute order) telling its troops to prepare for mandatory vaccination in September. Though he has the authority, it's not likely the President will mandate vaccination without full FDA approval, so look out for that development.
Here's a link to the story: armytimes.com/news/pentagon-…

The directive came from an execute order sent to the force by Department of the Army Headquarters.

The Department of Defense (DoD) will assuredly move as a whole, meaning all branches will require vaccination on the same schedule.

I've spoken to two command chaplains regarding religious exemption (I'm a Christian abortion abolitionist and cells from aborted children were used in the vaccines' development), and am told exemptions won't likely be granted.

So, my choices are vaccination and forcible discharge.

We're just a few years removed from the military's mandatory anthrax vaccine debacle, and here's hoping the administration remembers what a disaster that was.

Numerous service members were harmed by a vaccine they didn't need; many more had their careers cut short, were dishonorably discharged, court martialed, and even imprisoned for their refusal to get the shot. Here's a good retrospective: Troops who refused anthrax vaccine paid a high price

So let's take a look at the rationale behind the forthcoming DoD mandate. By their own accounting (as of two days ago) 202,567 active duty service members have had COVID, of whom 26 have died.

Even allowing for the absurdist definition of a "COVID fatality" (death for whatever reason within 28 days of a positive RT-PCR test run to 40+ cycles), for military personnel, COVID has a better than 99.987% survival rate.

Here's the DoD's own statistics page: Coronavirus: DOD Response

Here's the plain truth: COVID-19 is utterly inconsequential to the military. Don't get me wrong: our response to it has been anything but inconsequential.

We've halted training, destroyed unit cohesion and morale, strapped worthless pieces of cloth over everyone's faces for the last year, and spectacularly destroyed our warfighting readiness in the name of COVID, but the pathogen itself is meaningless.

I defy you to find a group of 2 million US adults at lower risk from COVID. It doesn't exist. We are overwhelmingly young, fit, and free of comorbidities. Compared to other causes of death, COVID isn't even on the radar.

Between 2006 and 2021, roughly 400 service members died annually of accidents. 300 committed suicide. More than 200 died of random illnesses and injuries. Here are the DoD data: fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec…

Over 1,000 service members were killed on motorcycles between 1999 and 2012, yet we still permit their use. Here are the Army data: phc.amedd.army.mil/PHC%20Resource…

Beyond the laughably insignificant threat posed by COVID to the force, consider the aggressively unintelligent plan to expose the entire force to a drug with zero long-term safety data.

What if there are short-, mid-, and long-term negative effects? Who will defend the nation once the entire force is compromised?

There's a reason drug trials always contain a control group, yet the political appointees and Flag and General Officers running our military seem perfectly willing to potentially jeopardize 100% of the force in the name of political agreeability.

We do a lot of talking about "forceful backup" and "warrior toughness," but you won't hear a word from that cadre of esteemed "yes" men motivated by varying mixtures of a desire to get promoted and a fear of getting fired.

For those who'll respond with "But you've taken plenty of vaccines in the military." You're right. I have. And the FDA's multi-year safety data were available for each. Not so for this vaccine.

There's a reason we maintain Material Safety Data Sheets on all hazardous chemicals on ships. Or would you tell our Sailors, "You volunteered. Now shut up and stick your hand in that acid"? Sure hope not.

And for those who'll invariably respond with "George Washington forced all his troops to be inoculated against smallpox," that's cute. Be sure to follow it up with "For every 1 soldier lost to action with the British, 10 died of disease."

Offer me an experimental drug for a pathogen that kills 10x more soldiers than bullets during time of war and I might have a different reaction.

In sum, we've learned to live with countless threats infinitely more serious than COVID, and all without resorting to extreme measures. COVID, however, is different.

This thread until now has merely demonstrated how absurd the argument for mandatory vaccination is. From this point on, I'll explain why I think the argument is being made despite its absurdity.

Remember if you can the 2020 election. We haven't seen anything as contentious or as unusual in a lifetime. Whatever your politics (I genuinely don't care), the fact remains that roughly half the electorate is convinced that something fishy happened around November 3rd.

Whether you believe the theories around ballot manipulation, burst pipes in Atlanta, etc., the interference in elections by several state governors and subsequent top cover from various wings of the judiciary are matters of fact, not opinion.

The Constitution clearly states that state legislatures wield authority in conducting elections. Here's the Constitution: 
https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI_S4_C1_1_1_1_1/

Still, governors in numerous key states appropriated this authority to themselves, mailing unsolicited ballots, extending deadlines, suspending or weakening signature verification, etc.

Various courts nearly universally permitted their usurpations, reasoning that, if everyone is sufficiently scared of a virus, the Constitution can be disregarded.

Why do I mention the election? Is it sour grapes over who won the White House? Not a chance. I've served under four Presidents, and I don't much care who's in the Oval Office.

Given the chance, I'll serve under a couple more, whoever they are. One of America's great marvels is the constancy of its military, no matter which party is in power.

I mention the 2020 election because it and COVID policy are inextricably intertwined. Despite the glaring unconstitutionality of what happened during the election, if enough of the populace are convinced that the situation really was dire enough to warrant suspending the Constitution (without actually saying so), then what happened during the election can be permitted.

This position, however, cannot withstand dissent. It requires absolute fealty, particularly from the Armed Forces. And how do you prove your allegiance to this narrative? By rolling up your sleeve.

You'd have to be genuinely convinced of the existential threat posed by this virus to volunteer for an experimental vaccine for which no one - not the pharmaceutical giants nor the government mandating its acceptance - is liable in case things go wrong. That's real faith.

Failure to volunteer for vaccination - to say nothing of refusal of mandated vaccination - is the sort of rebellion that cannot be tolerated. Those who question the reality of the COVID apocalypse are dangerous insider threats who must be purged from the ranks.

Consider that a great majority of those resistant to vaccination are Republicans. Mandating vaccination is an admittedly brilliant strategy for purging them from the force, all in the name of public health.

Rather than calling them what they really are (ideological threats), they can be removed on the grounds that they are biological threats. Here's reporting on the political disparity on vaccinations from a government-funded news organization: Poll Finds Startling Difference in Vaccinations Among US Republicans and Democrats

The rest of COVID policy, too, is tied to acceptance of the official narrative. That is, if COVID really wasn't the world-ending catastrophe it was made out to be, several of the highest-ranking public officials would have to answer for the effects of their edicts:

economic disaster, unemployment, spikes in suicides, increases in crime rates, domestic violence, substance abuse, etc. All can be forgiven if COVID was worse. If it wasn't, however, people have blood on their hands, and that's a conversation they'd rather not have.

In the end, I'm just a guy who wants to keep serving his nation, providing for his family, contributing to his community, and minding his own business.

I know a lot of people say this, but those who've worn the uniform know it to be true: it really is an honor to serve all of you.

For the last 15 years I've sacrificed or risked my comfort, my safety, and my life on a handful of oceans and in various sandy spots to support and defend the Constitution and ensure the welfare of people who'll retweet this and despise it alike.

Whichever you choose, it's why I put on the uniform everyday. Here's hoping I get to keep doing it so you get to keep doing it.

Here's this thread all in one place.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1413705439901069314.html

Obligatory disclaimer: I don't speak for the Navy, rather as a citizen who serves in the Navy. Views entirely mine.

It seems this thread is taking off. It also seems @TuckerCarlson is reading long Twitter threads on air. If there's any chance we can shine more light on this issue, feel free to tweet this at him. The careers of a lot of exceptional service members hang in the balance.

Perhaps @RealCandaceO might be interested given her concern for informed consent.

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  CONFIRMED: UK’s Return To ‘Freedom’ Will See Continued Use Of Masks, Tracking And Passports
Posted by: Stone - 07-14-2021, 07:25 AM - Forum: COVID Passports - Replies (1)

CONFIRMED: UK’s Return To ‘Freedom’ Will See Continued Use Of Masks, Government Tracking And Introduction of Vaccine Passports
It’s the complete antithesis of freedom

Summit News | 13 July, 2021

After weeks of denying that vaccine passports would be introduced into everyday domestic life in the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Monday that the government will ask nightclubs, pubs, and anywhere where people gather to adopt the measure ‘as a matter of social responsibility’.



The announcement was again completely vague, with little details on exactly what venues will be made to use the NHS COVID app system as “a means of entry,” or how it will be managed and enforced.

The only details that were given by ministers are that it will be ‘encouraged’ anywhere where people are “likely to be in close proximity to others outside their household.”

So everywhere then.



Government guidelines, published Monday also state that if sufficient measures are not taken to limit infection, the Government will “consider mandating certification in certain venues at a later date.”



The announcement also comes on the heels of the government suggesting that while face masks and distancing measures will become optional, businesses and transport companies will be encouraged to make their own policies.



In addition, the NHS ‘Test, Trace & Isolate’ system will also remain in place, meaning that people will still be subject to spontaneous house arrest orders.

The government documents state that “Test, Trace and Isolate has an important ongoing role in managing the virus and reduces the risk of potentially dangerous variants spreading.”

“The Government expects the Test, Trace and Isolate system will remain necessary through the autumn and winter,” it adds.

The guidance also states that “Anyone who tests positive will still need to self-isolate regardless of their vaccination status. Further details will be published in due course and the changes are likely to come into effect later in the summer.”

The Prime Minster also stated Monday that the Government will keep Covid data under review “probably, I’m afraid, into next year” adding that he “will not hesitate” to re-impose restrictions if needed.

The series of ‘freedom’ announcements has left journalists, business owners, MPs, and the general population asking what exactly they are being freed from.



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  WHO To Release Guidelines for Digital Vaccine Passport, Chief Scientist Says
Posted by: Stone - 07-14-2021, 07:19 AM - Forum: COVID Passports - No Replies

WHO To Release Guidelines for Digital Vaccine Passport, Chief Scientist Says

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TH |  Jul 13, 2021

Chief Scientist at the World Health Organization (WHO) Soumya Swaminathan stated in a media briefing on COVID-19 on Monday that the organization "is in the process of coming out with the standards for the digital certification of vaccination," and that the group "wants to make sure that these certificates are interoperable between countries across national borders."

These guidelines will be published in the next week to 10 days, according to Swaminathan.



The hope is that countries will adopt these standards alongside their own certification methods.

However, vaccine passports shouldn't be used to prevent or permit "travel or entry, because it's essentially then a very inequitable situation." Therefore, Swaminathan says, "the WHO does not promote the use of vaccine passports."

"I think there are also guidelines on how countries can adapt their quarantine procedures and other procedures if people are vaccinated versus those who have a RT-PCR negative certification."

Though Swaminathan said the WHO does not promote vaccine passports, she closed by saying the following: "the bottom line is yes we will have the guidelines very soon and the standards for the digital certification and we encourage all countries to adopt those because it's good to have an interoperable certificate."

Executive director of the WHO's Health Emergencies Programme, Michael Ryan, said in this same meeting that the WHO is "working to increase the distribution of the paper versions of our international certificate of vaccination," and that they are also "developing a digital wallet that could be used for the same purpose...issuing much more data standards for countries to generate their own digital vaccination certificates."

Last year, the World Health Organization went along with China's lies and deflected the reality of Covid to protect China.

Because of this, many are calling the WHO a compromised body that no longer serves its stated end goals.

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  France rolls out mandatory vaccine proof in all cultural centers, via ‘health pass'
Posted by: Stone - 07-13-2021, 09:24 AM - Forum: COVID Passports - Replies (4)

French President Sets Stricter Health Rules; Cannes Festival Unaffected by New Orders

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Variety (emphasis mine) | July 12, 2021

French president Emmanuel Macron has announced new health rules to contain the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19. The country is currently hosting the Cannes Film Festival with several thousands of guests from all around the world.

The key measure announced by Macron will make the EU Digital Covid Certificate — commonly called “health pass” — mandatory in all cultural venues, including cinemas, theaters and concert halls starting on July 21. Starting in August, the health pass will be mandatory in cafes, shops, restaurants, as well as trains and planes, among other places.

The pass launched on July 1 and is meant to facilitate travel within Europe and ease the pressure for multiple tests by allowing people to receive a QR code once they get tested or vaccinated and use it as official proof. So far, the certificate was only required at festivals and any events gathering more than 5,000 people, such as Cannes. The festival made it mandatory for all guests to show the health pass upon entering the Palais, where many screenings are taking place, and the Marché du Film. U.K. and U.S. participants, who don’t have access to the health pass, have had to show a negative PCR test and get tested every 48 hours during the fest, but they were able to attend gala screenings in the Lumiere and the Debussy theaters because they are actual cinemas.

Macron is also making the vaccine mandatory for all doctors, nurses and caregivers, as well as people with health conditions or those considered “vulnerable.”

“As I’m talking now, our country is confronted with a strong uptake of the pandemic which is impacting all of France, including its overseas territories,” said Macron. “As long as the virus will continue circulating, we will be confronted with this situation. The rise of the Delta variant is seen through an increase of contaminations everywhere in the world because this variant is three times more contagious than the first strain,” added Macron.

“New restrictions have been enforced in Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands to face this new variant. In Asia, new lockdown measures have been taken,” added Macron.


Over at Cannes, the general secretary Francois Desrousseaux squashed rumors swirling around the festival about skyrocketing coronavirus cases. He told Variety Friday that there was no COVID-19 cluster and that “out of several thousand people getting testing here on a daily basis, there are an average of three cases per day.”

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  Third Apparition of Our Lady at Fatima - July 13, 2021
Posted by: Stone - 07-13-2021, 09:03 AM - Forum: Our Lady - Replies (5)

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Gratefully adapted from this Our Lady of Fatima Chapel email:

In honor of [today's] commemoration of the Blessed Virgin's third apparition at Fátima, we provide the following account of this most important message which served as a vital warning to our current world in crisis.


July 13th, 1917

It was during the torrid days of July, the month consecrated to Christ's Most Precious Blood, that Our Lady of Fatima visited the little shepherds for the third time. The immense importance of this visit cannot be overestimated, for at this time, the Blessed Virgin revealed her Message for the World. We take the following account from The Whole Truth About Fatima; Volume I, by Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité.

At the Cova da Iria on July 13, 1917, a crowd estimated at between one and two thousand were gathered. Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta knelt before the scrubby little holm oak where Our Lady appeared. In her account, Lúcia relates that in answer to her question, “What does Your Grace want of me?”

Our Lady replied:

“I want you to come here on the 13th of next month, and to continue praying the Rosary every day in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, because only she can help you.”

When Lúcia asked her to perform a miracle so that all would believe, Our Lady responded,

“Continue to come here every month. In October, I will tell you who I am and what I want, and I will perform a miracle for all to see and believe.”

Our Lady continued:

“Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially when you make some sacrifice: ‘O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. “


From Sr. Lúcia’s account:
Quote:“As Our Lady spoke these last words, she opened Her hands once more, as she had done during the two previous months. The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. (It must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me.) The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals.”

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Here, in her Third Memoir, Sr. Lúcia added:

Quote:“This vision only lasted a moment, thanks to our good Mother in heaven who, in the first apparition, had promised to take us to heaven. Were it not for that, I believe we would have died out of fright and fear. Terrified and as if to plead for succor, we looked up at Our Lady, who said to us, so kindly and so sadly" :

“You have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end, but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the reign of Pius XI.

When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that He is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine and persecutions against the Church and the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.

If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions against the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated.

In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a certain period of peace will be granted to the world. In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved, etc. [This marks the third part of the secret, not yet not revealed] Do not tell this to anybody. Francisco, yes, you may tell him.

When you say the Rosary, say after each mystery: O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fire of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are most in need.“

While this was going on, Ti Marto relates, the crowd was so silent that you could have heard a pin drop. And, like Maria Carreira and some other witnesses, Mr. Marto, who was very near the seers, perceived an unintelligible murmur: “then I began to hear a sound, a little buzzing rather like a mosquito in an empty bottle. But I couldn’t hear any words!” This mysterious murmur was heard by only a few witnesses.

However, two other unusual phenomena were noticed by a much greater number: The luminosity of the sky noticeably decreased, as during an eclipse, the whole time the ecstasy of the children lasted. At the same time, the temperature, which was very hot, went down noticeably, and the tint of the light was modified. The atmosphere became yellow as gold. In addition, a whitish cloud, rather pleasant to look at, formed around the seers. Here is the testimony of Mr. Marto:

“I saw what looked like a little greyish cloud resting on the oak tree, and the sun’s heat lessened and there was a delicious fresh breeze. It hardly seemed like the height of summer.”


THE TWO-FOLD MESSAGE OF JULY 13

In the cycle of apparitions, this one on July 13 is a watershed moment. The previous apparitions, including the Angel’s visits, prepared for this one and this apparition is essential for understanding the subsequent ones. For it was on this day, as Lúcia relates, that Our Lady deigned to reveal to us the Secret.

So true is this that the message of July 13 appears to us very clearly divided into two parts:

The first - there are the words which were divulged immediately. And the second - the long text of the secret which the seers carefully kept hidden. However, what is important is that the two parts of the message are very closely connected.

The great novelty of this apparition, the decisive word which would attract innumerable crowds to the Cova da Iria for the last three months, is the announcement of a great miracle.

Lúcia requested of Our Lady:

” … tell us who you are, and to work a miracle so that all may believe that you are appearing to us.” Although the request of Lucia reminds us of Bernadette’s request, the response of Our Lady is very different: At Lourdes, when Bernadette followed the advice of Father Peyramale and asked her to make the rosebush in the grotto bloom, Our Lady was content to smile. In this case, and here is the decisive, prodigious event, she accedes to her request:

“Continue to come each month. In October, I will say who I am and what I want; and I will work a miracle so that all may believe.”

Thus she announced three months in advance the place, day and hour of the promised great miracle. It was a clear promise, without any condition or the least ambiguity. On August 19th and September 13th, Our Lady repeated it in the same terms. Never before had heaven shown such condescension to the demands of men, to guarantee for them with certitude the truth of a message. Already, by this solid link between the prophecy and the miracle, the event of Fatima is unheard of, incomparable.

Our Lady made this announcement of the miracle so that all will believe, immediately before revealing to the three seers her great prophetic secret. This was to make them understand, in all clarity, that the miracle would guarantee the divine origin of the secret, as well as the fulfillment of this prophetic secret. Thus the great miracle of October 13th was closely associated, by the Blessed Virgin Herself, not only with the whole of her message, but especially with the prophetic secret of July 13th.

It was when Our Lady opened Her hands again as in the two previous months, that the children had the vision of hell. This month, no doubt the Blessed Virgin remained in this attitude while she revealed the secret. And the supernatural light which they received then was not limited to the vision of hell. Once again, as on May 13th and June 13th, they enjoyed a sort of vision of God as Sr. Lúcia reports:

“Francisco seemed to be the one on whom the vision of hell made the least impression, though it did indeed have quite a considerable effect on him. What made the most powerful impression on him and what wholly absorbed him was God, the Most Holy Trinity, perceived in that light which penetrated our inmost souls.

Afterwards Francisco said: ‘We were on fire in that light which is God, and yet we were not burnt! What is God? …We could never put it into words. Yes, that is something indeed which we could never express! But what a pity it is that He is so sad! If only I could console Him!’"

This great sorrow of God, which reveals to us His Fatherly Heart, outraged by our sins, and as it were overwhelmed by the chastisements which these sins justly draw down upon us, profoundly marked the soul of Francisco during the first three apparitions. He never forgot it, and his whole ideal would be to pray and sacrifice himself to ‘console God.


THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

The apparition of July 13th also marks the high point of the revelation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the center and very heart of the whole message. The three apparitions of the Angel, followed by those of Our Lady on May 13th and June 13th, had prepared this revelation which the great secret expresses in all its fullness. But it is a remarkable fact that in the last three apparitions there is no more mention of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This great design of divine mercy for the salvation of the world would not be unveiled until later…

That is why, on July 13th, Our Lady solemnly announced that she would come back. She kept her promise and returned on December 10th, 1925 at Pontevedra, to manifest once again her Immaculate Heart pierced with thorns, and to request the practice of the communion of reparation on the five First Saturdays of the month. And she came back again, on June 13th, 1929, at Tuy, to ask for the consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart.

Russia? On July 13th, Lúcia did not yet know what this word meant. Yet she always affirmed having heard the word Russia. Similarly, she is sure of having heard no reinado de Pio XI. "We did not know if it was a Pope or a king", she confided to Father Jongen in 1946, "but the most Holy Virgin spoke of Pius XI." As for the announcement of a night illumined by an unknown light, it was fulfilled to the letter during the night of January 25th, 1938.

Let us point out here, since it is important for critical purposes, what perfect harmony there is between the two parts of the message, that which was divulged immediately, and that which remained secret a long time. The convergence of themes, which marks the profound unity of the same message pronounced by the Blessed Virgin the same day, is striking.


"ONLY SHE CAN HELP YOU"

Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité:

Quote:The secret of the secret is that God wills to give us everything through the mediation of the Blessed Virgin, in response to our devotion to Her Immaculate Heart, not only spiritual goods but even temporal peace, and this for the whole world. Has anyone noticed that one of the words of Our Lady, faithfully reported by Lúcia to her parish priest the next day, has the same vigor, the same exclusivity? "Continue to pray the Rosary every day… to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, for only she can help you." It is equivalent to saying: there is no salvation for us except from Jesus through the Blessed Virgin; this was already the essential core of the secret of Fatima which was disclosed as early as July, 1917.

Frère Michel continues:

Quote:THE OBSESSIVE FEAR FOR THE SALVATION OF SOULS - which is the other key of the secret, with its terrible first part, the gripping vision of hell, was clearly manifested at the very moment of the apparition, inscribed on the faces of the seers. All the witnesses in fact noticed the great sorrow which suddenly overwhelmed them. Those who were very near were very much moved by the sudden cry which fell from the lips of Lúcia. "At this moment", says Ti Marto, "Lúcia took a deep breath, went as pale as death, and we heard her cry out in terror to Our Lady, calling her by name."

[Image: 687557b3-4721-4b04-93be-5fed5984ba4a.png]
Photograph after the Vision of Hell

Is it not this same fright, distorting their faces, which is still visible on the photograph of the three seers taken by Mario Godinho, a few minutes after the apparition?

It was also on July 13th that Our Lady revealed the only two prayers she taught the children, the one just before the secret, to invite them to sacrifice, and the other right after, to complete each decade of the Rosary. These are two very brief formulas, which show once again the humility and also the great pedagogy of the Virgin Mary. They are almost ejaculatory prayers which can easily come unceasingly to our lips. They are two precious pearls which, in a few words, synthesize the whole essence of Her message…


Quote:AN URGENT SUPPLICATION FOR THE SALVATION OF SOULS

Right after the end of the secret, Our Lady continued:

“When you say the Rosary, say after each mystery: ‘O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fire of hell; lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need.”

O MY JESUS

The two prayers taught by Our Lady are addressed to Her Son, to Jesus Christ our Savior. This alone suffices to destroy the calumnies of the reformists opposed to Fatima under the fallacious pretext that her message is not Christo-centric enough! What an error! At Fatima, Our Lady willed to add to the Rosary, the great prayer in her honor this short invocation addressed to Jesus the Savior. Inserted between the Gloria Patri to the Holy Trinity, the Our Fathers and the Aves, which supplicate God our Father and our Blessed Mother in heaven, this little prayer enlarges the divine horizon of our Rosary.


FORGIVE US

The thought of our sin, this sin so profoundly rooted in us and which threatens to cause our ruin, is present everywhere in the message of Fatima. There is not one of the nine apparitions of the Angel and the most Blessed Virgin which does not make some allusion to sin. Each of the four prayers taught to us, brief as they are, all make some mention of it. This prayer, which is no exception, echoes the litany of Paters and Aves: Forgive us our trespasses (the Our Father), and pray for us sinners (the Hail Mary).


DELIVER US FROM THE FIRE OF HELL

This supplication, the most urgent, refers of course to the vision of hell. The concrete evocation of its terrifying fire was willed expressly to call to mind the description of hell sketched by Lúcia. Yes, it is willed by Our Lady, who is the sovereign teacher, that this word hell will always remind us of this devouring fire, which most exactly expresses its terrible reality. [Editor’s note: this was also a warning against the heretical notion that hell is empty that is so prevalent today.]

Livrai nos do fogo do inferno!’ The expression is strong and vigorous, and deliberately so. Not only ‘preserve us’, but more exactly, ‘deliver us’! It makes explicit the last request of the Our Father, with the same verb, but ‘deliver us from evil’. This is to say that hell is not for us an imaginary and far off danger, from which we can escape by ourselves.

No, it is the just and certain culmination of rebellions against God and hardening of hearts, where we would go without the pardon of Jesus, our Savior, and without the help of His grace full of mercy. Without Him, without His Passion and His redeeming Blood we are already lost. We owe our salvation to Him alone, and He desires that we ask Him: ‘O my Jesus, deliver us from the fire of hell!’

The prayer of Fatima is very close to what the liturgy says: ‘From eternal death, deliver us, O Jesus!’ implore the litanies. And the prayer of the Roman Canon, stating clearly the intention of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, says: ‘Deliver us from eternal damnation - ab aeterna damnatione nos eripi - and number us in the flock of Thine elect.’

The same vigorous expression is found in the Litany of the Saints, and this time it makes quite clear who is meant by the ‘us’: it is we ourselves and all our dear ones who have the faith, and we implore pardon for ourselves: ‘That You would deliver our souls and the souls of our brethren, relations and benefactors, from eternal damnation, we beseech You, hear us! Ut animas nostras ...ab aeterna damnatione eripias, te rogamus audi nos.’

It is an urgent supplication, but it is also full of an immense trust. For in hope we are already sure of obtaining the forgiveness of Our Savior, and eventually reaching the happiness of heaven… Thus, our horizons are enlarged, leading us to the second part of the prayer:


LEAD ALL SOULS TO HEAVEN

Our ardent desire to be saved, ourselves and our dear ones, is necessarily extended to all souls. Christ offered His life for all men, without exception, and God His Father wishes to save all men; so why shouldn’t all souls go to heaven? The little prayer becomes… a universal prayer. It is mystical, and it expresses a true and ardent charity.

‘Lord’, Father de Foucauld loved to repeat, ‘if it could be possible, make all men go to heaven!’ [Ed: Indeed, that is true, Christ our Savior made salvation possible for all, but few there are who choose it. However, we are called by charity to pray for all poor sinners, for we may not judge; that is for Christ alone to do.]

‘All souls’, ‘as almas todas’, or in the version most often quoted by Sister Lucia, ‘as alminhas todas’, with this diminutive of commiseration, ‘all these poor souls’, just as we would say, ‘poor sinners’. ‘Levai para o Ceu!’ ‘Lead them to heaven!’ The word can hardly be translated: take them, carry them, and lift them right up to heaven!

And perhaps even better, as Father Simonin and Dom Jean-Nesmy translates: ‘Draw all souls to heaven.’ It reminds us of the words of Jesus on the evening of Palm Sunday, just before entering into the work of His redemptive Sacrifice: ‘Now is the prince of this world cast out; and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.’ He said this to show by what death He was going to die. ‘Omnia traham ad me ipsum.’


ESPECIALLY THOSE MOST IN NEED

These last words bewildered Canon Formigao. Indeed they are surprising: How can we ask Jesus to lead all souls to heaven, and thus all without exception, and then immediately add a formula which on the contrary is partial and restrictive? The words, ‘all… especially’ seem to defy simple logic.

And yet the formula is surely authentic, and the difficulty disappears when we consider that it concerns the salvation of souls, which is always a pure and infinite mercy of God. The logic here is one of love, full of implications which cause the too narrow framework of the exact relation of the concepts to explode.

The suppliant soul, in the zeal of its love, would like to obtain from the Sacred Heart the salvation of all souls… but it knows that its request cannot be heard in all its extension… it does not merit it. In this case, it immediately clarifies its request, and says to God: ‘I ask You to have mercy at least on some souls, and most especially, as a priority, on the souls of the greatest sinners, who most surely risk being lost!’ Such is the logic of the saints…

This is how the three seers understood this prayer, in the light of its immediate context, the vision of hell. A striking passage from Lucia's Memoirs shows us how the little prayer of Our Lady often returned to the lips of Blessed Jacinta, and not only between decades of the Rosary, but to implore often the salvation of souls:

“Jacinta often sat thoughtfully on the ground or on a rock, and exclaimed: ‘Oh, hell! hell! How sorry I am for the souls who go to hell! And the people down there, burning alive, like wood in the fire!’ Then, shuddering, she knelt down with her hands joined, and recited the prayer Our Lady had taught us: ‘O my Jesus! Pardon us, save us from the fire of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need.“

‘Now’, Sr. Lucia continues, ‘Your Excellency will understand how my own impression was that the final words of this prayer refer to souls in greatest danger of damnation, or those who are nearest to it.’

These last words turn our attention towards those in their last agony. In all the myriads of Ave Marias we shall have prayed all during our life, we ask the Mother of Mercy to pray for us ‘at the hour of our death’. But all these hardened souls who outraged her unceasingly and never invoked her? It is for them, in their place that Our Lady has us pray during our Rosary.

This priority accorded the greatest sinners, was not understood, and was the principal reason why the original version of the prayer was abandoned for so long in favor of another, more classical one. Yet this prayer brings us to the full reality of the Gospel. It is the priority given to the erring sheep for the twofold reason that it is lost, and that its salvation will show more strikingly the untiring Love of its Good Shepherd!

It was St. Therese of the Child Jesus who, ‘devoured by a thirst for souls, burned with the desire to snatch from the eternal flames the souls of the greatest sinners’. Hence her decision ‘to prevent at any price from going to hell’ the horrible criminal whose three murders had monopolized the news. On him also, ‘this poor unfortunate Pranzini’, did she wish to pour out the salvific and ‘divine dew’ of the Blood of Jesus.

We will see that this concern for the salvation of the greatest sinners is a frequent theme in later revelations granted to Sr. Lúcia. It was equally the constant thought of Jacinta:

“Jacinta remained on her knees like this for long periods of time, saying the same prayers over and over again. From time to time, like someone waking from sleep, she called out to her brother or myself: ‘Francisco! Francisco! Are you praying with me? We must pray very much, to save souls from hell! So many go there! So many!“



THE LITTLE PRAYER OF REPARATORY OFFERING

Sr. Lúcia humbly confesses in her second Memoir: ‘During this month (June 13th – July 13th), I lost all enthusiasm for making sacrifices and acts of mortification… To reawaken my fervor which had grown cold, Our Lady told us:

‘Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say often to Jesus, especially each time you make a sacrifice: O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary."

Here is a very simple prayer, whose significance is immediately grasped. Again it is to Jesus our Savior that our offering is addressed, but in addition to the desire to please Him through love, in accomplishing the action we offer Him, two other intentions are added. And the whole richness of this prayer consists precisely in their indissoluble bond of reciprocal implication, which causes each of these intentions to remind us of the other two.

Note how the thought of the salvation of sinners is found inserted there like a wedge between the two acts of love for Jesus and Mary. This shows to what extent the missionary intention is at the very heart of the message of Fatima, as necessarily flowing from the true love of the Holy Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

Since many have erroneously commented on their aversion for the Fatima Decade Prayer, this commentary by Frère Michel seemed most opportune to share. The two Fatima Prayers recommended by Our Lady of the Rosary at Fatima urge us to reparation for the conversion of sinners, and it cannot be stressed enough the importance of this at this particular time. Our Lady of Fatima has promised that there is nothing, nothing at all, which we cannot accomplish by means of her Rosary.

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  July 13th - St. Anacletus, Pope & Martyr
Posted by: Stone - 07-13-2021, 07:57 AM - Forum: July - No Replies

July 13 – St Anacletus, Pope & Martyr
Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger  (1841-1875)

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The name of Anacletus sounds like a lingering echo of the solemnity of June 29th Linus, Clement, and Cletus, the immediate successors of St. Peter, received from his hands the pontifical consecration; Anacletus had a less but still inestimable glory of being ordained priest by the Vicar of the Man-God. Whereas the feasts of most of the martyr Pontiffs who came after him are only of simple rite, that of Anacletus is a semi-double, because of his privilege of being the last Pope honored by the imposition of hands of the Prince of the Apostles. It was also during his pontificate that the Eternal City had the glory of receiving within its walls the beloved disciple, who had come to fulfill his promise and drink of his Master’s chalice. “O happy Church,” exclaims Tertullian, “into whose bosom the Apostles poured not only all their teaching, but their very blood; where Peter imitated his Lord’s Passion by dying on the cross; where Paul, like John the Baptist, received his crown by means of the sword; whence the Apostle John, after coming forth safe and sound from the boiling oil, was sent to the isle of his banishment.”

By the almighty power of the Spirit of Pentecost, the progress of the faith in rome was proportionate to the bountiful graces of our Lord. Little by little the great Babylon, drunk with the blood of the martyrs, was being transformed into the Holy City. This new-born race, so full of promise for the future, could already reckon among its members representatives of every class of society. Beside the boiling cauldron where the Prophet of Patmos did homage to the New Jerusalem by offering within her walls his glorious confession, two consuls, one representing the ancient patrician rank, the other the more modern nobility of the Cæsars, Acilius Glabrio, and Flavius Clemens, together fell by the sword of martyrdom. Anacletus adorned the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles, and provided a burial place for the other pontiffs. Following his example, the distinguished families of Rome opened galleries for subterranean cemeteries, all along the roads leading to the imperial city. There rest innumerable soldiers of Christ, victorious by their blood; and there, too, sleep in peace with the anchor of salvation beside them, the most illustrious names of earth.

Quote:Anacletus, an Athenian by birth, governed the Church in the days of the Emperor Trajan. He decreed that a bishop should be consecrated by no fewer than three bishops; that clerics should be publicly admitted to Holy Orders, by their own bishop; and that at Mass all should communicate after the Consecration. He adorned the tomb of blessed Peter, and set aside a place for the burial of the Pontiffs. He held two ordinations in the month of December, and made five priests, three deacons, and six bishops. Having sat in St. Peter’s Chair nine years, three months, and ten days, he was crowned with martyrdom and buried on the Vatican.

Glorious Pontiff! thy memory is so closely linked with that of Peter, that many reckon thee under a somewhat different name, among the three august persons raised by the Prince of the apostles to the highest rank in the hierarchy. Nevertheless, in distinguishing thee from Cletus, who appeared on the sacred cycle in the month of April, we are justified by the authority of the holy Liturgy which appoints thee a separate feast, and by the constant testimony of Rome itself, which knows better than any the names and the history of its pontiffs. Happy art thou in being thus, as it were, lost sight of among the foundations whereon rest forever the strength and beauty of the Church! Give us all a special love for the particular positions assigned to us in the sacred building. Receive the grateful homage of all the living stones who are chosen to form the eternal temple, and who will all lean upon thee for evermore.

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  FDA to warn of COVID vaccine link to rare nerve disorder that can cause paralysis
Posted by: Stone - 07-13-2021, 07:53 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular] - No Replies

FDA to warn of COVID vaccine link to rare nerve disorder that can cause paralysis


WND.com | July 12, 2021

The Food and Drug Administration is adding a new warning for Americans who get the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine based on reports of a rare nerve disease in those who received the shots.

"Reports of adverse events following use of the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine under emergency use authorization suggest an increased risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome during the 42 days following vaccination," the FDA said in a letter dated Monday to Janssen Biotech, the division of Johnson & Johnson that developed the vaccine.

About 100 preliminary reports of Guillain-Barré have been reported, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The Washington Post reported.

Of those, 95 were serious and required the patient to be hospitalized, the FDA said. One person has died.

The FDA will stop short of saying the vaccine caused the disease.






Existing evidence “is insufficient to establish a causal relationship,” the FDA said, according to The Post.

The FDA said it "continues to find the known and potential benefits clearly outweigh the known and potential risks" of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

In its reporting, The New York Times said that incidence of the rare nerve disorder "appear to be three to five times higher among recipients of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine than among the general population in the United States."

According to the FDA letter sent to Janssen, "Guillain Barré syndrome (a neurological disorder in which the body’s immune system damages nerve cells, causing muscle weakness and sometimes paralysis) has occurred in some people who have received the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine. In most of these people, symptoms began within 42 days following receipt of the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine. "

The FDA said symptoms of having Guillain-Barré include weakness or tingling sensations, especially in the legs or arms; difficulty walking or with facial movements; and difficulty with bladder control or bowel functions.



Most of those affected have been men aged 50 and older, according to the CDC.

The Post report said no such issues have been found with the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.

This is the second major stumbling block for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Three months ago, it was put on pause amid concerns the vaccine caused severe blood clots. The pause in its use ended after a warning was attached to the drug.

The Astra Zeneca vaccine, which is given in Europe and has not been approved for use in the U.S., has also been examined for a possible link to Guillain Barré.

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  Fauci Calls For 'More Vaccine Mandates At The Local Level'
Posted by: Stone - 07-13-2021, 07:42 AM - Forum: COVID Vaccines - No Replies

Fauci Calls For 'More Vaccine Mandates At The Local Level', Slams Alex Berenson For Spreading Facts At CPAC


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Zero Hedge [emphasis mine] | JUL 12, 2021


The nation's highest-paid employee in the US government, Anthony Fauci, has gone full-throttle on vaccines - this time with a Sunday appearance on CNN's "State of the Union," where he pushed for vaccine mandates at the local level, and slammed a guest speaker at CPAC (Alex Berenson) for applauding young people for researching vaccine side-effects.

Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases Director appeared on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday to give his opinion on vaccine mandates. He agrees with the White House and President Biden himself, saying vaccination mandates should be the next step.

“I have been of this opinion, and I remain of that opinion, that I do believe at the local level, Jake, there should be more mandates,” Fauci told host Jake Tapper. “There really should be.”

For fear of more people dying, Fauci strongly supports mandates. “We’re talking about life and death situation. We have lost 600,000 Americans already, and we’re still losing more people,” Fauci said. “There have been 4 million deaths worldwide. This is serious business. So I am in favor of that.”

Meanwhile, at the Conservative Political Action Conference, author Alex Berenson called out the vaccination efforts as a scam. “The government was hoping that they could sort of sucker 90% of the population into getting vaccinated,” Berenson said. “And it isn’t happening.” People in the audience cheered when they heard that. On the other hand, Fauci called the reaction “horrifying.”



As a result, the NIAID director says the solution to vaccine hesitancy is official approval from the Food and Drug Administration. “One of the things that will happen, and I think the hesitancy at the local level of doing mandates is because the vaccines have not been officially fully approved,” Fauci said.
Quote:“But people need to understand that the amount of data right now that shows a high degree of effectiveness and a high degree of safety is more than we’ve ever seen with the emergency use authorization, so these vaccines are as good as officially approved with all the I’s dotted and T’s crossed. It hasn’t been done yet because the FDA has to do certain things. But it’s as good as done. So people should really understand that. But they are waiting now until you get an official approval before. And I think when you do see the official approval, you’ll see a lot more mandates.

Meanwhile, Steve Watson of Summit News notes Fauci's shock at the 'horrifying' facts presented by Berenson.

Appearing on CNN Sunday, Anthony Fauci described it “horrifying” that a crowd at the CPAC gathering applauded when a guest speaker declared that young people are educating themselves about the side effects of the COVID vaccine.

Conservative writer Alex Berenson was speaking about the government’s attempts to indiscriminately push the vaccine on people of all ages, including young people who are statistically more at risk from the vaccine than from the virus.

“They were hoping, the federal government was hoping, they could sucker 90 percent of the population into getting vaccinated,” Berenson said, adding “younger people are well aware of what the risks really are and they are well aware of the side effect profile of the vaccines.”

The comments drew applause from sections of the crowd. Watch:



When asked for his thoughts by CNN host Jake Tapper, Fauci responded “It’s horrifying…I just don’t get that. I mean, and I don’t think that anybody who is thinking clearly can get that.”

We’ve got to put aside this ideological difference or differences thinking that somebody is forcing you to do something,” Fauci continued.

“The public health officials, like myself and my colleagues, are asking you to do something that will ultimately save your life and that of your family, and that of the community,” he continued.

“I don’t know. I really don’t have a good explanation, Jake, about why this is happening. I mean, it’s ideological rigidity, I think. There’s no reason not to get vaccinated,” Fauci further proclaimed.

Watch:



The government has failed to reach its targets on fully vaccinating 70 percent of the population, with the White House suggesting “herd immunity is kind of an outdated term,” and vowing to send “strike forces” to people’s homes in an effort to get more vaccinated.

Meanwhile, the Vaers report continues to monitor deaths from side effects of the vaccine, which are at time of writing approaching 10,000 in the U.S. alone, with in excess of 438,000 adverse reactions also reported.

The likes of CNN are declaring that it is “time to start mandating” coronavirus vaccines for all Americans to counter people opting not to take the shots because of hesitancy over potential side effects.

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