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  St. Alphonsus Liguori: Daily Meditations for Fourteenth Week after Pentecost
Posted by: Stone - 09-03-2023, 05:44 AM - Forum: Pentecost - Replies (7)

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Morning Meditation

[Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse3.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3...ipo=images]

ALL ENDS AND SOON ENDS


The grass of the field which is to-day, and to-morrow is cast into the oven (Matt. vi. 30). Behold, the goods of the earth are like the grass of the field, which to-day is blooming and beautiful, but by the evening withers, and its flowers fade, and the next day it is cast into the fire! All flesh is grass and all the glory thereof as the flower of the field.


I.

Behold, the goods of the earth are like the grass of the field, which to-day is blooming and beautiful, but by the evening it withers and its flowers fade, and the next day it is cast into the fire. This is what God commanded the Prophet Isaias to preach: Cry. And I said: What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the glory thereof as the flower of the field (Is. xl. 6). Hence St. James compares the rich ones of this world to the flower of the grass: at the end of their journey through life they rot, and all their riches and grandeurs with them. The flower of the grass shall he pass away. For the sun rose with a burning heat, and parched the grass, and the flower thereof fell off, and the beauty of the shape thereof perished: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways (James i. 10, 11). They fade away and are cast into the fire, like the rich glutton, who made a splendid appearance in this life but afterwards was buried in hell.

Let us, then, dearly beloved Christian, attend to the salvation of our souls, and to the acquisition of riches for eternity, which never ends; for everything in this world ends, and ends very soon.

When some great one of this world is in the full enjoyment of the riches and honours he has acquired, death shall come, and he shall be told: Take order with thy house; for thou shalt die, and not live (Is. xxxviii. 1). Oh, what doleful tidings! The unhappy man must then say: Farewell, O world! Farewell, O my villa! Farewell, O my beautiful gardens! Farewell, relatives and friends! Farewell sports and balls! Farewell, festivities and banquets! Farewell, honours! All is over for me! There is no remedy: whether he will or not he must leave all. For when he shall die, he shall take nothing away; nor shall his glory descend with him (Ps. xlviii. 18). St. Bernard says that death produces a horrible separation of the soul from the body, and from all the things of this earth. Opus mortis, horrendum divortium. To the great of this world, whom worldlings regard as the most fortunate of mortals, the bare mention of death is so full of bitterness that they are unwilling even to hear it mentioned; for their entire concern is to find peace in their earthly goods. O death! says Ecclesiasticus, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that hath peace in his possessions (Ecclus. xli. 1).

O my Jesus I give Thee thanks for having waited for me and for not having called me out of this world in my sins. During the remainder of my life I will weep over my iniquities. I will love Thee with all my strength. I know I must die, and by Thy grace I will prepare to die a happy death.


II.

If the bare mention of death is full of bitterness, how much greater bitterness shall death itself cause when it actually comes. Miserable the man who is attached to the goods of this world! Every separation produces pain. Hence, when the soul shall be separated by the stroke of death from the goods on which it had fixed all its affections, the pain must be excruciating. It was this that made king Agag exclaim, when the news of approaching death was announced to him: Doth bitter death separate in this manner? (1 Kings xv. 32). The great misfortune of worldlings is that when they are on the point of being summoned to Judgment, instead of endeavouring to adjust the account of their souls, they direct all their attention to earthly things. But, says St. John Chrysostom, the punishment which awaits the sinner on account of having forgotten God during life is that at the hour of death he forgets himself.

But how great soever a man's attachment to the things of this world may be, he must take leave of them at death. Naked he has entered into this world, and naked he shall depart from it. Naked, says Job, I came out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither (Job i. 21.). In a word, they who have spent their whole life sacrificing sleep, health, and their very soul in accumulating riches and possessions, shall take nothing with them at the hour of death. Their eyes shall then be opened, and of all they had so dearly acquired, they shall find nothing in their hands. Hence, on that night of confusion, they shall be overwhelmed in a tempest of pains and sadness. The rich man, when he shall sleep, shall take away nothing with him. He shall open his eyes and find nothing; ... a tempest shall oppress him in the night (Job xxvii. 19-20).

St. Antoninus relates that Saladin, king of the Saracens, gave orders at the hour of death that the winding-sheet in which he was to be buried should be carried before him to the grave, and that a person should cry out: "Of all his possessions, only this shall Saladin bring with him." The Saint also relates that a certain philosopher, speaking of Alexander the Great after his death, said: "Behold the man that made the earth tremble!" The earth, as the Scripture says, was quiet before him. He is now under the earth. Behold the man whom the dominion of the whole world could not satisfy: now six feet of earth is sufficient for him. An ancient writer says that having gone to see the tomb of Caesar, he exclaimed: "Princes feared thee; cities worshipped thee; all trembled before thee; whither has thy magnificence gone?" Listen to what David says: I have seen the wicked highly exalted and lifted up like the cedars of Libanus. And I passed by, and lo! he was not (Ps. xxxvi. 35-36). Oh, how many such spectacles are seen every day in the world! A sinner who had been born in lowliness and poverty afterwards acquires wealth and honours, so as to excite the envy of all. When he dies, men say: He made a fortune in the world; but now he is dead, and with death all is over for him!


Spiritual Reading

DANGERS TO SALVATION

A boat on the waves of the sea represents man in this world. As a vessel on the sea is exposed to a thousand dangers -- to pirates, to quicksands, to hidden rocks, and to tempests, so man in this life is encompassed with perils arising from the temptations of hell -- from the occasions of sin, from the scandals or bad counsels of men, from human respect, and, above all, from the bad passions of corrupt nature, represented by the winds that agitate the sea and expose the vessel to great danger of being lost.

St. Leo says our life is full of dangers, of snares, and of enemies. The first enemy of the salvation of every Christian is his own corruption. But every man is tempted by his own concupiscence, being drawn away and allured (James i. 14).

Along with the corrupt inclinations within us that drag us to evil, we have many enemies from without that fight against us. We have the devils, with whom the contest is very difficult, because they are stronger than we are. Hence, because we have to contend with powerful enemies, St. Paul exhorts us to arm ourselves with the Divine aid: Put you on the armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places (Ephes. vi. 11-12). The devil, according to St. Peter, is a lion continually going about roaring with rage and hunger for our souls. Your adversary, the devil, like a roaring lion goeth about seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet. v. 8). St. Cyprian says that Satan is continually lying in wait for us in order to make us his slaves.

Even the men with whom we must converse endanger our salvation. They persecute or betray us, or they deceive us by their flattery and wicked counsels. St. Augustine says that among the faithful there are in every profession insincere and deceitful men. Now if a fortress were full of rebels within, and encompassed by enemies without, who would not regard it as lost? Such is the condition of each of us as long as we live in this world. Who shall be able to deliver us from so many powerful enemies? Only God: Unless the Lord keep the city, he watcheth in vain that keepeth it (Ps. cxxvi. 1).

What, then, is the means by which we can save our souls in the midst of so many dangers? It is to imitate the holy disciples -- to have recourse to our Divine Master, and to say to Him: Lord, save us; we perish -- Domine, salva nos; perimus. Save us, O Lord; if Thou dost not, we are lost. When the tempest is violent, the pilot never takes his eyes from the light which guides him to the port. In like manner we should keep our eyes always turned to God Who alone can deliver us from the many dangers to which we are exposed. It was thus David acted when he found himself assailed by the dangers of sin. I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from whence help shall come to me (Ps. cxx. 1). To teach us to recommend ourselves continually to Him who alone can save us by His grace, the Lord has ordained that, as long as we remain on this earth we shall have to live in the midst of a continual tempest and be surrounded by enemies. The temptations of the devil, the persecutions of men, the adversity which we suffer in this world, are not evils; they are, on the contrary, advantages, if we know how to use them as God wishes, Who sends or permits them for our welfare. They detach our affections from this earth, and inspire a disgust for this world, by making us feel bitterness and thorns even in its honours, its riches, its delights, and amusements. The Lord permits all these apparent evils, that we may take away our affections from fading goods, in which we meet with so many dangers of perdition, and that we may seek to unite ourselves with Him Who alone can make us happy.

The error and mistake is that when we find ourselves harassed by infirmities, poverty, persecutions, and all such tribulations, instead of having recourse to the Lord, we turn to creatures and place our confidence in their assistance, and thus draw upon ourselves the maledictions of God, Who says: Cursed be the man who trusteth in man (Jer. xvii. 5). The Lord does not forbid us in our afflictions and dangers to have recourse to human means; but He curses those who place their whole trust in them. He wishes us to have recourse to Himself before all others and to place our only hope in Him, so that we may also centre in Him all our love.

As long as we live on this earth, we must, according to St. Paul, work out our salvation with fear and trembling in the midst of the dangers by which we are beset. Whilst a certain vessel was in the open sea a great tempest arose which made the captain tremble. In the hold of the vessel there was an animal eating with as much tranquillity as if the sea were perfectly calm. The captain being asked why he was so much afraid, replied: "If I had a soul like the soul of that brute, I too would be tranquil and without fear; but because I have a rational and an immortal soul, I am afraid of death, after which I must appear before the Judgment-seat of God; and therefore I tremble through fear." Let us tremble. The salvation of our immortal souls is at stake. They who do not tremble, are, as St. Paul says, in great danger of being lost; because they who fear not, seldom recommend themselves to God, and labour but little to adopt the means of salvation. Let us beware, for we are, says St. Cyprian, still in the front of the fight, and combating for eternal salvation.


Evening Meditation

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST

I.

The Divine Priest, Jesus Christ, Who was both Priest and Victim, by the sacrifice of His life for the salvation of men completed the Sacrifice of the Cross and accomplished the work of the world's Redemption. By His death Jesus Christ stripped our death of its terrors. Until then it was but the punishment of rebels; but by grace and the merits of our Saviour it becomes a sacrifice so dear to God that when we unite it to the death of Jesus, it makes us worthy to enjoy the same glory that God enjoys, and to hear Him one day say to us, as we hope: Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord! (Matt. xxv.21).

Thus death, which was an object of pain and dread, was changed by the death of Jesus into a passage from a state of peril and danger of hell, into one of security and of eternal blessedness, and from the miseries of this life to the boundless delights of Paradise.

Therefore the Saints have ever regarded death with joy and desire, and no longer with fear. St. Augustine says that they who love the Crucified One "live with patience and die with joy." And common experience shows that they who in life have been most troubled with persecutions, temptations, scruples, or other painful events are in death most comforted by Jesus Crucified, conquering with great peace of mind all the terrors and pains of death. And if it has sometimes happened that some of the Saints, as we read in their Lives, died in great fear of death, the Lord God permitted this in order to increase their merits; because the more painful the sacrifice, the more acceptable it was to God, and the more profitable to them for eternity.

Oh, how much more bitter was death of old, before the time of the death of Jesus Christ! The Saviour was not yet come, and men sighed for His coming: they waited for His promise, but they knew not when it would be fulfilled. The devil had great power upon earth; Heaven was closed to men. But after the death of the Redeemer, hell was conquered. Divine grace was given to souls, God was reconciled to men, and the Kingdom of Heaven was opened to all those who die innocent, or have expiated their sins by repentance. And if some who die in grace do not immediately enter Heaven, this only results from the faults of which they are not yet cleansed; and death merely bursts their bonds, in order that they may be free to unite themselves perfectly to God, from Whom they are far away in this land of exile.


II.

Let us, then, take heed, O Christian souls, while we are in this exile, not to look at death as a misfortune, but as the end of our pilgrimage, which is full of difficulties and dangers, and as the beginning of our eternal happiness, which we hope one day to attain through the merits of Jesus Christ. And with this thought of Heaven, let us detach ourselves as much as possible from earthly things, which may cause us to lose Heaven and give us over to eternal pains. Let us offer ourselves to God declaring that we wish to die when it pleases Him, and to accept death in the manner and at the time which He has appointed; ever praying Him that, through the merits of Jesus Christ, He will cause us to depart from this life in His grace.

O my Jesus and my Saviour, Who, to obtain for me a happy death, hast chosen for Thyself a death so painful and desolate. I abandon myself into the arms of Thy mercy. For many years past I have deserved to be in hell, for the sins I have committed against Thee, and to be separated from Thee forever. But Thou, instead of punishing me as I deserved, hast called me to repentance, and I hope that now Thou hast pardoned me; but if Thou hast not already pardoned me through my fault, pardon me now that in sorrow I ask for mercy at Thy feet. O my Jesus, I could die of grief when I think of the injuries I have offered Thee! "O Blood of the Innocent, wash away the sins of the penitent!" pardon me, and give me grace to love Thee with all my strength till death; and when I shall reach the end of my life, make me to die burning with love for Thee, that I may continue to love Thee forever. Jesus, henceforth I unite my death to Thy holy death, through which I hope to be saved. In thee, O Lord, have I hoped; let me never be confounded (Ps. xxx. 2).

O thou great Mother of God, next to Jesus thou art my hope. "In thee, O Lady, have I hoped; I shall not be confounded forever."

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  Conflicting Evidence Of mRNA Technology Raises Serious Concerns
Posted by: Stone - 09-02-2023, 06:48 AM - Forum: Health - No Replies

Conflicting Evidence Of mRNA Technology Raises Serious Concerns About Rush For Use In New Vaccine Development

[Image: id5483377-shutterstock_2132788623-870x52...k=v8SDpNXI]
(wacomka/Shutterstock)]


ZH [slightly adapted] | SEP 01, 2023
Authored by Megan Redshaw via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The U.S. government and pharmaceutical companies are investing a substantial amount to develop new mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases and cancer, fueling a lucrative mRNA platform valued at $136.2 billion.

A newly established White House program announced on Aug. 23 that it is granting a total of $25 million over three years to Emory University, Yale School of Medicine, and the University of Georgia to develop personalized therapeutic vaccines against cancers and emerging infections, similar to how COVID-19 mRNA vaccines target SARS-CoV-2. They aim to use mRNA—an essential element in COVID-19 vaccines developed to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infections—to program a unique class of immune cells called dendritic cells to initiate a desired immunological response.

Pharmaceutical companies such as Moderna, BioNTech, and CureVac are conducting clinical trials using mRNA-based vaccines with advanced melanoma, ovarian, colorectal, and pancreatic cancers. The National Institutes of Health is partnering with BioNTech to develop a personalized vaccine for pancreatic cancers. In addition to COVID-19 and cancer, other mRNA-based vaccines in development target influenza, genital herpes, respiratory viruses, and shingles.

Although mRNA platforms are appealing because they reduce costs and shorten the vaccine development timeline, evidence and experience suggest the mRNA technology used for novel COVID-19 vaccines is associated with various harms and neither prevents COVID-19 nor its transmission.


Evidence Challenging Vaccine ‘Safe and Effective’ Narrative

The unprecedented rates of adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination overshadow the benefits, according to researchers from Australia who say the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, whether from the virus or created from genetic code in mRNA and adenovectorDNA vaccines, is toxic and causes a wide array of diseases.

In their recently published paper published in Biomedicines titled, “‘Spikeopathy’: COVID-19 Spike Protein Is Pathogenic, from Both Virus and Vaccine mRNA,” the researchers explored peer-reviewed data countering the “safe and effective” narrative attached to new technologies used to develop mRNA and adenovectorDNA vaccines at “warp speed” to end the pandemic.

Spike protein pathogenicity, termed “spikeopathy,” describes the ability of the spike protein to cause disease, and the researchers say it can affect many organ systems.

Researchers noted the following key problem areas:
  • Spike protein toxicity (spikeopathy) from both the virus and when produced by gene codes in people vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccines.
  • Inflammatory properties in specific lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) used to transport mRNA.
  • Long-lasting action caused by N1-methyl pseudouridine in the synthetic mRNA—also referred to as modRNA.
  • Widespread distribution of mRNA and DNA codes via the LNP and viral vector carrier matrices, respectively.
  • Human cells produce a foreign protein that can cause autoimmunity.
Now that vaccines utilizing mRNA technology have been available and widely distributed for several years, data show these vaccines produce foreign antigens in human tissues and increase the risk of autoimmune, neurological, cardiovascular, inflammatory disorders, and cancers, especially when the vaccine ingredients do not remain localized at the injection site. An antigen is any substance that stimulates an immune response. If the immune system encounters an antigen that is not found on the body’s own cells, it will launch an attack against that antigen.

Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data show the design of the mRNA and adenovectorDNA COVID-19 vaccines allow uncontrolled biodistribution, durability, and persistent bioavailability of the spike protein inside the body after vaccination. Pharmacokinetics is the study of how the body interacts with administered substances for the entire duration of exposure. Pharmacodynamics assesses the drug’s effect on the body more closely.

This may explain the unprecedented number of adverse events that appear to be associated with the spike protein produced by the gene-based technologies employed by Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson, as well as the viral vector DNA technology used by other countries, researchers said.


mRNA Vaccines Are Gene Therapy and May Cause Harm

Gene-based COVID-19 vaccines are therapeutic products that actually fit within the FDA’s definition of gene therapy because they cause the cells of the vaccinated person to produce antigens for transmembrane expression that invokes an immune response. By design, these novel vaccine platforms risk tissue damage secondary to autoimmune responses raised against cells expressing foreign spike antigens, researchers said.

The FDA was aware of the pathogenicity of spike proteins before releasing COVID-19 vaccines to the public. In an October 2022 meeting with its vaccine advisors, the FDA presented a highly accurate list of potential adverse events associated with COVID-19 vaccines, including neurological, cardiovascular, and autoimmune “possible adverse events.”

React19, an organization that provides financial, emotional, and physical support to those experiencing long-term injuries from COVID-19 vaccines, provided a list of over 3,400 published papers and case reports of injuries affecting more than 20 organ systems. More than 432 peer-reviewed papers relate to papers and case reports of myocarditis, cardiomyopathy, myocardial infarction, hypertension, aortic dissection, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), tachycardia, and conduction disturbance—a problem with the electrical system that controls the heart’s rate and rhythm.

The most common group of adverse events reported following COVID-19 vaccination to both pharmacovigilance databases and Pfizer involve neurological disorders. According to the paper, neurological symptoms and cognitive decline with accelerated neurodegenerative disease are features of acute COVID-19 vaccine injuries and, to some extent, long COVID syndrome. Research suggests (pdf) LNPs transporting the mRNA to make spike proteins can cross the blood-brain barrier and cause neurotoxic effects.


Lipid Nanoparticles Are Toxic and Pro-Inflammatory

It’s not just the spike protein that can cause disease. LNPs that serve as the delivery method are also toxic and pro-inflammatory.

Research from 2018 showed even small amounts of nanoparticles taken up by the lungs can lead to cytotoxic effects. Ingested nanoparticles have been shown to affect lymph nodes, the liver, and the spleen, while when injected as a drug carrier, they can pass any barrier and translocate to the brain, ovaries, and testes, mainly after phagocytosis by macrophages, which help distribute them across the body. The effects on the reproductive system suggest lipid nanoparticles can be cytotoxic and damage DNA.

According to the authors, two components in the mRNA lipid nanoparticle complexes, ALC-0315 and ALC-0159, are concerning, as they have never been used in a medicinal product and are not registered in either the European Pharmacopoeia or in the European C&L Inventory database. A question posed to the European Parliament in December 2021 pointed out that the manufacturer of the nanoparticles specifies the nanoparticles are for research only and not for human use. The European Commission responded that the excipient in Pfizer’s Comirnaty vaccine “has been demonstrated to be appropriate … in compliance with the relevant EMA scientific guidelines and standards.”

Still, this could explain the root cause of numerous post-vaccination adverse events, researchers said.

Read more here...

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  Minnesota art center holds 'demon summoning session' for families
Posted by: Stone - 09-02-2023, 06:34 AM - Forum: General Commentary - No Replies

Minnesota art center holds 'demon summoning session' for families
"We’re just not very good at getting to know" demons, according to the activity description.

[Image: original_walker_art_cetner.png?1692297565]

Minnesota art center holds 'demon summoning session' for families


Post Millennial [slightly adapted] | Aug 17, 2023


The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis held a demon-related pagan ritual, called "Lilit the Empathic Demon" earlier this month that was geared toward families. 

Walker Art Center is guided "by the belief that art has the power to bring joy and solace and the ability to unite people through dialogue and shared experiences." Kids get in free to the center between the ages of zero and 18. 

An event description of the demon-themed activity said that the performance of Lilit the Empathic Demon was a "collective and playful demon summoning session" that will end with "a somatic movement meditation, designed to help you befriend your shadows."

Prior to the performance, another demon-themed activity gave instructions on "how to trap a demon." The description adds that demons will often "have a bad reputation.” One reason demons have a bad reputation is that "we’re just not very good at getting to know them,” according to the description. 

The activities were part of the Walker "Plant Teachers" day. This also included a performance from Catharus, which is music that "explores relationships to land, other-than-human beings, memory, and identity."

Featured artist, Tamar Ettun, has previously made an exhibit called How to Trap a Demon. One piece of the exhibit from Ettun instructs the observer to text "summon" to a phone number that is written on the wall that will communicate with Lilit. 

Ettun's exhibit description says that it revives the ancient traditions from "Sumerian, Akkadian, and Judaic mythology" that showed the demon, Lilit, appearing on "incantation bowls, a healing technology used to protect against demons."

The exhibit also "parts with the historical gender binarism" and "builds on "the artist’s research into the insidious side of empathy, empathy fatigue, trauma-healing modalities, and astrology as storytelling."

An article posted to Walker's website also explains how Ettun came in contact with Lilit "when she was at a residency, spending her days and nights in a haunted firehouse-turned-museum making knots and having just found out she was pregnant.”

The Walker Art Center is supported by millions of dollars in taxpayer funds.

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  Latin Mass Church Burns Down
Posted by: Stone - 09-02-2023, 06:25 AM - Forum: Anti-Catholic Violence - No Replies

Latin Mass Church Burns Down

[Image: 90v97dr0i9tf2neilf61we0jthjg3ujn3a7fv8k....19&webp=on]


gloria.tv | September 1, 2023

A huge fire tore through St Joseph's Church in Salem, Oregon, on Thursday night. The parish said that the sanctuary was “pretty much a loss.” The parish was founded in 1853, and the current church was built in 1953.

St. Joseph is one of eight parishes in Portland Archdiocese that offer the Latin Mass.

The fire was caused by arson, according to the police. Detectives arrested Billy James Sweeten, age 48.

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Photo The Synodal Process ——Is A—— Pandora’s Box 100 Questions & Answers José Antonio Ureta and Julio Lore
Posted by: ThyWillBeDone - 08-30-2023, 05:38 PM - Forum: The Architects of Vatican II - No Replies

https://www.complicitclergy.com/wp-conte...as_box.pdf
   
The Synodal
Process
——Is A——
Pandora’s Box
100 Questions & Answers
José Antonio Ureta
and
Julio Loredo de Izcue
With a Foreword by Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke.

I - The Synod of Bishops

1. What Is the Synod of Bishops?
The Synod of Bishops is a permanent body of the Catholic Church,
external to the Roman Curia, which represents the episcopate. It was
created by Pope Paul VI on September 15, 1965, with the motu proprio
Apostolica sollicitudo.
The Synod is convened by the pope, who sets the topic. It can meet in
three forms: Ordinary General Assembly for matters concerning the good
of the universal Church, Extraordinary General Assembly for urgent
issues, and Special Assembly for matters regarding one or more regions. It
has a merely consultative character but can exercise a decision-making
function when the pope grants it.
So far, there have been fifteen Ordinary General Assemblies of the Synod
of Bishops. This year, 2023, will see the sixteenth.

2. Are a Synod’s Conclusions Binding?
No. In the past, a Synod of Bishops’ Final Document had no magisterial
value since its role was to give suggestions to the supreme pontiff. The
pope collected the Synod’s ideas and published a post-synodal apostolic
exhortation, which proposed the conclusions of the Synod to the whole
Church, sometimes with significant modifications. This papal document
constituted magisterium. After the reforms introduced by Pope Francis in
2015, the Final Document becomes directly part of the ordinary
magisterium if expressly approved by the Roman pontiff. And if the pope
previously grants the Synod decision-making power, its Final Document
becomes part of the ordinary magisterium once ratified and promulgated
by the pope.

3. Can a Pope or Synod of Bishops Change the Catholic
Church’s Doctrine or Structures?
No. Neither the pope, the Synod of Bishops, nor any other ecclesiastical
or secular body has the authority to change the doctrine or structures of the
Church, set and entrusted in deposit by her divine Founder. The First
Vatican Council teaches:

13. For the doctrine of the faith which God has revealed is put forward • not as some philosophical discovery capable of being perfected by human intelligence, • but as a divine deposit committed to the spouse of Christ to be faithfully protected and infallibly promulgated. 14. Hence, too, that meaning of the sacred dogmas is ever to be maintained, which has once been declared by Holy Mother Church, and there must never be any abandonment of this sense under the pretext or in the name of a more profound understanding.1 The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith states: “Like all faithful, the Roman pontiff is under the Word of God, the Catholic faith … . He does not decide according to his own will but gives voice to the will of the Lord, who speaks to man in the Scripture lived and interpreted by Tradition; in other words, the Primate’s episkopè has the limits set by divine law and the Church’s inviolable divine constitution contained in Revelation.” 2 

4. What Changes Did Pope Francis Introduce at the Synod of Bishops? In 2015, Pope Francis announced profound changes to the Synod of Bishops on the fiftieth anniversary of its institution. Expressing his desire that the entire People of God be consulted in the preparation of the synodal assemblies, the pope proposed a plan to create a new “Synodal Church” based on this premise: Given their supernatural sense of faith (sensus fidei), the entire People of God cannot err (it is infallible in credendo) and has a “flair” to find the ways the Lord opens to His Church. The Synodal Church would be one of reciprocal listening between the faithful people, the episcopal college, and the bishop of Rome to know what the Holy Spirit “saith to the churches” (Apoc. 2:7). To this end, all ecclesial bodies—in parishes, dioceses, and the Roman Curia— should remain connected to the base and always start “from people and their daily problems.” 3 Getting to work, Pope Francis altered the Synod of Bishops with the apostolic constitution Episcopalis communio (Sept. 15, 2018) to involve the faithful. The Synod is now divided into three stages: the preparatory phase of consultation with the People of God; the celebratory phase, that is,
the bishops’ meeting in assembly; and the implementation phase, in which
the Assembly’s conclusions, approved by the pope, are to be accepted by
the whole Church.

5. How Does Pope Francis Justify This Radical Change in the
Synod of Bishops?
According to Pope Francis, bishops are both teachers and disciples. They
are teachers when they proclaim “the word of truth in the name of Christ,
head and shepherd.” But they are also disciples, when “knowing that the
Spirit has been bestowed upon every baptized person, he listens to the
voice of Christ speaking through the entire People of God.”
4 The Synod
thus becomes an instrument for giving voice to the whole People of God
through the bishops.

6. What Is the Coming Synod’s Topic and Program?
On April 24, 2021, in an audience with Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-
general of the Synod of Bishops, Pope Francis approved the theme and
program of the Synod of Bishops’ Sixteenth Ordinary General Assembly.
Thus began the local/national consultation phase with the People of God,
which ended in 2022. The continental phase then began, culminating in
February-March 2023 with the Continental Assemblies, which presented to
the Vatican their conclusions, called a Continental Synthesis. From there,
the Synod moves on to the universal phase, for which two general
assemblies are convened in Rome: the first in October 2023 and the second
in October 2024. A spiritual retreat for all participants will precede the
2023 assembly.
The theme chosen is: “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation,
and Mission.” According to the pope, it is a matter of “Journeying together
—laity, pastors, the bishop of Rome.”
1 The greatest difficulty to overcome
“is the clericalism that detaches priests and bishops from people” because
“there is a certain resistance to moving beyond the image of a Church
rigidly divided into leaders and followers, those who teach and those who
are taught; we forget that God likes to overturn things: as Mary said, ‘he
has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly’
(Luke 1:52). Journeying together tends to be more horizontal than
vertical.”
2
The next Synod, therefore, will not discuss a specific pastoral theme, as
is usually the case in these assemblies, but the very structure of the Church.
For this reason, it is also known as the Synod on Synodality.

7. Is This Synod Aimed at Reaching Specific Conclusions or
Opening a Process?
Unlike other general Synods, this Synod on Synodality is not held to
discuss doctrinal or pastoral questions and reach specific conclusions but to
open a way, to undertake a process to reform the Church. Its Preparatory
Document proposes to launch “a participative and inclusive ecclesial
process.”3 Rather than a Synod, we should speak of a synodal journey. In the Preparatory Document for the Synod, which we analyze below, the
term process is used no less than twenty-three times, along with synonyms
such as path, itinerary, route, and so forth.
This fluid approach must be seen in the broader perspective of the current
pontificate, which privileges becoming and not being, change and not
stability, search and not a certainty: “We need to initiate processes and not
just occupy spaces.”
4
Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, relator general of the Synod, stated,
“Sitting and talking only make a synod when the talking is about the
journey. Otherwise, it becomes a war of concepts.”

8. Why Did Pope Francis Decide to Hold Two Assemblies?
According to the initial plan, the Synodal Assembly would occur in
Rome in October 2023. However, at the end of the Angelus on Sunday,
October 16, 2022, Pope Francis announced that the Assembly would hold
two sessions, one year apart.
6
The reason given was that “the theme of the synodal Church, because of
its breadth and importance, might be the subject of prolonged discernment
not only by the members of the Synodal Assembly but by the whole
Church.”
7 A new phase of listening to the People of God on what the
delegates discussed in Rome will follow the first Assembly.

9. What Would Happen if a Significant Number of the Faithful
Disagreed With and Rejected the Decisions of the Synod or the
Pope?
There seems to be an internal contradiction in the apostolic constitution
Episcopalis communio, in which Pope Francis altered the Synod of
Bishops. Number 5 declares that every bishop is a disciple “when,
knowing that the Spirit has been bestowed upon every baptized person, he
listens to the voice of Christ speaking through the entire People of God,
making it ‘infallible in credendo.’” This idea is reinforced in number 7,
which insists that “the synodal process not only has its point of departure
but also its point of arrival in the People of God.” It would seem, then, that
the implementation of synodal decisions depends on their good reception
by the faithful, as the Synod Secretariat’s website suggests: “The
conclusions of the Synod, once approved by the Roman Pontiff, are
accepted by the local churches.”

However, section IV of Episcopalis communio, which deals precisely
with the Synod’s implementation phase, provides that diocesan bishops
“see to the reception and implementation of the conclusions of the Synod
Assembly, once they have been accepted by the Roman pontiff” (Art. 19 §
1) and that episcopal conferences “coordinate the implementation of the
aforementioned conclusions in their territory” (Art. 19 § 2).
It says nothing about what would happen if a disagreement arose
between the People of God and the pastors regarding concrete applications
of synodal orientations. If the pastors’ will prevailed, the whole listening
process would appear vain, and the rhetoric of synodality could appear
largely insincere. If the will of the People of God prevailed, the Church
would have been transformed into a de facto democracy.

10. What Is “Synodality”? According to the International Theological Commission, the noun synodality was coined recently and constituted “novel language” not appearing in the Second Vatican Council documents or the Code of Canon Law. In the context of a new model of the Church, according to the Commission, “synodality is the specific modus vivendi et operandi of the Church, the People of God, which reveals and gives substance to her being as communion when all her members journey together, gather in assembly and take an active part in her evangelizing mission.”1 According to Pope Francis, “Synodality is an expression of the Church’s nature, her form, style and mission.”2 And thus, synodality is “a constitutive element of the Church.”3 

11. What Does Synodality Seek? Synod promoters claim that it would be proper for synodality to increase the participation and co-responsibility of all the faithful in the life of the Church. As the Vademecum for the Synod on Synodality prepared by the Synod Secretariat states, “The path of synodality seeks to make pastoral decisions that reflect the will of God as closely as possible, grounding them in the living voice of the People of God… . In articulating the voice of the People of God expressing the reality of the faith on the basis of lived experience.”4 “Synodality calls upon pastors to listen attentively to the flock entrusted to their care.

28. What Does the Working Document for the Continental
Stage Say About Women’s Ordination?
For Synod promoters, women would be among the “excluded
minorities.” The Working Document for the Continental Stage says that a
new culture must be established in the Church, with new practices,
structures, and habits (see no. 60) for full and equal participation of women
in the governing structures of ecclesiastical bodies (see no. 64). It affirms
that many women feel sad that their contributions and charisms are not
always appreciated (see no. 61). Finally, it says that many demand the
female diaconate and the possibility to preach. Some propose the
ordination of women to the priesthood (see no. 64).
Pope Francis himself took a significant step. In April, for the first time in
history, he granted women the power to vote in the Synod. The Roman
pontiff determined that up to 25% of Synod participants would be
laypeople, men and women, all with equal voting rights with the bishops. 30.

31. What Is Behind the “Inclusion” Proposal?
Gavin Ashenden—former Anglican bishop and chaplain to Queen
Elizabeth II, a convert to Catholicism, and now vice-director of the well-
known Catholic Herald daily—denounced the Synod’s Working Document
for the Continental Stage as a Trojan horse. It seeks to manipulate people’s
minds by playing with “talismanic words”36 such as diversity, inclusion,
and equality. He writes: “The trick is very simple. It sets out to use a word
that looks very attractive at first sight but contains a hidden twist, so that it
ends up meaning something different, perhaps even the opposite.”
With great insight, Ashenden continues:
The document is called Enlarge the space of your tent (from
Isaiah 54:2). The controlling idea it sets out to implement is that
of “radical inclusion.” The tent is presented as a place of radical
inclusion from which no one is excluded, and this idea serves as
a hermeneutical key to interpreting the whole document.
The words trick is easily explained. The association
with being excluded is being unloved. Since God is love,
he obviously doesn’t want anyone to experience being
unloved and therefore excluded; ergo God, who is Love,
must be in favor of radical inclusion. Consequently, the
language of hell and judgment in the New Testament must
be some form of aberrational hyperbole which must not be
taken seriously, because the idea of God as inclusive love
takes precedence. And since these two concepts are
mutually contradictory, one of them has to go. Inclusion
stays, judgment and hell go. Which is another way of
saying, “Jesus goes, and Marx stays.”
This is then applied to overturn all the Church’s
dogmatic and ethical teaching.
Women are no longer to be excluded from ordination,
LGBT relationships are to be recognized as marriage; and
then the real extension of the progressive ambition breaks
the surface as there is the suggestion that polygamists are
reached out to and drawn “within the tent of the Church.”
It would be a serious mistake not to realize that the
progressive liberal mindset wants to change the ethics of
the faith. So it replaces the categories of “holiness and
sin” with “inclusion and alienation.” The roots of this
usage of the term alienation are of course found in Marx. 37.

33. Will This “Radical Inclusion” Change Church Structures
and Doctrines?
Yes. According to Synod promoters, the path towards greater inclusion
“begins with listening and requires a broader and deeper conversion of
attitudes and structures.”39 “This conversion”—the Working Document
continues—“translates into an equally continuous reform of the Church, its
structures and style.”40 One of the synodal process’ main goals is “to
renew our mentalities and our ecclesial structures,”41 which “will naturally
call for a renewal of structures at various levels of the Church.”42
The well-known American canonist and religious analyst Fr. Gerald E.
Murray rightly observes that the “inclusion” of these “marginalized
minorities” would have the immediate consequence of
discarding teachings that contradict the beliefs and desires of:
- those living in adulterous second “marriages,”
- men who have two or three or more wives,
- homosexuals and bisexuals,
- people who believe they are not the sex they were born as.
- women who want to be ordained deacons and priests, - lay people who want the authority given by God to bishops and priests. . . . [And he concludes,] there is plainly an open revolution going on in the Church today, an attempt to convince us that an embrace of heresy and immorality is not sinful, but rather a response to the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking through people who feel marginalized by a Church that has, up to now, been unfaithful to its mission.43 

34. Is “Inclusion” Implementing Liberation Theology’s “Church of the Poor”? Yes. For decades, the so-called liberation theologians had begun to broaden the Marxist concept of the “poor”—that is, the materially dispossessed—to include any category that supposedly feels “oppressed,” such as women, indigenous peoples, blacks, homosexuals, and so forth. In light of the synodal journey, the Synthesis of the Continental Stage of the Synod for Latin America and the Caribbean, strongly influenced by liberation theology, again proposes the old idea of the “Church of the poor” or “people’s Church.” Speaking of a “Church that is ‘a refuge for the wounded and the broken’” (one would say the “oppressed”), the Latin American Document affirms: It is important that in the synodal process, we dare to bring up and discern great themes that are often forgotten or pushed aside and to meet the other and all those who are part of the human family and are often marginalized, even in our Church. Several appeals remind us that, in the spirit of Jesus, we must “include the poor, LGTBIQ+ communities, couples in a second union, priests who want to return to the Church in their new situation, women who have abortions out of fear, prisoners, the sick” (Southern Cone). It is about “walking together in a synodal Church that listens to all kinds of exiles, so that they feel at home,” a Church that is “a refuge for the wounded and the broken.”44 F - The Working Document for the Continental Stage

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  Norway to spend $6 million a year stock-piling grain, citing pandemic, war and climate change
Posted by: Stone - 08-29-2023, 06:12 AM - Forum: Global News - No Replies

Norway to spend $6 million a year stock-piling grain, citing pandemic, war and climate change

[Image: ?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F4...d408a14eeb]

FILE - Farmers harvest a grain field near Wernigerode, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023. Norway will spend 63 million kroner ($6 million) per year until the end of the decade stocking up on grain as the COVID-19 pandemic, a war in Europe and climate change have made it necessary, the government said Friday, Aug. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)


August 25, 2023
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Norway will spend 63 million kroner ($6 million) per year until the end of the decade stocking up on grain as the COVID-19 pandemic, a war in Europe and climate change have made it necessary, the government said Friday.

Starting next year, Norway will start storing 15,000 tons of grain and do so yearly until 2028 or 2029, according to Norway’s minister for agriculture and food, Geir Pollestad, who said the aim is to always have a three-month worth of consumption in storage.

Toward the end of the decade, 82,500 tons of grain should be in stock. Pollestad didn’t elaborate on the type of grain to be stored.

Pollestad told the Norwegian news agency NTB that they must take into consideration “the unthinkable” happening. “In a situation with extreme prices on the world market, it will still be possible to buy grain, but if we have done our job, we will not be so dependent on the highest bidder at auction. We can help keep prices down.”

The Norwegian Parliament will have to approve the plan before moving forward.

The storage location of these potential grain stockpiles has not been decided. Norway had stored grain in the 1950s but closed down these storages in 2003 after the Scandinavian country decided it was no longer necessary.

Norway houses the Global Seed Vault in its Svalbard archipelago, some 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from the North Pole.

Since 2008, gene banks and organizations around the world have deposited nearly 1 million samples of seeds at the vault to back up their own collections in case of man-made or natural calamities.

The Norwegian government funded the construction cost while an international nonprofit organization pay for operational costs.

Russia’s war on Ukraine has affected the global trade of grain with both countries being major suppliers of corn wheat, barley and vegetable oil.

In July, Russia halted a wartime agreement with Ukraine allowing grain to move to countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where hunger threatens millions of people already struggling with high local food prices.

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  New study finds extended use of ‘best’ COVID masks may cause cancer, liver damage
Posted by: Stone - 08-29-2023, 04:51 AM - Forum: Health - No Replies

New study finds extended use of ‘best’ COVID masks may cause cancer, liver damage
South Korean researchers found that KFAD and KF94 disposable masks, South Korea's equivalent of N95 masks made out of the same material, release eight times the EPA’s recommended safety limit of toxic volatile organic compounds.

[Image: triple_mask-810x500.jpg]

shutterstock.com


Aug 28, 2023
(LifeSiteNews [emphasis mine) – As some institutions in the United States begin to reimpose COVID-19 mask mandates, a new study suggests that the types of masks billed as most effective may actually contain dangerous and potentially even cancer-inducing chemicals.

The Daily Mail reports that according to a study by researchers from South Korea’s Jeonbuk National University, published in the journal Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety and on the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH’s) website, KFAD and KF94 disposable masks release eight times the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) recommended safety limit of toxic volatile organic compounds (TVOCs).

TVOCs are linked to headaches, breathing difficulty, and nausea, and with sufficiently-prolonged exposure even nerve system and liver damage as well as cancer.

KFAD and KF94 masks are the dominant equivalent of KN95s in South Korea, filtering out just one percent fewer particles than the surgical masks preferred in the United States, which raises the possibility of the same masks carrying the same danger. All three are made from polypropylene.

The NIH website contains a disclaimer that it does not necessarily endorse studies it publishes, and New York internal medicine physician Dr. Stuart Fischer cautioned that firm conclusions would be premature, but said “there seems to be diminishing returns on the need for masks,” and it was “indeed possible that certain masks have side effects, just as certain helpful medications (anti-histamines, psychotropic drugs, antibiotics) have side effects.”

“I think following the general recommendations might be helpful, but it’s not clear yet if we need the sweeping edicts of three years ago,” Fischer said. “Extreme fears about the lethality of Covid may have led to decisions that were counterproductive…Covid won’t be going away for a long time, if ever. We desperately need policies that do not fracture our society while providing minimal protection.”

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government recommended wearing face coverings in the presence of others, advice that many states and localities used to impose mask mandates on a wide range of public gatherings. But evidence has long since shown that masking was largely ineffective at limiting the spread of the virus.

Among that evidence is the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s (CDC’s) September 2020 admission that masks cannot be counted on to keep out COVID when spending 15 minutes or longer within six feet of someone, and a May 2020 study published by the peer-reviewed CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases that “did not find evidence that surgical-type face masks are effective in reducing laboratory-confirmed influenza transmission, either when worn by infected persons (source control) or by persons in the general community to reduce their susceptibility.”

In May 2021, another study found that, though mandates were largely followed, that usage did not yield the expected benefits. “Mask mandates and use (were) not associated with lower SARS-CoV-2 spread among U.S. states” from March 2020 to March 2021. In fact, the researchers found the results to be a net negative, with masks increasing “dehydration … headaches and sweating and decreas[ing] cognitive precision,” and interfering with communication, as well as impairing social learning among children. More than 170 studies have found that masks have been ineffective at stopping COVID while instead being harmful, especially to children.

N95 masks have long been touted as the most ideal protection, despite most mask mandates typically not distinguishing between them and simple cloth coverings. Writing for the Brownstone Institute, however, Megan Mansell explains that COVID virus particles are “far smaller than the apparatus is approved or designed to capture,” and even against a hypothetical perfect capture rate of 95%, “the 5% percent never captured is still a plentiful enough potential exposure to infectious matter to result in infection.”

In recent days, some schools, hospitals, and businesses have resumed mask mandates, citing rising cases from the EG.5 COVID variant.

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  Archbishop Viganò: Spadaro’s blasphemous article a manifestation of the ‘counter-church’
Posted by: Stone - 08-29-2023, 04:42 AM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò - Replies (1)

Archbishop Viganò: Spadaro’s blasphemous article a manifestation of the ‘counter-church’ and its false dogmas
Spadaro’s article is not a simple provocation – something already unheard of in itself – but the manifestation, the epiphany, as some 'theologian' of Santa Marta would call it, of a counter-church with its false dogmas, mendacious precepts, deceitful preaching, its corrupted and corrupting ministers.

[Image: Carlo-Maria-Vigano_3-810x500.jpg]


Aug 28, 2023
(LifeSiteNews - adapted) – Spadaro’s words are like a puddle of sewage containing the scum of the worst Modernism that has been plaguing the Church for more than a century. It is the Modernism that was never definitively eradicated from seminaries and self-styled Catholic universities, to which a sect of heretics and those who are misguided has erected the totem of the Second Vatican Council in place of two thousand years of Tradition. Until some time ago this “synthesis of all heresies” tried to make itself presentable by failing to manifest its antichristic nature, which was nonetheless consubstantial with it: there was still the risk that some vaguely conservative Prelate not yet fully committed to the cause would realize its intrinsic danger.

Of course, the divinity of Christ was considered to be merely wishful thinking flowing from the need for the sacred of the “primitive community.” His miracles were downplayed to exaggerations, His words to metaphors; on the other hand, “There were no recorders,” said Arturo Sosa, Superior General of the Society of Satan. Today, protected by a Jesuit who in violation of the Rule of Saint Ignatius occupies the See of Peter, the worst followers of this sect feel free to give vent to their rantings and arrive, in an infernal delirium, at the point of blaspheming Jesus Christ, who has already been the subject of disturbing epithets from Bergoglio. “Jesus became a snake, he became a devil,” the Argentine said some time ago. He is echoed by Spadaro, who with the arrogance of one who believes himself unpunished dares to define Our Lord as “a sick person, a prisoner of the rigidity and the dominant theological, political and cultural elements of his time”; “indifferent to suffering, angry and insensitive; unbreakably hard; an unmerciful theologian; mocking and disrespectful; blinded by nationalism and theological rigorism.” It is useless to explain to these entangled minds what the Holy Fathers have taught about the Gospel passage about the Canaanite woman: they are interested in keeping the idol of Vatican II high on its pedestal; and it matters little to them if in order to defend their errors they have to trample on the Son of God, offending and blaspheming Him as not even the worst heresiarchs of the past had dared to do.

Spadaro’s article is not a simple provocation – something already unheard of in itself – but the manifestation, the epiphany, as some “theologian” of Santa Marta would call it, of a counter-church with its false dogmas, mendacious precepts, deceitful preaching, its corrupted and corrupting ministers. A counter-church that lies prostrate to the Antichrist, to everything that represents the denial and challenge to the Lordship of God over man. Pride. Luciferian pride. Pride that knows no limits or brakes. The sect that eclipses the Church of Christ no longer hides: it shows itself and claims to definitively replace the true Church, it shows its idols and demands that they be worshiped, at the price of denying the Savior himself, refuting His divinity, judging His actions, disputing His words.

But if the simple have already understood that the price of this ὕβρις is νέμεσις, almost all the Pastors – Cardinals, Bishops, and priests – turn around and look away. They know well that their cowardice, their conformism, and their desire not to appear retrograde made them co-responsible for this infernal revolution, which they could have stopped in its time; but since for sixty years they too have joined the cult of the Council, they prefer to continue on the path undertaken towards the ruin of the Church and of souls, rather than stop and return to the point where they have deviated the path. Thus they end up preferring the triumph of the wicked – and with it the blasphemous vilification of Jesus Christ – to the humble admission of being wrong. They prefer to let it be said that Our Lord was wrong, “blinded by theological rigor,” rather than recognizing that they themselves are imprisoned in the errors and heresies of Modernism. The measure is full, and the time has come to choose which side we are on. Either with Bergoglio and Spadaro, with the Synod on Synodality, with a human and counterfeit church enslaved to the New World Order, or with God, His Church, and His Saints. And on closer inspection it is already unheard of to hypothesize that Catholics – I am not speaking of priests or prelates – can consider it possible to have a choice.

+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop

August 27, 2023
Dominica XIII Post Pentecosten

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  Biden To Fund New COVID Vaccine "For Everybody... Whether They've Gotten It Before Or Not"
Posted by: Stone - 08-28-2023, 07:48 AM - Forum: COVID Vaccines - No Replies

Biden To Fund New COVID Vaccine "For Everybody... Whether They've Gotten It Before Or Not"

[Image: AP23235704014794-e1692819550473_jpg.jpg?itok=UAvmR5jW]


ZH |  AUG 27, 2023


President Joe Biden on Friday told reporters that he's planning to request more money from Congress to develop a new coronavirus vaccine.

"I signed off this morning on a proposal we have to present to the Congress a request for additional funding for a new vaccine that is ne- — necessary — that works," the official White House transcript reads.

"Tentatively, it is recommended that — it will likely be recommended that everybody get it no matter whether they’ve gotten it before or not."


The announcement follows a recorded rise in Covid-19 cases in some regions, which has been accompanied by the return of mask mandates and cancelled classes by some colleges and businesses.

Quote:New vaccines containing the version of the omicron strain XBB.1.5 are already being developed by Pfizer, Novavax and Moderna. However, the virus’s continuing mutation will likely necessitate updated vaccines.

The Biden administration’s supplemental funding request for Congress for the start of the new fiscal year did not include COVID-19 vaccinations. Instead, the White House asked for roughly $40 billion to fund short-term key priorities such as more aide for Ukraine, federal disaster funds, climate change and border priorities. -The Hill

Maybe this time it will actually be safe and effective?

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  Massive emergency alert test will sound alarms on US cellphones, TVs and radios in October
Posted by: Stone - 08-28-2023, 07:40 AM - Forum: General Commentary - No Replies

Massive emergency alert test will sound alarms on US cellphones, TVs and radios in October

USA TODAY | August 26, 2023


This is a test. This is only a test. But it's going to be one very big test.

On Wednesday, October 4 at 2:20 p.m. ET, every TV, radio and cellphone in the United States should blare out the distinctive, jarring electronic warning tone of an emergency alert, accompanied by a notice along these lines:

“This is a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System, issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, covering the United States from 14:20 to 14:50 hours ET. This is only a test. No action is required by the public."


What's going to happen?
On Wednesday, October 4, a test is planned of the entire nation’s Emergency Alert system, a tryout to ensure everything is working correctly in the event of a big, national disaster or attack.

In the wake of the horrific fires on the island of Maui on August 8, when warning sirens that might have alerted people to the danger weren’t deployed, it’s a reminder of what systems are in place should they be needed.


Why is a national test necessary?
Federal emergency management coordinators need to make sure the national alert system is still an effective way to warn Americans about emergencies, natural catastrophes, attacks and accidents at the national level.


What will the emergency message say?
The exact wording hasn't been released yet but it's very likely to be something along these lines: “This is a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System, issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, covering the United States from 14:20 to 14:50 hours ET. This is only a test. No action is required by the public."

On cellphones, it will come as a text message:

“THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.”

Phones on which the main menu set to Spanish will see this: “ESTA ES UNA PRUEBA del Sistema Nacional de Alerta de Emergencia. No se necesita acción.”


When will it happen?
On Wednesday, October 4, the message will go out at the same moment across every time zone in the United States.

That means 2:20 in the afternoon in the East, 1:20 p.m. Central time, 12:20 p.m. Mountain time and 11:20 a.m. on the West Coast. People in Alaska will hear it at 10:20 a.m. and in Hawaii the alarms will go off at 8:20 a.m.


How long will the test last?
The test is scheduled to last approximately one minute. It will only go out once, there will be no repeats.


Where will it be heard and seen?
The message will be heard and seen pretty much everywhere. It's being conducted with the participation of radio and television broadcasters, cable systems, satellite radio and television providers and wireline video providers.

So all across the United States, TV shows will be interrupted, radio programming halted and phones will get a warning message. The message will go out in both English and Spanish, showing up most places in English but in Spanish depending on the language settings of the device.


Has something like this been done before?
The first national emergency broadcasting system in the U.S. was created in 1951 as a way for the government to use radio networks to warn the nation of an enemy attack during the Cold War. It was further refined and expanded as fears of nuclear attack grew in the 1950s and 60s.

The first nationwide test of the most recent version of the Emergency Alert System took place on November 9, 2011, at 2:00 p.m. ET.

That check revealed multiple problems with the national Emergency Alert System that could have meant not everyone would hear the alert in the event of a real emergency. With that knowledge, the system was improved and strengthened.

That 2011 test message was a lot wordier than those used now.

"This is a test of the Emergency Alert System. This is only a test. The message you are hearing is part of a nationwide live code test of Emergency Alert System capabilities. This test message has been initiated by national alert and warning authorities. In coordination with Emergency Alert System participants, including broadcast, cable, satellite, and wire line participants in your area. Had this been an actual emergency, the attention signal you just heard would have been followed by emergency information, news, or instructions. This is only a test. We now return you to regular programming."

The test on Oct. 4 will be the seventh nationwide test sent to radios and televisions, the third to consumer cellphones and the second to all cellular devices.


Will there be warnings about the test?
Expect a tidal wave of news stories and warnings leading up to the test, to avoid panic.

FEMA and the FCC are coordinating with wireless providers, television and radio broadcasters, emergency managers and others to get the word out. The goal is to minimize confusion and maximize the public safety value of the test.


Could anything stop the test?
It could be postponed if there is "widespread severe weather or other significant events," according to the FCC. The backup testing date is set for Oct. 11.


Are there ever false alarms?
Over the years there have been mistaken messages sent out that triggered false alarms at the local level, especially in the 1950s when the system was new and communication more difficult.

The most recent false alarm occurred in 2018 in Hawaii when the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency system mistakenly sent an alert notification warning of a ballistic missile threat to the Islands. During a shift change, someone had selected the wrong item on a computer.

A flurry of tweets, often with screenshots of the message, popped up on cellphones shortly after 8 a.m. local time. The message read, "Ballistic Missile Threat Inbound To Hawaii. Seek Immediate Shelter. This Is Not A Drill." Some state highway signs also noted the warning.

It took 38 minutes to clarify that the alert was due to user error.

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  St. Alphonsus Liguori: Daily Meditations for Thirteenth Week after Pentecost
Posted by: Stone - 08-27-2023, 06:06 AM - Forum: Pentecost - Replies (6)

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Morning Meditation

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THE HOUSE OF ETERNITY


We err in calling the place where we now dwell our home. After a little while the grave will be the home of our body until the Day of Judgment, and the home of our soul will be the House of Eternity, in Heaven or Hell for ever!


I.

We err in calling the place where we now dwell our home. After a little while the grave will be the home of our body until the Day of Judgment, and the home of our soul will be the House of Eternity, in Heaven or Hell for ever, because man shall go into the house of his eternity (Eccles. xii. 5). At our burial our corpses do not go to the grave of themselves; they are carried there by others; but the soul goes to the place which awaits it, either of eternal joy or eternal woe. A man shall go to the house of his eternity. According as a man lives well or ill, so he goes to the home prepared, in Paradise or in Hell, which he shall never change.

Those who live on this earth often change their home, either to please themselves or because they are compelled. In eternity the habitation is never changed; where we enter the first time, there we abide forever. If the tree fall to the south or to the north, in whatever place it shall fall, there shall it be (Eccles. xi. 3). He that enters into the South, which is Heaven, will be ever happy; he that enters the North, which is Hell, will be ever miserable.

He, then, who enters Heaven, will be always united with God, always in company with the Saints, always in the profoundest peace, always abundantly contented; because every blessed soul is filled and satisfied with joy, nor will he ever know the fear of losing it. If fear of losing their happiness could enter among the Blessed, they would be no longer happy; for the mere thought of losing the joy they possess would disturb the peace they enjoy.

On the other hand, whoever enters into Hell will be forever far from God. He will ever suffer in the fire of the damned. Let us not think that the pains of Hell will be like those of earth, where, through the force of habit, a trouble continually grows less; for, as in Paradise, delights never cause weariness, but seem ever new, as though they were for the first time enjoyed, which is implied by the expression of "the new canticle" which the Blessed are ever singing; so, in Hell, the pains never grow less through all eternity. Long custom will never diminish their torment. The miserable beings who are damned will feel the same anguish through eternity that they feel the first moment they experience its pangs.


II.

St. Augustine says that he who believes in eternity and is not converted to God has either lost his senses or his Faith. Woe, cries St. Cesarius, woe to sinners who enter eternity without knowing it, through having neglected to think upon it! And then he adds: "But, oh, double woe! They enter it and they never come forth!" It is a double woe, the first will be to fall into that abyss of fire; the second, that he who falls into it will never come forth: the gates of hell open only to those who enter, not to those who would depart.

No; the Saints did not do too much when they went to hide themselves in caves and deserts, to eat herbs, and to sleep on the ground, in order to save their souls. "They did not do too much," says St. Bernard, "because, where eternity is in question, no security can be too great." When, then, God visits us with any cross of infirmity, poverty, or any evil, let us think of the hell we have deserved, and thus every sorrow will appear light. Let us say, with Job: I have sinned, and indeed I have offended, and I have not received what I have deserved (Job, xxxiii. 27). O Lord, I have offended Thee, and many times betrayed Thee, and I have not been punished as I deserved; how, then, can I lament if Thou sendest me tribulation -- I, who have so often deserved hell?

O my Jesus, send me not to Hell, to the Hell in which I could no longer love Thee, but should hate Thee forever. Deprive me of everything -- of property, health, life; but deprive me not of Thyself. Grant that I may love Thee and praise Thee forever; and then chastise me, and do with me what Thou wilt. O Mother of God, pray to Jesus for me.


Spiritual Reading

2. -- "WHEN I WAS A LITTLE ONE I PLEASED THE MOST HIGH."

St. Thomas says that Mary was called full of grace, not on the part of grace itself, for she had it not in the highest possible degree, since even the habitual grace of Jesus Christ (according to the same holy Doctor) was not such that the absolute power of God could not have made it greater, although it was a grace sufficient for the end for which His humanity was ordained by Divine Wisdom, that is, for its union with the Person of the Eternal Word. Although Divine power could make something greater and better than the habitual grace of Christ, it could not fit it for anything greater than the personal union with the only-begotten Son of the Father, and to which union that measure of grace sufficiently corresponds, according to the limit placed by Divine Wisdom. For the same angelic Doctor teaches that the Divine power is so great that, however much it gives, it can always give more; and although the natural capacity of creatures is in itself limited as to receiving, so that it can be entirely filled, nevertheless its power to obey the Divine will is unlimited, and God can always fill it more by increasing its capacity to receive. "As far as its natural capacity goes, it can be filled; but it cannot be filled as far as its power of obeying goes." But now to return to our proposition: St. Thomas says that the Blessed Virgin was not filled with grace, as to grace itself, nevertheless she is called full of grace as to herself, for she had an immense grace, one which was sufficient, and corresponded to her immense dignity, so much so that it fitted her to be the Mother of God: "The Blessed Virgin is full of grace, not with the fulness of grace itself, for she had not grace in the highest degree of excellence in which it can be had, nor had she it as to all its effects; but she was said to be full of grace as to herself, because she had sufficient grace for that state to which she was chosen by God, that is, to be the Mother of His only-begotten Son." Hence Benedict Fernandez says that "the measure whereby we may know the greatness of the grace communicated to Mary is her dignity of Mother of God."


Evening Meditation

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST

"Behold thy Son! ... Behold thy Mother!"

I.


All antiquity asserts that St. John was ever a virgin, and especially on this account was he given as a son to Mary, and honoured in being made to occupy the place of Jesus Christ; on which account the holy Church sings: "To John, a virgin, He commended His Virgin Mother." And from the moment of the Lord's death, as it is written, St. John received Mary into his own house, and assisted and obeyed her throughout her life, as if she had been his own mother. Jesus Christ willed that this beloved disciple should be an eye-witness of His death, in order that he might more confidently bear witness to it in his Gospel, and might be able to say: He that saw it hath given testimony (Jo. xix. 35). And on this account the Lord, at the time when the other disciples abandoned Him, gave St. John strength to be present until His death in the midst of so many enemies.

But let us examine more deeply the reason why Jesus called Mary woman, and not mother. By this expression He desired to show that she was the woman foretold in the Book of Genesis, who would crush the serpent's head: I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel (Gen. iii. 15). It is doubted by none that this woman was the Blessed Virgin Mary, who, by means of her Son, would crush the head of Satan -- if it be not more correct to say that her Son, by means of her who would bear Him, would do this. Naturally Mary was the enemy of the serpent, because Lucifer was haughty, ungrateful, disobedient, while she was humble, grateful, and obedient. It is said, She shall crush thy head, because Mary, by means of her Son, beat down the pride of Lucifer, who lay in wait for the heel of Jesus Christ, which means His holy humanity, which was the part of Him which was nearest to the earth; while the Saviour by His death had the glory of conquering him, and of depriving him of that empire which, through sin, he had obtained over the human race.

O suffering Mother, thou knowest that I have deserved hell; I have no hope of being saved, except by the merits of the death of Jesus Christ. Thou must pray for me, that I may obtain this grace; and I pray thee to obtain it for me by the love of that Son Whom thou sawest bow His head and expire on Calvary before thine eyes. O Queen of Martyrs, O advocate of sinners, help me always, and especially in the hour of my death!


II.

God said to the serpent: I will put enmities ... . between thy seed and her seed. This shows that after the fall of man, through sin, notwithstanding all that would be done by the Redemption of Jesus Christ, there would be two families and two posterities in the world, the children of Satan signifying the family of sinners, his children corrupted by him; and the children of Mary, signifying the holy family, which includes all the just, with their Head Jesus Christ. Hence Mary was destined to be the Mother both of the Head and of the members, namely, the faithful. The Apostle writes: Ye are all one in Christ Jesus; and if ye are Christ's, then ye are the seed of Abraham (Gal. iii. 28, 29). Thus Jesus Christ and the faithful are one single body, because the Head cannot be divided from the members, and these members are all spiritual children of Mary, as they have the same spirit of her Son according to nature, who was Jesus Christ. Therefore, St. John was not called John but the disciple beloved by the Lord, that we might understand that Mary is the Mother of every good Christian who is beloved by Jesus Christ, and in whom Jesus Christ lives by His Spirit. This was expressed by Origen: "Jesus said to Mary: Behold thy son! as if He had said: This is Jesus, whom thou hast borne, for he who is perfect lives no more himself, but Christ lives in him."

Denis the Carthusian writes that in the Passion of Jesus Christ the breast of Mary was filled with the blood which flowed from His Wounds, in order that with it she might nourish her children. And he adds that this divine Mother by her prayers and merits, which she especially acquired by sharing in the death of Jesus Christ, obtained for us a participation in the merits of the Passion of the Redeemer.

O my advocate, Mary, even now I seem to see the devils, who, in my last agony, will strive to make me despair at the sight of my sins. Oh! abandon me not then, when thou seest me thus assaulted; help me with thy prayers, and obtain for me confidence and holy perseverance. And because then, when my speech will be gone, and perhaps my senses, I shall not be able to invoke thy name and that of thy Son, I now call upon thee -- Jesus and Mary, I recommend my soul unto you!

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  Archbishop Viganò praises Bishop Strickland’s pastoral letter on the Synod
Posted by: Stone - 08-26-2023, 06:30 AM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò - Replies (1)

Archbishop Viganò praises Bishop Strickland’s pastoral letter on the Synod
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò praised Bishop Joseph Strickland's pastoral letter criticizing the Synod on Synodality, with Viganò saying Strickland's words truly reflect his role as a 'successor of the apostles.'

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Abp. Viganò & Bp. Strickland
Screenshot/Diocese of Tyler


Aug 25, 2023
TYLER, Texas (LifeSiteNews) — The former Papal Nuncio to the U.S. has given his backing to Bishop Joseph Strickland’s recent pastoral message in which Strickland warned of the dangers to the Catholic faith stemming from the “Synod on Synodality.”

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò gave public praise to Strickland, stating that “that is the way a Successor of the Apostles speaks.”


The archbishop’s comment came in light of Strickland’s recent pastoral message, released August 22 to his Diocese of Tyler, Texas.

READ: Bishop Strickland: Catholics are not ‘schismatic’ for rejecting changes that contradict Church teaching 

As quoted and highlighted by Viganò, Strickland warned that Catholic desirous of adhering to Tradition may find themselves accused of being “schismatic.”

“Regrettably,” wrote Strickland, “it may be that some will label as schismatics those who disagree with the changes being proposed. Be assured, however, that no one who remains firmly upon the plumb line of our Catholic faith is a schismatic.”

“We must be aware also that it is not leaving the Church to stand firm against these proposed changes,” Strickland added. “As St. Peter said, ‘Lord to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.’ (Jn 6:68)”

He also encouraged Catholics to remain firmly attached to the truths of the faith, stating how “standing firm does not mean we are seeking to leave the Church.”

Instead, Strickland described proponents of change and innovation as the true “schismatics,” stating that “those who would propose changes to that which cannot be changed seek to commandeer Christ’s Church, and they are indeed the true schismatics.”

Strickland outlined seven truths taught by the Catholic Church adding that “many of these truths will be examined as part of the Synod on Synodality.” They consisted of:
  • The nature of the Catholic Church as the only true Church.
  • The necessity to be in a state of grace to receive the Eucharist.
  • The divine nature of the sacrament of Marriage, which man cannot alter or “redefine.”
  • Man is created in the image and likeness of God, which does not permit for a rejection of biological reality.
  • The complete immorality of sexual activity outside of marriage, which cannot be blessed or condoned by the Church at all.
  • The “belief that all men and women will be saved regardless of how they live their lives” is “false and dangerous.”
  • The necessity to bear sufferings in order to follow Christ and unite suffering to His redemptive death.
Notably, proponents of the Synod hit back at Strickland after he published his letter, with one of the lay Synod non-voting members Austen Ivereigh writing: “I have followed the synod docs from its launch in 2021 to the working doc for the assembly this October. *Not one* of these [seven truths] has *ever* been discussed.”


Despite Ivereigh’s claims, a number of Strickland’s list of truths have appeared in the Synod process under various forms. The first – on the nature of the Church – has been called into question by the Synod from the very start.

READ: Vatican’s Synod on Synodality will consult non-Catholics, lapsed Catholics 

Pope Francis’ texts which have guided the Synod since its 2021 inception note that the Synod’s “act of discerning” entails listening to “people who have left the practice of the faith, people of other faith traditions, people of no religious belief, etc.” [sic] They also highlight the “temptation not to look beyond the visible confines of the Church” as a problem to be avoided.

The second on Strickland’s list – receiving the Holy Eucharist in a state of grace – has also been called into question by the Synod. The latest working document for the October meeting of the Synod appears to present the widely accepted, and papally approved, interpretation of Amoris Laetitiae allowing the divorced and “re-married” to receive Holy Communion as an already finalized issue.

READ: Major Synod on Synodality document highlights need to ‘welcome’ polygamists, ‘LGBTQ+ people’

The document states:

Quote:Some of the questions that emerged from the consultation of the People of God concern issues on which there is already magisterial and theological teaching to be considered. To give just two examples, we can note the acceptance of remarried divorcees, dealt with in the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris laetitia, or the inculturation of the liturgy, the subject of the Instruction Varietates legitimae (1994) of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

Furthermore, Strickland’s list identifies the dangers of accepting or tolerating gender ideology or sexual relations outside of marriage, both of which are aspects promoted by the Synod. The question of LGBT issues has been repeatedly identified in the Synod, with the current working document stating that those in need of receiving a “genuine welcome” include a number of groups such as “the divorced and remarried, people in polygamous marriages, or LGBTQ+ Catholics.”

While Strickland’s pastoral letter may not have won him support from proponents of the Synod, its reception amongst faithful Catholics continues to be a favorable one.

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  YouTube to Silence Abortion Dissent in New “Misinformation” Policy
Posted by: Stone - 08-25-2023, 07:41 AM - Forum: Abortion - No Replies

YouTube to Silence Abortion Dissent in New “Misinformation” Policy


C-FAM | August 24, 2023

NEW YORK, August 25 (C-Fam) YouTube’s new medical misinformation policy will censor any video that runs against the guidelines of the World Health Organization on abortion.

The policy specifically cites information about abortion among the examples of content it is targeting for censorship. According to the policy, the kinds of statements YouTube plans to censor include “claims that abortion commonly results in or carries a high risk of infertility or future miscarriage” and “claims that abortion causes breast cancer.”

Given that the examples provided in the policy are not exhaustive, many other claims discussing or raising questions about the harmful effects of abortion can be expected to be labeled as misinformation and removed by YouTube.

Dr. Garth Graham, Director of Healthcare and Public Health Partnerships at YouTube, said the policy contributes to their long-term vision to improve their “community guidelines.”

“Community guidelines” are often opaque and largely unknown to users but are widely recognized as used to eliminate conservative opinions. Despite their previous commitments to balance censoring content with allowing for public dialogue, this policy clarifies that medical debate and open discussion will only be allowed on YouTube as long as it conforms with the WHO.

WHO has a clear position on abortion, namely that it is generally a safe procedure if WHO guidelines are followed and that “lack of access to safe, timely, affordable and respectful abortion care is a critical public health and human rights issue.” By declaring that abortion is a human right, WHO makes a normative statement that YouTube could use to flag or remove content that rejects this view.

YouTube does not specify what would happen if WHO and local health authorities diverge in their interpretation or recommendation of disease prevention or treatments.

It is also not clear how the policy might affect the many personal testimonies of women who have undergone abortion and experienced complications and negative side-effects to their physical and mental health. The YouTube policy allows users to upload their personal experiences of medical conditions or treatments through the Personal Stories Shelf feature of the platform, but only so long as they do not stray from personal to more general factual statements or advocacy.

The only other exception where information contrary to WHO guidelines might be tolerated is if it is deemed to be in the “public interest”, but this is not likely to apply to personal stories as much as statements by public figures that may be politically relevant.

YouTube’s new framework represents a continuation of the same kind of content control social media platforms, including YouTube, Meta and Twitter, carried out relating to COVID-19. Meta and Twitter removed posts based on the same principle in the YouTube policy, namely, when they shared information contradicting the Center for Disease and Control (CDC) or WHO guidelines and is judged capable of “producing harm.” and, if disseminated, were thought to produce harm.

Over the past three years, many “dangerous” posts that were taken down or flagged by social media companies under these content moderation policies proved to be true or at least presented valid public concerns or scientific questions.

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  Fr. Joseph Clifford Fenton: Sacrorum Antistitum and the Background of the Oath Against Modernism
Posted by: Stone - 08-25-2023, 07:03 AM - Forum: In Defense of Tradition - No Replies

Sacrorum Antistitum and the Background of the Oath Against Modernism


DESCRIPTION
This document provides a translation and explanation of the introduction and conclusion of the Motu Proprio Sacrorum Antistitum, one of the main anti-Modernist pronouncements issued by the Holy See during the reign of Pius X.

LARGER WORK
The American Ecclesiastical Review

PAGES
239-260

PUBLISHER & DATE
The Catholic University of America Press, October 1960


September 1 of this year marked the fiftieth anniversary of the last, and in some ways the most important, of the three main anti-Modernist pronouncements issued by the Holy See during the brilliant reign of St. Pius X. This document was the Motu proprio Sacrorum antistitum. The other two basic anti-Modernist documents are, of course, the Holy Office decree Lamentabili sane exitu, dated July 3, 1907, and the encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis, issued September 8 of that same year.

The Sacrorum antistitum is best known because it contains the text of the famous anti-Modernist oath and the rules prescribing when and by whom this oath is to be taken. Because of the tremendous intrinsic importance of the oath itself and by reason of its function in the doctrinal life of the Catholic Church, the papal document containing this oath definitely deserves serious study by the present generation of theologians. The Sacrorum antistitum brings out the basic objectives, which the saintly Pius X hoped to attain through the taking of the oath. These objectives, which are also the ends St. Pius X worked to achieve through the writing of the Motu proprio itself, are expressed very clearly in the introduction and in the conclusion to this document.

Since the entire text of the Sacrorum antistitum is not very generally available here and now, it will be helpful to see a translation of its most important parts, including the introduction and conclusion. The following is a translation of the introduction to this Motu proprio.



The Introduction


We believe that no bishop is ignorant of the fact that the wily Modernists have not abandoned their plans for disturbing the peace of the Church since they were unmasked by the encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis. For they have not ceased to seek out new recruits and to gather them into a secret alliance. Nor have they ceased, along with their new associates, to inject the poison of their own teachings into the veins of the Christian body-politic by turning out anonymous or pseudonymous books and articles. If, after a re-reading of the above-mentioned encyclical Pascendi, this audacity, which has caused Us so much grief, be considered very carefully, it will become quite apparent that these men are just as the encyclical describes them: enemies who are all the more to be feared by reason of their very nearness to us. They are men who pervert their ministry in such a way as to bait their hooks with poisoned meat in order to catch the unwary. They carry with them a form of doctrine in which the summary of all errors is contained.

While this plague is spreading abroad over that very part of the Lord's field from which the best fruits might be expected, it is the duty of all Bishops to exert themselves in defence of the Catholic faith and most diligently to see to it that the integrity of the divine deposit suffers no loss. Likewise it is most definitely Our duty to obey the commands of Christ the Saviour, who gave to Peter, to whose position of authority We, though unworthy, have succeeded, the order: "Confirm thy brethren." Thus, so that the souls of the good may be strengthened in the present struggle, We have considered it opportune to repeat the following statements and commands of the encyclical Pascendi. 1

The last words of this introduction to the Sacrorum antistitum show that the first section of the body of this Motu proprio is a long citation from the disciplinary part of the encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis. To this citation is attached an appendix, having to do with legislation concerning seminaries. The second part of the body of the text of the Sacrorum antistitum contains the text of the anti-Modernist oath, together with the rules prescribing when and by whom his oath is to be taken, and the other directives, which accompanied the command to take the oath. The third section is merely a statement in Latin of a text on preaching, originally issued in Italian, on the orders of Pope Leo XIII, by the Congregation of Bishops and of Regulars, on July 31, 1894.

The introduction to the Sacrorum antistitum contains some badly needed lessons for the priests of our own time. Incidentally it contains some reminders of truths in the theological and in the historical orders, which are far too seldom insisted upon today. It will, in my judgment, be definitely helpful to take cognizance of some of these truths at this time.

(1) Basically the Sacrorum antistitum and the anti-Modernist oath it contains were intended by St. Pius X as works he was required to perform in order to carry out his own divinely imposed responsibility to confirm the faith of his fellow members of the Catholic Church and to strengthen the efforts of the Bishops to see to it that their flocks received the divinely revealed message in all its integrity and purity.

For the sake of both fidelity to revealed teaching and of historical veracity, it is absolutely imperative that our contemporary Catholic scholars take cognizance of the truth of St. Pius X's claim about his intention. Actually the responsibility, which St. Pius X had assumed when he accepted the burden of the papacy, demanded that he take the most effective means at his disposal to protect the faith of Catholics. Quite obviously the greatest danger to the faith of the members of the true Church of Jesus Christ exists when some members of this Church actually teach or even show sympathy for doctrine contradictory to or incompatible with the body of Catholic dogma without receiving any reproof from those whom God has commissioned and obligated to protect the purity and the integrity of the Catholic faith.

St. Pius X was acutely conscious of the fact that many influential Catholics were teaching or encouraging erroneous doctrines opposed to the divinely revealed Catholic message long after those erroneous doctrines had been pointed out and condemned by the highest teaching authority within the Church. And the saintly Pope was brilliant enough to realize that, unless he took some sort of drastic action, a great number of Catholics might be persuaded to imagine that de facto the Church at least tacitly tolerated the doctrinal deviations of the Modernists and their sympathizers. Thus he directed the severe commands of the Sacrorum antistitum towards the protection of the Catholic faith that was his most important responsibility as the Vicar of Christ on earth.

It was and it still is the contention of the Modernists, together with their sympathizers and their dupes, that St. Pius X in some way or another went beyond the bounds imposed by prudence and charity in the war he waged against the heresy of Modernism. As a matter of fact, even after the regular investigations involved in the process of his beatification had been completed, the Sacred Congregation of Rites considered it best to commission its historical section to conduct a special investigation into the validity of this particular contention. This strict investigation, which made use of all available testimony and of the very abundant documentary material pertinent to the question, brought out very clearly the fact that St. Pius X, in issuing the Sacrorum antistitum and in taking the other steps against the Modernists and their supporters during the latter days of his pontificate, had been doing only what the demands of his high office demanded of him. 2

One of the most striking indications of this is to be found in a well-known statement attributed to Pope Benedict XV. The Disquisitio of the Historical Section of the Sacred Congregation of Rites reprints this statement in a part of the testimony offered by Msgr. Hoenning-O'Carroll in the course of the inquiry into the virtues of Pius X held in Venice.

Quote:Particularly his [Pius X's] political dealings with France and the steps he took against Modernism were attacked as imprudent and exaggerated . . . When Father Mauro Serafini was having an audience with Pope Benedict XV, the Pope said to him: "Now that I am sitting on this Chair, I see very well how right Pius X was. While I was the Sostituto in the Secretariate of State, and even while I was Archbishop of Bologna, I did not always share the thought of Pius X, but now I have to realize how right he was." 3

Monsignor Hoenning-O'Carroll testified that he learned of this statement of Pope Benedict XV from Monsignor Pescini. Despite the fact that this particular witness knew the story only through hearsay, the statement itself seems very well attested. It seems to reflect the mind of Pope Benedict XV.

In any event there is ample and compelling evidence that the Sacrorum antistitum and the other anti-Modernistic documents issued by St. Pius X were actually called for and really required by reason of the danger to the Catholic faith which had been caused by the activity of the Modernists, their sympathizers, and their dupes, within the true Church of Jesus Christ.

(2) At the time the Sacrorum antistitum was being written, the integrity of the Catholic faith itself was being seriously threatened. Within the Catholic Church itself a definite and formidable effort was being made to persuade members of the true Church to reject as antiquated and outdated certain teachings, which were actually presented by the Church's magisterium as belonging to the deposit of divine public revelation. This effort was being made by the Modernists, most of whom were members of the Catholic Church. The teachings, which these men had attempted to impose upon the Church had been specifically and authoritatively condemned by the Holy See three years before the Sacrorum antistitum was issued.

Thus it is immensely important to realize that the teachings against which the Sacrorum antistitum was directed were being put forward by an obdurate group of men whose heresies had been indicated, denounced, and condemned three years before this Motu proprio was written. This, incidentally, is quite at variance with the unhistorical statements of some contemporary sympathizers with Modernism and the Modernists. Writers of this sort have tried to delude their fellow Catholics into imagining that, upon the appearance of the Lamentabili sane exitu and the Pascendi dominici gregis, most of the men who had been teaching and defending the doctrines condemned in these two documents quickly and humbly submitted to the teaching authority of the Holy See. The text of the Sacrorum antistitum, and also, be it noted, the text of the Ad beatissimi, the inaugural encyclical of Pope Benedict XV, show that no such reaction took place. 4 The well defined group which had been proposing and favoring the propositions condemned in the Lamentabili and in the Pascendi insolently continued to work for acceptance of their errors within the Church even after St. Pius X had denounced and condemned them.

(3) In the Sacrorum antistitum St. Pius X speaks out very clearly of the existence of a secret alliance or a foedus clandestinum among the Modernists of his day. For one reason or another, this truth, observed and stated by St. Pius X, and clearly evident to any person who takes the trouble to study the history of the Modernist movement, has always been singularly distasteful to sympathizers with Modernism and with the Modernists. It seems to have been precisely in order to cause confusion on this particular point that the men who have been partial to the Modernists have gone to such extreme lengths to delude people into imagining that the opposition to Loisy, Von Hugel, and their ilk within the Catholic Church was fundamentally the work of a secret alliance of sinister and reactionary Catholics. It would certainly appear that the ridiculous and mendacious propaganda directed against the Sodalitium Pianum and against Monsignor Umberto Benigni, even over the course of the past few years, 5 can best be explained as an attempt to cover up the fact that there was a foedus clandestinum connected with and inherent in the Modernist movement.

(4) The introduction to the Sacrorum antistitum takes cognizance of the fact that most of the genuinely dangerous supporters of the Modernist movement, the men against whose efforts the Sacrorum antistitum and its commands were particularly directed, were priests active within the Catholic Church itself. St. Pius X took cognizance of the fact that such priests were actually perverting their own ministry. They were guilty of using their priestly power and their priestly position to counter, rather than to advance, the work of Jesus Christ Our Lord.

Basically the work of the priesthood is directed towards the glory of God, which is to be achieved and obtained in the salvation of souls. This objective is to be obtained only by those who pass from this life living the life of sanctifying grace. And the life of sanctifying grace cannot exist apart from the truth faith, until such time as the faith itself is replaced by the Beatific Vision. Thus the priestly ministry in the true Church of Jesus Christ necessarily seeks to induce men to accept God's supernatural teaching with the certain assent of divine faith and works to increase the perfection and the intensity of the faith in those who already possess this virtue. Hence any effort on the part of a Catholic priest to influence people to reject or to pass over a truth revealed by God and proposed as such by the Church's magisterium definitely constitutes a perversion of the sacerdotal ministry.

(5)St. Pius X describes the Modernists as men "who are all the more to be feared by reason of their very nearness to us." It would be difficult indeed to appreciate the position of the Church in the twentieth century without realizing the objectivity and the shrewdness of this observation.

A man is to be feared by the Church, or by the members of the Church, in the measure that this man intends and is genuinely able to harm the Church, or to counteract and negate the salvific mission of Our Lord's Mystical Body in this world. And this happens especially when non-members of the Church are influenced not to accept its divine message and not to seek entrance into this society, and when members of the Church are pressured to reject Our Lord, or His love, or His divine teaching. It is most important to remember that the only real and serious damage to the cause of Christ is done when effective efforts are made to nullify and to counteract the work the Church does as the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ Our Lord.

With its insistence that the Modernists and their sympathizers were "enemies who are all the more to be feared by reason of their very nearness to us," the introduction to the Sacrorum antistitum takes cognizance of the fact that, during our own times at least, non-members of the Church have, generally speaking, not been able to damage the Church to any very considerable extent. Quite obviously, despite their manifest and intense ill will, people like those who used to be associated with the old Menace and the Ku Klux Klan, and those who are now associated with groups like P. . . U, are not particularly formidable adversaries of Our Lord, His Church, or His message. They have certainly helped to stir up and further to envenom antipathy towards the Catholic Church on the part of ignorant non-Catholics who were previously ill disposed towards the Church. But it would hardly seem likely that any Catholic has ever been turned against Christ or against the Church's divinely revealed message as a result of anything that has ever been said or written by these rabble-rousers. And it seems highly unlikely that any individual has been excluded from the Beatific Vision by reason of anything he has said or done by reason of their influence.

On the other hand, no one has ever been as well placed to harm the true Church and to counteract its essential work as a Catholic priest in good standing. If such a man, by his preaching, his teaching, or his writing, actually sets forth the kind of teaching condemned in the Lamentabili sane exitu and in the Pascendi dominici gregis, or if he works to discredit the loyal defenders of Catholic dogma without receiving any repudiation or reproof from those to whom the apostolic deposit of divine revelation has been entrusted, the Catholic people are in grave danger of being deceived.

The Modernists and their most influential sympathizers were, in great part, drawn from the ranks of the Catholic clergy. Thus they were, in the words of the introduction to the Sacrorum antistitum, the "enemies who are all the more to be feared by reason of their very nearness to us." These Catholics who taught or favored Modernism were the men whose influence within the true Church of Jesus Christ St. Pius X sought to counter by the teaching and the directives contained in the Sacrorum antistitum.

(6) Finally, in the introduction to this famous Motu proprio, St. Pius X makes it very clear indeed that the Bishops of the Catholic Church were bound in conscience by the obligations of their office to act energetically against this teaching that contradicted the divinely revealed truth proposed as such by the true Church. The "defence of the Catholic faith" and strenuous efforts "to see to it that the integrity of the divine deposit suffers no loss" are definitely not works of supererogation. These are the duties prescribed by Our Lord Himself for the leaders of the Church, which He has purchased by His blood.


The Conclusion To The Sacrorum Antistitum

The conclusion to this document, the last of the three great anti-Modernist declarations issued by the Holy See during the reign of St. Pius X, is even more enlightening than the introduction. In this we see how St. Pius X enunciated, more clearly than in any other document, the most fundamental position of the Modernists. The text of this conclusion follows:

Quote:Moved by the seriousness of the evil that is increasing every day, an evil, which We cannot put off confronting without the most grave danger, We have decided to issue and to repeat these commands. For it is no longer a case, as it was in the beginning, of dealing with disputants who come forward in the clothing of sheep. Now we are faced with open and bitter enemies from within our own household, who, in agreement with the outstanding" opponents of the Church, are working for the overthrow of the faith. They are men whose audacity against the wisdom that has come down from heaven increases daily. They arrogate to themselves the right to correct this revealed wisdom as if it were something corrupt, to renew it as if it were something that had become obsolete, to improve it and to adapt it to the dictates, the progress, and the comfort of the age as if it had been opposed to the good of society and not merely opposed to the levity of a few men.

To counter such attempts against the evangelical doctrine and the ecclesiastical tradition, there will never be sufficient vigilance or too much severity on the part of those to whom the faithful care of the sacred deposit has been entrusted. 6

In this conclusion to the Sacrorum antistitum, St. Pius X expressly recognizes the fact that the Modernists and their sympathizers, the anti-anti-Modernists, were actually working, in agreement with the most-bitter enemies of the Catholic Church, for the destruction of the Catholic faith. It is interesting and highly important to note exactly what St. Pius X said. He definitely did not claim that these men were working directly to destroy the Church as a society. It is quite obvious that, given the intimate connection between the Church and the faith, a connection so close and perfect that the Church itself may be defined as the congregatio fidelium, the repudiation of the Catholic faith would inevitably lead to the dissolution of the Church. Yet, for the Modernists and for those who co-operated in their work, the immediate object of attack was always the faith itself. These individuals were perfectly willing that the Catholic Church should continue to exist as a religious society, as long as it did not insist upon the acceptance of that message which, all during the course of the previous centuries of its existence, it had proposed as a message supernaturally revealed by the Lord and Creator of heaven and earth. They were willing and even anxious to retain their membership in the Catholic Church, as long as they were not obliged to accept on the authority of divine faith such unfashionable dogmas as, for example, the truth that there is truly no salvation outside of the Church.

What these men were really working for was the transformation of the Catholic Church into an essentially non-doctrinal religious body. They considered that their era would be willing to accept the Church as a kind of humanitarian institution, vaguely religious, tastefully patriotic, and eminently cultural. And they definitely intended to tailor the Church to fit the needs and the tastes of their own era.

It must be understood, of course, that the Modernists and the men who aided their efforts did not expect the Catholic Church to repudiate its age-old formulas of belief. They did not want the Church to reject or to abandon the ancient creeds, or even any of those formularies in which the necessity of the faith and the necessity of the Church are so firmly and decisively stated. What they sought was a declaration on the part of the Church's magisterium to the effect that these old formulas did not, during the first decade of the twentieth century, carry the same meaning for the believing Catholic that they had carried when these formulas had first been drawn up. Or, in other words, they sought to force or to delude the teaching authority of Christ's Church into coming out with the fatally erroneous proposition that what is accepted by divine faith in this century is objectively something different from what was believed in the Catholic Church on the authority of God revealing in previous times.

Thus the basic objective of Modernism was to reject the fact that, when he sets forth Catholic dogma, the Catholic teacher is acting precisely as an ambassador of Christ. The Modernists were men who were never quite able to grasp or to accept the truth that the teaching of the Catholic Church is, as the First Vatican Council designated the content of the Constitution Dei Films, actually "the salutary doctrine of Christ," and not merely some kind of doctrine, which has developed out of that teaching. And, in the final analysis, the position of the Modernists constituted the ultimate repudiation of the Catholic faith. If the teaching proposed by the Church as dogma is not actually and really the doctrine supernaturally revealed by God through Jesus Christ Our Lord, through the Prophets of the Old Testament who were His heralds, or through the Apostles who were His witnesses, then there could be nothing more pitifully inane than the work of the Catholic magisterium.

It is interesting to note the parallel between what St. Pius X says about the intentions of the Modernists and what his great predecessor, Pope Leo XIII, had to say about the basic premise of the errors he pointed out and condemned in his famed letter, the Testem benevolentiae. St. Pius X declares that the Modernists "arrogate to themselves the right to correct this revealed wisdom as if it were something corrupt, to renew it as if it were something that had become obsolete, to improve it and to adapt it to the dictates, the progress, and the comfort of the age as if it had been opposed to the good of society and not merely opposed to the levity of a few men." And Pope Leo XIII states:

Quote:The principles on which the new opinions We have mentioned are based may be reduced to this: that in order the more easily to bring over to Catholic doctrine those who dissent from it, the Church ought to adapt herself somewhat to our advanced civilization, and, relaxing her ancient rigor, show some indulgence to modern theories and methods. Many think that this is to be understood not only with regard to the rule of life, but also to the doctrines in which the deposit of faith is contained. For they contend that it is opportune, in order to work in a more attractive way upon the wills of those who are not in accord with us, to pass over certain heads of doctrines, as if of lesser moment, or so to soften them that they may not have the same meaning which the Church has invariably held. 7

Thus, when we examine the actual texts of the Testimonium benevolentiae and of the Sacrorum antistitum, it becomes quite apparent that Pope Leo XIII and St. Pius X were engaged in combating doctrinal deviations that actually sprang from an identical principle, the fantastically erroneous assumption that the supernatural communication of the Triune God could and should be brought up to date and given a certain respectability before modern society. The men who sustained the weird teachings condemned by Pope Leo XIII, a document, which, incidentally, did not denounce any mere phantom body of doctrine, and the men who taught and protected the doctrinal monstrosities stigmatized in the Lamentabili sane exitu and in the Pascendi dominici gregis, based their errors on a common foundation. The false Americanism and the heresy of Modernism were both offshoots of doctrinal liberal Catholicism.

This belief that the meaning of the Church's dogmatic message was in some way subject to change and capable of being improved and brought up to date was definitely not an explicit part of the original or the more naive stage of the liberal Catholic movement. The first components of liberal Catholicism, during the earlier days of the unfortunate Felicite De Lamenais, were religious indifferentism, some false concepts of human freedom, and the advocacy of a separation of Church and state as the ideal situation in a nation made up of members of the true Church. But, after these teachings had been forcefully repudiated by Pope Gregory XVI in his encyclical Mirari vos arbitramur, a new set of factors entered into this system. These were inserted into the fabric of liberal Catholicism because the leaders of this movement persisted in defending as legitimate Catholic doctrine this teaching, which had been clearly and vigorously condemned by the supreme power of the Catholic magisterium. Most prominent among these newer components of liberal Catholicism were minimism, doctrinal subjectivism, and an insistence that there had been and that there had to be at least some sort of change in the objective meaning of the Church's dogmatic message over the course of the centuries. 8

The liberal Catholic since the time of Montalembert has been well aware of the fact that the basic theses he proposes as acceptable Catholic doctrine have been specifically and vehemently repudiated by the doctrinal authority of the Roman Church. If he is to continue to propose these teachings as a member of the Church, he is obliged by the very force of self-consistency to claim that the declarations of the magisterium, which condemned his favorite theses do not at this moment mean objectively what they meant at the time they were issued. And, if such a claim is advanced about the Mirari vos arbitramur, there is very little to prevent its being put forward on the subject of the Athanasian Creed. Pope Leo XIII and St. Pius X were well aware of the fact that the advocates of the false Americanism and the teachers and the protectors of the Modernist heresy were employing this same discredited tactic.

This common basis of the false doctrinal Americanism and of the Modernist heresy is, like doctrinal indifferentism itself, ultimately a rejection of Catholic dogma as a genuine supernatural message or communication from the living God Himself. It would seem impossible for anyone to be blasphemous or silly enough to be convinced, on the one hand, that the dogmatic message of the Catholic Church is actually a locutio Dei ad homines, and to imagine, on the other hand, that he, a mere creature, could in some way improve that teaching or make it more respectable. The very fact that a man would be so rash as to attempt to bring the dogma of the Church up to date, or to make it more acceptable to those who are not privileged to be members of the true Church, indicates that this individual is not actually and profoundly convinced that this dogmatic teaching of the Catholic Church is a supernatural communication from the living and Triune God, the Lord and Creator of heaven and earth. It would be the height of blasphemy knowingly to set out to improve or to bring up to date what one would seriously consider a genuine message from the First Cause of the universe.

The conclusion to the Sacrorum antistitum brings out more clearly than any other statement of the Holy See the fact that Modernism sprang from the same basic principle, as did the false Americanism pointed out and proscribed in the Testem benevolentiae of Pope Leo XIII.



The Immediate Context Of The Oath In The Sacrorum Antistitum

The main body of the first section of the Sacrorum antistitum is substantially a repetition of the legislative or disciplinary portion of the encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis. To this, however, in the text of the Sacrorum antistitum, is added an expression of the saintly Pontiff's concern for seminaries, ending with the vigorous command that henceforth the reading of "diaria quaevis aut commentaria, quantumvis optima" was strictly forbidden to seminarians "onerata moderatorum conscientia qui ne id accidat religiose non caverint." 9

The second section of the Sacrorum antistitum, the one which contains and which deals with the Oath against Modernism, follows immediately after the statement of the prohibition of the reading of newspapers by seminarians. The first part of this section is of particular importance in that it shows very clearly the effect, which St. Pius X wished to produce through the taking of the oath. The section begins as follows:

Quote:But in order to do away with all suspicion that Modernism may secretly enter in [to the seminaries], not only do We will that the commands listed under n. 2 above be obeyed absolutely, but We also order that all teachers, before their first lectures at the beginning of the scholastic year, must show to their Bishop the text which each shall decide to use in teaching, or the questions or theses that are to be treated, and that furthermore throughout the year itself the kind of teaching of each course be examined, and that if such teaching be found to run counter to sound doctrine, that this will result in the immediate dismissal of the teacher. Finally [We will] that over and above the profession of faith [the teacher] should take an oath before his Bishop, according to the formula that follows, and that he should sign his name. 10

The Sacrorum antistitum goes on to say that the profession of faith shall be that prescribed by Pope Pius IV, together with the additions, relative to the First Vatican Council, prescribed by the Decree of Jan. 20, 1877. And it likewise indicates the Church officials other than professors in seminaries who are bound by law to take the Oath.

Actually, then, in the immediate context of the Sacrorum antistitum, the command that seminary professors take Oath against Modernism stands out as one of four orders directed towards the prevention of the entrance of Modernism into ecclesiastical seminaries. These four directives are:
(1) the strict carrying out of the legislation set down under n. 2 of the first section of the Sacrorum antistitum,
(2) the submission by individual seminary professors to their Bishops at the beginning of the scholastic year of the textbooks they are going to use and of the theses they are going to propound,
(3) the investigation (obviously by the competent and proper ecclesiastical authority), of the teaching offered in the various courses being given to the seminarians, and finally
(4) the making of the Tridentine-Vatican profession of faith and the taking of the Oath against Modernism. The teacher is to sign his name to the Oath he has taken. The context would seem to indicate that it was the mind of St. Pius X that this Oath should be taken every year at the beginning of the academic term.

All of the other operations, including the taking of the Oath against Modernism, are subordinated to a certain extent to the legislation set down in the second sub-section of the first part of the Sacrorum antistitum. This sub-section, it must be remembered, is part of the text of the Sacrorum antistitum, which is simply reproduced from the disciplinary portion of the Pascendi dominici gregis. The pertinent sub-section follows:

Quote:All these prescriptions, both Our own and those of Our predecessor, are to be kept in view whenever there is a question of choosing directors and teachers for seminaries and for Catholic universities. Anyone who in any way is found to be tainted with Modernism is to be excluded without compunction from these offices, whether of administration or of teaching, and those who already occupy such offices are to be removed. The same policy is to be followed with regard to those who openly or secretly lend support to Modernism, either by praising the Modernists and excusing their culpable conduct, or by carping at scholasticism, and the Fathers, and the magisterium of the Church, or by refusing obedience to ecclesiastical authority in any of its depositaries; and with regard to those who manifest a love of novelty in history, archeology, and biblical exegesis; and finally with regard to those who neglect the sacred sciences or appear to prefer the secular [sciences] to them. On this entire subject, Venerable Brethren, and especially with regard to the choice of teachers, you cannot be too watchful or too careful, for as a rule the students are modeled according to the pattern of their teachers. Strong in the consciousness of your duty, act always in this matter with prudence and with vigor.

Equal diligence and severity are to be used in examining and selecting candidates for Holy Orders. Far, far from the clergy be the love of novelty! God hates the proud and the obstinate mind. In the future the doctorate in theology or in canon law must never be conferred on anyone who has not first of all made the regular course in scholastic philosophy. If such a doctorate be conferred, it is to be held as null and void. The rules laid down in 1896 by the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars for the clerics of Italy, both secular and regular, about the frequenting of universities, We now decree to be extended to all nations. Clerics and priests inscribed in a Catholic institute or university must not in the future follow in civil universities those courses for which there are chairs in the Catholic institutes to which they belong. If this has been permitted anywhere in the past, We order that it shall not be allowed in the future. Let the Bishops who form the governing boards of such institutes or universities see to it with all care that these Our commands be constantly observed. 11

There can be no doubt whatsoever about the severity of the directives which are, in the text of the Sacrorum antistitum, immediately associated with the command that teachers in seminaries and in the ecclesiastical schools of Catholic universities take the Oath against Modernism, which appeared for the first time in that document. St. Pius X ordered that those who taught the errors condemned in the Lamentabili sane exitu and in the Pascendi dominici gregis should be dropped from any position on the administrative or on the teaching staff of any seminary or Catholic university, and that men who held such views must not, under any conditions whatsoever, be considered as prospects for membership in the administrations or in the professional corps of such institutions. Furthermore he ordered that the sympathizers with Modernism should be treated in exactly the same fashion. It is quite obvious that, in speaking of lovers of "novelties," the saintly Pontiff meant people who favored these propositions condemned by the Church and designated as Modernism.

Then there were other directives. It was decreed that the doctorate in sacred theology and in canon law must never, in the future, be conferred on any person who had not taken a regular course in scholastic philosophy. Furthermore, St. Pius X ordered that priests connected with Catholic institutions of higher learning must not, in the future, take in non-Catholic institutions of higher studies courses, which were being given in the schools with which they themselves were connected.

All of these directives went against the liberal Catholic spirit, of which Modernism was the outstanding expression. All of them were likewise unpopular, as calculated to arouse the antagonism of the enemies who attacked the Church from the outside. All of them were duly denounced and regretted as obscurantist. Catholics of mediocre intellectual attainments attracted praise to themselves for their disloyalty to Our Lord's cause and to His Church, which was manifested in their disdainful reactions against these commands of Christ's Vicar on earth. Yet certainly and incontrovertibly the cause of Christ, the cause of truth, the cause of the Catholic faith, benefited to the extent that these rigorous directives were carried out.

It must definitely be understood that the most rigorous and the most important of these directives set forth in the disciplinary part of the Pascendi dominici gregis, and afterwards in the Sacrorum antistitum, are expressions of what we may call the natural law of the supernatural order. In other words, the obligation of the individual Bishop to exclude Modernists and sympathizers with Modernism from the administrations and from the professorial staffs of seminaries and of Catholic universities definitely did not begin with the first promulgation of this law by St. Pius X. Given the position and the obligation of the Bishop within the true Church of Jesus Christ, and given the nature and the necessity of the Catholic faith, it is always the clear duty of the Bishop to exclude from the dignity of teaching in the Church in any position under his control any individual who will teach or favor the contradiction of the divinely revealed message. Modernism was and is such a contradiction. Thus it was and always will necessarily remain the duty of the Bishop to see to it that any individual who teaches or who supports Modernism in any way be excluded from any co-operation in the apostolic task of teaching the divine message of Jesus Christ within His Church.

In issuing this decree, St. Pius X was taking cognizance of the basic truth about the teaching work in the Church, which was afterwards brought out so clearly by Pope Pius XII in his allocution Si diligis. This document brings out more clearly than any other in recent years the tremendous responsibility of the Bishop in the field of teaching the divine message.

Quote:Christ Our Lord entrusted the truth, which He had brought from heaven to the Apostles, and through them to their successors. He sent His Apostles, as He had been sent by the Father, (John, 20:21), to teach all nations everything they had heard from Him (cf. Matt., 28:19 f.). The Apostles are, therefore by divine right the true doctors and teachers in the Church. Besides the lawful successors of the Apostles, namely the Roman Pontiff for the universal Church and the Bishops for the faithful entrusted to their care (cf. can. 1326), there are no other teachers divinely constituted in the Church of Christ. But both the Bishops and, first of all, the Supreme Teacher and Vicar of Christ on earth, may associate others with themselves in their work as teacher, and may use their advice. They delegate to them the faculty to teach, either by special grant, or by conferring an office to which this faculty is attached (cf. can. 1328). Those who are so called teach, not in their own name, nor by reason of their theological knowledge, but by reason of the mandate they have received from the lawful Teaching Authority. Their faculty always remains subject to that Authority, nor is it ever exercised in its own right or independently. Bishops, for their part, by conferring this faculty, are not deprived of the right to teach. They retain the very grave obligation of supervising the doctrine, which others propose, in order to help them and of seeing to its integrity and security. Therefore the legitimate Teaching Authority of the Church is guilty of no injury or no offence to any of those to whom it has given a canonical mission, if it desires to ascertain what they, to whom it has entrusted the mission of teaching, are proposing and defending in their lectures, in books, notes, and reviews intended for the use of their students, as well as in books and other publications intended for the general public. 12

In the Si diligis, Pope Pius XII explains the directives issued by St. Pius X in the Pascendi and in the Sacrorum antistitum. The members of the apostolic hierarchy of jurisdiction, the Pope and the residential Bishops throughout the world are responsible before God Himself for the teaching in the Catholic Church. All the legitimate teaching in the Church is issued by them or under their direction. They have full responsibility and full competence to see to it that the faithful of Christ receive His message in all of its purity and integrity. Naturally if they themselves contradict, or transform, or withhold any portion of the revealed truth, which has been entrusted to them, they will have been recreant to the commission they have received from Our Lord Himself. And, in precisely the same way, they are being disloyal to Our Lord if they allow those whom they use as helpers in the teaching work within the Church to deny or to adulterate any of the divinely revealed doctrines.

The power and the dignity of the apostolic Catholic hierarchy in the field of dogmatic teaching are beyond comparison. But with that dignity and with that authority goes the gravest responsibility which human beings are called upon to assume. The directives, which, in the Sacrorum antistitum, form the immediate context of the command to take the Oath against Modernism, simply take cognizance of these basic and most important facts.

In the final analysis, they are founded upon an awareness of the tremendous and vital necessity of the divine faith itself. St. Pius X directed that all professors or directors of seminaries and of Catholic universities, who taught or showed sympathy with the doctrines condemned as Modernism, should be removed from their positions, and commanded that such individuals should not be brought into such positions in the future. This order, as is quite obvious, is simply a statement of what is actually required by the constitution of the Catholic Church itself. The same obligation would have been incumbent on the Bishops of the Catholic Church even if St. Pius X had not spoken out and issued these directives.

The Sacrorum antistitum, however, goes even further. It demands that the individual teachers in seminaries and in Catholic universities submit to their Bishops the name of the textbook they intend to follow or the list of theses they intend to teach and defend in their academic lectures. Furthermore it insists that the Bishops themselves take care, during the course of the academic year, to find out exactly what is being taught in the various classes in the Catholic institutes of higher learning under their direction. And then, in order to bring out this obligation for doctrinal orthodoxy in the clearest possible way, the Sacrorum antistitum orders these teachers to make the Profession of Faith of the Council of Trent and of the First Vatican Council, and to take and sign their names to the special Oath composed by St. Pius X precisely to repudiate and to condemn the central teachings of the Modernist movement.

With this salutary severity with reference to the teachers and directors of ecclesiastical seminaries and of Catholic universities, the Sacrorum antistitum likewise contains strict directives about the candidates for Holy Orders. Men who hold Modernistic teachings or who are sympathetic towards the Modernists are not to be ordained. With his intense awareness of the pastoral mission of the Catholic priesthood, St. Pius X was all too cognizant of the harm that could and inevitably would come to the Catholic Church from a priest who would be willing to pervert his position by working against the divinely revealed teaching of Jesus Christ.



The Oath Itself


Against the background of the Sacrorum antistitum, then, the Oath against Modernism appears as something intended primarily for teachers in and directors of ecclesiastical seminaries and Catholic universities. Other dignitaries of the Catholic Church are ordered to take this Oath, along with the Tridentine Profession of the Faith. But it is something intended primarily and immediately for those who are called upon to teach or to direct candidates for Holy Orders.

Thus the Oath itself is constituted as a Profession of the Catholic belief. The man who takes this Oath makes his solemn declaration in the sight of God Himself that he firmly accepts and receives all the teachings and each individual one of the teachings "that have been defined, asserted, and declared by the infallible magisterium of the Church, especially those points of doctrine which are directly opposed to the errors of this time." 13 The most important and influential of these "errors of this time" are clearly pointed out in the formula, and the man who takes the Oath calls upon God as His Witness that he rejects these false judgments and firmly accepts the statements of Catholic doctrine opposed to them. St. Pius X ordered that the professors and administrators in seminaries and in Catholic universities sign their names to the formula of the Oath after they had taken it. Thus it would be difficult to find or even to conceive of a more effective measure for the protection of candidates for Holy Orders from the infection of Modernism than that constituted by St. Pius X in his legislation about the Oath in the Sacrorum antistitum. The man who taught or in any way aided in the dissemination or the protection of Modernistic teachings in a seminary or in a Catholic university after the issuance of the Sacrorum antistitum would mark himself, not only as a sinner against the Catholic faith, but also as a common perjurer.

Incidentally, the Oath against Modernism contained in the Sacrorum antistitum is something, which demands a certain amount of knowledge in the man who takes it seriously and religiously. We must not allow ourselves to forget that essentially an oath is an act of religion, an act in which we worship almighty God or manifest our acknowledgement of His supreme excellence and of our own complete and absolute dependence upon Him. 14 Thus an oath is definitely not something that can be taken lightly. And the man who takes the Oath against Modernism calls upon God to witness that he reverently submits and whole-heartedly assents "to all the condemnations, the declarations, and the commands which are contained in the encyclical Pascendi and in the decree Lamentabili, especially to those that relate to what they call the history of dogmas." 15 It would seem to be irreverent indeed for any seminary or university professor to take this oath without knowing exactly what is condemned, what is taught, and what is commanded in these two tremendously important documents. It is quite obvious that some of the doctrines and directives contained in the Pascendi and in the Lamentabili are also brought out in the Oath against Modernism. But it is equally clear that not all of these teachings and precepts of the two 1907 documents are set forth in the Oath, and that the man who wishes to take the Oath as a religious act, to take it worthily, must exert himself to find out exactly and in detail what he is promising to accept and to believe. And it is patent that the man who does not take the time and the trouble to find out what is taught and what is commanded in the Pascendi and in the Lamentabili is being somewhat careless in calling upon the living God to witness that he will whole-heartedly abide by the doctrines and the directives contained in these two statements.



Recapitulation


The Oath against Modernism is undoubtedly, up until now, the most important and the most influential document issued by the Holy See during the course of the twentieth century.[/color] It is a magnificent statement of Catholic truth, in the face of the errors, which were being disseminated within the Church by the cleverest enemies the Mystical Body of Christ has encountered in the course of its history. It was a profession of Catholic belief intended primarily for those engaged in the spiritual and intellectual formation of candidates for Holy Orders. According to the strict command of the Sacrorum antistitum, the men for whom the Oath against Modernism was primarily intended were also obliged to show their Bishops, at the beginning of each academic year, the textbooks they were employing in class, and the theses they intended to teach and to defend. The Bishops themselves were not only reminded of their obligation, but were strictly commanded to watch over the teaching being given in the institutions of higher learning under their direction and control.

The Bishops were also commanded to see to it that no man tainted with Modernism, either as a teacher of the errors condemned in the Lamentabili and the Pascendi, or as one who supported these errors by working to discredit the teachers of Catholic truth who opposed and unmasked Modernism, was to be admitted to or permitted to remain in the professorial corps or the administration of an ecclesiastical seminary or a Catholic university. And no young man who was infected by Modernism errors was to be allowed to become or to remain a candidate for Holy Orders.

This was the rigorous and powerful direction of the Sacrorum antistitum. Quite obviously it was not and it still is not in accord with the tastes of liberal Catholics. But it was and it remains the great expression of St. Pius X's desire to accomplish his mission as Christ's Vicar on earth. It was and it remains a tremendously effective factor for the protection of the little ones of Jesus Christ against the virus of Modernism.



Endnotes

1 The Latin text of the Sacrorum antistitum is to be found in the Codicis iuris canonici fontes, cura Petri Cardinalis Gasparri editi (Typis polyglottis Vaticanis, 1933), III, 774-90. This particular section is on p. 774.
2 The documentation and the results of this investigation are contained in the Disquisitio circa quasdam obiectiones modum agendi Servi Dei [Pii Papae X] respicientes in Modernismi debellatione, una cum summario additionali ex officio compilato, which is n. 77 of the printed documents of the Sectio historica of the Sacra Rituum Congregatio. The work was edited by Father Antonelli, O.F.M. It is mentioned and used rather well by Pierre Fernessole, in his Pie X: Essai historique (Paris: Lethielleux, 1953), II, 237-51. It is employed brilliantly by Fr. Raymond Dulac in his two famous articles, "Les devoirs du journaliste catholique selon le Bienheureux Pie X," and "Simple note sur le Sodalitium Pianum," in La pensee catholique, n. 23 (1952), 68-87; 88-93.
3 Disquisitio, p. 127. Cited by Fernessole, op. cit., II, 249.
4 It is quite evident that Pope Benedict XV considered the Modernism condemned by St. Pius X as an influential movement in the Church four years after the Sacrorum antistitum was written. Thus we read in the Ad beatissimi: "And so there came into being the monstrous errors of Modernism, which Our predecessor rightly designated as the gathering together of all the heresies, and which he solemnly condemned. To the fullest extent possible, Venerable Brethren, We here renew that condemnation. And, because this pestiferous contagion has not yet been overcome, but even now creeps in here and there, even though in a hidden manner. We exhort all most diligently against any infection of this evil, to which you might rightly apply the words that Job said on another subject: 'It is a fire that devoureth even to destruction, and rooteth up all things that spring.' And We will that Catholic men should turn away in disgust, not only from the errors, but from the very mentality, or, as they call it, the spirit of the Modernists" (Cf. Codicis iuris canonici fontes. III, 842).
It must also be remembered that the errors denounced by the late Pope Pius XII in his encyclical Humani generis definitely were Modernistic.
5 Perhaps the most insolent and naive of these attacks is that contained in the article " 'La Sapiniere,' ou breve histoire de l'organisation integriste," written by someone who used the pseudonym "Louis Davallon," in the May 15, 1955, number of Folliet's Chronique sociale de France, pp. 241-62. A brief discussion of this unfortunate and thoroughly untrustworthy article will be found in Fenton, "Some Recent Writings in the Field of Fundamental Dogmatic Theology," Part II, in The American Ecclesiastical Review, CXXXIV, 5 (May, 1956), 340-45. It is tragic that an otherwise respectable book, The Life of Benedict XV, by Walter H. Peters (Milwaukee: Bruce 1959), incorporates some of this nonsensical propaganda against Monsignor Benigni into its chapter "Modernists and Integralists" (pp. 42-53).
6 The text is in Codicis iuris canonici fontes. III, 789 f.
7 The text is in Denz., n. 1967. This passage is translated in Father Wynne's edition of The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII (New York: Benziger Brothers, 1903), p. 442.
8 Cf. Fenton, "The Components of Liberal Catholicism," in The American Ecclesiastical Review, CXXXIX, 1 (July, 1958), 36-53.
9 Codicis iuris canonici fontes. III, 782.
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid., III, 776.
12 The text and translation of the Si diligis are in The American Ecclesiastical Review, CXXX, 2 (Aug., 1954), 127-37. This passage is found on pp. 133 f.
13 Denz., n. 2145.
14 Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, q. 89, a. 4.
15 Denz., n. 2146.

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  United Nations Countering 'Deadly Disinformation' Through Creation Of 'Digital Army'
Posted by: Stone - 08-24-2023, 05:54 AM - Forum: Global News - No Replies

United Nations Countering 'Deadly Disinformation' Through Creation Of 'Digital Army'

[Image: image%2858%29.jpg?itok=TZc7MFIe]

United Nations Office Geneva, on July 20, 2019. (saiko3p/shutterstock)


ZH | AUG 24, 2023
Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The United Nations (U.N.) says it is battling mis- and disinformation on social media and beyond through what it calls a "digital army" located across the globe.

In an Aug. 19 press release, U.N. officials said peacekeepers throughout the world are building the "digital army" through smartphones, editing apps, and "innovative approaches" as part of efforts to "fight back against falsehoods that can trigger tensions, violence, or even death."

The intergovernmental organization has also been monitoring how mis- and disinformation and hate speech can "attack health, security, stability" as well as progress towards its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), officials said.

"Digital platforms are crucial tools that have transformed social, cultural, and political interactions everywhere. Across the world, they connect concerned global citizens on issues that matter," U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said in a policy brief (pdf) published in June on information integrity on digital platforms.

Such platforms have "given people hope in times of crisis and struggle, amplified voices that were previously unheard, and breathed life into global movements," Mr. Guterres wrote.

However, they have also "exposed a darker side of the digital ecosystem," the U.N. secretary-general noted.

"They have enabled the rapid spread of lies and hate, causing real harm on a global scale," he wrote in the brief. "Optimism over the potential of social media to connect and engage people has been dampened as mis- and disinformation and hate speech have surged from the margins of digital space into the mainstream. The danger cannot be overstated."

The U.N. policy brief acknowledges that there are "no universally accepted definitions" of the term "disinformation" but says the U.N.'s own working definition of the term refers to "false informatio


'Digital Army Capable of Detecting False Information'

Disinformation is described by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as "false or misleading content that can cause specific harm, irrespective of motivations, awareness or behaviors."

The term "misinformation" is described in the U.N. policy brief as "the unintentional spread of inaccurate information shared in good faith by those unaware that they are passing on falsehoods."

"Misinformation can be rooted in disinformation as deliberate lies and misleading narratives are weaponized over time, fed into the public discourse, and passed on unwittingly," the U.N. brief reads. "In practice, the distinction between mis- and disinformation can be difficult to determine," it adds.

According to the U.N., peacekeepers have been working across the globe to put "new tools into the hands of civilians of all ages" aimed at combatting mis- and disinformation, including launching workshops in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Peacekeepers at the workshops are training young people to become "a digital army capable of detecting false information" by "producing content with the help of a smartphone and editing software and simultaneously spreading objective, credible information" through what they call "relay clubs" that disseminate these messages through their networks.


Misinformation 'Festival'

The U.N. is also launching similar efforts in Mali, where it recently held a "festival" to combat misinformation which drew crowds of nearly 400 people, officials said.

Earlier this month, in Abyei—which is located on the border between South Sudan and Sudan and is a disputed region—the U.N. mission there, the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei UNISFA, also launched its own radio station called "Voice of Peace" aimed at countering hate speech and fake news, according to the latest press release.

"The ability to disseminate large-scale disinformation to undermine scientifically established facts poses an existential risk to humanity and endangers democratic institutions and fundamental human rights," Mr. Guterres concluded in the June policy brief.

The announcement regarding the U.N.'s "digital army" comes shortly after the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) quietly rolled out its automated fact-checking and anti-disinformation tool, iVerify, this spring.

The tool, which is supported by the UNDP Chief Digital Office and the UNDP Brussels-based Task Force on Electoral Assistance and developed in concert with media organizations and the private sector, uses Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and human-supported fact-checking to "identify false information and prevent and mitigate its spread," according to the U.N.

On its official website, the U.N. says the new tool will be provided to "national actors," who can then use it to review content and establish whether it is "fact-checkable and/or constitutes hate speech, as opposed to the expression of an opinion."

The new tool was originally piloted in Zambia, ahead of the August 2021 general elections, and was used in the general election in Honduras in November 2021, according to the U.N., which noted the tool helped combat "the spread of false narratives during election periods."

According to Breitbart, iVerify was developed in partnership with Meta and "left-wing nonprofit groups," including the International Fact-Checking Network, which is funded by billionaire George Soros.

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