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| Archbishop Viganò : Message to the participants of the demonstration on January 15th in Rome |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-18-2022, 07:10 AM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò
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The following has been computer translated from the Italian from here:
Message to the participants of the demonstration on January 15th in Rome
Praised be Jesus Christ.
Dear brothers and sisters, allow me to address all of you as a Pastor who above all has the salvation of souls at heart. My words are for each of you: for those who have the grace to be a Christian and for those who are still far from God; for those who have understood the spiritual dimension of this battle and for those who believe that it is only an attack on civil liberties; for those who are aware of the antichristic matrix of what is happening and for those who are exasperated by the absurd restrictions imposed by the governments enslaved by the Great Reset.
Your protest joins that of millions of other people. A courageous protest that starts from the sharing of some fundamental principles such as the right to natural freedoms, to the conscious choice of treatments and to respect for one's convictions in health and civil matters. If you can demonstrate firmly and peacefully to defend your inalienable rights, this day can be remembered when all this is over. I therefore urge you not to give in to the provocations of those who wait only to repress your dissent by force.
This battle cannot and must not be exhausted in a demand for rights and freedom, regardless of Truth and Justice. As I have already said on other occasions, freedom is such only if it is accomplished within the limits of the Good. Those who discriminate against you today, those who prevent you from working, going to school, traveling and entering restaurants and shops are the same people who have been telling you for decades that you are "free" to offend God, to break His Commandments, to divorcing, killing children in the womb, the elderly and the sick in hospital beds; that you are "free" to decide when to live and when to die, to decide what is right and what is wrong; that you can deny your past, your Christian civilization, your identity as Catholics and as Italians. As long as all this responds to the ideology of death,
But this is not freedom! The freedom to which you must aspire, dear brothers and sisters, is founded on Our Lord Jesus Christ, who said: "The truth will make you free" (Jn 8:32), referring to Himself, "Way, Truth and Life" (Jn 14, 6).
Return to God! Make Him reign first of all in your hearts, keeping you in his grace through prayer and the sacraments. Make Him reign in your families, where the fidelity of the spouses, the education of children, the care of the elderly and the weak constitute a formidable defense against those who want to destroy the social fabric. Make Him reign in civil society, conforming the laws of the State to the Law of God, starting with respect for the sacredness of life and the common good. Make Him reign in the courtrooms, in the school, in the university, in the workplace, in the hospital wards.
If you believe that you can free yourselves from the chains of this tyranny with your own strength, you are wrong: because it is precisely in putting the Lord aside that you condemn yourself to the failure of your every action, even laudable. Instead, have the courage to proudly claim your identity, to bear witness to your Faith, to assert your rights as Christians. And above all, dear brothers and sisters, have the courage to place yourselves under the protection of Jesus Christ: "I have overcome the world" (Jn 16:33), the Lord said. If your spiritual battle will be under the banner of Christ the King, victory is certain, and the servants of this infernal dictatorship will retreat, because Satan cannot conquer the One who by His Sacrifice has destroyed his power, and She who by divine decree it will crush his head.
Please, I implore you: huddle under the Cross of Christ, and place yourselves all under the mantle of the Most Holy Virgin. It will not be the Constitution or the Declaration of Human Rights that will save you, but the Faith. That Faith which made Europe great, which built Christian civilization, which made the arts and sciences flourish. That Faith that leads us to reach out to the poor, to give comfort to the sick and the dying, to strengthen in Charity those bonds of brotherhood that today we see destroyed and denied by an ideology that admits everything, tolerates everything, except the Good.
I also appeal to those who are beginning to recognize the deceptions and lies that we have been denouncing for two years: have a leap of pride, a movement of honesty and honor! You doctors and paramedics, do not remain silent in the face of what is happening in hospitals, in violation of the oath you have taken. You magistrates and police, do not become accomplices of traitors and corrupt who obey the globalist oligarchy to destroy the nation and enslave the citizens. You politicians and representatives of institutions, denounce the interference of powers that no one has elected and that conspire against the peoples. You journalists, defend the truth and do not connive with a power based on lies and crime. You shopkeepers, restaurateurs, operators: open your shops and your shops and stop indulging the delirium of an authority that legitimizes itself only with the use of force and intimidation. And you priests, parish priests and bishops, always ready to welcome immigrants and illegal immigrants: remember that the Lord has ordered to love our neighbor, that is, the one who is closest to us: do not go along with the pandemic narrative, do not close your churches to the faithful, and above all remember that it is Our Lord Jesus Christ who saves, not an experimental serum produced with abortive fetuses!
Each of you, today, in this square and throughout Italy, find that humanity that has been compromised by these months of collective madness. Discrimination ceases, and with it the hateful marginalization of the healthy, the ghettoization of dissenters, the criminalization of those who until yesterday were our brother and who today find themselves deprived of work and means of subsistence. Let's get out of this delusion, in the name of God!
When the authority conspires against the nation and abuses its power against the citizens, civil disobedience and conscientious objection are a must. Your children will thank you for what you do, provided that your action is enlightened by Faith and inflamed by Charity. If you just want to go back to being free to offend God and break His Law, you will never get out of this hellish dystopia.
When we ask the Lord "give us today our daily bread", before these material requests we say: "your kingdom come, your will be done". Because only where Christ reigns is there justice, peace, harmony, prosperity.
This is why I invite you all to recite together, with faith and with filial trust in God's help, the prayer that the Lord has taught us: Our Father ...
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
January 15, 2022
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| Dr. Robert Malone: A true friend? |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-18-2022, 07:00 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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Most of us are aware of Dr. Robert Malone's speaking out about the dangers of the vaccines, his ensuing censorship from MSM, etc.
But more and more we have to show discernment, we have to know that not everyone is as they say they are - or as we hope they are.
The following are just some things to keep in the back of our minds going forward.
And this is Dr. Malone 'peddling' his vaccine:
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| Australian state announces lockdown for the unvaccinated that could last ‘for years to come’ |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-18-2022, 06:47 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
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Australian state announces lockdown for the unvaccinated that could last ‘for years to come’
Premier Mark McGowan said statewide restrictions on the un-jabbed would commence on January 31, introducing ‘the broadest proof of vaccination requirements in the nation.’
![[Image: GettyImages-1360624047-810x500.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/GettyImages-1360624047-810x500.jpg)
Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan
Mon Jan 17, 2022 - 3:13 pm EST
PERTH, Australia (LifeSiteNews) – The government of Western Australia (WA) has announced a raft of restrictive new coronavirus measures, barring those who have not received two doses of a COVID-19 shot from most public settings and warning the un-jabbed that the rules “will not be removed any time soon.”
In a January 13 announcement, Premier Mark McGowan unveiled that extensive statewide restrictions on the un-jabbed would commence on January 31, introducing “the broadest proof of vaccination requirements in the nation.”
[NB: Different video than in original article but same topic. - The Catacombs]
The premier said that utilizing “wide-ranging proof of vaccination requirements” will help to curb the spread of COVID-19 since “we have seen [it] work in other jurisdictions.”
McGowan’s assertion sharply contradicts data out of several countries that have introduced vaccine passes, like the U.K., which earlier this month reported record infections and higher COVID rates among vaccinated people in all age groups over 18 years old. The vaccinated have likewise come to dominate COVID hospitalizations and deaths in the U.K. and other highly vaccinated European nations, as well as parts of the United States.
Leading medical experts have also warned of serious injuries linked to the injections. The spike proteins in mRNA COVID vaccines, like those produced by Moderna and Pfizer, are “pathogenic” and “lethal to some,” Texas cardiologist and COVID-19 expert Dr. Peter McCullough lamented last fall.
He noted that autoimmune conditions may directly result from the jabs, echoing experts like Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche and former Pfizer vice president Dr. Mike Yeadon. “So, in the most kind of perverted way, it’s hard to say this, but the vaccine is, in a sense, giving people a dose of a product of bioterrorism, by injection,” McCullough said.
The introduction of the punishing and coercive measures in Western Australia comes despite some 94.4 percent of over 12s in the region having received their first dose of the shots and 87 percent already having taken the second. 18.1 percent of the eligible population had taken a third booster before the announcement. Research has shown that the vaccines cause greater harm than the virus particularly for younger age groups and young men, who have a heightened risk of potentially fatal heart inflammation after the jabs.
Western Australia had already employed a proof of COVID shot status requirement within its borders for what was deemed “higher risk venues and events,” including gatherings where large numbers of people could crowd, such as music festivals.
Now, McGowan said “we will be expanding proof of vaccination requirements to a wider range of venues.”
“Effective Monday, January 31,” he continued, “we will be expanding proof of vaccination requirements.” The list of places unavailable to those who decide to forego inoculation will include public and private hospitals and aged-care facilities, restaurants, cafes, bars, pubs, clubs, taverns, nightclubs, dine-in fast food, and “all hospitality venues.”
“Roadhouses, service stations and take away are exempt,” he stated.
In addition, any hope of the un-jabbed being permitted to entertainment venues was quickly quashed as McGowan announced that “playcentres, gaming and gambling, theatres, concert halls, museums, cinemas, and live music venues” will be out of bounds for such people.
Entrance into liquor stores, major stadiums, gyms, fitness centers and health studios will also be reserved to the double-jabbed alone, as well as amusement parks, zoos, and “the entire Crown Perth complex,” a large luxury resort in the region’s capital. Proof of being double-jabbed will be required for anyone aged 16 and over.
“Life will become very difficult for the unvaccinated … no pubs, no bottle-shops, no gym, no yoga classes, no gigs, no dancefloors, no hospital or aged care visits,” the politician declared.
Proof of one’s “vaccine status” will be accepted through a government-developed app which displays a digital “certificate” of the bearer’s “vaccine” status, or with a paper version in concert with government-issued identification. McGowan made efforts to promote the app by explaining that no separate identification documentation is necessary if using the app to prove one’s status.
As things stand, to be considered “fully vaccinated,” Western Australians must prove they have received two doses of a government-approved COVID jab; however, McGowan suggested that this will not last long, as more citizens are being encouraged to take up the booster.
“Our expectation is that in order to be fully vaccinated, the Commonwealth rules will say three doses, and once that happens, we will move to the three-dose rule in due course,” he said.
The premier, who leads the state’s center-left Labor Party, explained that the measures have been implemented as part of a statewide plan to help citizens feel “confident in these public settings, and that they are only mixing with other vaccinated people,” whom he claimed are “less likely to be carrying or able to pass on the disease.”
He added that reserving the use of public places to only the double-jabbed “reduces the risks posed by unvaccinated people, bringing the virus into busy populated settings.”
Coronavirus jab trials have never produced evidence that the vaccines stop infection or transmission. They do not even purport to reduce hospitalization, but measure success in preventing severe symptoms of COVID-19 disease. Moreover, there is strong evidence that the “vaccinated” are just as likely to carry and transmit the virus as the un-jabbed.
Despite this, McGowan warned that “if you choose to remain unvaccinated … you’re choosing to put yourself at risk, you’re choosing to put the people around you at risk, and you’re choosing to put a burden on our health staff.”
Last year, the premier introduced the country’s most expansive COVID jab mandate for employees, announcing a requirement for 75 percent of the state’s workforce, over 1 million people, to have received the shot by the end of this month or face losing their job.
“Employers will be required to keep a record of the evidence, and authorized officers will run spot checks to ensure compliance is occurring,” McGowan said, warning that “employers that have unvaccinated staff working after the deadline run the risk of being fined up to $100,000.”
Australian legal expert Dr. Rocco Loiacono told LifeSiteNews at the time that the new radical public health orders can be understood as McGowan’s attempt to conceal his “incompetent leadership” by “deferring to authoritarianism.”
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| Bill Would Give U.S. Government ‘Kill Switch’ in All New Cars |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-18-2022, 06:33 AM - Forum: Socialism & Communism
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Bill Would Give U.S. Government ‘Kill Switch’ in All New Cars
Law would “prevent or limit motor vehicle operation,” give law enforcement access.
Summit News | 17 January, 2022
A piece of legislation that was quietly included in the infrastructure bill signed by Biden would give the U.S. government access to a ‘kill switch’ linked to law enforcement in all new vehicles from 2026.
Under a section in the bill that talks about ‘impaired driving technology’, the new system would “passively monitor the performance of a motor vehicle to accurately identify whether that driver may be impaired.”
If a blood alcohol level above the limit is detected, the system would “prevent or limit motor vehicle operation.”
In other words, a kill switch.
“Perhaps the worst part about the kill switch is that it would have a backdoor, allowing the police and other law enforcement agencies access,” writes Ken Macon. “The speculation is that a warrant would not be needed to access the kill switch. The other problem with backdoors is that they are accessible to hackers.”
The definition of ‘driver impairment’ could also be applied in a more vague sense, opening the door for all kinds of abuse.
It’s not inconceivable that in the future, such schemes could be linked to Chinese-style social credit score programs which punish people who express the ‘wrong’ opinions’ by limiting their access to their own vehicle.
The likelihood of this would be heightened if transport move towards a system of communal renting of vehicles, where a certain personal rating has to be met before a customer is allowed to use such services.
As we previously highlighted, starting this summer, all new cars sold in the EU will by law contain a ‘black box’ accessible by authorities that records driving data.
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| Please pray for the Dalimata Family |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-17-2022, 01:14 PM - Forum: Appeals for Prayer
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![[Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginal...f=1&nofb=1]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2F46%2F9f%2F0b%2F469f0b2ab708a4ad977fe5fae0ef4092.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)
In Father Hewko's sermon for the Second Sunday after Epiphany, he mentions the passing of Mr. and Mrs. John and Ruth Dalimata (in their 90's) followed shortly afterwards by their son Michael. May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen.
✠ ✠ ✠
The De Profundis - Psalm 129
Out of the depths I have cried unto Thee, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice.
Let Thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication.
If Thou, O Lord, shalt mark our iniquities: O Lord, who can abide it?
For with Thee there is mercy: and by reason of Thy law I have waited on Thee, O Lord.
My soul hath waited on His word: my soul hath hoped in the Lord.
From the morning watch even unto night: let Israel hope in the Lord.
For with the Lord there is mercy: and with Him is plenteous redemption.
And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, And let perpetual light shine upon them. |
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| Visa announces plans on [central-bank controlled] e-money |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-17-2022, 12:38 PM - Forum: Global News
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Visa announces plans on e-money
Payments giant teams up with blockchain firm to help create tech framework for CBDCs
![[Image: 61e014df203027400d6a2867.jpg]](https://cdni.rt.com/files/2022.01/l/61e014df203027400d6a2867.jpg)
RT.com | January 13, 2022
Global financial service provider Visa and blockchain software firm ConsenSys have announced plans to build a platform for creating and launching central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
“If successful, CBDC could expand access to financial services and make government disbursements more efficient, targeted, and secure – that’s an attractive proposition for policy-makers,” Catherine Gu, Visa’s global head of CBDC, said in a blog post Q&A session with ConsenSys, as cited by CoinDesk.
CBDC is essentially a country’s fiat currency in the form of a digital asset, which, unlike cryptocurrencies, is controlled by official monetary authorities – usually central banks. So far, only two countries in the world use a CBDC: the Bahamas and Nigeria. However, other nations have been working on a CBDC release of their own.
According to Gu, Visa’s CBDC payments module will be an extension for CBDCs on their existing payment networks. Banks and issuer processors will be offered the means to plug into the module and integrate their existing infrastructure, she explained.
READ MORE: Countries set to launch e-money this year
The module will be a “CBDC sandbox” of sorts, in which central banks can experiment with distributing the coins after creating them on ConsenSys’ ethereum scaling protocol layer, Quorum.
“Central banks are moving from research to actually wanting to have a tangible product they can experiment with,” stated Cuy Sheffield, the vice president of Visa’s crypto department, as cited by Yahoo Finance.
Visa says its crypto teams plan to have completed the module in the coming months, at which point they will be able to start working with central banks on pilot CBDC launches. If the pilots are successful, it envisages its customers will have the means to use their CBDC-linked Visa cards or digital wallets anywhere Visa is accepted.
Last month, the company launched a global crypto advisory practice for banks and other financial institutions, aiming to help them develop their cryptocurrency businesses. It said at the time that “every bank should have a crypto strategy,” noting also that “it’s a critical role for Visa to play to help be this bridge between banks and the crypto ecosystem.”
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| Swiss anti-mandate Group Mass-Voll: A Network of Services for the Unvaxxed |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-17-2022, 11:01 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
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Unvaccinated youth in Europe rally against increasing restrictions as protests continue
A growing movement encouraging unvaccinated youths to gather at venues has attracted strong criticism amid the Omicron wave.
news.com.au | January 17, 2022
A growing youth movement opposing Europe’s push for mandatory vaccination laws is pushing to set up an underground society for “alienated” portions of the community.
Tens of thousands of protesters continue to march across the continent against increasingly harsh laws against unvaccinated residents.
Leaders like France’s Emmanuel Macron have declared it their mission to “piss off” those without the jab, closing doors on more services for the minority group.
Some others, like Swiss anti-mandate Group Mass-Voll, have taken matters into their own hands, moving to set up a network of services for Europeans who do not carry a proof of vaccination card.
The protest group says it is fighting for humanity’s “indefeasible rights of liberty”.
![[Image: 6d9ce98d18d5eeb4ef337c7a5276071d]](https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/6d9ce98d18d5eeb4ef337c7a5276071d)
Hundreds of thousands of Covid protestors have taken to the streets across Europe as governments clamp down on restrictions.
“We demand an immediate and unconditional restoration of our God-given and indefeasible rights of liberty. Both for us young people, but also for all other human beings. We demand an immediate, unconditional end to all corona-related coercive measures in Switzerland,” the group’s website reads.
President Nicolas Rimoldi, who is an unvaccinated student and part-time supermarket worker, says he had never once participated in a protest before the pandemic.
But after seeing his native Switzerland went through repeated lockdowns, a vaccination rollout and then another wave of cases, Mr Rimoldi couldn’t sit on his hands any longer.
The group opposes Germany’s new Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who came out swinging in December publicly declaring unvaccinated locals “a tiny minority of unhinged extremists”, and vowed to refuse to let the group “impose its will on our entire society”.
Mass-Voll claims that those who have remained sceptical on the efficacy of the widely-mandated jabs have been outcast and treated as “less valuable humans”.
Mr Rimoldi says under new laws, he is unable to complete his university degree, earn a wage, enter a gym or legally sit down at a restaurant.
“People without a certificate like me, we’re not a part of society anymore,” he said via CNN. “We’re excluded. We’re like less valuable humans.
“We live in a two-class society now. It’s horrible. It’s a nightmare.”
![[Image: 65398d47c11a15cc538684ee3268cc78]](https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/65398d47c11a15cc538684ee3268cc78)
Mass-Voll President Nicolas Rimoldi, who is an unvaccinated student and part-time supermarket worker, says he has never once participated in a protest before the pandemic.
Mr Rimoldi was unapologetic about his flouting of the rules with other unvaccinated people, boasting about hosting dinners and social events with as many as 50 people.
“Yes, it’s not legal, but in our point of view the certificate is illegal,” Mr Rimoldi said, likening their behaviour to those in prohibition-era USA.
He says he has built a small network of business owners who are sympathetic to their cause, allowing groups of unvaccinated people attend cinemas, restaurants and other venues currently barred from allowing unvaccinated customers attend. Groups are advised against bringing their phones to avoid others getting wind of their activities.
The phone ban came after a tweet from Mr Rimoldi claiming he had dined at a restaurant “without a Covid certificate” attracted attention from the Swiss press and the public prosecutor’s office.
In Switzerland, locals who can prove they have recovered from Covid in the previous year are officially considered to be as equally protected as fully-vaccinated residents.
Mr Rimoldi said some of Mass-Voll’s support comes from fully-vaccinated people fed up with their government after being informed there would be an end to restrictions after getting two doses of the current vaccines.Introductions of a third and now fourth shot in some parts of Europe have only increased anti-government sentiment, protestors claim.
“At our demonstrations there’s many people who are fully vaccinated,” he claimed. “They say, ‘Hey, the government lied to us’.”
When asked whether he thought the shots were a net-positive to society, Mr Rimoldi said he’d rather not discuss the vaccine specifically and refuses to take it purely as a matter of principle.
Mass-Voll has built a large following of youths opposing Europe's coronavirus restrictions.
While many anti-vaccine groups like Mass-Voll believe they are a voice for countless people too hesitant to speak up, their movement has been slammed as the exception to the rule in Europe.
Professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Martin McKee claimed “the vast majority of people everywhere” were in favour of governmental provisions taken against Covid-19.
“These people are the exceptions,” he said. “But what can you do? You don’t really want to make martyrs of these people - if they choose to (congregate), they’re putting themselves and others at risk.”
German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach is among those in favour of Europe-wide vaccine mandates, warning that “without mandatory vaccination I do not see us managing further waves in the long term.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has supported the efficacy of vaccinations since the beginning of the rollout, estimating a whopping 470,000 Europeans above the age of 60 were saved by the fast-tracked immunisations offered by international pharmacutical giants like Pfizer and Moderna.
However, the WHO has also cautioned against governments imposing vaccine mandates, declaring forced inoculations “an absolute last resort” and “only applicable when all other feasible options to improve vaccine uptake have been exhausted”.
At the time of writing, Switzerland has recorded 841,573 cases and 11,093 deaths.
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| Paris Churches Ransacked as Anti-Catholic Violence Increases |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-17-2022, 09:47 AM - Forum: Anti-Catholic Violence
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PARIS CHURCHES RANSACKED AS ANTI CATHOLIC VIOLENCE INCREASES
Catholic Arena | January 12, 2022
The rising tide of anti Catholic violence and terror in France continues to spread unabated.
This past week, it was the Parisian Diocese of Saint-Denis which became the target of a wretched attack on the Catholic faith.
In a statement by the Diocese of Saint Denis, they told of the desecration of their tabernacle at Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois in Romainville:
Quote:the priest who opened the church immediately realized that a collection box had been torn off, that the tabernacle was fractured, the sound equipment was stolen, and the cabinets of the sacristy, stripped of several sacred vessels.
The following night, a similar attack took place at Saint-Pierre de Bondy , with the desecration of the tabernacle also showing that this was no mere burglary. The diocese stated that the following occurred
Quote:- A broken stained glass window
- The tabernacle desecrated, fractured and emptied of its contents
- The sacristy with a broken door and where another liturgical object was stolen, as well as a laptop. The room was left upside down.
The Basilica Saint Denis was also targeted by a terrorist, who broke in with an iron bar. In a sickening attack, the terrorist, a Guyanese national, destroyed the Nativity Scene and smashed up a number of statues. According to French media, he had initially intended on trying to desecrate the Royal Necropolis contained in the building.
Another terror attack at St. Pierre le Vieux. saw similar violence.
After a decade of watching Notre Dame burn, watching priests being beheaded, watching their processions attacked, one can only ask what it will take to make the French awaken from their stupor.
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| Pfizer: Francis Held Two Secret Meetings |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-16-2022, 08:57 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
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Pfizer and the Vatican
Sources say Pope Francis met privately twice last year with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla
NCR [slightly adapted] | January 15, 2022
VATICAN CITY — The Register has learned that Pope Francis privately held undisclosed meetings with the CEO of Pfizer last year as questions arise over the efficacy of the vaccines in preventing transmission, which are now being mandated for all Vatican staff and visitors.
According to Vatican sources, the Holy Father twice met Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla at the Vatican, although the precise details are not known.
Unlike most papal private audiences, these meetings were not announced by the Holy See Press Office, which did not respond to repeated requests to confirm the meetings.
A Pfizer spokesman said, “We can’t confirm or deny as, per our policy, the movements of our executives are considered confidential.”
Bourla’s meetings with the Pope would not be the first such unannounced papal encounter in recent years. In November 2019, shortly before the COVID-19 health emergency began, the Pope privately received Melinda Gates. The meeting, well known in the Vatican, was not announced and has never been officially acknowledged.
Last May, Bourla took part in an online Vatican health conference titled “Unite to Prevent & Unite to Cure” that included a significant focus on COVID-19 treatments and prevention as well as providing a platform for promoting vaccines produced by large pharmaceutical companies.
Other speakers at the meeting co-hosted by the Pontifical Council for Culture included Stephane Bancel, the CEO of Moderna, another large anti-COVID-19 vaccine producer, Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical officer, and Dr. Francis Collins, then director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
First to Use Pfizer
Vatican City State was one of the first authorities to administer vaccines after it signed a contract with Pfizer in late 2020 to exclusively offer its Pfizer-BioNTech pharmaceutical product to its staff. The first inoculations were rolled out in early 2021.
A strong proponent of the vaccine in light of what it believes is a “continuation and worsening of the current health emergency,” the Vatican has been mandating the Pfizer injection for all staff and visitors since Dec. 23.
From Jan. 31, triple vaccination (two doses plus the booster) will be required to enter Vatican territory. (Proof of recent recovery from COVID-19 can also gain admittance, and there are no requirements for public liturgies and general audiences.)
But the mandates have been imposed when effectiveness of all the COVID-19 vaccines at preventing spread of the disease is being questioned.
In December 2020, professor Andrea Arcangeli, director of the Vatican’s Health and Hygiene Directorate, said the Vatican chose to use the Pfizer vaccine because in clinical trials it had “been shown to be 95% effective.” He added that “subsequently, other vaccines produced with different methods can be introduced after evaluating their effectiveness and full safety.”
The 95% figure means that vaccinated people had a 95% lower risk of getting COVID-19 compared with the control group participants in trials, who weren’t vaccinated. So in other words, Pfizer was telling the public that in its own clinical trial, vaccinated people were 20 times less likely than the control group to get COVID-19.
However, in a Jan. 10 interview with Yahoo News, Bourla acknowledged that the first two doses of the vaccine are now largely ineffective against the spread of the Omicron variant and that, although Omicron is “milder” than previous variants, because of the high infection rates, hospitalizations have been “going much higher in terms of severe disease, ICU occupation, etc.”
“We know that the two doses of the vaccine have very limited protection, if any,” Bourla told Yahoo News. “The three doses, with the booster, offer reasonable protection against hospitalization and death.”
Cases Continue Despite Vaccination
Despite the original 95% effectivity rate against the earlier variants that prompted the Vatican to sign a contract with Pfizer, Vatican personnel have been continuing to contract COVID-19 in the Vatican over the past year despite being double- or triple-vaccinated. The latest case is that of Bishop Brian Farrell, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, who is currently infected with COVID-19 despite having received the booster shot.
An official at the Pontifical Council told the Register this morning “he has tested positive, but we expect him back in the office next week.”
Vatican sources have also told the Register that as many as 14 Swiss Guards contracted COVID-19 in the second half of last year but the cases were never reported. All of them had had two Pfizer doses but almost no symptoms.
The Vatican has reported no cases of hospitalizations or deaths since the vaccine rollout, and throughout the pandemic, no COVID-19 deaths have been reported in Vatican City.
However, since the vaccine program began in early 2021, the Holy See Press Office has ceased reporting new cases of COVID-19, in contrast to 2020, when it regularly announced if any personnel or residents had been tested positive for the virus.
The last reported Vatican staff to be infected were Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, then the president of Vatican City State, and the papal almoner, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, in December 2020. Both survived the disease.
Despite concerns about the Pfizer vaccine being tainted by abortion, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin appeared this week to rule out any conscience exemption right.
He told the Register that Vatican employees seeking an exemption because they oppose the vaccine’s link to abortion “seems not to be justified” as the Pfizer product was only tested rather than produced using the cell lines derived from abortion.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has also caused adverse side effects including heart ailments and blood clotting especially in younger recipients, with some causing death. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention insists these “reports are rare and the known and potential benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the known and potential risks [of these side effects].”
Thousands of these and other cases have nevertheless been reported on government sites in various countries (see the UK figures for the Pfizer vaccine here) where suspected side effects can be voluntarily reported, and citizens have created websites to record their own testimonies of adverse effects from all COVID-19 vaccines.
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| Cdl. Parolin mandates COVID shot to enter the Vatican, dismisses abortion-based objections |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-15-2022, 09:27 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Spiritual]
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Cdl. Parolin mandates COVID shot to enter the Vatican, dismisses abortion-based objections
The cardinal seems to defy the CDF's declaration that 'vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation and that, therefore, it must be voluntary.'
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Fri Jan 14, 2022
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis’ secretary of state has ordered that Vatican employees and visitors must have received a COVID-19 inoculation before entering the Vatican, revoking a “test-out” option for access to the city state while denying the abortion-derived nature of the shots.
In comments to the National Catholic Register, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said that refusal to accept Pfizer’s mRNA jab based on its association with aborted fetal cells “seems not to be justified,” ruling on December 23 that “access to Roman Curia offices will be permitted only to those in possession of a certificate attesting to vaccination or recovery from SARS-CoV-2.”
The decree, which applies to “personnel of all Dicasteries, Councils, and offices of the Roman Curia … external collaborators, personnel of outside firms, visitors, and users,” is apparently based on “the continuation and worsening of the current health emergency and the need to take appropriate measures to counter it and to ensure the safe carrying-out of activities.”
The Vatican will therefore now require a “green pass” for entry, which confirms the holder’s having been “fully vaccinated” against COVID-19 with one of the experimental shots or having recovered from a coronavirus infection. Any absences of staff on the basis of not producing a valid green pass will be considered “a case of unjustified absence, with the consequent suspension of pay for the duration of the absence.”
Additionally, the decree determines that from January 31, all staff in public-facing roles will have to provide evidence of their having received a booster shot to continue working within Vatican City limits.
A short paragraph notes that there is scope for an exemption to the rule, although the possible bases for such an exception are not delineated. The power to grant an exemption is at the discretion of the Secretariat of State.
When asked by the Register if conscientious objections based on the abortion-derived nature of the jabs would be sufficient for an exemption, the cardinal denied the use of aborted fetal cell lines in the production of Pfizer’s mRNA shot, which is widely used at the Vatican.
“In the case of mRNA vaccines, cell lines from aborted fetuses were used only in the preliminary stages of vaccine testing in the laboratory, but no cell lines from aborted fetuses are included in either the composition or production,” Parolin wrote in response, creating a distinction between the use of aborted cell lines in testing and production that is not outlined in any Vatican documentation.
On this basis, he concluded that “it seems that not wanting to undergo vaccination with this motivation [the abortion-tainted nature of the shot] cannot be justified, since the vaccine that is currently used is precisely the Pfizer that uses the mRNA method.”
Parolin turned to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s (CDF) 2020 “Note on the morality of using some anti-COVID-19 vaccines,” citing the prudential determination that, under strict and rare circumstances, it may be “morally acceptable to receive COVID-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process.”
However, the cardinal appears to have glossed over the clear teaching expressed just a few paragraphs later, explaining that “vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation and that, therefore, it must be voluntary.”
In comments to Church Militant, Catholic author Deacon Nick Donnelly argued that the cardinal’s “distinction between using abortion-derived cell lines in production and testing makes no sense. Testing is part of production. It is appalling to see Parolin grant Pfizer an abortion absolution.”
Continuing, the cleric added that “Pfizer’s decision to use the HEK-293 cell line in the testing procedures is not morally neutral,” since the shot “depends on cells harvested from a baby girl who was aborted and vivisected alive.”
In stark contrast to Parolin’s generally permissive view on the use of COVID shots which have used abortion in some way for their existence, Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Kazakhstan has said that widespread acceptance of the abortion-tainted shots helps to “normalize the horror of genocide” that is abortion.
“[T]his horror is so monstrous that it cannot be compared with other evils which we in some way accept [in] this naturalistic, materialistic society, like products of slavery work,” the prelate declared. “It is incomparable with the horror of murdering innocent children.”
Despite the propagation of the abortion industry on the back of the currently available COVID injections, Pope Francis has maintained a consistent determination that taking the shots is a “moral obligation” and an “act of love.”
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| Fr. O'Keeffe [1891]: The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-15-2022, 09:21 AM - Forum: Articles by Catholic authors
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THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS
"Christ also hath loved us, and hath delivered Himself for us,an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odor of sweetness."--Ephes. v. 2.[/font][/size][/size]
The Catholic Church, my brethren, speaking through the Council of Trent, as through a mouthpiece, commands her preachers, and all others having the care of souls, to explain the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to their people carefully and frequently. Our good Mother, the Church, has made this law, my dear Christians, to the end that we may all know what a great treasure God has left to us in this sublime Sacrifice of the Altar, and what great advantages we may derive from a faithful and devout attendance thereat. The same sweet love for men which pressed our Lord Jesus Christ, in the first instance, to institute this adorable Sacrifice of the New Law, presses Him, also, to desire that its transcendent nature and effects should be made known to the whole world as fully and as clearly as possible. The Sacrifice of the Mass is by far the richest treasure which Christ has left to His Church. Yet, my brethren, there are many persons who treat it with indifference, and take little or no pains to rightly understand its value, or the manifold graces and blessings which it contains. Strange to say, while the great mass of Catholics frequently meditate upon the infinite love of Jesus Christ in instituting the Blessed Eucharist as a Sacrament, comparatively few ever reflect upon His equally infinite love in instituting it, also as a Sacrifice.
By sacrifice is meant: the external offering to God alone, of some sensible or visible thing, made by a priest, or lawful minister; the partial destruction or total annihilation of the victim being the acknowledgment of Almighty God's supreme dominion over us, and our total dependence on Him. Christian sacrifice cannot be offered to any one but to God alone.
The strongest instincts of nature, my brethren, prompt us to offer sacrifice to the Deity as an essential and acceptable act of religion. Hence, from the commencement of the world, all nations, even the most barbarous and illiterate, have offered sacrifice of one kind or another to the divinities they worshipped. In the Old Law sacrifices of divers kinds were frequently offered to God.
Abel offered sacrifice of "the firstlings of his flock" (Gen. iv.); Noah "built an altar unto the Lord: and taking of all cattle and fowls that were clean, offered holocausts upon the altar" (Gen. vii.);
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The sacrifices of the Old Law were, some of them, bloody; others unbloody. The bloody sacrifices consisted chiefly of lambs, oxen, and goats. Sometimes, as in the case of our Lord's presentation, the victims were birds: "They carried him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. . . . . And to offer sacrifice, according as it is written in the Law of the Lord, a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons" (Luke ii. 22 - 24). The unbloody sacrifices were mainly of flour, and wine, and oil, etc. These ancient sacrifices, though offered up by the hands of the holy Patriarchs, had no intrinsic value of their own. They were but poor and weak elements, quite incapable of cancelling sin, quite incapable of conferring God's grace upon those who offered them, or upon those for whom they were offered. "For it is impossible," says St. Paul, "that with the blood of oxen and goats, sins should be taken away" (Heb. x. 4). Those sacrifices were but mere types and figures of the true Sacrifice yet to come--that is, of the holy Mass--and it was only as such that they were in any sense acceptable to God. Compared with the Sacrifice of the Mass, they were but as vague shadows, compared to the solid substance.
II. But, at length, the shadows and symbols have given place to the sublime reality. Moved by an incomparable love for fallen man, the eternal Word of God descended from heaven, was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us. He came to offer Himself in sacrifice for our redemption. And, in that eventful hour, all the ancient sacrifices were forever abolished. In view of that divine Victim, they became displeasing (rather than pleasing) to God; the only sacrifice He would consent to accept as worthy of Him was that of His Eternal Son. Our Lord Jesus Christ speaking to His Heavenly Father on this subject, says: "Sacrifices and oblations, and holocausts for sin Thou wouldst not, neither are they pleasing to Thee which are offered according to the (Old) Law. Then, said I: Behold, I come to do Thy Will, O God." According to these words, St. Paul says: "Christ taketh away the first (or ancient sacrifices) that He may establish that which followeth (that is, the Sacrifice of the Mass). By the which will, we are sanctified by the oblation of the body of Jesus Christ" (Heb. x. 8--11).
The Mass, my beloved brethren, is the Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, which are really present upon our altars under the appearance of bread and wine, and are offered to God by the priest for the living and the dead. This sublime oblation is no new sacrifice in the Catholic Church. The testimony of the holy Fathers, the sacred archives of antiquity, furnish abundant records and proofs of its existence in the Church, since the days of Christ and His Apostles. Nor, indeed, for more than fifteen hundred years, was there found one bold or bad enough to deny it, until Martin Luther, of dismal and execrable memory, raised his heretical voice against it in the sixteenth century, and thus deprived himself, and millions besides, of the many graces purchased for them by the Sacrifice of the cross, and made applicable to them by Christ through the Sacrifice of the Mass.
The latter was clearly foretold by the Prophet Malachy, when he declares to the Jews, as the mouth-piece of the Most High (I, x. 11): "I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of Hosts. I will not receive a gift of your hand. For, from the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation." From this passage, my dear Christians, we see that, from the period of our Lord's Crucifixion, the sacrifices of the Jews were rejected; that a clean oblation was instituted in their stead; and that this clean oblation was offered to His name among the Gentiles throughout the whole world, from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof. This, we know for a certianty, since the words of the Prophet apply with striking force and exactness to the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and not to any other sacrifice on the face of the earth; not to the sacrifices of the Jews, for God expressly declares, through Malachy, that He would not receive a gift from their hands; nor to the Sacrifice of the Cross, for that was offered up in only one place, and not "in every place." In a word, the Prophet's description does not correspond with any sacrifice but the adorable Sacrifice of our altars, which is verily "a clean oblation, offered up in every place, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same." Again, my brethren, the royal Psalmist calls Jesus Christ a priest forever, according to the order of Melchisedech. Now, you must understand that Melchisedech was a mysterious priest and king of the Old Law, who offered sacrifice to God, only under the form of bread and wine.
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"If, then, perfection was by the Levitical priesthood," says St. Paul, "(for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchisedech, and not be called according to the order of Aaron? . . . . For he, of of whom these things are spoken, is of another tribe, of which no one attendeth at the altar. For it is evident, that our Lord sprung out of Juda, in which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priests. And it is, yet, far more evident if, according to the similitude of Melchisedech, there ariseth another priest, who is made, not according to a carnal commandment, but according to the power of an indissoluble life; for he testifieth : Thou are a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech" (Heb. vii. 11-18). The application of this passage to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is so obvious, my brethren, that it scarcely needs a word of further comment; for, in the Mass, Christ shall invisibly be offered up in the Sacrifice forever; and shall, furthermore, invariably offer Himself to the Eternal Father, therein, according to the order of Melchisedech, that is, under the form of bread and wine (Ps. xix. 9). But, let us even suppose that there were no Sacrifice of the Mass, and that (as some non-Catholics maintain) the Psalmist referred in his remarkable prophecy exclusively to our Lord's Sacrifice upon the Cross, do you not see that Christ could not be rigidly called "a priest forever" upon Mount Calvary, inasmuch as the Sacrifice of the Cross was offered by Him only once, and in one place? Do you not see, also, that He could not there be declared "a priest forever, according to the order of Melchisedech," inasmuch as the Sacrifice of Mount Calvary was not offered according to the order of Melchisedech at all, not offered under the form of bread and wine, but according to the order of Aaron, that is, in a bloody manner?
In the New Testament, too, we find clear and abundant proofs of the Catholic doctrine, respecting the Sacrifice of the Mass. St. Matthew (xxvi. 26), describing the Last Supper, states that Jesus Christ "took bread, and blessed, and broke, and gave it to His disciples: and said "Take ye and eat: this is my body. And taking the chalice, He gave thanks, and gave to them, saying: Drink ye all of this, for this is my blood!" Here, we see, dear brethren, that Jesus offered Himself in sacrifice; His blood was represented as separated from His body. Thus, it was mystically shed, though not actually shed, for the actual blood-shedding took place afterward, when He expired on the Cross. This change in the victim--namely, the body represented under one form, and the blood under another, and both thus apparently separated, one from the other, shows forth most strikingly the death of our Saviour: "the Lamb is, as it were, slain" (Apoc. v. 6). This same Sacramental separation, namely, the Body of Christ, under the form of bread, and the Blood, under the form of wine, may be rightly said to constitute a sacrifice, and, in reality, the Sacrifice of the Mass; or, in other words, it is the Sacrifice of the Cross is an unbloody form, together with the real infinite merits of the same, applied according to the intention of the person who offers it. By giving us the Sacrifice of the Mass, Jesus Christ has lovingly put into our hands the golden master-key by which to possess ourselves of the infinite merits which He purchased for us by the Sacrifice of the Cross, and which He has left carefully locked up therein (as in a divine treasurehouse), for our use and benefit. Hence the Mass is the real application of the fruits of the Sacrifice of the Cross, as well as the unbloody repetition of that same sacrifice. "We, therefore, confess," says the Council of Trent, "that the Sacrifice of the Mass is, and ought to be, considered one and the same as that of the Cross, as the victim is one and the same, namely, Christ our Lord, who immolated Himself, once only, after a bloody manner, on the altar of the Cross. For the bloody and unbloody Victim are not two victims, but one only, whose sacrifice is daily renewed in the Eucharist, in obedience to the command of the Lord: 'Do this for a commemoration of me' (Luke xxii. 19)."
In every Mass of our altars, dear brethren, the same Christ is, therefore, contained and immolated in an unbloody manner, who once offered Himself in a bloody manner on the altar of the Cross. For the Victim is one and the same, now offering Himself by the ministry of His priests (C. of Trent). You see, then, that it was our Lord Jesus Christ who offered up the first Mass, on the eve of His bitter Passion and Death; and it is He, also, who offers up every Mass; for the priest who outwardly offers it is only the visible minister of Christ; Christ Himself, is the Invisible Priest and Victim. Wherefore, the Mass is the original, the self-same Sacrifice as that of the Cross, only differing from the latter in the manner of its oblation. When our Divine Lord had celebrated His First Mass at His Last Supper He gave power and command to His twelve Apostles, present with Him on that occasion, and to all their lawful successors--that is, the priests of the Catholic Church, to offer up the same sublime Sacrifice until the end of the world. " Do this," said He, "for a commemoration of me" (Luke xxii. 19). Hence it is, that in the Mass, the priests take bread and wine, and by virtue of the power of Christ, given unto them at their ordination, they change the whole substance of the bread into the Body of Christ, and the whole substance of the wine into His Blood; and no part or atom of either substance remains (Con. of Trent; Sess. xiii. 2). The species, however, of both the bread and wine remain unchanged; and this is ordained by our Lord not only to exercise our faith, but also in order to veil the dazzling splendors of His Divinity, which no mortal man can see and live. In every Mass, the priest acts in the name of Christ, and uses the words of Christ. Hence the words used at the moment of Transubstantiation, are: "This is my Body--this is my Blood." And whilst the priest thus outwardly offers the Sacrifice of the Mass, it is Christ Himself who really and invisibly offers it through His chosen minister. Jesus Christ then is (as we have already said) both Priest and Victim in this "clean oblation," foretold by the Prophet Malachy, and the same He shall continue to be in each and every Mass that is or will be offered until the end of the world.
Oh, my brethren, how shall we return due praise to God for thus deigning to become incarnate, day by day, in the hands of His priests, as He did once in the chaste womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary! How grateful we ought to be for having the Mass celebrated in every land all the world over. Wherever we go, we find ourselves at home.
ON THE ENDS FOR WHICH MASS IS OFFERED
"Do this for a commemoration of me."--LUKE xxii. 19.
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The Sacrifice of the Mass, my beloved brethren, is offered up for four great ends:
1. To give fitting, or, in other words, infinite praise and honor to Almighty God. (a) The natural law, written in the heart of man, directs that every inferior should pay homage to his superior; and, futhermore, that this homage should be always in proportion to the rank and dignity of the superior. Now, this being the case, we should pay to Almighty God, as the Supreme Creator and Ruler of the universe, as our first Beginning and our last End, infinite praise, infinite honor. Anything short of the infinite would not be sufficient, nor would it be adequately worthy of His acceptance. But, since all our human offerings, all our human acts, are, like ourselves, finite, how can we offer any infinite gift to our good and merciful God?
If all the creatures of this world, no matter how rich, or beautiful, or delightful they might be in themselves, were brought to the feet of Almighty God, and laid there as an offering, they would not be worthy His acceptance; for there is nothing worthy of God's acceptance except God Himself. Jesus Christ, then, seeing this great want on the part of man, has, in a marvellous excess of divine love, supplied it by offering Himself, a God of infinite worth, to His Eternal Father in the Sacrifice of the Mass. In that Holy Sacrifice, dear Christians, we can give infinite praise and honor to God, by uniting ourselves to the offering made to Him on our altars by the consecrated hands of His priest. Nay, more, by every Mass that we offer, or get the priest to offer for us, by every Mass at which we assist, we can co-operate in the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ in our behalf; for, thereby discharging our first and chief duty to God, we acknowledge our total dependence on Him, and return Him fitting praise and honor. The accumulated worship of the Saints and Angels in Paradise, of the Archangels, the Seraphim, the Thrones, the Dominations, and the Powers, is unspeakingly grand and pleasing to Almighty God; but it is, as it were, nothing in comparison with the praise and honor given to Him by a single Mass celebrated by a poor, obscure priest in some hidden corner of this lower world. For the praise of all those celestial beings, great though it be, is only finite, whereas the praise given by a Mass is infinite!
(b) The second great end for which we offer up the Sacrifice of the Mass, is to make infinite satisfaction to God for the sins of His creatures. Happily, my beloved brethren, we can all make sufficient satisfaction to God for our sins by this sublime Sacrifice of the altar; and by this Sacrifice alone. For, as the Sacrifice of the Cross satisfied the Divine Justice for the sins of the world, so the Sacrifice of the Mass, and it alone, satisfies for the sins of those who offer it, or cause it to be offered. And this it does, by applying to each of our needy souls the infinite merits purchased by the Sacrifice of the Cross for mankind in general. But here it must be carefully understood that the Mass does not satisfy for our mortal sins immediately; it does not immediately cancel such sins, as the Sacrament of Penance does, when properly received. It cancels them only mediately, that is, it gives us actual graces and helps, whereby our souls may be freed from their guilt at an early and convenient time. And thus, by the Sacrifice of the altar, dear Christians, the graces and merits, purchased by our Lord on Calvary for mankind in general, are communicated to the individual souls for whom the Mass is offered.
Who, then, can estimate the value or importance of having Masses offered for your intention, or in behalf of the sinner? Who can enumerate the benefits to be derived from frequent assistance at this adorable Sacrifice, offering it up with the intentions of the priest? Who can adequately describe the consoling clemency which God extends to us on account of the Sacrifice of the Mass! "The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass," says St. Leonard of Port Maurice, "is the true and sole reason of such stupendous clemency, for in it we offer to the Eternal Father the Great Victim, Jesus Christ. This is the sun of our Holy Church, which dissipates the clouds and restores serenity to the heavens. This, indeed, is the celestial rainbow that stills the tempest of the Divine Justice. For my own part, I am persuaded that, if it were not for the Holy Mass, the world would have long since tottered from its foundations, crushed beneath the enormous weight of so many accumulated iniquities. The Mass is the ponderous and powerful supporter on which the world rests--which keeps it from falling into horrid chaos. . . . . Ah, indeed, if it were not for this Holy Victim (Jesus Christ), once offered for us on the cross, and now daily offered on our altars, we, one and all, might renounce all hope of heaven, and look on hell as our final destination" (Hidden Treasure).
(c ) We owe to God a debt of infinite gratitude for all the favors and blessings, both spiritual and temporal, which He has bestowed upon us.
We are deeply indebted to Him for all those beautiful and priceless graces which He has given us in the past, and still continues to give us in the present. We are indebted to our Lord Jesus Christ for the wondrous love He has displayed in the redemption of man; and, above all, we are indebted to Him for the institution of the sacraments, for His Real Presence in the Blessed Eucharist, and for His promise to abide therein, even to the consummation of the world. What return can we make for all these favors? What offering can we make, from our poverty, worthy of this all-bountiful God? Well, brethren, we have in the Mass, and in it alone, an offering that is worthy: "an oblation and a sacrifice to God, for an odor of sweetness" (Eph. v. 2). In the Mass we offer to God His Divine Son, and that spotless Victim being a gift of infinite value, our offering of gratitude to Almighty God is thus an adequate return for all His favors.
(d) The fourth great end for which Mass is said, my brethren, is: to beg Almighty God for all graces and favors, both spiritual and temporal, which we require. We are all poor beggars in the sight of God. Like the Bishop of Laodicea, we are all "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked " (Apoc. iii. 17). We need many things from God; and, owing to our multiplied and enormous sins, we require specially a mediator to make intercession for us with the Most High. And so, out of love for us (and in spite of our utter unworthiness), Jesus Christ (O strange and marvellous mercy!) has chosen to be our Mediator, and, even more, to be Himself our Victim of propitiation in the Sacrifice of the Mass. Whether the priest be a holy saint or an unworthy man, the intrinsic value of the Mass--because of the Invisible Priest, Jesus Christ is necessarily infinite; although, according to the teaching of St. Thomas, the application of the Sacrifice is of greater or less efficacy in proportion to the disposition of the person for whom it is offered. Christ, in the Mass, is "able, also, to save forever them that come unto God by himself; always living to make intercession for us. For it was fitting that we should have such a High-Priest--holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens" (Heb. vii. 25, etc.).
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What, then, dear Christians, may you not expect through the Mass when offered up for your intention? For, in every such Mass, Jesus Christ earnestly implores for you all that you desire from His Eternal Father. Jesus and the Eternal Father are one; therefore in the Mass, and through the Mass, you are sure to obtain all that you rightly ask for, and much more in addition. "Assuredly," says St. Jerome, "the Lord grants all the favors for which we petition Him in the Mass, provided they be suitable to us; and what is far more admirable, He very often grants us that for which we do not petition Him, always provided that we place no obstacles to His holy designs." St. Bernard, speaking of the intrinsic value of the Mass, says, that "more is gained by one single Mass than by distributing all your substance among the poor, or going on pilgrimages to all the most venerable sanctuaries on this globe." St. Thomas, the Angelic Doctor, states that "the Holy Mass contains all those fruits, all those graces, nay, all those infinite treasures which the Son of God showered so abundantly upon His Church, in the bloody Sacrifice of the Cross."
Since Almighty God has, then, vouchsafed to give us the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, He has, with it, given us the means to obtain all good things. By offering up a Mass, or by causing it to be offered for you, my brethren, it may be said that, in a certain sense, you make God your debtor. For, in that "clean oblation of the altar," you lovingly offer Jesus Christ to His Eternal Father in sacrifice; and thereby you make Almighty God an infinite offering, in return for the finite creatures He bestows upon you from His bounty, for your use and benefit. Let us, then, my brethren, in all our undertakings, make an offering of the Mass to God, and ask Him in that Holy Sacrifice for all such favors, great or small, as we may need or desire. He cannot easily refuse us, for it is the transcendent nature of God not to be outdone by us, His creatures, in kindness or in generosity. We seek for many graces at the hands of God. We stand in need of many blessings. Let us offer up the Mass to obtain them. Let us offer it up to obtain the full forgiveness of our manifold sins, both known and unknown. Let us offer up the Mass to obtain the conversion of all poor sinners. Let us offer it up to obtain protection from the many temptations of Satan. Let us offer it up, too, for all temporal things, such as good health of body and mind, and success in our lawful business. Let us offer up Masses for the sick and the dying that they may obtain the grace of a happy death. And, furthermore, let us frequently offer up the sublime Sacrifice of the Altar for all the souls suffering in Purgatory, especially for those imprisoned therein through our fault, whether friends or otherwise, that they may be speedily released from their pains, and joyfully admitted into the presence of God in heaven.
My brethren, frequently assist at the Holy Mass. Remember there is no half hour so well spent, as the half hour devoted to attendance at this Holy Sacrifice. You know, of course, that the laity assisting at Mass, offer the Sacrifice in union with the priest. Hence, the latter says at that holy time, Orate fratres, etc.. "Pray, brethren, that my and your sacrifice may be pleasing in the sight of God the Father Omnipotent." At Mass the people should, as it were, hold up the hands of the priest when he takes the consecrated host and the chalice and offers the great Sacrifice. Great blessings descend upon those who join with the priest in devoutly offering up this great sacrifice. No one should be stopping outside the church during time of Mass. St. Gregory says: "A well-disposed man who hears Holy Mass with due attention, is preserved in the way of rectitude, while grace and merit increase in him; and he continues to make new acquisitions of virtue which render him more and more acceptable to God." "Whoever hears Mass devoutly every day," says St. Augustine, "shall be preserved from a sudden death, which is the most awful weapon with which Divine Justice punishes the sinner." But, my brethren, listen to the sublime language of St. Leonard of Port Maurice on this subject: "Would that I could ascend," says he, "to the summit of the loftiest mountain, and cry aloud, so that the whole world might hear me exclaiming: 'Foolish, foolish people, what are ye doing? Why will you not hasten to the churches to assist at every Mass celebrated therein? Why will you not imitate those holy Angels who, according to St. John Chrysostom, descend in thousands from the heavens, when Mass is being celebrated, and array themselves before our altars, covered with wings of holy awe, tarrying there during the august sacrifice, in order to intercede more efficaciously for us, knowing well that this is the most opportune time and most propitious occasion that can be, for obtaining favors from heaven?"' (Hid. Treasure). And St. Leonard, furthermore, adds the following very emphatic words--(they are the burning words of a saint): --" Let me, on bended knees," he says, "and with hands uplifted, implore all who read this little work on the Sacrifice of the Mass not to close it till they have made a firm resolution of henceforth employing all possible diligence in assisting at Mass, and causing to be celebrated as many Masses as their means will permit, not only for the souls of the deceased, but, also, for their own souls!" ( By a special rule of this Order, St. Leonard was not allowed to accept any money for "saying" Mass. . If the whole globe were of solid gold, it would not be a suflicient price for a Mass.)
Oh! my brethren, let us thank Almighty God a thousand times for His unspeakable love toward us in having given to us in the Church the rich treasure of the Mass! Let us ask Mary, the Crowned Queen of Heaven, to thank our Blessed Lord and God, again and again, for His love for us, individually, in thus, also, having made known to us the hidden riches of this adorable Sacrifice, and the untold benefits we may derive from it, both for time and for eternity! It is a precious mine of exhaustless wealth, a treasury of grace, a perennial fountain of blessings; it is the sun and centre of the whole system of true religion; it is the heavenly focus--inexpressibly loved and lovely--in which are concentrated all the soul-saving rays of God's beauty and royal splendor, of His glory and Majesty and Divinity. The Mass is the miracle of miracles-- it is the mystery of God's deep, boundless, and burning love for man!-- "Having loved His own, who were in the world," says St. John the Evangelist, "He loved them to the end " (John xiii. I). Amen.
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