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“Are 30% of Millennials Really LGBTs?” Was Feminist Ideology the First Wokeism & the First Transsexualism?

December 09, 2021

Lawyer and scholar Dr. Scott Lively recently did a video on the “theory of the common root of homosexuality and transgenderism in gender identity imbalance” after asking “Are 30% of MillennialsReally LGBTs?”: 

“On last week’s Prophecy and Politics show on Brighteon.TV, Dr. Lively addressed the causes and types of LGBT dysfunction. He also explains his theory of the common root of homosexuality and transgenderism in gender identity imbalance, which he has graphically portrayed in three charts which he features in the show.”

Before we get into Dr. Scott’s research that in part looks at feminism as one cause, here is a brief historical overview of some of the causes of Woke feminism and apparently transsexualism.

Dr. Marie Robinson’s book “The Power of Sexual Surrender” shows that the feminist ideology was the first Wokeism and the apparently the first transsexualism. Women in this ideology apparently wanted to become trans men in some sense. 

The war against female identity began with “feminist mothers” reaction to the “so-called Industrial Revolution,” which attacked the Christian family and home: 

In that era our society was almost entirely rural and agricultural. In other words, most homes were farms. There were cities and some industry, of course, but where industries existed they were almost entirely home industries run by individual families.

Home, then, was, almost without exception, the center of all life, economic, social, and educational. Everything was produced at home; all food was grown; suits and dresses and underclothing were made from cloth woven on the premises. There were simply no stores in which to buy anything. The leather for shoes was taken from the hides of animals one had reared oneself, and the shoes were made at home, the leather tanned, the shoes fashioned. A man made his own tools, was his own blacksmith, carpenter, architect. He built his own house, too, and kept it in repair.

Woman’s place in this early family home was indisputably at the very center, an equal partner with her husband in all the manifold duties, responsibilities, joys, hopes, and fears of the entire household. Her work was heavy and constant; she cooked the food her husband had grown, wove the cloth, fashioned and made the clothes for the entire family. She cleaned and she swept, washed, and ironed from morning till night…

… And then one by one, slowly but surely, her responsibilities and her duties were removed from her; her close and equal working relationship with her husband was destroyed; her importance to her children was diminished sadly…

… It happened slowly, very slowly, over generations, in fact, and the full results of the Industrial Revolution were not felt until this century. At first, so gradual was the process that only a few women, scattered here and there, felt the impact of the change. But as time passed and the process extended, more and more families were drawn into the vortex of industrialization, and at length it had changed the lives of every individual in the land.

Very slowly, too, but everywhere, women woke as if from a centuries-old dream of peace and happiness to find themselves dispossessed. Gone was their central place in the family home, gone their economic importance, gone their close working partnership with their mate, their functions of teacher and moral guide to the children. The child himself was gone, to school, as the husband had gone to the mill or factory.

Yes, she was dispossessed, dispossessed of all those things that for centuries had defined her womanhood for her, that had supported her ego, given her the certain knowledge that being a woman, however hard, was a wondrous and most desirable thing. She felt her womanhood itself devalued, the things it represented unwanted.

And then she reacted. She reacted violently and with rage at this depreciation of her feminine attributes, of her skills, of her functions…

…  Here’s what she did. Looking about, she thought she spied a villain in the piece. Who was it? None other than her partner through the centuries, man. It was he who had deserted her, who was responsible for her loss of self-respect as a woman, a mother, an equal socially and mentally and morally. He despised women. Very well, she would show him. She would simply stop being a woman. She would enter the lists and compete with him on his own level. To hell with being a woman. She would be a man.

You don’t believe it? It seems too farfetched? Woman as a sex would never have made such a decision?

Well, let’s look a little more closely at some of the facts.

Earlier I mentioned the feminist movement. Now it is time to look at it in more detail. It was launched by Mary Wollstonecraft in 1792, less than thirty years after the invention of the steam engine that ushered in the Industrial Revolution, and it’s power and influence were and still are enormous. It has been the self-appointed spokesman for womankind for over one hundred fifty years, and its program of reforms has been almost entirely realized in every detail.What did this movement want to achieve? Let me quote to you what two profound students of feminism, Ferdinand Lundberg and Marynia F. Farnham, had to say about it in their book Modern Women, The Lost Sex: “Far from being a movement,” they wrote, “for the greater self-realization of women, as it professed to be, feminism was the very negation of femaleness. Although hostile to men and hostile to children, it was at bottom most hostile to women. It bade women commit suicide as women and attempt to live as men. [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/65130/65130-h/65130-h.htm]

In 2016, Dr. Scott did the post “The Common Root of LGBT Dysfunctions”(https://www.scottlively.net/2016/02/11/the-common-root-of-lgbt-dysfunctions/) that explained the subject of “Are 30% of Millennials Really LGBTs? “in more depth where he implicitly agreed with Dr. Robinson’s historical observations and got into the LGBT Woke causes in more depths:

The “gay” movement promotes itself as a coalition of “sexual minorities:” Lesbian, “Gay,” Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT). “Transgendered” is a category that includes all people who seek to change their physical appearance to that of the opposite gender from which they were born. It includes both transvestites, who limit their gender alteration to clothing and cosmetic changes, and transsexuals, who have their bodies surgically altered to resemble those of the opposite sex.

One day, while pondering the relationship between homosexuality and transgenderism, I was reminded of Genesis 1:27, in which God explains that He created all human beings in His image as male and female (i.e.. “His image” is both halves taken together). I have often sermonized on this topic: that He created us not just as two genders, man and woman, but that each of us, regardless of physical gender, is intended to have a balance of masculine and feminine qualities. Jesus Himself exhibited this principle in His earthly ministry: on one hand comparing himself to a “mother hen” wanting to protect Jerusalem under her wings (Matthew 23:37) and on the other forcefully driving the money changers from the temple with a whip that he made with His own hands (John 2:15).

Naturally, men tend to have more masculine qualities — task orientation, aggression, risk-taking, for example — and women tend to have more feminine qualities, such as relationship orientation, nurturing and security-mindedness, but each of us has some of both. It’s what allows men and women to understand and appreciate each other and to cooperate in family life and the raising of children.

Society’s failure to understand and respect this principle has been the source of many problems, such as when men scorn their own moderating feminine qualities in favor of a destructive ultra-masculine “machismo” or other devaluation of females and femininity. Consider modern China, where the customary killing of girl babies has created a gender imbalance of 30 million extra boys who will be without wives.

Contempt for the feminine is clearly not the Biblical view, though many professing Christians over the centuries have held it. In the United States, the blame for the rise of militant secular feminism can be laid squarely at the feet of an earlier generation of American men who abused their masculine authority to mistreat women, on the theory that they were inferior. The secular feminism that has arisen in response to men’s failures is equally destructive to social health (but that’s a topic for another book).

The Biblical view is that men and women are equal in value, different in function (e.g. Galatians 3:28, Ephesians 5). This principle is the essence of heterosexuality: a balance of the complimentary forms and qualities inherent in our male/female duality. The principle sounds almost Taoist (perhaps an indication of its universality), but is solidly Biblical. Men and women are made to fit together, in every sense of the word.

From this starting point, it struck me that a whole new understanding of homosexual and transgender disorientation becomes possible. They are both the result of gender imbalance and can be plotted on a scale that measures the degree of imbalance.

The Scale of Gender Balance

Let us envision a seven point scale in which the center represents gender normalcy and the ends represent extremes of masculine and feminine imbalance. Gender normalcy (GN) is the state of having a close to even balance of masculinity and femininity — not a perfectly even balance, which would amount to androgyny, but just enough of an imbalance to cause the average man to be more masculine than the average woman and vice versa.

Extreme Masculinity————–( GN )—————–Extreme Femininity

Gender normalcy itself encompasses a range of slight gender imbalance. We all know men and women who are more masculine or feminine than the average. What makes them normal, despite their greater than average imbalance is that they function according to their heterosexual design. They are attracted to the opposite sex and in fact often choose a spouse whose own degree of imbalance is the reverse of theirs (e.g. a very feminine woman marrying a very masculine man).

For various reasons, including those listed in the prior segment, a person can suffer gender imbalance severe enough to harm their sense of gender identity. The more pronounced the imbalance, the more psychologically affected the person will be. This range of unhealthy gender imbalance encompasses all of the various so-called sexual minorities, which can be plotted on the scale based on the degree of gender imbalance they represent. For example, the most severe gender imbalance in men to the effeminate side is represented in the category we call transsexuals.

Male Transsexuals: Men Imbalanced to the Feminine Extreme

Extreme Masculinity————–( GN )—————–Extreme Femininity

Male to Female Transsexual (MTS)

What defines a male-to-female transsexual? A complete rejection of masculine identity. The identification with the feminine side is so complete that the man will hire a surgeon to remove his penis, replace it with an artificial vagina, and fit him with breast implants: this is a male to female transsexual (MTS). This person (who will always remain genetically male) is at the furthest feminine extreme of the gender imbalance scale. He has completely rejected masculinity and all that it represents.

Female Transsexuals: Women Imbalanced to the Masculine Extreme:

Extreme Masculinity—————( GN )—————-Extreme Femininity

Female to Male Transsexual (FTS)

What defines a female-to-male transsexual? Exactly the reverse process to the male transsexual. The woman so completely rejects her feminine nature that she wants to “become a man.” Since this is genetically impossible, she pursues the next best thing: cosmetic surgery to make her body look like that of a man.

Transvestites

What is a transvestite? A transvestite is a person whose gender imbalance is severe enough to cause him or her to want to be perceived by others as the opposite gender. A Male Transvestite (MTV) will dress as a woman, and a Female Transvestite (FTV) will dress as a man. The imbalance is not so extreme that the person will seek cosmetic surgery, and he or she may actually spend most of their time clothed appropriately for their sex, but their sense of gender identity is disordered and manifests in an attempt to masquerade as the opposite sex on a part-time or full-time basis.

Extreme Masculinity—————( GN )—————-Extreme Femininity
Female Transvestite (FTV)                                      Male Transvestite (MTV)

Effeminate Male Homosexuals and Masculine Female Homosexuals

The next, less severe form of gender disorder in men is Effeminate Male Homosexuality (EMH). A man in this category acts much like a woman. He doesn’t dress in women’s clothing or change himself with surgery, but there is no mistaking that his sense of gender identity leans strongly to the feminine. This is the “classic” male homosexual type, in many ways a caricature of womanhood; this is the type of homosexual most likely to come to mind when one hears the term “gay man.” Some of this is due to media stereotyping, but it is also self-evident that a homosexual man acting like a woman will stand out more than a homosexual man with more masculine leanings.

The parallel form of gender disorder in women is Masculine Female Homosexuality (MFH). A woman of this type acts like a man. She doesn’t necessarily dress in men’s clothing, although she might. The social taboo regarding women dressing like men is much less pronounced than for men dressing like women, so it is difficult to draw a line between the outward manifestation of female transvestites and lesbians in the same way it can be drawn between that of effeminate homosexual men and male transvestites. In addition, female gender identity disorder is based much more on fear and rejection of one’s own gender than on attraction to and identification with one’s opposite gender. A woman in this category fits most people’s idea of a lesbian, a slightly masculine-acting woman whose gender disorder manifests itself in same-sex attraction but not in a complete rejection of her femininity.

Our scale is getting a little crowded, so we will divide it by gender, but it remains the same scale for both females and males.

WOMEN
Extreme Masculinity————–( GN )—————-Extreme Femininity
(FTS) (FTV) (MFH)                                 Lesbian Fems (LF)

MEN
Extreme Masculinity————–( GN )—————-Extreme Femininity
”Gay” Bullies                                                                  (EMH) (MTV) (MTS)

The Hidden “Sexual Minorities”

So far on our scale of gender imbalance we have plotted the “sexual minorities” that are most visible in our society, but there is another full side to the spectrum that is not as obvious to the casual observer. This side includes the categories of gender disorder in which the individuals are afflicted with an absence of the gender qualities associated with the opposite sex: men with too little of the feminine, and women with too little of the masculine.

“GAY” BULLIES AND LESBIAN SISSIES

Masculine Homosexual Men, AKA “Gay” Bullies.

Moving toward the opposite extreme of the scale, the male categories are measured by their degree of rejection of females and femininity. These are masculine-oriented homosexual men. The existence of this type of homosexual comes as a shock to some people. When they think of homosexuals, they think of effeminate men who act like women, but, in my observation, there are at least as many masculine-leaning homosexuals as there are effeminate ones.

But these are not simply masculine men, they are anti-feminine men. Importantly, they are less against women per se than against effeminacy — especially in other men. The further one tends to the masculine extreme, the greater his rejection of and hostility towards effeminacy. (In my observation, effeminate homosexuality and transgenderism seem to be a product of childhood gender identity disorder as described above, while masculine-oriented homosexuality in men seems to be a product of childhood or adolescent sexual abuse.)

The first category therefore is the classic “gay” bully, and his victims are often effeminate homosexuals. It is very common to hear “gay” activists refer to these “gay bashers” as “latent homosexuals,“ and I believe they are correct, though I suspect that many of these men are not latent, but active (though often self-loathing) homosexuals.

Lesbian Fems, AKA “Lipstick Lesbians”

Gender imbalance, when it crosses the line from gender normalcy, is not just an overabundance of the qualities of one gender. As we observed above, it is also a rejection of the complimentary qualities of the opposite gender. This results in an unhealthy manifestation of the remaining gender qualities. In men it is most obvious in the level of aggression. In women, it is most obvious in the approach to interpersonal relationships. The greater the imbalance toward the feminine extreme, the greater the degree of emotional dependence on other people, especially the romantic partner or partners. This is often reflected in intense jealousy and possessiveness among lesbian partners, leading frequently to domestic violence.

“Lipstick lesbians” are lesbians who want to appear feminine, but who don’t want to be romantically or sexually involved with men. As with the men who occupy a parallel position on the male scale, the “gay” bullies, they tend to blend into society. No one really notices a lesbian who is dressing and acting like a woman, or a “gay” man who is dressing and acting like a man. These are the “invisible” homosexuals who, if they are activist-minded, often can play the part of secret agents in the pursuit of “gay” political goals. No one knows they are homosexual unless they intentionally reveal themselves.

These women commonly enter “heterosexual mimicking” relationships with “butch” lesbians, who take the role of the man.

SUPER-MACHOS AND MONSTERS, DOORMATS AND SLAVES

Super-Machos

Along with a rejection of effeminacy, comes a loss of the feminine-associated qualities that serve to moderate male behavior. The less influenced a man is by these moderating qualities, the more aggressive, even brutal he becomes. This is not to say that gender normal men cannot be “ultra-masculine.” Some are, but usually their attraction to women creates an incentive for these men to moderate their behavior to be more acceptable to women (the characters often played by the actor John Wayne come to mind here).

In contrast, Super-Machos are both ultra-masculine and anti-feminine to the point of misogyny. They actively reject the moderating influences of the feminine as weakness and cultivate a persona of brutal forcefulness. The best examples of this type were the male homosexuals of the Nazi Sturmabteilung, also known as the Brownshirts.

Many people wonder how the Nazis could have been homosexual, when homosexuals were among the targets of their brutal social engineering policies. The secret is that many of the Nazi leaders were masculine-oriented homosexuals, while many of their political enemies in the German Communist Party were effeminate homosexuals.

Monsters

At the furthest extreme of the scale are men whose gender imbalance has left them without any hint of feminine restraint. Fortunately there are few of them, because they are capable of the worst atrocities. Many of the guards of the Nazi extermination camps were of this type. In our society, such men have often been responsible for mass murders, serial killings, torture slayings, and the like. They seem less like men than like animals to us, since we recognize that a fully human nature is made up of complementary, balancing and mutually restraining male and female components.

Doormats & Slaves

The final categories in the scale represent escalating degrees of the dependency phenomenon in women. These are women who are deeply emotionally dependent on their (usually) lesbian partners or male partners, to the point of neurosis. Lacking all but a trace of the masculine in their personality, they are virtually unable to assert themselves. In the most extreme examples, they live as the literal slaves of their partners. These partnerships often include or are based upon sexual bondage and domination and/or sadism and masochism (BDSM). Significantly, due to the supersubmissive nature of these women, they are frequently bi-sexual, since it is extremely difficult for them to withhold consent from anyone, male or female, who gains a position of authority over them in the context of a romantic or sexual relationship.

WOMEN

Extreme Masculinity————–( GN )—————-Extreme Femininity
(FTS) (FTV) (MFH)                               Lesbian Fems (LF), Doormats, Slaves

MEN
Extreme Masculinity————–( GN )—————-Extreme Femininity
Monsters, Super-Machos ”Gay” Bullies                        (EMH) (MTV) (MTS)

Conclusion

Allow me to state very clearly at this point that this scale of gender imbalance is my own invention, based solely upon my observations and analysis. It is not the product of controlled scientific studies, nor has it been reviewed or endorsed by medical or psychiatric professionals. I am not a medical doctor or mental health professional, just an attorney and pastor with 25 years of ministry focus on LGBT issues.

I wouldn’t be surprised to find something similar to this scale in the scientific literature, because I believe these observations are not only intuitive but objectively accurate, but I have not yet found such a source, nor am I searching for one. I believe this scale stands on its own as a reasonable and logical model of homosexual/transgender dysfunction.

In terms of the Biblical support for these ideas, we find them in two areas. First, in the recognition of multiple categories of homosexual dysfunction. This includes 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, “…[b]e not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind [sodomites], nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” Note that Paul differentiates “sodomites” from “effeminate” which may be taken either as a reference to masculine and feminine-oriented male homosexuals, or to homosexual and transgendered men, or both.

It also includes Old Testament passages addressing “dogs” (male, probably effeminate, homosexual prostitutes; see Deuteronomy 23:18).

Masculine oriented homosexuality (recognized by its predatory nature) is seen in Genesis 19 (the story of Sodom and Gomorrah) and Judges 19 (the homosexuality-related incident that sparked the Benjamite civil war).

Second, we find a firm Biblical opposition to the confusion of gender, beyond what is implied by Genesis 1:27. Deuteronomy 22:5 reads “The woman shall not wear that which pertains to a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God.”

As always when dealing with statutory Biblical law, we note that while the strict letter of the law may not always be applicable in a modern context (see Romans 7:6), the spirit and principle of the law remains constant and binding, in this case reflecting the fact that gender distinctions matter to God. This principle is specifically reaffirmed throughout the New Testament as well (e.g. 1 Corinthians 11:14-15 as to physical appearance, Matthew 19:4 as to gender identity).

###

Postscript: As of the writing of this article I am still subject to a federal lawsuit charging me with “Crimes Against Humanity” for preaching against homosexuality in Uganda. Perhaps the top example of my allegedly malicious hatred of homosexuals given by the plaintiffs and their media and activist supporters is that I supposedly told the Ugandans that all homosexuals are monsters who engage in mass murder and other atrocities. The basis for that utterly false and frankly evil misrepresentation is this teaching, which I presented in lecture form in Uganda

(see for yourself how grossly they misrepresent what I said here: http://www.scottlively.net/2015/08/25/view-my-2009-uganda-conference-that-led-to-the-smug-lawsuit/) [https://www.scottlively.net/2016/02/11/the-common-root-of-lgbt-dysfunctions/]Pray an Our Father now for reparation for the sins committed because of Francis’s Amoris Laetitia. 

Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church as well as the Triumph of the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Stop for a moment of silence, ask Jesus Christ what He wants you to do now and next. In this silence remember God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost – Three Divine Persons yet One God, has an ordered universe where you can know truth and falsehood as well as never forget that He wants you to have eternal happiness with Him as his son or daughter by grace. Make this a practice. By doing this you are doing more good than reading anything here or anywhere else on the Internet.

Francis Notes:

– Doctor of the Church St. Francis de Sales totally confirmed beyond any doubt the possibility of a heretical pope and what must be done by the Church in such a situation:

“[T]he Pope… WHEN he is EXPLICITLY a heretic, he falls ipso facto from his dignity and out of the Church, and the Church MUST either deprive him, or, as some say, declare him deprived, of his Apostolic See.”
(The Catholic Controversy, by St. Francis de Sales, Pages 305-306)

Saint Robert Bellarmine, also, said “the Pope heretic is not deposed ipso facto, but must be declared deposed by the Church.”
[https://archive.org/stream/SilveiraImplicationsOfNewMissaeAndHereticPopes/Silveira%20Implications%20of%20New%20Missae%20and%20Heretic%20Popes_djvu.txt]

– “If Francis is a Heretic, What should Canonically happen to him?”: http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2020/12/if-francis-is-heretic-what-should.html

– “Could Francis be a Antipope even though the Majority of Cardinals claim he is Pope?”: http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2019/03/could-francis-be-antipope-even-though.html

– If Francis betrays Benedict XVI & the”Roman Rite Communities” like he betrayed the Chinese Catholics we must respond like St. Athanasius, the Saintly English Bishop Robert Grosseteste & “Eminent Canonists and Theologians” by “Resist[ing]” him: https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/12/if-francis-betrays-benedict-xvi.html 

 –  LifeSiteNews, “Confusion explodes as Pope Francis throws magisterial weight behind communion for adulterers,” December 4, 2017:

The AAS guidelines explicitly allows “sexually active adulterous couples facing ‘complex circumstances’ to ‘access the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.'”

–  On February 2018, in Rorate Caeli, Catholic theologian Dr. John Lamont:

“The AAS statement… establishes that Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia has affirmed propositions that are heretical in the strict sense.”

– On December 2, 2017, Bishop Rene Gracida:

“Francis’ heterodoxy is now official. He has published his letter to the Argentina bishops in Acta Apostlica Series making those letters magisterial documents.”

Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church by the bishops by the grace of God.

Election Notes: 

– Intel Cryptanalyst-Mathematician on Biden Steal: “212Million Registered Voters & 66.2% Voting,140.344 M Voted…Trump got 74 M, that leaves only 66.344 M for Biden” [http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/intel-cryptanalyst-mathematician-on.html?m=1]

– Will US be Venezuela?: Ex-CIA Official told Epoch Times “Chávez started to Focus on [Smartmatic] Voting Machines to Ensure Victory as early as 2003”: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/will-us-be-venezuela-ex-cia-official.html– Tucker Carlson’s Conservatism Inc. Biden Steal Betrayal is explained by “One of the Greatest Columns ever Written” according to Rush: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/tucker-carlsons-conservatism-inc-biden.html?m=1 – A Hour which will Live in Infamy: 10:01pm November 3, 2020: 
http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/01/a-hour-which-will-live-in-infamy-1001pm.html?m=1 What is needed right now to save America from those who would destroy our God given rights is to pray at home or in church and if called to even go to outdoor prayer rallies in every town and city across the United States for God to pour out His grace on our country to save us from those who would use a Reichstag Fire-like incident to destroy our civil liberties. [Is the DC Capitol Incident Comparable to the Nazi Reichstag Fire Incident where the German People Lost their Civil Liberties?: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/is-dc-capital-incident-comparable-to.html?m=1 and Epoch Times Show Crossroads on Capitol Incident: “Anitfa ‘Agent Provocateurs‘”: 
http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/epoch-times-show-crossroads-on-capital.html?m=1] 
Pray an Our Father now for the grace to know God’s Will and to do it. Pray an Our Father now for America. Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church as well as the Triumph of the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

THE CATHOLIC MONITOR

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“AT NINETY-EIGHT YEARS OF AGE” BISHOP GRACIDA SAID “AS A VETERAN OF World War II I HAVE A NATURAL AVERSION TO FASCISM WHETHER IT COMES FROM THE RIGHT OR THE LEFT! THE MENTALLY HANDICAPPED PRESENT PRESIDENT OF THE United States REPRESENTS A POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY THAT EVEN THOUGH IT COMES FROM THE LEFT IS INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM OPPRESSION FROM THE RIGHT”

December 08, 2021

Local restaurant in Sinton hosts VIP …youtube.com… Cavaleri’s Kitchen hosted well known actor Mel Gibson and Bishop Rene Henry Gracida

The fearless Bishop Rene Gracida said:

 

“AT NINETY-EIGHT YEARS OF AGE AND A VETERAN OF THE Second World War I THINK I CAN RECOGNIZE TOTALITARIANISM WHEN I SEE IT!!!”

“AS A VETERAN OF World War II I HAVE A NATURAL AVERSION TO FASCISM WHETHER IT COMES FROM THE RIGHT OR THE LEFT! THE MENTALLY HANDICAPPED PRESENT PRESIDENT OF THE United States REPRESENTS A POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY THAT EVEN THOUGH IT COMES FROM THE LEFT IS INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM OPPRESSION FROM THE RIGHT.”by abyssum: THE CATHOLIC MONITORSEARCHWhy did 80 Double Agent Republicans Vote for Biden Gestapo-like Spying for “Biden’s Crazy ‘Global Vaccination’ Vision” to ” Enforce Vaccine Mandates and Force their Orwellian Rules”?December 04, 2021Roger Stone says FBI is acting like Biden’s personal Gestapo – New York PostCongressman: Obama wants Gestapo-like force – NBC NewsAfter Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, Hermann Göring—future commander of the Luftwaffe and the number two man in the Nazi Party—was named Interior Minister of Prussia.[3] This gave Göring command of the largest police force in Germany. Soon afterward, Göring detached the political and intelligence sections from the police and filled their ranks with Nazis. – Wikipedia on the Gestapo [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestapo]Double agentry may be practised by spies of the target organization who infiltrate the controlling organization or may result from the turning (switching sides) of previously loyal agents of the controlling organization by the target. – Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_agent]The Epoch Times reported “Eighty House Republicans Vote for More Government Spying”:[E]ighty—House Republicans, including minority leader Kevin McCarthy (who wants us to see him as a viable replacement of, an actual savior from, Nancy Pelosi) and Burgess Owens of all people (Et tu, Burgess? Who can we rely on now?)What these GOP members of what seems more and more like the People’s Congress of Cambodia under Pol Pot have voted for en masse, joining one hundred percent of the Democrats (something suspicious right there), is a bill to fund a Federal Vaccination Database.Known as the Immunization Infrastructure Act (H. R. 550), this baby would provide $400 million of your dollars and mine for an “immunization system data modernization and expansion” of “a confidential, population-based, computerized database that records immunization doses administered by any health care provider to persons within the geographic area covered by that database.”In other words, it’s a handy way to get the “wrong” people fired, ostracized or whatever, while getting their children kicked out of school. [https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/eighty-house-republicans-vote-for-more-government-spying_4137496.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2021-12-04&mktids=ccc173e0167849d33486f78cf9b51150&est=5NEy2f3o6eYvCuPdDFqF1Zuybk1EG1tyIFbW0qSfFs%2BEyGcjUUUppcdVvQU1]Swift Headline news revealed it was a bill for Joe “Biden’s crazy ‘global vaccination’ vision” to ” enforce vaccine mandates and force their Orwellian rules onto those who do not comply”:Not one Democrat voted in opposition to the bill.Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL), who was one of the 130 Republicans to vote “no,” told Breitbart News exclusively on Wednesday that the legislation would enable the federal government to “track” unvaccinated Americans who “will be targeted and forced to comply with Biden’s crazy ‘global vaccination’ vision.”“These systems are designed to allow for the sharing of crucial information and maintenance of records. Do we really trust the government to protect our medical records?” Miller said. “The bill’s author even bragged in her press release that these systems will help the government remind patients when they are due for a recommended vaccine and identify areas with low vaccination rates to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines. This was clearly a legislative tool to enforce vaccine mandates and force their Orwellian rules onto those who do not comply.” [https://swiftheadline.com/80-house-republicans-help-pass-bill-to-fund-federal-vax-database/]Will this give the Biden Gestapo-like FBI and other Biden intelligence agencies a database to destroy democracy in the United States and make half of Americans into political second class citizens and even non-citizen like happened in Nazi Gestapo Germany (See: https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/12/cia-pedophile-scandal-epstein-belonged.html)? Biden’s FBI is already acting like the Gestapo against conservative parents according to The Epoch Times:An example of this Gestapo-like behavior occurred early in the morning on Nov. 16 in western Colorado. A woman named Sherronna Bishop—who helped flip nine school boards in the parents’ direction—had her door rammed by the FBI and was handcuffed in front of her young, home-schooled children—children who had been taught to love and respect the police. This was over an as-yet unclear, but what appears to be extremely minor, investigation having something to do with local elections.Our friends at The Daily Beast have excused this behavior by the feds because Bishop, through a woman for whom she was a campaign manager, has some alleged connection to QAnon, whatever that is. (I say “whatever that is” because I know little of the obviously minuscule QAnon—except for that goofy Chewbacca fellow who got 41 months for marching harmlessly around the Capitol as their “Shaman”—and because the FBI never seems to ram the doors of the obviously far from minuscule, indeed international, Antifa. [https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/the-weimar-republic-comes-to-nordstroms_4116683.html?slsuccess=1]Sadly, the headlines show that Barack Obama and Biden apparently made the FBI and other intelligence agencies Gestapo-like in serving their leftist political regimes:Congressman: Obama wants Gestapo-like force – NBC NewsRoger Stone says FBI is acting like Biden’s personal Gestapo – New York PostMore willful blindness by the media on spying by Obama … – The HillOpinion: Obamagate is not a conspiracy theory – Detroit NewsMore willful blindness by the media on spying by Obama … – The HillIronically, the Obama/Biden double agent moles in the intelligence and military-industrial complex unwittingly admitted they are Biden Gestapo-like agents as they falsely projected their dictatorial agenda on to Donald Trump and half the country in this military.com post:Spies in the Ointment: Which Way Will FBI, CIA Swing if Trump …Pray an Our Father now for reparation for the sins committed because of Francis’s Amoris Laetitia. Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church as well as the Triumph of the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.Stop for a moment of silence, ask Jesus Christ what He wants you to do now and next. In this silence remember God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost – Three Divine Persons yet One God, has an ordered universe where you can know truth and falsehood as well as never forget that He wants you to have eternal happiness with Him as his son or daughter by grace. Make this a practice. By doing this you are doing more good than reading anything here or anywhere else on the Internet.Francis Notes:– Doctor of the Church St. Francis de Sales totally confirmed beyond any doubt the possibility of a heretical pope and what must be done by the Church in such a situation:“[T]he Pope… WHEN he is EXPLICITLY a heretic, he falls ipso facto from his dignity and out of the Church, and the Church MUST either deprive him, or, as some say, declare him deprived, of his Apostolic See.” (The Catholic Controversy, by St. Francis de Sales, Pages 305-306)Saint Robert Bellarmine, also, said “the Pope heretic is not deposed ipso facto, but must be declared deposed by the Church.” [https://archive.org/stream/SilveiraImplicationsOfNewMissaeAndHereticPopes/Silveira%20Implications%20of%20New%20Missae%20and%20Heretic%20Popes_djvu.txt]- “If Francis is a Heretic, What should Canonically happen to him?”: http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2020/12/if-francis-is-heretic-what-should.html– “Could Francis be a Antipope even though the Majority of Cardinals claim he is Pope?”: http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2019/03/could-francis-be-antipope-even-though.html– If Francis betrays Benedict XVI & the”Roman Rite Communities” like he betrayed the Chinese Catholics we must respond like St. Athanasius, the Saintly English Bishop Robert Grosseteste & “Eminent Canonists and Theologians” by “Resist[ing]” him: https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/12/if-francis-betrays-benedict-xvi.html  –  LifeSiteNews, “Confusion explodes as Pope Francis throws magisterial weight behind communion for adulterers,” December 4, 2017:The AAS guidelines explicitly allows “sexually active adulterous couples facing ‘complex circumstances’ to ‘access the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.'”-  On February 2018, in Rorate Caeli, Catholic theologian Dr. John Lamont:”The AAS statement… establishes that Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia has affirmed propositions that are heretical in the strict sense.”- On December 2, 2017, Bishop Rene Gracida:”Francis’ heterodoxy is now official. He has published his letter to the Argentina bishops in Acta Apostlica Series making those letters magisterial documents.”Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church by the bishops by the grace of God.Election Notes: – Intel Cryptanalyst-Mathematician on Biden Steal: “212Million Registered Voters & 66.2% Voting,140.344 M Voted…Trump got 74 M, that leaves only 66.344 M for Biden” [http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/intel-cryptanalyst-mathematician-on.html?m=1]- Will US be Venezuela?: Ex-CIA Official told Epoch Times “Chávez started to Focus on [Smartmatic] Voting Machines to Ensure Victory as early as 2003”: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/will-us-be-venezuela-ex-cia-official.html– Tucker Carlson’s Conservatism Inc. Biden Steal Betrayal is explained by “One of the Greatest Columns ever Written” according to Rush: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/tucker-carlsons-conservatism-inc-biden.html?m=1 – A Hour which will Live in Infamy: 10:01pm November 3, 2020:  http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/01/a-hour-which-will-live-in-infamy-1001pm.html?m=1 What is needed right now to save America from those who would destroy our God given rights is to pray at home or in church and if called to even go to outdoor prayer rallies in every town and city across the United States for God to pour out His grace on our country to save us from those who would use a Reichstag Fire-like incident to destroy our civil liberties. [Is the DC Capitol Incident Comparable to the Nazi Reichstag Fire Incident where the German People Lost their Civil Liberties?: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/is-dc-capital-incident-comparable-to.html?m=1 and Epoch Times Show Crossroads on Capitol Incident: “Anitfa ‘Agent Provocateurs‘”:  http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/epoch-times-show-crossroads-on-capital.html?m=1]  Pray an Our Father now for the grace to know God’s Will and to do it.

ABYSSUS ABYSSUM INVOCAT / DEEP CALLS TO DEEP

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• THE SSPX DEBATE

In Praise of Archbishop Lefebvre and Defense of the SSPX

 Nishant XavierDecember 6, 20210

Editor’s note: as we announced last week, this is the beginning of an ongoing series presenting both sides of the SSPX debate. This answer to Mr. Salza will also include a general defense of the SSPX. Contributions to this debate on either side can be sent to editor [at] onepeterfive.com.

Recently, John Salza wrote an article attacking Archbishop Lefebvre and the SSPX. Before we reply to John Salza, let us recount the greatness and heroic deeds, the sacrifices, struggles and missionary labors of His Grace, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the holy French Catholic Missionary to Africa, a true Apostle of Jesus Christ Our King. Let us examine the case from the very beginning to see where truth lies.Advertisement – Continue Reading Below

The First Phase of Lefebvre’s Life (1929-1958). Ordained a Priest in 1929 at the age of 23 to preparing for the Second Vatican Council in 1959. The Shining Catholic Missionary who helped grow the Roman Catholic Church in Africa.

I highly recommend all Catholics interested in the question watch this beautiful documentary, a greatly edifying, truly educational and highly inspirational video, that explains the glorious life and apostolic ministry of Archbishop Lefebvre in Africa. For those who prefer to read, his biography is published by Angelus Press as well as the three volume Apologia pro Marcel Lefebvre by Michael Davies.https://www.youtube.com/embed/Cf9oy7wDkms?feature=oembed

In blood, sweat, tears and toil, Archbishop Lefebvre labored for decades, ministering to hundreds of thousands of Catholics, and spreading the missionary work to save souls. Together with Venerable American Archbishop Fulton Sheen, he was one of the greatest Catholic evangelists of the 20th century. His zeal was admired by Pope Pius XII, who elevated him to Vicar Apostolic, overseeing some 50,000 Catholics throughout Africa. His missionary ideas to elevate the nascent African Christendom were later adopted by Pius XII in his encyclical on the missions, Fidei Donum (1957).Advertisement – Continue Reading Below

His missionary efforts have borne the greatest fruits. The Church in Africa today is an amazing success story. As Aleteia notes, and in a completely incredible and unexpected way, there are now more Christians in Africa than in Europe and even Latin America.  According to John Allen, “Africa in the twentieth century went from a Catholic population of 1.9 million in 1900 to 130 million in 2000, a growth rate of 6,708 percent, the most rapid expansion of Catholicism in a single continent in two thousand years of church history.”^[1] We cannot forget the great African Cardinals who have greatly blessed and enriched the Universal Church: doctrinal and liturgical traditionalist Cardinal Sarah with friends of Tradition like Cardinal Arinze, a supporter of complete rights and full freedom for the Missa Tridentina. God Bless Africa, and may the good Priests, Nuns, Bishops and Cardinals of Africa, along with Lay Catholic Evangelists – vocations are now quite numerous in the continent – continue to bless the Universal Church.

The Second Phase of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre’s Life (1959-1988) Thirty Glorious Years of Fidelity to Catholic Tradition, and staunch Anti-Communist Catholic Action, amidst opposition and persecution. Catholic Champion of the Rights of Jesus Christ Our King, the Treasure of Tradition, Mary Immaculate as Mediatrix of All Graces, the Fifth Marian Dogma, and a heroic example of nearly blameless and flawless Catholic Devotion to Jesus and Mary before all.

Already in 1966, Archbishop Lefebvre sounded the prophetic warning, with the greatest love and devotion toward the Magisterial Authorities, that a Great Crisis for Christendom was beginning. Do we not recognize, 55 years later, these warnings as absolutely and incredibly prophetic?

The Church’s destruction is proceeding apace. Through an exaggerated authority granted to Episcopal conferences, the Sovereign Pontiff has rendered himself impotent. In a single year, how many painful examples! And yet, the Successor of Peter and he alone can save the Church.

Let the Holy Father surround himself with vigorous defenders of the Faith, let him appoint them to significant dioceses. Let him deign to proclaim the truth in weighty documents, let him hunt down error without fear of opposition, without fear of schism, without fear of casting doubt upon the pastoral dispositions of the Council.

May the Holy Father deign to encourage the bishops to set faith and morals aright individually, as befits any good shepherd; to support courageous bishops, to incite them to reform their seminaries, to reestablish studies according to St. Thomas in them; to encourage superiors general to maintain in their novitiates and communities the fundamental principles of all Christian asceticism, especially obedience; to encourage the development of Catholic schools, of a doctrinally healthy press, of associations of Christian families; at last also to repress those who instigate error and to reduce them to silence. Wednesday allocutions cannot take the place of encyclicals, of commands, of letters to bishops.

Doubtless I am rather bold to express myself in this manner! But it is with ardent love that I write these lines, love of the glory of God, love of Jesus, love of Mary, of her Church, of the Successor of Peter, bishop of Rome, vicar of Jesus Christ.

No wonder Cardinal Oddi said the drama with Archbishop Lefebvre is that he has “too much Faith.” He understood well the treasure of our faith, and thus the treasure of our Tradition.Advertisement – Continue Reading Below

Cardinal Oddi’s words show the Roman Church regards Archbishop Lefebvre as one of Her faithful sons, though he made a few mistakes.

We cannot forget two of perhaps the greatest and strongest traditional Catholic bishops in the Church today, Bishop Athanasius Schneider and Bishop Carlo Maria Vigano, have had words of appreciation, esteem and praise for Archbishop Lefebvre and the Society of St. Pius X.

The Third Phase of Archbishop Lefebvre’s Life (1988-1991): Consecration of Bishops, a few mistakes (everybody is allowed some), and difficulties with Rome under Pope St. John Paul II.

Here, in this third phase of his life, Archbishop Lefebvre was slightly confused by the schismatic sedevacantists. Although he had justly expelled them from his Society in 1983, for the great troubles they caused him, and had clearly taught: “It is very important that there should always be the bond with Rome if we wish to remain Catholic; even if we do not agree with everything being done in Rome, I think the bond is absolutely indispensable.” Now he himself began to be confused by their schismatic claims about Pope St. John Paul II. If only he had given as much attention to many of his priests who were Indult Traditionalists, who later founded St. Peter’s Fraternity. These priests loved and appreciated Pope St. John Paul II, for his own heroic efforts to defeat Communism in the USSR, and fight abortion everywhere in the world, together with travelling to visit the whole world, including India, my own country, to promote the Gospel, the Church, and Catholic Evangelism. I think that if Archbishop Lefebvre had considered these things, he may have more greatly respected Pope St. John Paul II.Advertisement – Continue Reading Below

Indeed, in the early years, Archbishop Lefebvre had the highest appreciation and esteem for Pope St. John Paul II and believed His Holiness was going to help save the Church from the post Vatican-II Crisis in the Church.

For example, in 1978, Archbishop Lefebvre wrote to him:

Holy Father, There is no doubt that the audience you granted me was willed by God. For me it was a great comfort to be able quite freely to explain the circumstances and the grounds for the existence of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X and of its seminaries, and the reasons which led me to continue the Work in spite of the decisions by Fribourg and Rome. It is plain to any impartial observer that our Work is a nursery of priests of the sort the Church has always desired and the true faithful want. We are justified in thinking that if the Church would admit the fact and give it the legality to which it is entitled vocations would be even more plentiful.

Holy Father, for the honor of Jesus Christ, for the good of the Church, for the salvation of souls, we beg you to say a single word as Successor of Peter and Pastor of the Universal Church to the bishops of the whole world: ‘Let them carry on – We authorize the free use of what multisecular Tradition has used for the sanctification of souls.’

What difficulty is there in such an attitude? None. The bishops would decide the places and the times reserved for that Tradition. Unity would be discovered again at once at the level of the bishop of the place. On the other hand, what advantages for the Church: the renewal of seminaries and monasteries, great fervor in the parishes. The bishops would be stupefied to find in a few years an outburst of devotion and sanctification which they thought had disappeared forever.”(!)

Still, on balance, the great works that Archbishop Lefebvre had already accomplished speak for themselves. If Archbishop Lefebvre had gone to Rome, defended his cause, explained his case, and obtained Ordinary Jurisdiction for his Bishops (which, by divine law, can come to Bishops only through the Successor of St. Peter, as Pope Ven. Pius XII teaches), the Truth is that he probably would already have received the crown of canonization by now. That’s what the schismatic sedevacantists have cost His Grace, and why it’s so important to oppose their error. The 1988 Protocol which was signed between Rome and Archbishop Lefebvre, if it had gone through, would have been enough for Canonical Status.

I wish to note as well that His Excellency Bishop Fellay is a true successor of Archbishop Lefebvre. Damsel of the Faith recounted an ordinary incident that showed the great grace, humility and longsuffering of this traditional Catholic Bishop, during a Confirmation:

Nobody who was in that room is likely to forget what happened next: Bishop Fellay came in, with his as yet untreated foot – which turned out to have been seriously broken – on crutches, and with a big smile on his face! After first apologizing for the ‘inconvenience’ (!) his injury had caused, Fellay then suddenly said, with an even bigger smile: ‘This is a very good sign! It is a very good sign, because it shows that the devil is very angry that these little children receive the Sacrament of Confirmation!’ The faithful present were astonished. How was it that this holy man smiled through the pain of a broken foot and yet rejoiced over obstacles put into his way?

In addition, the SSPX has now done two great things that no other traditional Catholic fraternity, including the FSSP, the SSPV, the Resistance (all three groups that split off from the SSPX to go their own separate ways), the CMRI, the ICK and every other group (there are too many schisms in Tradition today, and too little focus on unity and charity). They’ve “graduated” Roman Catholic Bishops to Roman Catholic Tradition. And they’ve done it not only once but even twice! Alleluia! Bishop Lazo of the Philippines is the first, and we leave it to our readers to research and do their homework on His Excellency. We will mention the great work the SSPX did much more recently, in obtaining, by God’s Grace, that Bishop Huonder should not only want to offer the Traditional Latin Mass, but never again wish to offer the Novus Ordo Mass, according to His Excellency’s own words!

[Interviewer:] May I conclude from your remarks that you no longer wish to celebrate the Novus Ordo at all?

[His Excellency Bishop Huonder]I no longer want to do it. I sense simply that I can no longer do it, because when you are immersed in the traditional Mass, you simply come to a point where you sense that you can no longer do anything else.

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Now, we will come to the objections of Mr. Salza and the answers to them.

Fact I: His Holiness Pope Francis has authorized the SSPX to continue legally and licitly ordaining Priests, even without requesting permission from local Bishops (which, in some cases, they do anyway, and they always respect the Bishops, the Shepherds of the Church).

Catholic Culture Reported:

Bishops of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) have been authorized by Pope Francis to ordain new priests without the approval of the local diocesan bishop, according to Bishop Bernard Fellay, the superior of the traditionalist group.

‘Last year, I received a letter from Rome, telling me you can freely ordain your priests without the permission of the local ordinary,’ Bishop Fellay reported. He said that the move indicated that although the status of the SSPX remains irregular, ‘the ordination is recognized by the Church not just as valid but in order.’

The SSPX has been involved in talks with the Vatican, aimed at regularizing the status of the group, and informed sources have indicated that an agreement is close to establish the SSPX as a personal prelature. Pope Francis has already said that SSPX priests have the authority to hear sacramental confessions and preside at weddings that will be recognized by the Catholic Church. Bishop Fellay remarked that the permission to ordain bishops is ‘one more step in his acceptance that we are… “normal Catholics.”

Therefore, the Pope recognizes that the ministration of the Sacraments by the SSPX Bishops is both valid and licit. If even Priestly Ordinations are recognized as being not only valid but also “in order,” then so much more are the other Sacraments. And all this is impossible unless the SSPX already has some kind of canonical mission, even if it is, as yet, not absolutely indisputable, and granted in writing like it was to St. Peter’s Fraternity.Advertisement – Continue Reading Below

Fact II: His Holiness Pope Francis clearly declared, during his Holy Year of Divine Mercy, that SSPX Priests are granted the faculty to absolve validly and licitly, and then, in a generous and gracious gesture, indefinitely extended these faculties after the Holy Year was concluded.

The SSPX website reported:

At the close of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, the Holy Father made special mention of the SSPX priests’ faculty to absolve sins.

On Monday, November 21st, 2016, the Vatican released an Apostolic Letter from Pope Francis called Misericordia et Misera. Of note to our readers, the Society of St. Pius X was mentioned in paragraph 12:

For the Jubilee Year I had also granted that those faithful who, for various reasons, attend churches officiated by the priests of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X, can validly and licitly receive the sacramental absolution of their sins. For the pastoral benefit of these faithful, and trusting in the good will of their priests to strive with God’s help for the recovery of full communion with the Catholic Church, I have personally decided to extend this faculty beyond the Jubilee Year, until further provisions are made, lest anyone ever be deprived of the sacramental sign of reconciliation through the Church’s pardon.

Thank you Holy Father! The SSPX should be more grateful to Pope Francis for his generous steps toward them, to reconcile them to full communion. One sees often that some among the SSPX – usually laity more than Priests – have contempt for the Holy Father and refer to him, with derision, as “Mr. Bergoglio,” (another bad practice that comes from the schismatic sedevacantists). This anti-clericalist attitude is not good, and does not come from true devotion or genuine piety. We can disagree with the Vicar of Christ, but we must do so respectfully and with charity toward the Holy Father.

When we speak contemptuously and derisively of the Holy Father, even Catholic Bishops who earlier were favorable to Tradition begin to be negatively disposed toward it. We must fight for the rights of Tradition to be recognized in Rome, but respectfully as Archbishop Lefebvre did.Advertisement – Continue Reading Below

Bishop Fellay said, about this generous gesture of Pope Francis:

As a result of the Pope’s act, during the Holy Year, we will have ordinary jurisdiction. In the image I mentioned, this has the effect of giving us the official insignia of firefighters, whereas such a status was denied us for decades. In itself, it adds nothing new for the Society, its members, or its faithful. Yet this ordinary jurisdiction will perhaps reassure people who are uneasy or others who until now did not dare to approach us. For, as we said in the communiqué thanking the Pope, the priests of the Society wish for one thing only: ‘To perform with renewed generosity their ministry in the confessional, following the example of untiring devotion that the saintly Curé of Ars gave to all priests.’

The SSPX’s sacramental actions are clearly already recognized as valid and licit. Getting full and indisputable canonical mission, preferably in writing like the 1988 Protocol, would complete it.

Fact III: Pope Francis, while still Cardinal Jorge Mario, clearly said to the SSPX Priests, in Argentina: “You are Catholic. That is evident. I will help you.” The truth is both Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI worked hard to grant the Society a canonical status, and perhaps Pope Francis could complete the task, if the Society desires and asks for it.

Pope Francis said some 30 years ago to Fr. Christian of the SSPX:

And the Cardinal [the current Pope Francis] told us, ‘No, no, you are Catholic, that is evident; I will help you.’ He wrote a letter in our favor to the government, that is so leftwing that they managed to find an opposing letter by the nuncio. Therefore, a 0-0 tie. Now he is the pope, and our lawyer had the opportunity of having a meeting with the Pope. He told him that the problem was still going on with the Society, and asked him to please designate a bishop in Argentina with whom we could sort out this problem. The Pope told him, ‘Yes, and this bishop is myself, I promised to help, and I will do it.’

Now reportedly Cardinal Ratzinger said of Archbishop Lefebvre in 2003: “I consider him to be the most important bishop of the 20th century with regard to the universal Church.” Further, he directly addressed Mr. Salza’s critique when he said:

From my current point of view, I have to agree with Archbishop Lefebvre in retrospect about having his own bishops. Today after the experience of ’15 years of Ecclesia Dei,’ it is clear that such a work as that of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X cannot simply be handed over to the diocesan bishops.

***

Reverend Fathers of the SSPX, John Salza, whose book you endorsed, and who frequented Society chapels for over a decade, is now attacking the Society for lacking canonical status.

Although some of his claims are clearly mistaken, just think, beside the theological reasons why canonical mission is necessary, how many practical advantages and blessings it would bring both to the SSPX and to all Catholic Tradition. Continue to advocate for Tradition and defend its cause in Rome and the wider Church, just like Archbishop Lefebvre so rightly did, and as you are so nobly continuing to do. But also, now that fifty years have passed since you were founded as a canonically regular society, and about thirty since Archbishop Lefebvre came very close to canonical normalization with Rome, please understand why so many Catholics who love and support you with all their strength, who pray for and donate to your apostolate, believe it would be better and preferable for you to obtain canonical normalization. If the Pope himself said the Society is canonically regular, all the Bishops of the Church would be absolutely obliged to accept it. And it is very probable that most of them will.

The SSPX has already grown to nearly 700 Priests. It can easily cross 1000 and even surpass 1500 soon, but it will do all that much faster if it has canonical status first, like St. Peter’s Fraternity. As we saw earlier, Archbishop Lefebvre lobbied for an “as-is” canonical regularization with Rome many times in His Grace’s letters. When more traditional Catholics can work within the canonical structure of the Church, the Latin Mass can be definitively restored and strengthened, for the good of souls.

The SSPX can do the same even today, bring the case to a happy conclusion, and silence the mouths of all misguided objectors like John Salza once and for all. Deus Vult! God wills it!

[1] John Allen cited in Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom (Oxford University Press: 2011), 72-73. Cf. John Allen, The Future Church (New York: Doubleday, 2009).

Nishant Xavier

Nishant Xavier lives in Chennai, India. He has an MBA in Financial Management and works in investment banking in Credit Suisse. He earlier worked at Bank of New York in its Chennai office. He makes time to preach the Gospel. His Passion is to preach to 100 Crore Souls before he dies. He is the Author of the upcoming Book: The Great Commission of Lord Jesus Christ: Distributing 150 Crore Bibles in India by 2033. For any important concern, send him a mail at nishantxavier2019@gmail.com or connect with him on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn and YouTube.

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Letter #168, 2021, Wednesday, December 8: Viganó. Act of Veneration of the Immaculate Conception    On December 8th we celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception coming nine months before September 8th, the Feast of the Birth of the Virgin Mary. So December 8th celebrates the conception of the Virgin Mary, just as March 25th celebrates the conception of Jesus (the Annunciation) nine months before Christmas, December 25, the Birth of Jesus, also known as the Nativity.    In Rome, for the past 150 years, since the promulgation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX (Pope 1846 to 1878, the longest papacy in history, link), in 1854, there has been a solemn public ceremony next to a massive column dedicated to the Virgin Mary in Piazza di Spagna in Rome. But last year and this year due to Covid concerns the ceremony was, for the first time, made private. Veneration of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, 2021. (link)    Dear friends and enemies of Stilum Curiae, we receive and gladly publish this act of veneration of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò on the occasion of December 8. Good reading and participation. —MTACT OF VENERATIONON THE SOLEMNITY OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTIONOF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARYBy Archbishop Carlo Maria ViganòPiazza di Spagna, Rome – December 8, 2021    Ab initio et ante sæcula creata sum, et usque ad futurum sæculum non desinam:    et in habitatione sancta coram ipso ministravi.    Et sic in Sion firmata sum, et in civitate sanctificata similiter requievi,    et in Jerusalem potestas mea.    Et radicavi in populo honorificato, et in parte Dei mei hæreditas illius,    et in plenitudine sanctorum detentio mea.    Eccli 24, 14-16    These solemn words, with which the Holy Scriptures speak of the divine Wisdom, are attributed by the liturgy to the Most Holy Virgin. It is the Immaculate Conception who speaks:    “From the beginning, and before the world, was I created, and unto the world to come I shall not cease to be, and in the holy dwelling place I have ministered before him. And so was I established in Sion, and in the holy city likewise I rested, and my power was in Jerusalem. And I took root in an honourable people, and in the portion of my God his inheritance, and my abode is in the full assembly of saints.” (Ecclesiastes 24:14-15)    Chosen before the ages, established in the Church, Our Lady intercedes for us in the holy abode, she lives among us, and of us she is Queen. She has chosen us as a glorious people, a legacy of her divine Son, a host of saints. And it is significant that, through a singular symmetry, the hymn of the Dedication of a church Cœlestis urbs Jerusalem [“The heavenly city Jerusalem”] composed by St. Ambrose – whose feast we celebrated yesterday – can be applied to Our Lady: “O sorte nupta prospera, dotata Patris gloria, respersa Sponsi gratia, Regina formosissima, Christo jugata principi, cœli corusca civitas.” “Married by providential destiny, adorned with glory by the Father, crowned with the grace of the Bridegroom, most beautiful Queen, united with Christ the Prince, shining City of Heaven.”    On this blessed day, let us remember the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, preserved from every stain of original sin to be the living and uncontaminated tabernacle of the Most High. And while the world, corrupt and enslaved by sin, offers as a model a corrupt and vicious femininity, despising virginity, purity, and motherhood, we honor in the Ever-Virgin Mother of God She who rightly is also the Mother of the Church and our Mother.    We are children of the Blessed Virgin Mary and children of the Church, because the Virgin begets us in Christ to the Father, and at the foot of the Cross we have been entrusted to her by Him as children, and she to us as Mother. And the Church also generates us in Christ to the Father through Baptism, to the Church we are entrusted as children at the foot of the altar, and that water and blood that flowed from the side of the Lord flow abundantly in his Sacraments and in the Holy Mass, showing us the love of the divine Bridegroom for the bride, the Charity of Christ its Head towards the Mystical Body.    Do not forget, dear brethren, that as it is not possible to go to the Father except through His only Son, so it is not possible to go to the Son except through the Blessed Virgin Mary, our Queen, our Advocate, our Mediatrix at the Throne of God, our life, our sweetness, our hope. And there is no Church where there is no Mary, our Mother and Mother of the Church, our Queen and Queen of the Church.    We therefore honor Our Lady, who has placed in the new Jerusalem – the Holy Church – her abode, and who has chosen to live “in the midst of a glorious people,” as the book of Ecclesiastes states. A people that is glorious and honored not due to its own virtues, but because it has been sanctified by the Grace of God, by belonging to that Holy City to which we are all called. A people who today must regain the pride of their identity, the pride of belonging to Christ, the honor of standing under the holy insignia of the King of kings. A people who over the centuries have been able to build a Christian society that is now despised and banned by those who, rebelling against Christ, do not even tolerate that the blessed name of His Most Holy Mother Mary should even be pronounced.    Gathered in the Spanish Square, in front of the statue of the Immaculate Conception that the public authority erected to honor its Mother and Queen, let us renew our tribute and make it our purpose to rebuild, on the rubble of an apostate world, that “ordo Christianus” (“Christian order”) that alone can guarantee peace to mankind, concord among peoples, prosperity for nations, salvation for souls. This reconstruction, this spiritual and moral rebirth for which each of us longs, will be possible only if we know how to recognize the social kingship of Our Lord and live with coherence the Faith we profess.    This we ask, this we implore with firm and trusting faith in the Mother of God: Salve Regina, Mater misericordiæ… “Hail Queen, Mother of mercy…”    + Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop

Open Letter To NEA President Catholic League president Bill Donohue issued the following open letter today to the president of the National Education Association regarding a senior member of the organization who is calling for innocent Americans to be shot. He has also written separately to DA Jack Daneri. December 8, 2021 Ms. Rebecca S. PringlePresidentNational Education Association1201 16th Street, NWWashington, DC 20036-3290 Dear Ms. Pringle: Your role as president of the National Education Association is pivotal, and that is why I am urging you to remove Mollie Paige Mumau from the board of directors of the NEA; she is employed in the General McLane School District in Edinboro, Pennsylvania, which is part of Erie County. In her December 7 Facebook post, Mumau did more than criticize those who are seeking a religious exemption from receiving the Covid-19 vaccination. She called for them to be shot. Here is an excerpt of her remarks (she was apparently responding to someone who chose not to get vaccinated, citing religious objections). “Screw this guy and screw them all who are all about hiding behind religious exemptions because they don’t want anybody to tell them what to do….He and his ilk deserve whatever comes their way, including losing jobs, getting sick, and perhaps dying from this virus….I don’t know why the GOP doesn’t just take those guns they profess to love so much and just start shooting all of their constituents who think this way (my emphasis).” As someone who spent 20 years teaching, 16 as a professor, and as the president of the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization, I am calling on you to terminate Mumau’s membership on the board of directors of the NEA. Given all the gun violence that our nation has endured lately—including school shootings—it is beyond belief that an educator would make such a statement. There is no legitimate place in public life for anyone who advocates the mass slaughter of innocent Americans, and it is doubly offensive that it should emanate from a teacher. Indeed, Mumau should be prosecuted for what she has done, and that is why I am contacting Erie County District Attorney Jack Daneri. Sincerely, William A. Donohue, Ph.D.President cc: NEA Executive Committee     Executive Officers, Pennsylvania State Education Association     Dr. Matthew Lane, Superintendent General McLane School District     Jack Daneri, Erie County DA, PA Contact the NEA: newsdeadline@nea.org

“If German bishops and priests were applying and defending the principles of the Catholic faith, they would certainly find themselves in opposition to the views presented in mainstream media and politics, but this would make the Church so much more attractive to so many people, who are desperately looking for a good shepherd right now.” —A young German Catholic man named Moritz Scholtysik who is protesting the exclusion of the unvaccinated from Mass in Berlin, Germany, beginning at the end of November. He is interviewed below    Letter #166, 2021, Tuesday, December 7: In Berlin, the unvaccinated are barred from attending Mass…    The news from Berlin is profoundly troubling.    What is of greatest concern is the possible creation of two classes of Catholics, in this case, one “vaccinated” and one “unvaccinated.”    This would be unprecedented, and a terrible tragedy, and, therefore, some superior authority ought to advise the archbishop of Berlin, Heiner Koch, 67, who has taken this decision, that this measure is not in harmony with the perennial Catholic faith, as it marginalizes an entire group of Catholics, rather than embracing and nourishing them.    ***    An important interview conducted with a number of German Catholics in Berlin by Maike Hickson of Lifesitenews (herself born in Germany)published yesterday here — and today picked up by the redoubtable Bishop Henry Gracida, 98 (born in 1923, he will turn 99 next year, he was bishop of Corpus Christi, Texas, from 1983-1997, and has a conservative Catholic blog here) — reveals a worrisome situation is developing, which could, potentially, spread widely: Berlin Catholics without proof of “vaccination” against the Covid virus, or a notice of recovery from the virus, are being — since the end of November — prevented from attending Mass and receiving the sacraments in the diocese of Berlin, the capital of Germany.    This seems not to take into scientific facts reported even by the mainstream media:     1) there are many people with various auto-immune problems who, together with their doctors, have decided it is quite unwise and imprudent for them to receive any vaccination, especially untested ones; (See this May 18 report in The Washington Post: “Vaccine makers excluded immunocompromised people from their clinical trials in an understandable rush to develop a way to protect as many people as quickly as possible. As a result, there’s limited information about how this group is reacting to the shots…”)    2) the evidence for the efficacy of these incompletely tested “vaccines” is still ambiguous; cases are now being reported of limited protection among “among older people and those with weakened immune systems” and evidence is emerging that “their protection against infection [that is, the effectiveness of the vaccines to prevent infection]… has fallen.” (See this November 11 report in the New York Times: “As tens of millions who are eligible in the United States consider signing up for a Covid-19 booster shot, a growing body of early global research shows that the vaccines authorized in the United States remain highly protective against the disease’s worst outcomes over time, with some exceptions among older people and those with weakened immune systems. But while the vaccines’ effectiveness against severe disease and hospitalization has mostly held steady, even through the summer surge of the highly transmissible Delta variant, a number of published studies show that their protection against infection, with or without symptoms, has fallen.” [Editor’s note: emphasis added]    ***    ”A desire for presence”    The Church has always believed that, even in time of plague, or when confronting diseases like leprosy, the sacraments of the Church must be made available, if at all possible, to the sick.    See this November 22 article in Church Life Journal by Timothy O’Malley entitled “Saints of the Black Death”:     ”In 1374, St. Catherine experienced the plague in Siena, where she lost three siblings and other relatives. Everyone left the town as the best medical advice said. St. Catherine did not, nursing victims back to health.[11]”     And: “St. Brigid of Sweden (1303-1373) was a Swedish noblewoman, who became a third order Franciscan after the death of her husband. During the rest of her life, she would care for the sick, eventually founding a religious order dedicated to prayer and care for the poor, the Order of the Most Holy Saviour (or the Brigittines). Plague struck Sweden in 1349, as St. Brigid was on pilgrimage to Rome to seek approval for her rule. She arrived in Rome just as the plague attacked the city and the Pope himself had departed… St. Bridget does not speak about the suddenness of death… as only punishment or wrath. Rather, because death comes when we do not expect it, human beings have the freedom to make of their lives a sacrificial offering. They may live an existence of freely bestowed charity. Contingency—including plague—are part of the fall. And rather than be bitter about this, the suddenness of death becomes an occasion for deeper love or the exercise of charity.”     And: “St. Charles Borromeo was a saint who followed the example of St. Catherine and St. Bridget. Born in 1538, St. Charles was named a Cardinal of the Catholic Church in his early 20s by his uncle Pope Pius IV. St. Charles was only then ordained a deacon, called to Rome, where he was charged to enact the final session of the Council of Trent (which was continually postponed because of war and plague).[14] St. Charleswas appointed Archbishop of Milan in 1564. The Archbishop of Milan typically did not reside in the city, instead living in Rome. Because of this, the Milanese Church was profoundly corrupt. Clerics had many children. They openly carried swords, functioning akin to feudal lords. It was bad enough that a saying developed in Milan, ‘If you want to go to hell, become a priest.’    ”St. Charles insisted upon living in Milan, where he enacted the reforms of the Council of Trent including the education of clergy, increased promotion of lay holiness, and held regular diocesan and provincial synods. He visited every parish in his diocese, for he knew that the vocation of the bishop was to be present to his people…    ”In 1576, plague descended upon Milan. At the time, St. Charles was outside the city, but he rushed home. Almost immediately, St. Charlesentered the Milanese lazarettos, giving Viaticum and anointing the sick. He did so at great personal risk, against the advisement of both public officials and some of his clergy.[15] Because St. Charles knew that the Milanese needed the presence of the Lord in this time, when nearly every ward of the city was in quarantine… St. Charles… responded to the deepest of human need. A desire for presence, especially during sickness. He knew that the Church, if she was to be healed not only from plague but from the corruption internal to her clergy and lay members[17], needed to be in the presence of one another, of the sick and suffering, and of the saints… If plague is to come, then it should lead to deeper holiness, more frequent reflection on the mortality and thereby the contingency of our lives. Eucharistic participation should increase, because frequent reception is what enables us to transform our suffering and death into a space of love.” [emphasis added]     ***    The Church has never believed that it is in harmony with the Christian faith to divide the members of the Church into two groups, one “pure” and able to receive the sacraments, the other “impure” and forbidden access to the sacraments. The Church is one, and must always be one, and so remain united.     This Berlin decision is a very dangerous precedent.    This matter should be addressed decisively by Rome as soon as possible. —RM    ***    Also, Archbishop Viganò prepared a statement on some aspects of these matters on December 2, which was released just this afternoon, here. I will include the text in an upcoming email.===========================    The Archdiocese of Berlin has declared that only the vaccinated or COVID-recovered faithful may attend Holy Mass    By Maike Hickson    Mon Dec 6, 2021 – 9:09 pm EST    (LifeSiteNews) – A group of some 60 Catholics – families, students, and the elderly – have shown their opposition to the new “2G” rule in the Archdiocese of Berlin that only the vaccinated or COVID-recovered faithful may attend Holy Mass. These Catholics organized a prayer vigil at Hedwig’s Cathedral, the main Catholic church in Berlin, singing, praying, and displaying a sign which read: “No 2G: Church for all.”    LifeSite interviewed Moritz Scholtysik, one of the organizers of this initiative, which was spontaneously started out of opposition to the Archdiocese of Berlin’s decision. The decision to segregate Catholics based on vaccine status was not even imposed upon the diocese by the state. Since November 27, Holy Mass on Sundays and on feast days are restricted for the unvaccinated.     “Due to this decision by the Archdiocese,” Scholtysik told LifeSite, “some faithful were already denied Mass attendance on the first Sunday of Advent. This is disastrous. According to the catechism the faithful do have a right to receive the holy sacraments. Especially in a time when we experience fear, loneliness, and isolation, the common celebration of Holy Mass is more important than ever.”    The main organizers of this prayer vigil are five mostly young Catholics from different parishes in the Archdiocese of Berlin, and they know that already many people had written letters of protest to Berlin Archbishop Heiner Koch. After the second prayer vigil yesterday, the group also published a press release (see full text below).    “We ask him [Archbishop Koch] to make the celebration of the sacraments accessible to everyone again. In the prayer vigil, therefore, we prayed a rosary for the archbishop and the entire diocese,” co-initiator Giovanni Maria Olivari said in the release.     In this interview with LifeSiteNews, Scholtysik stressed that the saints of the Catholic Church give us inspiration on how to deal with health crises such as our current one: “Yet the history of the Church gives us so many examples of saintly women and men, who were taking care of the sick despite high risks for their own health. Moreover they always put God and the souls first. Just to name two: Saint Gregory the Great and Saint Charles Borromeo did not reduce their pastoral care in the times of the pest, but even increased it, because they knew that we – above all – need God.    Please see below the full interview:    LifeSiteNews: What is your initiative?     Moritz Scholtysik: We organize prayer vigils in front of Hedwig’s Cathedral, the main Roman Catholic church in Berlin. We come together with candles and lanterns on the Sundays of Advent to sing hymns and pray the rosary for unrestricted access to church services in Berlin during Advent and Christmas. At our first and second vigil there were over 60 attendants.    How did it come that you organized this imitative?    Scholtysik: The first prayer vigil was a spontaneous reaction to the decision of the Archdiocese of Berlin to impose “2G“ restrictions on church services on Sundays and feast days as of November 27. This means that only those who have a Covid-19 vaccination or recovery certificate will be admitted to the service. Thankfully there are a few exceptions, but even they have “3G“ restrictions, which means either one is vaccinated, recovered, or has a negative antigen rapid test. It is worth mentioning that this decision was made by the Archdiocese alone, there was no rule by the local government.    Due to this decision by the Archdiocese some faithful were already denied Mass attendance on the first Sunday of Advent. This is disastrous. According to the catechism the faithful do have a right to receive the holy sacraments. Especially in a time when we experience fear, loneliness, and isolation, the common celebration of Holy Mass is more important than ever.    How many people organized this initiative? Are they young and elderly, differed age groups?    Scholtysik: We organizers are a group of five, mostly young Catholics from different parishes in the Archdiocese of Berlin. We already knew each other before these restrictions and when we talked about them, we quickly decided to organize a prayer vigil. At that time there have already been many Catholics in Berlin, who wrote e-mails to the Archdiocese to demonstrate their criticism of the new rule.    What are you hoping for with your initiative, and how long will you continue?    Scholtysik: First of all, in the prayer vigil we pray for the Archbishop Dr. Heiner Koch and the entire Archdiocese. By standing together and demonstrating unity we ask the Archbishop to make the celebration of the sacraments accessible to everyone again. We will continue with the prayer vigils during Advent and then see, how the Archdiocese will decide on the possibilities to attend Holy Mass.    However, it is likely that we will continue praying the rosary publicly regardless from the Archdiocese’s decision, because it is the most beautiful and important sign of faith in times of crisis. Furthermore we got [a] very positive response from the participants so far, which is highly encouraging for us.    How do you see the situation in Germany in general?    Scholtysik: Sadly the situation in Germany is quite heated. Most parties and members of parliament are now in favor of another lockdown and of a general vaccine mandate, although they have promised several times in the last few months, that both will not happen. Mainstream media usually does not criticize this, but actually denounces anyone who will question this unreasonable behavior. Therefore there is an increasing tension and division in society. Many people fear further restrictions of their freedom. Especially in this situation the guidance and the prayer of the church is very much needed.    What is your general assessment of how the Catholic Church in Germany has conducted herself in the corona crisis?    Scholtysik: It, of course, depends on the parish. There were many good priests and religious all over Germany taking great care of the faithful during this crisis. We are also very grateful for the bishops having prevented a second ban of the Holy Mass by the government in last year’s autumn.    Still there could have been more criticism by the hierarchy of the government and the media spreading so much fear, creating division, and driving so many people into loneliness and depression. Instead of increasing the number of holy Masses, processions, and opportunities for confession many churches were closed, Holy Communion on the tongue was prohibited, and holy water fonts were emptied.    Yet the history of the Church gives us so many examples of saintly women and men who were taking care of the sick despite high risks for their own health. Moreover they always put God and the souls first. Just to name two: Saint Gregory the Great and Saint Charles Borromeodid not reduce their pastoral care in the times of the pest, but even increased it, because they knew that we – above all – need God.    Do you see a connection between the failure of the Catholic Church in the corona crisis and the current Synodal Path that is taking place in Germany?    Scholtysik: Yes. Both developments are characterized by the desire to follow the Zeitgeist [“the spirit if the time” or “the spirit of the age”] instead of applying and defending the principles of the Catholic faith.     If German bishops and priests were doing the latter, they would certainly find themselves in opposition to the views, presented in mainstream media and politics, but this would make the Church so much more attractive to so many people, who are desperately looking for a good shepherd right now.    Below is the group’s press release:    The Faithful Demand: No 2G in Berlin’s diocese     Up to 60 participants at prayer vigils in front of Hedwig’s Cathedral in Berlin call for unrestricted access to Catholic services    Between 40 and 60 faithful gathered in front of Hedwig’s Cathedral in Berlin on the first two Sundays of Advent with the claim “No 2G: Church for All” (“Kein 2G: Kirche für alle“). Together, the privately initiated group prayed for unrestricted access to Church services during Advent and Christmas.    On November 28th and December 5th, the participants gathered at dusk with candles and lanterns, sang the Advent hymn “Macht hoch die Tür” and prayed the rosary.    The prayer vigils were a reaction to the decision of the Archdiocese of Berlin to impose 2G restrictions on church services on Sundays as of November 27. This means that only those who have a Covid-19 vaccination or recovery certificate will be admitted to the service. Even the few exceptions have 3G restrictions. Some faithful were already denied Mass attendance on the first Sunday of Advent.    Co-initiator Moritz Scholtysik explains: “This decision is disastrous. Especially in a time when we experience fear, loneliness and isolation, the common celebration of Holy Mass is more important than ever.””Even though there are exceptions, a great many faithful are excluded from celebrating Holy Mass. This creates even more division in the Christian community,” co-initiator Ludwig Brühl says.    “We thank Archbishop Dr. Heiner Koch for having already eased the restrictions slightly. At the same time, we ask him to make the celebration of the sacraments accessible to everyone again. In the prayer vigil, therefore, we prayed a rosary for the archbishop and the entire diocese,” co-initiator Giovanni Maria Olivari emphasizes. The prayer vigils got a very positive response from the participants. Encouraged by the common action, they wished for a continuation of public prayer.”Dr. Maike Hickson was born and raised in Germany. She holds a PhD from the University of Hannover, Germany, after having written in Switzerland her doctoral dissertation on the history of Swiss intellectuals before and during World War II. She now lives in the U.S. and is married to Dr. Robert Hickson, and they have been blessed with two beautiful children. She is a happy housewife who likes to write articles when time permits. Hickson has closely followed the papacy of Pope Francis and the developments in the Catholic Church in Germany, and she has been writing articles on religion and politics for U.S. and European publications and websites such as LifeSiteNews, OnePeterFive, The Wanderer, Rorate Caeli, Catholicism.org, Catholic Family News, Christian Order, Notizie Pro-Vita, Corrispondenza Romana, Katholisches.info, Der Dreizehnte, Zeit-Fragen, and Westfalen-Blatt.

• EASTERN ORTHODOXY

Why I’m Not Eastern Orthodox

 Allan RuhlDecember 7, 20210 Comments

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I often get asked why I don’t become Eastern Orthodox. If I know so much about Church history, shouldn’t I conclude that the Roman Church has gone off the rails and Eastern Orthodoxy has preserved the precious dogmas of the early Church in their pristine form? There are many reasons why I can’t embrace the Eastern Orthodox Church and here are a couple.

Let’s get one thing straight right at the start, there are multiple Eastern churches. There is the Eastern Orthodox church which includes Greece, Russia, and those in communion with them. There is the Oriental Orthodox Church which separated from the Catholic Church in the 5^th century due to Christological heresy. This Church includes the Copts, Armenians, Ethiopians, Eritreans and several other groups. There is also the Assyrian Church of the East which like the Oriental Orthodox Church, separated over a Christological heresy in the 5^th century. All three of these churches still exist and claim to be the Church that Jesus Christ founded. Then of course, there are the Eastern churches in full communion with Rome, sometimes called Uniates. There are multiple Eastern apostolic churches. Modern popular promoters of Eastern Orthodoxy often try to pretend like other ones don’t exist.Advertisement – Continue Reading Below

A few years ago I read a book by the Eastern Orthodox priest Fr. Peter Gilquist. The book is called Becoming Orthodox and it chronicles the journey of some Protestant pastors who go on a journey to discover the true Church. No other Eastern churches are mentioned. It’s simply Catholicism or Orthodoxy. I find this to be a fairly common and dishonest approach.

Many Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholics know the famous date of 1054 AD; the date when Rome and Constantinople decided to part ways. However, hardly anyone knows the big issue that was debated at this time. Most would guess the Papacy or the Filioque but that actually wasn’t the case at all. It was a Greek theological war on Latin liturgical customs, primarily unleavened bread for the Eucharist and Fasting on Saturday.

Anyone who studies church history, knows that while the faith must be universal in all places and at all times, liturgical customs are allowed to vary among different Christian communities. This wasn’t enough for the clergy of Constantinople, led by Patriarch Michael Cerularius who had recently closed all of the Latin churches in Constantinople due to their use of unleavened bread. Cardinal Humbert showed up to discuss the issue and it ended up in a fiasco with mutual excommunications.[1]

Apart from intolerance of non-Byzantine liturgical customs, there is another reason why I can’t go Greek and that is their sacramental theology, or rather their lack of it. Allow me to explain what I mean. In 2014 I went on a trip to the Balkans and visited several Eastern Orthodox countries. I had quite the love for Serbia, which is an Eastern Orthodox nation. The big saint in Serbia is St. Sava. They recently completed one of the largest Cathedrals in the world and it is named after St. Sava. When I was there, it was in its last stages of construction. Being the history lover that I am, when I got home from vacation I ordered a biography of St. Sava. I found a biography written by Nicholai Velimiroch and started to read. On the very first page it said the following:

He was born in Ribnica, near old Ducleja, and was baptized first by Latin-speaking priests there, but later rebaptized by clergy recognized by the Patriarch of Constantinople in the Church of the Holy Apostles at Ras.

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This is rank heresy. Baptism doesn’t depend on whether you’re under an Eastern Orthodox Patriarch; the Holy Spirit gives power to the sacraments, not the priest. The early Church knew that some baptisms outside the Church were accepted and some weren’t. In the Council of Trullo, canon 95 lays out which heretical groups are to be received by baptism and which aren’t. The Holy Spirit works in baptism, providing it is done properly. The Eastern Orthodox have never figured this out with respect to Catholics or even the Protestants. If the Eastern Orthodox stuck to the same practice always and everywhere it would at least be consistent but that’s not what they do.

In the book The Orthodox Church by Timothy Ware, this Orthodox author describes the train wreck of a track record of the Eastern Orthodox Church accepting or rejecting Catholic baptism. Ware writes:

In 1724 a large part of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch submitted to Rome; after this the Orthodox authorities, fearing that the same things might happen elsewhere in the Turkish Empire, were far stricter in their dealings with Roman Catholics. The climax in anti-Roman feeling came in 1755, when the Patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria and Jerusalem declared Latin baptism to be entirely invalid and demanded that all converts to Orthodoxy be baptized anew (Penguin: 3rd ed. 2015, p. 94).

In other words, Catholics are aggressively missionizing Eastern Orthodox members so their baptism is not valid. This is not how sacraments work. Ware continues: “This measure remained in force in the Greek world until the end of the nineteenth century” (loc. cit.).

I suppose at this point the Catholic missionary activities slowed down and hence Catholic baptism became valid again in the eyes of these three Greek patriarchates.Advertisement – Continue Reading Below

These are just the ancient patriarchates. The equally Orthodox Russian Church was a whole new ball game. Ware writes: “Russians generally baptized Roman Catholic converts between 1441 and 1667, but since 1667 they have not normally done so” (ibid., 94-95).

Ware doesn’t give a reason for the change in Russian policy, just the relevant dates. Nothing significant changed in Catholic baptisms in 1667.

One can only assume how confused these Eastern Orthodox bishops were when the Protestants came on the scene. In the book Russia and the Universal Church, Soloviev writes the following:

William Palmer, a distinguished member of the Anglican Church and of the University of Oxford, wished to join the Orthodox Church. He went to Russia and Turkey to study the contemporary situation in the Christian East and to find out on what conditions he would be admitted to the communion of the Eastern Orthodox. At St. Petersburg and at Moscow he was told that he had only to abjure the errors of Protestantism before a priest, who would thereupon administer to him the sacrament of Holy Chrism or Confirmation.

But at Constantinople he found that he must be baptized afresh. As he knew himself to be a Christian and saw no reason to suspect the validity of his baptism (which incidentally was admitted without question by the Orthodox Russian Church), he considered a second baptism would be a sacrilege.

On the other hand, he could not bring himself to accept Orthodoxy according to the local rules of the Russian Church, since he would then become Orthodox only in Russia while remaining a heathen in the eyes of the Greeks; and he had no wish to join a national Church but to join the universal Orthodox Church. No one could solve his dilemma so he became a Roman Catholic (New Edition, 2013, p. 66-67).

As we can see, there is no consistent view on baptism in either Russia or the Middle Eastern Orthodox churches, and both of them have contradicted themselves at certain points in post-schism history. It’s ironic that the Latin Church was cast into outer darkness in the 11^th century for using unleavened bread and fasting on Saturday; however the various Eastern Orthodox branches have contradictory views on baptism yet that’s not a reason to break communion. Ironically the churches of Constantinople and Russia are no longer in communion with each other. They didn’t break over theology related to the soul saving waters of baptism. They broke over territorial jurisdictional squabbles in Ukraine. This just shows that the unity they shared in the past was a purely artificial. The only reason that they could be in communion was because they either didn’t discuss theological issues among each other or didn’t take them seriously. A Church that doesn’t take baptism seriously should not be considered a viable option for conversion.Advertisement – Continue Reading Below

There is a slippery Eastern Orthodox answer to this baptism conflict. When you point this baptism problem out to them they simply say that “it’s all economia.” Economia is the cavalry that comes to save the day. There is no full definition of the word but it usually refers to the loosening of the canons. The only problem is, fancy Greek words can’t create a baptism out of nothing. If someone isn’t properly baptized, throwing a fancy Greek word out there doesn’t solve the problem. I don’t see how this confusion has anything to do with loosening of the canons. You’re either validly baptized or you aren’t. Ware pointed out that the Russian Church changed its policy on Catholic baptism in 1667. How is this Economia? Why does Economia give two different answers for Russia on both sides of 1667? Why was Economia working differently for the churches in the Middle East? The term was probably originally meant for cosmetic non-doctrinal issues like the length of a catechumenate. Trying to apply Economia to the baptism issue is like trying to put a band aid over an amputated limb.

Baptism has never been a problem for the Catholic Church as we’ve known what a true baptism is for 2000 years, whether Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, Arian, etc. Remember, baptism is an issue related to salvation. One can’t go to heaven without baptism. If the Russian and Constantinople churches had disagreements on cosmetic issues such as how many months one should be a catechumen, that wouldn’t be an issue. When salvation is on the line as it is with baptism, nothing can be taken for granted. Since this key theological issue doesn’t seem to be important to the majority of the Eastern Orthodox world while shallow nothing issues like Ukrainian jurisdiction and unleavened bread are reason for separation, I simply cannot take the plunge into this confused and multi-layered schism. It’s all Greek to me.

—

[1] In commenting on Cerularius’ Letter to Peter of Antioch justifying his actions against the Latins, Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev writes: “The majority of these faults of the Latins are purely ritual in nature and do not relate to the essence of the faith (the wearing of rings by bishops, the shaving of beards, fasting on Saturdays, the eating of meat by monks), while other reflect practices of church life in the west (celibacy of the clergy), and still others are due to cultural peculiarities of the Latin west (scanty knowledge of the Greek fathers). Only one serious dogmatic difference between the east and west is mentioned: the teaching on the filioque, but it is mentioned in passing, along with other liturgical trifles. In this epistle Cerularius makes no mention of the main reason for the division: namely, papal primacy” (Orthodox Christianity Volume I: The History and Canonical Structure of the Orthodox Church [SVS Press, 2011], p. 114).Advertisement – Continue Reading Below

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Allan Ruhl

Allan Ruhl is a YouTube apologist and blogger who lives in Western Canada. He holds a Bachelors of Science in engineering from the University of Alberta. His main interests are Church history and Islamic apologetics. Follow him on Twitter @AllanRuhl.

Mary is “Miss Grace” that is the Full of Grace who is the Immaculate Conception vs. Francis’s Implicit Denial of the Immaculate Conception & the Implicit “Pelagian” Heresy 

December 08, 2021

Immaculate Conception: Pope Francis cancels public act of veneration… – Catholic News Agency
For the Greek word in the Gospel is [full of grace] kecharitomene. It is a perfect passive participle of the verb charitoo. A perfect passive participle is very strong. In addition, charitoo belongs to a group of verbs ending in omicron omega. They have in common that they mean to put a person or thing into the state indicated 
by the root. Thus leukos means white, so leukoo means to make white. Then charitoo should mean to put into charis. That word charis can mean either favor or grace. But if we translate by favor, we must keep firmly in mind that favor must not mean merely that God, as it were, sits there and smiles at someone, without giving anything. That would be Pelagian: salvation possible without grace. So for certain, God does give something, and that something is grace, are share in His own life. So charitoo means to put into grace. But then too, kecharitomene is used in place of the name “Mary”. This is like our English usage in which we say, for example, someone is Mr. Tennis. That means he is the ultimate in tennis. So then kecharitomene should mean “Miss Grace”, the ultimate in grace. Hence we could reason that fullness of grace implies an Immaculate Conception. –  Theologian Fr. William Most

Does Francis implicitly deny Mary is the Immaculate Conception who is the highest ideal after Jesus Christ according to Father Maximilian Koble?

“There must be a battle for the highest ideal.”
(Father Maximilian Koble)
Who is that ideal?  The Immaculate Conception.  Why must there be such a battle?  Because Footnote 351 of Amoris laetitia smears Our Blessed Mother with the taint of our own sin, as though sanctification cannot or need not take place.  That is why the symbol of the alternate “queen,” the false deity which the heretics would like to foist upon us in place of the true Queen of Heaven and earth, is nothing but a bowl of dirt.

By blunting the ideal of Christian perfection, Francis implicitly denies the Immaculate Conception–as, indeed, he does explicitly in other ways as well.  That is why just about the first thing he did after seizing the power of the papacy (I take Bishop Rene Gracida’s viewpoint too) was to savage the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, whose specific charism it is, to reflect the Immaculata and propagate devotion to her.  Here is the very heart of the issue.  (The Sacred Heart, so to speak.)
It is not enough to comment, however incisively, on the latest Francis outrage.  We have to “Aim Higher,” making our goal the goal of the MI itself. [“Aim higher!: Spiritual and Marian reflections of St. Maximilian Kolbe,” Paperback – https://www.amazon.com/Aim-higher-Spiritual-reflections-Maximilian/dp/0913382590] Is the Virgin Mary’s identity tied to Immaculate Conception which is tied to her title “Full of Grace”? The Catholic.com website answered this question as follows: In Luke 1:28, the word that the angel uses is kecharitomene. So it’s not literally “full of grace,” but its root word is the Greek verb “to give grace” (charitoo). The word is the past perfect tense, meaning that the action of giving grace has already occurred. It was not something that was about to happen to her but something that has already been accomplished. The word was also used as a title. The angel did not say, “Hail Mary, you are kecharitomene” but rather, “Hail kecharitomene.” Therefore the word is not simply an action but an identity. [https://www.catholic.com/qa/full-of-grace-versus-highly-favored] 
The great theologian Fr. William Most explained the biblical background of the Immaculate Conception saying “[full of grace] kecharitomene should mean “Miss Grace”, the ultimate in grace. Hence we could reason that fullness of grace implies an Immaculate Conception”: In teaching that Mary was conceived immaculate, the Catholic Church teaches that from the very moment of her conception, the Blessed Virgin Mary was free from all stain of original sin… 
… There are two passages in Scripture which point us to this truth. We look first at Genesis 3.15, in which we see the parallel between Mary and Eve of which the early Church Fathers already spoke: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed: he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” The Jews saw this passage as referring to the struggle between Christ and Satan, and so the Church see in “the woman” a prophetic foreshadowing of the Virgin Mary…This implies an Immaculate conception…
… We can also reason from the text of Lk 1:28, in which the angel calls her “full of grace”. If we can validate the translation–we can, and will do so, shortly–then in this verse we can see even more strongly the complete enmity with the serpent–for God’s grace is complete opposed to Satan’s reign. But if Mary was “full of grace,” it seems that she must have been conceived immaculate… … In Lk 1:28 the archangel hails her as, “full of grace”. Most versions today do not use that rendering, but greatly weaken it. Yet it is the correct translation as we can see from the Magisterium (Pius XII, Fulgens Corona, AAS 45, 579, and constant use of the Church) and also from philology.  
For the Greek word in the Gospel is [full of grace] kecharitomene. It is a perfect passive participle of the verb charitoo. A perfect passive participle is very strong. In addition, charitoo belongs to a group of verbs ending in omicron omega. They have in common that they mean to put a person or thing into the state indicated by the root. Thus leukos means white, so leukoo means to make white. Then charitoo should mean to put into charis. That word charis can mean either favor or grace. But if we translate by favor, we must keep firmly in mind that favor must not mean merely that God, as it were, sits there and smiles at someone, without giving anything. That would be Pelagian: salvation possible without grace. So for certain, God does give something, and that something is grace, are share in His own life. So charitoo means to put into grace. But then too, kecharitomene is used in place of the name “Mary”. This is like our English usage in which we say, for example, someone is Mr. Tennis. That means he is the ultimate in tennis.  
 Overflowing grace: Pius IX, in the document, Ineffabilis Deus, defining the Immaculate Conception in 1854 wrote: “He [God] attended her with such great love, more than all other creatures, that in he  alone He took singular pleasure. Wherefore He so wonderfully filled her, more than all angelic spirits and all the Saints, with an abundance of all heavenly gifts taken from the treasury of the divinity, that she, always free from absolutely every stain of sin, and completely beautiful and perfect, presented such a fullness of innocence and holiness that none greater under God can be thought of, and no one but God 
can comprehend it.”[https://northwestsvdpstl.org/sites/svdpstlnw/files/uploads/documents/marys_immaculate_conception.pdf] Pray an Our Father now for reparation for the sins committed because of Francis’s Amoris Laetitia. 

Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church as well as the Triumph of the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Stop for a moment of silence, ask Jesus Christ what He wants you to do now and next. In this silence remember God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost – Three Divine Persons yet One God, has an ordered universe where you can know truth and falsehood as well as never forget that He wants you to have eternal happiness with Him as his son or daughter by grace. Make this a practice. By doing this you are doing more good than reading anything here or anywhere else on the Internet.

Francis Notes:

– Doctor of the Church St. Francis de Sales totally confirmed beyond any doubt the possibility of a heretical pope and what must be done by the Church in such a situation:

“[T]he Pope… WHEN he is EXPLICITLY a heretic, he falls ipso facto from his dignity and out of the Church, and the Church MUST either deprive him, or, as some say, declare him deprived, of his Apostolic See.”
(The Catholic Controversy, by St. Francis de Sales, Pages 305-306)

Saint Robert Bellarmine, also, said “the Pope heretic is not deposed ipso facto, but must be declared deposed by the Church.”
[https://archive.org/stream/SilveiraImplicationsOfNewMissaeAndHereticPopes/Silveira%20Implications%20of%20New%20Missae%20and%20Heretic%20Popes_djvu.txt]

– “If Francis is a Heretic, What should Canonically happen to him?”: http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2020/12/if-francis-is-heretic-what-should.html

– “Could Francis be a Antipope even though the Majority of Cardinals claim he is Pope?”: http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2019/03/could-francis-be-antipope-even-though.html

– If Francis betrays Benedict XVI & the”Roman Rite Communities” like he betrayed the Chinese Catholics we must respond like St. Athanasius, the Saintly English Bishop Robert Grosseteste & “Eminent Canonists and Theologians” by “Resist[ing]” him: https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/12/if-francis-betrays-benedict-xvi.html 

 –  LifeSiteNews, “Confusion explodes as Pope Francis throws magisterial weight behind communion for adulterers,” December 4, 2017:

The AAS guidelines explicitly allows “sexually active adulterous couples facing ‘complex circumstances’ to ‘access the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.'”

–  On February 2018, in Rorate Caeli, Catholic theologian Dr. John Lamont:

“The AAS statement… establishes that Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia has affirmed propositions that are heretical in the strict sense.”

– On December 2, 2017, Bishop Rene Gracida:

“Francis’ heterodoxy is now official. He has published his letter to the Argentina bishops in Acta Apostlica Series making those letters magisterial documents.”

Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church by the bishops by the grace of God.

Election Notes: 

– Intel Cryptanalyst-Mathematician on Biden Steal: “212Million Registered Voters & 66.2% Voting,140.344 M Voted…Trump got 74 M, that leaves only 66.344 M for Biden” [http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/intel-cryptanalyst-mathematician-on.html?m=1]

– Will US be Venezuela?: Ex-CIA Official told Epoch Times “Chávez started to Focus on [Smartmatic] Voting Machines to Ensure Victory as early as 2003”: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/will-us-be-venezuela-ex-cia-official.html– Tucker Carlson’s Conservatism Inc. Biden Steal Betrayal is explained by “One of the Greatest Columns ever Written” according to Rush: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/tucker-carlsons-conservatism-inc-biden.html?m=1 – A Hour which will Live in Infamy: 10:01pm November 3, 2020: 
http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/01/a-hour-which-will-live-in-infamy-1001pm.html?m=1 What is needed right now to save America from those who would destroy our God given rights is to pray at home or in church and if called to even go to outdoor prayer rallies in every town and city across the United States for God to pour out His grace on our country to save us from those who would use a Reichstag Fire-like incident to destroy our civil liberties. [Is the DC Capitol Incident Comparable to the Nazi Reichstag Fire Incident where the German People Lost their Civil Liberties?: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/is-dc-capital-incident-comparable-to.html?m=1 and Epoch Times Show Crossroads on Capitol Incident: “Anitfa ‘Agent Provocateurs‘”: 
http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/epoch-times-show-crossroads-on-capital.html?m=1] 
Pray an Our Father now for the grace to know God’s Will and to do it. Pray an Our Father now for America. Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church as well as the Triumph of the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Tucker Uses His Bully Pulpit to Highlight Democrats Weaponizing January 6

By Andrea Widburg

American Thinker

December 7, 2021

One of the things I’ve liked about Tucker Carlson’s show over the past 11 months is his courageous willingness to challenge the Democrats’ dystopian narrative about January 6, and we have tried here to keep you apprised about the January 6 political prisoners.  It’s also important to pay attention to the House’s January 6 commission, which is turning into an aggressive Star Chamber.

On his Monday show, Tucker Carlson used his opening monologue to attack the Democrats for their shameful and deeply unconstitutional weaponization of the January 6 commission. 

House Democrats, working with the DOJ and its muscle in the FBI, are bringing the full power of the police state to bear against people who had absolutely nothing to do with events at the Capitol.  Anyone who dared support a peaceful rally in D.C. (and something like 99% of the more than 100,000 people who attended were completely peaceful) is now a potential target of this “investigation.”

The mainstream media, naturally, recite the Democrat narrative, ignoring the peaceful rally, the increasingly exposed police brutality, and the entrapment by obvious government agents and leftist provocateurs outside the Capitol. However, what’s truly shameful is that, with very few exceptions, Republican politicians are saying and doing nothing to support the innocents who are being harassed, persecuted, and prosecuted.

We in America are and will remain free citizens only if we fight for our freedoms. Remember Martin Niemöller’s famous “First they came” poem:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Too many Americans, including conservatives and Republicans, are looking at the people the Democrats are imprisoning, hunting down, and stripping of privacy and thinking, “I wasn’t in D.C.,” “I’m not a MAGA person,” “It’s better to stay quiet right now,” “We’ll take care of this in November 2022” — and, satisfied with those rationalizations, are doing nothing.

Here’s the truth, though: 

(1) It doesn’t matter if you weren’t in D.C. because they’re going to come after you anyway; 

(2) it doesn’t matter if you’re not openly MAGA because all Republicans and conservatives are fair game; 

(3) it’s not better to stay quiet because, at times like this, the only way to fight is to speak up; and 

(4) if you look at the quisling Republicans we currently have in Congress, you’re lying to yourself if you think another election will change anything.

In my district, we got rid of a Democrat and replaced him with a Republican — who supports Ilhan Omar and the transgender agenda.  Your politicians will not fight for you.  You must fight for you.

_____________

A President Betrayed by Bureaucrats: Scott Atlas’s Masterpiece on the COVID Disaster

By: Jeffrey A. Tucker

The Epoch Times

December 5, 2021

I’m a voracious reader of Covid books but nothing could have prepared me for Scott Atlas’s A Plague Upon Our House, a full and mind-blowing account of the famed scientist’s personal experience with the Covid era and a luridly detailed account of his time at the White House. The book is hot fire, from page one to the last, and will permanently affect your view of not only this pandemic and the policy response but also the workings of public health in general.

Atlas’s book has exposed a scandal for the ages. It is enormously valuable because it fully blows up what seems to be an emerging fake story involving a supposedly Covid-denying president who did nothing vs. heroic scientists in the White House who urged compulsory mitigating measures consistent with prevailing scientific opinion. Not one word of that is true. Atlas’s book, I hope, makes it impossible to tell such tall tales without embarrassment.

Anyone who tells you this fictional story (including Deborah Birx) deserves to have this highly credible treatise tossed in his direction. The book is about the war between real science (and genuine public health), with Atlas as the voice for reason both before and during his time in the White House, vs. the enactment of brutal policies that never stood any chance of controlling the virus while causing tremendous damage to the people, to human liberty, to children in particular, but also to billions of people around the world.

For the reader, the author is our proxy, a reasonable and blunt man trapped in a world of lies, duplicity, backstabbing, opportunism, and fake science. He did his best but could not prevail against a powerful machine that cares nothing for facts, much less outcomes.

If you have heretofore believed that science drives pandemic public policy, this book will shock you. Atlas’s recounting of the unbearably poor thinking on the part of government-based “infectious disease experts” will make your jaw drop (thinking, for example, of Birx’s off-the-cuff theorizing about the relationship between masking and controlling case spreads).

Throughout the book, Atlas points to the enormous cost of the machinery of lockdowns, the preferred method of Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx: missed cancer screenings, missed surgeries, nearly two years of educational losses, bankrupted small business, depression and drug overdoses, overall citizen demoralization, violations of religious freedom, all while public health massively neglected the actual at-risk population in long-term care facilities. Essentially, they were willing to dismantle everything we called civilization in the name of bludgeoning one pathogen without regard to the consequences.

The fake science of population-wide “models” drove policy instead of following the known information about risk profiles. “The one unusual feature of this virus was the fact that children had an extraordinarily low risk,” writes Atlas. “Yet this positive and reassuring news was never emphasized. Instead, with total disregard of the evidence of selective risk consistent with other respiratory viruses, public health officials recommended draconian isolation of everyone.”

“Restrictions on liberty were also destructive by inflaming class distinctions with their differential impact,” he writes, “exposing essential workers, sacrificing low-income families and kids, destroying single-parent homes, and eviscerating small businesses, while at the same time large companies were bailed out, elites worked from home with barely an interruption, and the ultra-rich got richer, leveraging their bully pulpit to demonize and cancel those who challenged their preferred policy options.”

During continued chaos, in August 2020, Atlas was called by Trump to help, not as a political appointee, not as a PR man for Trump, not as a DC fixer but as the only person who in nearly a year of an unfolding catastrophe had a health-policy focus. He made it clear from the outset that he would only say what he believed to be true; Trump agreed that this was precisely what he wanted and needed. Trump got an earful and gradually came around to a more rational view than that which caused him to wreck the American economy and society with his own hands and against his instincts.

In Task Force meetings, Atlas was the only person who showed up with studies and on-the-ground information as opposed to mere charts of infections easily downloadable from popular websites. “A bigger surprise was that Fauci did not present scientific research on the pandemic to the group that I witnessed. Likewise, I never heard him speak about his critical analysis of any published research studies. This was stunning to me. Aside from intermittent status updates about clinical trial enrollments, Fauci served the Task Force by offering an occasional comment or update on vaccine trial participant totals, mostly when the VP would turn to him and ask.”

When Atlas spoke up, it was almost always to contradict Fauci/Birx but he received no backing during meetings, only to have many people in attendance later congratulate him for speaking out. Still, he did, by private meetings, have a convert in Trump himself, but by then it was too late: not even Trump could prevail against the wicked machine he had permissioned into operation.

It’s a Mr. Smith Goes to Washington story but applied to matters of public health. From the outset of this disease panic, policy came to be dictated by two government bureaucrats (Fauci and Birx) who, for some reason, were confident in their control over media, bureaucracies, and White House messaging, despite every attempt by the president, Atlas, and a few others to get them to pay attention to the actual science about which Fauci/Birx knew and care little.

When Atlas would raise doubts about Birx, Jared Kushner would repeatedly assure him that “she is 100% MAGA.” Yet we know for certain that this is not true. We know from a different book on the subject that she only took the position with the anticipation that Trump would lose the presidency in the November election. That’s hardly a surprise; it’s the bias expected from a career bureaucrat working for a deep-state institution.

Fortunately, we now have this book to set the record straight. It gives every reader an inside look at the workings of a system that wrecked our lives. If the book finally declines to explain the hell that was visited upon us—every day we still ask the question why?—it does provide an accounting of the who, when, where, and what. Tragically, too many scientists, media figures, and intellectuals, in general, went along. Atlas’s account shows exactly what they signed up to defend, and it’s not pretty.

The cliche that kept coming to mind as I read is “breath of fresh air.” That metaphor describes the book perfectly: blessed relief from relentless propaganda. Imagine yourself trapped in an elevator with stultifying air in a building that is on fire and the smoke gradually seeps in from above. Someone is in there with you and he keeps assuring you that everything is fine, when it is obviously not.

That’s a pretty good description of how I felt from March 12, 2020, and onward. That was the day that President Trump spoke to the nation and announced that there would be no more travel from Europe. The tone in his voice was spooky. It was obvious that more was coming. He had fallen sway to extremely bad advice, perhaps he was willing to push lockdowns as a plan to deal with a respiratory virus that was already widespread in the US from perhaps 5 to 6 months earlier.

It was the day that the darkness descended. A day later (March 13), the HHS distributed its lockdown plans for the nation. That weekend, Trump met for many hours with Anthony Fauci, Deborah Birx, son-in-law Jared Kushner, and only a few others. He came around to the idea of shutting down the American economy for two weeks. He presided over the calamitous March 16, 2020, press conference, at which Trump promised to beat the virus through general lockdowns.

Of course, he had no power to do that directly but he could urge it to happen, all under the completely delusional promise that doing so would solve the virus problem. Two weeks later, the same gang persuaded him to extend the lockdowns.

Trump went along with the advice because it was the only advice he was fed at the time. They made it appear that the only choice that Trump had—if he wanted to beat the virus—was to wage war on his policies that were pushing for a stronger, healthier economy. After surviving two impeachment attempts, and beating back years of hate from a nearly united media afflicted by severe derangement syndrome, Trump was finally hornswoggled.

Atlas writes: “On this highly important criterion of presidential management—taking responsibility to fully take charge of policy coming from the White House—I believe the president made a massive error in judgment. Against his gut feeling, he delegated authority to medical bureaucrats, and then he failed to correct that mistake.”

The truly tragic fact that both Republicans and Democrats do not want spoken about is that this whole calamity is that did indeed begin with Trump’s decision. On this point, Atlas writes:

“Yes, the president initially had gone along with the lockdowns proposed by Fauci and Birx, the “fifteen days to slow the spread,” even though he had serious misgivings. But I still believe the reason that he kept repeating his one question—“Do you agree with the initial shutdown?”—whenever he asked questions about the pandemic was precisely because he still had misgivings about it.”

Large parts of the narrative are devoted to explaining precisely how and to what extent Trump had been betrayed. “They had convinced him to do exactly the opposite of what he would naturally do in any other circumstance,” Atlas writes, that is

“to disregard his common sense and allow grossly incorrect policy advice to prevail…. This president, widely known for his signature “You’re fired!” declaration, was misled by his closest political intimates. All for fear of what was inevitable anyway—skewering from an already hostile media. And on top of that tragic misjudgment, the election was lost anyway. So much for political strategists.”

There are so many valuable parts to the story that I cannot possibly recount them all. The language is brilliant, e.g. he calls the media “the most despicable group of unprincipled liars one could ever imagine.” He proves that assertion in page after page of shocking lies and distortions, mostly driven by political goals.

I was particularly struck by his chapter on testing, mainly because that whole racket mystified me throughout. From the outset, the CDC bungled the testing part of the pandemic story, attempting to keep the tests and process centralized in DC at the very time when the entire nation was in panic. Once that was finally fixed, months too late, mass and indiscriminate PCR testing became the desiderata of success within the White House. The problem was not just with the testing method:

“Fragments of dead virus hang around and can generate a positive test for many weeks or months, even though one is not generally contagious after two weeks. Moreover, PCR is extremely sensitive. It detects minute quantities of the virus that do not transmit infection…. Even the New York Times wrote in August that 90 percent or more of positive PCR tests falsely implied that someone was contagious. Sadly, during my entire time at the White House, this crucial fact would never even be addressed by anyone other than me at the Task Force meetings, let alone because for any public recommendation, even after I distributed data proving this critical point.”

The other problem is the wide assumption that more testing (however inaccurate) of whomever, whenever was always better. This model of maximizing tests seemed like a leftover from the HIV/AIDS crisis in which tracing was mostly useless in practice but at least made some sense in theory. For a widespread and mostly wild respiratory disease transmitted the way a cold virus is transmitted, this method was hopeless from the beginning. It became nothing but make work for tracing bureaucrats and testing enterprises that in the end only provided a fake metric of “success” that served to spread public panic.

Early on, Fauci had clearly said that there was no reason to get tested if you had no symptoms. Later, that common-sense outlook was thrown out the window and replaced with an agenda to test as many people as possible regardless of risk and regardless of symptoms. The resulting data enabled Fauci/Birx to keep everyone in a constant state of alarm. More test positivity to them implied only one thing: more lockdowns. Businesses needed to close harder, we all needed to mask harder, schools needed to stay closed longer, and travel needed to be even more restricted. That assumption became so entrenched that not even the president’s wishes (which had changed from Spring to Summer) made any difference.

Atlas’s first job, then, was to challenge this whole indiscriminate testing agenda. To his mind, testing needed to be about more than accumulating endless amounts of data, much of it without meaning; instead, testing should be directed toward a public-health goal. The people who needed tests were the vulnerable populations, particularly those in nursing homes, to save lives among those who were threatened with severe outcomes. This push to test, contact trace, and quarantine anyone and everyone regardless of known risk was a huge distraction, and also caused huge disruption in schooling and enterprise.

To fix it meant changing the CDC guidelines. Atlas’s story of attempting to do that is eye-opening. He wrestled with every manner of bureaucrat and managed to get new guidelines written, only to find that they had been mysteriously reverted to the old guidelines one week later. He caught the “error” and insisted that his version prevail. Once they were issued by the CDC, the national press was all over it, with the story that the White House was pressuring the scientists at the CDC in terrible ways. After a week-long media storm, the guidelines changed yet again. All of Atlas’s work was made null.

Talk about discouraging! It was also Atlas’s first full experience in dealing with deep-state machinations. It was this way throughout the lockdown period, machinery in place to implement, encourage, and enforce endless restrictions but no one person, in particular, was there to take responsibility for the policies or the outcomes, even as the ostensible head of state (Trump) was on record both publicly and privately opposing the policies that no one could seem to stop.

As an example of this, Atlas tells the story of bringing some massively important scientists to the White House to speak with Trump: Martin Kulldorff, Jay Bhattacharya, Joseph Ladapo, and Cody Meissner. People around the president thought the idea was great. But somehow the meeting kept being delayed. Again and again. When it finally went ahead, the schedulers only allowed for 5 minutes. But once they met with Trump himself, the president had other ideas and prolonged the meeting for an hour and a half, asking the scientists all kinds of questions about viruses, policy, the initial lockdowns, the risks to individuals, and so on.

The president was so impressed with their views and knowledge—what a dramatic change that must have been for him—that he invited filming to be done plus pictures to be taken. He wanted to make it a big public splash. It never happened. Literally. White House press somehow got the message that this meeting never happened. The first anyone would have known about it other than White House employees is from Atlas’s book.

Two months later, Atlas was instrumental in bringing in not only two of those scientists but also the famed Sunetra Gupta of Oxford. They met with the HHS secretary but this meeting too was buried in the press. No dissent was allowed. The bureaucrats were in charge, regardless of the wishes of the president.

Another case in point was during Trump’s bout with Covid in early October. Atlas was nearly sure that he would be fine but he was forbidden from talking to the press. The entire White House communications office was frozen for four days, with no one speaking to the press. This was against Trump’s wishes. This left the media to speculate that he was on his deathbed, so when he came back to the White House and announced that Covid is not to be feared, it was a shock to the nation. From my point of view, this was truly Trump’s finest moment. To learn of the internal machinations happening behind the scenes is pretty shocking.

I can’t possibly cover the wealth of material in this book, and I expect this brief review to be one of several that I write. I do have a few disagreements. First, I think the author is too uncritical toward Operation Warp Speed and doesn’t address how the vaccines were wildly oversold, to say nothing of growing concerns about safety, which were not addressed in the trials. Second, he seems to approve of Trump’s March 12th travel restrictions, which struck me as brutal and pointless, and the real beginning of the unfolding disaster. Third, Atlas inadvertently seems to perpetuate the distortion that Trump recommended ingesting bleach during a press conference. I know that this was all over the papers. But I’ve read the transcript of that press conference several times and find nothing like this. Trump makes clear that he was speaking about cleaning surfaces. This might be yet another case of outright media lies.

All that aside, this book reveals everything about the insanity of 2020 and 2021, years in which good sense, good science, historical precedent, human rights, and concerns for human liberty were all thrown into the trash, not just in the US but all over the world.

Atlas summarizes the big picture:

“in considering all the surprising events that unfolded in this past year, two, in particular, stand out. I have been shocked at the enormous power of government officials to unilaterally decree a sudden and severe shutdown of society—to simply close businesses and schools by edict, restrict personal movements, mandate behavior, regulate interactions with our family members, and eliminate our most basic freedoms, without any defined end and with little accountability.”

Atlas is correct that “the management of this pandemic has left a stain on many of America’s once noble institutions, including our elite universities, research institutes and journals, and public health agencies. Earning it back will not be easy.”

Internationally, we have Sweden as an example of a country that (mostly) kept its sanity. Domestically, we have South Dakota as an example of a place that stayed open, preserving freedom throughout. And thanks in large part to Atlas’s behind-the-scenes work, we have the example of Florida, whose governor did care about the actual science and ended up preserving freedom in the state even as the elderly population there experienced the greatest possible protection from the virus.

We all owe Atlas an enormous debt of gratitude, for it was he who persuaded the Florida governor to choose the path of focussed protection as advocated by the Great Barrington Declaration, which Atlas cites as the “single document that will go down as one of the most important publications in the pandemic, as it lent undeniable credibility to focused protection and provided courage to thousands of additional medical scientists and public health leaders to come forward.”

Atlas experienced the slings, arrows, and worse. The media and the bureaucrats tried to shut him up, shut him down, and body bag him professionally and personally. Canceled,meaning removed from the roster of functional, dignified human beings. Even colleagues at Stanford University joined in the lynch mob, much to their disgrace. And yet this book is that of a man who has prevailed against them.

In that sense, this book is easily the most crucial first-person account we have so far. It is gripping, revealing, devastating for the lockdowners and their vaccine-mandating successors, and a true classic that will stand the test of time. It’s simply not possible to write the history of this disaster without a close examination of this erudite first-hand account.

Jeffrey Tucker is founder and president of the Brownstone Institute. He is the author of five books, including “Right-Wing Collectivism: The Other Threat to Liberty.”

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