A Tale of Two Cities:

Kenosha vs. Waukesha

The media’s blatant lies amount to racial arson

By Victor Davis Hanson

American Greatness

November 28, 2021

(Emphasis added)

Both Wisconsin towns, Kenosha, and Waukesha, about 50 miles apart by car, were the recent sites of multiple deaths. The violence in both made national news. Yet in contradictory ways, both reflected the common themes of America’s current legal, media, and societal corruption. 

The relevant public prosecutors in both were in the news for alleged ideological bias. Specifically, they habitually calibrated the charging, indicting, and trying (or not) of defendants through ideological lenses and community pressure rather than based on the facts and the law.  

Kyle Rittenhouse was a 17-year-old armed youth who volunteered to protect business properties at the height of the August 2020 arson, riots and looting in Kenosha. He was pursued and attacked by three members from a larger group who chased the armed youth, presumably either to disarm, injure, or kill him—or perhaps all three. 

Rittenhouse variously was assaulted, kicked, and had a firearm pointed at him. In reaction, he fatally shot two of his pursuing attackers and wounded a third. Kenosha prosecutors reviewed videos of the altercations. They saw clearly that Rittenhouse was running away from his assailants. He was variously rushed by one assailant, kicked by another, and struck with a skateboard by still another. Again, a final pursuer pointed a gun at him at close range.  

No matter. The Kenosha district attorney’s office charged Rittenhouse with several felonies including two first-degree homicide charges. All four whom Rittenhouse fired at—whether he missed, wounded, or fatally shot—had lengthy arrest records. Three were convicted felons; the fourth had a long arrest record. 

Given the lengthy and quite horrific rap sheet of Rittenhouse’s first attacker Joseph Rosenbaum (including multiple counts of pedophiliac rape), it is difficult to understand why the latter was not in jail (he had been released earlier that day from a mental facility to which he had been committed after a failed suicide attempt). The common denominator to the various prior convictions of his other three assailants was that they should have led to consequences far worse, given that many of their arrest charges were dropped, or bail was sometimes waived, or plea bargaining turned serious charges into merely bothersome ones. The release of violent offenders on little or no bail seems now thematic in Wisconsin. 

Shortly after the August 2020 shootings, the media, Joe Biden, and most of the left-wing commentariat had claimed Rittenhouse was a “white supremacist,” even though there was no evidence of such a label, then or now. Remember, the Kenosha shootings took place just nine weeks before the November presidential elections, at a time when the Left was framing the incumbent Trump as a “white supremacist” and Joe Biden a “healer.”  

The Racist Construct 

The shootings were immediately declared to be “racial.” Yet both the shooter Rittenhouse and all of his attackers who were wounded or killed were white (a fourth assailant, an African-American who kicked Rittenhouse while he was on the ground escaped without injury). 

What followed in the media was the most egregious example of concocted fictions since the Russian collusion hoax. Rittenhouse was falsely accused of crossing “state lines” (plural), while unlawfully armed with an “illegal automatic weapon.” 

 In truth, he did not buy the Smith & Wesson semi-automatic rifle, much less bring it into nearby Kenosha, Wisconsin from nearby Antioch, Illinois. It was legal for Rittenhouse to possess and use the firearm. The gun itself was not unlawful. He did not purchase it but had been given it by a friend. And Kenosha was his alternate home in that it was where his father and other relatives lived. Rittenhouse, then, was constructed as the proverbial white supremacist of the sort warned about by the likes of Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley. 

At various times during the trial, the prosecuting attorneys called Rittenhouse a coward. They claimed he should have faced the pursuing mob of at least a dozen and willingly taken a beating from them face-to-face, in at least one case at gunpoint. The jury inter alia was told that the ongoing arson and other violent acts were not serious crimes and that the three who attacked Rittenhouse were near-heroic victims. 

Protestors outside the courthouse tried to intimidate the defense and jurors. A journalist sought to follow the jury bus, ostensibly to divulge their identities or to intimidate them (MSNBC was subsequently banned from the courtroom). 

The piece de resistance was the lead DA’s pointing an empty semi-automatic weapon at the jury, with his finger on the trigger—all in the aftermath of Alec Baldwin’s accidental shooting with an “empty” loaded gun of two bystanders on a film set.  

The DA apparently wished to scare the jury into a guilty verdict through the sensation of having a rifle pointed at them. Given the jury appears post facto to have been made up of reasonable people, that puerile gambit probably backfired. All that the imbecilic DA confirmed by his actions was the same recklessness as those in state and city government who had permitted parts of Kenosha to burn in the first place.   

 There were lots of suicidal prosecutorial stunts such as these in what turned out to be a circus of sorts. The DAs also sought to deprecate the constitutionally protected Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. They bizarrely saw their key witness admitting under cross-examination that he had first pointed a handgun at Kyle Rittenhouse who then understandably fired at him. And they deliberately released an inferior version of the video record of the shooting to the defense while keeping the superior one to their perceived advantage. 

So, the state’s madness raised strange questions. Were the incompetent DAs simply a window into a dysfunctional Kenosha County district attorney’s office where bumbling was an institutionalized force-multiplier to bias? Were the state prosecutors deliberately inept to prompt a mistrial and thus a retrial/second chance of their botched case? Or were they lazily going through the motions to satisfy the mob, but did not really believe Rittenhouse was guilty? Or were they just mediocre camera-hungry wannabe celebrities, who wished to win cheap media attention for as long as the bewildered judge would put up with their bizarre antics? 

The Message of Acquittal  

A jury unanimously cleared Rittenhouse of all charges. It apparently concluded correctly that if law enforcement and the state either could not or would not protect lives and property in Kenosha, and if because of that dereliction of duty some citizens stepped up to take up the role that the police had utterly abandoned, then as citizens they had a right to defend themselves if attacked by those committing violence. 

For some time, media demand has exceeded the available supply of clear-cut cases of white oppressors and black victims, at least if the Jussie Smollett hoax, the “hands up don’t shoot” lie, and the photoshopped pictures and edited tapes of George Zimmerman are any indications.  

Yet the real reason the Left strained to gin up the theme of white-on-white violence as an example of racism was their larger agenda of sending a message to middle America: no American, in times of riot, arson, and looting, should have the right to use firearms to protect property. And under no circumstances could a citizen use a gun to ward off those intending to maim or kill him. Had Rittenhouse been found guilty, there no longer would be recourse for citizens living in cities where criminals were freely given the streets. 

In other words, had such a clear-cut case of self-defense morphed into a successful murder conviction, then the most powerful figure in the nation would become the local district attorney. De facto, a DA could empower a mob to loot, burn, steal, and injure by refusing to indict those arrested—even if an increasingly politicized mayor and police chief chose to allow their officers to keep the public safe. We would then assume that in this state of nature anyone protecting property during a riot would be fair game for the mob, given the target would know he could become a convicted felon by defending himself from attack. 

So, the Left understood well the messaging of attacking the open city and undefended town of Kenosha and the conviction of a “murderer” Rittenhouse: accept our political agendas and premises or otherwise your culpable community will be torn apart with impunity, and any who chose to combat the violence with violence will be charged with capital crimes. 

Those Criminal SUVs 

Not long after one Rittenhouse was acquitted, one Darrell Brooks, Jr., an African-American with a 20-year record of serious felonies, allegedly drove his car deliberately into a Christmas parade in Waukesha, killing 6 innocents and injuring over 60. 

Unlike the dishonest media reaction lying about Rittenhouse, who had no criminal record, there was initial careful restraint not to identify the career criminal Brooks as the murderous driver who weaponized his vehicle against parade-goers. Despite first-hand accounts from bystanders that the lethal driver was an African-American with dreadlocks, the media, feigning unaccustomed professionalism in this instance, withheld rush-to-judgment identification and culpability. Joe Biden—for a moment—was commendably quiet in editorializing about the racial motivations or ideology of a suspect. 

For a while, the media ran with its concocted rumor that Brooks merely was fleeing from an “altercation” and apparently had mistakenly turned the wrong way into a crowd—despite videos showing the driver deliberately ramming through street barriers repeatedly to seek out targets. Intent likely explains why he killed and injured so many innocents.  

Finally, the news settled into the present narrative of a “car crash,”—as if a driverless vehicle on autopilot had simply bumped into various people in the street—before burying the murders altogether on their back pages and dropping the crime from the evening news. Or as the Washington Post put it, “Here’s what we know so far on the sequence of events that led to the Waukesha tragedy caused by an SUV.”

That media-generated ruse continued even when details of Brooks’ lengthy felony record were finally released. At the time he was mowing down strangers, he had five open arrest charges, including two felonies. Brooks had been released on $1,000 bail just two days earlier, in another eerie “coincidence” after being arrested for attempting to run over a woman and her child—the same modus operandi reified at the Waukesha Christmas slaughter. 

 An alien from Mars who examined Brooks’s life of crime, his recent violence, and the ease with which he was serially let loose upon the public might have concluded some sort of “privilege” as the cause of exemption. 

Brooks posted on social media as an incompetent but narcissistic rapper. He left a video trail not just of his mediocre recordings, but of clear evidence of virulent anti-Semitism and anti-white racism, “So when we start bakk knokkin white people TF out don wanna hear it…the old white ppl 2, KNOKK DEM TF OUT!! PERIOD.”  

As pundits strained to deny any connection between the climate of BLM anger over the Rittenhouse verdict and Brooks’ murders, Brooks’ testimonies point to a connection, at least in the sense of hating people based on their race. Indeed, regional Milwaukee BLM activist Vaun Mayes quickly alleged that the Rittenhouse acquittal had earned the homicidal payback.  

A low-level Democratic functionary tweeted that the dead children of Waukesha were proper karma for Rittenhouse walking free: “I’m sad anytime anyone dies. I just believe in Karma and this came around quick on the citizens of Wisconsin.” Or as Mayes further elaborated: Brooks was an insurrectionist whose violence had jumpstarted a supposed “revolution,” his apparent euphemism for mass murder. “But it sounds possible that the revolution has started in Wisconsin. It started with this Christmas parade.”

Brooks is, for a while, in jail. Yet for some crazy reason, he can be freed on a $5 million bond. He awaits charges of mass homicide—although one never quite knows. The Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisolm is a controversial “reformer” DA, whose campaigns have been funded in part by the George Soros conglomerate. 

Creepier still, in the past, a prescient Chisolm had boasted about his future to the Milwaukee Sentinel, namely that his prosecutorial and bail policies would eventually release career criminals onto the street who would “inevitably” kill some innocents. Yet he riffed that such carnage was acceptable collateral damage from his decriminalization agendas: “Is there going to be an individual I divert, or I put into [a] treatment program, who’s going to go out and kill somebody? You bet. Guaranteed. It’s guaranteed to happen. It does not invalidate the overall approach.”

One wonders whether Chisolm will take that argument to the families of the Waukesha deceased—that the loss of their loved ones was a reasonable sacrifice to ensure that misunderstood 20-year criminals like Darrell Brooks, Jr. were not kept behind bars. 

So, what are we left with from these horrors of two cities? 

In Kenosha, the media and the Left ginned up race when there was no such component in the trial. But in Waukesha, they perpetuated racial arson and smothered the truth. That is, they kept largely silent when there clearly was racial hatred—given Brooks’ record of anti-white and anti-Semitic venom. Again, the media can turn from creation to suppression on a dime, given the common theme of ginning up racial strife and hatred. 

An amoral media and Left, so far, have kept an inconvenient Waukesha “car crash” out of the mainstream news—reversing their wild sensational obsessions with Kenosha. After all, in their unhinged racialized worldview, the demonization of a 17-year-old white male, who shot three other white males, still could be squeezed for racial juice, given the larger contextual landscape of a riot over a police wounding of an African-American male.  

The shooting of Jacob Blake that set off the Kenosha riots was later determined to be justified, given the armed suspect was heading toward his car, after fighting with police, who were called to the residence to protect a woman who had a restraining order against the career violent felon. 

In sum, Rittenhouse had no criminal record; all four of his assailants had lengthy arrest records. Three of them were ex-felons. He had no record of the racial hatred of which he was accused.  

In contrast, Brooks was an abject violent racist whom the media sought to shield. And he was a career felon, who both long ago and quite recently should have been kept behind bars so that he would not murder innocents.  

How a Wisconsin ex-felon received a $1,000 bail bond and freedom to mow down innocents, after trying to run down two with his car, while another juvenile without an arrest record, with good grounds to claim self-defense, was required to post a $2 million bond (and so stayed incarcerated pending charges without running water in his cell) is a commentary on the abject implosion of the American justice system.  

Rittenhouse should have never been charged; Brooks should not have been out of jail. The effort to make the former a beneficiary of white supremacy and the latter a victim of it required a level of amoral media deceit that finally was unsustainable even in this bankrupt age. 

___________________________________________________

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• TRADITIONIS CUSTODES

Pope Francis Suppresses Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

 John F. Salza, Esq.November 29, 20210 Comments

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Imagine this – what if Pope Francis attempted to abolish the traditional image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus? What if Francis issued a motu proprio called “Custodians of Tradition” which declared that the only image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Latin Church is the image of the Divine Mercy, introduced by St. Faustina Kowalska in the twentieth century? And, further, what if Francis declared that the veneration of the traditional image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, revealed by Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alocoque in the seventeenth century (with the devotion going back many centuries before that), would now be subject to severe restrictions and, if it be the will of the bishops, complete suppression?

Imagine also that Pope Francis enacted the law on the pretext of being faithful to the Second Vatican Council and the reforms that followed (which, as we all know, never mandated the suppression of the Sacred Heart image). In particular, imagine that Francis explained his new law by emphasizing his desire to facilitate the acceptance of the new canonization procedures after Vatican II, which some “traditionalists” have called into question, which led him to declare the image given to us by the post-Vatican II saint (the Divine Mercy of Sr. Kowalska) to be the only image of the Sacred Heart in the Latin Rite. Finally, imagine that Pope Francis claimed that his new law was based on an undisclosed and undocumented survey of the bishops, as well as undisclosed and undocumented consultation with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with the ultimate goal of achieving “ecclesial communion” in the Church.Advertisement – Continue Reading Below

Do you think any reasonable Catholic would take such a law, and the reasoning behind the law, seriously? Do you think faithful Catholics would respond to this declaration by removing from their homes these beautiful and blessed images of the Sacred Heart, which have nourished their spirituality and devotion, and those of their forefathers, for centuries? Do you think priests would actually feel compelled, under obedience, to remove these sacred images (pictures, statues) from their churches, and replace them with an image that does not even show Our Lord’s Sacred Heart? Especially under the specious pretext of Vatican II (which did not order the suppression) and the ultimate objective of achieving “ecclesial unity,” whatever that means? Would this make sense to anyone with a modicum of the sensus catholicus?

While the analogy is not perfect, I make it to underscore how shameful and indefensible Pope Francis’ attempted suppression of the 1962 Missal is, which is the most ancient of all liturgies in the Roman Rite. After all, while my analogy above regards venerating an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (which wasn’t dispersed throughout the Latin Church until the seventeenth century), the Traditional Mass regards the worship of the actual Sacred Heart of Jesus, immolated in the Altar, in the ancient rite that has existed from time immemorial, originating in substance back to the Apostles themselves, which is “the most beautiful thing this side of Heaven” (Fr. Faber).

Although those who attend the Novus Ordo Mass are not generally going to be affected by the Pope’s attempted suppression of the Traditional Mass, many of them would be bewildered, if not angered, by a suppression of the traditional image of the Sacred Heart, which is venerated in countless homes and churches throughout the Latin Rite, and the Universal Church as well (I, like many of the patrons of OnePeterFive, grew up seeing this image in the homes of so many of my family members, who did not attend the Old Mass). Indeed, the image of the Sacred Heart is the most recognized and venerated religious image in western Catholicism, other than the Crucifix. And, likewise, the Traditional Mass is the most recognized liturgical rite in all of western Christendom.

Both the traditional image of the Sacred Heart (revealing Our Lord’s sacred humanity, by which He, as Mediator, propitiates the Father’s wrath), and the Traditional Mass (the sacramental representation of the actual propitiatory Sacrifice), express the lex credendi of the Church in the most perfect way. But the latter (the Mass) is infinitely more valuable than the former (an image depicting Our Lord), however beautiful, because He, Who is the true image of the invisible God, is made really and truly present to us – Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity – in the expression of the Roman rite, which has developed under the guidance of the Holy Ghost since the apostolic age.

The Pope Must Safeguard the “Received and Approved” Rites

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The mind of the Church speaks throughout the centuries about the duty of the Pope to preserve the Church’s received and approved rites, which represent her ecclesiastical traditions and are rooted in the divine law of Christ. The Modernists’ desire to constantly change (or suppress) the rites and traditions of the Church is based on an ignorance of the inerrancy and incommutability of the Church’s ecclesiastical traditions. The substance of the Church’s ecclesiastical tradition is the infallible and immutable expression of the Deposit of Faith, which is inspired and nurtured by the Holy Ghost throughout the ages, Who preserves the Church from error. Whereas Sacred Tradition refers to the doctrine of the Church, ecclesiastical tradition refers to the expression of that doctrine whether in liturgies, monuments, art, music, or anything else that is preserved and passed down, approved by the Church.[1]

The divine mandate to preserve the ecclesiastical traditions is found in Scripture itself. For example, before St. Paul teaches the Corinthians details concerning the Holy Mass (e.g., about the Offertory, consecration formula, Communion), he prefaces his teaching by stating: “For I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you” (1Cor 11:23). St. Paul says again: “For I delivered unto you first of all, which I also received” (1Cor 15:3). In these and other verses, St. Paul emphasizes that the Church hands on what she has “received” from Christ and the Apostles, which has been “delivered” unto us, and which includes the substance of the liturgical rites of the Church.

Thus, the Second Council of Nicea (A.D. 787) teaches that “the tradition of the Catholic Church…comes from the Holy Spirit who dwells in her.” Because the Holy Ghost guides the Church in forming her ecclesiastical traditions, Nicea II pronounced the following: “We declare that we defend free from any innovations all the written and unwritten ecclesiastical traditions that have been entrusted to us.” The Council condemned:

All who dare to think or teach anything different, or who follow the accursed heretics in rejecting ecclesiastical traditions, or who devise innovations, or who spurn anything entrusted to the Church…or who fabricate perverted and evil prejudices against cherishing any of the lawful traditions of the Catholic Church…

The Council further declared: “If anyone rejects any written or unwritten Tradition of the Church, let him be anathema.”Advertisement – Continue Reading Below

There is no question that the liturgical rite expressed in the 1962 Missal of Pope John XXIII, codified in Quo Primum by St. Pius V in 1570 as the received and approved Roman rite, and traced back, in essence, to the Gregorian sacramentary of the sixth and seventh centuries, and to the Damasian and Leonine sacramentaries of the fourth and fifth centuries, and all the way back to Saints Peter and Paul in Rome, represents an “ecclesiastical (Church) tradition” that must be preserved (and the substance of the rite, i.e., the words of consecration of Our Lord, are revealed).

Popes, above all, as “custodians of tradition,” are bound to preserve the received and approved rites of the Church (and have no right to suppress them arbitrarily, or delegate to the bishops the power to do so). While there is no question that the Pope can change the “accidents” of a rite, he cannot change the “substance” of a rite (what has been received from Christ or the Apostles), nor can he suppress a received and approved rite arbitrarily, as if he were an absolute monarch. Rather, it is a matter of faith that the Pope, in a sense, is “bound” (though not strictly legally) to the received rites of the Church, which would preclude him, at least morally, from suppressing them at his will and pleasure.

For example, in the Papal Oath of Coronation, which originates at least as far back as Pope St. Agatho in 678 A.D., every Pope swore to change nothing of the “received tradition.” The Council of Constance (1418 A.D.), Session 39, explains:

Since the Roman pontiff exercises such great power among mortals, it is right that he be bound all the more by the incontrovertible bonds of the faith and by the rites that are to be observed regarding the church’s sacraments.

In light of this truth, the council “decreed and ordained” that the elected Pope must swear to “follow and observe in every way the rite handed down of the ecclesiastical sacraments of the Catholic Church,” even “to the point of death and the shedding of my blood.”Advertisement – Continue Reading Below

In the same spirit, the Council of Trent (1545-1563) infallibly declared:

If anyone says that the received and approved rites of the Catholic Church, accustomed to be used in the administration of the sacraments, may be despised or omitted by the ministers without sin and at their pleasure [i.e., arbitrarily], or may be changed by any pastor of the churches to other new ones, let him be anathema.

In light of Scripture and the Church’s perennial teaching, the council condemned the arbitrarysuppression of the received and approved rites of the Church. Pope Pius IV’s Tridentine Profession of Faith likewise expresses this principle by requiring adherence to the “received and approved rites of the Catholic Church, used in the solemn administration of the sacraments.”[2]  Even the modern (“post-Vatican II”) Catechism of Pope John Paul II, in paragraph 1125, states: “Even the supreme authority in the Church may not change the liturgy arbitrarily, but only in the obedience of faith and with religious respect for the mystery of the liturgy” (emphases added).

Putting aside the argument that the Pope has supreme authority over the rites of the Church and is not bound by ecclesiastical (human) laws or disciplines, this same “supreme authority” cannot “change the liturgy arbitrarily,” which would include arbitrarily suppressing the liturgy, especially the most ancient and venerable liturgical rite of the Latin Church. Moreover, the Pope is bound by the moral virtues of prudence and justice, which must necessarily guide him in carrying out the divine law of God, in order to be a faithful “custodian of tradition,” as his office demands. Further, as Msgr. Van Noort teaches in his dogmatic manual Christ’s Church, even “ecclesiastical laws” which “do not possess a binding power for the pope, do nonetheless normally have a directive power for him” (p. 283).

The Suppression Will Further Divide the Church

It seems evident that Pope Francis chose not to be guided by the moral virtues or the directive power of the Church’s ecclesiastical tradition which he, as Vicar of Christ, has the gravest duty to be led by. Even if Francis truly believes the use of the 1962 Missal has been exploited by some to create division in the Church (which, we do see, for example, among the Sedevacantist and other schismatic clergy), this certainly cannot be said for those clergy who celebrate the Mass in union with the Pope and bishops, such as the priests of the Institute of Christ the King and the Fraternity of St. Peter. If, by issuing this motu proprio, Francis’ goal was really to facilitate “ecclesial communion” among Catholics in the Latin Church, his initiative is going to have the opposite effect.Advertisement – Continue Reading Below

Already we see Catholics, many new to the traditional movement, reacting to the motu proprio by expressing contempt for the Pope and the bishops, and publicizing the same throughout the world (i.e., internet), which is causing further division in the Church (publicly inciting animosities or hatred against the Apostolic See or an ordinary due to an act of power is actually to be punished by an interdict or other just penalty under canon 1373). Some are even leaving the Church for independent chapels, where traditional Masses are celebrated without the consent of the local ordinaries, thereby creating further division and new wounds to the Mystical Body of Christ.

But a mass exodus of Catholics from the Church in the name of “tradition” may be the Great Apostasy forewarned by Our Lady of Fatima. This will happen when Catholics no longer worship in union with their bishops, and thus rupture their juridical bonds with the Church, particularly that of governance. We must remember that the Church is, first and foremost, by its nature, a juridicalinstitution, with a “juridical mission” (Pius XII), willed as such by Christ, which is the most obvious attribute by which we know it is Christ’s true Church. Leaving the legal institution of the Church is currently what some Catholics are being tempted to do, and doing, because they do not understand the nature of the Church. The unjust suppression of the Traditional Mass and the suffering it is causing is no doubt a punishment for the Popes’ repeated failures to obey Our Lady’s command to consecrate Russia to Her Immaculate Heart, which will result in the apostasy prophesied by the same Lady, Queen of Prophets.

It’s hard to conceive how Pope Francis could actually believe his actions will bring unity to the Church. And Francis evidently hasn’t considered the possibility (nay, fact!) that it has been the Novus Ordo reforms, and not the traditional Roman Missal, that has “widened the gaps, reinforced the divergences, and encouraged disagreements that injure the Church, block her path, and expose her to the peril of division” (in the words of Francis in his accompanying letter to the bishops). But are Francis’ actions really that inconsistent with the stated intention of his pontificate, which was to “make a mess” during his reign? Indeed, suppressing the immemorial Mass of the Roman rite on the false pretext of a desire for unity, which will have the opposite effect, and even result in Catholics leaving the Church, creates a horrible spiritual mess of unthinkable proportions. But would we put it past Francis the First to intend such an evil consequence, which is so deceitful and harmful to souls? God help us.

God first allowed us to be punished by a civil interdict when, following Francis’ unconscionable act of idolatry of Pachamama in the Eternal City, civil authorities shut down churches throughout the world in the name of a phony pandemic, and almost all of the bishops capitulated to the lunacy. Now, God is allowing another punishment, a sort of ecclesiastical interdict, coming from the Pope himself. This punishment seeks to bar faithful Catholics from celebrating the Traditional Mass of all time, in favor of the mundane, Protestantized and often sacrilegious worship of the New Mass (which we must resist). And while the censure of interdict (a censure prohibiting one from participating in certain rites) can only be justly administered against one who has committed a crime, God is allowing this punishment against us Traditional Catholics – indeed, us, who believe we are being the most faithful to the Church.Advertisement – Continue Reading Below

While we have rightly abhorred the liberal errors on the Left (contraception, abortion, false ecumenism, anti-death penalty, lay ministers, Communion in the hand, etc.), many of us have committed errors on the Right (attacking the Pope and bishops indiscriminately, inciting contempt for the hierarchy, disregarding legitimate authority, assisting at illicit Masses, condemning those who celebrate the New Mass, etc.). As St. Paul revealed, “For all have sinned, and need the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). Yes, we are in a “mess,” and we need God’s grace. But the only way out of this mess, which Our Lady revealed, is the papal consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart, which will finally bring a period of peace and conversion to the world. If that event doesn’t happen soon (perhaps by 2029, the one hundredth anniversary of Our Lady’s command), it would appear that humanity will have to endure the reign of the antichrist and the loss of countless souls. Suppression of the Traditional Mass will only be a miniscule part of the torture to come. God forbid.

May God either convert Pope Francis or take him out of this world, so that we might be blessed with a better Pope, who will do God’s will and restore all things in Christ through the consecration of Russia. And let us not be scandalized by the silence of our bishops, for just as the Apostles remained silent during the Passion of Christ, so the successors of the Apostles (almost all of them) are remaining silent during the Passion of the Church, which is mysteriously unfolding before our very eyes. Thus, let us pray for our bishops, that they take heed to themselves and their flocks, wherein the Holy Ghost has placed them bishops, to rule the Church of God, which He has purchased with his own blood (cf. Acts 20:28). May God give them wisdom and courage, so that they will refrain from unjustly suppressing the Traditional Mass in their dioceses as the Pope has authorized them to do, lest they further facilitate division in the Church, which will lead to the Great Apostasy and time of antichrist. Amen.

To illustrate the absurdity of Pope Francis’ Traditionis Custodes, I present the analogy of the hypothetical suppression of the image of the Sacred Heart below, by editing the motu proprio to replace references to the Traditional Mass with references to the Sacred Heart image, while also adding quotations from the Second Vatican Council. My edits are italicized. I hope this analogy helps those with authority in the Church to see just how indefensible and spurious this law really is, so that they reject implementing its harmful and iniquitous prescriptions. Our Lady of Fatima, please pray for us.

Guardians of the tradition, the bishops in communion with the Bishop of Rome constitute the visible principle and foundation of the unity of their particular Churches. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, through the proclamation of the Gospel and by means of the celebration of the Eucharist, they govern the particular Churches entrusted to them.

In order to promote the concord and unity of the Church, with paternal solicitude towards those who in any region adhere to the veneration of images promoted by saints canonized antecedent to those canonized after the Vatican Council II, my Venerable Predecessors, Saint John Paul II and Benedict XVI, granted permission to venerate the traditional image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, given to us through St. Mary Alocoque. In this way they intended “to facilitate the ecclesial communion of those Catholics who feel attached to some earlier forms of venerating images” and not to others.

Indeed, as the Second Vatican Council taught, “The saints have been traditionally honored in the Church and their authentic relics and images held in veneration. For the feasts of the saints proclaim the wonderful works of Christ in His servants, and display to the faithful fitting examples for their imitation.”^[3] Thus, the holy council instructed that “the practice of placing sacred images in churches so that they may be venerated by the faithful is to be maintained.”^[4]

However, in discerning a new path for the Church for venerating images, the council stated: “Nevertheless their number should be moderate and their relative positions should reflect right order. For otherwise they may create confusion among the Christian people and foster devotion of doubtful orthodoxy.”^[5]

Hence, led by the Holy Spirit, who carves a path that we all see within the dynamic of Tradition, the holy council declared that “there is to be an early revision of the canons and ecclesiastical statutes which govern the provision of material things involved in sacred worship. These laws refer especially to the…proper ordering of sacred images…Laws which seem less suited to the reformed liturgy are to be brought into harmony with it, or else abolished; and any which are helpful are to be retained if already in use, or introduced where they are lacking.”^[6]

In line with the wishes of my Venerable Predecessors and the council Fathers of Vatican II, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith carried out a detailed consultation of the bishops in 2020. The results have been carefully considered in the light of experience that has matured during these years.

At this time, having considered the wishes expressed by the episcopate and having heard the opinion of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, I now desire, with this Apostolic Letter, to press on ever more in the constant search for ecclesial communion. Therefore, I have considered it appropriate to establish the following:

Art. 1. The image of the Divine Mercy, given to us by St. Faustina Kowalska, who was canonized by Saint John Paul II, in the spirit of Vatican Council II, is the onlyexpression of the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Roman Rite.

Art. 2. It belongs to the diocesan bishop, as moderator, promoter, and guardian of the whole liturgical and sacramental life of the particular Church entrusted to him, to regulate the veneration of images in his diocese. Therefore, it is his exclusive competence to authorize the veneration of the traditional image of the Sacred Heart, given by St. Margaret Mary Alocoque, in his diocese, according to the guidelines of the Apostolic See.

Art. 3. The bishop of the diocese in which until now there exist one or more groups or persons that venerate the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus antecedent to image introduced by St. Kowalska:

• 1. is to determine that these groups do not deny the validity and the legitimacy of the reforms, especially the new process of canonizing saints, coming forth from Vatican Council II and the Magisterium of the Supreme Pontiffs;
• 2. is to designate one or more locations where the faithful adherents of these groups may gather for the veneration of the traditional image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (not however in the parochial churches and without the erection of new personal parishes);
• 3. to establish at the designated locations the days on which the veneration of the traditional image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus are permitted.In these celebrations the prayers to the Sacred Heart are proclaimed in the vernacular language, using translations of the Sacred Scripture approved for liturgical use by the respective Episcopal Conferences;
• 4. to appoint a priest who, as delegate of the bishop, is entrusted with these celebrations and with the pastoral care of these groups of the faithful. This priest should be suited for this responsibility, with knowledge of the traditional practices of venerating images, and animated by a lively pastoral charity and by a sense of ecclesial communion. This priest should have at heart not only the correct veneration of the traditional image, but also the pastoral and spiritual care of the faithful;
• 5. to proceed suitably to verify that the parishes canonically erected for the benefit of these faithful who still wish to venerate the traditional image of the Sacred Heart are effective for their spiritual growth, and to determine whether or not to retain them;
• 6. to take care not to authorize the establishment of new groups that would venerate the traditional image of the Sacred Heart.

Art. 4. Priests ordained after the publication of the present Motu Proprio, who wish to publicly venerate the traditional image of the Sacred Heart, should submit a formal request to the diocesan Bishop who shall consult the Apostolic See before granting this authorization.

Art. 5. Priests who already publicly venerate the traditional image of the Sacred Heart in their communities should request from the diocesan Bishop the authorization to continue to enjoy this faculty.

Art. 6. Institutes of consecrated life and Societies of apostolic life, erected by the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, fall under the competence of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies for Apostolic Life.

Art. 7. The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, for matters of their particular competence, exercise the authority of the Holy See with respect to the observance of these provisions.

Art. 8. Previous norms, instructions, permissions, and customs that do not conform to the provisions of the present Motu Proprio are abrogated.

Everything that I have declared in this Apostolic Letter in the form of Motu Proprio, I order to be observed in all its parts, anything else to the contrary notwithstanding, even if worthy of particular mention, and I establish that it be promulgated by way of publication in “L’Osservatore Romano”, entering immediately in force and, subsequently, that it be published in the official Commentary of the Holy See, Acta Apostolicae Sedis.

Given at Rome, at Saint John Lateran, on 16 July 2021, the liturgical Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, in the ninth year of Our Pontificate.

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[1] To understand the nature and authority of ecclesiastical traditions, see Cardinal Franzelin, On Divine Tradition or Ripperger, The Binding Force of Tradition. 

[2] Iniunctum Nobis, November 13, 1565. In Auctorem Fidei (August 28, 1794), Pope Pius VI also referred to “the present order of the liturgy, received and approved by the Church” (No. 33).

[3] Second Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium, No. 111.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid., No. 125.

[6] Ibid., No. 128.

John F. Salza, Esq.

John F. Salza, Esq. is an attorney and also a widely-acclaimed Catholic writer and lecturer for the past 20 years. He is the author of a dozen books on the topics of Scriptural apologetics, Predestination, Freemasonry and Fatima, including his most recent opus True or False Pope? – Refuting Sedevacantism and Other Modern Errors (co-author Robert Siscoe). His many articles have appeared in The Remnant newspaper, The Fatima Crusader magazine and Catholic Family News. He has been a frequent guest on radio shows throughout America, such as Catholic Answers Live, The Drew Mariani Show and Kresta in the Afternoon, and has appeared on television programs for the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) and The Discovery Channel. John’s latest articles and talks can be found at www.trueorfalsepope.com.

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• TRADITIONIS CUSTODES

Six Takeaways From Pope Francis’s War on the Latin Mass

 Julia MeloniNovember 29, 20210 Comments

When Pope Francis released the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, he dropped what Dr. Peter Kwasniewski calls an “atom bomb” on the traditional Latin Mass. Now, as the fallout accumulates and the rubble builds up, Kwasniewski has edited and released From Benedict’s Peace to Francis’s War, a collection of brilliant, clarifying essays on Francis’s militant act.Advertisement – Continue Reading Below

“Stunning, sad, weird, baffling, vengeful, and crazy barely begin to describe this situation,” says contributor Michael Brendan Dougherty regarding Traditionis Custodes (84). But in an emergency situation that still leaves the mind reeling, Kwasniewski’s volume offers some much-needed lucidity. While it’s impossible to do justice to these seventy pieces in one short essay, here are six key takeaways from this razor-sharp book.

1. We need to be precise about what Pope Francis does and doesn’t say in Traditionis Custodes.

Pope Francis is, as always, very careful about how he words his subversion of tradition. As Kwasniewski notes:

It would be impossible in principle for a pope to abolish the venerable Roman rite, the Mass of Ages. …Francis in this motu proprio never dares to say ‘the rite in force before the liturgical form is abrogated,’ as neither did Paul VI before him. Rather, he abrogates Summorum Pontificum, and attempts to exclude the old Roman rite from being a legitimate lex orandi of the Catholic Faith. This is bizarre, untenable, and ultimately incoherent. The document is full of contradictions and mental fog (90).

Here Kwasniewski stresses the difference between abolishing something in principle and abolishing it in practice. To borrow a favorite formulation from historian Roberto de Mattei, Francis is a man of praxis, concerned chiefly with making things happen in practice. Thus, what matters to the revolutionaries is what Traditionis Custodes effects in reality.

And Traditionis Custodes is, for all its muddled logic, expertly programmed to make the on-the-ground reality hostile to the traditional Latin Mass. As Kwasniewski puts it, the papal text is “designed like a Swiss Army knife to equip bishops with as many ways of inconveniencing or hounding tradition-loving Catholics as possible” (17).

2. We are in an elaborately planned game of chess.

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As Traditionis Custodes presses inexorably forward and groups such as the FSSP come under increasing pressure, it’s hard not to think of what contributor Christophe Geffroy writes:

[T]he stage is set for a future in which the traditional Mass will be celebrated only by the Society of Pius X and its satellites. The pope’s strategy seems to be to push the resistance toward the Society of St. Pius X so that the whole traditional world concentrates there, where they will be isolated and controlled on their little reservation, cut off from Rome and the dioceses, maintaining just enough connection to avoid formal schism. This explains why the pope is not seeking full reconciliation with the Society of St. Pius X, but has shown great generosity toward them by recognizing the full validity of their marriages and confessions… (29).

In other words, Pope Francis’s benevolent gestures towards the SSPX make sense if the point all along has been to shunt traditionalists into the society and then “isolate” and “control” them. When I asked fellow Catholics for their thoughts on this theory on Twitter, one prominent account pointed out the incredible amount of “careful planning” required to pull off this papal maneuver.

“They are playing chess,” the user said.

3. We are officially in the “zero-sum Church.”

“For the last decade the Francis pontificate has moved back and forth between accelerationism and stalemate,” says Ross Douthat (213). Now, as actors have “become less inclined to play the long game and more inclined to take truly reckless steps,” Pope Francis’s “fear-driven crackdown on the TLM” has pushed “a decadent system toward a crisis” (213-214).Advertisement – Continue Reading Below

This is an important point. In my book The St. Gallen Mafia, I thematize the tension between, on the one hand, Pope Francis’s preference for acting patiently and, on the other hand, the pressures of some mysterious timer ticking in the background. Now, with Traditionis Custodes, an end game is clearly in play.

4. The stakes of this war couldn’t be higher.

“The faction in power right now will do their utmost to suppress the old Mass altogether,” Kwasniewski warns. “It’s worse: they want the extinction of the usus antiquior in entirety—all the sacramental rites, the Breviarium Romanum of Pius X, the Rituale Romanum, the Pontificale Romanum, the whole works” (92).

Ultimately, this all-out war is part of a larger assault on the pre-conciliar past. As George Neumayr searingly puts it: “[Francis’s] decree against the traditional Latin Mass is designed to finish off the pre-conciliar Church” (161).

And as another contributor, Michael Fiedrowicz, says elsewhere, all of this is “frighteningly reminiscent of George Orwell’s 1984.”Advertisement – Continue Reading Below

“Every memory of the past must be erased,” says Fiedrowicz.

5. We both do and do not know what happens in this story.

From one perspective, Douthat speaks of the “total uncertainty about what now lies ahead” (177). Regarding the attempted suppression of the old Mass, Douthat notes that Francis’s “authority may not be strong enough to achieve this goal.” Everything from “decentralization” to “the role of the internet as a rallying point against disliked authority” will “make many bishops reluctant to act as Rome’s enforcers and probably allow the old Mass to persist” (178).

Meanwhile, Archbishop Thomas E. Gullickson stresses that our situation remains “terribly worrisome” and yet still not hopeless (184). Ultimately, he describes Traditionis Custodes as “a scythe or a winnowing fan, which will further bring to light that good seed” (185).

“At some point the fuming and railing against us and the usus antiquior will subside or stop altogether,” the Archbishop predicts. “It has to, for we have a world to claim for Christ” (185).

6. Now is the time for our own long game.

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As Kwasniewski writes:

My wife and I decided to commit to a daily Holy Hour at an adoration chapel near our house, to pray for a resolution to this crisis, to pray for all the priests and laity it will affect, for all the bishops and, of course, for the pope. I would urge everyone to take some concrete step, even if it’s as simple as explicitly praying daily in the Rosary for the restoration of tradition to its rightful place. Enroll in the Brown Scapular of Our Lady if you haven’t already done so. Choose a day or days for fasting: Our Lord says some demons are driven out only through prayer and fasting (92).

Ultimately, Kwasniewski reminds us that “this crisis is not likely to clear up quickly” (92-93). In other words, we have to play our own long game—that of counter-revolution, offering up our prayers, works, and sacrifices for the restoration of the Mass we love.

Julia Meloni

Julia Meloni is the author of The St. Gallen Mafia (TAN, 2021). She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Yale and a master’s degree in English from Harvard.

Letter #158, 2021, Monday, November 29: Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s Mediation for Advent 2021    This reflection on Advent was written by the Archbishop at the request of Brian McCall at Catholic Family News. He is receiving many such requests, and many of his writings are responses to requests from around the world. I note that the Archbishop cites St. Ambrose of Milan, the city where Archbishop Viganò spent his childhood. He has a great personal devotion to the great St. Ambrose.    During the coming days as Christmas draws near, despite all of the challenges we all face in these times we will be publishing other reflections on the central truths of the faith beginning with the fact of the incarnation. A blessed Advent to all. ––RM    Note: My staff is reminding me that tomorrow is Giving Tuesday. If you would like to support this letter please click here. I thank you and hope that this season brings you many blessings.

    An image the Archbishop reflects on in his message below    Abp. Viganò: Meditation for the Season of Advent (link)“Come therefore, Lord Jesus, seek Thy servant, seek Thy weary sheep.”— St. Ambrose of Milan (340 – 397 A.D. link)    “Quaere, inquit, servum tuum, quoniam mandata tua non sum oblitus. Veni ergo, Domine Jesu, quaere servum tuum, quaere lassam ovem tuam; veni, pastor, quaere sicut oves Joseph. Erravit ovis tua, dum tu moraris, dum tu versaris in montibus. Dimitte nonaginta novem oves tuas, et veni unam ovem quaerere quae erravit. Veni sine canibus, veni sine malis operariis, veni sine mercenario, qui per januam introire non noverit. Veni sine adjutore, sine nuntio, jam dudum te expecto venturum; scio enim venturum, quoniam mandata tua non sum oblitus. Veni non cum virga, sed cum caritate spirituque mansuetudinis.”[1]    The sacred time of Advent is of ancient institution and we find mention of it from around the fifth century, as a moment of the Liturgical Year destined for the preparation of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ secundum carnem.    Indeed, Advent marks the beginning of the Liturgical Year, allowing us to seize this opportunity to follow, with holy resolutions, the voice of the Church.    The discipline of penance and fasting during Lent in preparation for Easter is certainly of apostolic origin, whereas that in expectatione Domini comes after and inspired by the former, becoming less rigid with the passage of centuries to only abstinence on certain days of the week.     “It is true that Saint Peter Damian, in the eleventh century, still supposes that the fast of Advent was of forty days, and that Saint Louis, two centuries later, continued to observe it in this measure; but perhaps this holy king practiced it in this way out of a transport of particular devotion.”[2]     The softness of modern generations has induced the maternal wisdom of the Church to mitigate the rigorous disciplines of former times, without preventing them from being practiced voluntarily; but maybe the present situation leads us to consider as opportune — precisely because they are not imposed — the privations practiced by our ancestors in obedience of an ecclesiastical precept.    The liturgy of the Advent season is indebted to the labors of St Gregory the Great, not only for the texts of the Office and the Mass, but also for the very plainchant compositions.    The ancient trope Sanctissimus namque, which introduces the Introit Ad te levavi of the First Sunday of Advent, recalls the inspiration of the Holy Pontiff by the Holy Ghost, Who appeared in the form of a dove.[3]    Initially consisting of six weeks and then five, the weeks of preparation for the Holy Nativity were reduced to four between the end of the ninth century and the beginning of the tenth, which means the current use is at least a thousand years old.    The Ambrosian Church still maintains six weeks, for a total of forty-two days, modelled after Lent.    Amongst the first authors of homilies on the subject of Advent, we find Saint Ambrose, Doctor and Father of the Church.    It is with a prayer that we find in the Commentary on Psalm 118 that I would like to begin this meditation.    The incipit of the prayer is Quaere, inquit, servum tuum.    As you yourselves can see [note 1, below], the entire text is punctuated with quotations from Sacred Scripture: not in order to show off a biblical expertise, which the Holy Bishop of Milan certainly possessed, but because of that understanding of the Word of God which is the fruit of an intimate and vital assiduity for the soul, just as air is indispensable for breathing.    This led Saint Ambrose to speak and write himself using the words of the sacred Author, not with an intent to plagiarize divine Wisdom, but because he had made them so much his own and repeated them in turn almost unaware.    When we approach the writings of the Saints, we can in some way feel disoriented or confused, like laymen; but if we have the grace to unite ourselves to the liturgical prayer by attending Holy Mass and with the recitation of the Divine Office in the traditional form, we find that it is the voice of the Church herself that accompanies us in this meditation on the Scriptures, right from the Invitatory at Matins.    And this is true also for the Advent liturgy: Regem venturum Dominum, venite adoremus, the singing of the first prayer, intoned in the middle of the night in anticipation of the rising of the true Unconquered Sun.    Following this solemn invitation to adore the divine King is the beginning of the book of the Prophet Isaiah, ringing forth as a severe rebuke to His people:    “Hear, O ye heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. I have brought up children, and exalted them: but they have despised me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel hath not known me, and my people hath not understood. Woe to the sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a wicked seed, ungracious children: they have forsaken the Lord, they have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, they are gone away backwards. For what shall I strike you any more, you that increase transgression? the whole head is sick, and the whole heart is sad. From the sole of the foot unto the top of the head, there is no soundness therein: wounds and bruises and swelling sores: they are not bound up, nor dressed, nor fomented with oil.” (Is 1:2-6)    The Prophet’s revelation shows the Lord’s indignation at the unfaithfulness of His people, obstinate in their rebellion against His holy Law. But the literal or historical[4] sense of Isaiah’s passage concerning the Jews is accompanied by the moral sense, that is, concerning what we must do.    It is therefore to us that the Majesty of God turns: “For the Lord hath spoken” (ibid., 2) once again to admonish us, to show us our betrayals, to spur us to conversion.    Thus, while we ask the Lord to deliver us de ore leonis et de profundo lacu, we realize how little we deserve God’s mercy, how unworthy of His pity and how deserving we are of His punishments.     Deus, qui culpa offenderis, pœnitentia placaris…    The prostitutions — as Scripture calls them — into which the Jews fell are now joined by new and far worse prostitutions, not by a people to whom the Redeemer was promised, but a people which was born of His side, the Mystical Body of the Redeemer Himself; or rather, of that ilk who call themselves Catholics, but who by their unfaithfulness dishonor the Bride of the Lamb, as members both of the learning and teaching Church.    The new Israel has shown itself no less rebellious than the old, and the new Roman Sanhedrin is no less guilty than those who made the golden calf and offered it for the adoration of the Jews.    If therefore the Prophet threatens terrible scourges upon those who disobeyed the Lord without having seen the coming Messiah, how much greater must be the words of a Prophet “of the end times” in light of the rebellion of humanity redeemed by the Blood of that divine Messiah, having been able to see the fulfilment of the Prophecies and the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity?    In the dramatic crisis that now for 60 years afflicts the Church of Christ, and which today is showing itself in all its gravity, a pusillus grex [little flock] asks their Lord to save humanity that has gone astray, when corruption and apostasy have penetrated even the sacred enclosure and unto the highest Throne.    And it is pusillus [little] because the majority of those who have been regenerated in Baptism and have thus deserved to be called “sons of God” daily deny the promises of that Baptism, under the leadership of hirelings and false shepherds.    Think of how many believers, raised in absolute ignorance of the fundamentals of the Faith despite having attended Catechism, are steeped in heretical philosophical and theological doctrines, convinced that all religions are equivalent; that man is not wounded by original sin but naturally good; that the State must ignore the true Religion and tolerate error; that the mission of the Church is not the eternal salvation of souls and their conversion to Christ, but the protection of the environment and the indiscriminate welcoming of migrants.    Think of those who, even though they fulfil their Sunday obligation, do not know that the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Our Lord are contained in the Holy Host, and think it is only a symbol; think of those who are convinced that repenting to themselves is sufficient to approach Communion, without calling to mind the torments that hang over those who receive the Lord’s Body and Blood unworthily.    Think of how many priests, how many professed religious, all the sisters and monks who believe that the Council had brought a breath of renewal in the Church, or fostered a knowledge of Sacred Scripture, or enabled the laity to understand the liturgy, hitherto ignored by the masses and jealously guarded by a caste of rigid and intolerant ecclesiastics.    Think of those who saw in it an indestructible beacon against the darkness of the world, a concrete and impregnable fortress in the face of the assaults of the ‘modern’ mentality, of widespread immorality, of the defence of life from its conception to its natural end.    Finally, think of the irrepressible satisfaction of the enemies of Christ to see the prostration of His Church before the world, with ideologies of death, the idolatry of the state, of power, of money, of the myths of false science; a Church willing to deny her glorious heritage, to adulterate the Faith and Morals taught to her by Our Lord, to corrupt her liturgy to please heretics and sectarians: not even the most delirious ravings of the worst Freemason could have hoped to see the fulfilment of Voltaire’s cry: Écrasez l’infame! [Crush the loathsome thing!]    In Advent we find ourselves symbolically at the gates of the temple, like Ash Wednesday in Lent, and watch from afar what happens at the altar: here is the Birth of the King of Israel, and there His Passion, Death and Resurrection.    Let us imagine that we have to make an examination of conscience before we can be admitted to the holy place, as individual believers and as part of the ecclesial body.    We can only come close to worshipping the King of kings, the Lord of lords, if we understand, on the one hand, the infinite Good that is offered to us in swaddling clothes in the manger; and on the other hand, our absolute unworthiness, which must necessarily be accompanied by the horror of our sins, the pain of having infinitely offended God and the desire to make reparation for the evil done through penance and good works.    And we must also understand that, as living members of the Church, we also have a collective responsibility for the faults of the other faithful and of our Pastors; and as citizens, we have a responsibility for the public faults of the nations.    For the Communion of Saints enables us to share with the purifying souls and the merits of those of the blessed souls in Heaven, in order to balance in an incomparably more effective way than that “communion of the wicked” which makes the effects of their evil deeds fall upon their neighbors, particularly upon other people who are enemies of God.    “Come to me, those who are tormented by the attack of dangerous wolves,” Saint Ambrose exclaims. “Come to me, those who have been driven out of paradise and whose sores have long since been penetrated by the serpent’s poisons, those who have wandered far from Thy flocks in those mountains.”    We are beginning to realize that we are being besieged by ravenous wolves: by those who sow error, by those who corrupt morals, by those who propagate death and despair, by those who want to kill us in our souls even before they kill us in our bodies.    We come to understand how shallow and foolish and proud we have been to allow ourselves to be deceived by the false promises of the world, of the flesh, and of the devil; how untrue were the words of those who, since the expulsion of our First Parents, continue to repeat the same temptations, to exploit our weaknesses, to exploit our pride and our vices in order to bring us down and drag us with them to Hell.    We have forgotten that we have been cast out of the earthly paradise, that we bear the marks of the venomous sting of the serpent, that we have sinned by abandoning the secure pasture of the true Faith to let ourselves be seduced by the world, by the flesh, by the devil.    For if we were to live conscious of our primordial sin — which is also a collective and hereditary guilt — and of all the evil we commit and that we allow; if we were to meditate on our inability to save ourselves except through the supernatural help that God grants us through Grace; if we would not persuade ourselves that many of our actions are grave offences against the Majesty of God and that we would deserve to be wiped off the face of the earth in a way far worse than what happened to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, then we would not even need the Good Shepherd to come looking for us, to abandon the ninety-nine sheep safely in the mountains, where “ravenous wolves cannot attack them”.    The Saintly Bishop adds: “Come without dogs, come without evil doers, come without the hireling, who does not know how to pass through the door. Come without a helper, without a messenger”, because the dogs, the evil doers and the hireling are transient figures, destined to perish, to disperse at the breath that breathes forth from God’s mouth, even if at this moment it seems that the world belongs to them.     “Come, then, and seek Your sheep, not by servants, not by hirelings, but by You in person”: the unfaithful servants invite us to be “resilient” and “inclusive”, to listen to the “cry of Mother Earth,”[5] to subject ourselves to vaccination with a serum made with aborted foetuses; the hireling, “cujus non sunt oves propriæ” (…) scatters us, abandons us, does not drive away the ferocious wolves and does not punish the wicked, but rather encourages them.    Why then should the Lord come?    Why can we ask Him, “Come Thou in person”?    St. Ambrose answers in prayer by quoting the Psalmist: “For I have not forgotten Thy commandments” (Ps 118:176).    Our obedience to God’s will finds perfect correspondence — and a divine example — in the obedience of the eternal Son of the Father from all eternity, accepting to incarnate Himself, suffer and die for our salvation: “Then said I: Behold I come: in the head of the book it is written of Me: that I should do Thy will, O God”(Heb 10:7).    The Lord comes in obedience to the Father and we must await His coming by being obedient to the will of the Holy Trinity, “for I have not forgotten Thy commandments.”    The reason why we can be sure that the Lord will come after us, delivering us from the onslaught of wolves and the nefarious influence of evil doers and hirelings, is that we must not forget what He has commanded us; we must not take His place by deciding what is good and what is evil; we must not follow the multitude into the abyss for human respect or because of cowardice or complicity, but remain like the ninety-nine sheep in the secure pastures of the Holy Church, “for the ravenous wolves cannot attack them as long as they are on the mountains”, closer to God by being detached from earthly things.    In addition, we must exercise Holy Humility, recognising ourselves as sinners: “come and seek out the one sheep that has erred”, for “Thou alone art able to turn back the errant sheep and You will not grieve those from whom You have strayed”, that is, the Catholics of all times, who have remained faithful, safe from the wolves in the high pastures. “And they too will rejoice at the return of the sinner”.    The prayer of Saint Ambrose continues with a very profound and meaningful expression: “Receive me in the flesh that fell in Adam. Receive me, not from Sarah, but from Mary, so that I may be not only a virgin untouched, but a virgin immune, through the effect of grace, from every stain of sin”.    In Holy Mary, Sancta Virgo virginum, we find the Mediatrix of all graces; in Her, most pure creature, is incarnated the Eternal Word of God, from Her the Savior is born to the world; through Her we are presented to Her divine Son, and by His merits we may be received “in the flesh that fell in Adam”, by virtue of the Grace that restores us in friendship with God. A most fitting inspiration for meditation as we prepare ourselves for the Holy Nativity.    But there is another very important consideration that St. Ambrose leaves at the end of his oration: “Bring me by the Cross that gives salvation to the wanderers, in which alone there is rest for the weary, in which alone shall all who die live.”     Everything revolves around the Cross of Christ, it rises in time and eternity as a sign of contradiction, by which we remember that it is an instrument of Redemption, salvation for the wandering, rest for the weary, life for those who are dying.     A 14th-century miniature by Pacino di Buonaguida[6] presents a very rare and highly symbolic image: the Lord climbing up the Cross with a ladder — the scala virtutum — to emphasize the willingness of His sacrifice and the “paradox” of His dual Nature.    This 14th century painting shows Christ climbing up onto the cross. It is surely historically inaccurate, but it even more surely makes a theological point worth making. (link)    In 17th-century iconography we find a recurring image of the Child Jesus sleeping on the Cross,[7] an explicit allusion to divine love and the sacrifice of Christ. Christmas and Easter are intrinsically linked; thus, in preparation for the Birth of the Savior, we must always contemplate the centrality and veritable fulcrum of the Cross, on which rests the Child Jesus, and on which ascends, by way of a mystical ladder, the Immaculate Lamb.    It is there that we also have to arrive, because it is only on the Cross that we find salvation, in pursuit of the Lord: “And He said to all: If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Lk 9:23).    “Veni, ut facias salutem in terris, in coelo gaudium,” “Come and accomplish salvation on earth, joy in heaven.”     Let this be our invocation during the sacred time of Advent, to prepare ourselves spiritually for the trials that await us.    + Carlo Maria Viganò, ArchbishopNovember 28, 2021Dominica I Adventus    In 17th-century iconography we find a recurring image of the Child Jesus sleeping on the Cross,[7] an explicit allusion to divine love and the sacrifice of Christ. Christmas and Easter are intrinsically linked; thus, in preparation for the Birth of the Savior, we must always contemplate the centrality and veritable fulcrum of the Cross, on which rests the Child Jesus, and on which ascends, by way of a mystical ladder, the Immaculate Lamb.[1] “Seek, he says, Thy servant, because I have not forgotten Thy commandments [Ps 118:176]. Come therefore, Lord Jesus, seek Thy servant, seek Thy weary sheep; come, Shepherd, seek, as Joseph sought the sheep [Gen 37:14]. Thy sheep hast wandered while Thou didst tarry, while Thou hast been about in the mountains. Leave behind Thy ninety-nine sheep, and come seek the one which hath wandered [Mt 18:12 ff; Lk 15:4]. Come without dogs, come without evil doers, come without the hireling, who does not know how to pass through the door [Jn 10:1-7]. Come without a helper, without a messenger. I have been waiting for Thy coming for a long time. For I know that Thou wilt come, for I have not forgotten Thy commandments [Ps 118:176]. Come not with a rod, but with charity and in the spirit of meekness [1 Cor 4:21].” — Saint Ambrose, Expositio Psalmi CXVIII, 22, 28.[2] Dom Prosper Guéranger, L’Anno liturgico, I. Avvento — Natale — Quaresima — Passione, trad. it. P. Graziani, Alba, 1959, pp. 21-26.[3] “Sanctissimus namque Gregorius cum preces effunderet ad Dominum ut musicum donum ei desuper in carminibus dedisset, tunc descendit Spiritus Sanctus super eum, in specie columbæ, et illustravit cor ejus, et sic demum exortus est canere, ita dicendo: Ad te levavi…” Trope to the Introit of the First Sunday of Advent — Cfr. https://gregobase.selapa.net/chant.php?id=4654.[4] Littera gesta docet, quid credas allegoria, moralis quid agas, quo tendas anagogia (The letter teaches what has happened, the allegory what you have to believe, the moral what you have to do, the anagogy the goal you have to aim for) — Nicola di Lyra, Postilla in Gal., 4:3.[5] Cfr. https://www.vaticannews.va/it/papa/news/2021-10/ebook-papa-francesco-laudato-si.html and https://www.avvenire.it/opinioni/pagine/il-grido-della-terra-e-dei-poveri.[6] Cfr. https://scriptoriumdaily.com/ladder-at-the-cross — A painting of the Giotto school with an identical subject is in the Monastery of Sant’Antonio in Polesine, Ferrara. See also by Anna Eörsi, Haec scala significat ascensum virtutum. Remarks on the iconography of Christ Mounting the Cross on a Ladder — https://arthist.elte.hu/Tanarok/EorsiA/Fulltexts/Idegen/l%E9tra_a.htm.[7] See, for example, Guido Reni’s painting, Gesù Bambino addormentato sulla Croce, oil on canvas, c. 1625.

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The “Mild” Variant Clownish Covid Industry Hysteria “Is… a New Low in Government [& Media] Idiocy”: “South African Medical Association Debunks Global Hysteria – Says Omicron Variant Symptoms ‘Unusual But Mild’ – Even WHO Says No Reason to Panic”

November 28, 2021

Omicron variant symptoms ‘unusual but mild’, says South … NY Post

South African Medical Association Debunks Global Hysteria – Says Omicron Variant Symptoms ‘Unusual But Mild’ – Even WHO Says No Reason to Panic – Gateway Pundit 

 Is this a new low in Government idiocy? Has anyone else noticed than ‘Omicron’ is an anagram of ‘Moronic’? – The Daily Skeptic 

Money is always the motive. Covid is now an industry unto itself. Jabs, pills, tests, needles, etc. Boosters, supplying other countries. A never-ending revenue stream. The public-private partnership needs to keep the illusion of a pandemic going…..https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/17/us/covid-vaccines-supply.html?campaign_id=60&instance_id=0&nl=breaking-news&ref=cta& regi_id=67060589&segment_id=74590&user_id=946b3eb5f3571706bfe41e8669b46ee9 – Unreported Truths website [https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/another-major-red-flag-about-covid]

Gateway Pundit reported that the media and Covid industry hysteria is apparently “idiocy”:

The South African Medical Association debunked the hysteria over the Omicron COVID variant on Saturday.

Angelique Coetzee, the chairwoman of the South African Medical Association who first raised the alarm of the new COVID variant, gave an interesting update and now says the new variant known as the ‘Omicron’ causes “unusual but mild symptoms.”

“It presents mild disease with symptoms being sore muscles and tiredness for a day or two not feeling well. So far, we have detected that those infected do not suffer the loss of taste or smell. They might have a slight cough. There are no prominent symptoms. Of those infected some are currently being treated at home,” said Dr. Coetzee to Sputnik.

“Yes, it is transmissible, but for now, as medical practitioners, we do not know why so much hype is being driven as we are still looking into it. We will only know after two to three weeks as there are some patients admitted and these are young people aged 40 and younger,” she added. [https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/11/south-african-medical-association-debunks-global-hysteria-says-omicron-variant-symptoms-unusual-mild-even-says-no-reason-panic/?ff_source=Twitter&ff_medium=PostTopSharingButtons&ff_campaign=websitesharingbuttons]

The UK Daily Skeptic put the clownish government and media hysteria in humorous perspective:

So, if I’ve understood the Government’s reasoning correctly, because two cases of the Omicron variant have been detected in England, it’s essential that as many people as possible should get a booster of a vaccine that is already largely ineffective against the spread of the Delta variant and is even less effective at preventing the spread of this new variant. Clear? Oh, and in addition masks are now going to be mandatory on public transport and in shops, but not in pubs, bars or restaurants because, as any fule know, the Omicron variant poses no threat to people eating or drinking. And this new mask mandate has been imposed in spite of the fact that there’s little robust evidence that tight-fitting, disposable, surgical masks do anything to suppress infection, let alone loose-fitting, multi-use, cloth masks.

Is this a new low in Government idiocy? Has anyone else noticed than ‘Omicron’ is an anagram of ‘Moronic’?

Stop Press: Read Michael Curzon’s reaction to the Downing Street briefing at Bournbrook.[https://dailysceptic.org/2021/11/27/omicron-is-an-anagram-of-moronic-which-helps-explain-the-governments-idiotic-new-measures-to-curb-the-spread-of-the-new-virus/]

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

 –  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.  

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Indian Bar Association: “World’s First Vaccine Murder case against Bill Gates, Adar Poonawalla filed in India’s High Court”

November 28, 2021

After a 23-year-old man died allegedly due to Bill Gates promoting a “false narrative that the vaccine is completely safe and also owing to the compliance requirement set by the Railways that only double vaccinated people would be allowed to travel”, murder charges were filed against Bill Gates ” and his partner Adar Poonawalla and other Government officials” according to the Indian Bar Association:

World’s First Vaccine Murder case against Bill Gates, Adar Poonawalla filed in India’s High Court. [Kiran Yadav Vs. State and ors.Criminal Writ Petition (St.) 18017 of 2021]

Petitioner has sought prosecution of AstraZeneca’s (Covishield) manufacturer Bill Gates, his partner Adar Poonawalla and other Government officials and leaders involved in the murder of a 23 year old man, who lost his life because of vaccination. The deceased took the Covishield vaccine by believing in the false narrative that the vaccine is completely safe and also owing to the compliance requirement set by the Railways that only double vaccinated people would be allowed to travel.

The Government of India’s AEFI (Adverse Event Following Immunisation) Committee has recently admitted that the death of Dr.SnehalLunawat,was due to side effects of the Covishield vaccine. The said report has exposed the falsity of the claim made by vaccine syndicatethat vaccines are totally safe.

Petitioner has claimed Rs. 1000 crores ($ 134 million USD) compensation and has asked for interim compensation of Rs. 100 crores ($ 13.4 million USD).

Petitioner has also sought Lie Detector, Narco Analysis Test of accused Bill Gates and others.[https://indianbarassociation.in/worlds-first-vaccine-murder-case-against-bill-gates-adar-poonawalla-filed-in-indias-high-court/]

NewsWars reporting on the case said that “Bill Gates and Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla [are] accused in legal filing of being conspirators who knowingly pushed the unsafe COVID shot on the Indian population.” [https://www.newswars.com/report-worlds-first-vaccine-murder-case-against-bill-gates-filed-in-indias-high-court/]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  

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

 –  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.  

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RFK Jr’s Colleague International Trial Lawyer Fuellmich & a “Team of 1,000 lawyers and 10,000 Medical Experts Start” Litigation against the CDC & WHO “for Crimes against Humanity”

November 29, 2021 Amazing Amy Harlib@amyharlibReiner Fuellmich & RFK Jr: Robert F Kennedy Exposes Fauci’s Agenda & Crimes On Humanity https://chute.rocks/SexX0itZeHbn via @BitChute [https://twitter.com/amyharlib/status/1461567407827337222]

 [2020] SHOCKING: MN Sen & Dr. @drscottjensen said that he received a 7 pg doc from @mnhealth to fill out death certificates with a diagnosis of #COVID-19 whether the person actually died from COVID-19 or not.  

Why is #MN inflating COVID-19 death numbers? pic.twitter.com/llvHDoIMGH

— Chris Berg (@chrisbergpov) April 8, 2020

Ann Barnhardt exposes the CDC’s conspiracy to inflate numbers in a recent post at her blog. – From Rome website [https://www.fromrome.info/2020/04/09/corona-hype-goes-full-throttle-as-actual-deaths-disappear/]

Robert F Kennedy Jr.’s colleague international trial lawyer Reiner Fuellmich, who has sued companies such as Volkswagen and Deutsche Bank, as well as a huge team of lawyers and doctors have begun litigation against the CDC and WHO:

A team of over 1,000 lawyers and over 10,000 medical experts led by Dr. Reiner Fuellmich have begun legal proceedings against the CDC, WHO & the Davos Group for crimes against humanity.

Dr. Reiner Fuellmich is a Leading German lawyer and member of the German Corona Investigative Committee, Dr. Reiner Fuellmich specialises globally on the prosecution of fraudulent corporations…

… In addition to the flawed tests and fraudulent death certificates, the “experimental” vaccine itself is in violation of Article 32 of the Geneva Convention. Under Article 32 of the 1949 Geneva Convention IV, “mutilation and medical or scientific experiments not necessitated by the medical treatment of a protected person” are prohibited. According to Article 147, conducting biological experiments on protected persons is a grave breach of the Convention.

The “experimental” vaccine is in violation of all 10 of the Nuremberg Codes which carry the death penalty for those who seek to violate these International Laws.

The “vaccine” fails to meet the following five requirements to be considered a vaccine and is by definition a medical “experiment” and trial:

Provides immunity to the virus
This is a “leaky” gene therapy that does not provide immunity to Covid and claims to reduce symptoms yet double-vaccinated are now 60% of the patients requiring ER or ICU with covid infections.

Protects recipients from getting the virus
This gene-therapy does not provide immunity and double-vaccinated can still catch and spread the virus.

Reduces deaths from the virus infection
This gene-therapy does not reduce deaths from the infection. Double-Vaccinated infected with Covid have also died.

Reduces circulation of the virus
This gene-therapy still permits the spread of the virus as it offers zero immunity to the virus.

Reduces transmission of the virus
This gene-therapy still permits the transmission of the virus as it offers zero immunity to the virus.

Source: https://www.marktaliano.net/team-of-1000-lawyers-and-10000-medical-experts-start-nuremberg-2-trial-against-world-leaders-for-crimes-against-humanity/ [http://www.biotechexpressmag.com/team-of-1000-lawyers-and-10000-medical-experts-start-nuremberg-2-trial-against-world-leaders-for-crimes-against-humanity/]

Moreover, in a 2020 report on “the renown lawyer Reiner Fuellmich” gave a overview of his case as presented on Youtube on “the promoters of the ‘corona panic.'” It gave a background history showing that WHO ‘lied… in 2009 [when] they said the swine flue was dangerous and millions would die, based on this most governments bought many vaccines. It turned out that the swine flue was as the normal flu… [thus] WHO changed the definition of a pandemic 12 years earlier”:

REMEMBER THE SWINE FLU SCANDAL IN 2009 – Do you remember the “swine flue scandal” of 2009 and WHOs
panic prognosis at that time? The definition of “pandemic” was changed by WHO 12 years ago to “just a worldwide disease”,
many serious illnesses and many deaths were not required anymore, to announce a pandemic”. Due to this change the WHO, was
able to declare the swine flu pandemic in 2009, with the result that vaccines were produced and sold worldwide, on the basis of
contracts that have been kept secret until today. During the swine flu in 2009 Drosten (inventror of PCR Test) was one of those
who stirred up panic in the population; repeating over and over again that the swine flu would claim many hundreds of
thousands, even millions of deaths, all over the world. Thanks to Dr Wolfgang Wodarg this hoax was brought to an end, before it
would lead to even more serious consequences —- Answer to charges from the Council of Europe on whether they had
mishandled an outbreak of influenza: the WHO turned up for the first hearing and then didn’t come again. “It didn’t have to, it
wasn’t obliged to supply us with any information; and the European Vaccine Manufacturers responded: “the vaccine industry
did what was asked of them by policymakers”
Also remember that the WHO has lied before, in 2009 they said the swine flue was dangerous and millions would die, based on this most
governments bought many vaccines. It turned out that the swine flue was as the normal flu, and what is even more worrying the vaccines
the governments had bought had to be destroyed, because of negative side effects, many individuals suffered brain damage and many
children became handicapped because of the swine flue vaccines. There is a conflict of interests in WHO because they are sponsored by
pharmaceutical industries. The swine flue scandal is documented. I do not want this to repeat again.

 
It is important to note at this point that the definition of a pandemic was changed 12 years earlier. Until then, a pandemic was considered
to be a disease that spread worldwide and which led to many serious illnesses and deaths. Suddenly, and for reasons never explained, it
was supposed to be a worldwide disease, only, many serious illnesses and many deaths were not required anymore, to announce a
pandemic. Due to this change the WHO, which is closely intertwined with the global pharmaceutical industry, was able to declare the
swine flu pandemic in 2009, with the result that vaccines were produced and sold worldwide, on the basis of contracts that have been
kept secret until today.
WHO changed the definition of a pandemic 12 years earlier.
Old definition of pandemic — a pandemic was considered to be a disease that spread worldwide and which led to many serious
illnesses and deaths.
WHOs new definition of pandemic — “a worldwide disease only”, many serious illnesses and many deaths were not required
anymore, to announce a pandemic. WHO changed its criteria for a level 6 pandemic, deleting “severity of illness” from the
requirement of a pandemic phase.
During the false swine flue pandemic of 2009 vaccines proved to be completely unnecessary because the swine flu eventually turned out
to be a mild flu and never became the horrific plague that the pharmaceutical industry and its affiliated universities kept announcing it
would turn into, with millions of deaths certain to happen, if people didn’t get vaccinated. Already then, Drosten (inventror of PCR Test)
was one of those who stirred up panic in the population; repeating over and over again that the swine flu would claim many hundreds of
thousands, even millions of deaths, all over the world. Today Drosten is the person the German politicians listened to for the advice on
lockdown, that is, the very person whose horrific panic-inducing prognosis had proved to be catastrophically false 12 years earlier.
Note that vaccine development is a long, complex process, often lasting 10-15 years, to make sure it really works and does not have
serious side effects. But our governments have made special urgency laws for pandemic situations, where vaccine companies can not be
sued for injuries if there are serious side effects, this allows the vaccine companies to make vaccines in a shorter time. [https://usercontent.one/wp/www.ooc.one/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/1-The-Corona-Scandal-The-case-against-the-promoters-of-the-corona-panic.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

 –  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. SHARE

Tolkien’s Galadriel and the law of the choice

The law of the choice affects not only the person making the choice but cascades to countless others, including those apparently innocent of the choice.

November 25, 2021 Thomas M. Doran The Dispatch 6Print

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings, Galadriel is a high elven queen and one of the most powerful beings in Middle-earth. In a most memorable scene in the book and film, Frodo Baggins offers her the great Ring of power that the Dark Lord so desires: “I will give you the One Ring, if you ask for it. It is too great a matter for me.”

Galadriel’s reply:

“And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night…All shall love me and despair!”…Then she let her hand fall, and the light faded, and suddenly she laughed again, and lo! she was shrunken: a slender elf-woman, clad in simple white, whose gentle voice was soft and sad. “I pass the test,” she said. “I will diminish and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.”

What many readers and viewers of The Lord of The Rings may not know is that Galadriel is the last remaining elf of prominence; she left Middle-earth thousands of years earlier to abide with angelic beings in the Blessed Realm where she lived in bliss for an age. But when her uncle Fëanor, the most gifted of all the elves pursued the stolen Silmarils, the most beautiful things in the world and Fëanor’s masterwork, to Middle-earth, Galadriel accompanied that vengeful host and came under the Doom to which those elves were sentenced. This because they cursed and rebelled against their angelic benefactors, and for the violence they committed against their own kindred in their obsession with recovering the gems.

As recorded in Tolkien’s The Silmarillion:

…but Galadriel, the only woman of the Noldor to stand that day tall and valiant among the contending princes was eager to be gone. No oaths she swore, but the words of Fëanor concerning Middle-earth had kindled in her heart, for she yearned to see the wide unguarded lands and to rule there a realm at her own will.

In other words, Galadriel did not pass that long-ago test and was one of the host that fought their way to Middle-earth and then contended with Melkor (Tolkien’s Lucifer) for hundreds of years, ending in ruin for those pursuing elves and all in Middle-earth associated with them. Refusing the One Ring offered to her by Frodo was a kind of redemption for Galadriel, who had not been able to refuse the lure of the Silmarils and a “realm at her own will.”

Galadriel’s story is part and parcel of a prominent theme in Tolkien’s mythological world—what might be called the law of the choice, not so much expressed as depicted in events, starting with creation. Early in The Silmarillion, we find angelic beings assisting their Creator with the Divine music that brings the physical universe into being. Here, radical freedom is introduced. The Creator’s angelic beings aren’t passive observers but are invited to active participation in the creation event. When Melkor adds discordant notes to the creation music, the Creator does not eliminate those rebellious notes; rather, allowing them to remain and then introducing melodies that bring new and unexpected beauty out of those discordant notes. Likewise, elves and mortals participate in the ongoing creation of their lands, and things of beauty such as the Silmarils.

The law of the choice affects not only the person making the choice but cascades to countless others, including those apparently innocent of the choice. In our own world, how disordered choices produced wars, slavery, Auschwitz. Or when a maimed and wheelchair-bound woman who is heroically living what Saint John Paul II called “The law of the gift” is still affected by the choice made by the woman who’d intended her abortion, the choice of the doctor who performed the abortion, the choice of the man who rescued her from a dumpster, brought her home and, with his wife, raised her as their own daughter.

The law of the choice, like the law of the gift, is a mystery that cannot be intellectually deciphered. Only lifelong contemplation of Christ on the cross suffices.

In the end and after centuries of strife, that bold and ambitious elven maid went into the West as the Galadriel she was created to be. Tolkien seems to be saying that freedom is necessary for sharing in the Divine Life or rejecting that Life. The same freedom exists still; the same choice is before each of us.

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About Thomas M. Doran 71 ArticlesThomas M. Doran is the author of the Tolkien-inspired Toward the Gleam(Ignatius Press, 2011), The Lucifer Ego, and Kataklusmos (2020). He has worked on hundreds of environmental and infrastructure projects, was president of Tetra Tech/MPS, was an adjunct professor of engineering at Lawrence Technological University, and is a member of the College of Fellows of The Engineering Society of Detroit.PREVIOUSPope Francis: Prayer is ‘the most important means of communication’NEXTChristian-Muslim dialogue needs a foundation in everyday friendship, French Dominican says

4 COMMENTS 

1. Fr Peter Morello, PhDNOVEMBER 26, 2021 AT 8:29 AMDeification of Galadriel wasn’t Tolkien’s ‘choice’, rather beginning with Gandalf, Aragorn elucidating the choice many, perhaps all of us confront. Doran draws us to the most significant [a favorite] text, “And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night. All shall love me and despair!”
   There’s immense meaning here in Tolkien. Beauty, exhilarating, painfully seductive, devouring the soul. He must have had Our Lady in mind in creating Galadriel. Beautiful, endearing, epitome of pure goodness. All of us as Doran’s thesis tells us face the choice made by Eve, to be God, or to be like God. Lucifer chose to be almighty rather than serve in the likeness of God.
   Whether genius or intellectual pauper, the choice is exactly the same when choosing obedience to Christ or wantonness. The ring represents divine like power, that which is beyond our humanness to accommodate inevitably resulting in absolute corruption as Lord Acton saw. God alone who is infinitely good is suited to infinite power.REPLY
2. Fulco One EyeNOVEMBER 26, 2021 AT 1:39 PMIt’s good to read an article putting into proper perspective the events of the LOTR. The Silmarillion is must reading to do this.REPLY
3. David DoerrNOVEMBER 26, 2021 AT 2:15 PMFr. Morello’s remarks concerning Thomas Doran’s article sum things up rather well, I think. Here are a few supporting quotes from Prof. Tolkien’s “Letters” (edited by Humphrey Carpenter):“There cannot be any ‘story’ without a fall — all stories are ultimately about the fall — at least not for human minds as we know them and have them.” (#131 To Milton Waldman)“The woman is another fallen human-being with a soul in peril. But combined and harmonized with religion (as long ago it was, producing much of that beautiful devotion to Our Lady that has been God’s way of refining so much our gross manly natures and emotions, and also of warming and colouring our hard, bitter religion) it can be very noble.” (#43 From a letter to Michael Tolkien 6–8 March 1941)Prof. Tom Shippey, who also referenced Lord Acton’s statement regarding absolute power corrupting absolutely, describes in his writing the nature of a hobbit — who believes in “luck” and “fate” — and the nature of an elf, or the wizard Gandalf — who see the hand of God in human affairs. The mission of the Christian, therefore, is to present to others the question concerning the presence of God among us, and how this is revealed. That is basically what Gandalf did (more so in the novel). He revealed the power God at Theoden’s Golden Hall (changed greatly in the movies), and at the Gate of Minis Tirith (again, greatly altered from the origin story in the novel), as well as at a number of other passages in his story. In the closing lines of Tolkien’s THE HOBBIT, we have this dialogue:“‘Then the prophecies of the old songs have turned out to be true, after a fashion!’ said Bilbo.”“‘Of course!’ said Gandalf. ‘And why should not they prove true? Surely you don’t disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don’t really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? You are a fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!’”“‘Thank goodness!’ said Bilbo laughing, and handed him the tobacco-jar.”REPLY
4. LGarouNOVEMBER 26, 2021 AT 4:08 PMGreat piece. However, minor correction, paragraph 3: Galadriel was born in the Blessed Realm. She did not depart from Middle-Earth to dwell there.
   Sorry, I know it’s inconsequential to the point being made, but I’m a Tolkien nerd.REPLY

2 TRACKBACKS / PINGBACKS 

1. Tolkien’s Galadriel and the law of the choice – Via Nova Media
2. Tolkien’s Galadriel and the law of the choice – Catholic World Report – The Old Roman

Why the Waukesha Massacre? Are even “Good” Pro-life Catholics Brainwashed by the Media to be supporters of the Biden BLM/Antifa Rioters who want “Open Vandalism, Theft, & Destruction” & ultimately “the Breakdown of Civilization”? 

November 26, 2021

The Waukesha Massacre

The deadly actions of the last few days should serve as a wake-up call to most Americans. Being pro-criminal and anti-police is beginning to undermine the fabric of our civilization.

We have already seen a dramatic rise in murders and other crimes.

Now, we have a massacre by a convicted criminal who drove a vehicle into a Christmas parade, killing five people and wounding 40 who had gathered to celebrate the birth of Christ and the beginning of the Christmas season. The attack in Waukesha, Wisconsin dazed the country because it was so stunning to see such senseless killing and maiming. It was a frightening reminder that we now live in a country where we can all be at risk at any time and place.

At nearly the same time, 2,159 miles to the west, a mob was breaking into stores and looting them. The open vandalism, theft, and destruction resembled a scene from the movie “Clockwork Orange.” It is a pattern of criminal aggression which has been building in San Francisco since the city’s communist, pro-criminal, anti-law enforcement district attorney took office. – Newt Gingrich

I was recently shocked that a good friend of mine who is pro-life and supports Donald Trump, but unfortunately tends to read a lot of mainstream media propaganda apparently supported the Joe Biden Democrat’s BLM/Antifa criminal rioters right to “open vandalism, theft, and destruction” and ultimately “the breakdown of civilization.”

Of course, my friend didn’t put it that way. He thought because he believed the leftist media propaganda that Kyle Rittenhouse was a “murderer” despite what the jury verdict stated because he trusts the “mainstream” media narrative. I asked him to read the court transcripts to find out the truth of the matter, but he refused.

I agree with Patrick Buchanan that it was probably “unwise” for Rittenhouse to go out to defend the property (and possibly the life) of store owners, but once he was out there he was “both right and righteous.” Buchanan gives the best summary of what happened that day:

“[C]onsider the natural law, the moral law, the higher law written on the human heart…

… Watching on television the nightly riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, a town 20 miles from his home in Antioch, Illinois, that he knew well, Rittenhouse decided to go to Kenosha to protect property that embattled police had been unable to defend during the riots. For protection, he picked up the AR-15 that he kept in Kenosha.

Toward midnight, Rittenhouse was confronted by Joseph Rosenbaum, an ex-con twice his age. Rosenbaum threatened Rittenhouse, backed him into a corner and tried to grab the barrel of his rifle. When a shot rang out nearby, Rittenhouse shot four times within a single second. When Rosenbaum fell, Rittenhouse took off running, looking for the police to turn himself in, with a mob in hot pursuit.

Out of that mob, an assailant hit him in the head, knocking his hat off. Rittenhouse fell on the street. Another rioter jumped, kicked and stomped his head on the concrete pavement. Another hit him in the head with a skateboard. Another man confronted him with a loaded pistol and aimed it at Rittenhouse’s face from a few feet away. Rittenhouse shot and killed Anthony Huber, who had hit him with the skateboard and was grabbing his gun barrel, and wounded the man holding the gun to his face. When Rittenhouse shot both men, he was still on the ground. 

While Rittenhouse’s decision to go to Kenosha may have been unwise, it was also unselfish and, indeed, brave. He was risking his life in a riot to defend another man’s property and do his civic duty in a situation of lawlessness. He could have stayed home, as almost everyone in Kenosha did that night, while their city was burned and pillaged.

And what were the motives and goals of Joseph Rosenbaum, the child rapist and ex-con, and Anthony Huber, who wielded the skateboard? What were they doing in Kenosha, if not helping to sustain a criminal riot to destroy property Rittenhouse had come to defend?[https://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/blog/kyle-rittenhouse–both-right-and-righteous/]

Let’s repeat that: 

“[W]hat were the motives and goals of Joseph Rosenbaum, the child rapist and ex-con, and Anthony Huber, who wielded the skateboard? What were they doing in Kenosha, if not helping to sustain a criminal riot to destroy property Rittenhouse had come to defend?”

This hits the nail on the head as to why I think my friend who tends to read a lot of mainstream media propaganda apparently unwittingly supports the Biden Democrat’s BLM/Antifa criminal rioters right to “open vandalism, theft, and destruction” and ultimately “the breakdown of civilization.”

Writing for the The Epoch Times, Newt Gingrich explains why my friend unwittingly supports the Biden Democrat’s BLM/Antifa criminal rioters right to “open vandalism, theft, and destruction” and ultimately “the breakdown of civilization”:

The deadly actions of the last few days should serve as a wake-up call to most Americans. Being pro-criminal and anti-police is beginning to undermine the fabric of our civilization.

We have already seen a dramatic rise in murders and other crimes.

Now, we have a massacre by a convicted criminal who drove a vehicle into a Christmas parade, killing five people and wounding 40 who had gathered to celebrate the birth of Christ and the beginning of the Christmas season. The attack in Waukesha, Wisconsin dazed the country because it was so stunning to see such senseless killing and maiming. It was a frightening reminder that we now live in a country where we can all be at risk at any time and place.

At nearly the same time, 2,159 miles to the west, a mob was breaking into stores and looting them. The open vandalism, theft, and destruction resembled a scene from the movie “Clockwork Orange.” It is a pattern of criminal aggression which has been building in San Francisco since the city’s communist, pro-criminal, anti-law enforcement district attorney took office.

As of last reports, there have been three days of looting in San Francisco, and it has now spread to San Jose. As the looting is more widely reported, there is a real likelihood it will spread to other cities.

There has been continuous rioting and violence in Portland, Oregon for almost two years, with Antifa as the primary activist agent….

… Many of our recent developments resemble Rand’s nightmare. Consider the collapse of the rule of law, chaos at the border, and the proposal in New York City to let 800,000 non-citizens vote in local elections. The list goes on.

The tragedy of the breakdown of civilization is: We know how to have law abiding, safe communities—and have had historic experience in our lifetime.

As I wrote in my new book, “Beyond Biden,” when George Kelling and James Q. Wilson wrote their ground-breaking Broken Windows theory in 1982, they found that if you stop small crimes and disorders, and repair damaged property, you create a positive environment which makes crime decline dramatically.

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton applied this theory with the New York City Transit Police, the Boston Police, as Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s partner in New York City, and finally in Los Angeles.

We know empirically that a sound program of crime prevention, which applies principles that work, leads to safety and prosperity. In 1991, New York City was disastrous, crime-ridden, and dangerous. It became safer—first through Mayor Giuliani and then through Mayor Michael Bloomberg. By 2017, New York City had become the safest in its history. [https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/from-waukesha-to-san-francisco_4124291.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2021-11-26&mktids=00df7391879b8970c0e622bce93ab13b&est=UtmVJ8C3b3lT1Zt2yhAkOu7zEhRq45Aoz7nLmsHjXDO6crloytjmCp1Dg%2BYf]

______________________________

Losing Confidence in 

the Pillars of Our Civilization

Victor Davis Hanson

Townhall

November 24, 2021

Millions of citizens long ago concluded that professional sports, academia, and entertainment were no longer disinterested institutions, but far Left and deliberately hostile to Middle America.

Yet American conservatives still adamantly supported the nation’s traditional investigatory, intelligence, and military agencies – especially when they came under budgetary or cultural attacks.

Not so much anymore.

For the first time in memory, conservatives now connect the FBI hierarchy with bureaucratic bloat, political bias, and even illegality.

In the last five years, the FBI was mostly in the news for the checkered careers of James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Robert Mueller, Lisa Page, and Peter Strzok. Add in the criminality of convicted FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith.

The colossal FBI-driven “Russian collusion” hoax was marked by the leaking of confidential FBI memos, forged documents, improper surveillance, and serial disinformation.

Prior heads of the CIA and FBI, as well as the director of national intelligence, have at times either not told the truth under oath or claimed amnesia, without legal repercussions.

Mention the military to conservative Americans these days, and they, unfortunately, associate its leadership with the disastrous flight from Afghanistan. Few, if any, high-ranking officers have yet taken responsibility – much less resigned – for the worst military fiasco of the last half-century.

Instead, President Joe Biden and the top generals traded charges that the other was responsible for the calamity. Or both insisted the abject flight was a logistical masterpiece.

Never in U.S. history have so many retired four-star admirals and generals disparaged their president with charges of being either a traitor, a liar, a fascist, or a virtual Nazi, as occurred during the last administration.

Never has the proper advisory role of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff been so brazenly usurped and contorted.

Never has the secretary of defense promised he would ferret out alleged “white supremacists,” without providing any evidence whatsoever of their supposedly ubiquitous presence and dangerous conspiracies.

Conservatives have always been amused by the liberal biases of the old network news and big-city print media. But they grudgingly admitted that many liberal journalists of the last century were mostly professionals. News divisions mostly reported the news rather than simply made it up.

Not so now with Big Tech and 21st-century “woke” journalism. Few reporters have yet offered apologies for helping hatch and spread the Russian collusion hoax that paralyzed the country for three years.

Few have admitted culpability for reporting as fact the various fantasies surrounding the Duke Lacrosse team’s prosecution or the Covington Catholic Kids deception.

Many in the media ran uncritically with the Jussie Smollett concoction and the “hands-up-don’t shoot” Ferguson distortions. Journalists promulgated misinformation about the “white Hispanic” George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin encounter, and doctored photos and edited tapes.

They invented the myth of the supposedly brilliant – but now utterly disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo – as well as the “Russian disinformation” yarn that allegedly accounted for the missing Hunter Biden laptop.

Most recently, reporters spread serial untruths surrounding the Kyle Rittenhouse trial.

For much of 2020 to even suggest that the Wuhan Institute of Virology may have played a role in the birth and spread of the COVID-19 earned media derision.

Few reporters suggested that federal health agencies such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases might be disseminating contradictory or even inaccurate information about the pandemic. 

To believe this was happening instead earned condemnation in the media as if one were some conspiracy theorist or nut.

Rarely have communication industries – veritable utilities in the public domain – so asymmetrically censored speech and applied such one-sided standards of suppressing free expression.

Conservatives used to oppose regulating larger corporations. Now, ironically, most are calling for regulating and breaking up multibillion-dollar social media monopolies and conglomerates that suppress as much as transmit private communications.

The American criminal justice system also used to earn the respect of conservatives. Prosecuting attorneys, police chiefs, and big-city mayors were seen as custodians of the public order. They were entrusted to keep the peace, to prevent and investigate crime, and to arrest and prosecute criminals.

Again, not so much now.

After 120 days of mostly unchecked riots, arson, looting, and violent protests during the summer of 2020, the public lost confidence in their public safety agencies.

District attorneys in several major cities – Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and St. Louis – have often predicated prosecuting crimes based on ideology, race, and careerism.

In the current crime wave, brazen lawbreakers enjoy de facto immunity. Mass looting goes unpunished. Indictments are often aimed as much against those who defend themselves as against criminals who attack the innocent.

Conservatives now have lost their former traditional confidence in the administration of justice, in the intelligence and investigatory agencies, in the nation’s military leadership, in the media, and in the criminal justice system.

No one yet knows what the effect will be of half the country losing faith in the very pillars of American civilization.