Posted on June 19, 2021 by abyssum

THE CATHOLIC MONITOR

Bishop Gracida receives the Catholic Monitor Winston Churchill Award

June 19, 2021

• “If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”

• “This is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never — in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” -Winston Churchill

Last year, for the first time in the history of the Catholic Church, bishops with the approval of Francis in Rome suspended the public sacrifice of the Mass worldwide and for whole countries with little opposition from Catholic leaders except for Cardinal Raymond Burke, Bishop Rene Garcida, Canon 212 publisher Frank Walker and a few others.

Which brings us to a World War II analogy which I made at the time in the conflict between Walker and his enemies who attempted to destroy him back then. It seemed to me to be analogically similar to the conflict between Winston Churchill and Neville Chamberlain. [Canon 212’s Frank Walker receives the Catholic Monitor Winston Churchill Award:https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2020/03/canon-212s-frank-walker-receives.html] The book “In Our Time: The Chamberlain-Hitler Collusion” makes a historical case that Chamberlain was not just a weak appeaser of the Nazis regime, but a cynical collaborator with Adolf Hitler. Moreover, Chamberlain after Churchill became the leader of the country attempted to destroy him with despicable behind the scenes maneuvers.
It appeared to this writer that Francis Bishop collaborators such as One Peter Five publisher Steve Skojec and his allies in their attacks on Walker who was in the forefront of the fight to restore the public Mass was maneuvering to takeout Walker as Chamberlain attempted to takeout Churchill.
Walker like Churchill stood fast in the defense of the Mass as Churchill stood fast in the defense of England against the Nazi tyranny despite all the attacks like the bulldog war leader of Great Britain.
For this reason I was proud to give Mr. Walker the first annual Catholic Monitor Winston Churchill Award for his defense of the Mass and efforts to restore it.
I included in my daily prayers the intentions of the Canon 212 publisher and his efforts and asked all the Catholic Monitor readers to pray for Mr. Walker every day that year. This year, the Catholic Monitor is honored to give the Winston Churchill Award to Bishop Rene Garcida for his continued Churchill-like resistance against the heresy of sacrilege Communion to adulterous couples promoted by Francis’s Amoris Laetitia. Included in my daily prayers will be the intentions of Bishop Gracida and his efforts and I ask all the Catholic Monitor readers to pray for the Bishop every day. As we pray for him we must remember that back in 2017, Bishop Emeritus of Corpus Christi, Rene Henry Gracida declared:

“Cardinal Burke is saying… the truth. What is more important… is for people in the pew to say:

No, that is not true!”

“It’s more important for people in the pew to raise up and say in print, in letters, in phone calls, in email, in person, in interviews… for the laity to say no that is not true… than for a Burke to say this is the truth….”

“We don’t need people to say this is the truth. What we need in the present moment is for the laity to say that is not true…”

“Just like in the fourth century when those people shouted down Arius. No, you’re wrong. He is Divine… That is what we have to do today… We have to have people stand up to the homilist, priests and bishops… No, you’re wrong.”

“You cannot give Holy Communion to the abortionists, to the abortion promoters and providers, to the divorce and remarried. You cannot do it. St. Paul said you do not feed the Eucharist to dogs…”

“Right now they [the laity] are suffering in silence. They need to object. The laity, the sensus fidelium is that common sense among the laity who have accepted the magisterial teaching of the Church which is the foundation of their faith.”

“Having accepted that when they hear something that is contradictory to the magisterial teaching of the Church, the sensus fidelium is a impulse that causes them to speak out and say no:

That is not true. Don’t say that. Stop! That is the sensus fidelium in action!”

“Not to sit and suffer in silence. That’s crazy. That’s weird. That’s wrong. Speak up! Resist! Object!”
(Church Militant video, “Laity, Rise Up!,” April 4, 2017)

Bishop Gracida leads by example when he says: Speak up! Resist! Object!

On December 2, 2017, Gracida on his official website declared Francis is teaching heresy:

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

Whether he acknowledges it or not, Bishop Gracida became our St. Athanasius (who lead the resistance against the Arian heresy in the fourth century) when he explicitly said Amoris Laetitia is heretical and said to resist sacrilege Communions.
In this time of crisis and cowardice in the Church it is good to remember what a Catholic Chuchill-like real hero looks like.

That hero is St. Athanasius.

I found comfort in a old 1919 book by F. A. Forbes titled “St. Athanasius.” We in the rag-tag Catholic resistance have only one member of the Successors of the Apostles that is the embodiment of Athanasius: Bishop Gracida, but he is enough.

As I read this book it showed me that we have not come close to the persecution that the Catholic heroes of the Arian crisis endured. Through it all Athanasius had “peace” and “joy… for Christ.”

So remember to always have peace and joy in Christ.

Now please read the following excerpts of our hero from “St. Athanasius”:

“It was indeed the hour of darkness, and it seemed as if the powers of evil were let loose upon the world. The Arians, with the Emperor on their side, were carrying everything before them. Nearly all the Bishops who had upheld the Nicene faith were in exile or in prison.”

“St. Anthony, over a hundred years old, was on his death-bed.”

“… Fear not,” replied the old man, “for this power is of the earth and cannot last. As for the sufferings of the Church, was it not so from the beginning, and will it not be so until the end?”

“… [A] new reign of terror began, in which all who refused to accept the Arian creed were treated as criminals. Men and women were seized and scourged; some were slain. Athanasius was denounced as a ‘run-away, an evil-doers, a cheat and an impostor, deserving of death.”

“… In the meantime, where was Athanasius? No one knew – or, at least, so it seemed. He had vanished into the darkness of the night. He was invisible, but his voice could not be silenced, and it was a voice that moved the world. Treatise after treatise in defence of the true faith; letter after letter… to the faithful, were carried far and wide by the hands of trusty messengers. The Arians had the Roman Emperor on their side, but the pen of Athanasius was more powerful than the armies.”

“… Rumour said that Athanasius was in hiding in the Thebaid amongst the monk. The Arians searched the desert… The monks [of St. Anthony] themselves might of thrown some light on the matter, but they were silent men… even when questioned with a dagger at their throats.”

“Silent, but faithful, their sentinels were everywhere, watching for the enemy’s approach. Athanasius was always warned in time, and led by trusty guides to another and safer place. Sometimes it was only by a hair’s breadth that he escaped, but for six years he eluded his enemies.”

“… Tide and wind were against them; the monks had to land and tow the boat; progress was slow and the soldiers of Julian were not far off. Athanasius was absorbed in prayer, preparing for the martyr’s death that, this time at least, seemed very near.”

“… ‘I have no fear,’ answered Athanasius; ‘for many long years I have suffered persecution, and never has it disturbed the peace of my soul, It is a joy to suffer, and the greatest of all joys is to give one’s life for Christ.'”

“There was a silence, during which all gave themselves to prayer. As the Abbott Theodore besought God to save their Patriarch, it was suddenly made known to him by divine revelation that at that moment the Emperor Julian had met his end in battle… and that he had been succeeded by Jovian, a Christian and a Catholic. At once he told the good news to Athanasius, advising him to go without delay to see the new Emperor and ask to be restored to his see.”

“…. [After meeting Emperor Jovian] Athanasius was back once more in the midst of his people.”

“He had grown old, and his strength was failing, but his soul, still young and vigorous, was undaunted and heroic as ever…”

“His pen was still busy. One of his first acts on return to Alexandria was to write the life of St. Anthony, a last tribute of love and gratitude to the memory of his dear old friend.”

“… In 366 Pope Liberius [who had excommunicated Athanasius] died, and was succeeded by Pope St. Damasus, a man of strong character and holy life. Two years later in a Council of the Church, it was decreed that no Bishop should be consecrated unless he held the creed of Nicaea. Athanasius was overwhelmed with joy on hearing this decision. The triumph of the cause for which he had fought so valiantly was now assured. His life was drawing to an end.”

“… Scarcely was he dead when he was honoured as a Saint. Six year after his death, St. Nazianzen speaks of him in one breath with the patriarchs, prophets, and martyrs who had fought for the Faith and won the crown of glory.”

St. Athanasius pray for Bishop Gracida, the resistance for the Catholic Faith in this present time and the restoration of the Church. Included in my daily prayers will be the intentions of Bishop Gracida and his efforts and I ask all the Catholic Monitor readers to pray for the Bishop every day. Stop for a moment of silence, ask Jesus Christ what He want 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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Posted on June 19, 2021 by abyssum

Home » Now That She Has Died, What Do I Do?

Now That She Has Died, What Do I Do?

Karen and I would have celebrated our 48^th wedding anniversary later this month. She died on May 13, the feast of the Ascension and of Our Lady of Fatima. For some time now we had been gifted with her care which, over the last year particularly, became more and more intense, detailed, and involved.

And after her funeral, I began to ask myself, what do I do now?

She had been sentenced to death over twenty years ago. After surviving colon cancer thirteen years earlier, she was diagnosed with breast cancer in both breasts and skin cancer. She was given six months to live unless she checked in to the cancer center for a regimen of radiation and chemo to shrink the tumors so that surgery could be done. And then, post-surgery, some weeks in the hospital for follow-up chemo and radiation. “Five-year survival” propaganda had no one like her in the database.

After the “six-month” warning, we walked out into the sunlight and she told me “I will never enter that place ever again in my life.” For over the next twenty years, this woman who had a will of iron and a spirit of hardened steel never again saw a medical doctor or took a prescription drug. She learned about God’s powerful natural healing and she changed her life and mine with things like natural detoxing, pure water, and a no-processed-foods-no-carbs-no-sugar diet.

This was not all sunshine, rainbows, and lollipops. She was presented with, accepted, and carried her cross. Over the last year she had three heart attacks, and each time she fell she got up, shouldered her cross, and moved on, determined to overcome cancer. Her courage and sheer guts seemed so effortless, so natural for her, they almost went unnoticed.

Last New Years she stopped producing hemoglobin and went to the emergency room near death – and was then alone there due to the covid decrees – where she received a transfusion of four units of red blood cells, a large amount of blood. She was sent home to be on hospice. After some visits by the kind hospice people, she did what she has done for decades. She decided she was not done fighting. My brave Karen, as usual, was not ready to die yet. “While I am among the living, I am going to live. As long as God gives me breath, I am going to fight.”

She had us call hospice to tell them they need not come anymore.

Before she was released from the hospital, they had done a routine scan and found that cancer had metastasized from her breast to her lungs and liver. Cancer in her lungs caused an accumulation of fluid, an amount of such volume which, if not drained, would cause her to drown. Her lungs were filling up continuously, so an incision was made in her side and a drain catheter was installed so that twice a week, at home, her lungs could be drained. 750-1,000 mL of fluid were drained each time the nurse came to our home. For a time, this meant instant relief and easier breathing.

Many nurses and other caretakers helped her carry her cross and some of them often wiped her forehead and face with a damp cloth. Whenever she sensed one of them tired, upset, or concerned, she tried to comfort and console them, tell them she was just fine, and speak about God’s will for her and for them.

She had another heart attack, fell, got up, and still resolved to seek God’s healing for cancer. Then the opening in her side for the tubing that exited her body between two of her ribs became infected. She had to go to the emergency room due to the very real and very dangerous possibility of sepsis which would result in her quick and painful death. When they removed the catheter, without anesthesia, she suffered excruciating agony as it was pulled out of her. The doctor – who evidently had not heard “first, do no harm” – yanked so hard repeatedly on the catheter tubing that when he finally pulled it loose, it was with such force that his arm recoiled and he punched her in the rib cage. My Karen screamed out in pain.

I was then diagnosed as covid positive, along with a son, and she could not come home from the hospital. I felt like I was denying her, abandoning her. We communicated via cellphone and when she was not in an ER or a hospital, she and a daughter stayed at a nephew’s home, where she had yet another heart attack, fell again, and was taken to the hospital. Upon admission, they had her strip, and she had to put on one of those embarrassing hospital things they call a gown.

She had explicitly said “No intubation, no feeding tube, no ventilator.”

Then they got her latest covid test results back and she had tested positive. They moved her to IMU isolation – alone. There is no other word. She was my Karen, with her family, for over half a century. Alone. The covid, over the next few days, greatly increased her oxygen demand. When her oxygen demand increased, they again punctured her body and inserted a drain tube into her lung cavity. Then, going in and out of consciousness, she tried to remove that tube, so they had to restrain her, in cruciform, on the bed.

All of her children got to speak with her via cellphone and then, on sedatives, she began to sleep most of the day. Eventually, they let us know that all that was keeping her alive was a massive amount of heated high flow oxygen and that if they tried to wean her off of it, which must be done for her to have any hope of recovery, her lungs would most probably not be able to handle it. But that was the only possibility for this fighter. They began to reduce the oxygen flow and let us know that, almost certainly, she would die.

They informed us that two of her children who were covid-free could come to the hospital and watch her die through a window in her door, with a cellphone by her ear. In what can only be described as a true miracle, several hours before her death these two children were allowed to be at her side, holding her hands, talking to her, and praying. I and the rest of her children were on the phone which was by her and we all said “I love You” and our goodbyes. The last words I said to her, after I had blest her and asked God to hold her safe in the palm of His hand, were “Love you.”

As her daughter read the three beautiful prayers for the dying, with all of us listening via the cellphone, her breathing slowed, and then at the last Amen, she breathed her last breath.

Her body was later taken down from the bed and transported to the funeral home. Last week she was buried in a new grave at St. Mary’s Cemetery near Halletsville, Texas, on a beautiful hilltop under a centuries-old oak tree.

After she nearly died last January, she began a written “Gratitude Journal,” writing to God to tell Him everything for which she was thankful. It is beyond humbling for me to read this now – something I did not do until some days after the funeral. Here are some excerpts.

January 24, 2021: “Lord, if thou will . . . only say the word. . . .It is all that You will that I want. I am after all, in a foreign land. I want so for my love and faith in You to increase along with my trust in you.” Prayer Request: “For Holy Souls In Purgatory.”
February 7, 2021: “In thanksgiving . . .for Guy.”
February 26, 2021: “Today I ‘m grateful for . . . all my dear sweet grandchildren.”
February 28, 2021: “I’m just beginning to appreciate the role God’s saving grace plays in all of our lives . . . So then that leads me to be thankful also for His faithfulness . . . I’m grateful for the ability to get my butt outside and just walk!”
April 30, 2021: “I’m grateful for all the people who have been praying for me. I’m grateful for all the good people God has put in my life.”
May 3, 2021: “I’m grateful for my life. I’m grateful for every breath I take. . . . I’m grateful we live in Texas.”

There is so much more. On page after page, she said she was grateful for a wheelchair, for cupcakes, watermelon, breakfast, energy, Buddy [her dog], pajamas, mung bean noodles, blue skies, electricity, plumerias, an oxygen machine, MOD pizza, rain, law enforcement, egg whites, a clean kitchen, and weeds. She was giving thanks for all this while she bravely bore in her body the dying of Jesus.

This grateful woman, suffering from so much pain, was and is not only the love of my life, she was and is the life of my love. Once I asked her why she was doing all this, suggesting that she wanted to be there for prom night for each of her grandchildren. “You don’ know ?” she replied. “You dummy. I am doing this for you.”

The first days after Karen died, I found myself asking, “What do I do now?” For over thirty years we had been gifted with her illness, and now she was disease-free, without pain, and no longer with us bodily on this earth.

I asked that question in grief. It was, in a sense, self-centered – what about me? This was the exact opposite of what Karen had been teaching me during all our life together. In another sense, it was a dumb question, because I knew the answer before I asked it.

Holy Scripture, the Catechism, the Sermon on the Mount – these had been the answer, in theory, all my life. I knew the words, I could say the words. I heard the Voice of Conscience, the Voice of God. But, in her loving actions, her generosity, her selfless pouring out of her life for me and our children, and those “dear precious grandchildren,” Karen told me the answer for decades, much more emphatically, much more generously, and much more lovingly than using any words.

Especially over the last few years in the reality, sometimes the hard reality, of our lives together, in her pain and suffering, she put the answer right there in front of me. She taught me to glorify God by being lifted up in suffering, self-sacrifice, and love. So, instead of thinking now about all my sins and how “I all alone beweep my outcast state,” her actions, her pain, her love gives me hope – and show me the way to what I do now.

Yesterday, I looked at her sparkling eyes. I remembered how she used to publicly, with joy, paraphrase a country song, “But I’ve got him, girls, and that makes me the winner!” I smiled and then I laughed. I’ve got her, boys, and that makes me the winner.

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Posted on June 19, 2021 by abyssum

A Chinese Lab Virus?

So Now What?

In some way, many Americans are naïvely hopeful that COVID-19 was a one-off, ill-thought-out, gain-of-function laboratory accident.

But what if it wasn’t quite so simple ?

By Victor Davis Hanson

June 16, 2021

Hat Tip: Rip McIntosh

For over a year, the American establishment and media borg have ostracized anyone who dared to connect the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic with the Chinese military-sponsored, level-4 biosafety Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Then, suddenly and without apologies for their past demagoguery, “journalists” and “experts” concede that the nearby Wuhan lab may well be the most likely genesis.
Why the abrupt change?
Donald Trump is no longer president.
There is now no need for progressives to declare everything Trump once asserted as truth a lie. And that paradox includes Trump’s spring 2020 insistence that the lab, not a wet market of sliced-up bats, was the source of the outbreak.
The recent release of Anthony Fauci’s emails, along with the new information about Dr. Peter Daszak’s gain-of-function research, make it indisputable that both were knowingly channeling U.S. taxpayer dollars to the Chinese for coronavirus research in Wuhan.
So now what?
We are left with a number of lose-lose scenarios about China’s failed efforts to lie about the origins of COVID-19.
One, will China continually deny what is appearing to be undeniable? Perhaps, if we remember it is a country with a Communist Party hierarchy that once killed 60 million under Mao, and whose present apparat has put over 1 million Muslim Uyghurs into camps.
A stonewalling Beijing likely will conclude that the risk of appearing guilty for causing one of the greatest “natural” global disasters in a century is not nearly as destructive to its interests as admitting it.
Will China then wait us out, in O.J. Simpson fashion, denying the obvious facts—until wearied Americans move onto another of their media frenzies?
Or, two, could China confess that its SARS-CoV-2 virus was birthed in the Wuhan lab, but claim its appearance was a “joint” effort with the United States? They would then point to Fauci himself, who approved funds for Wuhan coronavirus enhancement to be channeled by Daszak. The Chinese would further insist their combined efforts were aimed at finding a “cure” for coronavirus epidemics. And thus Beijing should not be blamed—or at least not solely blamed.
Beijing could retort that it, too, was misled by its own sloppy researchers. Or the communist government might even preposterously answer that its prior code of silence was meant to shield the role of U.S. funders of the pandemic disaster.
Americans then would end up wondering to what degree our own doctors and institutions, at the highest levels of the U.S. government and of the global medical establishment, not only lied to us throughout the crisis but, in some bizarro way, may have shared responsibility for the engineering of the Satanic virus itself.
Or three, Chinese officials could privately wink and nod to our intelligence and military communities that their researchers were, in fact, pursuing “legitimate” viral gain-of-function research until a terrible Chernobyl-like accident took place. Such things have also happened, they might unofficially remind our officials, at Bhopal, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima. In back channels, Beijing then would regret the resulting global economic catastrophe, the millions dead, the even more millions sickened, the billions of lives harmed by the lockdown, and the apparent 2020-21 American political, economic, social and cultural meltdown.
China additionally would lament its “mistaken” lack of transparency and the “confusion” that accounted for misleading the world. And yet China would still smile, and sort of promise off the record that such an unforeseen disaster would never, ever—or at least almost never—happen again.
Four, we tend to block out the unthinkable. Nonetheless, in a few weeks, more information from within China could leak out that the virus was a joint weaponized creation of civilian virologists and the Chinese military. How the virus escaped would not be clear, but millions the world over would suspect the worst of any involvement of the Chinese military. In all these scenarios, we are left with the suspicion that an embryonic engineered virus was mysteriously released that did more damage to the Western world than any weapon deliberately employed since World War II. And we will become terrified that, in theory, it could happen again. More importantly, we still have no idea what to do: whether to act in a punitive or deterrent fashion or both or neither.
Washington strategists are no doubt gaming all these rumors and unthinkable.
In some way, many Americans are naïvely hopeful that COVID-19 was a one-off, ill-thought-out, gain-of-function laboratory accident.
But some are most terrified that it was a proto-bioweapon that, regardless of whether it was accidentally released at some point, became a “never let a crisis go to waste” moment—an attitude that not only explained Chinese lying, but also the entire terrible year of 2020, and the near destruction of American society itself.

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Posted on June 19, 2021 by abyssum

Historian’s Corner: Assessing America in the Age of Woke

Part One

By: Victor Davis Hanson

Victor Davis Hanson // Private Papers

June 15, 2021

Hat TiP: Rip McIntosh

Wokism took off in June 2020. It became institutionalized after Joe Biden became president. We have now had nearly five months of the radical Biden political agenda to seep through the larger popular culture. So where are we now in this suddenly strange and nearly unrecognizable land?
EconomicallyFor all Biden’s socialist talk, so far the Trump deregulation and tax cuts are still in effect. Their fumes should fuel a short recovery boom, given pent-up demand and post-Covid mania to eat out, to travel, to splurge, and to buy. Eventually, most Americans will leave their home lotus-eating pads and re-climatize back to work.
But the continuance of recessionary stimulus packages has created near-permanent trillion-plus-dollar deficits. We will see very soon a $30 trillion national debt. Incentives for the unemployed still discourage work — at the very time producers are wary and for good reasons. We learned in seventh grade that too many dollars chasing too few goods results in inflation and eventually economic recession, stagflation, or collapse.
Indeed, inflation may be growing at an annualized rate of six to nine percent, depending on whether one counts housing prices, fuels, appliances, cars, other big-ticket commodities, and services as part of the general rise in the cost of living. Biden has frightened producers with Draconian anti-fossil fuel executive orders, ranging from canceling pipelines to putting Anwar off-limits again and discouraging frackers to take risks to meet spiraling gasoline demand. Talk of huge increases in income, corporate, capital gains, payroll, and estate taxes further will dampen producers’ confidence—even if they are not immediately implemented. The idea of 30-year mortgages at the current 2.5 to 3.0 percent interest, as money annually erodes in value by eight percent, is untenable. And the Fed may intervene in the fall—cautiously at first, in panic thereafter. Add it all up: we are entering a new sort of socialist economy, restrained only by the tenuous check of a 50/50 Senate. It is no exaggeration that, economically at least, the US is now headed to the left of the EU.
In 1980, I began farming and by year’s end thought a 14-percent interest ag loan was a godsend, and farm supplies that went up only one-percent a month were a steal. That surrealism can return, although generations that have enjoyed mostly a subsequent 40-years of low inflation and reasonable interest rates are clueless about what is on the horizon.
PoliticallyThe country is divided 50/50, or so we are told. No one knows, however, the volatile views of 10-15 percent of the electorate. On this teeter-totter are the mystical swing suburban voters, the Independents, the Never Trumpers, and the vestigial Blue Dogs. So far, they are clinging to the myth of Old Joe Biden From Scranton who is neither Donald Trump tweeting nor a puppet of the hard left.
But violent crime is rising and spreading into the suburbs—without much evidence that criminals are being arrested, indicted, convicted, and locked up. Race in a myriad of ways is defining how crime is massaged and adjudicated, by the media and the police. The godhead of Critical Race Theory is not Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream,” but a flip progressive version of Bull Connor, in which race alone defines us and expressing hatred of one race is the pastime of the woke elite.
Woke mandatory brainwashing and reeducation are spreading throughout the workforce. Our major institutions such as the campus, the military, the corporate boardroom, Wall Street, and K-12 are in chaos. Would-be opportunistic and careerist Maoists come out of the woodwork to insist on using these platforms to reinvent us along the lines of the 1619 vision.
So will Biden get a strong rebuke in 2022, as do most presidents in their first midterms?
I think he will. But the question is will the backlash be large enough to defeat the progressive/deep-state/media fusion? Can the pushback overcome the huge influxes of leftwing corporate money of the Zuckerberg sort that were bragged upon by the Left as so effective in 2020 in targeting precincts to “incentivize” (some) voters? And can the reaction overcome changes in voting laws that are making Election Day balloting mostly an anachronism?
If Biden were to keep the House and Senate, many of the unwoke are not confident about the future viability of the US, at least as envisioned over the last 232 years as a constitutional republic by our founders.

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Posted on June 19, 2021 by abyssum

A Chinese Lab Virus? So Now What?

In some way, many Americans are naïvely hopeful that COVID-19 was a one-off, ill-thought-out, gain-of-function laboratory accident. But what if it wasn’t quite so simple ?

By Victor Davis Hanson

June 16, 2021

Hat Tip: Rip McIntosh

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Posted on June 19, 2021 by abyssum

Supreme Court Unanimously Rules State Can’t Shut Down Catholic Adoption Agency That Won’t Compromise Its Values

National | Steven Ertelt | Jun 17, 2021 | 11:14AM | Washington, DC

In another huge victory for religious liberty, the Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that the state can’t shut down a Catholic adoption agency that refused to compromise its Christian values.

The encouraging ruling has positive ramifications for the pro-life movement when it comes to conscience rights issues for pro-life groups and individuals.

In 2018, the city of Philadelphia canceled its contracts with Catholic Social Services due to its religious beliefs about marriage, displacing hundreds of children in the process.

The city had put out an urgent call for 300 families to provide foster care to help care for the flood of children coming into the system due to the opioid crisis. Just a few days later, right in its moment of need, the city halted the child placements of Catholic Social Services and Bethany Christian Services to investigate whether these agencies had violated the city’s Fair Practices Ordinance, a policy that prohibits “discrimination” on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Some religious adoption agencies opt to place children only with mother-father parents, in accord with their deeply held religious convictions. This includes some of the oldest and highest-performing adoption agencies in the country.

Catholic Social Services is one of Philadelphia’s best agencies and has partnered with the city for over 50 years. Yet in March 2018 the city suddenly threatened to shut down the agency because it disagreed with the agency’s longstanding religious beliefs about marriage—even though not one LGBTQ couple has ever approached Catholic seeking certification and the agency never prevented a child from finding a home. Represented by Becket, Sharonell Fulton, a single mother who has fostered more than 40 children in 26 years, joined other foster parents licensed through Catholic Social Services to file a lawsuit against the city.

Attorneys for the Catholic adoption agency in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia argued the Constitution prevents governments from banning faith-based providers over disagreement about the meaning and importance of marriage. The brief also argues that, to prevent abuses by lower courts, the Supreme Court should reaffirm that government interests must be truly compelling to justify interfering with religious freedom.

In Sharonell Fulton, et al. v. City of Philadelphia, a federal court of appeals sided the discriminatory city policy that forbids the Catholic Social Services from doing what it has done for almost a century: uniting foster children with loving families.

But today the nation’s highest court reversed that decision and ruled that Philadelphia cant screen prospective parents and bar them from adopting.

Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for six members of the court, said that since the city allowed exceptions to its policies for some other agencies it must also do so in this instance. The Catholic agency, he wrote, “seeks only an accommodation that will allow it to continue serving the children of Philadelphia in a manner consistent with its religious beliefs; it does not seek to impose those beliefs on anyone else.”

Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, Kavanaugh, Kagan and Barrett joined the main opinion while Justices Alito, Gorsuch and Thomas joined together for a concurring opinion.

“I am overjoyed that the Supreme Court recognized the import work of Catholic Social Services and has allowed me to continue fostering children most in need of a loving home,” said foster mom and named plaintiff Sharonell Fulton. “My faith is what drives me to care for foster children here in Philadelphia and I thank God the Supreme Court believes that’s a good thing, worthy of protection.”

“The Justices understand that foster parents like me share in the common, noble task of providing children with loving homes,” said Toni Simms-Busch, also a foster mom and named plaintiff. “Our foster-care ministry in Philadelphia is vital to solving the foster care crisis and Catholic Social Services is a cornerstone of that ministry. The Supreme Court’s decision ensures the most vulnerable children in the City of Brotherly Love have every opportunity to find loving homes.”

“It’s a beautiful day when the highest court in the land protects foster moms and the 200-year-old religious ministry that supports them,” said Lori Windham, senior counsel at Becket who argued the case in Fulton. “Taking care of children, especially children who have been neglected and abused is a universal value that spans all ideological divides. Today, I am grateful that the Supreme Court protected heroes of the foster care system like Sharonell and Toni, who give of themselves daily to care for children in need.”

Alliance Defending Freedom General Counsel Kristen Waggoner responded to the decision in comments to LifeNews:

“Every child in need of a forever home deserves the chance to be adopted or cared for by a foster family. That’s what it means to keep kids first. The Supreme Court’s decision today allows that to continue happening. The government can’t single out people of certain beliefs to punish, sideline, or discriminate against them. We’re grateful for the good decision today consistent with that principle.”

The pro-life group Focus on the Family added: “Today Focus on the Family and people of faith everywhere are relieved and hopeful. The tremendous news that all nine justices on the Supreme Court acknowledge the value and historical precedence in allowing faith-based foster care and adoption agencies to continue operating according to their religious principles is welcome in a culture that is increasingly antagonistic toward our deeply held beliefs.”

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Posted on June 19, 2021 by abyssum

A Plan to Get Divisive & Radical Theories Out of Our Schools

By Donald J. Trump

June 18, 2021(emphasis added)

For decades, the America-blaming left has been relentlessly pushing a vision of America that casts our history, culture, traditions, and founding documents in the most negative possible light. Yet in recent years, this deeply unnatural effort has progressed from telling children that their history is evil to telling Americans that they are evil.
In classrooms across the nation, students are being subjected to a new curriculum designed to brainwash them with the ridiculous left-wing dogma known as critical race theory. The key fact about this twisted doctrine is that it is completely antithetical to everything that normal Americans of any color would wish to teach their children.
Instead of helping young people discover that America is the greatest, most tolerant, and most generous nation in history, it teaches them that America is systemically evil and that the hearts of our people are full of hatred and malice. Far from advancing the beautiful dream of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. — that our children should “not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character” — the left’s vile new theory preaches that judging people by the color of their skin is actually a good idea.Teaching even one child these divisive messages would verge on psychological abuse. Indoctrinating generations of children with these extreme ideas is not just immoral — it is a program for national suicide. Yet that is exactly what the Biden administration endorsed recently in a rule published in the Federal Register aimed at inflicting a critical race theory-inspired curriculum on American schoolchildren.
The rule explicitly cites the New York Times’ discredited 1619 Project as a motivation. The Times has described the goal of its endeavor as the “re-education” of the American people, and the project even includes a lesson plan that encourages students to practice “erasing”parts of the Declaration of Independence. The Biden rule also directly cites a left-wing activist and leading proponent of critical race theory whose textbook states, “The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.”
This is what the Biden administration wants to teach America’s children.
The Department of Education rule stems from an executive order Biden signed on his first day in office. Biden’s order abolished the President’s Advisory 1776 Commission I created to honor America’s founding principles, and reversed an executive action I took to stop these depraved theories from being imposed upon federal employees in workforce training sessions.
Thankfully, most Americans oppose this insanity. The left has only gotten away with it until this point because not enough parents have been paying attention and speaking up. But that is quickly changing. From Loudoun County, Va., to Cupertino, Calif., parents are beginning to make their voices heard against the left-wing cultural revolution. What they need now is a plan to actually stop it.
Here are the reforms that every concerned parent in America should be demanding.
First, every state legislature should pass a ban on taxpayer dollars going to any school district or workplace that teaches critical race theory, which inherently violates existing anti-discrimination laws. Inspired by my executive order last year, Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Oklahoma and other states have already taken steps to pass such laws. It needs to happen everywhere — and Congress should seek to institute a federal ban through legislation as well.
Second, each state should create its own 1776 Commission to examine the public school curriculum and ensure that students are receiving a patriotic, pro-American education — not being taught that the United States is an evil nation.
Third, parents have a right to know exactly what is being taught to their children. Last year, many parents had the chance to routinely listen in on classes for the first time because of remote learning. As students return to the classroom, states need to pass laws requiring that all lesson plans have to be made available to parents — every handout, article, and reading should be posted on an online portal that allows parents to see what their kids are being taught.
Furthermore, in many places, there are rules preventing students from recording what teachers say in class. States and school boards should establish a “Right to Record.”
Fourth, parents need to organize locally — in every school district in America — to eliminate “Action Civics” and other versions of the effort to contort traditional civics education into a vehicle for political indoctrination. The left’s new argument is that our “divisions” stem from a lack of “civics education” — a problem they intend to “fix” with lots of new taxpayer money and a redefinition of “civics” in schools, just as they are trying to redefine the meaning of “infrastructure.”
Right now, Congress is working on a $1 billion bill known as the Civics Secures Democracy Act. No Republican should trust the Biden administration with a billion dollars to spend on such programs. Even worse, the legislation threatens to establish a de facto national curriculum for history and civics, effectively bribing states into adopting the left’s anti-American curriculum. It is Common Core all over again — but much more extreme. And like Common Core, parents must unite to stop this new federal power grab.
Fifth, any parent who objects to the material being taught to their child in public school should get an automatic voucher, empowering them to pick another school of their choice. The government has no right to brainwash students with controversial ideologies against their parents’ will.
Sixth, states need to take back control of their schools of education and credentialing bodies to ensure they are not churning out radicalized teachers. To be clear, the overwhelming majority of our nation’s teachers are some of the most selfless and wonderful people there are — but regrettably, many have graduated from extremely biased education schools and may not even be aware of the degree to which leftist ideology has permeated their curriculum. States should set up alternative credentialing bodies that can certify great teachers who know how to instill a sense of love for America. School districts can then make it a priority to hire teachers with these certifications, especially for English, history, and social studies roles. States could even set up their own versions of Teach for America to get passionate and patriotic young people into the classroom.
Finally, states need to break the tenure monopoly in public K-12 schools. Tenure was originally supposed to protect competent teachers from being subjected to undue political influence; it has turned into a mechanism to protect incompetent teachers who themselves wield undue political influence over our children. Educators who are alienating children from their own country should not be protected with lifelong tenure; they should be liberated to pursue a career as a political activist.
Make no mistake: The motive behind all of this left-wing lunacy is to discredit and eliminate the greatest obstacles to the fundamental transformation of America. To succeed with their extreme agenda, radicals know they must abolish our attachment to the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and most of all, Americans’ very identity as a free, proud, and self-governing people.
The left knows that if they can dissolve our national memory and identity, they can gain the total political control they crave.
A nation is only as strong as its spirit. For our children, we must act before it is too late.

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Posted on June 19, 2021 by abyssum

OnePeterFive

Rebuilding Catholic Culture. Restoring Catholic Tradition.

A Tale of Two Homilies

OnePeterFive June 18, 2021 0 Comments

by Shaun Powell

“In the seminary we were taught that our homilies should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”https://92af47bba6db75e693969a4cda9685be.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

Recently out of work, I sat in the pew, worried about how I was going to provide for my family. An unknown virus was making its way throughout the country, and with a fervor absent in the defense of unborn life, fellow parishioners were feverishly embracing the strong suggestion—not yet a mandate—to wear a mask, looking askance at those who did not and snitching on them to the priest after mass. Cities were burning, and the powers that be were doing nothing to stop the destruction.

Though I could have gone for some comfort, I knew better than to expect it. Careful to avoid the buzzwords that would have lit up the rectory switchboard, the priest continued his homily and proceeded to paint with broad strokes, implicating all of us in feeding (perhaps unwittingly, so sinister was this systemic evil) the grievances that were supposedly being aired by club and torch in many of our cities.

Like the proverbial frogs in a slow boiling pot of water, we had long sat in the pews of our architecturally beautiful parish church and tolerated mediocre liturgies, milquetoast priests, and the petty politics and machinations of school board and parish council members, some of whom were considered close friends. No line was ever blatantly crossed, rather, it was that lines were never really drawn, or the ones drawn by the Magisterium were never articulated, much less defended. Trying to work within the system to address problems had only revealed an ugliness I didn’t want to acknowledge. Sure, unlike family, one is able to choose one’s parish, but leaving that parish where sacraments were celebrated and childhood memories were formed is far more complicated than deciding to switch gyms.

This time, though, a line had been crossed. Or maybe I had finally decided it was so. The long developing thought that as the spiritual head of the family I needed to take a stand could no longer be ignored, and this homily had forced my hand. In the car after mass I stated that while I wasn’t outright suggesting we leave the parish, I did think we should begin visiting others. Receiving unanimous support from the rest of the family was further evidence that a move needed to be made.

We began visiting other parishes. More of the same without the effrontery. Platitudes at best. I figured this would be the case, and in the back of my mind wondered how long I would wait to explore the option I suspected would be our last refuge—Latin Mass.

I had visited the Latin Mass in the past. I was younger then, and single, and had it not been for some orthodox priests who reverently celebrated the Novus Ordo in the city where I then lived, I may have landed there at that time. But those priests variously provided spiritual guidance, witnessed our marriage, accepted my wife into the Church, and baptized our children. We had also visited the Latin Mass a few times as a family, when visiting my family in my hometown. We took the occasion to visit those few churches—which also happened to be old, beautiful, and never renovated—that I knew still hosted a Latin Mass. Perhaps our very young children were a bit too vocal, or perhaps our modest dress wasn’t quite modest enough, but we drew some looks from the regulars. Though fighting for the same cause, we felt we were viewed as suspect, with no way of voicing our allegiance. A visit to another parish with a Latin Mass gave the impression that one had entered a period piece, with players overly focused on costume and “Trad” credentials. Willing to acknowledge that my position as an outsider may have influenced my perceptions, I tried not to draw too many conclusions and to simply move on.

Not long after these visits we moved to that same hometown to be closer to ailing parents. I changed careers, and we joined the parish in our new neighborhood where our eldest had started pre-school and where we met families who welcomed us in a new place. The water in the pot was cool and refreshing at that time.

Those visits to the Latin Mass with my very young family were now giving me pause. We had not been back to those parishes since that time, but those first impressions were still fresh in my mind. I also knew that a Latin Mass parish had been founded in our diocese about five years ago, and had even driven past it on a few occasions during some trying times in our parish, tempting myself to check it out. A few weeks into our unofficial search for a new parish, my wife was out of town with our kids visiting her mother. I took the occasion to do some reconnaissance.

As I dusted off my Fr. Lasance, 1962 Missal and reacquainted myself with the placement of the ribbons, I was again struck by the beauty of the words on the pages, realizing how rich this liturgy was compared to the Novus Ordo. As a member of the first litter of guinea-pigs catechized in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, I had been assured—whether in error or by deceit—that the only changes made to the mass were that it was now said in my language (as opposed to a dead one), and the priest no longer turned his back on the People, both points made with either understated derision for the rigid Old Ways, ebullient appreciation for the enlightened New Ways, or both. As the habited nuns who had educated our parents and older siblings began to disappear, we were told by those in trousers who replaced them how lucky we were. In time, even their numbers dwindled.

Perhaps prompted by the sacramentals I saw in my grandmother’s house, I asked with innocent curiosity why we no longer practiced certain devotions. My grade school Religion teacher simply explained, “We just don’t do that anymore.” Unsatisfied with the response but unwilling and unprepared to challenge authority more than I already had, I left it at that. More red flags appeared when, as a teenager, I worked in the parish rectory answering phones and began hearing strange accounts about the diocesan seminary from the seminarians who served summer residences with us. And then again when a very popular priest in our parish suddenly disappeared one night. I was told he had gone on sabbatical and was instructed to direct any calls for him to another associate pastor.

In my twenties, and in the aftermath of some personal spiritual bouts, I began scratching the surface of my faith. It was at this time I found the aforementioned devout, Novus Ordo priests. A second hand bookstore in my neighborhood was a source for out of print books from the estates of a previous generation of Catholics, volumes as absent from the shelves of current stores as the apologetics they contained were from most pulpits. Concurrently, stories of priests abusing children and adolescents began flooding the news. As it turned out, I had been at the epicenter of one of those banner cases. The priest that disappeared had been a serial offender, some of his victims my classmates. Hidden pieces of a puzzle began to surface, and as my intellect was compelled to put them into place, my heart balked at completing the picture. Like a man long suffering from an unknown ailment finally diagnosed as cancer, I dreaded what had been revealed, but found a certain sense of relief in knowing that I wasn’t crazy after all, that something indeed had been amiss. Seriously amiss.

Missal in hand, I entered the church for Low Mass, made my way past a long line for the confessional, and was greeted by the sound of voices reciting the rosary. Bits of all those previous Latin Mass experiences were present, and I was cautious.

After the Gospel reading, we sat for the homily, preceded by the recitation of a Hail Mary. The priest began by describing his wish that if by the mercy of God he made it to heaven, he might be able to seek out those who had gone before him who had lived through turbulent times and ask them how they were able to persevere. He mentioned the sailors at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 who, along with many throughout Christendom, prayed the rosary on the eve of battle, and though outnumbered by the Muslims, fought to victory. What must it have been like waiting in the dark hull of a ship, knowing the ferocity of the enemy to be faced, but united in prayer with your fellows?

He then invited us to embrace and strengthen our own faith, refuse to give in to despair during our own dark times, and cling to the hope that we, too, might persevere, and attain heaven. Once there, perhaps we might be approached by others who arrive after us, and be asked by them, “How did you do it? In the face of scandal and betrayal within the Church, persecutions, and the crumbling of civic institutions, how were you able to maintain your faith and persevere?” Our responsibility—right here and right now—is to live so that we might be worthy of being asked that question.

As we proceeded to The Mass of the Faithful, the truth, beauty, and timelessness of this Rite was undeniable. Herein was an incredible treasure of faith. Yes, these prayers befit the Holy Sacrifice. These were the words and actions that stood the test of time, the mass celebrated by missionaries who risked life and limb on the edges of civilization and converted so many, that kept priests standing on altars even as bombs exploded outside and plaster from the ceiling rained down on their heads. This Rite is befitting of the Sacrifice of the Lamb of God, the means mercifully offered to bridge the chasm between Creator and fallen creation.

Some weeks prior I could have used some comfort, or at least some consolation. Instead, I was judged worthy to be afflicted. The comfort I had sought awaited me at this TLM parish. Not patronizing, milk and cookies comfort, but the comfort found in Truth for its own sake, as difficult as that may be.

I relayed my experience to my family, wary not to overplay my hand in trying to sell my case, or underplay it in trying to be objective. They were game, and we have been primarily attending the TLM ever since. Though yet to join the parish, we have been slowly migrating to it. I see the same families week after week, and while they are friendly and welcoming, I have yet to reach out to them and make myself known. I owe it to my family to do so. This time, the lack of connection is on me.

Friends of ours who left our previous parish before we did have run up against it at the parish to which they fled, and are now really struggling. We have invited them to join us. They have never attended the TLM, and are hesitant. At the end of their rope, they made a last minute decision this past Sunday to make a go of it, the entire family piling into the SUV and making the trek across town. Once in the parking lot, they saw the dress of those entering the church and the sign outside listing guidelines on dressing modestly. Though certainly no slobs, they worried that what they were wearing at the time didn’t pass muster, at least not enough to feel comfortable on a first visit. I suspect they may have experienced a certain degree of culture shock as well. Whatever the case, they bailed out, and seem leery of trying again soon. One step forward, two steps back. Maybe after a few more Sundays of sitting in the segregated and stigmatizing “un-vaccinated” section of their parish church they might return, and someday maybe they, too, might be part of a new parish picture.

I understand their hesitancy. To a small extent I still share it. But I am reminded of the adage about a man drowning at sea. Finally thrown a life preserver, he does not stop to question such details as the color of the flotation device or the attire of the one who threw it. Perhaps only in the safety of the barque am I able to see those details in the context of the greater mission.

So hold fast and climb aboard. A battle looms. The enemy is legion. We need only surrender our wills to the Victor and heed His call.

All hands on deck.

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