The Bloom is Off The Ruse – Tom Donohue and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Announce Support for Far-Left Democrats in 2020…

Posted on August 28, 2020 by sundance

A fifteen year argument is finally over…. We win.  Most CTH readers probably don’t even remember the reason for the name: “The Last Refuge” upon this little corner of the internet.  However, for well over a decade we have tried to share the truth behind the financial mechanisms that run Washington DC; and the primary machine has always been a completely corrupt, deceptive and anti-American U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Against the entirety of the conservative media; and against the entirety of every organized group that ever attended CPAC; this website has attempted to educate people about the genuinely fraudulent purposes of the U.S. CoC and their President Tom Donohue.  I have written hundreds of articles over the years outlining “there are trillions at stake” and the elements of importance behind that statement.   Every single mainstream conservative voice has denied the truth; and likely most of them are probably on the CoC payroll.

Every former administration took massive payments from the CoC and allowed the Chamber to write trade agreements language for decades.  The CoC business model was to take payments from Wall Street multinationals and then write the agreements to their benefit.  Politicians were paid to keep quiet and support the CoC.  The chamber is the largest lobby organization in DC.  The chamber spends more money on influence than any other lobbying group by a massive amount.  The CoC is at the heart of DC corruption.

President Trump knew about the CoC business model; that’s why he never allowed them a seat at the ‘America First’ table.  That was the original source of our support for candidate Donald Trump.  And now, after a decade of our trying to highlight the CoC scheme and the reason for it; yesterday, the U.S. Chamber dropped their pretense and admitted they were now supporting democrats because the CoC effort can only succeed by destroying Main St.

WASHINGTON DC – The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is poised to endorse nearly two dozen freshmen House Democrats for reelection, triggering a revolt within the right-leaning organization and drawing fierce push-back from the group’s powerful GOP donors.

The decision represents a sharp departure for the traditionally conservative Chamber, which has spent over $100 million backing Republican candidates during the past decade, and it threatens to further complicate the party’s prospects in the November election while driving a split in the business community.

Chamber leaders — including President Suzanne Clark, Chief Executive Officer Tom Donohue and Executive Vice President Neil Bradley — have been pushing the proposal ahead of a Thursday committee vote to finalize a slate of 2020 endorsements.

But the group’s donors and members are up in arms, with some threatening to pull funding and others openly venting their frustration. Some are raising the prospect that Chamber board members will quit in the weeks to come.

[…] The internal fight is just the latest headache for the Chamber, which for decades was regarded as a giant in the lobbying world. The group has recently generated headlines for its frosty relationship with the White House and alleged lavish spending on private jets.

The clash also provides a window into a growing rift in the business community over its place in the Donald Trump-dominated Republican Party, which has at times embraced policies the corporate world opposes. While the Chamber has almost exclusively endorsed Republicans over the past decade, it has collided with the president over everything from tariffs to immigration. (read more)

The CoC was never a “right wing organization”, nor was it a “republican organization”; it was always a multinational globalist organization structured to support Wall Street and destroy Main Street.  It was always a feature, not a flaw…. but no-one would believe it.

Well, now… believe it.

Tom Donohue and Suzanne Clark – U.S. Chamber of Commerce

If you understand the basic elements behind the new dimension in American economics, you already understand how three decades of DC legislative and regulatory policy was structured to benefit Wall Street and not Main Street. The intentional shift in monetary  policy is what created the distance between two entirely divergent economic engines.

REMEMBER […] there had to be a point where the value of the second economy (Wall Street) surpassed the value of the first economy (Main Street). 

Investments, and the bets therein, needed to expand outside of the USA. hence, globalist investing.

However, a second more consequential aspect happened simultaneously. The politicians became more valuable to the Wall Street team than the Main Street team; and Wall Street had deeper pockets because their economy was now larger.

As a consequence Wall Street started funding political candidates and asking for legislation that benefited their interests.

When Main Street was purchasing the legislative influence the outcomes were -generally speaking- beneficial to Main Street, and by direct attachment those outcomes also benefited the average American inside the real economy.

When Wall Street began purchasing the legislative influence, the outcomes therein became beneficial to Wall Street. Those benefits are detached from improving the livelihoods of main street Americans because the benefits are “global”. Global financial interests, multinational investment interests -and corporations therein- became the primary filter through which the DC legislative outcomes were considered.

There is a natural disconnect. (more)

As an outcome of national monetary policy blending commercial banking with institutional investment banking something happened on Wall Street that few understand. If we take the time to understand what happened we can understand why the Stock Market grew and what risks exist today as trade policy is reversed to benefit Main Street.

President Trump and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin have already begun assembling and delivering a new banking system.

Instead of attempting to put Glass-Stegal regulations back into massive banking systems, the Trump administration created a parallel financial system of less-regulated small commercial banks, credit unions and traditional lenders who can operate to the benefit of Main Street without the burdensome regulation of the mega-banks and multinationals. This really is one of the more brilliant solutions to work around a uniquely American economic problem.

[You saw direct evidence of this at work with the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) in the COVID rescue package.  Small and medium lenders were responsive to Main Street and the large institutional (Big Bank) lenders were not.]

♦ When U.S. banks were allowed to merge their investment divisions with their commercial banking operations (the removal of Glass Stegal) something changed on Wall Street.

Companies who are evaluated based on their financial results, profits and losses, remained in their traditional role as traded stocks on the U.S. Stock Market and were evaluated accordingly. However, over time investment instruments -which are secondary to actual company results- created a sub-set within Wall Street that detached from actual bottom line company results.

The resulting secondary financial market system was essentially ‘investment markets’. Both ordinary company stocks and the investment market stocks operate on the same stock exchanges. But the underlying valuation is tied to entirely different metrics.

Financial products were developed (as investment instruments) that are essentially wagers or bets on the outcomes of actual companies traded on Wall Street. Those bets/wagers form the hedge markets and are [essentially] people trading on expectations of performance. The “derivatives market” is the ‘betting system’.

♦Ford Motor Company (only chosen as a commonly known entity) has a stock valuation based on their actual company performance in the market of manufacturing and consumer purchasing of their product. However, there can be thousands of financial instruments wagering on the actual outcome of their performance.

There are two initial bets on these outcomes that form the basis for Hedge-fund activity. Bet ‘A’ that Ford hits a profit number, or bet ‘B’ that they don’t. There are financial instruments created to place each wager. [The wagers form the derivatives] But it doesn’t stop there.

Additionally, more financial products are created that bet on the outcomes of the A/B bets. A secondary financial product might find two sides betting on both A outcome and B outcome.

Party C bets the “A” bet is accurate, and party D bets against the A bet. Party E bets the “B” bet is accurate, and party F bets against the B. If it stopped there we would only have six total participants. But it doesn’t stop there, it goes on and on and on…

The outcome of the bets forms the basis for the tenuous investment markets. The important part to understand is that the investment funds are not necessarily attached to the original company stock, they are now attached to the outcome of bet(s). Hence an inherent disconnect is created.

Subsequently, if the actual stock doesn’t meet it’s expected P-n-L outcome (if the company actually doesn’t do well), and if the financial investment was betting against the outcome, the value of the investment actually goes up. The company performance and the investment bets on the outcome of that performance are two entirely different aspects of the stock market. [Hence two metrics.]

♦Understanding the disconnect between an actual company on the stock market, and the bets for and against that company stock, helps to understand what can happen when fiscal and monetary policy is geared toward the underlying company (Main Street MAGAnomics), and not toward the bets therein (Investment Class).

The U.S. stock markets’ overall value can increase with Main Street policy, and yet the investment class can simultaneously decrease in value even though the company(ies) in the stock market is/are doing better. This detachment is critical to understand because the ‘real economy’ is based on the company, the ‘paper economy’ is based on the financial investment instruments betting on the company.

Trillions can be lost in investment instruments, and yet the overall stock market -as valued by company operations/profits- can increase.

Conversely, there are now classes of companies on the U.S. stock exchange that never make a dime in profit, yet the value of the company increases. This dynamic is possible because the financial investment bets are not connected to the bottom line profit. (Examples include Tesla Motors, Amazon and a host of internet stocks like Facebook and Twitter.) It is this investment group of companies that stands to lose the most if/when the underlying system of betting on them stops or slows.

Specifically due to most recent U.S. fiscal policy, modern multinational banks, including all of the investment products therein, are more closely attached to this investment system on Wall Street. It stands to reason they are at greater risk of financial losses overall with a shift in fiscal policy.

That financial and economic risk is the basic reason behind Trump and Mnuchin putting a protective, secondary and parallel, banking system in place for Main Street.

Big multinational banks can suffer big losses from their investments, and yet the Main Street economy can continue growing, and have access to capital, uninterrupted.

Bottom Line: U.S. companies who have actual connection to a growing U.S. economy can succeed; based on the advantages of the new economic environment and MAGA policy, specifically in the areas of manufacturing, trade and the ancillary benefactors.

Meanwhile U.S. investment assets (multinational investment portfolios) that are disconnected from the actual results of those benefiting U.S. companies, and as a consequence also disconnected from the U.S. economic expansion, can simultaneously drop in value even though the U.S. economy is thriving.

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120 Responses to The Bloom is Off The Ruse – Tom Donohue and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Announce Support for Far-Left Democrats in 2020…

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1. ajshu says:August 28, 2020 at 11:28 amLou Dobbs has been calling out the duplicitous Chamber of Commerce for years. He saw right through their subversion, attacking their anti-Americanism, and foreign interests almost every day. He was not fooled nor did he pull his punches.Liked by 3 peopleReply
2. landman says:August 28, 2020 at 11:30 amI believed that NAFTA and the CoC were the way of the future because globalism was the answer to the world’s problems. When I started a 401k in 2008, the funds with American assets were downplayed in lieu of the hyped-up international funds. For some reason I felt it was important to invest in the U.S. (even though the returns were projected to be much smaller) and allocated accordingly. Glad I went with my gut, it is a joy when I check the balance quarterly!Very blessed to have found the Treehouse and learn how the world actually works. Thanks and congratulations Sundance!LikeReply
3. LKAinLA says:August 28, 2020 at 11:32 amThank you Sundance for educating me so I could pay it forward to others. I am sincerely grateful for you via your website. Btw, the above dark picture of Donoughue and company is a Dorian Gray.Liked by 1 personReply
4. ImpeachEmAll says:August 28, 2020 at 11:37 amhttps://www.youtube.com/embed/6wRYjtvIYK0?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparentLiked by 1 personReply
5. talkaftercarefulthought says:August 28, 2020 at 11:46 amWHAT AN AWESOME PUBLIC VINDICATION… sunlight is the best disinfectant!! now for POTUS to win another 4! I’m still not tired of WINNING..LikeReply
6. CorwinAmber says:August 28, 2020 at 11:49 ama while back, my kid was up for a job with the CoC…didn’t get it and now glad he didn’t. I thought perhaps he could make a difference there, but after reading this, I realize he would have been tilting at windmills, sigh.LikeReply
7. Don Anastas says:August 28, 2020 at 11:50 amWhen I was a young CPA I moved to Scottsdale AZ to begin in private practice. I joined seven (7) local CoC and participated in their mixers, breakfasts and other events. After a year with renewals up I decided to dump them. Why? This was good money chasing bad. The CoCs didn’t provide anything of value. Other business members weren’t interested in networking. I don’t know what I was expecting but being young & naive I found the best way to build a business like mine was not CoC participation or the Yellow Pages. It came down to expending plenty of shoe leather and that I did.Liked by 4 peopleReply
8. Joe says:August 28, 2020 at 11:52 amEnd of Saving Private Ryan with the smoke of battle wafting through the air: “Earn this.”LikeReply
9. Nagothm says:August 28, 2020 at 11:54 amTrump’s greatest success, and one which I feel will benefit America the longest is the sheer number of globalist/socialist/communist shills masquerading as conservatives that he has caused to expose themselves as who and what they are. They spent decades positioning these people and in four short years Trump has shown the spotlight on them all and decimated their ranks.Liked by 3 peopleReply
10. Mark says:August 28, 2020 at 11:57 amI’ve always had a problem with derivatives and all the other clever schemes used to control risk. They actually use these tools to control the market. A failing company can be used by those with better info to actually make money. Options can be used to influence share price. Look into what’s known as “Max Pain”. It’s interesting to watch a few companies and observe the share price to the weekly Max Pain number. An up and coming company can be held back with short attacks and controlled media to sew fear among retail investors who aren’t part of the club, meanwhile those in on the scheme accumulate shares before it gaps up. Likewise, a failing company can be propped up while the best clients exit in a quiet orderly fashion by their shares being sold to unsuspecting retail clients. Laws will never end this. It’s too easy to get around a paper trail by using various, seemingly unrelated methods of communicating F^&%ery that could never be proven. I do have a solution. Use the tax system to affect it. I think short term capital gains should be taxed at 75-80%. The tax rate should decrease in a linear fashion all the way down to 0% at 3-4 years. Option trades and other “betting on the market” schemes should be taxed as immediate gains. That reduces the incentive and rewards investors instead of gamblers.LikeReply
11. dufrst says:August 28, 2020 at 12:03 pmThe purge of the GOP continues and the ouster of those who have undermined this party for so long proceeds apace. It’s funny to think that much of this purge is not even being done overtly but many of the NeverTrump, NeoCons, and worthless RINOs are self-deporting themselves from the Party.This process will run its course with results of the 2020 elections. After our victory, it is my hope that Trump, ends the GOP and starts a new political party that enshrines his agenda. I’ve suggested the American Party which will always stand for America First, because after Trump is done, those same elements that have abandoned the GOP led by Trump, will try to return. I say, dispense with them forever with the American Party (or whatever it will be called)! What we saw this week at the RNC is everything we want in our party. It’s Trump’s party now. I hope that it remains so otherwise while Trump is still on top, let’s start a new one! MAGA!LikeReply
12. tieoneoncharter.com says:August 28, 2020 at 12:04 pmThis just happened to me a few weeks ago with my Capital One business Credit Card…..I got a letter stating my available credit has been reduced from $12000 to $5000…. I have Class A credit..Pay the bill off every month with few exceptions……..Been with Capital One over 10 Years, never a late payment…..Seems this is the next angle to cripple the small business owner…..Be on the lookout people…..https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/capital-one-cuts-credit-card-borrowing-limits-us-reduces-support-unemployed-americansLiked by 1 personReply
13. fauxscienceslayer says:August 28, 2020 at 12:05 pmThe rest of the story, “Paul Harvey, Freedom to Chains”https://www.youtube.com/embed/n0FF13u13WE?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparentLikeReply
14. Richie says:August 28, 2020 at 12:06 pmSo basically they are saying they support Antifa. As far as I’m concerned anyone who gives support to Far Left Democrats supports terrorism, racism, bigotry, violence and should be officially recognized as the Enemy of the State.Liked by 1 personReply
15. islandpalmtrees says:August 28, 2020 at 12:10 pmWould this not make one Heck of a replacement for the classic “Bill On Capital Hill”. Education of the young is important and apparently those that have already been receiving years of propaganda.LikeReply
16. Richie says:August 28, 2020 at 12:12 pmOnce You See The Strings on the Marionettes…….it is impossible to return to a time when you did not see them.Liked by 1 personReply
17. tax2much says:August 28, 2020 at 12:16 pmWhen you walk through an American city and see all of the abandoned buildings and streets lined with junkies and drug dealers and crack whores you can thank the globalists and the Chamber lobbyists who made all of that possible.LikeReply
18. Garrison Hall says:August 28, 2020 at 12:21 pmRest assured, Sundance, thanks in large measure to your diligence, none of us are in the least surprised at the CoC’s political behavior. This recent move is something we could by now easily see coming. (Similarly, we could also see the “conservative” Koch brothers deciding a few months ago to spend money in support of progressives. One of the hallmarks of Fascism is its immense attraction to oligarchs. Because of this we should not be surprised to see the CoC oligarchs making common cause with progressives. The reason this is happening is simple: progressives are, in fact, Fascists.LikeReply
19. Richie says:August 28, 2020 at 12:22 pmThis is example why I dont mind if Lindsay Graham is replaced by a Democrat. Hes worse. To hell with the RHINOS. They gave Pelosi Congress and now they trying to give Obama the White House.LikeReply
20. The Boss says:August 28, 2020 at 12:26 pmTwenty years ago The Tobacco Institute, the primary lobbying organization for cigarette makers, was forced to close as part of the settlement with the states.
    If the Tobacco Institute can be closed, so can the US(eless) C of C. Arguably, the C of C is more harmful to Americans than cigarettes ever were. The C of C harms ALL Americans deliberately.LikeReply
21. TarsTarkas says:August 28, 2020 at 12:28 pmRalph Nader was wrong on a lot of things, but he did point out vociferously the financialization of the markets, famously calling it ‘a bet on a bet on a bet on a bet’ and so on. But because he at that time had become marginalized, and he had been so wrong on so many things, he was ignored.LikeReply
22. Grandma Covfefe says:August 28, 2020 at 12:30 pmI saw that last night and said to hubbie–“Boom, Sundance had this years ago. Wanna bet Sundance will be furiously writing up this article quickly enough.” We thank you, Sundance, for pointing out subtle moves of what these Destructors of America have done.Now it is up to us Treepers, with Sundance’s materials, we must go to others and educate them all. If they reject the info, fine..just move on to anther person.LikeReply
23. scrap1ron says:August 28, 2020 at 12:30 pmThis will make a great campaign ad to run in all the rust belt communities the COC has abused for 40 years.LikeReply
24. maxxheadroom777 says:August 28, 2020 at 12:32 pmThe only time I ever saw & heard Tom Donohue speak was to a pair of reporters CSPAN had chosen to interview Donohue for an hour. I watched the whole thing and have never forgotten his arrogance and rudeness to the reporters when they asked him a question he did not like. I’d bet hard money Tammany Hall was a passel of crooks like Donohue, only the Tammany crooks at least tried to keep the geese that laid their golden eggs alive. Donohue don’t give a flying fig for the USA or its people. BTW, “While the Chamber has almost exclusively endorsed Republicans over the past decade…” should be amended to “…exclusively endorsed RINOs over the past decade… .” Hypocritical, forked-tongue RINOs like McCain, Graham, Romney, et effin cetera.

What Is the Violence in American Cities All About? Victor Davis Hanson August 27, 2020  It is hard to tell what the current revolutionary violence in our major cities is all about. So far, hundreds of police have been injured, dozens of people have been killed, and we have seen billions of dollars in property and collateral damage. Ostensibly, many of the summer demonstrations were in protest over the gruesome detention and death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody on May 25. Yet three months later, few of those trying to burn down a Portland police precinct — with police barricaded inside — or looting the high-end boutiques of Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, or indiscriminately beating up innocent pedestrians, appear to be driven by Floyd’s death. Apologists argue that the perfect-storm furor of June, July and August was the dividend of a collective six-month fear over the COVID-19 pandemic that has, as of this writing, killed nearly 180,000 Americans. The unprecedented national quarantine and the sudden, self-generated recession of a once-booming economy certainly added to the tensions. Millions of youths were sequestered in their apartments and basements, unemployed, without school, and worried over their career prospects. Many simply wanted to vent their rage at the world and almost everything in it. The media romanticized the “summer of love” unrest and downplayed the violence. Newspapers ran bizarre photo essays on the chic garb at the protests — umbrellas, leaf blowers, wooden shields, armor and colored bike helmets. Many in the street seemed as interested in taking selfies as they were in smashing windows. Some cite furor directed at President Trump, the tensions of an election year and the weaponization of almost every current issue by both political parties. Still others claim the violence is mostly careerist-driven. Demands are made to fire ideological enemies and hire partisan friends. If the old guard is banished, then their lucrative billets can be snapped up by a new woke generation. Demagogues see political careers birthed with the bullhorn. None of these explanations are mutually exclusive. But all reflect confusion over why often senseless vandalism has been directed at statues of Ulysses S. Grant and Frederick Douglass, and at the World War II Memorial. Why do liberal authors and artists fear there is a new McCarthyite cancel culture that threatens to take out even progressive sympathizers? Why do city governments defund police departments at the very moment vulnerable residents are most fearful for their safety? Note that there are rarely demands from antifa for new statues, given that the protesters’ own heroes are often more flawed than the historical figures whose statues they deface and destroy. What, then, is going on? As with most cultural revolutions that wish to start things over at “year zero,” the violence is aimed at America’s past in order to change its present and future. The targets are not just the old majority culture but also classical statues and buildings, hallowed institutions, religious icons, the renowned names of streets and plazas, and almost every representation of tradition and authority. For the majority of Americans who do not buy into the revolution, it all seems so surreal — and hypocritical. Only a despised, dynamic American economy allows millions to divorce from it for a summer of protest. A ridiculed U.S. Constitution ensures that looters and arsonists have due process. The Bill of Rights guarantees peaceful assembly and electrically amplified profanity rarely protected elsewhere. Affirmative action; federally ensured and subsidized college grants and loans; and cheap smartphones, headphones and laptops all give youth choices unimagined in the past. No matter — cultural revolutions are incoherent and nihilist. Those who signed up for the Jacobin Reign of Terror wanted violence, not a constitutional republic to replace the French monarchy. The Bolsheviks were less interested in substituting an elected prime minister for the Russian czar than in grabbling power and murdering millions of their enemies. Mao Zedong did not just hate the warlords, landlords, Mandarins and Nationalists. He wished to reinvent 1 billion Chinese in his own narcissistic image by first killing millions. There is, of course, reason to oversee the police more effectively. Universities are partly culpable for a collective $1.4 trillion in student loan debt. Globalization eroded the middle class. Inner-city America is far too violent — and far too neglected. But these are not the apparent concerns of those who carry off shoes and phones in U-Hauls, kick the unconscious on the pavement, destroy art and sculpture, or seek to torch public buildings with public servants inside. The point of the mob is to wipe out what it cannot create. It topples what it can neither match nor even comprehend. It would erode the very system that ensures it singular freedom, leisure and historic affluence. The brand of the anarchist is not logic but envy-driven power: to take it, to keep it, and to use it against purported enemies — which would otherwise be impossible in times of calm or through the ballot box. Email Link  https://conta.cc/3lqB6ID

CFN BLOGDR. MAIKE HICKSON

Cardinal: Archbishop Lefebvre Will One Day Be Recognized as a Doctor of the Church; Was “Prophetic”

 Dr. Maike Hickson

August 27, 2020

Professor Armin Schwibach, a teacher of philosophy and Rome correspondent for the Austrian website Kath.net, has reported on Twitter that a cardinal has recently made to him some supportive comments about Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the deceased founder of the Society of St. Pius X.

On August 21, Schwibach wrote: “As a cardinal recently stated: Archbishop Lefebvre will one day recognized as a Doctor of the Church. Therefore, ‘others’ have to measure up to him.” Catholic Family News reached out to Professor Schwibach, and he confirmed that indeed these words have only recently been spoken to him by a cardinal of the Catholic Church. On another occasion, according to Schwibach, this same cardinal added that Lefebvre was “prophetic.” However, the cardinal spoke these words privately does not wish to say so in public.

This reliable fact, as revealed by Schwibach, is of great importance for the Catholic Church since it shows that there are other high-ranking prelates besides Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò and Bishop Athanasius Schneider who are seeing the validity of Archbishop Lefebvre’s own sustained criticism of the Second Vatican Council, of aspects of the post-conciliar Magisterium, and of the Novus Ordo Mass.

Time for a Respectful Hearing

It is to be hoped that this cardinal, as well as other prelates who are thinking in similar terms, would come out candidly into the public. It is time that this traditionalist position, which has been suppressed and ostracized for so many decades, to now be respectfully heard. It is a fact that the Catholic mind shrinks when it is disallowed from looking at reality and asking questions or presenting objections. One becomes accustomed to putting blinkers on, yet Our Lord is the Light and the Truth, and we can always rest assured that He will bless us when we seek to please Him by searching for and speaking the Truth, without concern for human respect.

In addition to this, it is also my deep trust that we can only come to a fuller and more proportionate assessment of our current crisis and its roots when we commit ourselves to conducting an intellectual discourse in public, where arguments and counter-arguments are clearly presented, thus widening the perspectives and approaches to truth.

It is in this light that I personally regret the course recently taken by Fr. Thomas Weinandy, O.F.M. In his first July 14 response to the recent statements by Archbishop Viganò (specifically, His Excellency’s June 9 text), Fr. Weinandy said he had some sympathies with some of the prelate’s criticisms (“I sympathize with many of the concerns expressed and acknowledge some of the stated problematic theological and doctrinal issues enumerated.”). More recently, however, he proceeded to accuse Viganò in an August 13 essay of effectively serving Satan and of leading souls out of the Catholic Church. As Weinandy stated: “My concern is that, in his radical reading of the Council, the archbishop is spawning his own schism.” He furthermore wrote that Archbishop Viganò, with his criticism of the Second Vatican Council, “I fear, has played into the hand of the devil – the very devil he fears the most.”

This specious argument is old. It has been used for decades with regard to the SSPX, saying that they are “schismatics” in order to discourage faithful Catholics from even reading and considering the Society’s arguments.

Bishop Schneider’s Refreshing Candor

In Christus Vincit (Angelico Press, 2019), a book-length interview, Bishop Athanasius Schneider candidly describes his own reaction to Lefebvre and his movement when he said that he felt drawn to his arguments, but then was confused because the local bishops warned the faithful against this “disobedient” archbishop.

Here is how I put it in my book review:

When he [Bishop Schneider] was 15 years of age, he started to read some texts written by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the founder of the Society of St. Pius X, but he “experienced a dilemma.” His own veneration for the reigning pope was in conflict with the insights of Lefebvre that he found “substantially right.” Since he at the time did not read the texts of the 1962-1965 Council directly, but, rather, commentaries by conservative authors presenting them, he had at first “no concern or suspicion that there might be problems with the texts of the Council.” At the time, he practiced a “total ‘infallibilization’ of the Council.”

Now Bishop Schneider sees that this conclusion was wrong. He says: “Nowadays, I realize that I ‘turned off’ my reason. However, such an attitude is not healthy and contradicts the tradition of the Church, as we observe in the Fathers, the Doctors, and the great theologians of the Church over the course of two thousand years.”

Such an attitude to “turn off” reason the bishop now calls “extreme ultramontanism” as well as a “blind defense of everything that was said by the Council, which seemed sometimes to require mental acrobatics and a ‘squaring of the circle.’”

This one example shows: instead of publicly discussing the objections of Archbishop Lefebvre – and several other traditional groups and individuals – many in the Church’s hierarchy ostracized him and thereby suppressed his sincere and well-reasoned arguments. Such a method, however, will not last forever, because the truth will always set itself free.

I have heard in the recent past from several conservative Catholics that they kept away from the publications of the traditionalist movement because they had been told that they are “schismatics”. However, now that they start reading some of their books and critiques, they say: I never knew that! I wish I had known. Others tell me: We have been deprived of so many beautiful elements of our Faith! The new prayer books are often so drab, while the old ones are so much more uplifting and inspiring! We feel our heritage has been stolen from us.

So it goes. The truth always sets itself free. And any prelate who would now honestly address these problems would do a great service to the laity and would thereby help us in the sense of a well-proportioned and well-reasoned debate, for the sake of the salvation of souls.Archbishop Carlo Maria ViganòArchbishop Marcel LefebvreArmin SchwibachBishop Athanasius SchneiderChristus VincitFr. Thomas WeinandyNovus Ordo MassSociety of Saint Pius XSSPXTraditionalist

Dr. Maike Hickson

Dr. Maike Hickson, born and raised in Germany, studied History and French Literature at the University of Hannover and lived for several years in Switzerland, where she wrote her doctoral dissertation. She is married to Dr. Robert Hickson and they have been blessed with two beautiful children. She is a happy housewife who likes to write articles when time permits. Her work has appeared in American and European publications and websites such as LifeSiteNews, OnePeterFive, The Wanderer, Rorate Caeli, Catholicism.org, Catholic Family News, Christian Order, Notizie Pro-Vita, Corrispondenza Romana, Katholisches.info, Der Dreizehnte, Zeit-Fragen, and Westfalen-Blatt.

This is the best researched and most comprehensive essay on the subject of slavery I have seen. The Slavery Virus BY: Alison BucklinAugust 25, 2020(emphasis added) Slavery did not begin with European settlers in 1619. It did not even begin on the North American continent in 1619. The Africans who disembarked from the White Lion in 1619 were simply patient zero for a mutation of an age-old virus.  At that time the only continent in the world where chattel slavery (buying and selling individuals as a commodity) was not practiced was Europe. It was common from China to Polynesia, India to Japan, and on both continents of the Western Hemisphere. Slavery has been practiced since before the beginning of recorded history.  Archeological evidence indicates that chattel slavery existed in the Middle East as early as 3200 BC. The practice continued unabated through Sumerian, Egyptian, Persian, Carthaginian, Greek, and Roman civilizations. Although some slaves could rise to positions of power, most lived under conditions of brutality and degradation which rivaled the cotton fields of the American South, the sugar cane plantations of the West Indies, and the silver mines of Peru.  Following the fall of the Roman Empire, the Christian church began pressuring their rulers to abolish slavery, first prohibiting slavery of co-religionists and eventually extending the prohibition to all persons. By the 7th century, chattel slavery had disappeared in the Byzantine Empire, and in most of the rest of Europe by the 10th century.  Scandinavians lagged behind, prohibiting the practice over the next few centuries as their kings converted to Christianity. Iberia (Spain and Portugal) came late to the table, as they had been preoccupied with fighting for their freedom from 700 years of Moorish occupation. Other forms of unfree labor continued, notably serfdom and indenture, but these were ameliorated by legal protections, the possibility of freedom, and a certain degree of autonomy.  In Africa and North America, inhabited largely by nomadic peoples and subsistence farmers, slavery was usually limited to war captives, criminals, and debt indenture; however, chattel slavery arose as societies grew more complex and powerful and needed a steady source of labor. The Aztec Empire, for instance, required a continuous infusion of war captives. Most were slaughtered for religious ceremonies, but a considerable number were sold for labor. The Inca Empire did not, technically, practice slavery; however, kings were both sons and priests of the Sun god and effectively owned all of the people and property in their domains. Before, during and after the Arab conquest of the Middle East and Northern Africa, the Arab slave trade in and around the Mediterranean took up where the Roman Empire had left off. During the 8th and 9th centuries most slaves were taken from Europe, Persia, the Caucasus and adjoining regions.  During the 18th and 19th century alone around 1.5 million European Christians were captured and sold. From the 7th century to the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1920, scholars estimate that anywhere between 12 and 25 million slaves were taken from Africa across the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and the Sahara. Zanzibar and Timbuktu were, respectively, hubs of this trade for East and Central Africa. Slavery continues to be practiced in parts of Islamic Africa until the present. In the 1950s, Saudi Arabia‘s slave population was estimated at 450,000. Up to 200,000 South Sudanese were enslaved during their 1983-2005 civil war. Slavery was not criminalized in Mauritius until 2007. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to follow in the Arabs’ footsteps, taking their first African slaves in 1435. Over the next 4 centuries, Spanish and Portuguese, Dutch and English, French and Norwegian captains alike participated in the brutal trade. From the 16th to the 19th centuries around 12 million slaves were taken to the Americas. This figure does not take into account the large number who died on their way to the coast. By the mid-18th century, slaves were Africa’s main export, representing as much as 95 percent of its value.  Slavery, then, is endemic to the human race. The only force in history known to have had an effect on this ugly feature of human nature is Christianity. This begs the question, “Why was Christianity not proof against the arrival of the infection in the New World?” The answer is that the virus mutated.  The element of race was added. Those whose consciences would have troubled them about enslaving white Christians pointed to cultural and physical differences between Africans and Europeans, and looked for creative ways to enlist the Bible against the gospel of reconciliation. Cultural Christians turned a blind eye to the phenomenon, as the profits were so great. Even free blacks and Native Americans were not immune. It took committed, practicing Christians to start the long task of eradicating this new form of an old disease. Christian abolitionism in North America began its struggle in the late 17th century with the Society of Friends, or Quakers. The movement soon spread to Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists (called Nonconformists or Dissenters because they disagreed with the Church of England), and it is likely that their marginalized status made them more sympathetic to other outsiders.  Anglicans were also important contributors to the movement. Key figures internationally were John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, and William Wilberforce, who led the fight to end slavery in Great Britain. In the United States, key figures included William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Beecher Stowe, John Brown, and former slaves Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth.  Although far from all Christians were abolitionists. All abolitionists appear to have been Christian. Unfortunately, following the passage of the 13th and 14th Amendments, the church seems to have felt that its work was done.  Convalescence and recovery were left to the former slaves themselves. It is no coincidence that the leaders of their communities were pastors. But the environment, still openly infected with the residue of the mutated virus, was still unhealthy. A few key steps were taken during the middle of the 20th century, led by luminaries from Rosa Parks to Dr. Martin Luther King. But the gospel was soon overtaken by the government as the treatment of choice, and the hard work of rehabilitation was replaced by the easy out of comfort care. Pain was alleviated at the cost of the abandonment of faith and addiction to government programs, while the providers reaped power and profits.  Where once financial rewards went to the participants in the slave economy, those who profit from dependence and division are now politicians, bureaucrats, agitators and academics. They have no incentive to eradicate the disease.  The only antidote is still Christianity, the gospel of reconciliation, administered in large doses, for life – both in order to live, and for as long as you live. But it works. “For [Christ] himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the … dividing wall of hostility.…” [Eph 2:14] However, peace is not the end of the struggle. Even after the dividing wall is broken down, freedom still needs to be sought and defended.  Because new mutations have arisen, as they always have and always will. At present Marxism, with its twin offspring Communism and Socialism, has infected a significant portion of the population. These are the most comprehensive forms of slavery the world has yet devised, as they enslave entire populations rather than discrete segments. And it is a particularly insidious mutation, as it is disguised with language that mimics the concern for the poor that is a key characteristic of Christianity. But slavery is, in essence, coerced labor for another’s profit, and so is socialism.  Unfortunately, exposure does not confer immunity, and religious fervor is not enough to eradicate it. We must understand the threat, and resolve to face it. We must not let ourselves “be burdened again by a yoke of slavery, for it is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” [Gal 5:1] Alison Bucklin is a compassionate wife, mother, daughter, sister, niece, aunt, friend and a lover of all of God’s creatures.  Rip McIntosh

“In Fauci We Trust”? C. S. Lewis Foresaw Scientific Authoritarianism

David Klinghoffer@d_klinghofferAugust 20, 2020, 7:45 AM

A friend sends out an email each morning, welcoming recipients to whatever day it may be since the 14-day COVID shutdown began here in Washington State. Today it’s welcome to Day 150. Who would have predicted all that Americans have experienced in the past five months? Economic catastrophe, shrugged off by the permanently employed class in our government and media. Endless isolation with all its social ills. Cities committing suicide, plunged into chaos and squalor by fake news, as the government winks at violence and undercuts the police. An upcoming election whose results seem guaranteed to be disputed, leading to more chaos.

Something is very wrong in our country, as you don’t need me to tell you. But what is going on? I suggest that you watch this important video by political scientist John West, our Discovery Institute colleague. He sheds a fascinating light on the outcomes when what C. S. Lewis called “scientocracy” is put in charge:https://www.youtube.com/embed/HliKP0leHuo?feature=oembed

No God but Science 

Among the most startling upshots of recent months is the way people and things that you once might have regarded as uninteresting have become like matches to dry tinder. That a cloth mask would be embraced as a tribal totem? That children going off to school would spark terror? That Dr. Anthony Fauci would become a figure of enthusiastic, near-religious devotion to millions? That a virus, from the same family that gives us the common cold, would set off a series of events including talk of a second Civil War?

At the heart of it all are science and culture. Their intersection, long divisive as we know from the evolution debate, became radioactive this year. In 2020, science emerged not as source of insight and service to humanity, but also as a false religion.

There is no God but Science and Fauci is His messenger. I started really worrying in May when I watched a humiliating video in which a couple of prominent rabbis, representing my own religious community, conducted a supremely fawning interview with Fauci, pledging to keep their own synagogues shut even after the government gave permission to open. At one point they sang a psalm for him. I know that Christian friends can supply instances of similar passivity and obsequiousness from spokesmen for their own faith.

Uncounted Fails, Unrecognized Biases

As Dr. West explains, for all the blessings of science, there are problems with saying, as some literally have done, “In Fauci we trust.” C. S. Lewis foresaw that this was the direction in which our culture was headed, as we place faith in scientific bureaucrats, handing over our freedom to them overnight. West argues for a reasonable skepticism about what scientists say, for balancing scientific with other valid considerations in setting public policy. He offers tips for viewing science-worship with sober detachment, recognizing that fails, and worse, are common in the history of science and that scientists themselves are a group with biases that go too often unrecognized.

When science becomes idolatry, we call it scientism. It needs to be resisted. I hope you’ll share this video with friends and family members.

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/08/27/health-and-autonomy-in-the-21st-century.aspx?cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art1HL&cid=20200827Z1&mid=DM634649&rid=950269603

Moderna’s mRNA Vaccine Caused Systemic Effects

Meanwhile, preliminary findings from Phase 1 trials seem to support initial suspicions that the COVID-19 vaccine might turn out to be unusually reactive. For example, Moderna’s mRNA vaccine (mRNA-1273) caused systemic side effects in most participants, with higher dose groups faring the worst.⁸

The 45 volunteers were divided into three dosage groups — 25 mcg, 100 mcg and 250 mcg — with 15 participants in each. Even in the low-dose group, one participant (6%) got so sick he required emergency medical care.

In the 100 mcg-dose group, systemic side effects were found in 80% of participants after the first dose, and 100% after the second dose. This is important to note, seeing how the coronavirus vaccine will be a two-dose regimen and most likely recommended to be repeated annually, just like the flu vaccine.

In the highest dosage group, which received 250 mcg, 100% of participants suffered side effects after both the first and second doses.⁹ Three of the 14 participants (21%) in the 250-mcg group suffered “one or more severe events.”

Despite these worrisome results, the trial is being heralded as a success. Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, has been quoted¹⁰ saying we now know “that it’s safe in 45 people,” and that “it doesn’t have a very common side effect problem.” If 80% to 100% is considered uncommon, then just what level of harm must be inflicted in order for a vaccine to be viewed as having a questionable safety profile?

The global powers under Gates’ direction plan to vaccinate every man, woman and child on the planet against SARS-CoV-2, or keep you locked up indefinitely. “Protecting Health and Autonomy in the 21st Century” may be the most important conference you can attend at this crucial time, so please sign up now.

It would seem no matter how unsafe the COVID-19 vaccine might end up being, we’re going to be assaulted with highly evocative advertising designed to play on our most basic emotions.

“Anti-Vaxxers” Are Taking On The “Globalists…”

And Plan To Win…

Yup, I said that twice…

Opinion By “Deplorable” Consumer Activist Tim Bolen

If I were to try to assemble a list of Planet Earth’s top “Anti-Vaxxers” for the purpose of giving awards I’d have to first get a Grant from some trillionaire Foundation just to get the trophies made up.

The Awards Ceremony, with speeches, would go on longer than the combined Democratic and Republican Conventions.  The “Anti-Vaxxer”movement is THAT big, and within its ranks you will find the world’s finest people.

Of course here at the BolenReport we have our own Kent Heckenlively JD, who we have labeled, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, “The World’s #1 Anti-Vaxxer.”   We did that to bait the opposition and lure them into strange positions – and the fools walked right into our minefields.  Australia (grin here) publicly banned his book tour.

Activism can be fun when you can get your opposition to look, and act, like the original “Keystone Cops…”

I’d give a Top “Anti-Vaxxer” Award (Special Circumstances) to California Senator Richard Pan…

Why?  Because Dicky Pan did MORE to focus the “Anti-Vaxxer” Movement than anyone else – he SO ANGERED concerned citizens when he forced through California Senate Bill #277 (SB277).  His arrogance was unmatched.  His absolute uncaring attitude about children was a GIFT to the “Anti-Vaxxer” Movement.  For…

He evoked a community rage…

Pan, single-handedly, increased the “Anti-Vaxxer” ranks a thousand-fold almost overnight.  His continued activities, including his treatment of others, was probably the biggest growth factor of the now completely global “Anti-Vaxxer” Movement.

Then it got even better…

California “Anti-Vaccine” activists, in an attempt to convince California legislators NOT to side with Richard Pan got the shock of their lives – they found out what the Democratic Party in the United States REALLY is, and really represents – and it is NOT what they thought.

Gone is the Democratic Party of JFK.

What the “Anti-Vaxxer” Movement found out is that ALL current Democratic Party elected officials want “globalism” – with complete government control over the population in EVERY aspect of their lives.

Just look at what happened in the Democratic Party controlled States after Covid-19 happened. 

EVERY Democratic Party Governor declared themselves, in one version or another, as a “Dictator For Life” in their own State, and their intent was to destroy capitalism and put everyone under the financial thumb of the state.

They shut down churches but kept Planned Parenthood open so they could continue to murder nine hundred (900) black babies each and every day.

They were introducing what they saw as “The New Normal,” meaning the new version of complete One-World Communism espoused by the “globalists.”

“Globalists” don’t care a bit about the safety of children…

They ONLY care about “Fake Climate Change” funding, completion of “Agenda 21” goals and objectives,  massive “Mandatory Vaccination”scams, LGBTPQ/ thirty-seven-gender promotions – things designed to turn Planet Earth’s population into an Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.”

The United Nation’s “Agenda 21”  administrators pointed out long ago (in writing)  that in order to create a ”One World” government under the management of a United Nations bureaucracy (Huxley’s “Betas”) that America itself would have to be completely destroyed from within, by using any means possible.

Why?

Because Americans were taught to be “independent thinkers,” a philosophy that just doesn’t jive with “collective thinking” – the “hive mentality” necessary to create the New-World-Order.

“Anti-Vaxxers” are anathema to collectivist “hive mentality” thinking.

“Anti-Vaxxers” are not quiet – they are not mild mannered people anymore.

They have found that full-on aggression works VERY well.  They defeated, with ease, Big Pharma’s plans to make every State in America require “Mandatory Vaccines.”   They won in forty-seven of the fifty States, losing only in those completely controlled by Democrats.  And, they are making plans to take those States back.

Success brings even more success…

Long gone are the days when earlier versions of the “Anti-Vaxxer”Movement bought a new purse, new shoes, and a new dress and went to Sacramento in opposition to California Richard Pan’s Senate Bill #277 (Mandatory Vaccines) with the ultra-weak messaging used to combat SB 277 – “We know that vaccines are safe and effective (sniff, sniff), we just want personal choice (whimper, whimper)…”

Now, you feel the ground shake when “Anti-Vaxxers” head for their State Capitals, except, of course, California where the legislature could care less about protecting children.

Here, in California, Democratic legislators, headed by San Francisco homosexual Senator Scott Weiner, are trying, right now, to pass a bill (SB 145) making it legal for the LGBTPQ community to lure into, and to have sex with, children within ten years of their own age – I kid you not.

More, when opposition surfaced in the form of a Q-Anon concern almost every liberal publication on Planet Earth attacked Q-Anon.

As the article in the Federalist says:

“The problem is that it isn’t about teenagers having sex. It’s about adults exploiting minors sexually and being legally protected in doing so. What possible justification would there be for a 24-year-old to have sex with a 15-year-old of either sex? The rational answer, of course, is there is none. Rather than addressing this reasonable concern, however, left-wing and LGBT sites decided opposition was homophobic and hateful.”

Before this attempt they actually had SB 18 – a bill that would remove children from parental control COMPLETELY and turn over that control to a group of homosexuals. It failed.  The “Anti-Vaxxers” stopped it dead.  You can read about that here:

https://bolenreport.com/liberal-democrats-hate-marriage-family/embed/#?secret=E473UCyEYN

So, The Democratic Party in the US is not real popular with parents of young children…

Or grandparents either…

Which translates into one simple thing right now – Election 2020.  No “Anti-Vaxxer” in their right mind is going to back, or vote for, any Democratic Party candidate in any State, or Federal election in 2020…

While on the subject of children, let’s take a look at the Democratic Party’s pick for their Presidential candidate…

The “Clover Chronicle” just came out August 26th, 2020, with a collection of forty (40) videos of Joe Biden groping children.  You can watch the whole collection just below…

VIDEO COLLECTION: Here Are 40 Reasons Why Joe Biden, The Open Sexual Predator, Should NEVER Become President

I think the HUGE, and very angry, “Anti-Vaxxer”community is going to decide the future of America, and hence the world…

They are going to do it in election 2020.

Stay tuned…

Opinion By “Deplorable” Consumer Activist Tim Bolen

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The Antichurch Cookbook? Vatican’s New Directory for Catechesis (Part I)

onepeterfive.com/the-antichurch-cookbook-vaticans-new-directory-for-catechesis-part-i
Whispers of August 24, 2020

Restoration

NB: See the rest of this series, plus other articles on the same topic here. Readers are also encouraged to acquire a traditional Catholic catechism; see our list, or check Tradivox.

Introduction

The Vatican’s new Directory for Catechesis has received rather scanty attention in the Catholic press (its appearance amid the Covidmadness being likely to blame), but we aim to change that as quickly as possible; because Saints preserve us, this one’s a humdinger.

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We are aided here by the analysis of one master catechist and educational specialist who has worked in USCCB circles for several years, and will be unpacking their insights in detail over a few installments.

However, even a cursory read reveals this new Directory to be the most concise, comprehensive, and systematic presentation of the core beliefs and methods yet prescribed for the “postconciliar Church,” as it has been called; and in many ways, the Directory is itself a “parallel church catechism.” It may be fairly regarded as a kind
of manifesto for what this parallel church believes, how it plans to inculcate those beliefs, and what methods it will adopt for the training of others.

Beyond its sweeping practical implications and not a few doctrinal difficulties (which is perhaps putting it lightly), by far the most troubling aspect of the entire text is its employment of a massive semantic shift, one unprecedented in Catholic catechetical literature. In this, one detects an exercise of what the respected Dr. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira referred to as “unperceived ideological transshipment” – a dimension we will explore further in this mini-series.

Our central claim is that this new Directory is a blueprint for the final evisceration of supernatural faith from any Catholic institution unhappy enough to implement it – which, as the document insists, should be all of them. Let the reader decide if the text bears it out, aware that we undertake this analysis in the hopes of helping others, particularly those entrusted with the care of souls, to both see and act with clarity and conviction.

Vatican Press Conference 6.25.2020

First, Meet Your Catechists

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On June 25, 2020, the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization (PCNE) held a press conference at the Vatican to reveal the new Directory for
Catechesis (DC), officially promulgated by Pope Francis on March 23, 2020. The DC is the result of more than one hundred contributing experts (whose names have not been made public), collaborating since early 2015.

The release was chaired by three leaders of the PCNE, pictured above from left to right: Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst (Delegate), Archbishop Jose Octavio Ruiz Arenas (Secretary), and Archbishop Rino Fisichella (President). Although Secretary +Arenas once served on the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (under then-Cardinal Ratzinger) and seems a respectable character, we feel obliged to remind readers that the other two hierarchs pictured above have troubled backgrounds.

As always, we love and pray earnestly for our clergy, and only draw attention to the public scandals recently surrounding these bishops to raise a question: Are these men trustworthy to reshape Catholic catechesis in our time?

+Fisichella speaking on the PCNE’s new Directory

President +Fisichella was formerly President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, relocated from that position by Pope Benedict XVI, to the newly-created PCNE in 2010 (some surmising that the PCNE was created for this purpose). This was after major
public outcry over a series of statements made by the Archbishop, where he implied the legitimacy of direct abortion in some cases. The situation became so heated that a very unusual step (that is, before CancelChurch) was taken by several prominent members of the Academy: five appealed to the pope to intervene directly and remove +Fisichella from his position, in fear that the Academy was swerving toward moral relativism – fears that seem to have been confirmed since then.

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Instead of a removal with disciplinary action, Archbishop Fisichella was promoted to head the new PCNE, where he oversaw the creation of the new Directory for Catechesis and remains today.

+Tebartz-van Elst, before and after his relocation to the PCNE

Delegate +Tebartz-van Elst was quietly added to the PCNE in 2015, when work on the new Directory first began. Earlier, he had been removed from his diocese due to civil litigation over his scandalous spending habits: having paid a court-ordered fine of nearly $30k to avoid perjury charges (after lying under oath about his luxury first-class flight and “charity trip” to India with his Vicar General) and earning the nickname “Bishop of Bling” – largely for spending roughly $42 million updating his residence and diocesan center. Apparently the renovations included $2.4 million for bronze window frames, $300k for an ornamental fish tank, $350k for a private chapel (which looks like an occult temple of techno-doom), and the grand prize: $22k for a custom French bathtub, which was immortalized in effigy during a town parade.

Although no notable demonstrations of penance have been forthcoming in the years since, the bishop does look barely recognizable since his relocation to the PCNE, where he remains today. One prays he has turned over a new leaf.

For the good of the Church, we feel obliged to pose the question: Should these men be trusted to reshape Catholic catechesis in our time?

“Universal Norms” – Intended Impact

In terms of their theoretical impact on Catholic teaching since the 1970s, it could be argued that few documents have matched the official import of the catechetical Directories of 1971 (GCD) and 1997 (GDC), along with the 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC): texts

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which may be understood respectively as the “methods” and “content” predominant in the Church’s earthly institutions since the Second Vatican Council, or at least since the Vietnam War.

Recognizing that every generally observable trend in the Church since that time has been toward catastrophic loss (or “auto-demolition,” as Pope Paul VI claimed), Catholics are justifiably concerned with precisely what kind of training this new Directory will be prescribing. After all, it is offered as a manual of “universal norms to guide pastors and catechists”[1], held as “indispensable for all those responsible for formal religious instruction”[2], and clearly intended to illustrate the “new normal” for institutional Catholic teaching throughout the world.

In the face of vertiginous statistical collapse in nearly every sector since the above texts were promulgated, the faithful have every right to ask: What manner of norms are our pastors and catechists being given in this newest Directory? What is envisioned for our parishes and schools? Our seminaries? Our parents and children? What exactly does the DC propose for Catholic catechesis on a global scale?

One answer seems readily clear: whatever else it may be, it is very new.

Screenshot from USCCB promo video

The Very New Directory

Far from being a bare revision of the 1997 Directory, the 2020 Directory is an entirely new text, created from scratch over the last five years. Those familiar with the fate of the original document schemas of the Second Vatican Council may detect some similarities here. To quote two of its main architects:

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“[The 1997] Directory was examined and the points to be reviewed and updated were noted… [but] it was concluded that it was more appropriate to rework a new Directory” (+Arenas, statement here)

“We got the impression it’s not only necessary to work on a revision, but we have to write a totally new text. So we did.” (+Tebartz-van Elst, interview here)

The ostensible warrant for this “totally new text” is of course its current historical context, which the DC frames as an “epochal watershed” (#319), a “change of era” (#38), a dramatic shift “taking place within the horizon of meaning of human experience itself” (#46). Therefore, the Church’s teaching mission must enter a “new stage” (#5, 38, 41); one where “the goal of the catechetical process is reinterpreted” (#3) and the Church is called to “rethink” not only catechesis, but all other “pastoral activities… even the most ordinary and traditional ones” (#303), in order to “find new languages and forms of expression” (#400) as it “strives to keep the Gospel of Jesus Christ relevant” (Preface).

In doing so, rather than ground itself in the enduring Tradition of the Church to face this storm of “profound changes” (#38, 45, 46, 213), the DC opts instead to root its directives in the “ecclesial context of recent decades” (#4) – a period which, it must be said, has been marked by all manner of vicissitude, ambiguity, and error. In point of fact, the DC is

so disproportionately indebted to the documents of and since Vatican II, that it would be more aptly entitled the Directory for Postconciliar Catechesis, or
even Bergoglian Catechesis.

Analyzing the References

What follows are several visualizations of every citation made in the DC, broken out in various ways. Our method was to tally each of the 706 unique document citations from both the body text and footnotes, allowing for the most precise breakdown of all the DC’s reference material.

One initial point of remark is the DC’s frequent and adulatory references to Vatican II, often referred to simply as “the Council,” and held aloft as il grande catechismo dei tempi nuovi: “the great catechism of modern times” (Preface). Appearing almost sixty years after that council (which clearly failed to bring any flowering in Catholic catechesis – quite the opposite, in fact), it was something of a surprise to find the DC referencing it so often. In total, the DC manages to cite all but three of its sixteen final documents, with nary a qualification or critique, and although it’s unlikely that the editors intended to place the conciliar texts on equal footing with the inspired Word of God, it seems noteworthy that Vatican II is the only source besides Scripture to receive in-text citations. All other sources are footnoted.

Now, on to a survey of the DC’s reference material:

6/11

The category of “Church Fathers, Doctors, and Saints” encompasses all citations of non- magisterial works of Catholic theology (all of which predate AD 1960). “Magisterial Text” categories include papal documents, as well as texts promulgated by local, regional, or general Church councils, and any Vatican apparatuses, e.g., Congregations, Commissions, or Pontifical Councils. For convenience, the terms “preconciliar” and “postconciliar” are adopted, to denote the time periods before and after the Second Vatican Council, respectively. Pope Francis’ citations are broken out separately in order to demonstrate the frequency of reference to his thought.

Inasmuch as Scriptural texts can be multivalent (particularly in a Directory concerned principally with methodology), parsing the above data to focus on non-scriptural sources affords greater insight on the DC’s indebtedness and direction.

In doing so, one discovers that, even if the DC had referenced thirty times as many sources from the first one thousand, nine hundred and sixty years of Catholic catechetical praxis, the document would still contain 12% more references to postconciliar sources, those dating from only the past fifty-five years. The DC appears to take very seriously its own exhortation to keep “up-to-date” (#135, 370).

7/11

The three most oft-cited sources in the DC, from most to least, are: Scripture, Francis, and Vatican II, in that order. There are 178 citations of Scripture, more than any other single source (although only 14 more than the runner-up). There are 82 citations of Vatican II, which is five times more than all preconciliar source citations combined. No other preconciliar Church councils are cited, although a few postconciliar synods are, and only one other general council gets so much as a mention: when the DC’s Preface recalls the Council of Trent as the progenitor of the first universal Catholic catechism.

The DC’s most-cited individual author, at 164 citations, is Pope Francis. Averaging at least one citation per page spread, Francis’ name is literally all over the DC, with twice as many citations as the documents of Vatican II, and thirty-five more than the other papal citations combined.

8/11

Another word must be said about the text’s driving mantra: “NEW.”

Without venturing too far into analysis of the document’s content, it should be noted that, including blank pages and section titles, there are a total of 251 pages of body text in the DC, from Preface to Conclusion. Within that range, the term “new,” including word forms (e.g., newness, renew), occurs 258 times. This means that in the body text, the word “new” occurs more than once per page – even on the blank ones.

Furthermore, terms evoking the sense of novelty and change are found frequently throughout the DC, especially when contrasted with terms connoting the opposite sense of tradition and fixity:

9/11

Although semantic analyses are by no means a perfect science and the terms tracked above were not contextually disambiguated, this snapshot fairly reflects the DC’s semantic baseline: just over two-thirds “novelty and change.”

“Creation of a New Language” – Stranger Still

By far the most revealing “raw data” on the DC’s novelty, however, is its alarming lexical range, which we will unpack further in a coming installment. In several places, the DC calls for “the creation of a new language” (Preface, #5, 41, 44, 326, 400), but it certainly doesn’t wait around for that creation: the DC itself marks a seismic shift in Catholic lexicological history. Its pages are so teeming with novel words and phrases, that even attempting to define them all would approach impossibility (which is perhaps why the DC seldom bothers to define its terms, and includes no Glossary).

In truth, the new lexicon so impacts certain sections of the text, that several paragraphs are rendered completely unintelligible. The catechist consulted for this analysis related that one higher-up in a US diocese, upon being asked “What does this mean?” about one of Pope Francis’ phrasings, simply shrugged and responded: “I don’t know.” Here, one may recall a recent word of warning from the former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States:

10/11

“[T]he systematic renunciation of the clear, unequivocal and crystalline language of the Church confirms the desire to detach itself not only from the Catholic form but even from its substance.”

(Archbishop Viganò, quoted here)
Despite some recognizably good points, the new Directory has a lot to answer for; and we

fully intend to put the DC through its paces here in coming days.

Even from what’s already been shown, what should one make of the Vatican’s claim that this new Directory for Catechesis stands in “dynamic continuity” (Preface) with the Church’s catechetical praxis of the last two millennia? Only that it’s rather long on dynamic, and short on continuity.

Catch you for the next piece, and Bravo the Restoration!

NOTE: “#” indicates paragraph numbers of the USCCB’s first English edition of the Directory for Catechesis (July, 2020), printed under ISBN 978-1-60137-669-5.

[1] As stated on the USCCB website, and printed on the rear cover of the book itself.

[2] USCCB website. The Directory product page reads, in part: “The Directory will also be indispensable for all those responsible for formal religious instruction, including pastors and parish priests, deacons, lay and religious catechists, and religious education teachers in dioceses, parishes, and schools. The Directory will furthermore aid directors of formation who train the faithful in the forms and means of catechesis, including seminary rectors, directors of formation for the permanent diaconate, and lay ecclesial minster formation program directors.”

This article originally appeared at Whispers of Restoration.

Riots are Coming to a City Near You

The Editors

The American Mind’s Weekly Digest 

Post08.24.2020

Wisconsin will be the new normal unless the Right puts its foot down.

Events in Kenosha, Wisconsin this week highlight the importance of our note Friday to the GOP convention: “Call out the Left and the Democratic Party for what they’ve inspired by falsely sanctifying the riots: a revolutionary insurrection against the American Way of Life. Show the American people specific examples.”

Another tragic but incomplete video—this time of police shooting an uncooperative criminal with a warrant out for his arrest after he lunged into his car—is being shamelessly used by the Left to inflame the populace.

Another cowardly Democratic Governor has immediately thrown law enforcement under the bus even as he admits in the same breath that “we do not have all the details yet.”https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1297739245507903490&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Famericanmind.org%2Fpost%2Friots-are-coming-to-a-city-near-you%2F&theme=light&widgetsVersion=223fc1c4%3A1596143124634&width=550px

And, predictably, the outrageous irresponsibility of the Democratic party in partnership with domestic terrorist activists is leading directly to more violence, looting, and arson in yet another American city.https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-1&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1297912931699404800&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Famericanmind.org%2Fpost%2Friots-are-coming-to-a-city-near-you%2F&theme=light&widgetsVersion=223fc1c4%3A1596143124634&width=550px

Sunday night, activists tried to burn down a courthouse. Bricks and more were thrown at officers and their vehicles. A car dealership was looted, vandalized, and set ablaze. And that was just the beginning, although most Americans did not hear about it from the mainstream press on Monday.

This shameful dynamic is now more than “normalized”—it is a central part of the Democratic Party’s campaign strategy. It must be rigorously exposed and denounced by Republicans and all Americans of good will.https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-2&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1297902277173313536&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Famericanmind.org%2Fpost%2Friots-are-coming-to-a-city-near-you%2F&theme=light&widgetsVersion=223fc1c4%3A1596143124634&width=550px

Republicans are not without responsibility for this regime crisis. Those who now hold onto power in America are plunging our country into economic depression, rabidly encouraging racial tension and violence, radically revising and lying about our nation’s history and heroes, and seeking to banish all public opposition in order to remain in power. They will succeed unless they are called to accountand stopped.

The Democratic Party is now the BLM-Antifa Party, and both of these organizations need to be exposed and investigated. Why have more Republican leaders not pointed out that convicted terrorist Susan Rosenberg is on the Board of Directors for the fundraising arm of BLM, for instance? Google her and the 1983 bombing of the United States Capitol Building, the U.S. Naval War College, and the New York Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association. And she’s the tip of the iceberg. She’s a feature, not a bug, of what needs exposing now.

Fancy foundations that support domestic terrorism at the hands of insane Marxists and dangerous anarchists need to be targeted, the individuals and organizations involved exposed and justly defamed. Forget defending yourselves against pathetic corrupt Southern Poverty Law Center attacks. The Right needs to create its own SPLC to highlight the real and significant sources of civic unrest and violence in America.

Our failure to educate our nation’s youth—and the Left’s success in propagandizing Americans into radicalism bent on the destruction of their own nation—has had clear and direct consequences. We are merely getting what we paid for. And we need to stop paying for it, ASAP.

Our need for digitally savvy new media companies that employ citizen journalists to reveal what is actually occurring in America grows more obvious by the day. The reality on the ground will continue to be downplayed or evaded by mainstream media outlets, but as each day goes by it is our hope that more Americans will see and reject these trends. Yet the Right still waffles on taking the stern steps needed to ensure its enemies do not politically manipulate that digital technology.

A few tens of thousands of the three hundred and thirty million Americans in this nation were able to witness the events as they unfolded in Kenosha Sunday night on live online feeds. They were treated to a disturbing but riveting view of what is now routinely occurring on our nation’s streets. But we still see many Americans in denial about this violence, as well as the great exodus now occurring out of our cities, abetted by a media that refuses to give us all a direct look into our present, sordid reality. When will the Right build the media outfits our nation’s citizenry needs?

What will happen in Wisconsin in coming days? How many more American towns and cities will have to suffer the same fate in the near future? How long and to what extent can the media hide the truth between now and November? And if Republicans refuse to show the American people what is currently happening across the nation and denounce it—who will?

The Editors of The American Mind.