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| Pope Francis is using Synod to separate Church ‘leadership’ from ‘ordination’: liberal Vatican nun |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-08-2022, 12:51 PM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism
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Pope Francis is using Synod to separate Church ‘leadership’ from ‘ordination’: liberal Vatican nun
Sr. Nathalie Becquart told The New York Times that the role of women in the Church was changing under Pope Francis.
![[Image: nathalie-becquart-810x500.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/nathalie-becquart-810x500.jpg)
Sr. Nathalie Becquart, under-secretary of the Synod of Bishops
Mon Mar 7, 2022
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) – A prominent female member of the Vatican Curia, Sister Nathalie Becquart, has declared that Pope Francis intends to “disconnect participation in the leadership of the church from ordination” in the Synod on Synodality.
Sr. Becquart – appointed in February 2021 as the Vatican’s first female member of the Roman Curia with synodal voting rights, and under-secretary of the Synod of Bishops, the body which is organizing the current Synod on Synodality – made the revelation in an interview conducted by The New York Times as part of the publication’s “Women and Leadership special report.”
Asked about the “obstacles” to female ordination in the Catholic Church, Becquart replied:
Quote:The vision of Pope Francis, through this synod, is to get rid of a clerical church and move to a synodal church — to disconnect participation in the leadership of the church from ordination. We can say that the way now opening up is to listen to all different views; for instance, not everyone thinks ordination of women is a good path. You have some groups calling for that, but you also have some groups calling for new ministries.
“The question of women is a sign of the times,” she said. “It is a powerful call within our societies and in the church. The church has already said we should fight against any discrimination against women. But it is a long way, not only in the church.”
Similar allusions to fundamental change in the Catholic Church following the Synod on Synodality were made by Cardinal Mario Grech, the general-secretary of the Synod of Bishops, who recently said the Synodal process would be a “discernment process,” by which the Church would “find truth.” Grech even hinted at Pope Francis effecting a “change” in doctrine following the Synod.
Yet the Church has already explicitly ruled against the possibility of female ordination, despite Becquart’s suggestion that such an option could be on the table. In Ordinatio sacerdotalis, Pope John Paul II firmly condemned any attempt at female ordination, writing:
Quote:Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church’s divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.
The doctrine of male-only priesthood “has been preserved by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the Magisterium in its more recent documents,” the Pope added.
Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has repeatedly confirmed this magisterial teaching, stating that “women cannot become priests because this is excluded by the nature of the Sacrament of Holy Orders.” This prohibition is “normative and as a truth contained in Revelation, not a habit subject to change.”
In 2019, warning about the Amazon Synod’s working document (Instrumentum Laboris), Müller wrote firmly against any future change to the teaching on ordination:
Quote:Therefore, no synod – with or without the Pope – and also no ecumenical council, or the Pope alone, if he spoke ex cathedra, could make possible the ordination of women as bishop, priest, or deacon. They would stand in contradiction to the defined doctrine of the Church.
Pope Francis’ reported desire to divorce ecclesiastical “leadership” from ordination has already been rejected as impossible by Father Karl-Heinz Menke, a retired theologian of dogmatics at the University of Bonn. Menke told LifeSiteNews in 2019 that “the power of ordination (potestas ordinis) and the judicial power (potestas jurisdictionis) may not be separated.” Jurisdiction is intrinsically linked with “ordination,” noted Menke. ...
Notwithstanding such teaching, Becquart’s own appointment as under-secretary to the Synod of Bishops was taken by Cardinal Grech as a sign of change both in the curia and the wider Church, as noted by LifeSiteNews previously. “We will then see what other steps could be taken in the future,” he declared after her appointment, adding that her presence in the General Secretariat would “undoubtedly” force a structural change.
Becquart herself alluded to a form of ecclesiastical revolution, commenting in 2021 that “the Church has learned from the Synod of the Amazon the importance of empowering women.” The “clericalist mindset is changing,” she said, employing one of Pope Francis’ oft-repeated terms.
Becquart repeated this theme when speaking to The New York Times, saying “now we rediscover that the main focus of the church is people walking together: Everyone has a role. Nobody should be set aside.”
She praised Pope Francis’ 2021 motu proprio Spiritus Domini, which opened up the ministries of acolyte and lector to women for the first time, calling it “a major change” for women in the Church.
However, theologian and acclaimed author Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, told LifeSiteNews at the time that the Pope’s move was “a kind of sop thrown to the feminists in the Church, which, of course, will not satisfy them, since the ‘holy grail’ is the priesthood or even the episcopacy.”
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| St. Augustine of Hippo: Of the Good of Marriage, Of the Good of Widowhood, and on Holy Virginity |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-08-2022, 09:36 AM - Forum: Fathers of the Church
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This treatise, and the following, were written against somewhat that still remained of the heresy of Jovinian. S. Aug. mentions this error in b. ii. c. 23, de Nuptiis et Conc. Jovinianus, he says, who a few years since tried to found a new heresy, said that the Catholics favored the Manichæans, because in opposition to him they preferred holy Virginity to Marriage. And in his book on Heresies, c. 82. That heresy took its rise from one Jovinianus, a Monk, in our own time, when we were yet young. And he adds that it was soon overborne and extinguished, say about A.D. 390, having been condemned first at Rome, then at Milan. There are letters of Pope Siricius on the subject to the Church of Milan, and the answer sent him by the Synod of Milan, at which St. Ambrose presided. Jerome had refuted Jovinian, but was said to have attempted the defense of the excellency of the virgin state, at the expense of condemning marriage. That Augustine might not be subject to any such complaint or calumny, before speaking of the superiority of Virginity, he thought it well to write on the Good of Marriage.
This work we learn to have been finished about the year 401, not only from the order of his Retractations, but also from his books on Genesis after the Letter, begun about that year. For in b. ix. on Genesis, c. 7, where he commends the Good of Marriage, he says: Now this is threefold, faithfulness, offspring, and the Sacrament. For faithfulness, it is observed, that there be no lying with other man or woman, out of the bond of wedlock: for the offspring, that it be lovingly welcomed, kindly nourished, religiously brought up: for the Sacrament, that marriage be not severed, and that man or woman divorced be not joined to another even for the sake of offspring. This is as it were the rule of Marriages by which rule either fruitfulness is made seemly, or the perverseness of incontinence is brought to order. Upon which since we have sufficiently discoursed in that book, which we lately published, on the Good of Marriage, where we have also distinguished the Widow's continence and the Virgin's excellency, according to the worthiness of their degrees, our pen is not to be now longer occupied. This very work is referred to in Book I. on the Deserts and Remission of Sins, c. 29.— Bened. Ed.
1. Forasmuch as each man is a part of the human race, and human nature is something social, and has for a great and natural good, the power also of friendship; on this account God willed to create all men out of one, in order that they might be held in their society not only by likeness of kind, but also by bond of kindred. Therefore the first natural bond of human society is man and wife. Nor did God create these each by himself, and join them together as alien by birth: but He created the one out of the other, setting a sign also of the power of the union in the side, whence she was drawn, was formed. For they are joined one to another side by side, who walk together, and look together whither they walk. Then follows the connection of fellowship in children, which is the one alone worthy fruit, not of the union of male and female, but of the sexual intercourse. For it were possible that there should exist in either sex, even without such intercourse, a certain friendly and true union of the one ruling, and the other obeying.
2. Nor is it now necessary that we enquire, and put forth a definite opinion on that question, whence could exist the progeny of the first men, whom God had blessed, saying, Increase, and be ye multiplied, and fill the earth; if they had not sinned, whereas their bodies by sinning deserved the condition of death, and there can be no sexual intercourse save of mortal bodies. For there have existed several and different opinions on this matter; and if we must examine, which of them be rather agreeable to the truth of Divine Scriptures, there is matter for a lengthened discussion. Whether, therefore, without intercourse, in some other way, had they not sinned, they would have had sons, from the gift of the Almighty Creator, Who was able to create themselves also without parents, Who was able to form the Flesh of Christ in a virgin womb, and (to speak even to unbelievers themselves) Who was able to bestow on bees a progeny without sexual intercourse; or whether many things there were spoken by way of mystery and figure, and we are to understand in another sense what is written, Fill the earth, and rule over it; that is, that it should come to pass by fullness and perfection of life and power, so that the very increase and multiplication, whereby it is said, Increase, and be ye multiplied, be understood to be by advance of mind, and abundance of virtue, as it is set in the Psalm, You shall multiply me in my soul by virtue; and that succession of progeny was not given unto man, save after that, by reason of sin, there was to be hereafter departure in death: or whether the body was not made spiritual in the case of these men, but at the first animal, in order that by merit of obedience it might after become spiritual, to lay hold of immortality, not after death, which by the malice of the devil entered into the world, and was made the punishment of sin; but after that change, which the Apostle signifies, when he says, Then we living, who remain, together with them, shall be caught up in the clouds, to meet Christ, into the air, that we may understand both that those bodies of the first pair were mortal, in the first forming, and yet that they would not have died, had they not sinned, as God had threatened: even as if He should threaten a wound, in that the body was capable of wounds; which yet would not have happened, unless what He had forbidden were done. Thus, therefore, even through sexual intercourse there might take place generations of such bodies, as up to a certain point should have increase, and yet should not pass into old age; or even into old age, and yet not into death; until the earth were filled with that multiplication of the blessing. For if to the garments of the Israelites God granted their proper state without any wearing away during forty years, how much more would He grant unto the bodies of such as obeyed His command a certain most happy temperament of sure state, until they should be changed for the better, not by death of the man, whereby the body is abandoned by the soul, but by a blessed change from mortality to immortality, from an animal to a spiritual quality. Of these opinions which be true, or whether some other or others yet may be formed out of these words, were a long matter to enquire and discuss.
3. This we now say, that, according to this condition of being born and dying, which we know, and in which we have been created, the marriage of male and female is some good; the compact whereof divine Scripture so commends, as that neither is it allowed one put away by her husband to marry, so long as her husband lives: nor is it allowed one put away by his wife to marry another, unless she who have separated from him be dead. Therefore, concerning the good of marriage, which the Lord also confirmed in the Gospel, not only in that He forbade to put away a wife, save because of fornication, but also in that He came by invitation to a marriage, there is good ground to inquire for what reason it be a good. And this seems not to me to be merely on account of the begetting of children, but also on account of the natural society itself in a difference of sex. Otherwise it would not any longer be called marriage in the case of old persons, especially if either they had lost sons, or had given birth to none. But now in good, although aged, marriage, albeit there has withered away the glow of full age between male and female, yet there lives in full vigor the order of charity between husband and wife: because, the better they are, the earlier they have begun by mutual consent to contain from sexual intercourse with each other: not that it should be matter of necessity afterwards not to have power to do what they would, but that it should be matter of praise to have been unwilling at the first, to do what they had power to do. If therefore there be kept good faith of honor, and of services mutually due from either sex, although the members of either be languishing and almost corpse-like, yet of souls duly joined together, the chastity continues, the purer by how much it is the more proved, the safer, by how much it is the calmer. Marriages have this good also, that carnal or youthful incontinence, although it be faulty, is brought unto an honest use in the begetting of children, in order that out of the evil of lust the marriage union may bring to pass some good. Next, in that the lust of the flesh is repressed, and rages in a way more modestly, being tempered by parental affection. For there is interposed a certain gravity of glowing pleasure, when in that wherein husband and wife cleave to one another, they have in mind that they be father and mother.
4. There is this further, that in that very debt which married persons pay one to another, even if they demand it with somewhat too great intemperance and incontinence, yet they owe faith alike one to another. Unto which faith the Apostle allows so great right, as to call it power, saying, The woman has not power of her own body, but the man; again in like manner also the man has not power of his own body, but the woman. But the violation of this faith is called adultery, when either by instigation of one's own lust, or by consent of lust of another, there is sexual intercourse on either side with another against the marriage compact: and thus faith is broken, which, even in things that are of the body, and mean, is a great good of the soul: and therefore it is certain that it ought to be preferred even to the health of the body, wherein even this life of ours is contained. For, although a little chaff in comparison of much gold is almost nothing; yet faith, when it is kept pure in a matter of chaff, as in gold, is not therefore less because it is kept in a lesser matter. But when faith is employed to commit sin, it were strange that we should have to call it faith; however of whatever kind it be, if also the deed be done against it, it is the worse done; save when it is on this account abandoned, that there may be a return unto true and lawful faith, that is, that sin may be amended, by correction of perverseness of the will. As if any, being unable alone to rob a man, should find a partner in his iniquity, and make an agreement with him to do it together, and to divide the spoil; and, after the crime has been committed, should take off the whole to himself alone. That other grieves and complains that faith has not been kept with him, but in his very complaint he ought to consider, that he himself rather ought to have kept faith with human society in a good life, and not to make unjust spoil of a man, if he feels with how great injustice it has failed to be kept with himself in a fellowship of sin. Forsooth the former, being faithless in both instances, must assuredly be judged the more wicked. But, if he had been displeased at what they had done ill, and had been on this account unwilling to divide the spoil with his partner in crime, in order that it might be restored to the man, from whom it had been taken, not even a faithless man would call him faithless. Thus a woman, if, having broken her marriage faith, she keep faith with her adulterer, is certainly evil: but, if not even with her adulterer, worse. Further, if she repent her of her sin, and returning to marriage chastity, renounce all adulterous compacts and resolutions, I count it strange if even the adulterer himself will think her one who breaks faith.
5. Also the question is wont to be asked, when a male and female, neither the one the husband, nor the other the wife, of any other, come together, not for the begetting of children, but, by reason of incontinence, for the mere sexual intercourse, there being between them this faith, that neither he do it with any other woman, nor she with any other man, whether it is to be called marriage. And perhaps this may, not without reason, be called marriage, if it shall be the resolution of both parties until the death of one, and if the begetting of children, although they came not together for that cause, yet they shun not, so as either to be unwilling to have children born to them, or even by some evil work to use means that they be not born. But, if either both, or one, of these be wanting, I find not how we can call it marriage. For, if a man should take unto him any one for a time, until he find another worthy either of his honors or of his means, to marry as his compeer; in his soul itself he is an adulterer, and that not with her whom he is desirous of finding, but with her, with whom he so lies, as not to have with her the partnership of a husband. Whence she also herself, knowing and willing this, certainly acts unchastely in having intercourse with him, with whom she has not the compact of a wife. However, if she keep to him faith of bed, and after he shall have married, have no thought of marriage herself, and prepare to contain herself altogether from any such work, perhaps I should not dare lightly to call her an adulteress; but who shall say that she sins not, when he is aware that she has intercourse with a man, not being his wife? But further, if from that intercourse, so far as pertains to herself, she has no wish but for sons, and suffers unwilling whatever she suffers beyond the cause of begetting; there are many matrons to whom she is to be preferred; who, although they are not adulteresses, yet force their husbands, for the most part also wishing to exercise continence, to pay the due of the flesh, not through desire of children, but through glow of lust making an intemperate use of their very right; in whose marriages, however, this very thing, that they are married, is a good. For for this purpose are they married, that the lust being brought under a lawful bond, should not float at large without form and loose; having of itself weakness of flesh that cannot be curbed, but of marriage fellowship of faith that cannot be dissolved; of itself encroachment of immoderate intercourse, of marriage a way of chastely begetting. For, although it be shameful to wish to use a husband for purposes of lust, yet it is honorable to be unwilling to have intercourse save with an husband, and not to give birth to children save from a husband. There are also men incontinent to that degree, that they spare not their wives even when pregnant. Therefore whatever that is immodest, shameless, base, married persons do one with another, is the sin of the persons, not the fault of marriage.
6. Further, in the very case of the more immoderate requirement of the due of the flesh, which the Apostle enjoins not on them by way of command, but allows to them by way of leave, that they have intercourse also beside the cause of begetting children; although evil habits impel them to such intercourse, yet marriage guards them from adultery or fornication. For neither is that committed because of marriage, but is pardoned because of marriage. Therefore married persons owe one another not only the faith of their sexual intercourse itself, for the begetting of children, which is the first fellowship of the human kind in this mortal state; but also, in a way, a mutual service of sustaining one another's weakness, in order to shun unlawful intercourse: so that, although perpetual continence be pleasing to one of them, he may not, save with consent of the other. For thus far also, The wife has not power of her own body, but the man: in like manner also the man has not power of his own body, but the woman. That that also, which, not for the begetting of children, but for weakness and incontinence, either he seeks of marriage, or she of her husband, they deny not the one or the other; lest by this they fall into damnable seductions, through temptation of Satan, by reason of incontinence either of both, or of whichever of them. For intercourse of marriage for the sake of begetting has not fault; but for the satisfying of lust, but yet with husband or wife, by reason of the faith of the bed, it has venial fault: but adultery or fornication has deadly fault, and, through this, continence from all intercourse is indeed better even than the intercourse of marriage itself, which takes place for the sake of begetting. But because that Continence is of larger desert, but to pay the due of marriage is no crime, but to demand it beyond the necessity of begetting is a venial fault, but to commit fornication or adultery is a crime to be punished; charity of the married ought to beware, lest while it seek for itself occasion of larger honor, it do that for its partner which cause condemnation. For whosoever puts away his wife, except for the cause of fornication, makes her to commit adultery. To such a degree is that marriage compact entered upon a matter of a certain sacrament, that it is not made void even by separation itself, since, so long as her husband lives, even by whom she has been left, she commits adultery, in case she be married to another: and he who has left her, is the cause of this evil.
7. But I marvel, if, as it is allowed to put away a wife who is an adulteress, so it be allowed, having put her away, to marry another. For holy Scripture causes a hard knot in this matter, in that the Apostle says, that, by commandment of the Lord, the wife ought not to depart from her husband, but, in case she shall have departed, to remain unmarried, or to be reconciled to her husband; whereas surely she ought not to depart and remain unmarried, save from an husband that is an adulterer, lest by withdrawing from him, who is not an adulterer, she cause him to commit adultery. But perhaps she may justly be reconciled to her husband, either he being to be borne with, if she cannot contain herself, or being now corrected. But I see not how the man can have permission to marry another, in case he have left an adulteress, when a woman has not to be married to another, in case she have left an adulterer. And, this being the case, so strong is that bond of fellowship in married persons, that, although it be tied for the sake f begetting children, not even for the sake of begetting children is it loosed. For it is in a man's power to put away a wife that is barren, and marry one of whom to have children. And yet it is not allowed; and now indeed in our times, and after the usage of Rome, neither to marry in addition, so as to have more than one wife living: and, surely, in case of an adulteress or adulterer being left, it would be possible that more men should be born, if either the woman were married to another, or the man should marry another. And yet, if this be not lawful, as the Divine Rule seems to prescribe, who is there but it must make him attentive to learn, what is the meaning of this so great strength of the marriage bond? Which I by no means think could have been of so great avail, were it not that there were taken a certain sacrament of some greater matter from out this weak mortal state of men, so that, men deserting it, and seeking to dissolve it, it should remain unshaken for their punishment. Seeing that the compact of marriage is not done away by divorce intervening; so that they continue wedded persons one to another, even after separation; and commit adultery with those, with whom they shall be joined, even after their own divorce, either the woman with a man, or the man with a woman. And yet, save in the City of our God, in His Holy Mount, the case is not such with the wife. But, that the laws of the Gentiles are otherwise, who is there that knows not; where, by the interposition of divorce, without any offense of which man takes cognizance, both the woman is married to whom she will, and the man marries whom he will. And something like this custom, on account of the hardness of the Israelites, Moses seems to have allowed, concerning a bill of divorcement. In which matter there appears rather a rebuke, than an approval, of divorce.
8. Honorable, therefore, is marriage in all, and the bed undefiled. And this we do not so call a good, as that it is a good in comparison of fornication: otherwise there will be two evils, of which the second is worse: or fornication will also be a good, because adultery is worse: for it is worse to violate the marriage of another, than to cleave unto an harlot: and adultery will be a good, because incest is worse; for it is worse to lie with a mother than with the wife of another: and, until we arrive at those things, which, as the Apostle says, it is a shame even to speak of, all will be good in comparison of what are worse. But who can doubt that this is false? Therefore marriage and fornication are not two evils, whereof the second is worse: but marriage and continence are two goods, whereof the second is better, even as this temporal health and sickness are not two evils, whereof the second is worse; but that health and immortality are two goods, whereof the second is better. Also knowledge and vanity are not two evils, whereof vanity is the worse: but knowledge and charity are two goods, whereof charity is the better. For knowledge shall be destroyed, says the Apostle: and yet it is necessary for this time: but charity shall never fail. Thus also this mortal begetting, on account of which marriage takes place, shall be destroyed: but freedom from all sexual intercourse is both angelic exercise here, and continues forever. But as the repasts of the Just are better than the fasts of the sacrilegious, so the marriage of the faithful is to be set before the virginity of the impious. However neither in that case is repast preferred to fasting, but righteousness to sacrilege; nor in this, marriage to virginity, but faith to impiety. For for this end the righteous, when need is, take their repast, that, as good masters, they may give to their slaves, i.e., their bodies, what is just and fair: but for this end the sacrilegious fast, that they may serve devils. Thus for this end the faithful are married, that they may be chastely joined unto husbands, but for this end the impious are virgins, that they may commit fornication away from the true God. As, therefore, that was good, which Martha was doing, being engaged in the ministering unto the Saints, but that better, which Mary, her sister, sitting at the feet of the Lord, and hearing His word; thus we praise the good of Susanna in married chastity, but yet we set before her the good of the widow Anna, and, much more, of the Virgin Mary. It was good that they were doing, who of their substance were ministering necessaries unto Christ and His disciples: but better, who left all their substance, that they might be freer to follow the same Lord. But in both these cases of good, whether what these, or whether what Martha and Mary were doing, the better could not be done, unless the other had been passed over or left. Whence we are to understand, that we are not, on this account, to think marriage an evil, because, unless there be abstinence from it, widowed chastity, or virgin purity, cannot be had. For neither on this account was what Martha was doing evil, because, unless her sister abstained from it, she could not do what was better: nor on this account is it evil to receive a just man or a prophet into one's house, because he, who wills to follow Christ unto perfection, ought not even to have a house, in order to do what is better.
9. Truly we must consider, that God gives us some goods, which are to be sought for their own sake, such as wisdom, health, friendship: but others, which are necessary for the sake of somewhat, such as learning, meat, drink, sleep, marriage, sexual intercourse. For of these certain are necessary for the sake of wisdom, as learning: certain for the sake of health, as meat and drink and sleep: certain for the sake of friendship, as marriage or sexual intercourse: for hence subsists the propagation of the human kind, wherein friendly fellowship is a great good. These goods, therefore, which are necessary for the sake of something else, whoever uses not for this purpose, wherefore they were instituted, sins; in some cases venially, in other cases damnably. But whoever uses them for this purpose, wherefore they were given does well. Therefore, to whomsoever they are not necessary, if he use them not, he does better. Wherefore, these goods, when we have need, we do well to wish; but we do better not to wish than to wish: because ourselves are in a better state, when we account them not necessary. And on this account it is good to marry, because it is good to beget children, to be a mother of a family: but it is better not to marry, because it is better not to stand in need of this work, in order to human fellowship itself. For such is the state of the human race now, that (others, who contain not, not only being taken up with marriage, but many also waxing wanton through unlawful concubinages, the Good Creator working what is good out of their evils) there fails not numerous progeny, and abundant succession, out of which to procure holy friendships. Whence we gather, that, in the first times of the human race, chiefly for the propagation of the People of God, through whom the Prince and Saviour of all people should both be prophesied of, and be born, it was the duty of the Saints to use this good of marriage, not as to be sought for its own sake, but necessary for the sake of something else: but now, whereas, in order to enter upon holy and pure fellowship, there is on all sides from out all nations an overflowing fullness of spiritual kindred, even they who wish to contract marriage only for the sake of children, are to be admonished, that they use rather the larger good of continence.
10. But I am aware of some that murmur: What, say they, if all men should abstain from all sexual intercourse, whence will the human race exist? Would that all would this, only in charity out of a pure heart, and good conscience, and faith unfeigned; much more speedily would the City of God be filled, and the end of the world hastened. For what else does the Apostle, as is manifest, exhort to, when he says, speaking on this head, I would that all were as myself; or in that passage, But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remains that both they who have wives, be as though not having: and they who weep, as though not weeping: and they who rejoice, as though not rejoicing: and they who buy, as though not buying: and they who use this world as though they use it not. For the form of this world passes by. I would have you without care. Then he adds, Whoever is without a wife thinks of the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord: but whoever is joined in marriage, thinks of the things of the world, how to please his wife: and a woman that is unmarried and a virgin is different: she that is unmarried is anxious about the things of the Lord, to be holy both in body and spirit: but she that is married, is anxious about the things of the world, how to please her husband. Whence it seems to me, that at this time, those only, who contain not, ought to marry, according to that sentence of the same Apostle, But if they contain not, let them be married: for it is better to be married than to burn.
11. And yet not to these themselves is marriage a sin; which, if it were chosen in comparison of fornication, would be a less sin than fornication, and yet would be a sin. But now what shall we say against the most plain speech of the Apostle, saying, Let her do what she will; she sins not, if she be married; and, If you shall have taken a wife, you have not sinned: and, if a virgin shall have been married, she sins not. Hence surely it is not lawful now to doubt that marriage is no sin. Therefore the Apostle allows not marriage as matter of pardon: for who can doubt that it is extremely absurd to say, that they have not sinned, unto whom pardon is granted. But he allows, as matter of pardon, that sexual intercourse, which takes place through incontinence, not alone for the begetting of children, and, at times, not at all for the begetting of children; and it is not that marriage forces this to take place, but that it procures pardon for it; provided however it be not so in excess as to hinder what ought to be set aside as seasons of prayer, nor be changed into that use which is against nature, on which the Apostle could not be silent, when speaking of the excessive corruptions of unclean and impious men. For necessary sexual intercourse for begetting is free from blame, and itself is alone worthy of marriage. But that which goes beyond this necessity, no longer follows reason, but lust. And yet it pertains to the character of marriage, not to exact this, but to yield it to the partner, lest by fornication the other sin damnably. But, if both are set under such lust, they do what is plainly not matter of marriage. However, if in their intercourse they love what is honest more than what is dishonest, that is, what is matter of marriage more than what is not matter of marriage, this is allowed to them on the authority of the Apostle as matter of pardon: and for this fault, they have in their marriage, not what sets them on to commit it, but what entreats pardon for it, if they turn not away from them the mercy of God, either by not abstaining on certain days, that they may be free to pray, and through this abstinence, as through fasting, may commend their prayers; or by changing the natural use into that which is against nature, which is more damnable when it is done in the case of husband or wife.
12. For, whereas that natural use, when it pass beyond the compact of marriage, that is, beyond the necessity of begetting, is pardonable in the case of a wife, damnable in the case of an harlot; that which is against nature is execrable when done in the case of an harlot, but more execrable in the case of a wife. Of so great power is the ordinance of the Creator, and the order of Creation, that, in matters allowed us to use, even when the due measure is exceeded, it is far more tolerable, than, in what are not allowed, either a single, or rare excess. And, therefore, in a matter allowed, want of moderation, in a husband or wife, is to be borne with, in order that lust break not forth into a matter that is not allowed. Hence is it also that he sins far less, who is ever so unceasing in approaches to his wife, than he who approaches ever so seldom to commit fornication. But, when the man shall wish to use the member of the wife not allowed for this purpose, the wife is more shameful, if she allows it to take place in her own case, than if in the case of another woman. Therefore the ornament of marriage is chastity of begetting, and faith of yielding the due of the flesh: this is the work of marriage, this the Apostle defends from every charge, in saying, Both if you shall have taken a wife, you have not sinned: and if a virgin shall have been married, she sins not: and, Let her do what she will: she sins not if she be married. But an advance beyond moderation in demanding the due of either sex, for the reasons which I have stated above, is allowed to married persons as matter of pardon.
13. What therefore he says, She, that is unmarried, thinks of the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit; we are not to take in such sense, as to think that a chaste Christian wife is not holy in body. Forsooth unto all the faithful it was said, Do you not know that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Ghost within you, Whom you have from God? Therefore the bodies also of the married are holy, so long as they keep faith to one another and to God. And that this sanctity of either of them, even an unbelieving partner does not stand in the way of, but rather that the sanctity of the wife profits the unbelieving husband, and the sanctity of the husband profits the unbelieving wife, the same Apostle is witness, saying, For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in a brother. Wherefore that was said according to the greater sanctity of the unmarried than of the married, unto which there is also due a greater reward, according as, the one being a good, the other is a greater good: inasmuch as also she has this thought only, how to please the Lord. For it is not that a female who believes, keeping married chastity, thinks not how to please the Lord; but assuredly less so, in that she thinks of the things of the world, how to please her husband. For this is what he would say of them, that they may, in a certain way, find themselves obliged by marriage to think of the things of the world, how to please their husbands.
14. And not without just cause a doubt is raised, whether he said this of all married women, or of such as so many are, as that nearly all may be thought so to be. For neither does that, which he says of unmarried women, She, that is unmarried, thinkest of the things of the Lord, to be holy both in body and spirit: pertain unto all unmarried women: whereas there are certain widows who are dead, who live in delights. However, so far as regards a certain distinction and, as it were, character of their own, of the unmarried and married; as she deserves the excess of hatred, who containing from marriage, that is, from a thing allowed, does not contain from offenses, either of luxury, or pride, or curiosity and prating; so the married woman is seldom met with, who, in the very obedience of married life, has no thought save how to please God, by adorning herself, not with plaited hair, or gold and pearls and costly attire, but as becomes women making profession of piety, through a good conversation. Such marriages, forsooth, the Apostle Peter also describes by giving commandment. In like manner, says he, wives obeying their own husbands; in order that, even if any obey not the word, they may be gained without discourse through the conversation of the wives, seeing your fear and chaste conversation: that they be not they that are adorned without with crispings of hair, or clothed with gold or with fair raiment; but that hidden man of your heart, in that unbroken continuance of a quiet and modest spirit, which before the Lord also is rich. For thus certain holy women, who hoped in the Lord, used to adorn themselves, obeying their own husbands: as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord: whose daughters you have become, when you do well, and fear not with any vain fear. Husbands in like manner living at peace and in chastity with your wives, both give ye honor as to the weaker and subject vessel, as with co-heirs of grace, and see that your prayers be not hindered. Is it indeed that such marriages have no thought of the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord? But they are very rare: who denies this? And, being, as they are, rare, nearly all the persons who are such, were not joined together in order to be such, but being already joined together became such.
15. For what Christian men of our time being free from the marriage bond, having power to contain from all sexual intercourse, seeing it to be now a time, as it is written, not of embracing, but of abstaining from embrace, would not choose rather to keep virginal or widowed continence, than (now that there is no obligation from duty to human society) to endure tribulation of the flesh, without which marriages cannot be (to pass over in silence other things from which the Apostle spares.) But when through desire reigning they shall have been joined together, if they shall after overcome it, because it is not lawful to loose, in such wise as it was lawful not to tie, the marriage bond, they become such as the form of marriage makes profession of, so as that either by mutual consent they ascend unto a higher degree of holiness, or, if both are not such, the one who is such will not be one to exact but to yield the due, observing in all things a chaste and religious concord. But in those times, wherein as yet the mystery of our salvation was veiled in prophetic sacraments, even they who were such before marriage, yet contracted marriage through the duty of begetting children, not overcome by lust, but led by piety, unto whom if there were given such choice as in the revelation of the New Testament there has been given, the Lord saying Whoever can receive, let him receive; no one doubts that they would have been ready to receive it even with joy, who reads with careful attention what use they made of their wives, at a time when also it was allowed one man to have several, whom he had with more chastity, than any now has his one wife, of these, unto whom we see what the Apostle allows by way of leave. For they had them in the work of begetting children, not in the disease of desire, as the nations which know not God. And this is so great a thing, that many at this day more easily abstain from all sexual intercourse their whole life through, than, if they are joined in marriage, observe the measure of not coming together except for the sake of children. Forsooth we have many brethren and partners in the heavenly inheritance of both sexes that are continent, whether they be such as have made trial of marriage, or such as are entirely free from all such intercourse: forsooth they are without number: yet, in our familiar discourses with them, whom have we heard, whether of those who are, or of those who have been, married, declaring to us that he has never had sexual intercourse with his wife, save with the hope of conception? What, therefore, the Apostles command the married, this is proper to marriage, but what they allow by way of pardon, or what hinders prayers, this marriage compels not, but bears with.
16. Therefore if haply, (which whether it can take place, I know not; and rather think it cannot take place; but yet, if haply), having taken unto himself a concubine for a time, a man shall have sought sons only from this same intercourse; neither thus is that union to be preferred to the marriage even of those women, who do this, that is matter of pardon. For we must consider what belongs to marriage, not what belongs to such women as marry and use marriage with less moderation than they ought. For neither if each one so use lands entered upon unjustly and wrongly, as out of their fruits to give large alms, does he therefore justify rapine: nor if another brood over, through avarice, an estate to which he has succeeded, or which he has justly gained, are we on this account to blame the rule of civil law, whereby he is made a lawful owner. Nor will the wrongfulness of a tyrannical rebellion deserve praise, if the tyrant treat his subjects with royal clemency: nor will the order of royal power deserve blame, if a king rage with tyrannical cruelty. For it is one thing to wish to use well unjust power, and it is another thing to use unjustly just power. Thus neither do concubines taken for a time, if they be such in order to sons, make their concubinage lawful; nor do married women, if they live wantonly with their husbands, attach any charge to the order of marriage.
17. That marriage can take place of persons first ill joined, an honest decree following after, is manifest. But a marriage once for all entered upon in the City of our God, where, even from the first union of the two, the man and the woman, marriage bears a certain sacramental character, can no way be dissolved but by the death of one of them. For the bond of marriage remains, although a family, for the sake of which it was entered upon, do not follow through manifest barrenness; so that, when now married persons know that they shall not have children, yet it is not lawful for them to separate even for the very sake of children, and to join themselves unto others. And if they shall so do, they commit adultery with those unto whom they join themselves, but themselves remain husbands and wives. Clearly with the good will of the wife to take another woman, that from her may be born sons common to both, by the sexual intercourse and seed of the one, but by the right and power of the other, was lawful among the ancient fathers: whether it be lawful now also, I would not hastily pronounce. For there is not now necessity of begetting children, as there then was, when, even when wives bare children, it was allowed, in order to a more numerous posterity, to marry other wives in addition, which now is certainly not lawful. For the difference that separates times causes the due season to have so great force unto the justice and doing or not doing anything, that now a man does better, if he marry not even one wife, unless he be unable to contain. But then they married even several without any blame, even those who could much more easily contain, were it not that piety at that time had another demand upon them. For, as the wise and just man, who now desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ, and takes more pleasure in this, the best, now not from desire of living here, but from duty of being useful , takes food that he may remain in the flesh, which is necessary for the sake of others; so to have intercourse with females in right of marriage, was to holy men at that time a matter of duty not of lust.
18. For what food is unto the conservation of the man, this sexual intercourse is unto the conservation of the race: and both are not without carnal delight: which yet being modified, and by restraint of temperance reduced unto the use after nature, cannot be lust. But what unlawful food is in the supporting of life, this sexual intercourse of fornication or adultery is in the seeking of a family. And what unlawful food is in luxury of belly and throat, this unlawful intercourse is in lust that seeks not a family. And what the excessive appetite of some is in lawful food, this that intercourse that is matter of pardon is in husband and wife. As therefore it is better to die of hunger than to eat things offered unto idols: so it is better to die without children, than to seek a family from unlawful intercourse. But from whatever source men be born, if they follow not the vices of their parents, and worship God aright, they shall be honest and safe. For the seed of man, from out what kind of man soever, is the creation of God, and it shall fare ill with those who use it ill, yet shall not, itself at any time be evil. But as the good sons of adulterers are no defense of adulteries, so the evil sons of married persons are no charge against marriage. Wherefore as the Fathers of the time of the New Testament taking food from the duty of conservation, although they took it with natural delight of the flesh, were yet in no way compared with the delight of those who fed on what had been offered in sacrifice, or of those who, although the food was lawful, yet took it to excess: so the Fathers of the time of the Old Testament from the duty of conservation used sexual intercourse; and yet that their natural delight, by no means relaxed unto unreasonable and unlawful lust, is not to be compared either with the vileness of fornications, or with the intemperance of married persons. Forsooth through the same vein of charity, now after the spirit, then after the flesh, it was a duty to beget sons for the sake of that mother Jerusalem: but it was nought save the difference of times which made the works of the fathers different. But thus it was necessary that even Prophets, not living after the flesh, should come together after the flesh; even as it was necessary that Apostles also, not living after the flesh, should eat food after the flesh.
19. Therefore as many women as there are now, unto whom it is said, if they contain not, let them be married, are not to be compared to the holy women then, even when they married. Marriage itself indeed in all nations is for the same cause of begetting sons, and of what character soever these may be afterward, yet was marriage for this purpose instituted, that they may be born in due and honest order. But men, who contain not, as it were ascend unto marriage by a step of honesty: but they, who without doubt would contain, if the purpose of that time had allowed this, in a certain measure descended unto marriage by a step of piety. And, on this account, although the marriages of both, so far as they are marriages, in that they are for the sake of begetting, are equally good, yet these men when married are not to be compared with those men as married. For these have, what is allowed them by the way of leave, on account of the honesty of marriage, although it pertain not to marriage; that is, the advance which goes beyond the necessity of begetting, which they had not. But neither can these, if haply there be now any found, who neither seek, nor desire, in marriage anything, save that wherefore marriage was instituted, be made equal to those men. For in these the very desire of sons is carnal, but in those it was spiritual, in that it was suited to the sacrament of that time. Forsooth now no one who is made perfect in piety seeks to have sons, save after a spiritual sense; but then it was the work of piety itself to beget sons even after a carnal sense: in that the begetting of that people was fraught with tidings of things to come, and pertained unto the prophetic dispensation.
20. And on this account, not, so as it was allowed one man to have even several wives, was it allowed one female to have several husbands, not even for the sake of a family, in case it should happen that the woman could bear, the man could not beget. For by a secret law of nature things that stand chief love to be singular; but what are subject are set under, not only one under one, but, if the system of nature or society allow, even several under one, not without becoming beauty. For neither has one slave so several masters, in the way that several slaves have one master. Thus we read not that any of the holy women served two or more living husbands: but we read that many females served one husband, when the social state of that nation allowed it, and the purpose of the time persuaded to it: for neither is it contrary to the nature of marriage. For several females can conceive from one man: but one female cannot from several, (such is the power of things principal-) as many souls are rightly made subject unto one God. And on this account there is no True God of souls, save One: but one soul by means of many false gods may commit fornication, but not be made fruitful.
21. But since out of many souls there shall be hereafter one City of such as have one soul and one heart towards God; which perfection of our unity shall be hereafter, after this sojourn in a strange land, wherein the thoughts of all shall neither be hidden one from another, nor shall be in any matter opposed one to another; on this account the Sacrament of marriage of our time has been so reduced to one man and one wife, as that it is not lawful to ordain any as a steward of the Church, save the husband of one wife. And this they have understood more acutely who have been of opinion, that neither is he to be ordained, who as a catechumen or as a heathen had a second wife. For it is a matter of sacrament, not of sin. For in baptism all sins are put away. But he who said, If you shall have taken a wife, you have not sinned; and if a virgin shall have been married, she sins not: and, Let her do what she will, she sins not, if she be married, has made it plain enough that marriage is no sin. But on account of the sanctity of the Sacrament, as a female, although it be as a catechumen that she has suffered violence, cannot after Baptism be consecrated among the virgins of God: so there was no absurdity in supposing of him who had exceeded the number of one wife, not that he had committed any sin, but that he had lost a certain prescript rule of a sacrament necessary not unto desert of good life, but unto the seal of ecclesiastic ordination; and thus, as the many wives of the old Fathers signified our future Churches out of all nations made subject unto one husband, Christ: so our chief-priest, the husband of one wife, signifies unity out of all nations, made subject unto one husband, Christ: which shall then be perfected, when He shall have unveiled the hidden things of darkness, and shall have made manifest the thoughts of the heart, that then each may have praise from God. But now there are manifest, there are hidden, dissensions, even where charity is safe between those, who shall be hereafter one, and in one; which shall then certainly have no existence. As therefore the Sacrament of marriage with several of that time signified the multitude that should be hereafter made subject unto God in all nations of the earth, so the Sacrament of marriage with one of our times signifies the unity of us all made subject to God, which shall be hereafter in one Heavenly City. Therefore as to serve two or more, so to pass over from a living husband into marriage with another, was neither lawful then, nor is it lawful now, nor will it ever be lawful. Forsooth to apostatise from the One God, and to go into adulterous superstition of another, is ever an evil. Therefore not even for the sake of a more numerous family did our Saints do, what the Roman Cato is said to have done, to give up his wife, during his own life, to fill even another's house with sons. Forsooth in the marriage of one woman the sanctity of the Sacrament is of more avail than the fruitfulness of the womb.
22. If, therefore, even they who are united in marriage only for the purpose of begetting, for which purpose marriage was instituted, are not compared with the Fathers, seeking their very sons in a way far other than do these; forasmuch as Abraham, being bidden to slay his son, fearless and devoted, spared not his only son, whom from out of great despair he had received save that he laid down his hand, when He forbade him, at Whose command he had lifted it up; it remains that we consider, whether at least continent persons among us are to be compared to those Fathers who were married; unless haply now these are to be preferred to them, to whom we have not yet found persons to compare. For there was a greater good in their marriage, than is the proper good of marriage: to which without doubt the good of Continence is to be preferred: because they sought not sons from marriage by such duty as these are led by, from a certain sense of mortal nature requiring succession against decease. And, whoever denies this to be good he knows not God, the Creator of all things good, from things heavenly even unto things earthly, from things immortal even unto things mortal. But neither are beasts altogether without this sense of begetting, and chiefly birds, whose care of building nests meets us at once, and a certain likeness to marriages, in order to beget and nurture together. But those men, with mind far holier, surpassed this affection of mortal nature, the chastity whereof in its own kind, there being added thereto the worship of God, as some have understood, is set forth as bearing first thirty-fold; who sought sons of their marriage for the sake of Christ; in order to distinguish His race after the flesh from all nations: even as God was pleased to order, that this above the rest should avail to prophesy of Him, in that it was foretold of what race also, and of what nation, He should hereafter come in the flesh. Therefore it was a far greater good than the chaste marriages of believers among us, which father Abraham knew in his own thigh, under which he bade his servant to put his hand, that he might take an oath concerning the wife, whom his son was to marry. For putting his hand under the thigh of a man, and swearing by the God of Heaven, what else did he signify, than that in that Flesh, which derived its origin from that thigh, the God of Heaven would come? Therefore marriage is a good, wherein married persons are so much the better, in proportion as they fear God with greater chastity and faithfulness, specially if the sons, whom they desire after the flesh, they also bring up after the spirit.
23. Nor, in that the Law orders a man to be purified even after intercourse with a wife, does it show it to be sin: unless it be that which is allowed by way of pardon, which also, being in excess, hinders prayers. But, as the Law sets many things in sacraments and shadows of things to come; a certain as it were material formless state of the seed, which having received form will hereafter produce the body of man, is set to signify a life formless, and untaught: from which formless state, forasmuch as it behooves that man be cleansed by form and teaching of learning; as a sign of this, that purification was ordered after the emission of seed. For neither in sleep also does it take place through sin. And yet there also a purification was commanded. Or, if any think this also to be sin, thinking that it comes not to pass save from some lust of this kind, which without doubt is false; what? Are the ordinary menses also of women sins? And yet from these the same old Law commanded that they should be cleansed by expiation; for no other cause, save the material formless state itself, in that which, when conception has taken place, is added as it were to build up the body, and for this reason, when it flows without form, the Law would have signified by it a soul without form of discipline, flowing and loose in an unseemly manner. And that this ought to receive form, it signifies, when it commands such flow of the body to be purified. Lastly, what? To die, is that also a sin? Or, to bury a dead person, is it not also a good work of humanity? And yet a purification was commanded even on occasion of this also; because also a dead body, life abandoning it, is not sin, but signifies the sin of a soul abandoned by righteousness.
24. Marriage, I say, is a good, and may be, by sound reason, defended against all calumnies. But with the marriage of the holy fathers, I inquire not what marriage, but what continence, is on a level: or rather not marriage with marriage; for it is an equal gift in all cases given to the mortal nature of men; but men who use marriage, forasmuch as I find not, to compare with other men who used marriage in a far other spirit, we must require what continent persons admit of being compared with those married persons. Unless, haply, Abraham could not contain from marriage, for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, he who, for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, could fearless sacrifice his only pledge of offspring, for whose sake marriage was dear!
25. Forsooth continence is a virtue, not of the body, but of the soul. But the virtues of the soul are sometimes shown in work, sometimes lie hidden in habit, as the virtue of martyrdom shone forth and appeared by enduring sufferings; but how many are there of the same virtue of mind, unto whom trial is wanting, whereby what is within, in the sight of God, may go forth also into the sight of men, and not to men begin to exist, but only become known? For there was already in Job patience, which God knew, and to which He bore witness: but it became known unto men by test of trial: and what lay hid within was not produced, but shown, by the things that were brought on him from without. Timothy also certainly had the virtue of abstaining from wine, which Paul took not from him, by advising him to use a moderate portion of wine, for the sake of his stomach and his often infirmities, otherwise he taught him a deadly lesson, that for the sake of the health of the body there should be a loss of virtue in the soul: but because what he advised could take place with safety to that virtue, the profit of drinking was so left free to the body, as that the habit of continence continued in the soul. For it is the habit itself, whereby anything is done, when there is need; but when it is not done, it can be done, only there is no need. This habit, in the matter of that continence which is from sexual intercourse, they have not, unto whom it is said, If they contain not, let them be married. But this they have, unto whom it is said, Whoever can receive, let him receive. Thus have perfect souls used earthly goods, that are necessary for something else, through this habit of continence, so as, by it, not to be bound by them, and so as by it, to have power also not to use them, in case there were no need. Nor does any use them well, save who has power also not to use them. Many indeed with more ease practise abstinence, so as not to use, than practise temperance, so as to use well. But no one can wisely use them, save who can also continently not use them. From this habit Paul also said, I know both to abound, and to suffer want. Forsooth to suffer want is the part of any men soever; but to know to suffer want is the part of great men. So, also, to abound, who cannot? But to know also to abound, is not, save of those, whom abundance corrupts not.
26. But, in order that it may be more clearly understood, how there may be virtue in habit, although it be not in work, I speak of an example, about which no Catholic Christian can doubt. For that our Lord Jesus Christ in truth of flesh hungered and thirsted, ate and drank, no one doubts of such as out of the Gospel are believers. What, then, was there not in Him the virtue of continence from meat and drink, as great as in John Baptist? For John came neither eating nor drinking; and they said, He has a devil; the Son of Man came both eating and drinking; and they said, Lo, a glutton and wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. What, are not such things said also against them of His household, our fathers, from another kind of using of things earthy, so far as pertains to sexual intercourse; Lo, men lustful and unclean, lovers of women and lewdness? And yet as in Him that was not true, although it were true that He abstained not, even as John, from eating and drinking, for Himself says most plainly and truly, John came, not eating, nor drinking; the Son of Man came eating and drinking: so neither is this true in these Fathers; although there has come now the Apostle of Christ, not wedded, nor begetting, so that the heathen say of him, He was a magician; but there came then the Prophet of Christ, marrying and begetting sons, so that the Manichees say of him, He was a man fond of women: And wisdom, says He, has been justified of her children. What the Lord there added, after He had thus spoken of John and of Himself; But wisdom, says He, has been justified of her children. Who see that the virtue of continence ought to exist even in the habit of the soul, but to be shown forth in deed, according to opportunity of things and times; even as the virtue of patience of holy martyrs appeared in deed; but of the rest equally holy was in habit. Wherefore, even as there is not unequal desert of patience in Peter, who suffered, and in John, who suffered not; so there is not unequal desert of continence in John who made no trial of marriage, and in Abraham, who begot sons. For both the celibate of the one, and the marriage estate of the other, did service as soldiers to Christ, as times were allotted; but John had continence in work also, but Abraham in habit alone.
27. Therefore at that time, when the Law also, following upon the days of the Patriarchs, pronounced accursed, whoever raised not up seed in Israel, even he, who could, put it not forth, but yet possessed it. But from the period that the fullness of time has come, that it should be said, Whoever can receive, let him receive, from that period even unto this present, and from henceforth even unto the end, whoever has, works: whoever shall be unwilling to work, let him not falsely say, that he has. And through this means, they, who corrupt good manners by evil communications, with empty and vain craft, say to a Christian man exercising continence, and refusing marriage, What then, are you better than Abraham? But let him not, upon hearing this, be troubled; neither let him dare to say, Better, nor let him fall away from his purpose: for the one he says not truly, the other he does not rightly. But let him say, I indeed am not better than Abraham, but the chastity of the unmarried is better than the chastity of marriage; whereof Abraham had one in use, both in habit. For he lived chastely in the marriage state: but it was in his power to be chaste without marriage, but at that time it behooved not. But I with more ease use not marriage, which Abraham used, than so use marriage as Abraham used it: and therefore I am better than those, who through incontinence of mind cannot do what I do; not than those, who, on account of difference of time, did not do what I do. For what I now do, they would have done better, if it had been to be done at that time; but what they did, I should not so do, although it were now to be done. Or, if he feels and knows himself to be such, as that, (the virtue of continence being preserved and continued in the habit of his mind, in case he had descended unto the use of marriage from some duty of religion,) he should be such an husband, and such a father, as Abraham was; let him dare to make plain answer to that captious questioner, and to say, I am not indeed better than Abraham, only in this kind of continence, of which he was not void, although it appeared not: but I am such, not having other than he, but doing other. Let him say this plainly: forasmuch as, even if he shall wish to glory, he will not be a fool, for he says the truth. But if he spare, lest any think of him above what he sees him, or hears anything of him; let him remove from his own person the knot of the question, and let him answer, not concerning the man, but concerning the thing itself, and let him say, Whoever has so great power is such as Abraham. But it may happen that the virtue of continence is less in his mind, who uses not marriage, which Abraham used: but yet it is greater than in his mind, who on this account held chastity of marriage, in that he could not a greater. Thus also let the unmarried woman, whose thoughts are of the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit, when she shall have heard that shameless questioner saying, What, then, are you better than Sara? Answer, I am better, but than those, who are void of the virtue of continence, which I believe not of Sara: she therefore together with this virtue did what was suited to that time, from which I am free, that in my body also may appear, what she kept in her mind.
28. Therefore, if we compare the things themselves, we may no way doubt that the chastity of continence is better than marriage chastity, while yet both are good: but when we compare the persons, he is better, who has a greater good than another. Further, he who has a greater of the same kind, has also that which is less; but he, who only has what is less, assuredly has not that which is greater. For in sixty, thirty also are contained, not sixty also in thirty. But not to work from out that which he has, stands in the allotment of duties, not in the want of virtues: forasmuch as neither is he without the good of mercy, who finds not wretched persons such as he may mercifully assist.
29. And there is this further, that men are not rightly compared with men in regard of some one good. For it may come to pass, that one has not what another has, but has another thing, which must be esteemed of more value. The good of obedience is better than of continence. For marriage is in no place condemned by authority of our Scriptures, but disobedience is in no place acquitted. If therefore there be set before us a virgin about to continue so, but yet disobedient, and a married woman who could not continue a virgin, but yet obedient, which shall we call better? Shall it be (the one) less praiseworthy, than if she were a virgin, or (the other) worthy of blame, even as she is a virgin? So, if you compare a drunken virgin with a sober married woman, who can doubt to pass the same sentence? Forsooth marriage and virginity are two goods, whereof the one is greater; but sobriety and drunkenness, even as obedience and stubbornness, are, the one good, and the other evil. But it is better to have all goods even in a less degree, than great good with great evil: forasmuch as in the goods of the body also it is better to have the stature of Zacchæus with sound health, than that of Goliah with fever.
30. The right question plainly is, not whether a virgin every way disobedient is to be compared to an obedient married woman, but a less obedient to a more obedient: forasmuch as that also of marriage is chastity, and therefore a good, but less than virginal. Therefore if the one, by so much less in the good of obedience, as she is greater in the good of chastity, be compared with the other, which of them is to be preferred that person judges, who in the first place comparing chastity itself and obedience, sees that obedience is in a certain way the mother of all virtues. And therefore, for this reason, there may be obedience without virginity, because virginity is of counsel, not of precept. But I call that obedience, whereby precepts are complied with. And, therefore, there may be obedience to precepts without virginity, but not without chastity. For it pertains unto chastity, not to commit fornication, not to commit adultery, to be defiled by no unlawful intercourse: and whoever observe not these, do contrary to the precepts of God, and on this account are banished from the virtue of obedience. But there may be virginity without obedience, on this account, because it is possible for a woman, having received the counsel of virginity, and having guarded virginity, to slight precepts: even as we have known many sacred virgins, talkative, curious, drunken, litigious, covetous, proud: all which are contrary to precepts, and slay one, even as Eve herself, by the crime of disobedience. Wherefore not only is the obedient to be preferred to the disobedient, but a more obedient married woman to a less obedient virgin.
31. From this obedience that Father, who was not without a wife, was prepared to be without an only son, and that slain by himself. For I shall not without due cause call him an only son, concerning whom he heard the Lord say, In Isaac shall there be called for you a seed. Therefore how much sooner would he hear it, that he should be even without a wife, if this he were bidden? Wherefore it is not without reason that we often consider, that some of both sexes, containing from all sexual intercourse, are negligent in obeying precepts, after having with so great warmth caught at the not making use of things that are allowed. Whence who doubts that we do not rightly compare unto the excellence of those holy fathers and mothers begetting sons, the men and women of our time, although free from all intercourse, yet in virtue of obedience inferior: even if there had been wanting to those men in habit of mind also, what is plain in the deed of the latter. Therefore let these follow the Lamb, boys singing the new song, as it is written in the Apocalypse, who have not defiled themselves with women: for no other reason than that they have continued virgins. Nor let them on this account think themselves better than the first holy fathers, who used marriage, so to speak, after the fashion of marriage. Forsooth the use of it is such, as that, if in it there has taken place through carnal intercourse anything which exceeds necessity of begetting, although in a way that deserves pardon, there is pollution. For what does pardon expiate, if that advance cause no pollution whatever? From which pollution it were strange if boys following the Lamb were free, unless they continued virgins.
32. Therefore the good of marriage throughout all nations and all men stands in the occasion of begetting, and faith of chastity: but, so far as pertains unto the People of God, also in the sanctity of the Sacrament, by reason of which it is unlawful for one who leaves her husband, even when she has been put away, to be married to another, so long as her husband lives, no not even for the sake of bearing children: and, whereas this is the alone cause, wherefore marriage takes place, not even where that very thing, wherefore it takes place, follows not, is the marriage bond loosed, save by the death of the husband or wife. In like manner as if there take place an ordination of clergy in order to form a congregation of people, although the congregation of people follow not, yet there remains in the ordained persons the Sacrament of Ordination; and if, for any fault, any be removed from his office, he will not be without the Sacrament of the Lord once for all set upon him, albeit continuing unto condemnation. Therefore that marriage takes place for the sake of begetting children, the Apostle is a witness thus, I will, says he, that the younger women be married. And, as though it were said to him, For what purpose? Straightway he added, to have children, to be mothers of families. But unto the faith of chastity pertains that saying, The wife has not power of her own body, but the husband: likewise also the husband has not power of his own body, but the wife. But unto the sanctity of the Sacrament that saying, The wife not to depart from her husband, but, in case she shall have departed, to remain unmarried, or to be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife. All these are goods, on account of which marriage is a good; offspring, faith, sacrament. But now, at this time, not to seek offspring after the flesh, and by this means to maintain a certain perpetual freedom from every such work, and to be made subject after a spiritual manner unto one Husband Christ, is assuredly better and holier; provided, that is, men so use that freedom, as it is written, so as to have their thoughts of the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord; that is, that Continence at all times do take thought, that obedience fall not short in any matter: and this virtue, as the root-virtue, and (as it is wont to be called) the womb, and clearly universal, the holy fathers of old exercised in deed; but that Continence they possessed in habit of mind. Who assuredly, through that obedience, whereby they were just and holy, and ever prepared unto every good work, even if they were bidden to abstain from all sexual intercourse, would perform it. For how much more easily could they, at the bidding or exhortation of God, not use sexual intercourse, who, as an act of obedience, could slay the child, for the begetting of which alone they used the ministry of sexual intercourse?
33. And, the case being thus, enough and more than enough answer has been made to the heretics, whether they be Manichees, or whosoever other that bring false charges against the Fathers of the Old Testament, on the subject of their having several wives, thinking this a proof whereby to convict them of incontinence: provided, that is, that they perceive, that that is no sin, which is committed neither against nature, in that they used those women not for wantonness, but for the begetting of children: nor against custom, forasmuch as such things were usually done at those times: nor against command, forasmuch as they were forbidden by no law. But such as used women unlawfully, either the divine sentence in those Scriptures convicts them, or the reading sets them forth for us to condemn and shun, not to approve or imitate.
34. But those of ours who have wives we advise, with all our power, that they dare not to judge of those holy fathers after their own weakness, comparing, as the Apostle says, themselves with themselves; and therefore, not understanding how great strength the soul has, doing service unto righteousness against lusts, that it acquiesce not in carnal motions of this sort, or suffer them to glide on or advance unto sexual intercourse beyond the necessity of begetting children, so far as the order of nature, so far as the use of custom, so far as the decrees of laws prescribe. Forsooth it is on this account that men have this suspicion concerning those fathers, in that they themselves have either chosen marriage through incontinence, or use their wives with intemperance. But however let such as are continent, either men, who, on the death of their wives, or, women, who, on the death of their husbands, or both, who, with mutual consent, have vowed continence unto God, know that to them indeed there is due a greater recompense than marriage chastity demands; but, (as regards) the marriages of the holy Fathers, who were joined after the manner of prophecy, who neither in sexual intercourse sought anything save children, nor in children themselves anything save what should set forward Christ coming hereafter in the flesh, not only let them not despise them in comparison of their own purpose, but let them without any doubting prefer them even to their own purpose.
35. Boys also and virgins dedicating unto God actual chastity we do before all things admonish, that they be aware that they must guard their life meanwhile upon earth with so great humility, by how much the more what they have vowed is heavenly. Forsooth it is written, How great soever you are, by so much humble yourself in all things. Therefore it is our part to say something of their greatness, it is their part to have thought of great humility. Therefore, except certain, those holy fathers and mothers who were married, than whom these although they be not married are not better, for this reason, that, if they were married, they would not be equal, let them not doubt that they surpass all the rest of this time, either married, or after trial made of marriage, exercising continence; not so far as Anna surpasses Susanna; but so far as Mary surpasses both. I am speaking of what pertains unto the holy chastity itself of the flesh; for who knows not, what other deserts Mary has? Therefore let them add to this so high purpose conduct suitable, that they may have an assured security of the surpassing reward; knowing of a truth, that, unto themselves and unto all the faithful, beloved and chosen members of Christ, coming many from the East, and from the West, although shining with light of glory that differs one from another, according to their deserts, there is this great gift bestowed in common, to sit down in the kingdom of God with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, who not for the sake of this world, but for the sake of Christ, were husbands, for the sake of Christ were fathers.
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| Moderna Readying for Next Pandemic With Human Tests of 15 Shots |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-08-2022, 08:55 AM - Forum: Health
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Moderna Readying for Next Pandemic With Human Tests of 15 Shots
Effort aims to quickly make vaccines to fight next outbreak
Company fending off criticism over access to Covid vaccine
Bloomberg | March 7, 2022
Moderna Inc. plans to start human trials for vaccines against 15 threatening viruses and other pathogens by 2025, part of a strategy to develop shots that could be made quickly in response to a future pandemic.
The effort will include prototype vaccines against the virus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome, a cousin of Covid-19; the Ebola and Marburg viruses; a tick-borne virus that causes Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever; and mosquito-borne viruses such as chikungunya and dengue fever, according to a company statement Tuesday.
Moderna has come under criticism from vaccine advocates who say the company has been slow to ship doses of its Covid vaccine to poor countries and that patents it is pursuing in South Africa threaten access to shots. The company is rowing back, announcing an agreement Monday to open a vaccine plant in Kenya that will make as many as 500 million doses annually, although it didn’t specify which vaccines might be produced there.
“Since our beginning, we have focused on developing a global health vaccine program,” Chief Executive Officer Stephane Bancel said in the statement. “Today, we are renewing that focus by expanding our work to develop vaccines against priority pathogens that threaten global health.”
Read More: Moderna, WHO Set for Vaccine Clash as Patents Threaten mRNA Use
While developing a Covid vaccine was relatively straightforward, it still took Moderna six months to choose a dose and establish safety before beginning final-stage trials. Moderna has been focusing on ways to ensure the world is prepared for the next pandemic, Bancel said in an interview.
The new effort aims to complete preliminary dose and safety testing for vaccines against numerous threatening viruses preemptively. That way, if of these viruses or a close relative causes a major epidemic, Moderna will have a prototype vaccine on hand and might be able to begin large human efficacy trials very quickly, Bancel said.
Knowing the appropriate dose for a vaccine “is really important,” Bancel said in the interview. “We can save a lot of time” when a new virus emerges if vaccines have already been tested against closely-related viruses.
Wide Range
The program expands on Moderna’s ambitious efforts to develop shots for a wide range of infectious diseases that could threaten global health. The company has already begun trials for vaccines against two of the priority pathogens, HIV and Zika virus. Development of a vaccine for Nipah, a deadly bat-borne virus that causes periodic outbreaks in Asia, is in the laboratory stage.
Other deadly diseases targeted by the program include two that aren’t caused by viruses, malaria and tuberculosis. Moderna said it was also starting a new program that would allow outside researchers to explore using Moderna’s technology against emerging or neglected diseases.
The effort might cost Moderna $300 million, Bancel said. While it looks for outside partners, the company will develop vaccines on its own for all 15 diseases, even if it finds no collaborators to help with the effort, according to the CEO.
Moderna also said it would never enforce its Covid-19 vaccine patents against manufacturers in 92 poor and lower-middle income countries, according to the statement, provided the vaccines are produced solely for use in those nations.
In 2020, Moderna pledged not to enforce its Covid-19 patents during the pandemic. With the omicron wave receding in many parts of the world, that’s raised the possibility that the worst of the pandemic may be over.
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| C.S. Lewis On Living In Fear - Timeless Advice |
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Posted by: SAguide - 03-07-2022, 11:48 PM - Forum: General Commentary
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You may have seen this, written by CS Lewis in 1948. Very applicable to today, just substitute covid for atomic:
C.S. Lewis On Living In Fear of Nuclear War
"They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds."
In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”
In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.
This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.
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| TENEBRAE: A Lenten Meditation Archbishop Viganò |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-07-2022, 12:08 PM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò
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TENEBRAE: A Lenten Meditation Archbishop Viganò
Venite, convertimini ad me, dicit Dominus.
Venite flentes, fundamus lacrymas ad Deum:
quia nos negleximus, et propter nos terra patitur:
nos iniquitatem fecimus,
et propter nos fundamenta commota sunt.
Festinemus anteire ante iram Dei,
flentes et dicentes:
Qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Transitorium ambrosianum in Dominica Quinquagesimæ
Come and be converted to me, says the Lord. Come weeping, let us shed tears to God: because we have transgressed, and because of us the earth suffers: we have committed iniquity and because of us its foundations have been shaken. Let us hasten to prevent God’s wrath, weeping and saying: You who take upon Yourself the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
It is difficult for a man of today to understand these words of the Ambrosian Missal. Yet they are simple in their severe clarity, for they show us that God’s wrath because of our sins and betrayals can only be appeased by contrition and penance. In the Roman Rite this concept is made even more clearly in the prayer of the Litany of Saints:
Deus, qui culpa offenderis, pænitentia placaris: preces populi tui supplicantis propitius respice; et flagella tuæ iracundiæ, quæ pro peccatis nostris meremur, averte.
O God, who is offended by guilt and appeased by penance: look kindly on the prayers of your people who implore You; and turn away from us the scourges of your wrath, which we deserve because of our sins.
Christian civilization was able to treasure this salutary notion, which keeps us away from sin not only for fear of the just punishment that it entails, but also for the offense caused to the Majesty of God, “infinitely good and worthy of being loved above all things,” as the Act of Contrition teaches us. Down the centuries humanity converted to Christ knew how to recognize in the mournful events of history – in earthquakes, famines, pestilences and wars – the punishment of God; and always the people struck by these scourges knew how to do penance and implore Divine Mercy. And when the Lord, the Blessed Virgin or the Saints intervened in human affairs with apparitions and revelations, in addition to the call to observe the Law of God they threatened great tribulations if men were not converted.
At Fatima, also, Our Lady asked for the Consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart and the reparative Communion of the First Saturdays as an instrument to appease the anger of God and to be able to enjoy a period of peace. Otherwise, Russia “will spread its errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be destroyed.”
What should we expect from disregarding Our Lady’s requests and continuing to offend the Lord with more and more horrible sins? “They did not want to fulfill My request! Like the King of France, they will repent and do it, but it will be late. Russia will have already spread its errors throughout the world, provoking wars and persecutions of the Church.” These wars, which today afflict humanity to enslave it and submit it to the infernal plan of the Great Reset inspired by Chinese Communism, are once again the result of our indocility, of our obstinacy in believing that we can trample on the Law of the Lord and blaspheme His Holy Name without consequences. What wretched presumption! How much Luciferian pride!
The de-Christianized world and the secularized mentality that has infected even Catholics does not accept the idea of a God offended by the sins of men, and who punishes them with scourges so that they repent and ask for forgiveness. Yet this concept is one of the ideas that the creative hand of God has impressed on the soul of every man, inspiring that sense of justice that even pagans have. But precisely because it is present in all men of all times, our contemporaries are horrified by the idea of a God who rewards the good and punishes the bad, a God who reveals himself in His anger, who asks for tears and sacrifices from those who offend Him.
Behind this aversion to the wrath of the Lord, offended by the sins of mankind – and even more so by those whom He made His children in Baptism – is the implacable hatred of the enemy of the human race for the redeeming Sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus Christ, for the Passion of the Son of God, for the ransom that His Blood has merited for each of us, after the fall of Adam and our personal sins. A hatred that has consumed him ever since the creation of man, in a mad attempt to frustrate the work of God, to disfigure the creature made in His image and likeness, and even more to prevent the divine reparation of Christ, the new Adam, and Mary, the new Eve. On the Cross, the new Adam restores the order broken by sin as Redeemer; at the foot of the Cross, the new Eve participates in this restoration as Coredemptrix. The failure of Satan’s action is accomplished in the obedience of the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity to the Father, in the humiliation of the Son of God, just as Adam’s temptation was consummated in disobedience to the Lord’s will and in the proud presumption of being able to break His orders without consequences.
The world does not accept pain and death either as a just punishment for original sin and actual sins, nor as an instrument of ransom and redemption by Christ. And it is almost a paradox: the very one who by the temptation of our first Parents introduced death, sickness, and pain into the world does not tolerate that these very same things can also be the instrument of atonement when they are accepted with humility in order to repair fractured Justice. He does not tolerate the weapons of destruction and death to be snatched from him in order to become instruments of reconstruction and life.
Contemporary man is newly deceived by Satan, just as he was in the garden of Eden. Then, the Serpent made him believe that disobeying the order given by God not to reap the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil would not have any consequences; indeed, the Serpent told him that by such disobedience Adam would become like God. Today, the Serpent deludes man that these consequences are inescapable, and that he cannot accept death, sickness, and pain as just punishment, overturning them to his own advantage by uniting them to the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ. Because in accepting the sentence, the offender accepts the authority of the Judge, recognizes the infinite gravity of his fault, repairs the crime committed, and expiates the sanction that is deserved. By so doing, he returns to the Grace of God, nullifying the work of Satan.
For this reason, the closer the end of time approaches, the more the efforts of the Evil One are multiplied to cancel not only the Truth revealed by Christ and preached down the centuries by the Holy Church, but also to eliminate the very concept of justice that is the basis of the Redemption, the idea of the need of punishment for violation, of the reparation of guilt, of the gravity of the disobedience of the creature towards the Creator. It is obvious that the more men are led to believe that they have not committed any sin, the more they will think that do not need to repent of anything, that they have no debt of gratitude towards God who has so loved the world that He gave His Only-Begotten Son, obedient even to death, death on a Cross.
If we look around us, we see how this cancellation of Justice, of the sense of Good and Evil, of the idea that there is a God who rewards the good and punishes the wicked leads to a definitive, irreparable and irredeemable rebellion against the Lord, a premise for the eternal damnation of souls. The judge who acquits the criminal and punishes the righteous person; the ruler who promotes sin and vice and condemns or prevents honest and virtuous actions; the doctor who considers sickness as an opportunity for profit and health as a fault; the priest who is silent about the Last Things and considers as “pagan” concepts like penance, sacrifice, and fasting in atonement for sins – all of these are accomplices, perhaps unknowingly, in this latest deception of Satan. It is a deception that on the one side denies God lordship over creatures and the right to reward them and punish them according to their actions; while on the other he comes to promise goods and rewards that only God can grant: “All this I will give you, if you will fall prostrate and adore me” (Mt 4:9), he dares to say to Christ in the desert, after leading Him to the summit of the mountain.
The present events, the crimes that are daily committed by humanity, the multitude of sins that defy the Divine Majesty, the injustices of individuals and of Nations, the lies and frauds committed with impunity cannot be defeated by human means, not even if an army would take up weapons to restore justice and punish the wicked. Because human forces, without the grace of God and without being enlivened by a supernatural vision, are sterile and ineffective.
But there is a way to combat this deception, into which humanity has fallen for more than three centuries, that is, since it has had the pride and presumption to deify man and usurp the Royal Crown from Jesus Christ. And this way, infallible because it is divine, is the return to penance, sacrifice, and fasting. Not the vain penance of those who run on treadmills, not the foolish sacrifice of those who make themselves sterile in order not to overpopulate the planet, not the empty fasting of those who deprive themselves of meat in the name of green ideology. These are once again diabolical deceptions, with which we silence our consciences.
True penance, which Holy Lent ought to encourage us to carry out in a fruitful way, is that by which each of us offers privations and sufferings in atonement for our own sins and those committed by our neighbor, by Nations, and by the men of the Church. True sacrifice is that with which we unite ourselves with gratitude to the Sacrifice of Our Lord, giving a spiritual sense and a supernatural end to the pain that we nevertheless deserve. True fasting is that with which we deprive ourselves of food, not to lose weight, but in order to restore the primacy of the will over the passions, of the soul over the body.
The penances, sacrifices, and fasts that we will undertake during this Holy Lent will have a value of reparation and expiation that will merit for us, for our dear ones, for our neighbor, for our Homeland, for the Church, for the entire world, and for the souls in Purgatory those Graces that alone can stop the wrath of God the Father, because in uniting ourselves to the Sacrifice of His Son we will transform what Satan caused for all of us into a supernatural treasure, leading us into sin by disobeying the Lord. This treasure will restore broken order and violated justice; it will repair the faults that we have committed in Adam and also personally. To the infernal chaos there must be opposed the divine kosmos; to the prince of this world, the King of kings; to pride, humility; to rebellion, obedience. “To this in fact you have been called, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you may follow in his footsteps. [...] He bore our sins in his own body on the wood of the Cross, so that, no longer living for sin, we might live for justice; by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Pt 2:21-25).
I conclude this meditation by quoting the Epistle of the Mass of Ash Wednesday: this is taken from the book of the prophet Joel, and it reminds us of the role of the priests as mediators and intercessors in admonishing the people of God and calling them to conversion. It is a role that many clergy have forgotten, and that they even refuse, believing that it is the heritage of a Church that is out of date, a Church that does not keep up with the times, a Church that still believes that the Lord must be “appeased” with penance and fasting.
Quote:“Blow the trumpet in Zion, proclaim a fast, call a solemn assembly. Between the vestibule and the altar, let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say: Pardon, Lord, pardon your people, and do not abandon your inheritance to disgrace, do not make it the slave of the nations; that they may not say among the peoples: Where is their God? The Lord has shown zeal for his land and has pardoned his people. The Lord answered and said to his people: Behold, I will send you grain, wine, and oil, and you will have them in abundance, and no longer will I make you the disgrace of the nations: says the Lord Almighty (Jl 2:15-19).
As long as we have time, dear brothers and sisters, let us ask God for mercy; let us implore His pardon and make amends for sins that have been committed. Because a day will arrive when the time of Mercy will be completed, and the day of Justice will begin. Dies illa, dies iræ: calamitatis et miseriæ; dies magna et amara valde. That day will be a day of wrath : a day of catastrophe and misery ; a great and truly bitter day. On that day the Lord will come to judge the world with fire: judicare sæculum per ignem.
May it please God that the admonitions of Our Lady and the mystic Saints lead us, in this hour of darkness, to truly convert, to recognize our sins, to see them absolved in the Sacrament of Confession, and to atone for them with fasts and penances. So that the arm of God’s Justice may be stopped by the few, when it ought to fall upon the many. And so may it be.
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
2 March 2022
Feria IV Cinerum, in capite jejunii
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| Ratcheting up the fight against 'misinformation' |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-07-2022, 08:22 AM - Forum: Socialism & Communism
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‘Truly Frightening:’ Feds Give Tech Companies Until May 2 to ‘Turn Over COVID-19 Misinformation’
Two U.S. Senators this week introduced a bill that could criminalize First Amendment rights, while the U.S. Surgeon General formally demanded tech companies
turn over data on organizations and individuals who post “COVID-19 misinformation” on social media platforms.
By Meryl Nass, M.D. | March 4, 2022
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defen...formation/
Two news stories this week reveal how the federal government plans to treat COVID “misinformation” as a crime, and what role tech companies will play in rounding up the “criminal.”
This is truly frightening.
Two U.S. Senators this week introduced a bill to provide tech companies cover via legislation that could make it possible for Congress to “legalize” censorship and criminalize First Amendment rights to freedom of speech.
Here’s a press release describing the bill:
Quote:“U.S. Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), both members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, on Wednesday introduced legislation to counter the threat that misinformation and disinformation pose to public health as evidenced by the widespread false narratives throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Promoting Public Health Information Act would support efforts across the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and with outside stakeholders to communicate effectively during a public health emergency and address health misinformation.”
Here is what Murphy had to say about the bill:
Quote:“Throughout this pandemic, the impact of misinformation has been devastating. Rumors and conspiracy theories about the efficacy of masking or the safety of vaccines still run rampant on social media and have caused thousands of deaths that could have been prevented.
“This legislation will help us get smart about how to tackle misinformation and effectively promote science-based health information, especially as we continue fighting COVID-19 and prepare for future public health emergencies.”
In other words, the feds are asking detailed information about the demographics “exposed to misinformation,” allowing them to determine who’s reading what, and to obtain their names.
Next, in the last paragraph of this New York Times article, “The surgeon general calls on Big Tech to turn over Covid-19 misinformation data,” we learn that the federal government wants citizens to start “sharing” information on “misinformation:”
“‘We’re asking anyone with relevant insights — from original research and data sets to personal stories that speak to the role of misinformation in public health — to share them with us,’ Dr. [Vivek] Murthy said.”
Isn’t that sweet?
This is how they dress up the Stasi in 21st-century euphemism to encourage ratting out your friends and neighbors: “Please share with the feds. They care what you think.”
Sure they do.
According to the Times:
Quote:“President Biden’s surgeon general on Thursday formally requested major tech platforms submit information about the scale of COVID-19 misinformation on social networks, search engines, crowdsourced platforms, e-commerce platforms and instant messaging systems.
“The request for information from the surgeon general’s office demanded tech platforms send data and analysis on the prevalence of COVID-19 misinformation on their sites, starting with common examples of vaccine misinformation documented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The notice asks the companies to submit ‘exactly how many users saw or may have been exposed to instances of COVID-19 misinformation,’ as well as aggregate data on demographics that may have been disproportionately exposed to, or affected by, the misinformation.
“The surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, also demanded information from the platforms about the major sources of Covid-19 misinformation, including those that engaged in the sale of unproven Covid-19 products, services and treatments.
“‘Technology companies now have the opportunity to be open and transparent with the American people about the misinformation on their platforms,’” Murthy said in an emailed statement. He added: “‘This is about protecting the nation’s health.’”
“Companies have until May 2 to submit the data. Denying requests for information does not carry a penalty, but the notice is the first formal request from the Biden administration of the tech companies to submit COVID-19 misinformation data, according to the surgeon general’s office.
“Six months ago, Murthy used his first formal advisory to the U.S. to deliver a broadside against tech and social media companies, which he accused of not doing enough to stop the spread of dangerous health misinformation — especially about COVID-19. He called the misinformation “an urgent threat to public health.”
“The request for information is part of President Biden’s National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan, which the White House detailed on Wednesday and which is a road map for a new stage of the pandemic where COVID-19 causes ‘minimal disruption,’ according to the White House.
“Biden first revealed details of the plan during his State of the Union address Tuesday night.
“In addition to demanding misinformation data from the tech platforms, the surgeon general called on healthcare providers and the public to submit information about how COVID-19 misinformation has negatively influenced patients and communities.
“‘We’re asking anyone with relevant insights — from original research and data sets to personal stories that speak to the role of misinformation in public health — to share them with us,’” Murthy said.”
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| Big Tech, world leaders are quietly preparing digital IDs |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-05-2022, 09:57 AM - Forum: Socialism & Communism
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Big Tech, world leaders are quietly preparing digital IDs to monitor, crush freedom fighters around the globe
Global digital IDs, built on the framework of COVID jab passports and combined with social conformity metrics already in place for U.S. corporations, could make permanent the liberty-crushing controls imposed during the pandemic.
Wed Mar 2, 2022
(LifeSiteNews [adapted]) — In 2021, widespread implementation of COVID jab passport schemes in cities, states, and countries around the world not only pressured people into getting experimental drugs, they also also inured them to the experience of scanning their personal medical data to enter public spaces.
Under the auspices of “public health,” free people became accustomed to a “check-point” society in which liberty is purchased by conformity with the arbitrary mandates of the elites.
Now, even as many COVID jab passport schemes are being dropped amid widespread COVID fatigue, the World Economic Forum (WEF), international banks, and global technology companies are rapidly moving to develop global digital IDs building on the framework of COVID jab passports.
Such technology could make permanent the liberty-crushing controls imposed during the pandemic.
Vaccine passports have paved the way for global digital IDs
As early as April 2020, key players in the universal COVID vaccination narrative, including NIAID head Dr. Anthony Fauci and billionaire software developer Bill Gates, began to float digital identification as a means of exiting the COVID “crisis.”
After the roll-out of the experimental COVID-19 jabs in late 2020, leaders around the world moved to enact discriminatory COVID passport schemes which used digital credentials to segregate societies.
Fast forward to last month: German telecommunications company T-Systems (whose mobile subsidiaries go by the name T-Mobile), announced it had partnered with the WEF to create “electronic vaccination certificates” with QR codes that can “be checked across national borders.”
At the same time, the president and CEO of the Canadian Bankers Association announced that “Canada’s banks are perfectly situated to help lead the creation of a federated digital ID system between government and the private sector.”
The developments have led commentators and experts to warn that technology used to develop COVID vaccine passport platforms won’t vanish as the COVID hysteria dwindles.
Instead, the vaccine verification technology can easily be adapted to track and score compliance with a vast range of government mandates and priorities above and beyond vaccination status, penalizing the noncompliant by easily freezing bank accounts, banning travel, and blocking access to public venues at the click of a button.
“While it may begin with only carrying digital information regarding whether an individual is vaccinated, the rest of the functionality of the Chinese Social Credit System can be integrated into the ‘Vaccine Passport’ system in a matter of minutes or hours,” explained China expert Reggie Littlejohn, co-founder of StopVaxPassports.org.
In a March 2 radio broadcast, conservative commentator Glenn Beck pointed out that “a digital ID system that would collect personal data about your online behavior, purchase history, network usage, medical history, travel history, energy uses, health stats” and more, using the information “to determine who should open bank accounts, conduct financial transactions, access insurance & treatment, book trips,” and even “cross borders.”
The warnings are not far-fetched.
Advocates have not hesitated to affirm the link between COVID jab passports and global digital IDs.
In a comprehensive Twitter thread outlining the shift toward centralized digital IDs, “Sikh for Truth,” a writer and editor for TruthTalk.uk, pointed out that the digital ID advocacy group ID2020, founded in 2016 in part by Gavi, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Microsoft, had connected the dots between widespread vaccination and digital ID platforms long before the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2018, the nongovernmental organization suggested that “Vaccination offers a great opportunity to give children a sustainable, portable and secure digital identity early in life.”
Now, over 125 companies, including ID2020, MasterCard, Airlines for America, and IBM, have joined the Good Health Pass Collaborative to create a global COVID passport.
Armand Arton, founder of the Global Citizen Forum, noted that just as people rolled up their sleeves for experimental new injections, they may also be “more susceptible” to digital IDs in the wake of COVID-19.
Likewise Andrew Bud, founder and CEO of Iproov, a London-based company that sells facial recognition technology and developed the British COVID app, told Forbes last month, “The evolution of vaccine certificates will actually drive the whole field of Digital ID in the future.”
Last year, Bud told Business Leader that “once adopted for COVID,” digital credentialing systems “will be rapidly used for everything else.”
There are signs digital IDs are fast becoming the norm.
The European Union has already begun implementation of a digital ID wallet to store biometric data like facial recognition and fingerprints, while acting as the gateway to a wide range of services like opening a bank account, applying to a university, renting a car, and checking into a hotel.
Digital IDs could be the first step toward a global social credit system
Many people are already familiar with the Social Credit System utilized by the Chinese Communist Party, which uses digital ID technology to rank citizens’ “trustworthiness” according to the government using a range of factors including purchasing habits and social media interaction.
The system, still in its infant stages, is designed to reward behavior approved of by the communist superstate and punish dissidents by withholding or awarding freedoms.
But China’s not alone in collecting personal data in digital identification systems.
India has also had an extensive electronic ID system since 2009. Utilized by over a million people throughout the country, the digital ID platform logs demographic and biometric data and is linked to a payment system operated by Mastercard.
In Nigeria, a digital ID program which became mandatory to “open a bank account, apply for a driving licence, to vote and submit tax returns,” gave rise to serious privacy concerns, according to a report by Reuters last summer.
Meanwhile, the concept of comprehensive top-down digital ID with broad surveillance capabilities and an incentive structure to apply social controls had also been explored in an episode of the science fiction show Black Mirror.
The episode, entitled “Nosedive,” depicted a westernized version of China’s social credit system, in which failure to conform to arbitrary standards could swiftly cut individuals off from freedoms, privileges, social interactions, and even basic necessities.
But the idea isn’t isolated to foreign nations or science fiction TV shows.
ESG scores: From corporate ranking score to personal rating
A system of unified numerical scores for gauging political, environmental, and social conformity is actually already in place in the United States.
Known as Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) scores, the ranking system has become firmly entrenched among American corporations, tracking a company’s carbon footprint, political alignment, the racial and sexual “diversity” of its staff, and more.
In February, The Impact Investor noted that “stakeholders pay attention to the effect a company has on the environment,” while “third parties and even the government” are “also keeping track.”
World financial leaders have already called for “globally consistent” standards for recording and reporting ESG scores.
And ESGs aren’t limited to corporations.
According to The Impact Investor, personal ESG scores are already in the works, and are set to take in a full range of personal data points up to and including personal beliefs.
“Buying a gun, alcohol, or even clothing will all affect your overall ESG score,” the blog noted, adding, “Not only will your purchases matter, but who you purchase from and how they do business.”
“Your political affiliations also factor into your personal ESG score,” the resource continued. “The type of car you drive, how often, and even how many people are in the car when you drive will also come into play when deciding your score.”
Meanwhile, “unlike credit scores with a clear method of tabulation, cause, and effect, ESG scores depend on a wide variety of factors that most people have yet to consider,” the blog post noted, adding that “Depending on where you live, even calculating a personal ESG score can mean giving up your rights to basic privacy.”
A combination of vaccine passport tech and ideological ranking could spell the end of freedom in the West
It’s not difficult to see how a powerful centralized digital platform combined with a comprehensive rating system like a personal ESG score could create a modern slave class bound to obey the dictates of government and corporate elites.
A global digital ID could make permanent the kind of “two-tier” society previewed during the COVID-19 pandemic, introducing free western countries into a new caste system whereby those who conform to the values and mandates of those in power belong to a separate and privileged class, while those who do not are shunned and blacklisted.
The Canadian government’s militaristic crackdown on the Ottawa Freedom Convoy last month, whereby the bank accounts of protestors and supporters were frozen without due process, gives a disturbing glimpse into the ability of governments to easily destroy the lives of dissenters without the costly necessity of arrest or imprisonment.
Furthermore, in an increasingly cashless society, with all important data, information, controls, and permissions stored on smartphones, a centralized digital ID could afford totalitarian governments the ability to reorder society according to their whims, able to shut down opponents and seize the assets with the click of a button.
The fight isn’t over: don’t lose sight of what matters
As leaders around the world respond to increasing pressure from brave citizen groups by dropping coercive COVID mandates and restrictions, it’s important to keep our eyes on the shell game.
Don’t let Democrat leaders, U.N. elites, and WEF lackeys drop local vaccine passports only to replace them with global digital IDs, effectuating a more permanent and widespread obliteration of personal autonomy, national borders, and essential freedom.
Don’t trade your freedom for convenience. As trucker convoys and other massive protests around the world have rallied the world for liberty, turning public opinion toward the defense of God-given rights and freedoms, let’s make sure we don’t win the small battle against COVID mandates but lose the larger war against an emerging surveillance state.
Personal autonomy, along with the freedom to believe, to worship, to speak, and to disagree, are essential. We must fight to defend them.
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| Germany Mulls Reviving Draft To Beef Up Military Amid War In Ukraine |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-05-2022, 08:46 AM - Forum: Global News
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Germany Mulls Reviving Draft To Beef Up Military Amid War In Ukraine
ZH | MAR 05, 2022
Germany's military has been struggling through a long period of secular decline. But there's concern that the Russian invasion of Ukraine could prompt the Germans to revive the draft, which the country scrapped back in 2011.
Conscription was introduced in Germany back in 1956, with all men over the age of 18 expected to serve at least one year in the army (although they could claim exemption for moral reasons). But the draft was scrapped to save money, as Germany's military endured a long post-war decline.
But Moscow's increasingly aggressive posture on the global stage has given the Germans reason to reverse this decline.
In recent days, German politicians have called for a revival of some form of mandatory military service, according to France24.
Quote:Wolfgang Hellmich, a politician for Chancellor Olaf Scholz's centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), called for an "urgent" debate on the issue in an interview with the Rheinische Post newspaper on Tuesday.
Compulsory military service would help "promote public spirit," he said, also calling for careers in the Bundeswehr to be made more attractive to young people.
The president of Germany's association of reservists has called on the government to reintroduce a "general framework" for military service for both men and women. This could take the form of "one year in which young people who are of age and have completed their education do something for the state and the community", he told the Rheinische Post newspaper.
Quote:Members of the CDU, the party of Angela Merkel that is now in the opposition after 16 years in power, have also expressed support for bringing back the draft. Members from the state of Lower Saxony have gone so far as to publish a paper calling for the reintroduction of military service.
Voices from the conservative CDU, now in opposition after 16 years in power under Angela Merkel, have also come out in favour of conscription.
In the state of Lower Saxony, CDU members have put together a paper calling for the reintroduction of military service as "a decisive signal for ensuring an effective military deterrence," according to Die Welt newspaper.
CDU MP Carsten Linnemann told the Bild daily he was in favour of "a year of compulsory service for young men and women after completing their schooling".
This could also take the form of a year of service in the social care sector or the emergency services, he said.
"This would strengthen the resilience of our society to crises" and promote skills that are necessary in "these persistently difficult times", he said.
Opposition to the idea is most fierce among Germany's Social Democrats.
Quote:Eva Hoegl, a Social Democrat and the Bundestag's defence commissioner, has called the debate "a theoretical discussion that does not help in the current situation".
And Florian Hahn of the CSU, the CDU's Bavarian sister party, said Germany needs "technology and weapons systems", not just an increased head count.
Since the end of the Cold War, Germany has steadily reduced the size of its army from around 500K at the time of German reunification in 1990 to just 200K today.
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| A Letter from Archbishop Viganò to the People of Australia |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-04-2022, 09:48 AM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò
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A Letter from Archbishop Viganò to the People of Australia
Aldo Maria Valli blog [Emphasis mine.] | March 3, 2022
Dear People of Australia,
Humanity is being threatened at this moment by a global coup, by which an oligarchy of globalist criminals has succeeded in installing its exponents at the highest levels of governments and international institutions. We are not talking about a phenomenon that is limited to only one nation. It is instead a plan that extends to many nations, from Australia to Canada, from France to Italy, from Germany to Austria. The myth of democracy and human rights has today been systematically demolished by the very same people who constructed it as a dogma of modernity and progress: the will of the people is being violated, the good of individual nations is being ignored, the social and economic fabric is being destroyed, the protection of workers and of businesses is being trampled, and people’s health is being considered an obstacle to the profits of pharmaceutical companies. And just as for the last two years an emergency pandemic has been imposed that has been used to legitimize scandalous deprivations of natural rights, already they are planning new emergencies – the climate emergency, the computer emergency, the energy emergency, the war emergency – all of which are intended to aggravate and make permanent the disaster that has been provoked.
You Australians are not the only ones to experience this coup, nor the only ones whose constitutional rights have been infringed upon and for whom the most fundamental principles of the Rule of Law have been denied. Those who govern you do not exercise power for your good, but rather to carry out the interests of this globalist elite: interests of an economic and ideological nature, which consist in appropriating wealth and power by means of the Great Reset, in making the population a slave to the system of social credit that has been experimented by the Chinese communist dictatorship, and in making all of you into a mass of chronically ill people whose immune systems have been destroyed by an experimental serum imposed on everyone by law. Tomorrow, under the pretext of a war, they will tell you that the increases of demand for consumer goods and the limited availability of gas makes new restrictions and new renunciations indispensable, making the masses pay for the disastrous results of their unfortunate decisions.
All this is not happening through a series of unfortunate coincidences, but rather because it is the fruit of a criminal plan that has been prepared in its tiniest details and announced by its own architects: the Agenda 2030 of the United Nations and the Great Reset of the World Economic Forum are the script imposed on governments around the world and created by the emissaries of private supra-national institutions, the majority of whom have been trained in Klaus Schwab’s “Young Leaders for Tomorrow” program. It is a subversive project which threatens world peace, the sovereignty of individual nations, and the very lives of citizens. A project that, if it had not made use of the complicity of government leaders, judges, and members of law enforcement, would have already been denounced and condemned.
However, we must not allow ourselves to be deceived: the destruction of national economies is not the final goal – this destruction is only a means to an end in order to make irreversible the establishment of the New World Order, which forms the premise for the coming of the Antichrist. Because what they want to do is not only appropriate control of global finances, but by means of this to have the power to decide your every action, establishing what is right and what is wrong, controlling every movement, every action, and every one of your thoughts – to make you all slaves and force you to become soulless automatons without any identity.
Behind all this, we cannot fail to recognize the infernal work of the enemy of the human race, of the one who is “a murderer from the beginning,” and who hates everything that is True, Just, and Beautiful, because he sees there a ray of the perfections of God the Creator, Lord, and Redeemer. Man has been created in the image and likeness of God, and it is precisely this divine imprint that Satan wants to cancel, extinguishing the innocent smile of the child, corrupting honesty and righteousness in people, preventing any impulse towards the Good, and promoting everything that is dishonest, sinful, vicious, and inhuman. Satan wants a world in which the death of both the body and the soul reigns, in which the gentle yoke of the Law of God and the Gospel is replaced by the odious tyranny of evil, rebellion, and hate.
I exhort all of you, dear Australians, to understand that this epochal battle ought to be fought in the knowledge that it is only by turning to Our Lord Jesus Christ that you will be able to defeat the Devil; that only in obedience to His Commandments will you be able to find liberty, concord and prosperity for your Homeland; that it is only where Christ reigns that His Peace can also reign. Pax Christi in regno Christi.
If you ask for freedom in order to continue offending the Lord, to violate His Law, and to blaspheme His Name, all of your protesting will be useless and doomed to failure. The only way to hope to conquer Evil is to oppose it with Good; the only way to defeat this antichristic dictatorship is to have Christ the King reign in your life, in your work, in families and in nations. And along with Christ, may you also cause Our Lady and Queen to reign, Mary Most Holy, who by the decree of Providence will trample the head of the ancient Serpent and definitively destroy the Evil One.
Place each of your actions, therefore, under the protection of Our Lord and the Immaculate Virgin, keeping yourselves in the Grace of God and praying with faith. May the beginning of Holy Lent spur all of you on, with a supernatural spirit, to offer penances, fasts, and sacrifices to implore the Divine Majesty for the peace that the world cannot give, the concord that sees us all as brothers and sisters in the shared Fatherhood of God, and the liberty that is founded on Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
May Our Lady of the Southern Cross, Help of Christians, and Saint Francis Xavier, Patrons of Australia, bless you, as I also bless you, in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
February, 27, 2022
Dominica in Quinquagesima
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| German health insurance executive fired after sounding alarm on adverse reactions to COVID jab |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-04-2022, 08:38 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
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German health insurance executive fired after sounding alarm on adverse reactions to COVID jab
Andreas Schöfbeck was accused of spreading misinformation and false numbers, and was dismissed without notice.
Thu Mar 3, 2022
(LifeSiteNews) — The chairman of the board of a large German health insurance provider was fired for sounding the alarm on COVID-19 vaccine adverse events last week.
Andreas Schöfbeck, now-former chairman of the board of German health insurer BKK ProVita, raised concerns over data indicating an excessive underreporting by government authorities of adverse events following experimental COVID-19 gene-based vaccine injections.
He addressed his findings in a formal letter to the government’s Paul-Ehrlich-Institut (PEI), which had reported earlier this year that there were 244,576 suspected cases of side effects from the gene-based injections in 2021.
“The data available to our company gives us reason to believe that there is a very considerable under-recording of suspected cases of vaccination side effects after [patients] received the [COVID-19] vaccine,” wrote Schöfbeck.
But during a Tuesday meeting of BKK ProVita’s board of directors, Schöfbeck was accused of spreading misinformation and false numbers and was dismissed without notice.
German journalist Tim Röhn reported on Twitter that “the dismissal was preceded by a discussion lasting several hours on Tuesday morning, during which Schöfbeck himself spoke at length and defended his warning letters to PEI [and others] and asked to be able to keep the job he started in 2001.”
Following his dismissal, Schönbeck was unable to attend a meeting scheduled with PEI’s president Klaus Cichutek on the same day.
Since the publication of Schöfbeck’s letter to the PEI, the German health ministry has at least on one occasion actively tried to dismiss his findings.
Answering journalists at a Tuesday press conference, a ministry spokesperson claimed that some of the data used in his analysis did not meet the legal definition of the ICD (International Classification of Diseases) for vaccine adverse events.
This, however, directly contradicted what Schöfbeck indicated in his letter when he wrote that the analysis “includes the valid ICD codes for vaccination side effects.”
Neither did the German health ministry clarify which of the ICD codes used in Schöfbeck’s analysis did not match the definition for vaccine adverse advents.
According to German news website reitschuster.de, these codes were also clearly cited in a February 25 press release by BKK ProVita.
The insurance company has since removed the press release from its homepage.
Some have speculated that the argument of the ICD codes, as well as Schöfbeck’s dismissal from BKK ProVita, are nothing but feeble attempts to discredit his findings, which are too incriminating for the parties involved.
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| Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is tied to Klaus Schwab, Justin Trudeau, and other global elites |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-04-2022, 08:35 AM - Forum: Global News
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Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is tied to Klaus Schwab, Justin Trudeau, and other global elites
Like Trudeau, Zelenskyy is an acolyte of the World Economic Forum.
Thu Mar 3, 2022
(LifeSiteNews - adapted) – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stated that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was one of the reasons he got into politics.
After leaving his career as a comedian and entertainer and becoming Ukraine’s president in April 2019, Zelenskyy hailed Trudeau as “one of those leaders who inspired” him “to join politics,” when he became Ukraine’s president in 2019.
While Zelenskyy has shot to stardom from relative obscurity from the perspective of the West since the Russo-Ukrainian conflict became international news last week, his admiration for Trudeau comes as less of a surprise when looking into his background.
Like Trudeau, Zelenskyy is an acolyte of Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum, the globalist organization behind the now-infamous “Great Reset” agenda, which tells the world that by the year 2030, “You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy.”
The ubiquitous support for Zelenskyy by the elite, including support from “defund the police” and Black Lives Matter leftist mega-donor George Soros, Trudeau, American President Joe Biden, and all sides of mainstream media, has led many to question the true motivation behind the West’s condemnation of Russia and a concern that a push for yet another foreign war involving the West is underfoot.
On Tuesday, for example, Ukrainian journalist Daria Kaleniuk made an emotional demand to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, asking him to instruct NATO to enter the war in Ukraine. After the event was praised in Western media, reports surfaced showing that Kaleniuk is not just a journalist, but a member of the WEF and runs initiatives backed by Soros throughout Eastern Europe.
While many are skeptical of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his former ties to the KGB, scrutiny of the other side of the conflict seems absent in mainstream outlets which has worried many considering the radical nature of the WEF and their Great Reset goals.
The Great Reset is a radical socialist plan designed by global elites to “reset” the world economy, and install a centralized, and heavily regulated totalitarian international system similar to that of China’s Social Credit System.
In fact, the WEF’s founder and chairman Klaus Schwab has consistently praised Chinese Communist President Xi Jinping, including a statement from this year in which he told the leader of China that his dictatorial regime has made “significant social and economic achievements” under his “inclusive” leadership. Schwab’s praise and reference to China as “inclusive” comes despite evidence that China is carrying out a genocide on its Uyghur Muslim population, is running a massive organ-harvesting program, and has been referred to by critics as the “nightmare of the world’s first truly totalitarian state.”
From a purely strategic standpoint, with an emphasis on keeping deaths and casualties to a minimum, there are those too who reject the notion that the West should become involved in the war as it may serve to escalate, not end, the conflict.
According to American public affairs consultant J. Robert Smith, the West should, at this time, reject U.S. and NATO military involvement in Ukraine, which he thinks would only worsen the already tumultuous and deadly situation.
“The gruesome impact of major wars is often underestimated at their outsets. Take the Civil War. Few people, South or North, imagined the war would claim anywhere from 600,000 to 850,000 lives, depending on estimates. At the beginning of World War I, neither side foresaw a staggering 40 million causalities, military and civilian, in that pointless conflict,” wrote Smith.
“Who really believes that a U.S./NATO-Russia war could be contained to Ukraine? Wars are inherently unpredictable; they have their own dynamics. Either through design or blunder, spillover to NATO nations seems a smart bet. Why wouldn’t Putin strike enemy targets beyond Ukraine’s borders? Why wouldn’t the U.S. and NATO retaliate, if not initiate?”
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