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| Vatican calls for suspending intellectual property rights to distribute more COVID vaccines |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-20-2022, 09:20 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Spiritual]
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Vatican calls for suspending intellectual property rights to distribute more COVID vaccines
COVID vaccine pushers have used the endorsement of Pope Francis as an excuse to disregard religious refusal of the shots.
![[Image: francisvaxlive-810x500-810x500.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/francisvaxlive-810x500-810x500.jpg)
Sat Mar 19, 2022
GENEVA (LifeSiteNews) — The Vatican again declared this week the COVID-19 vaccines a public good warranting significant public action to disseminate globally, despite their use of aborted fetal cells causing great moral anguish for millions of Catholics and other Christians.
Vatican News reports that the Vatican Permanent Mission to the United Nations and Other International Organizations issued a statement Wednesday to the 49th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, warning that “barriers impeding the equitable access to, and distribution of vaccines, medicines and health-related technologies are deeply connected to the effects of intellectual property rights (IPRs).”
Declaring that health care for all should “never be subjugated to private interests,” the statement called for the “sharing of research, knowledge and supplies, also with a view to promoting integral human development globally,” in this case meaning that IPRs should temporarily be suspended for the sake of more widely and equitably distributing the COVID shots.
Such endorsements disregard the fact that the most widely-used COVID-19 vaccines used human cells derived from aborted babies to varying degrees in their development, which Christians recognize as an intolerable violation of the sanctity of human life. The AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson shots, for instance, were developed with aborted fetal cells, whereas the Pfizer and Moderna shots were not, but their developers did use such cells during the testing phase.
Catholic teaching traditionally holds that abortion-tainted medical interventions are to be avoided if possible, though in cases where there is no better alternative to preserve life the decision should be left to individual conscience. Some bishops have argued that taking abortion-tainted vaccines is intrinsically evil, no matter the circumstances. Yet Pope Francis’s endorsement of the COVID vaccines has been cited from corporations all the way to the White House as justification for disregarding religious objections to taking them.
The Vatican’s promotion of the COVID vaccines also disregards significant unresolved doubts as to their safety in light of reports of significant numbers of adverse events including myocarditis, pericarditis, Guillain-Barre syndrome, and more; as well as their effectiveness and necessity in light of their inability to prevent transmission and the longer-lasting protection of natural immunity.
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| Praedicate evangelium: Pope Francis reforms Roman Curia with launch of Vatican constitution |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-19-2022, 11:54 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
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Praedicate evangelium: Pope Francis reforms Roman Curia with launch of Vatican constitution
CNA | Vatican City, Mar 19, 2022
The Vatican published on Saturday a long-awaited document implementing Pope Francis’ reform of the organization and structure of the Roman Curia.
The apostolic constitution, Praedicate evangelium (“Preach the Gospel”), was released initially only in Italian on March 19 after nine years in production by the pope’s Council of Cardinal Advisers.
The constitution underlines that “any member of the faithful” can lead one of newly constituted Vatican dicasteries or other bodies, “given their particular competence, power of governance and function.”
Praedicate evangelium replaces Pastor bonus, the apostolic constitution on the Roman Curia promulgated by Pope John Paul II on June 28, 1988, and later modified by both popes Benedict and Francis.
With the publication of the new constitution, Pastor bonus is “fully abrogated and replaced.”
The constitution was issued on the Solemnity of St. Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the ninth anniversary of the inauguration of Pope Francis’ pontificate. It will take full effect on June 5, the Solemnity of Pentecost.
No more congregations or pontifical councils
Under the new constitution, all the Vatican’s main departments are now known as “dicasteries.” The powerful Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for example, will now be called the “Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.”
Along with removing the title “congregation” from Vatican departments, the new constitution renames pontifical councils as “dicasteries.”
The constitution says: “The Roman Curia is composed of the Secretariat of State, the Dicasteries and other bodies, all juridically equal to each other.”
The 16 dicasteries are as follows:
- Dicastery for Evangelization
- Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith
- Dicastery for the Service of Charity
- Dicastery for the Eastern Churches
- Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints
- Dicastery for Bishops
- Dicastery for the Clergy
- Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life
- Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life
- Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity
- Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue
- Department for Culture and Education
- Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development
- Dicastery for Legislative Texts
- Dicastery for Communication
The document explains that “it became necessary to reduce the number of departments, joining together those whose purpose was very similar or complementary, and rationalize their functions with the aim of avoiding overlapping of competencies and making their work more effective.”
Evangelization at the center
In a significant change, the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, responsible for mission work, are merged into the Dicastery for Evangelization, presided over directly by the pope.
The Dicastery for Evangelization is listed first among the dicasteries in the document, indicating its centrality in the new structure of the Roman Curia.
The dicastery will have two sections, one for “fundamental questions of evangelization in the world” and another “for the first evangelization and the new particular Churches in the territories of its competence.”
Each section will be governed in the pope’s name by a “pro-prefect.”
A Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith
The document confirms changes to the former Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith unveiled by Pope Francis in February.
The pope reorganized the internal structure of the Vatican’s doctrine office into two sections: a doctrinal section and a disciplinary section.
Setting out the doctrinal section’s responsibilities, the new constitution says that it works in close contact with Church leaders around the world “in the exercise of their mission as authentic teachers and teachers of the faith, for which they are bound to safeguard and promote the integrity of that faith.”
The section “examines writings and opinions that appear contrary or harmful to the right faith and morals; it seeks dialogue with their authors and presents suitable remedies to be made, in accordance with its own norms.”
It also “endeavors to ensure that there is an adequate refutation of the dangerous errors and doctrines which are spread among the Christian people.”
Safeguarding change
The document explains that the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors is “established within the Dicastery” for the Doctrine of the Faith.
“Its task is to provide the Roman Pontiff with advice and counsel and to propose the most appropriate initiatives for the protection of minors and vulnerable persons,” it says.
Cardinal Seán O’Malley, president of the pontifical commission, welcomed the change.
He said: “For the first time, Pope Francis has made safeguarding and the protection of minors a fundamental part of the structure of the Church’s central government: the Roman Curia.”
“Linking the commission more closely with the work of the new Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith represents a significant move forward in upgrading the place and mandate of the commission which can only lead to a stronger culture of safeguarding throughout the Curia and the entire Church.”
“Maintaining its status as a separate body within the dicastery that enjoys direct access to the Holy Father and with its own leadership and staffing, the renewed and re-affirmed Pontifical Commission will play an increasingly incisive role in ensuring the Church is a safe place for children and vulnerable persons.”
O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, is a member of the Council of Cardinal Advisers which advised the pope on the new constitution.
Emphasis on charity
The Office of Papal Charities, run by the papal almoner Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, becomes the new Dicastery for the Service of Charity.
According to Vatican News, the changes give the office “a more significant role in the Curia.”
Worship, liturgical books, and the extraordinary form
The constitution says that the newly named Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments is responsible for arranging “the drafting or revision and updating of the typical [original Latin] editions of liturgical books.”
“The dicastery confirms the translations of liturgical books into current languages and gives recognitio [formal recognition] to their appropriate adaptations to local cultures, legitimately approved by the bishops’ conferences,” it says.
It adds that “the dicastery deals with the regulation and discipline of the sacred liturgy as regards the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite.”
Pope Francis imposed tight restrictions on the celebration of extraordinary form Masses — also known as Traditional Latin Masses — in his July 2021 apostolic letter Traditionis custodes.
Other innovations (!)
Regarding the body now known as the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, the new constitution says: “It is for the dicastery to judge the granting of the title of Doctor of the Church to a saint, after having obtained the vote of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith concerning their eminent doctrine.”
The Pontifical Council for Culture and the Congregation for Catholic Education are united in the Dicastery for Culture and Education, which is divided into two sections.
Powers of the Secretariat of State
Early drafts of the constitution were said to have given wide powers to the Vatican Secretariat of State, which already occupied a central position within the Roman Curia. In the final version, the Secretariat of State is listed before the 16 dicasteries.
The published document says that the institution, overseen by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, “closely assists the Roman Pontiff in the exercise of his supreme mission.”
It describes the tasks of the Secretariat’s three sections: the Section for General Affairs; the Section for Relations with States and International Organizations; and the Section for Diplomatic Personnel of the Holy See.
The first section has broad responsibilities, including “attending to the handling of affairs concerning the daily service of the Roman Pontiff,” coordinating the work of dicasteries “without prejudice to their autonomy,” drafting papal documents such as apostolic letters, and giving “indications to the Dicastery for Communication regarding official communications concerning both the acts of the Roman Pontiff and the activity of the Holy See.”
Further novelities (!!)
Highlighting other novelties in the text, Vatican News noted that the Secretariat of State is defined as a “papal secretariat,” the Curia Personnel Office is transferred to the Secretariat for the Economy, and “the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) must carry out its work through the instrumental activity of the Institute for the Works of Religion,” also known as the “Vatican bank.”
“The constitution also establishes that for clerics and religious serving in the Roman Curia, the mandate is for five years and may be renewed for a second five-year term, at the end of which they return to their dioceses and communities of origin,” the Vatican’s online news portal said.
Goals of the reform
The goals of the reform are set out in a section of the new constitution called “Principles and criteria for the service of the Roman Curia.”
It sets out 11 guiding principles: “Service to the Pope’s mission,” “ Co-responsibility in the communio,” “Service to the mission of the Bishops,” “Support for the particular Churches and their Episcopal Conferences and Eastern hierarchical structures,” “The vicarious nature of the Roman Curia,” “Spirituality,” “Personal integrity and professionalism,” “Collaboration between the Dicasteries,” “Interdicasterial and intradicasterial meetings,” “Expression of catholicity,” and “Reduction of Dicasteries.”
As well as defining the competencies of the 16 dicasteries, the 54-page constitution outlines the role of other Vatican institutions, including judicial bodies such as the Apostolic Penitentiary, economic organizations such as the Office of the Auditor General, and other offices such as the Prefecture of the Papal Household.
It lists the duties of the Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, currently Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who oversees the functioning of the Vatican during a papal interregnum.
It also defines the qualities expected of lawyers working for the Holy See, who are required “to lead an integral and exemplary Christian life and to carry out the duties entrusted to them with the utmost conscience and for the good of the Church.”
A 9-year journey to publication
On his election in 2013, Pope Francis was widely seen as having a mandate to reform the Roman Curia. Over the first nine years of his pontificate, he issued decrees changing Vatican law and structures, which are reflected in the text of the new constitution.
The Council of Cardinals finished the first draft of the new constitution in 2018. The text was then circulated among the presidents of national bishops’ conferences, dicasteries of the Roman Curia, synods of the Eastern Churches, conferences of major superiors, and select pontifical universities for feedback in 2019.
The cardinals met in February 2020 for “an in-depth re-reading and revision” of the document.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, they continued to review the text at virtual meetings with Pope Francis.
Seven cardinals currently serve on the Council of Cardinals, helped by secretary Bishop Marco Mellino: Honduran Cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, who acts as coordinator; Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin; Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State; Indian Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Bombay; German Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising; the U.S. Cardinal O’Malley; and Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu of Kinshasa.
In January 2021, Parolin said that “considerable progress” had already been made in the pope’s reform of the Roman Curia, particularly with regard to Vatican finances, pointing to the creation of the Council for the Economy, the Secretariat for the Economy, and the Office of the Revisor General.
He added that further reforms could include the merger of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples with the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization and the combination of the Congregation for Catholic Education with the Pontifical Council for Culture.
“But these are minor actions compared to what has already been done,” he said. “Now it is a question of giving homogeneity to all the reforms which have been made, by means of the new apostolic constitution.”
Formal unveiling
The Vatican will formally present the new constitution at a press conference on Monday, March 21.
Speakers will include Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Bishop Mellino, and canon law expert Father Gianfranco Ghirlanda, S.J.
The new constitution refers to previous reforms of the Roman Curia in past centuries. It highlights reforms instituted in the 20th century by Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II.
It says: “In continuity with these two recent reforms and with gratitude for the generous and competent service that over time so many members of the Curia have offered to the Roman Pontiff and to the universal Church, this new apostolic constitution proposes to better harmonize the current exercise of the Curia’s service with the path of evangelization that the Church, especially in this season, is living.”
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| Price Controls, Dystopian Travel Restrictions To 'Manage' Soaring Energy Costs? |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-19-2022, 11:31 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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Elites Suggest Price Controls, Dystopian Travel Restrictions To 'Manage' Soaring Energy Costs
![[Image: 2022-03-18_08-26-56.png?itok=HPqRckgC]](https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/2022-03-18_08-26-56.png?itok=HPqRckgC)
ZH | MAR 19, 2022
Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia supplied the world with one out of every ten barrels of crude consumed. But as the United States, Canada, and Australia have imposed embargoes on Russian crude and some buyers in Europe are halting purchases, the global oil market is facing one of the worst disruptions since the 1973 oil crisis when the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) led by Saudi Arabia declared an oil ban on Western countries for their support of Israel during the Yom Kippur War.
The energy price shock of the mid-1970s led to the reduction of maximum national speed limits from 70 mph to 55 mph. The 21% reduction in speed equated to gas consumption savings.
Now the International Energy Agency (IEA) has proposed similar measures to lessen the oil shock following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and embargoes on Russian crude.
IEA said Western economies could reduce daily oil demand by 2.7 million barrels within four months by restricting how people drive, indicating the move to reduce highway speed could almost offset the 3 million barrel-a-day loss of Russian production for April.
"These efforts would reduce the price pain being felt by consumers around the world, lessen the economic damage, shrink Russia's hydrocarbon revenues, and help move oil demand to a more sustainable pathway," IEA said.
The IEA has unveiled a ten-point action plan it hopes Western countries will implement to curtail oil demand.
Reduce speed limits on highways by at least 10 km/h
Impact*: Saves around 290 kb/d of oil use from cars, and an additional 140 kb/d from trucks
Work from home up to three days a week where possible
Impact: One day a week saves around 170 kb/d; three days saves around 500 kb/d
Car-free Sundays in cities
Impact: Every Sunday saves around 380 kb/d; one Sunday a month saves 95 kb/d
Make the use of public transport cheaper and incentivise micromobility, walking and cycling
Impact: Saves around 330 kb/d
Alternate private car access to roads in large cities
Impact: Saves around 210 kb/d
Increase car sharing and adopt practices to reduce fuel use
Impact: Saves around 470 kb/d
Promote efficient driving for freight trucks and delivery of goods
Impact: Saves around 320 kb/d
Using high-speed and night trains instead of planes where possible
Impact: Saves around 40 kb/d
Avoid business air travel where alternative options exist
Impact: Saves around 260 kb/d
Reinforce the adoption of electric and more efficient vehicles
Impact: Saves around 100 kb/d
Today's oil price shock could be a redux of the mid-1970s oil crisis as it may suggest price controls are next. Prime Minister of Italy Mario Draghi stated Friday that price controls could be coming to the natural gas markets, likely meaning petrol is next.
Mark Twain once wrote, "history doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes." Baby boomers who remember the mid-1970s and the pain a commodity shock caused most likely understand today's turmoil is far from over.
What is lurking dead ahead is stagflation; what may be lurking beyond that is far, far worse.
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| Pope’s US representative alerts bishops to prepare for consecration of Russia and Ukraine |
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Posted by: SAguide - 03-18-2022, 12:35 PM - Forum: Pope Francis
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Pope’s US representative alerts bishops to
prepare for consecration of Russia and Ukraine
_______________________________________
Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the United States, extended a formal
invitation to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to participate in the March 25 consecration.
![[Image: why_fatima_matters-810x500.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/why_fatima_matters-810x500.jpg)
In a letter dated March 17 and addressed to USCCB President Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, current Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, provides formal notice about the upcoming papal consecration of Russia and Ukraine and asks Archbishop Gomez “to inform the members of the USCCB and, through them, the priests of the various dioceses and eparchies of the country … ”
“In the context of the tragic events unfolding in Ukraine,” writes Archbishop Pierre, “the Holy Father, Pope Francis will lead an Act of Consecration of Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the Feast of the Annunciation, March 25th next.”
The Nuncio goes on: “The Holy Father intends to invite each Bishop, or equivalent in law, together with his priests, to join in this act of consecration, if possible, at an hour corresponding to 5pm Rome time. In the coming days, the Holy Father will address a letter of invitation to the Bishops, enclosing the text of the Prayer of Consecration in the various languages. I write now, asking you to inform the members of the USCCB and, through them, the priests of the various dioceses and eparchies of the country, about the Holy Father’s invitation.”
“The same information,” Archbishop Pierre explains, “will be shared with the federal authorities in Washington, D.C. and with the Diplomatic Corps of this capital. An invitation is being extended to the members of the same Corps to attend a Mass offered by Cardinal Wilton Gregory, Archbishop of Washington, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception at 12 noon on Friday, March 25th next.”
Archbishop Pierre’s letter is attached to an official memorandum from USCCB General Secretary Fr. Michael J.K. Fuller which states:
Your Eminence / Your Excellency,
I am pleased to share the attached copy of a letter from His Excellency Most Reverend Christophe Pierre, Apostolic Nuncio, regarding the Act of Consecration of Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the Feast of the Annunciation, March 25th.
While this “invitation” from Pope Francis to the bishops is obviously not the same as an “order,” which is what Our Lady specified, it is nonetheless a positive sign. Let us keep praying and fasting for the consecration to be done according to Heaven’s specific conditions!
Full text of the USCCB memorandum and letter from the Apostolic Nuncio available here.
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| Father Hewko's 30th Ordination Anniversary! |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-17-2022, 09:56 AM - Forum: Rev. Father David Hewko
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From an SSPX-MC email to chapel coordinators:
Dear Coordinators,
Our holy priest, Fr. David Hewko, will be celebrating the 30th Anniversary of his Ordination to the Priesthood on April 21, 2022.
We invite you to join us in gathering a Spiritual Bouquet of prayers and/or sacrifices for him and his apostolate, as a gift in return for all he has done for souls and for Holy Mother Church.
"The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus. When you see a priest, think of our Lord Jesus Christ.” — St. John Vianney, patron saint of parish priests.
If you'd like, send your Personal or Family Spiritual Bouquets to his temporary residence address:
Rev. Fr. David Hewko
16 Dogwood Rd. South
Hubbardston, MA 01452
If needed, more of his contact information can be found here: https://sspxmc.com/contact-fr-hewko/
Please consider passing this on to the faithful in your Mission Chapel areas via your local email groups and to anyone else who may be interested.
Thank you and God bless!
Beth at sspx-mc
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| Pope Francis Warns “Final Catastrophe” Could “Extinguish” Human Race |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-17-2022, 09:04 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
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Pope Francis Warns “Final Catastrophe” Could “Extinguish” Human Race
Says humanity would have to “start from scratch.”
![[Image: 170322pope1.jpg]](https://cdn.summit.news/2022/03/170322pope1.jpg)
Summit News | 17 March, 2022
Pope Francis warns that the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine could lead to a “final catastrophe” that would “extinguish” the human race.
Speaking during his weekly address, the Pope said humanity would have to “start from scratch” in the event of a thermonuclear war.
“Our imagination appears increasingly concentrated on the representation of a final catastrophe that will extinguish us,” said Pope Francis.
“What happens with an eventual nuclear war?” he asked.
“The ‘day after’ this – if there will still be days and human beings – will have to start again from scratch. Destroying everything to start again from scratch.”
The Pope highlighted how apocalyptic “flood imagery” is “gaining ground in our subconscious,” a reference to the Biblical flood narrative found in the Book of Genesis.
Despite the Pope’s warning, a new poll finds that a staggering one third of Americans are willing to risk nuclear war to fight Putin.
Participants in a Pew survey were asked if they opposed or supported “taking military action even if it risks a nuclear conflict with Russia.”
62 per cent of Americans said they would oppose US military involvement, but a disturbingly large 35 per cent said they were happy to risk nuclear armageddon to support Ukraine.
Despite President Zelensky’s relentless calls for a no fly zone that would almost certainly precipitate World War III, the White House has so far rejected the idea.
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| Ukrainian bishops ask bishops across the world to unite with Pope Francis in consecrating Russia |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-16-2022, 05:58 PM - Forum: Pope Francis
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Ukrainian bishops ask bishops across the world to unite with Pope Francis in consecrating Russia
‘Ukrainian Catholics since the beginning of Russian aggression in 2014 have been asking for this act,’ said Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk.
![[Image: Ukrainian-bishops-810x500.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Ukrainian-bishops-810x500.jpg)
Cardinal Krajewski (center) with Archbishop Mieczysław Mokrzycki (L) and Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk ®
Archbishop Stanisław Budzik/Twitter
Wed Mar 16, 2022
LVIV, Ukraine (LifeSiteNews) – Ukrainian Catholic prelates have welcomed news of the consecration of Russia as an answer to a request of many years, urging the entire Church to pray novenas in preparation for the consecration, and asking the global episcopate to make the act of consecration with the Pope.
“This is a spiritual act long awaited by the Ukrainian people,” said his Beatitude, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, referring to Pope Francis’ planned consecration of Russia.
“Ukrainian Catholics since the beginning of Russian aggression in 2014 have been asking for this act as an urgent need to prevent the worsening of the war and the dangers coming from Russia,” Shevchuk told Catholic News Agency (CNA). The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is second only in size to the Latin-rite Catholic Church, with which it is in full communion.
Archbishop Shevchuk’s comments followed the March 15 announcement from the Holy See Press Office that Pope Francis will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on March 25. Cardinal Krajewski, the Apostolic Almoner, will perform the consecration from Fatima on the same day.
“In the midst of the tragedy of the bloody war in Ukraine, we looked forward with hope to the news,” Shevchuk stated. He also noted that in a number of meetings through the years he had personally asked Pope Francis, on behalf of the Ukrainian people, to make the consecration of Russia.
“We are grateful to the Holy Father for first of all accepting Our Lady’s request manifested during the apparition of July 13, 1917 in Fatima, and her children, to protect Ukraine and to stop ‘the errors of Russia that promote wars and persecution of the Church,’” said Shevchuk.
Archbishop Shevchuk linked the current crisis to a fulfilment of the messages warning of persecution, which Our Lady gave to the three young visionaries in Fatima. “So, today we see the fulfillment of the words of Our Lady who said, ‘The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be destroyed,’” he said.
“Let us entrust to the Immaculate Heart of Mary all our sufferings and hopes for peace in our martyred country,” urged Shevchuk.
Ukrainian bishops ‘insisted’ Pope Francis told of their consecration request
His Beatitude’s comments were supported by Archbishop Mieczysław Mokrzycki of Lviv, the highest ranking Latin-rite prelate in Ukraine, who welcomed how “the Holy Father responded positively to the request of the Bishops of the Latin Catholic Church, all its priests, and all its people.”
The Latin-rite bishops had sent an appeal to Pope Francis on Ash Wednesday, urging the Pontiff to consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary “as requested by the Blessed Virgin in Fatima,” in order to bring an end to the current conflict in the country.
Mokrzycki revealed how the Ukrainian hierarchy decided to appeal for the consecration as a direct result of the war in Ukraine. “So we recalled Our Lady of Fatima, who in 1917 said that the end of the war would come if the Holy Father and the bishops consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart, offer the first Saturdays of every month and pray the Holy Rosary.”
“So we requested the Holy Father to fulfill that request once again,” he explained, implying that the Ukrainian bishops deem the consecration to have already taken place.
“This was our desire, this was the voice of all the Ukrainian people,” Mokrzycki added in an interview with St. Rita Radio, a sister radio channel of EWTN in Norway.
Cardinal Krajewski recently visited Ukraine as the Papal envoy during the current crisis, and spoke with the Ukrainian Catholic bishops. Mokrzycki noted that they had “insisted to him to bring back this request” of the consecration of Russia to the Pope.
Archbishop Mokrzycki was confident that the consecration would effect an end to the conflict, saying “we believe that this act will be listened to by Our Lady and she will intercede before God for peace in Ukraine.”
‘Whole Church’ to pray in preparation for proper consecration
While the Pope is due to make a consecration of Russia and Ukraine, the two prelates urged Catholics to pray in the remaining days leading up to the event. Archbishop Mokrzycki revealed how the Ukrainian bishops would “prepare our people with a novena that will start on March 17.”
The 61-year-old archbishop extended a call for the universal Church to join in a novena of preparation for the consecration. “We are calling all Christians in Ukraine to join this novena, and we would be very grateful if the whole Church around the world would join us in prayer for this intention,” he said.
Faithful Catholics have expressed concern that the planned consecration might still not meet the requirements outlined by Our Lady, namely for all the bishops of the world to make the consecration in union with the Pontiff. To this end, LifeSiteNews is urging readers to contact their bishops to ask them to join the Pope in the consecration, as well as asking the Pope to ensure the bishops join him.
Novenas have also begun in order to bring about the proper act of consecration.
For the Ukrainian hierarchy, however, they will be joining Pope Francis in making the consecration. “All the Catholic bishops in Ukraine, both from the Latin rite and Greek Catholics, will join the Holy Father in this act of consecration, celebrating it at the same time in our cathedrals and churches,” said Archbishop Mokrzycki. “And we are hopeful that we will be joined by many of our brother bishops around the world.”
The Catholic bishops of Latin America announced March 15 that they would join the Pope and the Ukrainian hierarchy in making the consecration.
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| Pope Francis will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on March 25 |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-16-2022, 07:16 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
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Pope Francis will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on March 25
In a shock announcement made March 15, the Vatican revealed that Pope Francis will consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
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Tue Mar 15, 2022 - 1:01 pm EDT
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Vatican announced on Tuesday, following an appeal made by the Ukrainian Catholic bishops.
In an announcement released March 15, Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See Press Office announced:
Quote:On Friday 25 March, during the Celebration of Penance at which he will preside at 17.00 in Saint Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The same act, on the same day, will be carried out in Fatima by His Eminence Cardinal Krajewski, Apostolic Almoner, as envoy of the Holy Father.
March 25 is the feast of the Annunciation. No further details were provided about the consecration, but the message was repeated on the Pope’s official Twitter account. LifeSiteNews has contacted the Holy See Press Office for further information.
The news follows a heartfelt appeal made to the pontiff on March 2 by the Latin-Rite Catholic bishops in Ukraine, who asked Pope Francis to consecrate Russia and Ukraine “as requested by the Blessed Virgin in Fatima,” to bring an end to the current conflict.
Their statement, released on the morning of Ash Wednesday, referenced the current conflict in Ukraine, and called for the consecration to be done in the manner requested by Our Lady of Fatima in 1917. The letter reads:
Quote:Holy Father! In these hours of immeasurable pain and terrible ordeal for our people, we, the bishops of the Episcopal Conference of Ukraine, are spokesmen for the unceasing and heartfelt prayer, supported by our priests and consecrated persons, which comes to us from all Christian people that Your Holiness will consecrate our Motherland and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Responding to this prayer, we humbly ask Your Holiness to publicly perform the act of consecration to the Sacred Immaculate Heart of Mary of Ukraine and Russia, as requested by the Blessed Virgin in Fatima.
May the Mother of God, Queen of Peace, accept our prayer: Regina pacis, ora pro nobis!
Cardinal Krajewski, who will perform the consecration in Fatima on behalf of the Pope, has recently visited Ukraine as the Papal envoy during the current crisis, and spoke with the Ukrainian Catholic bishops. While in Lviv, Krajewski highlighted the power of prayer and faith to “move mountains” and to prevent the current conflict.
In July 1917, Our Lady of Fatima gave the three visionaries this message, asking for the explicit consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart:
Quote:To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.
Our Lady of Fatima repeated the request in 1929, when she appeared to Sr. Lucia saying: “The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father to make, and to order that in union with him and at the same time, all the bishops of the world make the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, promising to convert it because of this day of prayer and worldwide reparation.”
Controversy has reigned over the issue of the consecration of Russia, with some Catholics contending that it has taken place. However, while Pope John Paul II made an “entrustment-consecration” of the world, including Russia, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on March 25, 1984, he deliberately avoided making the explicit mention of Russia as Our Lady had requested.
German Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes confirmed in 2017 that John Paul II “held back [from mentioning] Russia explicitly because the Vatican diplomats had urgently asked him not to mention this country because otherwise political conflicts might perhaps arise.”
The late Fr. Gabriele Amorth, former chief exorcist of Rome, had already noted how the consecration had not been performed as requested, saying “a specific consecration has not yet been made.”
It remains to be seen if Pope Francis will make the consecration of Russia in union with the bishops of the world, as outlined by Our Lady in 1929. In light of the Vatican’s announcement, Dr. Joseph Shaw, chairman of the Latin Mass Society U.K. called for the bishops of the world to join the Holy Father in making the consecration, as Our Lady of Fatima had asked.
Matt Gaspers (managing editor of Catholic Family News) echoed this, noting that the consecration must be done in unison with the bishops of the world, and involve “worldwide reparation.”
Over recent years, a growing number of Catholics and high-ranking prelates have been asking Pope Francis to perform the consecration. In 2017, the 100th anniversary of the year in which Our Lady called for the consecration to be made, Cardinal Raymond Burke made a number of public addresses calling for the consecration.
“It is evident that the consecration (of Russia) was not carried out in the manner requested by Our Lady,” he added in October 2017. “Recognizing the necessity of a total conversion from atheistic materialism and communism to Christ, the call of Our Lady of Fatima to consecrate Russia to Her Immaculate Heart in accord with Her explicit instruction remains urgent.”
The cardinal doubled down in 2020, linking the global crisis caused through response to COVID-19 to the consecration not having taken place. “The consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is more needed today than ever,” he said.
“When we witness how the evil of atheistic materialism, which has its roots in Russia, directs in a radical way the government of the People’s Republic of China, we recognize that the great evil of communism must be healed at its roots through the consecration of Russia, as Our Lady has directed,” Cardinal Burke continued.
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| Scientists in the US are flying planes into clouds to make it snow more |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-15-2022, 05:30 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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Scientists in the US are flying planes into clouds to make it snow more
CNN | March 14, 2022
(CNN - adapted) With 61% of the contiguous US in drought, wouldn't it be nice if we could just "make it rain" or just "make more snow?"
Well, certain parts of the country are doing just that, sort of. It's called cloud seeding, and it's nothing new.
It's been around since the 1940s and countries all over the world have been doing it for various reasons (most notably China), but it's a growing practice in the US, especially in the drought-stricken West.
It's also surrounded with controversy.
We spoke with Julie Gondzar who is the program manager for Wyoming's Weather Modification Program, who admits she gets lots of calls about what they are doing.
Gondzar said some people say "you're playing God," others say "you are stealing moisture from the storm," making other areas drier than they normally would be, kind of like robbing Peter to pay Paul.
There are also environmental factors to consider, as well as the cost-effectiveness versus the reward, which in the West these days water is liquid gold.
"Think about it like water storage, but in the winter on mountaintops," is how Gondzar described what cloud seeding is trying to achieve in her state, "in a nutshell."
Wyoming started cloud seeding in 2003 as part of a study. Then eight seasons ago, they started doing it in an official capacity after their 10-year study proved it works.
This season, they have gone on 28 flight missions for cloud seeding in Wyoming.
![[Image: 220314074540-weather-cloud-seeding-01-super-169.jpg]](https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/220314074540-weather-cloud-seeding-01-super-169.jpg)
King Air's twin engine plane that is used for cloud seeding.
She pointed out there are four weeks left in the season, so she is hoping for more opportunities before it winds down.
When you compare Wyoming to other states such as Utah and North Dakota, who have been cloud seeding since the '70s and '80s, the state is fairly new to the game.
Cloud seeding uses an already existing cloud, and injects silver iodide into the cloud, which adds tiny particles called ice nuclei (which water needs to freeze).
Clouds, in basic terms, are a collection of water droplets and/or ice crystals floating in the sky.
The nuclei help the cloud produce precipitation, and artificial ice nuclei help create more precipitation than the cloud would produce otherwise.
It's done in two ways: One way is from the ground and the other is from the air, using silver iodide as the seeding agent.
"The ground-based generators kind of look like small weather stations, are like 20 feet tall, and they aerosolize into the atmosphere," Gondzar explained. "But you have to wait for the right atmospheric conditions so that the plume goes over the mountain range." It makes seeding a little more tricky, because if the wind is blowing in the wrong direction, you'll completely miss your target.
The most popular way is by plane, using flares. "There are flares on the wing of the planes with silver iodide inside of cardboard casings and there are flares on the belly of the plane," Gondzar pointed out.
![[Image: 220314074545-weather-cloud-seeding-02-super-169.jpg]](https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/220314074545-weather-cloud-seeding-02-super-169.jpg)
This photo shows flares fixed on the aircraft's wing that house the silver iodide used for cloud seeding.
Once the pilot flies into the storm, they ignite the cardboard casings full of silver iodide and "seed" the clouds. The result is more moisture in the cloud, resulting in more precipitation.
The silver iodide "is a natural salt compound," Gondzar emphasized. "The reason it's used is because the geometric shape down to a molecular level is very similar to that of an ice crystal. And if you don't have that, you're not going to create additional ice crystals, which will then accumulate into snowflakes."
But if you think you can bust the drought by using planes to modify the weather, Gondzar said think again.
Is it working?
"Cloud seeding does not fix the drought," Gondzar said. "You can't break a drought with cloud seeding. It's a tool in the toolbox."
Gondzar admitted while they know the method makes more snow than they would otherwise receive, it's difficult to know exactly how much more they are getting.
"There's evidence of it in radar and all kinds of papers written," Gondzar noted. "The question that they're trying to answer now is how well does it work? And that's a difficult question to answer. Because there's an abstract piece of this. There's really no way to know how much snow a particular system would have produced."
She knows cloud seeding doesn't generate a lot of additional snowfall, but every little bit helps these days.
According to Wyoming's Water Systems Data Map, some areas in the state are only at 60% of average for snowpack this season, and the window for additional snow is slowly closing as the season winds down.
Since most of the West gets the majority of its water from snowmelt, she hopes what they are doing helps a tiny bit in the long term.
"It's a small incremental change over a long period of time. That's why consistency is important," Gondzar urged.
She added at $28-$34 per acre foot, cloud seeding is relatively cheap.
"Those numbers tell us that this is an inexpensive way to help add water to the system. Essentially, we are creating a little bit of additional snowpack, that becomes additional streamflow in the spring and summer."
But you need a cloud, to cloud seed. You can't just go out to the Mojave Desert and make it rain.
"This is not something that we can do out of thin air," Gondzar cautioned. "The criteria is very specific for this to actually work."
It can only be done within already existing clouds that were going to produce snow anyway and there has to be a certain temperature range.
"The silver iodide in the cloud is initiating that snow," Gondzar said. "But you can't just make snow out of nothing. You have to have the supercooled liquid water in the cloud."
She explained part of what made this year difficult was the much drier weather during the last month. There were fewer opportunities to cloud seed.
"A lot of people think it's manipulating the weather pattern," Gondzar remarked. "We are essentially just playing with cloud dynamics and cloud physics, on a super, super-small scale."
She is a meteorologist as well and points out the moisture from the weather systems come from much bigger areas like the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific.
"There's always a huge stream of moisture that our systems are tapping into, and cloud seeding probably brings an additional one to 2% down to the surface."
Playing God
While Gondzar is confident cloud seeding doesn't steal snow from another area, some scientists disagree.
Daniel Swain is a climate scientist at UCLA and spoke with my colleague and climate writer Rachel Ramirez.
He told her "It is possible that you're actually stealing water from someone else when you do this, because it may be, at least on a regional basis, a zero-sum game where if water falls out of the cloud in one spot, it's even drier by the time it makes it downwind to the next watershed."
He went on to ask, "To what extent are you just shifting around the spatial distribution of precipitation during a scarcity period rather than actually causing it to rain or snow more overall?"
He believes water equity issues need to be researched more.
Another note of controversy has been the safety of the chemicals used in cloud seeding. Gondzar stressed it is not made of harmful chemicals like some people claim.
She pointed out they did lots of testing for before they started officially cloud seeding and could not find any traces of harmful amounts of silver.
"There's silver in natural background levels in the water in the soil everywhere, on the surface of the earth," Gondzar noted. "So you already have a natural background level of silver, it's been really difficult to find anything beyond background levels."
She said the amount of silver iodide used is only a few grams at a time. What she's hoping is a small price to pay for bigger rewards down the road.
There have been climate concerns surrounding cloud seeding. Here's more from Ramirez, who reached out to a few scientists, to get their take on cloud seeding's climate angle.
Climate scientists remain skeptical this is the silver bullet
Although cloud seeding has been around for decades and is currently being operated in roughly 50 countries, many climate scientists remain skeptical of the technology's efficacy as well as the time and effort put into trying to manipulate weather.
Swain pointed out it has been historically difficult to design scientific experiments to test the effectiveness of cloud seeding, leaving behind a trail of unclear, intangible evidence on what the benefits are.
"How do you know how much precipitation that might actually end up falling from that cloud occurred due to the seeding? Or how much would have fallen without the seeding?" Swain told CNN. "This isn't a setting where you can do a truly controlled experiment."
Cloud seeding experiments typically deal with a narrow set of parameters, according to Swain, taking into account weather conditions including cloud cover, time of the day, and location. Additionally, the rapidly changing climate adds another layer to the list of variables. As the planet warms, weather patterns and clouds will constantly evolve, often in unexpected ways.
That's what Sarah Tessendorf, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and other researchers from universities and an Idaho power company, set out to examine in 2017. Their results, published in 2020 in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, managed to quantify how effective cloud seeding is. Yet uncertainties still linger.
During the cold winter months in 2017, the researchers flew aircraft to inject silver iodine, the seeding chemical used, into clouds over the Payette Basin in Idaho, while simultaneously using radars and models to measure its impact on snowfall.
In three cloud-seeding events, the scientists identified "unambiguous seeding patterns," in cold cloud decks not producing ice at all; but once seeded, ice crystals formed inside mirroring the same pattern the aircraft had flown. They were then able to track the formed ice and snow to the ground and measure how much additional snow fell from the seeded clouds.
Despite the results, Tessendorf said more experiments need to be done to improve the technology for it to become a sweeping solution to the climate crisis. The amount of precipitation produced by cloud seeding — up to 10% — isn't enough at all to quench the drought-stricken West.
"It could help over the years augment the storage levels in reservoirs, so that when you get into that extract, you might just go into that drought with a little bit more than you would have otherwise," she said. "That to me is the way that cloud seeding should be viewed. It's not going to be the silver bullet, but it could be a helpful tool in a water manager's toolbox."
When it comes to tackling climate change as a whole, many also question the methods such as the deployment of fossil fuel-powered aircraft to inject silver iodide into clouds, arguing it is counterintuitive to the overall climate goals of slashing fossil fuel emissions. But Tessendorf argued it is a small price to pay in order to improve the technology.
"I will say that the number of aircraft and the duration of these flights to do cloud seeding and the programs that are currently having it done pales in comparison to the number of commercial flights and aircraft we have in the skies all over the world right now," she contended. "So it's to me a drop in the bucket of extra fossil fuels being burned."
"But that does not mean that there isn't room for improvement there in order to have more of a clean process," Tessendorf added.
With the climate crisis accelerating, climate scientists like Swain say resources are much better invested in climate solutions already guaranteed to make significant and equitable impacts.
"There needs to be controlled studies that actually shows it was the seeding that increased the precipitation in a meaningful way," Swain asserted. "The best case scenario is it's a small incremental adjunct to other water-saving or conservation measures during scarce periods, but even that's not clear if it would really work in that capacity in any systematic way."
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| WHO includes Down syndrome in list of ‘severe birth defects’ to be ‘prevented’ |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-14-2022, 12:12 PM - Forum: Abortion
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World Health Organization includes Down syndrome in list of ‘severe birth defects’ to be ‘prevented’
The World Health Organization included Down syndrome with 'congenital heart defects' and 'neural tube defects' as 'severe birth defects' in a recent social media post.
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Mon Mar 14, 2022
(Live Action) – Individuals with Down syndrome and their families were shocked and disheartened by a recent social media post from The World Health Organization (WHO) last week that listed Down syndrome as a birth defect that can be prevented.
However, there is no way to prevent Down syndrome itself. “Eliminating” Down syndrome really means eliminating those who have the condition through abortion.
“Today is World Birth Defects Day,” the WHO originally wrote on March 3, according to the screenshot below. “Most birth defects can be prevented and treated with access to quality maternal and newborn care. Yet, every year, they cause the deaths of close to 250,000 babies within just 1 month of birth.”
Down syndrome was then listed as one of the “most common severe birth defects.” After receiving backlash, the WHO edited the Facebook post to remove Down syndrome from the list, and deleted the paragraph of information. However, it appears a separate post on Twitter also included Down syndrome as a birth defect.
![[Image: Untitled-design-5-768x432.jpg]](https://www.liveaction.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Untitled-design-5-768x432.jpg)
WHO Screenshot
News host Rachel Campos-Duffy, a mother of nine children — including one with Down syndrome – replied to the WHO tweet with a tweet of her own saying, “Down syndrome is NOT a birth defect. It’s a chromosomal variation. My baby w/ Downs is as human & valuable as any of my other kids. These comments lead to discrimination & abortion. Celebrate, don’t eliminate differences.”
Likewise, Kurt Kondrich – author, advocate, and father of Chloe who has Down syndrome – tweeted, “The World Health Organization recently posted that Down syndrome is a ‘severe birth defect’! My amazing daughter Chloe who has changed the world has a response!”
The tweet included a photo of Chloe, who is the inspiration behind Pennsylvania’s “Chloe’s Law” ensuring that parents who receive a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome receive resources and support. The photo states, “I am Chloe Emmanuelle Kondrich and I am NOT a ‘severe birth defect.’”
The Facebook page, Raising Josee Hope, also commented on the WHO’s classification of Down syndrome, stating in part:
Quote:“The only way Down syndrome is prevented is through abortion, is this what they’re advocating for?! An apology to the community rather than an edited post would be appreciated. And you wonder why we are left with NO CHOICE but to tirelessly advocate?!! Imagine if this was your child being spoken about. It wrecks our day.
It takes time away from our kids. It breaks our heart to advocate. We don’t want to be ‘strong warrior mums’ we just want to enjoy life with our kids knowing they’re safe. When the global peak body for health refers to your child as a birth defect that can be prevented what Hope do we have?”
People who have Down syndrome are human beings with intrinsic value, yet they are consistently targeted for abortion. The abortion rate for children diagnosed prenatally with Down syndrome in the United States is nearly 70%.
Parents are fighting back against pressure to abort their babies, but as was made evident by the WHO’s social media posts, there is much more work to be done.
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| Unchangeable Church Teaching: What Can and Cannot Be Reformed in the Church |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-14-2022, 08:03 AM - Forum: Church Doctrine & Teaching
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Q. What follows from the fact that the holy Roman Catholic Church can never be destroyed by any created power?
A. That it would be the sin of heresy for any one to say that a reform of the doctrine or the constitution of the Roman Catholic Church could ever become necessary.
Q. Can anyone change the doctrine of Jesus Christ, or the articles of faith, the commandments, or the sacraments?
A. To think so and to attempt to do so would be as foolish as it would be for one to attempt to reform the visible world and the laws which God has established to preserve and maintain it.
Q. Could some new doctrine, new commandment, or new sacrament be added; or could some of the articles of faith, some of the commandments, or some of the sacraments be left out?
A. By no means.
Q. Why not?
A. Because not even the Apostles themselves had power from Christ to add to, or leave out, any portion of Christ's doctrine.
Q. How do we know this?
A. Because Jesus Christ said to the Apostles: "Go and teach all nations, teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." --Matt. xxviii. 19, 20.
Q. In what other words has our Blessed Saviour assured us that His holy doctrine will never suffer any change?
A. In these words: "Amen, I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall not pass of the law, till all be fulfilled." Matt. v. 18. "Heaven and earth shall pass, but my words shall not pass." Matt. xxiv. 35.
Q. What does St. Paul say to assure us that nothing whatsoever can be added to, or left out of the doctrine of Jesus Christ?
A. He says: But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we said before so now I say again: if any one preach to you a gospel besides that which you have received, let him be accursed." Gal. i. 8, 9.
Q. Is there nothing in the Catholic Church that may be reformed?
A. Nothing in the doctrine which was delivered to her from the beginning to teach, but the manners of such of her pastors and children as fail to live up to her teachings, may and ought to be reformed.
Q. May Priests and even Bishops, nay, even a Pope, fail to live up to Christ's holy doctrine?
A. They may, indeed; and certain periods of the lives of some of them have been very disedifying.
Q. How can we easily account for this?
A. Because one can know and teach the true doctrine of Christ without practising it.
Q. What, then, is the answer to those who object to our religion because the lives of certain pastors of the Church have been disedifying?
A. The lives of the scribes and the Pharisees were very disedifying. Nevertheless our blessed Saviour told the multitudes and His disciples that "they have sitten on the chair of Moses. All things, therefore, whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do: but according to their works do ye not: for they say and do not." Matt. xxiii. 2.
Q. Does the Lord make use of apostate Catholics, such as Martin Luther, Calvin, John Knox, Henry VIII., King of England, to reform the manners of the people?
A. The thought is absurd. The lives of those men were evil, and it is only the devil that makes use of them to pervert the people still more. The Lord makes use of His saints, such as a St. Francis of Assisium, a St. Dominick, a St. Ignatius, a St. Alphonsus, to convert the people and reform their evil manners by explaining to them the truths of faith, the commandments, and the necessity of receiving the sacraments with proper dispositions, and by setting them in their own lives the loftiest example of faith, purity, and all Christian virtues.
Q. Is it possible to reform men in any other way?
A. Since the coming of the Redeemer it has never been heard that men were reformed and made virtuous by any other means than those which Jesus Christ left to His Church.
The Faith of the Roman Catholic.
Q. What do the words "I believe" mean?
A. They mean that I hold to be true that which another tells me.
Q. What must we know of a person to believe firmly all his words?
A. That he is truthful and knows well the things which he tells us.
Q. Is God truthful?
A. "He is Truth itself." Rom. iii. 4.
Q. Does God know all things well?
A. "He knows all things as they are." 1 John iii. 20.
Q. Why, then, must we firmly believe all that God has made known?
A. Because He can neither deceive nor be deceived. "God is not as a man, that he should lie." Numb. xxiii. 19.
Q. What is to believe God?
A. It is to believe, without doubting, that whatever God has said is infallibly true.
Q. Can we of ourselves have this firm faith?
A. No; it is a particular gift and light of God. "By grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God." Eph. ii. 8.
Q. What does this gift bring about in the soul?
A. It enlightens the understanding, and moves the will of man to believe without doubting all that God has made known. "Faith is the evidence of things that appear not." Heb. xi. 1.
Q. To whom did God make known all that we must believe and do?
A. Only to the Roman Catholic Church.
Q. From whom, then, must all men learn that they must believe and do?
A. From the Roman Catholic Church, because she alone was appointed by God to teach the truths of salvation to all nations.
Q. Is to believe what the Roman Catholic Church teaches not the same as to believe God Himself?
A. It is, indeed.
Q. Why?
A. Because Jesus Christ has said to the pastors of the Church: "He who heareth you heareth me, and he who despiseth you despiseth me."
Q. What, then, is the faith of the Roman Catholic?
A. It is a grace and light of the Holy Ghost, which enables him to believe most firmly all that God teaches him by His Church.
Q. Is this faith of the Roman Catholic a divine or human faith?
A. It is divine faith.
Q. Why is it divine?
A. Because, by the light of grace, the Catholic knows for certain that the pastors of the Church are commissioned by God Himself to teach all men, in His name, authoritatively and infallibly, all the sacred and immutable truths of salvation, and, therefore, he feels himself bound in conscience to believe them without hesitation.
Q. Is this divine faith absolutely necessary for salvation?
A. Yes; because it is only by divine faith that we can please God.
Q. Who assures us of this?
A. Jesus Christ Himself.
Q. What are His words?
A. "Go and teach all nations.--He that believeth not shall be condemned." Mark xvi.
Q. What does St. Paul say of those who do not believe God, when He speaks to them through those whom He appointed to teach men?
A. That "it is impossible to please God without faith." Heb. xi.
Q. What, then, is the rule of faith which Jesus Christ gave to all men?
A. To listen to His living voice, speaking through the pastors of His Church, and to believe them.
Q. Can men possibly have divine faith out of the Catholic Church?
A. Out of the Catholic Church there can be none but human faith.
Q. What do you mean by human faith?
A. To believe a man on his own authority.
Q. Do those who are out of the Church, and teach and preach to the people, teach and preach on their own authority?
A. They do; because they are not sent by God, nor have they received any mission from His Church.
Q What follows from this?
A. That those who believe them do not believe God, but man, and, therefore, their faith is only human, which availeth them nothing unto salvation.
Qualities of Faith
Q. When is our faith quite pleasing to God?
A. When it is strong, lively, entire, and sound.
Q. When is our faith strong?
A. When we believe without the least doubt, and choose to lose all, even our life, rather than fall away from it.
Q. When is our faith lively?
A. When we practise what our faith teaches.
Q. When is our faith entire?
A. When we believe all the truths which the Catholic Church teaches, as contained in the Holy Scripture or tradition.
Q. When is our faith sound?
A. When we avoid not only open heresy, but also diligently shun, and in our hearts dissent from, those errors which approach it more or less closely, and religiously observe those constitutions and decrees whereby such evil opinions, either directly or indirectly, have been proscribed and prohibited by the Holy See.
Holy Scripture and Tradition
Q. What do you mean by Holy Scripture?
A. A collection of books which were written by holy men, inspired by the Holy Ghost, and acknowledged by the Catholic Church to be the written Word of God.
Q. How is Holy Scripture divided?
A. Into the books of the Old and the New Testament; or, of the Old and the New Law.
Q. What are we told in the books of the Old Testament?
A. In the books of the Old Testament we are told those truths which God made known before the coming of Christ.
Q. What are we told in the books of the New Testament?
A. Some of the truths which God made known through Jesus Christ and His Apostles.
Q. Is it easy for everyone to understand the Holy Scripture?
A. There is nothing more difficult than to understand the true meaning of every passage of the Scripture.
Q. How do we know this?
A. From Holy Scripture itself, which says that "there are certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest to their own destruction." 2 Peter iii. 16.
Q. May not everyone explain the Bible in his own private manner?
A. "No prophecy of the Scripture," says St. Peter, "is made by private interpretation." 2 Peter i. 20.
Q. To whom belongs the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures?
A. To the Catholic Church alone.
Q. Why?
A. "Because the Apostles carefully entrusted the Scriptures to their successors; and to whom the Scriptures were entrusted, to them also was committed the interpretation of Scripture."--St. Irenaeus.
Q. How does the Church make known the meaning of any passage of Scripture?
A. She makes it known either directly by a solemn definition, or by the universal consent of the Church dispersed throughout the world; and she makes it known indirectly when she tells us that we are to interpret Scripture in such a way that our interpretation shall be in harmony with her teaching upon all other points of Christian doctrine.
Q. Have any great evils followed from the unrestricted private interpretation of the Bible?
A. Yes; numberless heresies and impieties.
Q. What have the chief pastors of the Church done to guard the faithful against corrupted Bibles, and against erroneous interpretations of the Bible?
A. They have decreed--1. That, with regard to reading the Bible in the vernacular, we should have the learning and piety requisite for it. 2. That the translation should be approved by the Holy See, or accompanied with explanations by a Bishop.
Q. Why did you say that in the New Testament we are told some of the truths, and not all the truths which God made known through Jesus Christ and the Apostles?
A. Because all the truths preached by Jesus Christ and the Apostles are not recorded in the Bible.
Q. How do we know this?
A. From the Bible itself, which says: "Many other signs also did Jesus in the sight of His disciples, which are not written in this book." John xx. 30.
Q. Why did the Apostles not write down all that Jesus had taught?
A. Because Jesus Christ had not commanded them to write, but to preach His doctrine. "Go ye into the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature."--Mark xvi.15.
Q. What is the unwritten doctrine of Jesus Christ and the Apostles called?
A. Tradition.
Q. How did the unwritten doctrine of Jesus Christ come down to us?
A. The Apostles took great care to instruct their disciples thoroughly, and make them capable of so instructing others. Thus their pure doctrine was delivered to the first Bishops and priests of the Roman Catholic Church. By these, it was in like manner handed down to their successors; and so on, unimpaired, to those who, at the present time, teach in the Catholic Church.
Q. How do we know this?
A. We know it from what St. Paul writes in his Second Epistle to the Bishop Timothy (chap. 11.2), and from the early Fathers of the Church.
Q. What does St. Paul write?
A. "And the things which thou hast heard of me by many witnesses, the same commend to faithful men, who shall be fit to teach others also."
Q. Which of the early Fathers of the Church writes, when speaking of the ninety-first heresy: "All things are not found in the Holy Scripture, for the Apostles have taught us some by tradition, some by writing"?
A. St. Epiphanius.
Q. Who is it that writes: "Of the many truths of faith held by the Church, some have been received from the inspired writings, others from tradition; both sources are equally pure and certain"?
A. St. Basil, in his treatise on the Holy Ghost. Chap. xxvii.
Q. Is that which was taught by Jesus Christ and His Apostles, but which is not written, less true than that which is written?
A. The one is just as true as the other.
Q. Why?
A. Because the Apostles taught the true doctrine of Jesus Christ not less by their preaching, than by their writings, and the Holy Ghost expressed His will, as well by their tongues as by their pens.
Q. What follows from this?
A. That we must believe the unwritten Word of God as firmly as the written.
Q. Who assures us most emphatically of this?
A. St. Paul, in these words: "Therefore, brethren, stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our Epistle."--2 Thess. 11. 14.
Q. Was this also the belief of the Fathers of the Church?
A. It was; for St. John Chrysostom writes, in his 4th homily on the Second Epistle of St. Paul to the Thessalonians: "Therefore it is evident that the Apostles taught many things without writing, which we must believe as firmly as those which are written."
Q. Name some of those truths of which the Bible does not speak, but which we believe from tradition?
A. We know only from tradition--1. That little children are to be baptized. 2. That we must keep holy the Sunday instead of the Saturday. 3. We know only from tradition those books which are divine, and contain the written word of God.
Q. But was it not possible that those truths which were taught by the Apostles, but were not written, might easily be corrupted, or forgotten altogether, because not recorded in Holy Scripture?
A. No; because God himself took care that what He had taught should not be forgotten, but be handed down to us uncorrupted.
Q. Was there any written Word of God for two thousand years, from Adam down to Moses?
A. There was not.
Q. How then did all that God spoke to Adam, Noah, etc., come down uncorrupted to Moses, who was the first to write down the Word of God?
A. By tradition; that is, God took care that the Patriarchs, His faithful servants, should hand down by word of mouth His doctrine uncorrupted from generation to generation.
Q. Could not, and did not God do the same from the time of the Apostles down to us?
A. He could, and did, by means of the faithful pastors of His Church.
Q. How did the pastors of His Church hand down to us the unwritten doctrine of the Apostles?
A. Partly by word of mouth and partly by their writings, in which they explain the doctrine of the Apostles, written and unwritten.
Q. What do we understand from this?
A. That, for example, the faith of the Catholic Church in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament would have been at all times precisely what it is, had it pleased God that the passages in Holy Scripture, relating to it, had never been written; and so with all the rest of the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Q. Are the doctrines of the Catholic Church then entirely independent of Scripture?
A. They are; because she taught her doctrines, and they were believed by the early Christians before the New Testament was written--centuries, indeed, before the Bible was collected into its present form; and she would have done so, in precisely the same manner, had they never been written.
Q. What, then, do we mean when we say: "I believe the Holy Catholic Church"?
A. We mean that we firmly believe in the fact that Jesus Christ has established a visible church, endless in her duration, and infallible in her doctrine, which we must believe and obey without reserve, if we would obtain eternal salvation; and that this Church is no other than the Roman Catholic Church.
Q. How do people come to lose this faith?
A. 1. By want of instruction.
2. By neglect of prayer and other religious duties.
3. By worldliness and a wicked life.
4. By reading bad books.
5. By intercourse with scoffers at religion.
6. By mixed marriages.
7. By becoming members of secret societies.
8. By pride and subtle reasoning on the mysteries of our religion.
9. By want of submission to the Church.
10. By godless education.
What is Dogma?
by William Edward Addis, 1893
Dogma, in its theological sense, is a truth contained in the Word of God, written or unwritten--i.e. in Scripture or Tradition--and proposed by the Church for the belief of the faithful. Thus dogma is a revealed truth, since Scripture is inspired by the Holy Ghost, while tradition signifies the truths which the Apostles received from Christ and the Holy Spirit, and handed down to the Church.
From this definition, it follows that the Church has no power to make new dogmas. It is her office to contend for the faith once delivered, and to hand down the sacred deposit which she has received without adding to it or taking from it. At the same time, the Church may enunciate fully and impose dogmas or articles of faith contained in the Word of God, or at least deduced from principles so contained, but as yet not fully declared and imposed. Hence with regard to a new definition--such, e.g., as that of Transubstantiation, Christians have a twofold duty. They are obliged to believe, first, that the doctrine so defined is true, and next that it is part of the Christian revelation received by the Apostles. Again, no Christian is at liberty to refuse assent to any dogma which the Church proposes. To do so involves nothing less than shipwreck of the faith, and no Catholic can accept the Protestant distinction between "fundamental and non-fundamental articles of faith." It is a matter of fundamental importance to accept the whole of the Church's teaching. True, a Catholic is not bound to know all the definitions of the Church--but, if he knowingly and wilfully contradicts or doubts the truth of any one among them, he ceases to be a Catholic.
This arbitrary distinction between essential and non-essential articles has led by natural consequence to the opinion that dogmatic belief, as such, matters little provided a man's life is virtuous and his feelings are devout. A religion of this kind is on the very face of it different from the religion of the Apostles and their successors. St. Paul anathematises false teachers, and bids his disciples shun heretics; St. John denounces the denial of the Incarnation as a mark of Antichrist. If God has made a revelation, then both duty and devotional feeling must depend on the dogmas of that revelation, and be regulated by them.
There Can be No New Dogmas or Progress in Church Teachings
"The Church of Christ, zealous and cautious guardian of the dogmas deposited with it, never changes any phase of them. It does not diminish them or add to them; it neither trims what seems necessary nor grafts things superfluous; it neither gives up its own or usurps what does not belong to it. But it devotes all its diligence to one aim: to treat tradition faithfully and wisely; to nurse and polish what from old times may have remain unshaped and unfinished; to consolidate and strengthen what already was clear and plain; and to guard what already was confirmed and defined."
(St. Vincent of Lerins, 5th century A.D.)
"'Guard.' he says, 'what has been committed.' What does it mean, 'what has been committed'? It is what has been faithfully entrusted to you, not what has been discovered by you; what you have received, not what you have thought up; a matter not of ingenuity, but of doctrine; not of private acquisition, but of public Tradition; a matter brought to you, not put forth by you, in which you must not be the author but the guardian, not the founder but the sharer, not the leader, but the follower. 'Guard,' he says, 'what has been committed.' Keep the talent [see Mt. 25:14-30] of the Catholic Faith inviolate and unimpaired. What has been faithfully entrusted, let it remain in your possession, let it be handed on by you. You have received gold, so give gold. For my part, I do not want you to substitute on thing for another; I do not want you imprudently to put lead in place of gold, or fraudulently, brass. I do not want the appearance of gold, but the real thing. O Timothy, O priest, O interpreter, O teacher, if a divine gift has made you suitable in genius, in experience, in doctrine to be the Bezalel [i.e. skilled craftsman] of the spiritual tabernacle, cut out the precious gems of divine dogma, shape them faithfully, ornament them wisely, add splendor, grace and beauty to them! By your expounding it, may that now be understood more clearly which formerly was believed even in its obscurity. May posterity, be means of you, rejoice in understanding what in times past was venerated without understanding. Nevertheless, teach the same that you have learned, so that if you say something anew, it is not something new that you say." (St. Vincent of Lerins, c. 434 A.D.)
"What then should a Catholic do if some part of the Church were to separate itself from communion with the universal Faith? What other choice can he make but to prefer to the gangrenous and corrupted member the whole of the body that is sound. And if some new contagion were to try to poison no longer a small part of the Church, but all of the Church at the same time, then he will take the greatest care to attach himself to antiquity which, obviously, can no longer be seduced by any lying novelty." (St. Vincent of Lerins, c. 434 A.D.)
"Hold firmly that your faith is identical with that of the ancients. Deny this, and you dissolve the unity of the Church." (St. Thomas Aquinas)
"There being an imminent danger for the Faith, prelates must bequestioned, even publicly, by their subjects. Thus, St. Paul, who was a subject of St. Peter, questioned him publicly on account of an imminent danger of scandal in a matter of Faith. And, as the Glossa of St. Augustine puts it (Ad Galatas 2.14), 'St. Peter himself gave the example to those who govern so that if sometime they stray from the right way, they will not reject a correction as unworthy even if it comes from their subjects . . . . (St. Thomas Aquinas)
The reprehension was just and useful, and the reason for it was not light: there was a danger for the preservation of Gospel truth . . . . The way it took place was appropriate, since it was public and manifest. For this reason, St. Paul writes: 'I spoke to Cephas,' that is, Peter, 'before everyone,' since the simulation practiced by St. Peter was fraught with danger to everyone. (St. Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae, IIa IIae, Q. 33, A. 4)
"Some say that fraternal correction does not extend to the prelates either because man should not raise his voice against heaven, or because the prelates are easily scandalized if corrected by their subjects. However, this does not happen, since when they sin, the prelates do not represent heaven, and, therefore, must be corrected. And those who correct them charitably do not raise their voices against them, but in their favor, since the admonishment is for their own sake.... For this reason, according to other [authors], the precept of fraternal correction extends also to the prelates, so that they may be corrected by their subjects." (St. Thomas Aquinas: IV. Sententiarum, D. 19, Q. 2, A. 2))
With truly lamentable results, our age, casting aside all restraint in its search for the ultimate causes of things, frequently pursues novelties so ardently that it rejects the legacy of the human race. Thus it falls into very serious errors, which are even more serious when they concern sacred authority, the interpretation of Sacred Scripture, and the principal mysteries of Faith. The fact that many Catholic writers also go beyond the limits determined by the Fathers and the Church herself is extremely regrettable. In the name of higher knowledge and historical research (they say), they are looking for that progress of dogmas which is, in reality, nothing but the corruption of dogmas.
(St. Pope Pius X., "Lamentabili Sane", 1907 A.D.)
CONDEMNED: "Divine revelation is imperfect, and therefore subject to continuous and indefinite progress, which corresponds to the progress of human reason." (Pope Pius IX, This proposition was condemned in the Syllabus of Errors, Dec. 8, 1864 A.D.)
"If anyone rejects any written or unwritten tradition of the church, let him be anathema." (Second Council of Nicaea 787 A.D.)
"O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you, shunning profane novelties of words;" 1 Timothy 6:20 and again, "if any man preach unto you other than you have received, let him be accursed." Galatians 1:9
Therefore all those who dare to think or teach anything different, or who follow the accursed heretics in rejecting ecclesiastical traditions, or who devise innovations, or who spurn anything entrusted to the church (whether it be the gospel or the figure of the cross or any example of representational art or any martyr's holy relic), or who fabricate perverted and evil prejudices against cherishing any of the lawful traditions of the catholic church, or who secularize the sacred objects and saintly monasteries, we order that they be suspended if they are bishops or clerics, and excommunicated if they are monks or lay people.
(Second Council of Nicaea 787 A.D.) "Just as it is licit to resist a Pontiff who attacks the body, so it is licit to resist him who attacks souls, or who disturbs the civil order. or. above all, him who tries to destroy the Church. It is licit to resist him by not doing what he order and by impeding the execution of his will." (St. Robert Bellermine Doctor of the Church, De Romano Pontifice, Book II, Chapter II, Chapter 29)
"Better that only a few Catholics should be left, staunch and sincere in their religion, than that they should, remaining many, desire as it were, to be in collusion with the Church's enemies and in conformity with the open foes of our faith." (St. Peter Canisius (1521-1597)
"Urge them never to allow themselves to be deceived and led into error by men who have become abominable in their pursuits. These men attempt to destroy faith on the pretext of human progress, subjecting it in an impious manner to reason and changing the meaning of the words of God. Such men do not shrink from the greatest insults to God Himself, who cares for the good and the salvation of men by means of His heavenly religion."
(Pope Pius IX, "Qui Pluribus", 1846 A.D.)
"Therefore, it is obviously absurd and injurious to propose a certain 'restoration and regeneration' for [the Church] as though necessary for her safety and growth, as if she could be considered subject to defect or obscuration or other misfortune. Indeed these authors of novelties consider that a 'foundation may be laid of a new human institution,' and what Cyprian detested may come to pass, that what was a divine thing 'may become a human church.'" (Pope Gregory XVI, "Mirari Vos", 1832 A.D.)
"To announce, therefore, to Catholic Christians something other than that which they have received is never permitted, is nowhere permitted, and never will be permitted. And to anathematize those who announce anything other than that which has been received once and for all has never been unnecessary, is nowhere unnecessary, and never will be unnecessary" (St. Vincent of Lerins, c. 434 A.D.)
"For the Church of Christ, watchful guardian that she is, and defender of the dogmas deposited with her, never changes anything, never diminishes anything, never adds anything to them; but with all diligence she treats the ancient documents faithfully and wisely; if they really are of ancient origin and if the faith of the Fathers has transmitted them, she strives to investigate and explain them in such a way that the ancient dogmas of heavenly doctrine will be made evident and clear, but will retain their full, integral, and proper nature, and will grow only within their own genus - that is, within the same dogma, in the same sense and the same meaning." (Pope Pius IX, "Ineffabilis Deus", 1854 A.D.)
"For the teaching authority of the Church, which in the divine wisdom was constituted on earth in order that revealed doctrines might remain intact forever, and that they might be brought with ease and security to the knowledge of men, and which is daily exercised through the Roman Pontiff and the Bishops who are in communion with him, has also the office of defining, when it sees fit, any truth with solemn rites and decrees, whenever this is necessary either to oppose the errors or the attacks of heretics, or more clearly and in greater detail to stamp the minds of the faithful with the articles of sacred doctrine which have been explained. But in the use of this extraordinary teaching authority no newly invented matter is brought in, nor is anything new added to the number of those truths which are at least implicitly contained in the deposit of Revelation, divinely handed down to the Church: only those which are made clear which perhaps may still seem obscure to some, or that which some have previously called into question is declared to be of faith." (Pope Pius XI, "Mortalium Animos", 1928)
"It is with no less deceit, venerable brothers, that other enemies of divine revelation, with reckless and sacrilegious effrontery, want to import the doctrine of human progress into the Catholic religion. They extol it with the highest praise, as if religion itself were not of God but the work of men, or a philosophical discovery which can be perfected by human means... Our holy religion was not invented by human reason, but was most mercifully revealed by God; therefore, one can quite easily understand that religion itself acquires all its power from the authority of God who made the revelation, and that it can never be arrived at or perfected by human reason."
(Pope Pius IX, "Qui Pluribus", 1846 A.D.)
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