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23 October 2020 - 5 November 2020
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Issue 302
Our Lady Of Banada Pray for Our Prodigal Sons & Daughters Do you have children who no longer adhere to the teachings of the Catholic Faith you brought them up in? Read the beautiful story of Our Lady of Banada and the conversion of Freddie Jones. The Statue of Our Lady of Banada, pictured on the left, was gifted by Pope Pius IX to Mrs Louisa Jones, mother of Freddie Jones. He ‘came to his senses’ while she was doing a Novena to Our Lady of Banada seeking his conversion. Today, many of our young people have gone astray and are lost sheep wandering in the wilderness of the secular world whilst living sinful lives. Let us ask Our Lady of Banada to bring them home to the Catholic Church. See pages 16-17
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12 THE ROAD TO HELL
Catholic Voice
23rd October 2020
Is There Really A Covid-19 Pandemic? What About The Abortion Pandemic? John Lacken
Let us continue to pray for our bishops as our country moves to the so-called Level 3 of the ‘National Framework for living with Covid-19’. Once again the Catholics of Ireland are being denied access to Holy Mass. To put this in perspective, you can go out to get your hair done, but you cannot go to receive Jesus Christ in Holy Communion at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. On a positive note our bishops have said at their Autumn general meeting: “While we fully support the guidance of the public health authorities, we will continue to engage constructively in the coming days with the civil authorities to ensure that our people have continued access to the support of Mass and the Sacraments and essential spiritual nourishment for these challenging times.” Let us pray that our bishops will clearly act to show that receiving Holy Communion at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is more important than getting one’s hair done. Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen I met someone recently outside of a Church where I had gone to pray and they asked me if I believed all that we are being told about Covid. I replied simply, ‘No’, to which they responded ‘Why not, on what do you base your view’. I told them that my view is not based on the opinions of others, although I have listened to people on both sides of the divide, my opinion is based on looking at the government’s own figures produced on behalf of the HSE.
I hadn’t intended getting into the whole Covid-19 debate but in this article I want to take a close look at some of those figures in the hope that it will help people to begin to question for themselves the propaganda narrative that has been pumped out tirelessly at us for just over seven months now. Like most people, at the start of this outbreak of what is now called Covid-19, I began to take an interest in what was looking like a serious epidemic as obviously, this could have implications for my family. I found the worldometers website which provided daily updates on the infection and death rates for Covid-19 and I began to check this website about three times per day. I would compare the rates in different countries and see how Ireland was faring out. Which countries were doing well and which countries were not doing so well. Our government then locked the country down. One day I realised that I was waking up each morning and I was counting dead bodies. There were no dead bodies anywhere near me, I know of one woman who died from Covid-19 and I know one other person who became sick from Covid-19, but that is it. Yet still, here I was counting dead bodies on a daily basis. I knew that this could not be healthy so I stopped my daily scrutinising of the figures. As time has gone on, I have also noticed that for some people, watching an apparent disaster unfold can become addictive. Many people were off work and had more time on their hands. My very limited social media interaction began to get busy with people sending me posts and messages to ‘watch this video’, ‘share this link’. Sometimes it would say in bold, ‘Watch This Video Before It Gets Taken Down’, seeking to create a sense of urgency, - ‘if you don’t watch this NOW you will not be
informed’. My policy with these posts has been to very quickly assess whether the content would be life changing or not. Most of it isn’t, and so I delete most of the things sent to me on social media after a quick glance. Thank God, I am still working full-time and my work load has increased due to Covid-19 so I just don’t have time to sit around watching the latest Covid-19 nailbiting thriller on Youtube. This is not to say that I am not paying attention, but I try to keep Covid on my peripheral vision so that it does not take up too much time. As I became aware that all is not as it seems in the Covid-19 world, I began to try to figure out what the real agenda is and, not surprisingly, I came to the conclusion that it is a continuation of the war against the Catholic Church, the traditional family and mankind in general. My last article in Catholic Voice looked at some of the evil legislation that is going through our parliament. As I write this, it has just been confirmed that the assisted suicide bill passed second stage in the Dáil by 81 votes to 71. This happened on the feast of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 7th October, and the bill is shortly expected to move to committee stage. When I woke up this morning to this evil news a song popped into my head from 1989 - Chris Rea Road to Hell. “She said ‘son what are you doing here My fear for you has turned me in my grave’ I said ‘mama I come to the valley of the rich - Myself to sell’ She said ‘son, this is the road to hell’” “You must learn this lesson fast And learn it well This ain’t no upwardly mobile freeway Oh No, this is the road to hell” The Irish government and many of our Irish politicians are on the road to hell.
23rd October 2020
Catholic Voice
THE ROAD TO HELL 13
So let’s look at the ‘official’ government figures on Covid-19 to see if they support the idea that we are in the middle of a pandemic or not. On the 7th October, the HPSC - Health Protection Surveillance Centre published their regular ‘Epidemiology of COVID-19 in Ireland’ report for NPHET - National Public Health Emergency Team. NPHET are the guys who declared that Ireland should be locked down again going to Level 5. The first figure from the HPSC report is the total number of confirmed cases which stood at 38,973. However what the HPSC defines as a case is a positive Covid-19 test result, one does not have to have any symptoms. To my mind this is misleading. Imagine having an allegedly deadly disease but with no symptoms and no ill health. Something is not right here and our government will not tell you how many or what percentage of those testing positive are asymptomatic i.e. they not sick at all. The other thing to note is that these reports use cumulative figures which means that the number of cases and the number of cases per 100,000 of population will never decrease, it will always increase. We are not told how many people per 100,000 of the population have the virus right now at this particular point in time. Again this can be misleading because this is not stated in government briefings all we get is ever increasing numbers in relation to Covid-19. The next figure we get is the total number of cases hospitalised which was 3,701 at the time of this report. Once again we are being misled by these figures as it is implied that these people were hospitalised on account of Covid-19, but this is not the case, many of them are asymptomatic. Deputy Michael McNamara, the Clare TD, formerly of the Labour Party but now an Independent, is the Chairman of the Special Committee on the Covid-19 Response. At a recent meeting of this committee he questioned Dr John Cuddihy of the HPSC “If somebody is admitted to hospital, they’re asymptomatic, with a broken leg for example, and require hospitalization and they’re tested and they are asymptomatic but test positive,
are they included among the statistics of those in hospital with Covid?” Dr Cuddihy answered: “Yes, they are, if they have tested positive they are included” The same answer was given in relation to deaths. If someone dies of a heart attack, is asymptomatic for Covid but tests positive, this is also recorded as a Covid death. It may be revised months later if a coroners report corrects the mistake, but this is the clearly misleading situation that we are dealing with in relation to Covid-19 reporting. This is the information that our government is using to control how we live our lives. Another interesting figure from this report is that the confirmed number of deaths, which is exaggerated by those who died from other causes but tested positive for Covid-19, stands at 1,563. However the government’s official figure on this date was 1,816 deaths from Covid-19, an additional overstatement of 253 deaths or a 16% over-statement of the death rate. The explanation for this is that the government includes what are called ‘probable’ and ‘possible’ Covid-19 deaths for which there is no clinical evidence that the person who died ever had Covid-19. At this stage, everyone should be questioning what is going on with these official figures and we are only on the first page of a 14 page document, but clearly something is amiss, something
is not right. Why are the figures being distorted in favour of a higher number of Covid-19 cases and deaths? Dr Cuddihy, in response to his affirmation that a heart attack victim with a positive Covid test would be recorded as a Covid death said “We adhere to the World Health Organisation’s case definition in terms of the recording and reporting of deaths...” So, this problem of overstating the death rate due to Covid-19 is not just an Irish problem it is happening on a global scale. The next figure in this report is the case fatality ratio and this too is misleading as it expresses the number of deaths as a percentage of the actual confirmed cases of Covid-19. But the number of people who have had Covid-19 is probably far higher. In June-July of this year, a Study was conducted by the HSE to Investigate COVID-19 Infection in People Living in Ireland (SCOPI): Part of their conclusions were: “Based on these findings, we estimate that 59,500 (95% CI: 39,800-85,200) people in Ireland aged between 12 and 69 years of age have been infected with SARS-CoV-2. This is 3.0 (95% CI: 2.0-4.3) times higher than the number of confirmed cases aged 12-69 years notified in Ireland.” If we take this at face value and triple the number of cases from the HPSC report in the 12 - 69 age bracket, we arrive at a total number of positive ‘cases’ of 99,173 which would reduce the case fatality ratio to 1.58.
16 OUR LADY OF BANADA
Catholic Voice
23rd October 2020
The Prodigal Sons & Daughters I often receive calls and letters from Catholic Voice readers and Lumen Fidei supporters seeking prayers for their children who have strayed from the practice of the Catholic Faith. Many of these parents wonder what happened to their adult children as they themselves tried their best to ensure that their children received a Catholic education and they were faithful in the practice of the faith themselves. I have written many times in this paper about the demise of Catholic education in Ireland. This lack of proper formation goes some way to explaining why many young people lapse from the practice of their Catholic faith. Another factor is that the prevailing culture is toxic to Catholicism. In the last issue I looked at some of the evil legislation that is on the Autumn legislative schedule in Ireland. This legislation has become possible through the use of mind controlling propaganda techniques which excoriate and shame those who publicly express adherence to Catholic principles whilst lauding those who favour insane ideologies such as the LGBT ideology. My own family is not exempt from these cultural influences and my eldest child has fallen away from the practice of the Catholic Faith so I feel the pain of those parents who contact me about their own children. I get great comfort from the story of the prodigal son in chapter fifteen of St Luke’s Gospel. The Pharisees are complaining that Jesus receives and eats with sinners so Jesus tells them three parables. The first is about the good shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine sheep to go looking for the lost sheep. The second is the parable of the woman who loses the coin and who sweeps her house clean in order to find it. Finally he tells them the story of the prodigal son. This son is well reared by a loving and good father and yet, he still goes astray. Our children have all been given the gift of free will by God and some of them may choose to follow another path than the one their parents have shown them. This is a worrying time for Catholic parents when they see their children lost to the secular world, but we must learn to trust in God’s deep love for our children and to have the courage to wait patiently and unwaveringly like the father in the story of the prodigal son.
My wife received an envelope in the post some time back, she can’t quite remember when but she came across it again recently. She does not know who sent it to her. It contains a little re-print of the story of Our Lady of Banada from a booklet on Irish Marian Shrines of 1955. Neither of us had ever heard of Our Lady of Banada. We had heard of Banada Abbey which was founded by the Augustinians back in 1423 and which eventually came into the hands of the Irish Sisters of Charity. We did a little research and found out that the statue is now located in a church that is only twenty-six minutes from where we live. Here is the story of Our Lady of Banada from that booklet. “In the life of Mother Mary Aikenhead, written under the title ‘A Candle Was Lit’ by Margery Bayley-Butler, we find a bewitching little story of four lively youngsters playing at makebelieve monks and nuns in a river bordered monastery in County Sligo. The house and lands adjoining the ruins belonged to the children’s parents and here in the early years of the 19th century the little ones grew up in innocence and piety, fired by the tales and traditions linking their lovely home called appropriately Banada Abbey - with the real monks, who prayed and worked on that very spot 200 years before. Two other children, a girl and a boy, completed the family circle. The boy was the youngest and apparently the scapegrace of the household. Little did these wee people dream that they were destined by God to take a prominent part in restoring that grand old property to the Church and that Our Lady was about to bestow on their family a touching token of her love. The history of Banada bubbles with interest from start to finish, but the scope of this article confines us to the period directly connected with the lives of the children already mentioned - Daniel, James, Mary, Georgina and Freddie Jones of Banada Abbey. Their parents, Daniel and Louisa Jones, were renowned throughout the countryside for their loyalty to the Church and their Christ-like love of the poor. We are not surprised then to hear that God enriched this truly Christian family with the fairest jewels in His treasury. All the children, with the exception of Freddie, received the great grace of a religious vocation. Daniel and James became Jesuits, Mary and Georgina entered
23rd October 2020
Catholic Voice
OUR LADY OF BANADA 17
Our Lady Of Banada the Irish Sisters of Charity, and the third girl joined the Sisters of Mercy.
mother was kneeling in prayer. Coming up close to her he laid his hand gently on her bowed head saying
It is at this point the story of Our Lady of Banada begins. Shortly after his ordination, Fr Daniel Jones, S.J. was sent on business to Rome. In an audience with Pope Pius IX, he spoke of his home and family and begged a special blessing for Banada Abbey and all its inmates. The Holy Father not only granted his request but gave him, as a present for his mother, a lovely little statue of Our Lady, which even then had the reputation of being the medium of miraculous favours. Filled with gratitude and joy, Fr Jones brought the gift to Banada and had it erected in a place of honour in the home. A lamp was kept continually burning before the statue and there in the little oratory Mrs Jones gathered the household round her and prayed to the Holy Mother of God under the title sanctioned by Pope Pius IX - Our Lady of Banada.
“Mother, what are you praying for at this unearthly hour?” “I am asking Our Lady to convert you” she answered. Filled with remorse he knelt down and promised Our Lady that he would change his life.
No sooner was Our Lady thus enthroned than she began to show her appreciation of the honour and devotion paid to her. Many striking answers to prayer were obtained both by the Jones family themselves and by the people of the surrounding country. The most remarkable of these favours concerned the scapegrace of the Jones household, the youngest son. Freddie was a wild boy and a source of grave anxiety to his parents. Often he would disappear for weeks, leaving no clue as to his whereabouts, and then reappear unexpectedly at most unusual hours of the night or morning. The poor mother was broken-hearted. He seemed a truly hopeless case.
And he kept his word. Shortly after, he made a retreat under the Jesuit Fathers in Dublin. During the retreat he decided to enter the Jesuit Novitiate but was advised to wait a year in order to test his vocation. Before the year had elapsed poor Freddie was stricken with rapid consumption and died a most saintly death. The grateful mother had her boy’s diamond pin set in a little bracelet which she placed on Our Lady’s arm in thanksgiving for his conversion. Later on, many of the family jewels were worked into a gold crown for the statue and a beautiful gold locket studded with diamonds was hung round Our Lady’s neck. There is no doubt the Queen of Heaven had taken Banada Abbey and its faithful people under her special care. Each new favour increased devotion to the shrine and soon Our Lady of Banada was known and venerated throughout County Sligo and even beyond its borders.” Banada Abbey was donated to the Sisters of Charity after Mr Jones’ death. Sadly, there are no longer any religious at the deserted Banada Abbey. It is now closed but the statue was moved and formally enthroned in nearby St Attracta’s Church in Tourlestrane where it remains to this day.
Suddenly one day she decided to make a Novena to Our Lady of Banada for his conversion. During the progress of the Novena Freddie returned in the small hours of the morning after having been several days away from home.
My wife and I have visited the Church on a number of occasions recently to venerate Our Lady of Banada and to pray before her statue, pictured here with the bracelet, crown and locket mentioned above. There is a document on the wall beside the statue with the wax seal of Pope Pius IX confirming the origin and title of the little statue.
When passing the little oratory he was amazed to see a brilliant circle of light shining round Our Lady’s statue. Drawing near he was more astonished to find that he could not penetrate within the circle. The same thing happened a few nights later. He saw the same mysterious light encircling the statue before which his
We prayed to Our Lady of Banada especially for our eldest child and for all of our children and it struck me that perhaps we should seek to revitalise the devotion to Our Lady of Banada for those of us who have children that have gone astray. Our Lady of Banada please convert our children. - John Lacken