Catholic Voice 12th February 2021 Issue 310

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Issue 310

Memento, Homo, Quia Pulvis Es, Et In Pulverem Reverteris Remember, Man, That Thou Art Dust, And Unto Dust Thou Shalt Return

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2 CONFESSION

Catholic Voice

12th February 2021

The Parts Of The Sacrament Of Confession Canon Wulfran Lebocq I.C.K.S.P.

There are three “parts” of the sacrament of penance, three things that are required of those receiving the sacrament of penance: contrition, confession and satisfaction. These three conditions are known as the acts of the penitent. (Incidentally, the “penitent” is the person going to confession; the “confessor” is the priest administering the sacrament.)

This sacrament exists to set us free from the sins we have committed.

“Whoever commits sin is the slave of sin” (John 8:34). That explains the three parts of the sacrament: we regret our sins (contrition), we confess them to the priest, Christ’s representative (confession), and we are ready to do penance for them (satisfaction). Let us now look briefly at each of these three acts of the penitent a bit more closely.

1. Contrition 1.a. This is an absolutely essential part of making a good confession.

Contrition is the sincere sorrow for our sins, together with the firm purpose of amendment. God does not force his mercy on anyone, and without sincerely regretting our sins, even God himself could not forgive them: not because of any weakness on his part, but because we would be unwilling to accept his forgiveness. Our contrition must above all be supernatural:

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that is, based on religious and not purely human motives. The man who regrets robbing a bank because he is subsequently sent to jail or drinking too much because he gets a headache has a purely natural sorrow: this is not the supernatural contrition necessary for a good confession.

Our contrition is called perfect contrition when we are sorry for our sins purely, or at least primarily, because we have offended God, and not because of the punishments which our sins have deserved. When circumstances make it impossible to actually receive the sacrament of penance (in a sinking ship, on the field of battle …), perfect contrition, based on charity or love of God above all things, is enough to put the sinner back in the state of grace, when this contrition is joined to the intention of receiving the sacrament as soon as possible.

Perfect contrition, since it presupposes the desire for the sacrament, is not a replacement for going to confession: a person who would refuse to go to confession when he could do so, claiming to have perfect contrition, would show by that very fact that he did not have perfect contrition!

Imperfect contrition (also called “attrition”), on the other hand, is based on a more selfish motive: we regret our sins because we realise that they have earned for us the loss of heaven and the pains of hell or purgatory. But even imperfect contrition is still supernatural, since it is based on the truths of faith which God has revealed to us (the horror of sin, the reality of hell or purgatory, etc.) and not on merely natural considerations.

Although imperfect contrition on its own is not enough to secure the pardon of our sins, it is a sufficient disposition for receiving this sacrament validly. Even if we do not regret our sins solely out of the offence they cause to the majesty of God, we can still be forgiven in confession with sincere, supernatural albeit imperfect contrition.

Although we do not need to feel our sorrow emotionally, we must form a resolution of the will to detest our sins and avoid them in the future.

We must firmly regret every mortal sin we may have committed.

“Whosoever shall keep the whole law, but offend in one point, is become guilty of all” (James 2:10).

Just as a person cannot be “almost alive,” so also a soul cannot be “almost” in a state of grace: either we love God and regret all our sins or we do not.

We should not be discouraged if having true contrition for our sins sometimes seems difficult.

Contrition itself is an actual grace which God, in his mercy, freely grants to all those who ask. God is always better at forgiving than we are at sinning! As much as we may wish to grow in holiness, God wants it even more than we do, and

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CONFESSION 3

12th February 2021 Catholic Voice he is always there to help us along the way. Even if, after a devout confession, we eventually fall into the same sins again, we should never hesitate to turn again to God and renew our contrition.

1.b. An important part of contrition is the firm purpose of amendment. If we are truly sorry for our sins then naturally we will wish to avoid them in the future. The purpose of amendment is simply the intention to reform our lives and avoid sin in the future. Through contrition we must form the real intention to sin no more.

A student who confesses having cheated on a test is not sincere, if he already intends to cheat again tomorrow.

We must also avoid the near occasion of sin. Scripture tells us, “he who loves danger shall perish in it” (Ecclesiasticus 3:27). An occasion of sin is any person, place or thing which tends to lead us into sin. A near occasion of sin is one which could easily be avoided and in which we are likely to fall. For example, for an alcoholic, a pub would be a near occasion of sin.

We must seek to know ourselves well enough to realise what situations are likely to be a temptation for us. We must not recklessly expose ourselves to such situations; otherwise our contrition is not authentic.

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4 COUNTERFEIT CATHOLICISM

Catholic Voice

12th February 2021

Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s Warning About Counterfeit Catholicism Fr Dwight Longenecker

Locked, as he was, in the post war struggle with communism, Fulton Sheen’s prophecies about the end time are somewhat dated, but his underlying vision is strong and sobering.

In his Communism and Conscience of the West discusses the Antichrist:

All these will I give thee, If falling down thou wilt adore me.

(Matthew 4-9)

the he

“The Antichrist will not be so called; otherwise he would have no followers. He will not wear red tights, nor vomit sulphur, nor carry a trident nor wave an arrowed tail as Mephistopheles in Faust. This masquerade has helped the Devil convince men that he does not exist. When no man recognises him, the more power he exercises.”

We must always remember that Satan comes as an angel of light. What he presents is always eminently reasonable. He offers the seemingly sensible way, the soft way, the way of compromise and ease. If he showed himself as the monster he is all would run howling in terror. Instead he offers a way out when we are in a jam, an alternative when the way of Christ seems difficult.

“Nowhere in Sacred Scripture do we find warrant for the popular myth of the Devil as a buffoon who is dressed like the first “red.” Rather is he described as an angel fallen from heaven, as “the Prince of this world,” whose business it is to tell us that there is no other world.”

When watching for the anti Christ we should be careful not to become too obsessed with one particular historical or contemporary figure. To be sure, there will be an Antichrist one day who seeks to take over the world and there will be his prophet who is a religious leader who seeks to deceive people with a fake system of spirituality.

The Temptation of Christ - Ludwig Ferdinand Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1788- 1853) However, we should also remember that down through history there have always been Antichrists and false prophets.

Furthermore, there have also been systems of thought that have been Antichrists and systems of religion that are the false prophet.

At heart the Antichrist is the ruler of this world. The false prophet teaches a religion that is only of this world.

All the world’s systems and false religions combine to convince us of this fact. Here are some of the Antichrist systems of thought prevalent in our culture today: Materialism: there is no other world. This is it.

Scientism: only scientifically tested knowledge is valid.

Historicism: there is no overarching providence. History is random.

Evolutionism: the natural world develops at random. There is no divine plan.

Utilitarianism: what works is all that matters. Efficiency and economy are our gods.

Rationalism: there is no such thing as Revelation.

Your reasoning power is your only access to truth.

Sentimentalism: your feelings are your only guide because there is no objective truth Moral Relativism: there is no great Law. Therefore you may do as you wish. In fact this is the motto of diabolism: “Do as you Will.”

Fulton Sheen traces the logical consequence of a system that is bound only to this world and seeks to eliminate the unseen world.

“Satan’s logic is simple: if there is no heaven there is no hell; if there is no hell, then there is no sin; if there is no sin, then there is no judge, and if there is no judgment then evil is good and good is evil.

But above all these descriptions, Our Lord tells us that he will be so much like Himself that he would deceive even the elect–and certainly no devil ever seen in picture books could deceive even the elect.”

Of course the elect will be deceived and follow the Antichrist. They

12th February 2021 Catholic Voice

COUNTERFEIT CATHOLICISM 5

already do. To see what I mean continue reading Archbishop Sheen.

“How will he come in this new age to win followers to his religion?

The pre-Communist Russian belief is that he will come disguised as the Great Humanitarian; he will talk peace, prosperity and plenty not as means to lead us to God, but as ends in themselves.”

Always beware the promise of a better world. There is always a price to pay for Utopia. Do not swallow the bait. Remember there is always free cheese in a mousetrap. Do not spend your time making this world a better place without first making sure you are going to the Best Place.

The antichrist always offers us this world. He offered Christ himself all the kingdoms of this world. He does the same to us. He offers a wonderful world…one without God and his Son Christ the King.

Sheen explains what the religion of the anti Christ looks like:

he, the Devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the Antichrist that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ. . . .”

“This is the temptation to have a new religion without a Cross, a liturgy without a world to come, a religion to destroy a religion, or a politics which is a religion– one that renders unto Caesar even the things that are God’s. In the midst of all his seeming love for humanity and his glib talk of freedom and equality, he will have one great secret which he will tell to no one: he will not believe in God.”

“The Ape of God” what a phrase!

It reminds me of The Last Battle

by C.S.Lewis in which an ape named Shift finds an old lion skin and persuades a stupid donkey named Puzzle to dress up as Aslan.

The faithful Narnians are fooled

by Shift and Puzzle because they had already given in and forgotten about Aslan. They had already compromised, so when the anti Aslan appeared they fell down before him.

The Antichrist will not believe in God, but he will be religious.

Watch the political leaders give lip service to Christianity and the Church. During the election the politician will pray to get into office. After the election the people pray to get him out of office. The Antichrist follows the Lord of this World and you can tell because all he cares about is this world.

Catholics need to wake up. Already most of us have adapted to the Spirit of the new age. Already we have compromised our standards and lowered our defences. It has been a slow, gradual process, but why do we think that we might stand up to the Antichrist when we have already swallowed his candy?

“Because his religion will be brotherhood of Man without the fatherhood of God, he will deceive even the elect. He will set up a counter church which will be the ape of the Church, because

Kerry Diocesan Youth Services - Still Promoting Sexual Immorality

Look at the world around you.

How many church leaders do you know who already preach a gospel that is no more than watered down socialism? How many sweet talking, smiling preachers do you already know who parade their political activism while neglecting

the reality of Christ’s true gospel?

How many religious people do you know who already believe that it is all about the brotherhood of Man while neglecting the Fatherhood of God? At this time there is no single false prophet or counterfeit church.

Instead these false systems of thought have infiltrated all the Christian churches and the Catholic church is no exception.

When I hear prelates talk more about saving the environment than saving souls I’m smelling sulphur.

When I hear priests and prelates justifying a sexual immorality that breaks the sacrament of marriage and the natural order in the cause of “peace and mercy” I’m smelling smoke – and it ain’t incense. When I hear prelates compromise the Catholic faith in favour of a false ecumenism I’m whiffing something vile from the sewers of Dis. Already they have put before us “a new religion without a Cross, a liturgy without a world to come, a religion to destroy a religion, or a politics which is a religion – one that renders unto Caesar even the things that are God’s.”

Wake up, and don’t be deceived.

Remember the only thing Satan knows how to do is to lie. He is the Father of Lies and the Father of Flies, and where the flies gather there is already a corpse.

6 FINDING PEACE

Catholic Voice

12th February 2021

Finding Peace In A Difficult Moment Monsignor Charles Pope

Some years ago, I wrote a parable of sorts to address why God might allow evil: An alien spaceship came near Earth to observe whether we were worthy of a visit. It focused its surveillance equipment on a random city and peered into a hospital operating room, where doctors were removing a cancerous tumour from a patient. The ship’s captain made the following report back to his superiors: This planet is to be avoided at all costs. Their most developed creatures exhibit great cruelty, putting other members of their species to sleep so that they cannot defend themselves. Then, they cut them open with blades and remove body parts. Afterwards, they sew them back together and wake them up, only to watch them writhe in pain. This is an evil planet! Stay away!

Obviously, the alien lacked understanding and context.

This was not an act of cruelty or violence but of healing.

Although it appeared to be an evil undertaking, it was necessary to save the patient. To be sure, the patient suffered as a side effect of the surgery, but suffering was not the point; healing after and through the suffering was the point.

Like many of you I am both mystified and disoriented by the events of the past year: a pandemic, people walking around in masks, fear everywhere, racial strife, protests nearly all year long that frequently turned violent, and finally a contested presidential election. My own neighbourhood currently resembles a war zone more than it does Washington, D.C. Blockades topped with razor wire seem to be everywhere; bridges are blocked; people are warned not to enter the city on Inauguration Day. I feel as if I’m living in a strange, eerie dream, and I am deeply saddened by the decline of our culture. It has been eroding for decades, but lately there has been a rapid, frightening collapse.

We seem only to be able to shout and fight. Those with the power to do so, the tech oligarchs, are making the Internet seem more like a police state; the principle of free speech is being denied to many. Secularisation is rapidly expanding. Church attendance is even lower than it was after the shutdown. Even the vaccines, for which we so prayed and which were developed at “warp speed,” are a source of contention. There have, of course, been legitimate moral concerns about the development of vaccines for decades, but Covid-19 has intensified this. Add to this the politicisation of who should be vaccinated first, who should be responsible for distribution successes or failures, and whether the current administration should get any credit for the rapid development of vaccines. Nearly everything is a

12th February 2021

Catholic Voice

source of bitter division. It feels as if we are living in a cauldron that is near boiling.

The only place I can find peace is to go before the Lord and admit that I am powerless over most of this.

I pour out my concerns to the Lord and wonder why these things are happening.

Jeremiah’s lament of his own times comes to mind: Have You rejected Judah completely? Do You despise Zion?

Why have You stricken us so that we are beyond healing? We hoped for peace, but no good has come, and for the time of healing, but there was only terror (Jeremiah 14:19).

To my similar lament I get few answers from the Lord. He only admonishes me to do the work I was given to do: to preach the Word prophetically, to pray devoutly, to celebrate the sacraments, and to care for the flock with which He has entrusted me. The rest is “above my pay grade,” and I must leave it to the Lord.

We often think that if only we had the power and control to change things, then we would have peace.

But, paradoxically, our peace is most often found in admitting that when it comes to most things, we are powerless and not in control.

As the little parable above tries to illustrate, we do not often have the context to understand what God is doing or allowing. Perhaps this painful period of the past year is but the surgery necessary to cut away what is diseased and to bring forth a healing. Scripture speaks of God’s scalpel: The word of God is living and effective, sharper than any twoedged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart. No creature is concealed

FINDING PEACE 7

from him, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account (Hebrews 4:12-14).

But he guides us with his eye And we follow till we die.

And we’ll understand it better, By and By.

Perhaps God has decided to allow our civilisation to collapse so that something else may emerge.

Perhaps these are the last days! I do not know, and it is not for me to know. All I do know is that God is in charge and is working out His purposes. There’s an old hymn with these lyrics:

In the end, we must stay close to God and endure the suffering allotted to us (Revelation 13:10).

The only place I find peace is at the feet of Jesus. I do not know what the future holds, but what matters most is that I know that the Lord knows. And I know what He has asked me to do. Stop watching all those news programs and stay close to Jesus, the Lord of history.

Trials dark on every hand And we cannot understand All the ways that God would lead us To that blessed Promised Land

The peace of the Lord be with you all!

8 THE LONG SPOON

Catholic Voice

12th February 2021

Dining with the Devil Dermot Cassidy

Ah, ‘long should be your spoon when supping with the Devil!’ so they say. Chaucer - The Squire’s Tale.

now banished the words ‘he’ and ‘she’ from government documents, a step which his flatterers elsewhere will no doubt be keen to imitate.

It would be foolish to suppose that one knew with certainty whether people today are better or worse than they used to be. Only God can plumb the depths of the human heart. That being said, there are detectable differences on matters pertaining to good and bad between the current generation and its predecessors. One which is obvious is that many today are prepared to do things which perhaps their forebears did just as frequently but for which the latter felt guilty while the former do not. Thus the tale of history is filled with debauchery from start to finish but it had few apologists before the current era.

There are many signposts on the road to Hell. One of the more prominent is followed by those who no longer believe that if something is bad then it is wrong to do it. The simple equation between badness and wrongness has been replaced by a more complicated relation between any action whatever and the sum of its consequences.

The long term goal of Satan, of course, is that eventually the whole human race will echo the words that Milton put in his mouth ‘Evil be thou my good’. Nor could anybody deny that western societies, at least, have largely accepted that black is white when it comes to certain issues. One has only to think of the current drive to ensure that women can be deemed men and vice versa which has the imprimatur of the new American president who has

According to the new orthodoxy, whether an action should be taken is not settled by whether it is bad in itself but only by the overall balance of good and bad in what it causes.

Any action whatever can be taken if the ratio of good to evil in what it brings about is greater than that which would be produced by any alternative action which might also be considered. Those who think in this way are prone to respond to the observation that a certain kind of act is bad with a pointed ‘Yes, but …’. Were one to point out that carpet bombing of cities is bad they would say ‘Yes, but it will shorten the war.’ Or if one were to observe that closing down access to the Sacrament of Confession is evil they would likely respond ‘Yes, but it will shorten the pandemic.’

No well catechised Catholic, of course, will respond in this way to an ethical question nor accept that the bad quality of an act can be overruled by the quantity of its good consequences. Catholics are used to thinking that there are bad deeds which cannot be done whatever the consequences. One cannot commit sodomy no matter how many ‘loving feelings’ might thereby be evoked nor can one abort one’s child to preserve one’s own

or any number of future prospects.

The second part of what Saint Thomas calls ‘The First Principle of Practical Reason’, namely that good must be done and pursued and evil avoided, has been well understood and taken on board.

Where many Catholics are more at sea, however, is with the first part of the principle, which pertains not to badness but to goodness.

There is a simple relation between badness and wrongness but a much more complicated relation between goodness and rightness. If something is bad then one cannot do it and that is the end of the matter, but if it is good it does not follow that it is all right to do it without further ado. Where a deed is indeed good but not in itself obligatory then one has to take a number of other considerations into account.

Thus, the deed has to be consistent with one’s prior obligations, and if it will cause unintentional evil as well as intended good then the good brought about must not be caused by the evil effects; it should also be proportionate to them and there must be no equally feasible way of bringing about the good in question which does not cause similarly evil effects.

These complexities in the relationship between goodness and rightness are what underlie the truth of the old maxim that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions and of the fact, all too evident in our own day, that a just cause alone does not a just war make. Very few of the wars, revolutions or ‘régime changes’ so eagerly fought or fostered by those convinced of the rectitude of their cause would have taken place if the untold harm caused to those in whose name they were supposedly waged had genuinely been taken into account.

12th February 2021 Catholic Voice There is thus a quantitative aspect to moral reasoning in relation to permissible goodness which is often overlooked by Catholics used to rejecting purely quantitative considerations in favour of doing what is evil. The quantities involved need not be precise numbers, of course, they may consist just in our ability to assess whether there is more or less of one thing than another, as when one determines that a certain course of action will do more harm than good. This may well be obviously true even when one has no way, even in principle, of making that determination more precise. Societies usually refrain from passing laws which would imprison anybody who tells a lie because it is simply obvious that a society which jailed most of its citizens would be worse off than one which left lesser lies unpenalised.

It should be equally obvious that taking an action which is sometimes permissible but not now obligatory cannot be justified if it

would further or foster a very great evil unless a similarly great good is also liable to be obtained. When Our Lord was invited to dine with the Devil in the desert he did not take and eat what was suggested although there is nothing wrong with eating bread. He knew, rather, that the untold evil which would result from his cooperating with the Devil outweighed the good to a famished man of assuaging his hunger. So, bearing in mind Our Lord’s example, and taking account of the fact that receiving any of the vaccines against coronavirus currently approved for use in Ireland would involve a remote cooperation with the abortion industry and a much nearer cooperation with the pharmaceutical industry’s ongoing experimentation on murdered baby parts - two of the greatest evils of this or any other time - one should seriously ask oneself whether the good to be obtained is really proportionate and whether in so supping with the Devil one is using a long enough spoon.

THE LONG SPOON 9

May contain Or have been Tested On Aborted Foetal Cells

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God With thy whole heart, And with thy whole soul, And with thy whole mind.

This is the greatest And the first commandment.

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10 LETTERS

Catholic Voice

Letters Vaccines And Lockdowns Dear Editor, This is an email below I wrote to Archbishop Martin and the rest of the Irish Bishops: Dear Bishop, I am a committed Catholic, I attend Mass every day, I say the Rosary every day and I kneel before the Blessed Sacrament for quiet every day. In total humility I am completely aware of my utter dependence on the Lord.

I was saddened and shocked on so many levels by your recent statement on Vaccines etc. Its hard to know where to start but I suppose the best place is your complete support for the Government and NEPHETs narrative. Total unquestioning of this is both baffling and wrong. For many different reasons.

1) Tissue from aborted babies for the manufacture of vaccines is always wrong especially when there are some vaccines that have none. The 4th part of the vaccine trial process is to be carried out on the general public at this point, which has never happened before and is unethical.

2) Many top scientists from around the world completely disagree with what our Government and NEPHET are doing and the whole approach they have adopted yet you as a body are totally supportive of them, why?

3) Basic common sense and what I can see with my own eyes clearly shows that there was NEVER a justification for calling this a pandemic.

I am far from a stupid or uncaring man so please do not switch off. I am going to this effort because I am compelled, kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament, to write to you. There is so much top quality scientific evidence from around the world to back up what I am saying.

There is a 99.8% recovery rate for anyone who gets the virus. There are preventative measures already existing which are 100% safe and very effective such as, Vit D,

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12th February 2021 Send your letters to: Letters Page, Catholic Voice, St Michael’s House, Castlemitchell South, Athy, Co Kildare or email to letters@catholicvoice.ie

Zinc, Vit C. This is known to be extremely effective.

Ivermectin is having excellent results from around the World.

To be encouraging people to take a completely unproven vaccine is frankly irresponsible. Why? It takes at least 10/11 years to trial a new vaccine for both medium and long term effects. These vaccines are out after 6 months.

It behoves you as our Bishop to be open and at least investigate what is happening. There is too much at stake for us all. You need to seriously start asking questions especially as so much obviously doesn’t make sense. I can give you much real info and data.

Before our Lord Jesus you must at least start to enquire.

John Taaffe, Drogheda.

RTE Dear Editor, RTÉ has, for many decades now, been undermining and attacking the Catholic Faith.

It has no fear of mocking God, as it has shown recently. That shows the folly of removing the word ‘blasphemous’ from Article 40.6.1.i of the Constitution.

When the Catholic Bishops of Ireland refused to defend the retention of that word, they relied on the spurious excuse that God did not need defending. Blasphemy against God is a far greater offence than any other, including murder. When the Muslims in New Zealand were killed, Bishop Kevin Doran was quick to condemn the killing, but he and his fellow Bishops are silent on mockery of God and attempting to kill the Faith which is what RTÉ is doing. The only thing that will worry RTÉ is if the people stop watching, and RTÉ starts losing revenue.

It is left to ordinary Christians to make reparation, as some are already doing, for the blasphemy on RTÉ. Unfortunately, the Bishops of Ireland will not organise any reparation, as they appear to have no fear of God, or concern for the Real Faith.

Martin Hickey, Dublin.

12th February 2021

Catholic Voice

ADVERT 11

12 THOSE VACCINES AGAIN Catholic Voice

12th February 2021

Are Catholics Obliged To Take Covid-19 Vaccines Regardless Of Their Origins?

John Lacken

In what has now become a trademark for my articles can I please ask you yet again to pray for our Irish bishops. The laity have begun the year without access to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and our bishops seem to suggest that the answer to this particular problem is for us to take an abortion tainted vaccine against Covid-19. So let us pray.

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.

In this article I want to take a look once again at the issue of Vaccines and in particular I want to address some of the points made in an article

by Bishop Kevin Doran which was published in ‘The Irish Catholic’ on January 14th 2021. The front page headline of that issue of The Irish Catholic read: “Vulnerable may die if people refuse vaccine - Bishop Doran” and the paper contained a four page, 2,940 word article titled “Vaccines - an aid to forming conscience” in which Bishop Doran urges us to take the Vaccine.

I believe that Bishop Doran’s article is well intentioned but I would disagree with some of the points he makes.

In his article, Bishop Doran tells us that we must take in to account “the reality of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

He does not provide any proof to back up this claim but simply says that it is a reality that we must accept.

The organisation that declared Covid-19 a global pandemic is the World Health Organisation. One of the major funders of the World Health Organisation is Mr Bill Gates.

He funds the WHO through at least three channels, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates Ventures LLC, and through the GAVI alliance which was set up using Bill Gates money in 1999.

The problem with this is that Bill Gates is also heavily involved in

funding pharmaceutical companies such as Moderna, who stand to make significant financial gains from the sale and production of vaccines.

Therefore, there is a conflict of interest within the World Health Organisation because some of the major funders of the organisation also fund those who are poised to make significant financial gain from WHO decisions concerning Covid-19.

The Bill & Melinda Gates foundation has also invested significant sums of money, $358 million since 2017, in both of the main organisations which produced the models that predicted huge amounts of deaths from Covid-19. These predictions have subsequently been found to be grossly exaggerated and unreliable.

They are from the ‘Imperial College London’ and the American, ‘Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation’.

Once again there is a conflict of interest on account of Bill Gates’ promotion of the vaccine industry.

In Ireland, the death rate attributed to Covid-19 is questionable on account of the fact that we are using WHO criteria which allows deaths to be assigned to Covid-19 based on suspicion or probability. I recently received a freedom of information request from the HPSC which confirmed that at least two people who were listed as being in the Intensive Care Unit with Covid-19 between October & December 2020, had no symptoms of Covid-19. Let me ask you a question.

If someone tests positive for Covid-19 using a PCR test but has no symptoms of Covid-19, why would you put them in the Intensive Care Unit?

It is obvious that the reason they were in the intensive care unit had nothing whatsoever to do with Covid-19, but their positive tests were used to falsely increase the ICU Covid figures produced by our government.

In Ireland, we do not currently know how many people who are listed as

being in the ICU ‘with’ Covid-19 are there ‘because’ of Covid-19. We also do not know how many people who were listed as dying ‘with’ Covid-19 actually died ‘from’ Covid-19 in that Covid-19 was the main cause of their death. What we do know is that someone who tests positive for Covid-19 and who dies of a heart attack will be listed as a Covid-19 death. As I have pointed out before, this is false reporting.

Yet it is on this spurious information that our country has been locked down with little or no analysis done on the side effects directly caused by lock-downs.

In October 2020 the ‘British Heart Foundation’ noted that there had been 26,000 extra deaths in private homes from March to September 2020, compared to the last five years. The leading cause of these extra deaths, estimated as almost 5,000 deaths, was heart disease and not Covid-19.

In January of this year the British Heart Foundation noted that there were 12,000 fewer heart operations performed in England to November 2020. These extra deaths and delays in operations were not caused by Covid-19, they were caused by the government’s response to Covid-19.

Back in May 2020, Professor Dolores Cahill predicted a spike in deaths due to government restrictions on ordinary health care. She said “for conditions like brain tumours, or ovarian cancer or melanoma, there will be a spike in death rates because of this misdiagnosis, and I am fearful that then they will attribute these stats to the second spike” She was referring to a report which showed that 25,000 less people per month were being diagnosed with cancer during the 2020 lock-downs in the UK. The danger of simply taking the ‘pandemic’ at face value is that deaths are being attributed to Covid-19 which are not caused by Covid-19 but are caused by the drastic unproven measures that governments

12th February 2021

Catholic Voice

THOSE VACCINES AGAIN 13

have taken to combat the spread of the virus. Measures which were promoted globally by an organisation with a major funder who has a vested interest in the vaccine industry and measures which, I might add, are clearly not working.

The Irish government’s Amárach weekly research has shown that we have over 90% compliance with the wearing of face-masks since August 2020, and as of 25th January 2021, face mask compliance was reported at 96%. If face masks are effective against this virus then why is the government reporting that the virus is spreading at an increasing rate?

The reports also show that since August 2020, over 90% of people are complying with social distancing, hand washing, and the use of hand sanitizer.

Given this data, it is possible that the government’s lock-down and other measures are actually what is making the situation worse. Many people are so afraid of catching Covid-19 that they are endangering their health by staying away from the hospitals, and many elective hospital procedures have been cancelled. The government measures have probably interrupted the normal and natural development of herd immunity in the population to the ever changing flu viruses that come around every year and this is what may account for the ‘spikes’ in Covid that we see once restrictions are lifted.

On this point, one should note that the World Health Organisation has very recently changed the definition of herd immunity by removing any reference to naturally occurring herd immunity. According to the WHO, herd immunity can now only be achieved by vaccination. Again it is important to remember that some of those who fund the WHO stand to gain from the production and sale of the very vaccines the WHO is promoting. This is not to say that the vaccines are bad, (we’ll get to that in a minute), it just shows that there is a conflict of interest which could lead to decisions being made under the influence of vested interests rather than for public health.

Many people are not aware that Bill Gates seeks to reduce the world’s

Bill Gates’ Ted Talk - Innovataing to Zero - The ‘P’ on the screen is population, which Bill Gates wants to reduce. (image youtube screen grab)

population and that vaccination is a key element in this. In one of his Ted Talks called ‘Innovating to Zero’, Bill Gates said the following.

“The world today has 6.8 billion people. That’s headed up to about nine billion. Now, if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent.”

Given the power of these globalist financiers and their commitment to developing global vaccination programmes whilst at the same time seeking to reduce the world’s population, one should be cautious about simply accepting their statements at face value because their population reduction agenda drives much of what they are advocating.

I was sad to see Bishop Doran repeating the Bill Gates mantra ‘no vaccine - no return to normal’. Bishop Doran says “The development of a vaccine which is safe, effective, and widely available represents the best chance of a return to normal living, for all of us,...”

There are other, more sensible alternatives to the vaccine solution.

These include, simply lifting most of the restrictions and focussing our efforts on those who are most vulnerable. According to the HPSC data in Ireland, there is a recovery rate from Covid-19 of over 99% for those

under 65 years of age. It is therefore untenable to claim that Covid-19 is the great killer presented to us by the government and the media, because the figures do not support such a hypothesis and we should not randomly vaccinate people, who are not at risk, with experimental medicines and unethical vaccines.

As I have mentioned before, I am surprised that the CDF and Bishop Doran, in questioning the morality of using abortion tainted vaccines, only refer to the immorality of cooperating with abortion. There are three gravely evil matters I know of which are associated with abortion derived vaccines and a fourth matter which increases the gravity of the evil.

The first grave evil is the abortion itself. The second grave evil is the desecration of the human corpse.

The third grave evil is the for-profit trade in human remains for medical, scientific and commercial research purposes. The fourth matter, which increases the gravity of the previous three, is that there is evidence that some of these human tissue ‘samples’ were removed whilst the heart of the unborn child was still beating. In other words, the baby was still alive.

Pamela Acker was recently interviewed by John-Henry Westen of Life Site News. Pamela, a Catholic who has worked in a vaccine research laboratory but could not continue

14 THOSE VACCINES AGAIN working there due to a conscientious objection to the proposed use of the Human Embryonic Kidney cell line HEK-293 as part of the research, has recently published a book ‘Vaccination - The Catholic Perspective’ in which she examines this issue. In the interview she says: “They will actually deliver these babies via caesarean section. The babies are still alive when the researchers start extracting the tissue; to the point where their heart is still beating, and they’re generally not given any anaesthetic, because that would disrupt the cells that the researchers are trying to extract.

So, they’re removing this tissue, all the while the baby is alive and in extreme amounts of pain. So, this makes it even more sadistic.”

It amazes me how Bishops and moral theologians can be so seemingly casual when talking about permitting the use of vaccines which use the cells of aborted babies in their development. Bishop Doran tells us “The Church has always made a distinction between formal (deliberate) involvement in an immoral act and material involvement, which may often be incidental and remote.

Significantly, a remote material involvement, does not share in the immoral intention of the original sinful act.”

But, as I have pointed out with regard to not sharing the immoral intention, this of itself, does not justify the use of such vaccines, and there is more than one gravely sinful act that must be considered in relation to this matter.

Let us for a moment imagine that the vaccines we are talking about did not make use of aborted foetal cells. Let us imagine that instead they used cell lines taken from a Polish Jew who was killed during medical experiments at Auschwitz.

Or let us imagine that the cell lines used were taken from a five year old black slave girl in America who had a rare blood type that was useful for developing vaccines, and she was murdered in order to get access to this valuable blood type.

Catholic Voice I do not for one minute think that we would be given public statements from moral theologians which told us that we could accept the use of these vaccines because of remote material involvement. Such a public statement would rightly be seen as an insult to the memory and dignity of the Jews who were murdered at Auschwitz and would be seen as an insult to the memory and dignity of those blacks who were bought and sold and may have been killed as slaves.

In these latter two examples, were it not so politically incorrect, an argument could be made as to the acceptability of such vaccines because there are no longer Polish Jews in concentration camps in Auschwitz and because black slavery is no longer tolerated in America.

Therefore, such use would not contribute to prolonging the evil.

But the same cannot be said about the use of foetal cells from electively aborted babies. Abortion is an ongoing, lucrative business that claims the lives of over 50 million babies annually and there is still a lucrative trade in body parts from aborted babies as was recently revealed by David Daleiden in his videos which showed Planned Parenthood employees casually discussing the aborted baby parts trade.

I think the reason that abortion does not arouse the same horrors as slavery or the Jewish holocaust is that these little ones, so loved by Jesus Christ, are hidden from view. There are many stories of the Jews and of the slaves who survived, but, there are very few who survive abortion and very little interest in their stories of escape from the abortion mills.

The fact that abortion is now legal in most countries of the world has deadened the sensibilities of ordinary people. We speak of abortion as if it is just another word. I have never heard Catholics complain of the use of images from the holocaust or of the use of images showing the brutality of the American slave trade. But I have heard Catholics object to the showing of the little babies murdered by abortion. Why is this?

Abortion is a business and the use of foetal cell-lines for medical,

12th February 2021 scientific and commercial purposes is a spin-off industry. Those who accept vaccines which derive from, or which are tested on, foetal celllines from aborted babies, are helping to keep these sickening businesses in operation. There may not be material co-operation in the actual abortion but I am not so sure that you can say that there is no material co-operation in the body parts trade. After all, these tainted products are bought and sold, doctors are paid, so that we can benefit.

We have the power to end this grisly trade by refusing to accept the products that result from this grave moral evil. It is illegal to buy and to sell Rhinoceros horn, and those who purchase products made from Rhinoceros horn can be prosecuted because they are contributing to the killing of the Rhinoceros. The same must be true of those who accept the baby parts products, they are prolonging the existence of the body parts trade which is gravely evil. Are we really saying that the Rhinoceros should be afforded greater protection than unborn babies? The Catechism teaches that “it is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly”. Are we not morally obliged to offer greater protection to the unborn than we offer to animals?

So why are Catholics being told that we can accept a vaccine that has been developed or tested on body parts derived from the murder of the most innocent human beings of all?

It would seem to me that the revulsion over these abortion tainted vaccines, felt by those Catholics who are directly involved in the pro-life movements, is an expression of the ‘sensus fidei’ of the Catholic faithful.

Saying that it is morally permissible to take such tainted vaccines, actually perpetuates the trade in aborted foetal remains and does nothing to diminish it. I would argue that it is therefore immoral, not because of being complicit in the abortion itself, but because it is directly helping to sustain the market for the trading of body parts that come from aborted babies.

Bishop Doran unsubstantiated

also makes claim that,

the “if

12th February 2021 significant numbers of people chose not to be vaccinated the result could be significant loss of life and serious illness in the community and especially among those who are most vulnerable.”

The first and most obvious response to this is that significant numbers of elderly and vulnerable people die every year. There is no known cure for death. We will all die one day.

But, according to Irish Government figures, the median age of death from the beginning of Covid-19 in Ireland in early March 2020, up to the third week of January 2021, was 83 years of age, and the average age of death was 81 years of age. (source: HPSC Weekly Report on the Epidemiology of COVID-19 in Ireland Week 3 25/01/2021) Given that the average life expectancy in Ireland is 82.1 years of age, this means that just over half of those who died ‘with’ Covid-19 in Ireland had already lived longer than the average life expectancy.

THOSE VACCINES AGAIN 15

Catholic Voice Covid-19 is not having a significant impact on life expectancy in this country and, to lock-down a country, to destroy the livelihoods of thousands of people, to imprison people in their homes, to deny access to the Sacraments, and to ban visitors from nursing homes is an act of unnecessary and incalculable cruelty.

The Pfizer-BionTech and Moderna medicines are not vaccines per-se, they are a new experimental technology which has not been properly tested.

The FDA has authorised their use but it has withheld approval from them.

The European Medicines Agency has only granted ‘conditional marketing authorisation’ for these vaccines which means that they have not undergone the same testing used for normal medicine approval.

This means that we are now in a live human test scenario with these experimental medicines, and that there is no longer any ‘control group’ being used to compare the test results against.

They are leaving out an essential part of scientific research and experimentation which could be putting lives and health

The Five First Saturdays

This book is a collection of Rosary meditations composed by the celebrated French Dominican, Father Jacques Marie Louis Monsabré, which were translated into English in 1885. Although these were composed before Our Lady visited Fatima, they are perfectly suitable for use with the Five First Saturdays Devotion of Reparation.

The importance of the Five First Saturdays Devotion cannot be over emphasised, Our Lady specifically came from Heaven to Fatima to ask Catholics to honour her in this way. We would appreciate your help in getting this book to as many people as possible. The cost is €10.00 including post & packing to anywhere in Ireland and it would make a great Christmas present.

at risk. The companies producing these medicines have been indemnified against any claims for harm done.

Will the Catholic Church compensate anyone who suffers as a result of the experimental medicines they are advocating?

It is also sad to note that in Bishop Doran’s article, he never mentions Jesus Christ. The only solution he proposes to the virus is a vaccine, regardless of whether or not children were murdered in order to make that vaccine available or were murdered to provide testing material for the vaccine. Nothing supernatural is offered to us.

In this world view, Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church seem to have nothing to offer us apart from telling us that we can, and perhaps must, accept these abortion tainted vaccines. For me, this is unacceptable. We seem to be setting aside the foundational principle of moral theology - it is never licit to do evil, even though great good may come out of it. We seem to be setting aside Our Saviour Jesus Christ in favour of pharmaceutical companies and snake oil salesmen. I refuse to co-operate.

There’s A Place For Us There’s a Place for Us Homosexuality in the Divine Plan of Redemption Jesus said to those who would stone her: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”

Jesus said to the woman: “Woman, where are they that accused thee? Hath no man condemned thee?

Who said: No man, Lord. And Jesus said: Neither will I condemn thee.”

“Go, And Now Sin No More.”

By John Cassidy

There’s A Place For Us: This testimony does not shirk away from difficult Catholic teachings but shows with piercing clarity why the Church teaches as she does in the area of human sexuality. In our lives we are called to a lot more than sexual satisfaction. Rather, we are granted the privilege of living life on the highest possible plane in responding to the call of greatness of being the Sons and Daughters of God.

John Cassidy - Bio Ex-homosexual and New Man John Cassidy has been serving the Catholic Church as a full-time Lay-Man since his conversion in 2014. John has founded the Association of Believing Catholics which is a lay initiative to promote and defend the fullness of Catholic truth.

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16 RATZINGER ON THE CHURCH

Catholic Voice

12th February 2021

Cardinal Ratzinger’s Far-Sighted Address On Current Challenges In The Church Edward Pentin

In a talk given to European bishops in 1989, the future pontiff foresaw many of the challenges afflicting the Church today, and proposed how to understand and effectively deal with them.

How can we best understand and handle what seem today to be incessant challenges to the faith from inside as well as outside the Church?

The then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger gave some helpful pointers in a prophetic 1989 address in which he showed not only how these new revolutionary “paradigms” have evolved, but how to understand their specious nature, and in what way the faithful can effectively respond to them.

In his discourse to doctrinal commissions in Laxenburg, Austria, entitled Difficulties Confronting the Faith in Europe Today, the thenprefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith pinpointed a “litany of objections” to the Church’s teaching and practice repeated by “progressive-thinking Catholics.”

The first of these objections, he said, was the rejection of the Church’s teaching on artificial contraception — a long-standing dissension which, during this 50th anniversary year of Blessed Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae, is now, for the first time, being promoted without censure by papal-appointed Vatican figures.

Cardinal Ratzinger said the rejection takes the form of placing artificial birth control on “the same moral level of every kind of means for the prevention of conception upon whose application only individual ‘conscience’ may decide.”

A second objection concerns the Church’s “discrimination” with regards to homosexuality, and the “consequent assertion” by progressive-thinking Catholics of a “moral equivalence for all forms of sexual activity as long as they are motivated by ‘love’ or at least do not hurt anyone.”

Connected with this, he singled out the “admission of the divorced who remarry to the Church’s sacraments,” and, lastly, “the ordination of women to the priesthood.”

Cardinal Ratzinger noted how these “objections” question both sexual morality and the Church’s sacramental order, but are “very much linked together,” springing from “a particular notion of human freedom” and difficulties relating to the “Church’s traditional sexual morality.”

Today, he said, man feels he has to “come to terms with his sexuality in a differentiated and less confining way” and he thus urges a revision of

standards, ones which are deemed “no longer acceptable in the present circumstances, no matter how meaningful they may have been under past historical conditions.”

Conscience Rules Such thinking, he added, claims to show how today we have “finally discovered our rights and the freedom of our conscience” and how we are “no longer prepared to subordinate it to some external authority.”

He added that for those who hold such opinions, the “fundamental relationship between man and woman” should be reordered in such a way that “outmoded role expectations” must “be overturned and that complete equality of opportunity be accorded women on all levels and in all fields.”

The cardinal said it would be surprising if the Church, being the “conservative institution that she is,” would go along with such an ideology, but if she did, she would be obliged to “set aside

12th February 2021

Catholic Voice

RATZINGER ON THE CHURCH 17

the theological justification of old social taboos, and the most timely and vital sign of such a desire at the present moment would be her consent to the ordination of women to the priesthood.”

heterosexuality as well as other extra-marital relations — a “revolutionary vision” which lies behind the litany of objections to Church teaching he laid out at the beginning.

The future pope then turned to the roots of this “progressivethinking,” and noted that its “key concepts” are the words “conscience” and “freedom” which, although supposed to “confer the aura of morality,” actually are a “surrender of moral integrity” and the “simplifications of a lax conscience.”

“Without a doubt this will be one of the principal challenges for anthropological reflection in coming years,” the cardinal said presciently, and predicted meticulous work is needed to discern which is in opposition to the faith’s vision of man, and which could be “quite meaningful corrections to traditional notions.”

Conscience, he pointed out, is no longer understood as knowledge derived from a “higher form of knowing” but rather the “individual’s self-determination” — each person deciding for himself “what is moral in a given situation.”

Breathing In Paradigm Shifts He then looked at how such thinking has come to be adopted

by Christians, and concluded that it rests on a “far-reaching change of ‘paradigms’” that appear plausible while removing the old ones for consideration. Many Christians “breathe in” such an atmosphere, he said, which can easily appear more attractive.

Furthermore, he said the concept of “norms,” or the “moral law,” take on “negative shades of dark intensity,” and while an “external rule may supply models for direction,” for the progressive Catholic thinker it can in “no case serve as the ultimate arbiter of one’s obligation” — an argument used recently by a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life who placed conscience and responsibility above the moral precept of artificial contraception as an intrinsic evil.

These changes in approach, Cardinal Ratzinger said, are portrayed as “liberation” but actually lead to the disappearance of the differentiation between the sexes, precipitated by the separation of “sexuality and procreation” that was first “introduced with the [contraceptive] pill” and “brought to its culmination” by being able to “‘make’ human beings in the laboratory.”

It has led, he added, to seeing as “unimportant” the differences between homosexuality and

“Who would not be for conscience and freedom and against legalism and constraint?,” he asked rhetorically. “Who wishes to be put into the position of defending taboos? If the questions are framed in this way, the faith proclaimed by the Magisterium is already manoeuvred into a hopeless position. It collapses all by itself because it loses its plausibility according to the thought patterns of the modern world, and is looked upon by progressive contemporaries as something that has been long superseded.”

To effectively respond to this, Cardinal Ratzinger advocated expressing the “logic of the faith in its integrity, the good sense and reasonableness of its view of reality and life.”

He also stressed the need to understand how this new revolutionary “paradigm” came

into existence, and put it down to changes in three areas: The complete disappearance of the theological doctrine on creation which is connected to the demise of metaphysics; man’s “imprisonment in the empirical,” that is, knowledge based only on the senses, which has led to a “weakening of Christology” and essentially a lack of belief in the divinity of Christ; and lastly a loss of belief in the Last Things, and the fact that belief in eternal life “has hardly any role to play in preaching today.”

This has led, he continued, to the “Kingdom of God” being almost “completely substituted” by the “Utopia of a better future world,” but it is a yearning that “does not suffice.” Rather, it is dangerous, he added, “if the better world terminology predominates in prayers and sermons and inadvertently replaces the faith with a placebo.”

Cardinal Ratzinger ended by not wishing to appear too negative, but rather to set out the “obstacles to the faith in the European context” and to examine the “deepest motives which give rise to the individual difficulties in ever changing forms.”

“Only by learning to understand that fundamental trait of modern existence which refuses to accept the faith before discussing all its contents, will we be able to regain the initiative instead of simply responding to the questions raised,” he advised.

“Only then can we reveal the faith as the alternative which the world awaits after the failure of the liberalistic and Marxist experiments,” he added. “This is today’s challenge to Christianity, herein lies our great responsibility as Christians at the present time.”

18 THE REAL PRESENCE

Catholic Voice

12th February 2021

A Renewal of Faith in the Holy Eucharist is Desperately Needed Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted - Bishop of Phoenix Son of French aristocrats, orphaned at six years of age, twice dismissed from the French army, recklessly adventurous, the life of Charles de Foucauld was eventually seized by the love of Jesus. Not many years after his return to the faith, Charles was ordained a priest and lived several years absorbed in prayer as a Trappist monk. Yet his personal love for the Lord now united to his zealous nature made complacency unthinkable. Brother Charles left the Trappist monastery and lived the last twenty-some years of his life essentially homeless without companions, dedicated to loving the Lord in the Eucharist and serving the needy with warm hospitality. It was clarity about the transformative power of the Eucharist that unleashed in him an unshakable confidence and love.

For him, the Eucharist was simply “Jesus handing over His life for His people.” Blessed Charles de Foucauld shaped his life around this simple truth.

I write to you now because we need the clear and simple faith in the Eucharist of Blessed Charles de Foucauld.

Many have shared with me the heavy grief they have carried during the COVID-19 pandemic at the loss of regular accessibility of the great Sacrament of the Eucharist.

As a spiritual father and spouse of the Church, it grieves me to see the

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flock entrusted to my care suffer separation from the Lord whom I have dedicated my life to serve and to make present among His people.

Deprivation of the Eucharist is deprivation of Christ. Whether it was due to my prudential decisions or yours, I am aware of the pain you have suffered. What is more, I know your grief does not stop there.

A recent Pew Research Center survey (July 2019) showed that most Catholics don’t believe in the Eucharist. Nearly seven-in-ten Catholics (69%) say they personally believe that, during Catholic Mass, the bread and wine used in Communion “are symbols of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.”

Just one-third of U.S. Catholics (31%) say they believe that “during Catholic Mass, the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus.” This report was a confirmation of what had long been known but not often voiced: there is a grave crisis of faith in the Eucharist as the Real Presence of Jesus Christ, our Lord and God. These are our own friends and family, our sons and our daughters.

What suffering to see those we love

not sharing our faith and devotion to our Redeemer.

This crisis of faith affects us all, not only from outside but also from within our souls. Doubt and mistrust are like a virus that spreads from heart to heart at an exponential rate.

A renewal of faith in the Eucharist is desperately needed!

My brother priests and deacons of the diocese, those for whom I have ever-increasing gratitude and affection, you, too, have suffered greatly the pain and confusion caused by this crisis of faith.

You are the men who have “left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields” to serve the Lord at the Altar (Matthew 19:29). You have shouldered with Christ the weight of this loss and felt much of the grief our Lord felt as he wept for Jerusalem (cf. Luke 19:41).

Adding to our grief, all of us know Catholics who even before COVID regularly excused themselves from Sunday Mass. But our love of the Eucharist cannot be separated from the Sunday celebration of the Mass!

As the Catechism of the Catholic

12th February 2021 Church puts it, “The Sunday celebration of the Lord’s Day and His Eucharist is at the heart of the Church’s life” (CCC 2177). Even before live-streamed Mass was commonplace, the centrality of the Lord’s Day in the life of Catholics has been dramatically diminishing for years.

What value does the Sunday Mass have? For a group of forty-nine Christians in the 4th century, it was fuel for life. Emperor Diocletian of Rome found these faithful believers guilty of celebrating Sunday Mass which had been outlawed. When they were asked why they broke the law, one member of the group, named Emeritus, spoke in response: “Sine dominico non possumus,” which our Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI once explained to mean, “without ‘Dominicum’ [Sunday], that is, without the Sunday Eucharist we cannot live” (Angelus, 26 June 2011). Why did they feel so strongly?

For more than nine years I was blessed to observe and learn from the spiritual fatherhood of Pope Saint John Paul II as an assistant at the Secretariat of State of the Holy See. Permit me to share an exhortation he gave us nearly 22 years ago, expressing our faith in the Sunday Eucharist: “From the beginning of my Pontificate, I have not ceased to repeat: ‘Do not be afraid! Open, open wide the doors to Christ!’

In the same way, today I would strongly urge everyone to rediscover Sunday: Do not be afraid to give your time to Christ! Yes, let us open our time to Christ, that he may cast light upon it and give it direction. … The rediscovery of this day is a grace which we must implore, … so that we may respond concretely to the deepest human yearnings. Time given to Christ is never time lost, but is rather time gained, so that our relationships and indeed our whole life may become more profoundly human” (Dies Domini 7).

Catholic Voice I wish to unite myself to the words of our late Pope: as the pandemic subsides over the coming weeks and months, I would strongly urge everyone to rediscover Sunday Mass! I invite you to implore from God the grace of rediscovering the joy and rest of the Lord’s Day. My dear brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, with love and care as your spiritual father, I call you to turn your hearts with renewed fervour to our Lord in the Holy Eucharist and to unwavering fidelity in keeping holy the Lord’s Day every Sunday.

These are difficult times with health concerns and conflicting information about what is needed to remain healthy and to prevent the spread of disease. However, we all have a real need to find our security and life in Christ. Are we not in need of a Saviour? Is He not the only Lord?

I wish to assist and accompany you to an ever-increasing knowledge, love, and commitment to this great gift of our God. To seek to do so in a short letter would not give due reverence to either the needs of our times or the thirst of our souls.

For this reason, I now would like to announce a forthcoming Apostolic Exhortation on the Eucharist.

Five years ago, I discerned there was a great need to write a substantial exhortation for Catholic men.

Two years ago, I discerned a need to do the same for marriages and families of our diocese. These two documents have born and continue to bear much fruit.

The time is now to speak to the Heart of it all.

THE REAL PRESENCE 19 Another humble man with a great Eucharistic heart is St. Thomas Aquinas who wrote the familiar Eucharistic hymn, Tantum ergo, among many others. For the name of the forthcoming Exhortation I have chosen two words from the second line of this hymn of praise of the Eucharist: Veneremur cernui. It is difficult to translate these words, yet they capture the reverence we should foster: Let us venerate with body prostrated which are expressed in reference to the Great Sacrament of the Eucharist.

In 1916, Blessed Charles de Foucauld was engaged in Eucharistic adoration when he was attacked and killed for his Christian faith in North Africa.

All hope seemed lost, his life and faith without noticeable effect.

French soldiers who came upon his ransacked hut found a monstrance with the Sacred Host still inside.

They placed the monstrance with the Host exposed on the saddle of a horse and walked back to the French camp — the first Eucharistic procession in that part of the world.

Charles’ blood had hardly dried and his Catholic faith was being boldly announced to the world. Since then, the Church in Africa has been blessed with breathtaking growth and remarkable strength.

My dear brothers and sisters, faith in the Eucharist is always fruitful when it is cherished and lived. My hope is that our rediscovery of the beauty and truth of the Eucharist might be similarly blessed.

January 28, 2021 Memorial of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Doctor of the Church

“Offer up everything within your power as a sacrifice to the Lord in an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended; and of supplication for the conversion of sinners. Thus invoke peace upon your country. I am her Guardian Angel; the Angel of Portugal. Above all, accept and bear with submission the sufferings that the Lord may send you.”

(The Angel of Portugal to Fatima children 1915)

20 WORDS HAVE MEANING

Catholic Voice

12th February 2021

Poor Bandaged Children Of Eve Mary Kearns

It was only when Sister Elizabeth asked her junior grade class to write down their favourite prayer and hand the page up to her, that she realised how many mistakes the children were making with the words of the prayers.

“Sister how do you spell dolores whitney?” asked one eight-yearold boy. When asked why it was necessary to spell this, he replied that he was writing his favourite prayer, the Hail Mary. “Hail Mary full of grace dolores whitney…”

Investigation led the young nun to further malapropisms. Among the boys and girls in the class she discovered for example, in the Memorare “Mother of the wording car net” and at the end of the Salve Regina, “may the divine sisters always be with us and may the souls of the faithful be parted through the mercy of God, dress in peace.

Amen” Obviously no irreverence was intended and we might permit ourselves a smile at the children’s innocence. However the day is too far gone for complacency. We can no longer take it for granted that our children are learning prayers at school or from the text books provided.

Of course there are some who will say that the words are not important and that God sees the heart.

Nevertheless it should be borne in mind that we are not pure spirits but corporeal people who need to see, hear, touch and even smell.

We need words to communicate because this is what humans do.

Additionally we need definite structures and regulations to keep

us safe and to facilitate how we organise and negotiate our lives.

Goodwill and no malice intended would not be sufficient for example, to keep us safe on the roads.

Not only that. Some words are sacred and have been set aside to be used only in relation to God himself, Our Blessed Lady, the saints and of course the sacred liturgy.

It has been claimed that many Catholics under forty years of age and certainly under thirty, have little or no liturgical vocabulary.

One lady complained that her grown-up son did not understand what she meant when she said she was going to Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. How long is it since we had regular Benediction?

Has the word as well as the practice been relegated to history? What about the words associated with this liturgical practice like tabernacle, monstrance, thurible, incense, humeral veil, cope? It is not to be wondered at that the phrase “Divine Praises” has lost its meaning when

we never hear the prayer that was always said just before the blessing with the monstrance at the end of Benediction.

How many people remember that it is not the priest but Jesus himself who is blessing us and that this is the reason the priest’s hands are covered, as he uplifts the monstrance containing the sacred Host.

If Catholics very seldom if ever, hear the words “Blessed be God, blessed be his holy name...” could this be one of the main reasons why the holy name of “Jesus” is used in a profane manner so readily?

It is possible that we Irish are the worst in the world when it comes to this particular abuse. Admittedly it is not uttered with any sinful intent but merely out of a lack of thought and over familiarity due to our own history of having been steeped in devotion.

“What’s in a name?” asked Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet

12th February 2021

Catholic Voice

“that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

A name gives identity; it means more than just a word made up of a certain arrangement of letters.

When it comes to sacred names there is even more significance because the word indicates the reality.

As can be seen from scripture, there are many references to the name of the Lord. In invoking the name of Jesus with reverential faith, we turn to him and implore his divine assistance. Reverence for the Holy Name arose as early as the time of the apostles. Writing to the Philippians, St Paul said “At Jesus’ name every knee must bend in the heavens, on the earth and under the earth, and every tongue proclaim to the glory of God the Father: Jesus Christ is Lord.” Let us also remember that the name of Jesus means “Yahweh saves” or “Yahweh is salvation.”

The Lord himself stated the deeper meaning of his name. As he prepared to ascend into heaven, he promised “ . . . In my name they will cast out demons...”

In the Acts of the Apostles as just one example, we read how Peter with John, on his way to the temple, commanded the crippled beggar.

“I have neither silver nor gold, but what I have I give you! In the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazorean, walk!” and the crippled man began to walk.

It is through the invocation of the Holy Name of Jesus that sins are forgiven. At Pentecost, St. Peter echoed the prophecy of Joel, “Then shall everyone be saved who calls on the name of the Lord” a teaching reinforced by St. Paul in his Letter to the Romans. St. Stephen, the first martyr, when he was being stoned to death, called upon the name of

the Lord and prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

The Holy Name of Jesus is protection against Satan and demonic influence and it is through this name that we receive graces and blessings. St. John recorded in his gospel that Jesus said: “I give you my assurance, whatever you ask the Father, he will give you in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name.

Ask and you shall receive, that your joy may be full.”

Pope Pius IX in 1862 approved a Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus, which Pope Leo XIII later endorsed for the whole Church because he was “ ...desirous of seeing an increase in the devotion toward this glorious name of Jesus among the faithful, especially in a period when this august name is shamelessly scoffed at.”

Pope John Paul II reinstituted the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus and we should remind ourselves and others that a partial indulgence is gained for the reparation of sin, by the reverential invocation of the Holy Name.

WORDS HAVE MEANING 21 What can we do when we hear the Holy Name being used in a profane and careless way? Since nowadays people are very aware of not offering offence to others, it is sometimes possible to say courteously “please don’t use the name of Jesus in that way.”

We can always offer a private prayer and ask forgiveness for the person involved. There are also small devotional cards invoking the name of Jesus that we can give or post to others. To receive a supply of these please send a stamped addressed envelope to Mr. Shay Boylan, Loughduff, Co. Cavan, H12 VX52.

Sister Elizabeth was teaching some years ago in a poor neighbourhood of New York. She recorded some of her work with the children there but despite their not always having the correct vocabulary they had a deep reverence for all things sacred.

While this nun was able to rectify the vocabulary, it brings to mind how much we now in the twentyfirst century after Jesus, need to remember the importance of sacred words.

For catechesis and liturgical formation: marykeenankearns@gmail.com

22 SAINT JOSEPH

Catholic Voice

12th February 2021

Awaken the Sleeping Giant The Powerful St. Joseph Devotion Catholics Need for Modern Times Georgette Bechara

The little-known ‘Sleeping St. Joseph’ devotion that was previously prevalent amongst South American and Filipino Catholics has suddenly been propagated worldwide.

Hundreds in many countries all over the world are now obtaining statues of a sleeping St Joseph and placing their personal intentions under the statue.

They trust that St. Joseph will present their requests to the Lord in his dreams.

The Sleeping St. Joseph Devotion and its Origins Just as God communicated to St Joseph in his dreams over 2,000 years ago, this devotion allows us to ask St. Joseph to ‘sleep’ on our petitions–to dream of them and offer them up to Christ.

In turn, we pray for discernment in following God’s will as St. Joseph once did.

For St. Joseph, to whom God entrusted the paramount role of earthly guardian of the Holy Family of Nazareth, his dreams allowed him to discern God’s will and act accordingly.

It was a special form of prayer that allowed St. Joseph to turn to God in times of peril, and surrender wholeheartedly to God’s Divine Plan.

This first occurred when the Angel of the Lord appeared to St Joseph in a dream after he discovered that Mary was pregnant. The angel told St. Joseph not to be afraid to take the Virgin Mary as his wife, for the child conceived in her was

from the Holy Spirit (Mat. 1:20).

The Angel of the Lord also appeared to St. Joseph in a dream, warning him to take Jesus and the Virgin Mary to Egypt to escape King Herod (Matt. 2:13), and again telling him to take the Holy Family back to Nazareth (Matt. 2:19-23).

St. Joseph obeyed the Word of God on all occasions in silence and through prompt action. Like St. Joseph, how can we hear God’s voice in our own lives?

How can we awaken to, accept, and act on God’s Will for us?

Pope Francis has always promoted the Sleeping St Joseph devotion. On January 16, 2015 during his Philippines visit, he said: “Joseph’s rest revealed God’s will to him. In this moment of rest in the Lord, as we pause from our many daily obligations and activities, God is also speaking to us. I would like to tell you something very personal. I like

St. Joseph very much. He is a strong man of silence. On my desk I have a statue of St Joseph sleeping.

While sleeping, he looks after the Church. Yes, he can do it!

We know that. When I have a problem or a difficulty, I write on a piece of paper and I put it under his statue so he can dream about it. This means please pray to St Joseph for this problem.”

The Time of St Joseph Many devout Catholics now seek our spiritual father’s powerful intercession, not only in the Year of St. Joseph, but also in today’s spiritual battle, given his role as protector and defender of the Church.

As Fr. Donald Calloway’s book Consecration to St Joseph says, “Now is the time of St Joseph!”

“Without exaggeration, the Church has done more to promote St. Joseph in the last 150 years than in the previous

12th February 2021

Catholic Voice

1800 years of Christianity! But why now? Why St. Joseph?”

As we witness vicious assaults on the Church and morality, it comes as no surprise that St Joseph, the Sleeping Giant and Patron of the Universal Church, has been awakened.

Fr. Calloway explains that we need the spiritual fatherhood of St. Joseph to protect marriage and the family unit, which have been heavily undermined. The mass scale of attacks on the meaning of marriage, masculinity, femininity, the unborn, and the sacredness of human life have never been witnessed in human history.

It is now time to call upon St. Joseph, Terror of Demons, to come to our refuge and help us fight against the forces of evil.

It is also time to identify the dangers threatening our Church, so that like St. Joseph, who took the Virgin Mary and Jesus to Egypt to protect them from King Herod’s wrath, we too can defend the Church and her teachings from malicious attacks.

Secondly, we need St. Joseph to open hearts to Christ in today’s very fractured world.

Just like St. Joseph was met with closed doors while searching Bethlehem’s streets for Christ’s birthplace, many today close their hearts to the fullness of truth and God’s will.

It is time to call upon St Joseph to open the hearts of individuals; that Christ may be embraced and born in our hearts. As Fr. Calloway states, “Saint Joseph was the first missionary. Today, he desires again to bring Jesus to the nations.”

SAINT JOSEPH 23 As St. Teresa of Jesus of Avila wrote in her autobiography: “There are many saints to whom God has given the power to assist us in the necessities of life, but the power given to St. Joseph is unlimited: It extends to all our needs, and all those who invoke him with confidence are sure to be heard.”

In times of tribulation, confusion, or when simply trying to hear God’s voice, let us call upon St. Joseph, the silent but strong defender of the Universal Church. The man of heavenly dreams.

The powerful saint has awoken from his slumber to shake our faithless world and open hearts to the truth.

St. Joseph, pray for us!

24 HEAVENLY HELPERS

Catholic Voice

12th February 2021

Saints for Times of Trouble - Where to Turn During the Pandemic and Amid the Stresses of Life Kathy Schiffer

In the last year, it has sometimes seemed that we’re in over our heads.

Where’s a person to turn for support? Whether stressed by job loss and economic difficulties, health concerns, or other problems, you’ve got a friend in heaven.

Here are some of the holy men and women who sit before the throne of God and who stand ready to help in your time of need.

St. Joseph We can turn to St. Joseph with confidence, for help in our homes and with our families. Joseph accepted Mary’s unexpected pregnancy and took her for his wife; so he is considered the patron of expectant mothers. Since he is thought to have died in the presence of Jesus and Mary, Joseph is also the patron of a happy death. In 1870, Pope Pius IX declared Joseph the patron of the universal Church; and in 2020, Pope Francis declared the Year of St. Joseph, which will last through December 8th, 2021. St. Teresa of

Avila had a great fondness for St. Joseph, and wrote of him in her Autobiography: “I do not remember even now that I have ever asked anything of [St. Joseph] which he has failed to grant. … To other saints the Lord seems to have given grace to succour us in some of our necessities, but of this glorious saint my experience is that he succours us in them all … .”

Especially during this Year of St. Joseph, we can ask his intercession in our time of need, confident that St. Joseph will hear our prayer.

Prayer During the Year of St. Joseph (2020-2021) Hail, Guardian of the Redeemer, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

To you God entrusted his only Son; In you Mary placed her trust; With you Christ became man.

Blessed Joseph, to us, too, Show yourself a father And guide us in the path of life.

Obtain for us grace, mercy and courage, And defend us from every evil. Amen.

St. Michael The Archangel Ah, sometimes it seems that we are in a political battle with no end in sight! St. Michael is a protector and leader of the army of God against the forces of evil. In the Book of Revelation, Michael leads the angelic army, defeating Satan’s forces during the war in heaven.

He is mentioned three times in the Book of Daniel and again in the Epistle of Jude — always as a warrior and defender. In 1886, Pope Leo XIII introduced the Prayer to St. Michael, imploring the archangel to defend us in battle. In 1994, Pope John Paul II again urged Catholics to pray that prayer.

When it seems that the divisions which plague our nation are too great, that Satan will have his way in our government and in our world, St. Michael stands ready to defend us against the forces of evil.

12th February 2021 Catholic Voice

HEAVENLY HELPERS 25

Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel St. Michael the archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Hosts, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world, seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

St. Dymphna You just can’t take it anymore!

The stress, born in fear about unemployment, reduced income, putting the next meal on the table!

The conflicts even within your own family as political opponents banter about the next presidential term!

The risk of falling ill, even gravely ill, with the coronavirus! Whatever the source of your anxiety, St. Dymphna can help.

Dymphna was born in Ireland. Her mother was a devout Christian, but when Dymphna was only 14, her mother passed away, and Dymphna was left in the care of her pagan father, who was mentally unstable.

Driven to replace his lost wife, Dymphna’s father demanded that she marry him; but since she had consecrated herself to Christ, and since she did not want to marry her own father, Dymphna fled across the English Channel to the town of Geel, in what is now Belgium.

Dymphna’s father, relentless in his pursuit of her, traced her to her new home; but when Dymphna still refused to give herself sexually to her own father, he drew his sword and cut off her head.

Martyrdom of St. Dymphna and St. Gerebernus - Gerard Seghers (1591-1651)

Dymphna was only 15 when she died at her father’s hand, but her strong faith and her conviction gave her the strength to fend off his advances. She is the patroness of those with nervous and mental afflictions and patroness of those who have been victims of incest.

Prayer to St. Dymphna Good St. Dymphna, great wonderworker in every affliction of mind and body, I humbly implore your powerful intercession with Jesus through Mary, the Health of the Sick, in my present need. (Mention it.) St. Dymphna, martyr of purity, patroness of those who suffer with nervous and mental afflictions, beloved child of Jesus and Mary, pray to them for me and obtain my request. St. Dymphna, virgin and martyr, pray for us.

St. Jude Do you feel ready to just give up? Is there no way out of the problems in which you find yourself? Pray to St. Jude, the patron of hopeless causes.

Jesus called Jude, who was also called Thaddeus, along with his brother James to follow him as one of his Twelve Apostles. For the three years of Jesus’ earthly ministry, Jude learned from the Master.

St. Jude wrote a letter to recent converts in Eastern churches who faced persecution, warning them that some teachers were spreading false ideas about the Christian faith. He encouraged them to keep their faith and to resist the push to forsake God. He was so helpful and supportive of the early believers that he came to be known as the patron of desperate causes. Today, he can be that helpful for you.

“To forestall this [the second world war], I shall come to ask for the Consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.

“If they heed My requests, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace. If not, she shall spread her errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecutions of the Church; the good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated; in the end, My Immaculate Heart shall triumph.

(Our Lady - Fatima July 13th 1917)

26 HEAVENLY HELPERS

Catholic Voice

12th February 2021

Prayer to St. Jude Most holy apostle, St. Jude Thaddeus, friend of Jesus, I place myself in your care at this difficult time. Help me know that I need not face my troubles alone. Please join me in my need, asking God to send me: consolation in my sorrow, courage in my fear, and healing in the midst of my suffering. Ask our loving Lord to fill me with the grace to accept whatever may lie ahead for me and my loved ones and to strengthen my faith in God’s healing powers.

Thank you, St. Jude Thaddeus, for the promise of hope you hold out to all who believe, and inspire me to give this gift of hope to others as it has been given to me.

Basilica of the Fourteen Holy Helpers in Bavaria - Photo Cajetan

St. Barbara (for fever), St. Vitus Saint Jude, Apostle of Hope, pray for (epilepsy), St. Pantaleon (patron us! of physicians) and St. Cyriacus (protection against temptation The Holy Helpers on the deathbed). St. Giles was In the mid-14th century (from 1346 invoked for a good confession, and to 1349), Europe suffered a plague St. Eustace was asked to intercede even greater than the coronavirus. in cases of family troubles. St. In only a few years, more than 50 Margaret of Antioch was the patron million people — about 60% of of safe childbirth. Prayers were the population of Europe — fell offered to Sts. Christopher, Barbara victim to what was called the “Black and Catherine that death would not Death.” In Germany, Catholics of come suddenly, without prayerful the time began to invoke the prayers preparation. Because domestic and help of 14 saints who, together, animals were not immune to were called the “Nothelfer” or infection from the plague, farmers “Holy Helpers.” Over the years the and pet owners prayed to Sts. plague — hence the devotion to the George, Elmo, Pantaleon and Vitus Holy Helpers — spread throughout for their pets’ protection.

Europe.

In 1483, Pope Nicholas approved a The Holy Helpers each helped Mass of the Fourteen Helpers. The to deflect the problems brought Missal of Bamberg includes the by the plague, making them the following Collect for their feast, perfect saints to intercede in times celebrated on August 8th. of global pandemic. St. Blaise, perhaps the best known of the Holy Almighty and merciful God, who Helpers, was invoked for ills of didst adorn thy saints George, the throat. St. Christopher was the Blase, Erasmus, Pantaleon, Vitus, patron of travellers. Less familiar Christopher, Denis, Cyriacus, saints among the Holy Helpers are Acacius, Eustace, Giles, Margaret, St. Denis (relief from headache), Barbara and Catherine with special St. Giles (the plague itself), St. privileges above all others, so that Elmo (for abdominal maladies), all who in their necessities implore

their help, according to the grace of thy promise, may attain the salutary effect of their pleading, grant to us, we beseech thee, forgiveness of our sins, and with their merits interceding, deliver us from all adversities, and kindly hear our prayers.

Novena to the Holy Helpers Fourteen Holy Helpers, select friends of God, I honour thee as mighty intercessors, and come with filial confidence to thee in my needs, (mention needs) for the relief of which I have undertaken to make this novena.

Help me by thy intercession to placate God’s wrath, which I have provoked by my sins, and aid me in amending my life and doing penance. Obtain for me the grace to serve God with a willing heart, to be resigned to his holy will, to be patient in adversity and to persevere unto the end, so that, having finished my earthly course, I may join thee in heaven, there to praise for ever God, who is wonderful in his saints.

Amen.

29th January 2021

NO TO MANDATORY VACCINES 27

Catholic Voice

Parliamentary Assembly Of The Council Of Europe Says ‘No’ To Mandatory Vaccines In an important decision taken on the 27th January, 2021, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe voted on Resolution 2361 with regard to the ethical, legal and practical considerations in relation to Covid-19 vaccines.

taken very seriously by members and the Assembly does have the power to sanction member states.

The Parliamentary Assembly can demand action from the 47 government members on behalf of the 830 million Europeans it represents.

The resolution was passed by 115 votes to 2 and there were 13 abstentions. Given all the recent talk about ‘Vaccine Passports’, with Micheál Martin saying that he could see the possibility of these vaccine passports being necessary for travel or for attending large events, this resolution is important because it rules out mandatory vaccination and any discrimination against those who do not take the vaccination.

The resolution on Covid-19 states the following in section 7.3 (our emphasis)

The Parliiamentary Assembly does not have the power to pass binding laws but its recommendations are

“7.3 with respect to ensuring high vaccine uptake: 7.3.1 ensure that citizens are informed that the vaccination is NOT mandatory and that no one is politically, socially, or otherwise pressured to get themselves vaccinated, if they do not wish to do so themselves.”

“7.3.2 ensure that no one is discriminated against for not having

LIBERALISM IS A SIN Don Félix Sardà y Salvany: – was

been vaccinated, due to possible health risks or not wanting to be

vaccinated.”

Section 7.5 which has to do with monitoring the long term effects of the vaccines and their safety states: “7.5.2 use vaccination certificates only for their designated purpose of monitoring vaccine efficacy, potential side-effects and adverse events.”

With this resolution the Parliamaentary Assembly of the Council of Europe seeks to protect Europeans from being coerced or pressured into taking the Covid-19 vaccines and it seeks to prevent governments and businesses from discriminating against those who do not take the vaccines. Such pressure, which is already happening in Ireland, effectively amounts to a negation of free consent and must be resisted.

CATECHISM

born on May 21, 1844 in Sabadell, Catalonia, Spain. He was a Catholic priest and writer who wrote against Liberalism which he considered a grave sin. He was the editor of the weekly Spanish Catholic magazine ‘La Revista Popular’ for over forty

Holiness Pope Pius X, issued the Encyclical ‘Pascendi Dominici Gregis’ which translates as “Feeding the Lord’s Flock”. Pope Pius X was aware that the Catholic Church had been infiltrated by modernists who were seeking to undermine her doctrines from within.

Father J. B. Lemius, produced this ‘Catechism on Modernism’ in the familiar the age of 71. This book, Liberalism question and answer format is a Sin, is particularly relevant to of the time, in order to make the teachings of the the times we live in today where Liberalism permeates every Encyclical more accessible to ordinary Catholics and aspect of our society and has deeply infiltrated the thinking of by way of explaining in a clear and concise manner the many of the Catholic hierarchy. reasons why the Encyclical was published. years. He died on January 2, 1916 at

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28 THE ANTI-CATHOLIC ‘CATHOLIC’

Catholic Voice

12th February 2021

Our First Anti-Catholic “Catholic” President Robert Royal In recent days, Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago has described the pre-inauguration statement issued by USCCB President and Archbishop of Los Angeles José Gómez as “unprecedented” for what – in any nonpartisan perspective – were actually quite temperate warnings to President Biden that the Church will not ignore his departures from clear Catholic teachings. In fact, the Chicago Cardinal has become rather obsessive, tweeting out what some have called a Twitter “storm” about the whole affair.

Cupich’s criticisms of his fellow bishops are themselves also quite unprecedented. Then again, the thing that’s most “unprecedented” – that’s given rise to these recent in-house Catholic squabbles – is the election of a selfdescribed “Catholic” president, who not only believes personally that abortion, gay “marriage” (he performed one as vice-president), transgenderism (“the civil rights issue of our time”), and much more are matters of overriding political urgency, despite the long teachings of the Church and American history. He’s determined – actually seems to be going out of his way – to impose those views. On all of us.

HANDS OFF OUR KIDS

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But there’s even worse. As we’ll soon see – I hope to be wrong about this – he and the people he is appointing are poised not only aggressively to advance bad policies, but also to curtail religious liberties where they conflict with the tenets of the Alternative Creed that many Democrats – and not only them – have now embraced. It’s not only going to be the Little Sister of the Poor this time, though they will be back in court again soon. It’s Catholic (and other religious) adoption agencies, poverty programs, hospitals, schools, maybe even parishes or dioceses that are too starkly Catholic.

The Courts or a stray Democrat or so in Congress may stop some of the worst from happening. But that’s a slender hope with so much in play.

What’s truly unprecedented, then, beyond being an unfaithful Catholic, is that Biden has already shown himself by word and deed to be an anti-Catholic “Catholic.” Indeed, he’s an equal opportunity religious bigot who, for all the talk of coming together, will ride roughshod over his co-religionists as well as traditional Protestants and evangelicals, Orthodox and Conservative Jews, Muslims, Mormons, and even secular citizens who believe that “woke” politics do not abolish ordinary reason and human nature.

Biden has tried to position himself as a moderate and a man who wants to bring back American “unity.” In his

12th February 2021 inaugural address, however, he and his speechwriters told us exactly where they think the fault lines lie: I know the forces that divide us are deep and they are real. But I also know they are not new. Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we are all created equal and the harsh, ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, and demonisation have long torn us apart. The battle is perennial.

In the unlikely event that you are a racist, hate foreigners, suffer from politically incorrect “phobias,” and – ahem, unlike liberals – demonise opponents, consider yourself forewarned. If, however, you think that by opposing certain policy choices you are yourself being demonised and marginalised by a political clique, well, you’ll just have to bear the stigma of being called bigoted and opposed to American “unity.”

Like Nancy Pelosi, who has said that some Catholics have placed their pro-life views “above democracy,” Biden has over the years talked himself into an alternative faith centred in partisan politics. A Catholic, indeed any sincere religious believer, should have no trouble saying – with the necessary qualifications – that of course he or she places God and his Word above any political order.

Catholic Voice

Any public figure who goes out of his way to make a display of his Catholicism should expect to receive scrutiny for his claim.

Who knew that according to some Catholic Democrats the Constitution, for example, gives the Federal government the power to tell us which pronouns, family relationships, and “genders” can and cannot be used in conducting the business of the American people?

You can carry around rosary beads and bless yourself publicly as much as you want. But please, don’t expect Catholics to be blind.

Or stupid. It’s not surprising when political partisans, religious or not, place their party and ambitions first, while masking it as an appeal to compassion and patriotism.

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nation is divided and needs to be evangelised. The alternative is civil war or secession. A nation divided in its ultimate commitments cannot resolve differences politically unless we open up space to live and let live. We can do that and still stand up – forcefully – for truth.

We won’t get that from the Biden administration. But we can prepare among ourselves a different mentality by the ways we think, speak, and act, now. It’s not an easy road. There are pitfalls everywhere.

But God never said that his way would be easy.

Our bishops are shepherds, as well as public figures. They must teach, sanctify, and govern the flock as well as be public witnesses to the Truth.

But when a Catholic politician openly chooses to follow his wayward political party rather than his Church, lays out a whole set of policies that will negatively impact that Church, and immediately sets out to implement them, he’s seeking neither civic unity nor religious fidelity.

Gomez and the other bishops who joined him were right to express willingness to co-operate, even “dialogue” – however unlikely, given ideological hatreds – with the incoming administration. But they were even more right to make clear that (to borrow from St. Thomas More) they are America’s good servants, but God’s first.

But let us also learn a lesson from this: we do not need to act like this ourselves. Christians aren’t in the world to cancel people; we’re here to convert them. The

That may seem unprecedented to some, but let’s hope it’s the first of many new precedents that will radically shift the understanding of faith in our public life.

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THE ANTI-CATHOLIC ‘CATHOLIC’ 29

Fatima Prayer

Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, I adore Thee profoundly. I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which He Himself is offended, and through the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary I beg of thee the conversion of poor sinners. Amen.

30 CLASSIFIEDS

Catholic Voice

CLASSIFIEDS From Our Lady of Fatima Do you want peace in the world?

Will you do what Our Lady tells you?

Say the Rosary every day.

Do the Five First Saturdays in honour of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Those who spread this devotion will be placed by Our Lady as flowers before the throne of Almighty God. Next issue of

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26 February 2021

12th February 2021

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REGULAR TRADITIONAL LATIN MASSES IN IRELAND (LISTED BY DIOCESE)

DAILY & WEEKLY Armagh: New Mellifont Abbey, Collon, Co. Louth; Every Sunday 3pm.

Cork & Ross: Ss Peter’s & Paul’s, Cork: Sundays 12.00 noon Mon -Sat 10.00am.

Dromore: St.Mary’s, Newry: Sundays and Holydays 09.00.

Dublin: St. Kevin’s, Harrington Street: Sundays & non working Holy Days: 10.30; Mon - Fri 08.00; Sat 09.00.

Working Holidays & First Fridays; 08.00 and 19.00.

Dublin: St. Joseph’s, Newtownmountkennedy, Co Wicklow; Sat 11.00 Limerick: Sacred Heart, The Crescent (ICKSP); Sun10.30; Mon-Thurs 08.00 and 19.00; Friday 19.00; Saturday 08.00 & 12.00 noon.

Meath: Silverstream Priory (Benedictine monks) Stamullen: Sunday 10.00 preceded by Terce, other days 11.00.

Meath: Johnstown, Navan: Sundays 13.00; Holydays as announced.

Ossory: St. Patrick’s, College Rd, Kilkenny; Sundays 17.00.

Raphoe: St. Patrick’s, Drumkeen, Co. Donegal Sundays 11.00am.

Down & Connor: St. Therese of Lisieux, Somerton Rd, Belfast :Sundays at 4pm TWICE MONTHLY Ferns: St. Alphonsus, Barntown, Co Wexford: Second Sunday 17.00 and occasional Third Sundays Derry: St. Columba’s , Longtower: First and Third Sunday 14.00.

Waterford: St. John’s Church, Parnell Street, Waterford City - 1pm on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of the Month.

MONTHLY Armagh: St. Patrick’s, Dungannon, Co Tyrone: First Saturday 14.00.

Cork & Ross: St. Francis , Liberty St. Cork : First Saturday 13.00.

Derry: St. Marys, Aughabrack, Co Tyrone: Fourth Sunday 12.45 Elphin: St. John’s, carraoe, Co Sligo ; Last Sunday 15.00.

Killaloe: St. Joseph’s, Ennis, Co Clare: First Sunday 17.30.

Tuam: St. John the Baptist, (Old Parish Church), Knock, Co Mayo; Second Sunday 17.30.

Every effort has been made to ensure this list is up to date. Please contact the Latin Mass Society of Ireland of any changes or errors. email president@latinmassireland.com

Visit our all-new website today!

Mass Cards

Enrollment Books

All Occasion Gifts

It’s now easier than ever to have Mass cards, enrolment books & religious gifts delivered directly to your door.

Web: www.mscmissions.ie Email: info@mscmissions.ie Tel: +353 (0)21 4545704

12th February 2021 Catholic Voice

ADVERT 31

One Page Summary of the Clinical Trials Evidence for Ivermectin in COVID-19 Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic medicine whose discovery won the Nobel Prize in 2015, has proven, highly potent, anti-viral and anti-inflammatory properties in laboratory studies. In the past 4 months, numerous, controlled clinical trials from multiple centers and countries worldwide are reporting consistent, large improvements in COVID-19 patient outcomes when treated with ivermectin.

Our comprehensive scientific review of these referenced trials can be found on the Open Science Foundation pre-print server here: https://osf.io/wx3zn/.

Properties of Ivermectin 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6)

Ivermectin inhibits the replication of many viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, influenza, and others; Ivermectin has potent anti-inflammatory properties with multiple mechanisms of inhibition; Ivermectin diminishes viral load and protects against organ damage in animal models; Ivermectin prevents transmission of COVID-19 when taken either pre- or post-exposure; Ivermectin hastens recovery and decreases hospitalization and mortality in patients with COVID-19; Ivermectin leads to far lower case-fatality rates in regions with widespread use.

Evidence Base Supporting the Efficacy of Ivermectin in COVID-19 as of December 18, 2020 (RCT’s = randomized controlled trials, OCT’s = observational controlled trials). Every clinical trial shows a benefit, with RCT’s and OCT’s reporting the same direction and magnitude; nearly all are statistically significant.

Controlled trials studying the prevention of COVID-19 (7 trials completed) • 4 RCT’s with large statistically significant reductions in transmission rates, a total of 851 patients • 3 OCT’s with large statistically significant reductions in transmission rates, a total of 1,688 patients Controlled trials in the early, outpatient treatment of COVID-19 (5 trials completed) • 2 RCT’s with large, significant reductions in deterioration/ hospitalization, a total of 1,085 patients • 2 RCT’s with significant decreases in viral load, days of anosmia, cough, or time to recovery Controlled trials in late phase treatment of the hospitalized patients (12 trials completed) • 2 RCT’s with large, significant reductions in mortality, a total of 720 patients • 3 OCT’s with large, statistically significant reductions in mortality, a total of 1,688 patients

Number of Studies and Patients Among the Existing Clinical Trials of Ivermectin in COVID-19 • • •

24 trials, including a total of 7,825 patients have been completed using well-matched control groups 15 trials, including over 3,000 patients, are prospective, randomized, controlled studies 12 of the 24 trials have been published in peer-reviewed journals, 3,926 patients, remainder in pre-print

Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance – Recommendation on Ivermectin in COVID-19 Even restricting analysis to just the 15 randomized controlled trials (totaling over 3,000 patients), the majority report a statistically significant reduction in transmission or disease progression or mortality.

Further, a meta-analysis recently performed by an independent research consortium calculated the chances that ivermectin is ineffective in COVID-19 to be 1 in 67 million.1 The FLCCC Alliance, based on the totality of the existing evidence, supports an A-I recommendation (NIH rating scheme; strong level, high quality evidence) for the use of ivermectin in both the prophylaxis and treatment of all phases of COVID-19.

Furthermore, we encourage all regulatory agencies to review our manuscript detailing these studies above as well as the multiple population-wide “natural experiments” that occurred in numerous cities and regions after the initiation of ivermectin distribution programs.2 The widespread use of ivermectin resulted in a significant reduction in cases and mortality rates that approached pre-pandemic levels in these areas. As evidenced by what occurred in these regions, ivermectin is clearly an essential and vital treatment component in achieving control of the pandemic.

– 1 2

ivmmeta.com Kory P, Meduri GU, Iglesias J, Varon J et al. Review of the Emerging Evidence Demonstrating the Efficacy of Ivermectin in the Prophylaxis and Treatment of COVID-19. Open Science Foundation. https://osf.io/wx3zn/

For more information about the FLCCC Alliance, the I-Mask+ Prophylaxis & Early Outpatient Treatment Protocol for COVID-19 and the MATH+ Hospital Treatment Protocol for COVID-19, please visit

www.flccc.net

32 ADVERT

Catholic Voice

12th February 2021

THE HOLY FACE OF JESUS FROM THE IMAGE ON SAINT VERONICA’S VEIL (The veil is kept in Saint Peter’s Basilica, Rome.)

Published by: Catholic Voice Newspapers, St Michael’s House, Castlemitchell South, Athy, County Kildare. Tel 059-8627268 ROI / 00353 - 59 8627268 Publisher: Anthony Murphy.

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