 |
| The Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. is closed to the public until further notice says their website. You cannot even visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament! |
Fr. Tom sent this comment accompanying the article below: "I could not help but notice how the denial of access to the sacraments due to the current COVID-19 crisis could be seen as a divine “No mas”, due to decades of capitulation to moral and liturgical abuses. Pray that all of us may be graciously blessed with sincere conversion based upon a renewed commitment to be faithful and accountable to the whole truth of God." All I can say is Amen to that! Pray for restoration of the Holy Mass!
REFLECTIONS ON THE COVID-19 CRISIS
One of these signs has been the fact that the very day that the President of the United States called for us to unite in prayer for deliverance, numerous churches were closed to worshippers.
As a Catholic, I cannot help but note that fear of the virus has led to the cancellation of all public Masses and other devotions. Yet this seems to be a sign of the times that needs to be noted and addressed as quickly as possible.
First of all, it should be noted that, over the past several decades, statistics have shown that less than 30% of Catholics take seriously the obligation to keep holy the Lord’s Day by participating in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Most of the others obey this commandment only occasionally or when convenient. But for centuries the Church, which is “the pillar and foundation of truth” (I Tim 3:15) has taught failure to fulfill this commandment without serious reason is a serious sin. Even those unable to participate at Mass on a particular Sunday due to weather, illness, work schedules, etc. are to set aside some quality time for extra prayer that day. However, since many of us clergy fail to decisively insist on how important it is for all Catholics to take this obligation, seriously, we have allowed Catholics to view this commandment as merely an option. And, in an age guided by expediency and relativism, this has led many of them to the logical conclusion that all the other commandments are obligatory only to the degree that they are meaningful to their personal agendas and expedient to their schedules. This is indicated by the large number of lax Catholics who, after missing Sunday Mass or committing any other serious sin, receive Holy Communion. Contrary to the teaching given in I Cor 11:27-30. They seem to rationalize their sacrilegious Communions by thinking, if they are not immediately punished for their sins and for their ratifying its legitimacy by sacrilegiously receiving the Eucharistic Christ, Jesus does not really consider such sins as serious. Thus, if sin does not really consist in self-desecration and the desecration of others, there is no real need to take the Church’s moral teaching seriously.
 |
| Many Catholic politicians like Nancy Pelosi promote the cult of Moloch? |
Secondly, it must be noted that, over the past fifty years, numerous prominent Catholics have been publicly asserting that their support of contraception, aborticide and infanticide is in full harmony with their Catholic Faith. And they have ratified this assertion by receiving the Holy Eucharist, with hardly a whisper of opposition from their bishops. In doing so, they have been promoting the cult of Moloch, going so far as to assert that the Eucharistic Christ wills to give a smiling “thumbs up” to their efforts (and the efforts of such groups as Planned Parenthood) to promote both the butchering of innocent babies and the perverting of innocent children through “family life curricula”. Sadly, most bishops seem unwilling to decisively condemn this Cult of Desecration and Death by publicly asserting that the Eucharistic Christ does not will to endorse it with His Precious Body and Blood. They are thus giving the impression that they are tacitly willing to concede that the assertion of pro-aborticide Catholics, “Jesus is Moloch”, is indeed in full harmony with the Catholic Faith.
In addition, for the sake of expediency (cf. Jn 11:49-50), they seem to be willing to ignore the fact that one of the purposes of aborticide is to ensure that a baby will be denied the opportunity to be baptized. They thus allow souls to question the fact that salvation is dependent on God’s gracious merciful love offered through Baptism. Instead, they seem to have accepted as valid the theological fallacy and vapid consolation offered by those who assert that we can presume all aborted babies go to heaven. Whereas presumption used to be called a sin against the virtue of hope (CCC 2092), it is now de facto treated as a sacrament, as some Church leaders go so far as to assure us that we can have a reasonable hope that practically all souls will be saved. Apparently, Baptism is nice, but not really necessary for salvation.
Thirdly, it should be noted how many Church leaders have allowed her clear teaching on the supremacy of conscience, which is based upon a person conscientiously seeking to form his/her conscience in harmony with the whole truth of God, to be deliberately degraded by various spiritual theoreticians (I hesitate to call them theologians). Thus, “for pastoral reasons”, many of us clergy are told to avoid admonishing the sinner – especially in areas of sexual morality. Instead, we are urged to ignore the warnings given in Ez 3:18-21, 33:7-9, and to suppress our sincere consciences in order to cater to and appease the demands of sin-seared consciences.
Fourthly, it should be noted how many Church leaders have allowed the Perfect Sacrifice of Obedience offered by Christ to be tainted by the disobedience of elitist liturgists. First of all, they allowed the directives in the GIRM (General Instruction of the Roman Missal) to be violated by implementing Mass facing the people and other liturgical novelties with no disciplinary rubrics. Then, choosing to overlook the fact that Jesus is truly, personally and substantially present in each Eucharistic particle, they capitulated to the demands of dissidents for Communion in the hand. As an aside, it is worth noting that the Vatican’s carefully delineated process for introducing this practice was rarely implemented. This error was compounded by their allowing people to use various “recipes” for Communion bread, which, aside from opening up the possibility of invalid matter for the Eucharist, produced so many “crumbs” as to make many church vacuum cleaner bags de facto tabernacles. It is thus rather ironic that now we are in a situation where we are to show more concern for the possible presence of the microscopic COVID-19 than for the Real Presence of Jesus as Eucharistic “crumbs”. Apparently, scrupulosity is a virtue only when it is subservient to the secularist agenda of political correctness.
In summary, it seems that, having allowed the Pure Sacrifice of Christ to be routinely polluted by sin and sacrilege, we are now being denied access to His Sacrifice. With a majority of Catholics feeling free to miss Mass and to trivialize other serious sins for the most perfunctory reasons, it seems that, for “pastoral reasons”, many of our spiritual leaders are conceding to their assertion that the Mass is not really that important. And as we, “for pastoral reasons”, hesitate to admonish them, we also leave them free to avoid authentic life-giving repentance. Thus, on Judgment Day, having been accustomed over the years to habitually saying “Not now” to Christ’s invitation to share in His Sacrifice of the Mass through repentance guided by the obedience of faith, they will find themselves saying their final and eternally decisive “Not now” to Christ and His gracious offer of mercy and eternal life.
Fr. Thomas Collins
As a Catholic, I cannot help but note that fear of the virus has led to the cancellation of all public Masses and other devotions. Yet this seems to be a sign of the times that needs to be noted and addressed as quickly as possible.
ReplyDeleteIt is a scandal that Bishops let the secularists lead them around by the nose. The Bishops have the duty to tell the POTUS, Governors etc "Thank you for your concern but we must be discharge our duties and offer the Holy Holocaust and Sacraments to the Faithful. Our Churches will remain open and we we expect the faithful to exercise common sense like they do every flu season."
Relinquishing power and authority to the secularists is to abandon The Kingship of Christ for the fear mongering of The Orangeman and his disciples.
In our current situation it is difficult for me to second guess the bishops who are themselves subjected to the same public orders as everyone else, like school superintendents, sports team owners, restaurateurs, and other heads of entities that attract crowds of people to gather.
ReplyDeleteEven as Catholics, we do in fact live IN the world. When a hurricane comes ashore it hits all equally and it would be foolish for a priest or bishop to say "in spite of the coming storm, we will hold all masses and obligation to attend is unaffected by weather reports."
If a bishop did that he would put Catholics in the position of having to decide whether to listen to their bishop or protect himself and his family from death.
Not attending mass is painful and in this case the reason for cessation may be very overblown and beyond reason in most places, but it is temporary. We can't lose sight of that.
Where the bishops could be doing more is in communication in the meantime. What about daily YouTube messages like Fr. Goring and Catechism lessons, and stories of saints and martyrs to remind us we are still Catholics even in the worst of times.
A natural disaster is one thing. A virus that is unevenly affecting the country is quite another. I agree that suspending the obligation, especially for the vulnerable (like us old folks), makes sense. It may also be sensible in New York to shut things down. And, in fact, It makes sense everywhere to have precautions in place. They're putting up tents outside hospitals in the NOVA system to do testing and evaluations outside the hospitals. I applaud that common sense measure to try to reduce the impact of the virus in the hospital.
ReplyDeleteBut most of Virginia outside the cities and highly populated counties have NO confirmed cases of coronavirus. Banning Masses in those places makes no sense. Let the Mass go on with rules for disinfecting and distancing. Closing the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady's basilica, to all is shameful! We need her more than ever!
Chris’s Rainey: That is the error of false equivalence (apples to oranges). Or you could say holding Mass now is like holding Mass while the Church burns down; or while we are under nuclear attack.
ReplyDeleteThis virus is not the same as a hurricane that is guaranteed to destroy everything in its 140 kt path of limited destruction, or a fire that is actively burning in the rafters of a single Parish or nukes that have already been launched at specific targets.
These things hit everybody and everything in their known but limited path. There is nothing you can do to mitigate destruction in the face of 140 kt winds or nuclear fire. And you can *still attend Mass*, one neighborhood adjacent!
Not so, Corona - cancelled everywhere, indefinitely throughout the land. In the hardest hit areas, you can still practice “distancing” and common sense courtesy to avoid social contact - no need to cancel. You can, (as we have done) limit numbers per Mass ... *but hold more Mass times than normal* (everyone is still able to attend). In other areas not affected, less affected, you can hold Mass normally as there is *no contagion* there - no need to cancel
So: are we to treat every virus from now on as a nationwide “hurricane” and cancel Mass everywhere when the seasonal Influenza goes “parabolic” (they always do)?
A 140 kt hurricane is constant and measurable - its damage can be estimated with reasonable accuracy. Apple
A virus, any virus, is a *normal* part of any flu season and does not destroy everything in its path (1% almost always, including Corona) and it’s path is estimated, not known. Orange.
Brave Priests bring Mass to soldiers in combat - beautiful saintly Priests. That is what we aim for. Mass in times of peace. Mass in times of persecution and war. We should not ever be “dark” - universal darkness - Christ withdraw by the Church. Careful, yes. Dark, no.
British “Scientist” Neal Ferguson, whose apocalyptic virus model which recommended shutting down (literally shutting down) British and American economies for 18 months .... now says “never mind”.
ReplyDeleteHe’s changed his model. It’s all good now.
These are the same or similar people who gave us the global warming apocalypse. “If we don’t shut down industry and transportation and kill lots of people and become agrarian again under a global communal government then the entire planet will burn to a crisp and we will all die!!!!”
https://thefederalist.com/2020/03/26/the-scientist-whose-doomsday-pandemic-model-predicted-armageddon-just-walked-back-the-apocalyptic-predictions/#.XnzdOIcKNLk.twitter
He came armed with graphs and formulas and math. And a Priest of Secularist Science convinced us all to believe in his religion for a time. This will go down as one of the biggest science frauds and public emotional manias in history. Unfortunately my 88 year old, once highly profitable and productive company may not survive it. Many won’t. We will never be the same.
No Holy Sacrifice if the Mass here but there are plenty on t.v. How does that work??
ReplyDeleteThese comments a simply insane!!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat is wrong with you people? 60 plus priests have already died in Italy 49 nuns from two convents in Rome 100% percent of the nuns tested positive and many of them nurses. Thank you Lord that none of these idiots are charge of anything. And are simply visions of idiocy in their own minds. New Orleans because of Mardi Gras has the fastest growing number of positive cases outside of New York. The Archbishop and the Saints football coach are positive for this deadly virus and have experienced a 29% increase onernight!!!!! People are dying!!! The largest age group impacted is 40 - 49 not elderly... I will update this sorry blog with updates in seven days. Where two or more are gathered in my name... we do not need a building or communion to enjoy a relationship with Jesus. The early history of the Church in the U.S. had priests on horseback visiting some areas only once a month!!! I could go on and on but have spent enough time with this Cult like blog!!!!
A lifelong Catholic who until 3/19/ 2020 attended Mass daily.
God save us ALL!
@Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteU.S. Oct 2019 - Mar 14 2020 flu statistics:
38-54,000,000 illnesses
23-59,000 deaths
U.S. Mar 26 2020 corona statistics
85,000 illnesses (- 37,915,000 - 53,915,000)
1,300 deaths (- 21,700 - 57,700)
My company of 28 years (almost retired) which has been around for 88 years, pumping out profits and a popular product at least 10 years in a row, no debt, $2.4 Billion cash on hand ... will burn through it all in a few months and go bankrupt. I will lose everything. My family (six young special needs children) is in a precarious position. My entire industry (airlines) is essentially ruined, absent massive intervention and rebuilding. Every part of the economy is in the same position. Ruined. Wrecked. Deeply in debt.
And no one can explain to me why these small corona numbers are more dangerous and deadly than those big influenza numbers.
We have *chosen* to enter a Great Depression (at least risk one) and I have to ask, since I am potentially ruined at a ripe old age, why?
I'm so sorry, Aqua. I'm adding your family to our prayer box and will be remembering your intentions when we pray our daily rosary. May God fill your heart with peace and hope during this terrible time.
ReplyDeleteThat means a lot to me. And I thank you.
ReplyDeleteMay these times draw Catholics together in unity in peace and trust in Christ And His Blessed Mother; rather than force us apart in fear and self regard.
I have noticed that all the Saints are depicted with their eyes up, toward the sky; rather than down toward the dirt. We aim for heaven, we should continuously look up where we one day wish to be. I aim to not be overly distracted by the concerns of earth, good times or bad. All of them are by God’s grace.
I've been thinking about all the people who are going to start drinking, using drugs or kill themselves once their jobs are gone.
ReplyDeleteDear Aqua. ABS joins with Mary Ann
ReplyDeleteIn our current situation it is difficult for me to second guess the bishops who are themselves subjected to the same public orders as everyone else, like school superintendents, sports team owners, restaurateurs, and other heads of entities that attract crowds of people to gather
ReplyDeleteNo, they are not according to Pope Leo XIII and The US Constitution (Amendments nine and ten) and the separation of state and church.
The great Pope Leo always defended against the ideological insane claims that the State could order the Church around and the Bishops surrendering to this panic has set the stage for future acceptance of accepting orders from the Sate - such as the coming order to stop teaching about the evil of sodomy
Of course our Bishops, who always publicly support the separation of State (Religious Liberty) are all in agreement about the necessity of accepting the marching orders from their ancient enemies.
Wel, so much for The Kingship of Christ...
I could go on and on but have spent enough time with this Cult like blog!!!!
ReplyDeleteABS thinks that women like Mary Ann are real troublemakers because she is part of THE Cult, The Cult of Christ.
People are already killing themselves, Dymphna. A nurse in Italy, an autistic teenager in the U.K., a man in India. Mental health experts are predicting more. This is from Medpage Today:
ReplyDelete"As concerns over the perceived threat grows, stress, panic, sleep disturbances will be experienced, and a wide array of DSM-5 diagnoses will be swiftly applied. Likely among these conditions are generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, severe phobias, and PTSD. And, for some, the particularly neurologically vulnerable phenotype, the tension may trigger an acute adjustment disorder (AD), precipitating or worsening existing suicidality, i.e., thoughts and/or behavior. In others, as a consequence of quick and undifferentiated misdiagnosis, iatrogenic damage may escalate mortality rates."
But these deaths don't count to many who are wringing their hands and bolting themselves in their homes and telling those of us who want the Mass with precautions in place are "selfish killers." I'm a little sick of it. I think some people commenting on my blog and on Facebook will cheer if I get the coronavirus so they can gloat -- "I told you so!!!"
"But most of Virginia outside the cities and highly populated counties have NO confirmed cases of coronavirus. Banning Masses in those places makes no sense. Let the Mass go on with rules for disinfecting and distancing. Closing the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady's basilica, to all is shameful! We need her more than ever!"
ReplyDeleteI disagree Maryanne, "confirmed cases" and real cases are two different things when there is not a lot of testing going on. We have a woman in a medically induced coma for 11 days whose family insists she has all the corona symptoms BUT these is not test results to look at because the test report simply has not come in.Also , there are many for whom they have no tests available here.They do not hit the corona rolls when they die of pneumonia. So do NOT count on the published counts.
You do NOT need a church building for the Mass. Sorry but you are WRONG.
No doubt there are cases not confirmed. I agree. I have a niece who's been very sick and may have it, but keeps being refused testing.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course we don't need "a building" for the Mass. Military chaplains have said Mass in the open since the first war. But we need the Mass and you imply there is no difference between a Mass on TV and Mass in person. And that is simply not true which is why my husband and I continue going to the church every morning at the usual Mass time to pray the Mass in front of the tabernacle where Jesus is really present to me and I to Him. That can't happen through a televised Mass. It's still not the Mass but I have the consolation of the Lord's presence. And since there are usually only two or three other people in the church with us (or none!), we are taking far less risk than when we go to the grocery store and are only a few feet from the cashier. So I'm avoiding the stores and continue to go to the church. All of us must make decisions for ourselves. I don't question any other person's decision or choice or judge them for what they decide. I would appreciate receiving the same courtesy from others.
My Parish normally has 3 Masses on Sunday.
ReplyDeleteNow they have 5 on Sunday, 1 on Saturday and 1 on Friday. 7 Masses. All of them scheduled to 24 Max (State limit is 25). All of them full. All of them have Confession available 30 minutes prior.
Where there is a will; where there is love; there is a way. Love some One; desire that some One; with a will you will find a way to have that which you desire.
I won’t focus on those who don’t. Focus on the positive: know what it is you love supremely. Let these times of tribulation clarify for us - what is it; Who is it we truly love?
Aren't you blessed to continue to have the Mass. Where are you?
ReplyDeleteWell Maryanne ,
ReplyDeleteGood for you that you reside in a fairly rural area with few daily Mass attendees but , "where Jesus is really present to me and I to Him. That can't happen through a televised Mass."
So you mock the very Word of God Who tells us where two or more are gathered I too will be there?
Our Arch Bishop made it clear to us we should not put our elderly or our parishioners with co morbid conditions in jeopardy.
He also made it clear that Masses during the plagues were celebrated by the faithful in antiquity because they did not know how disease was transmitted.
I Trust that Our Lord Jesus knows our intentions by not celebrating Mass in a building during this time.