Today's Solemn Pontifical High Mass At The Basilica Of The National Shrine Of The Immaculate Conception

Here are some details of the traditional Latin Mass celebrated by Archbishop Alexander Sample, from Rorate Caeli.  Therein you'll find the various ministers, choirs, etc.  I attended that Mass.  A traffic accident on the beltway caused me to be late, but I did arrive just before the Gloria.

EWTN broadcast it live, and produced the recording below.  I'm impressed that they got it uploaded to youtube so quickly.  The Archbishop's sermon begins at the 54:28 mark; it's definitely worth several repetitions.

Alfie Evans - Requiescat In Pace

From LifeSiteNews we read that Alfie Evans passed away at 2:30 AM today in Liverpool, local time.  While it is incorrect to imply that he is now an angel, it is true that as a baptised Catholic below the age of reason, he ascended immediately to heaven and (I think) can be regarded as a saint.  We can therefore invoke his intercession to pray for his poor parents who struggled valiantly against a murderous cabal that was once an honorable national government and the equally treacherous bishops (on both sides of the pond) who lifted not a finger to aid him.

Make no mistake. ALFIE EVANS WAS MURDERED BY SOCIALIZED MEDICINE AND THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT WAS COMPLICIT IN HIS ENGINEERED DEATH.

Complicit in that mortal sin of murder were the bishops of England who dared to side with Alder Hey hospital as they were murdering that baby.  The royal family of England is also to be censured for its complicit silence.  As the Dutchess of Cambridge gave birth to her son, she could have spoken on behalf of Kate Evans and her child; she didn't.  Forever will that shame be on the royal family.  To be perfectly frank, I don't know why the Trump administration didn't lift its voice in the matter; that is a major disappointment, to say the least.  Also complicit were those "seamless garbage" types who lifted not one finger to assist in the effort to save Alfie.

The US bishops at least put out that one measly tweet to support the parents and it's quite likely that Pope Francis pullled some strings to encourage the Italian government to step up to the plate.  We thank Italy and the Gesu Bambino hospital for being ready to assist Alfie - if only they had been permitted to do so.  Poland and the European Parliament spoke for Alfie, as did the British citizens who protested in front of Alder Hey Hell-hole.

Alfie, please pray for us.  Pray that God bless your parents abundantly with consolation and peace.  They loved you and still do.  Please pray that western civilization, indeed the entire world, will repent and live by God's laws before it crumbles to the earth and countless souls lost.

Indifference To Alfie Reveals Skewed Priorities Of So-Called Civilized People

In yesterday's post I stated that the USCCB uttered not one peep regarding Alfie Evans.  It turns out I was incorrect.  Stop the presses!  Drum rolls and trumpets please!  From Zenit we learn that the USCCB put out a tweet regarding Alfie.  I suppose it's better than the abysmal silence that still appears on their page.  Speaking of their page, notice the blurb about April being "Child Abuse Prevention Month".  No sane person can gainsay that Alfie is being abused by Alder Hey Hospital.

On Facebook I came across an excellent video by Reality Check regarding the skewed priorities of western society that Alfie's plight has made evident.  I cannot locate a youtube so I'll now link to their page.  Is it not a travesty that lions and gorillas garner more sympathy and outrage than does the brutal, deliberate attempt to murder a little child?  That goes double for Catholic bishops - at least British bishops.  Yes, the USCCB tweet was namby-pamby, but at least it's something.  It's not outright capitulation to the governmental forces of death.

By the way, going back to the "non-pro-life mutation", how can they possibly issue a non-statement regarding Alfie being wrested away from his parents, and then wax indignant about this?


Please - if you haven't already done so, contact the British officials shown at the bottom of the LifeSiteNews piece.  Demand that they exhibit some decency and allow Tom and Kate Evans to determine the treatment for their son Alfie.

Keep Up The Pressure For Alfie Evans

Last evening I posted this on the facebook page of the Non Pro-Life Mutation.  While I don't see that comment on their page, I suppose that (and presumably others) was sufficient to elicit this cop-out statement from them.  I think it's just precious of them to complain about "purity tests" when in the past they have claimed that if we don't embrace their "consistent life ethic" (that's the new buzz term for "seamless garment", by the way), we aren't sufficiently pro-life (I'll post proof of that after the junp break).  Look at the comments below and you'll see that I and others are now deemed "stepford wives" by Bratten-Weiss herself.  Whatever!

The whole thing is shot through and through with so many logical flaws.  Here's one: "we must be wary about sustaining such a terror of death as to turn towards unnatural and painful ends to prevent it." (emphasis mine).  First, I think instead of "ends" she probably intended "means" to be used.  At any rate, the administration of food and water are never "unnatural".  What was "unnatural and painful" was most likely the deprivation of the food and water for almost two days after he successfully breathed on his own.

I could go on and on about that namby-pamby cop-out but I don't want to get too embroiled in those details.  NPLM published this crap on their page, essentially siding with Alder Hey against the beleaguered parents with ever-so-sanctimonious language. These are lefties who are enthralled with nationalized (that is, socialized) medicine, and this case reveals what a tyrannical behemoth the state will become when (not if) it determines who is treated and who isn't. These progressives will not deal with that truth, and they will do anything to perpetuate their fairy tale, even if they have to cooperate with the mortal sin of murder via their silence and promulgation of screed like this article.

Guess who else is complicit vis-a-vis their silence?  The USCCB!  Surprise!  You may rest assured that if some callous thug were facing the death penalty that they'd be calling for protests, candle vigils, you name it!  But recall that the USCCB has also shilled shamelessly for socialized medicine.  They will say or do nothing that would put one of their pet causes in a truthful light.  Go to their site.  You'll see zero-zip-nada about poor Alfie.

I will now post some actions that we can take.  Thanks to the internet, there are still things that we can do even though we are "across the pond" from England.  See below the jump break.

Does The Alder Hey Hospital Have Ulterior Motives In Engineering The Death Of Alfie Evans?

In England, Baby Alfie Evans had his ventilator removed yesterday.  The clear if unspoken intent of the staff of Alder Hey hospital was that he should die.  That is, they intended to murder him.  However, he still continues to breathe on his own.  Now they are denying him food; that is, if they can't smother him, their method of murder will now be forced starvation.

The Italian government, to aid him, has made Alfie an Italian citizen and are ready to transport him to Gesu Bambino Hospital in Rome.  Yet the murderous monsters who now control the British government won't allow it.  What kind of vested interest do they have in the death of this child?  Seems senseless, doesn't it?

Well, maybe not!

Apparently Alder Hey Hospital has been embroiled in a bit of scandal regarding the harvesting and storage of the bodies of babies for research.  This all came down in 2004-2005 so it may have faded from memories.  It certainly did from mine until I saw an article on Canon 212.   Doctors at Alder Hey took organs from dead children without their parents' consents.  These parents were denied justice as the Crown inexplicably dropped charges.  One might wonder if a few "pounds sterling" greased some palms.

At any rate, it makes one wonder that if Alfie were to be removed from the hospital, might his parents and/or other doctors (real doctors, that is) find evidence of, uh, "tampering" shall we say?  Why else would they be so adamant about keeping him there?  Of course I don't believe this crap that Alder Hey plopped out and neither does any sane person.  If his retention at Alder Hey serves any "best interests", it's those of that Frankenstein house of horrors that they call a hospital.  I must say they certainly have their network of stooges peppered throughout the UK high courts.  The hospital got off scott free in 2005; it pays to have friends in high places.  In fact, I'm sure one must pay to have friends in high places.  These "friends" are certainly going to bat for the hospital today, just as they did 13-14 years ago.

Father Pavone of Priests for Life put up a site whereby we can email to the hospital that they should allow that baby to live.  I urge you to go to it.  At the very least it will show them that the world is watching and remembering.  Certainly pray your rosaries, for there most certainly are demonic forces at play here.

By the way: where is the "non pro-life mutation" in all this?  Why do we hear nary a peep from them or from Rehumanize International?  Don't they care about the plight of this poor child?  It seems not; at least there is no evidence of it.

Join The Sex-Ed Sit-Out Tomorrow!

Parents!  Let the school authorities know that you won't tolerate the corruption of your children's morals and intellects!  If the school administration lemmings (that means you, Montgomery County Schools!) can gush all over the gun-control walk-out stunts, they should give others the right to voice their beliefs.

See sexedsitout.com for more info.

It's Earth Day! Have You Communed With Your Tree Twin Yet?

Honestly!  Who dreams up this crap??  It sounds like Mr. Amos Clifford, the "mastermind" behind this "forest bathing" movement, is laughing all the way to the bank as he takes gullible envirowhackos for a bath of another sort.

Mr. Clifford urges his suckers clients to find their "tree twins" and have conversations with them.  I wonder if the trees are considered to be on an intellectual par with their human twins.  Ironically enough, there might be a case for that hypothesis.  The phrase "dumb as rocks" comes to mind for some reason.

It is clear that many, having forsaken the One True God so that they can make idols of themselves and their own ideas and pleasures, are easy prey for charlatans such as Amos Clifford and the plethora of progressives who will use them for their own ends.  The worst thing is that they also endanger their immortal souls.  Pray for these people and be prepared to tell them the truth.

Is The So-Called "New Pro-Life Movement" Showing Its True Colors?

ChurchMilitant.com came across an open letter written to the president of Steubenville University that appears to be nothing more than a hit-piece screed aimed at some professors who blew the whistle on Rebecca Bratten Weiss several years ago during a Human Life Review symposium.  I needn't rehash the CM piece, but will point out that I too commented on Weiss's shortcomings at the time the symposium occurred.

Among other things it should be noted that NPLM is related to a similar outfit called Rehumanize International through a common board member, Aimee Murphy.  Rehumanize International is replete with its own moral issues arising from its seamless-garbage ideology, including the retention of a lesbian as a prominent staff member.

Ponder the revelations made by the CM piece and my earlier piece, to wit,

• The support of at least two of their leaders for Hillary Clinton during the presidential race
• Weiss's ambivalence regarding the babies' unalienable right to life

We see that the group calling itself "New Pro-Life Movement" is not pro-life.  We might well call them "Non Pro-Life Mutation".  They have no claim for respect whatsover among true pro-life people.  That underlined name suits them better.  Henceforth, that is what I shall call them.

Anticipating Attempts To Excommunicate Faithful Catholics - And Combating Them

As said in the previous post, Cardinal Burke gave an address at a conference in Rome last week.  The conference was called, "Catholic Church: Where Are You Going?"  He broached the consequences of any needed disobedience to Pope Francis.  He is speaking primarily of the direction that Amoralis Lamentia explicitly states in its infamous chapter 8 footnote regarding the administration of Holy Communion to adulterers.

The question of excommunication was raised.  The Cardinal said we must be ready to suffer such consequences with Christian patience.

My question is, if such an attempt at excommunication was made, would that excommunication be valid?  Perhaps that "consequence" would not even exist in fact.  Excommunication just can't be done willy-nilly, at the drop of a hat.  Specific conditions must be met for a valid excommunication, along with specific protocol to be followed.

The Catholic New Advent Encyclopedia has a treatise on excommunication.  One sections says, and I quote, "Catholics on the contrary, cannot be excommunicated unless for some personal, grievously offensive act. Here, therefore, it is necessary to state with precision the conditions under which this penalty is incurred."  Right there we see that excommunication can only occur as a consequence of a "grievously offensive act".  What would be these acts that would cause excommunication?  They'd have to be objectively sinful, correct?  Ruffling the feathers of a church leader and/or pricking his conscience would not constitute an "offensive act"!

Moving on down that article, we read, "An excommunication is said to be null when it is invalid because of some intrinsic or essential defect, e.g. when the  inflicting it has no jurisdiction, when the motive of the excommunication is manifestly incorrect and inconsistent, or when the excommunication is essentially defective in form."  Therefore, I ask that if an attempt at excommunication is made in the absence of a mortal sin, does that "excommunication" have any consequence?

I for one think not.  In the face of these considerations, I cannot see how one so "excommunicated" could, in good conscience, submit to that.  In so doing, he/she would be cooperating with the sin of an abuse of ecclesial authority.  He/she would actually be validating an act of abuse and dishonesty.

The cardinal is right to broach these matters.  Given the trajectory of this papacy, especially the manners in which traditional orders and faithful prelates have been thrown under the bus (including Cardinal Burke himself), draconian attempts at excommunication are clearly within the realm of real possibilities.  I can see where some might think the proper response to that kind of abuse might be to acquiesce to it and comply with the "excommunication".  I do not believe it is inherently virtuous to roll over and play dead like that.  Evil must be resisted.  If no excommunication really exists in fact, we cannot pretend that it does.  Such lies must be disobeyed, just like the lie of admissibility of adulterers to Holy Communion.

Bishops In Bed With Progressives

For over a hundred years, the Church has always supported the rights of workers to form unions so that they could bargain more effectively with their employers.  Such support was enshrined by Pope Leo XIII in Rerun Novarum.  However, today's bishops seem to be somewhat compromised when it comes to the rights of workers not to join a union if that is their preference.  They have demonstrated their left-wing proclivities once again with a case that is now before the Supreme Court, Janus vs American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.  Mark Janus, an Illinois employee brought suit so that he wouldn't have to cough up the mandatory union dues even though he declined to join.  He rightly states that such compulsion to pay union dues is a violation of his rights.

Demonstrating their slavish devotion to unions, the USCCB filed an amicus on behalf of AFSCME.  To his immense credit, Bishop Thomas Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield publicly disavowed the USCCB's stunt, correctly stating that no such consensus exists among Catholics regarding a matter on which reasonable people can disagree.  I thank him for not joining the USCCB's false pretense that compulsory union membership is enjoined by the Magisterium.  I suspect the USCCB benefits a bit from union largess as well as that of the feds.  How else do we explain the toadying to John Sweeney, former boss of both SEIU and AFL-CIO over the years?

Let's take a look at the latest stunt by Cardinal Cupich of Chicago.  A parish within his archdiocese, St. John Cantius, has conducted Mass in the Extraordinary Form and fostered traditional sacred music.  Some rather cheap allegations arose concerning the pastor, Father C. Frank Phillips.  With no regard to due process, Cupich slapped on him very draconian measures, including the suspension of his priestly faculties.  Meanwhile, Father Michael Pfleger is still pastor of St. Sabina's.  Remember him?  Remember how he threatened to "snuff" the owner of a local gun shop (because he hates violence so much!)?  How does Pfleger remain while Phillips gets thrown under the bus?  The answer is really quite simple; Pfleger and Cupich have very similar outlooks.  Father Phillips on the other hand embraces fidelity to the Magisterium.  So as he squashed the priests who participated in 40 Days for Life while he was bishop of Spokane, so too is he punishing Fr Phillips for his love of Tradition.

We will now move onto another dissident prelate who, like Cupich, was made a Cardinal.  I refer you to Cardinal Joseph Tobin (not to be confused with the relatively decent Bishop Thomas Tobin of Rhode Island).  In direct contradiction to a statement made by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, he voiced his opinion that the Church should not attempt to make herself more pure.  Well, at least he's honest about that.  At a meeting of close confidantes of the pope's at Villanova last week, the cardinal opined that the "church is moving on the question of same-sex couples".  Moving where, pray tell?  In her two-thousand years of existence, she has always held to the teachings of Jesus Christ on the matter (and by the way - it's NOT "complex").  The only way she could "move" would be away from the truth.  That is happening only in the minds of dissidents, progressives and outright heretics.  Those last few words describe the attendees at that gabfest.

One last word about Cardinal Tobin.  Three years ago, Tobin was an archbishop in Indiana.  Within his diocese, a Knights of Columbus council rented their hall to a lesbian couple to celebrate their #mowwidge.  I had suggested that all call the chancery and ask Tobin to have the thing cancelled.  At the time I was unaware of Tobin's true colors.  Needless to say, Tobin did nothing.  At first I chalked his inaction to mere apathy.  Now I consider the very real possibility that the KofC council caved to the lesbians under his order.

Above I mentioned Bishop Thomas Paprocki as a bishop who is upholding the truth.  Another is Cardinal Burke.  He too was at a conference, one quite different in tenor than the heretical snake-pit that Cardinal Tobin attended.  What he said deserves its own post and that post will follow this.