Corona Highlighting Need For Repentance

I urge one and all to listen to this.  I do have a few comments.

First, he is correct about the need to vote pro-life.  However, elections only happen every few years.  We need to be engaged between elections as well.  An excellent way is to be in front of abortion mills praying and/or offering assistance to women on a regular, committed basis.

Second, there is the issue of sodomy.  Both abortion and sodomy "cry out to heaven for vengeance" and both stem from the wanton disregard for Christ's teachings regarding marriage, sexuality, life, family - particularly those found in Casti Connubi and Humanae Vitae.  Our Lady of Fatima told the children that most people go to hell because of sins of the flesh and that the final battle between God and Satan will revolve around the family.

Right now, the Church's response to the covid matter has been abysmal.  At a time when we need more prayer, more Sacraments, the leadership has by and large cut off the faithful from the Sacraments.  They cite the need to attend to physical health, but fail to prioritize spiritual health over the physical.

In addition to the courses of action recommended by Terry, we must also stand against the encroaching tyranny directly.  While the tyranny might be being allowed by God, still the tyranny remains an intrinsic evil.  That cannot be passively accepted anymore than other evils.

Defending Human Life And The Family

Several years ago, Cardinal Caffarra (one of the four "dubia cardinals") revealed the contents of a conversation he had with Sister Lucia, one of the Fatima seers.  She told him that the final battle between Our Lord and Satan will revolve around marriage and the family.  In this centenary of our Lady of Fatima's appearances to the children, we do see that battle ratcheting before our very eyes.

At the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast two days ago, Cardinal Robert Sarah called "gender ideology", "same-sex marriage" etc what they are: demonic attacks on humanity.  Earlier this evening, I attended a talk given by Doug Mainwaring on this very topic (see Tuesday's post).  He said very much the same things; I'll be posting reports on this within the next few days.

Today the fourth Rome Life Forum convened in Rome, spearheaded by Voice of the Family.  I now link to VOF's site so that you can follow along this important conference and will also post some commentaries on the talks as they proceed.  Today one of the speakers was Father Linus Clovis of Family Life International.  I would urge careful study of his entire talk, in which he names Amoris Laetitia as both a trojan horse and a cast-down gauntlet.

He reminds us of the three requests of Our Lady of Fatima: reform of our lives, the First Saturday devotions and the consecration of Russia.  We are certainly capable of fulfilling the first two, as they pertain to our personal lives.  We must pray that the pope and bishops finally consecrate Russia to Our Lady's Immaculate Heart.

National Catholic Register And Capital Punishment

The National Catholic Register, a normally sensible publication, has linked arms with some not-so-sensible publications (America and National Catholic Reporter) and partook of their kool-aid.  They have glommed onto the push to end capital punishment.  I've blogged before about the consequences of embracing positions that are not in accordance with Catholic tradition.  In one of those posts I put forth my reasons for believing that the push to end capital punishment is a slap in the face to God Himself.

The Register article features one quote of Bishop Thomas Wenski of Miami: "The use of the death penalty devalues human life and diminishes respect for human dignity. We bishops continue to say: We cannot teach killing is wrong by killing."

We'll unpack the last sentence, for therein lies some confusion.  The Fifth Commandment prohibits murder, not killing.  Owing to poor translations from the Hebrew, we do have some confusion.  "Murder" and "killing" are not the same.  Murder is defined as "the deliberate taking of innocent human life". While all murder involves killing, the converse does not hold.   There is, for example, the killing that must sometimes happen in the course of self-defense; no sane person will call that "murder".  Therefore I'd say to Bishop Wenski that it is not "killing" that is wrong per se, but "murder".  Moreover, the "killing" done by capital punishment is done after due process of justice whereby the condemned is adjudicated not innocent, but guilty of capital crimes.

Further down into the article, Cardinal O'Malley called capital punishment "institutionalized practice of violence".  Here again we have a problem with the defining of terms.  Violence is defined by Catholic moral theology as "the unjust use of force".  In this case, "force" and "violence" are being confused by the Cardinal.  After the due process of justice as mentioned above, the use of deadly force in capital punishment is not "unjust".

A blogging colleague, Veneremurcernui at A Blog for Dallas Are Catholics has his post on this matter.  In it he had video of a homily on the topic.  I post that below.  We pray for the salvation of those condemned.  We pray also for the 3500 babies murdered each day via abortion, for whereas the condemned criminals can avail themselves of the sacraments, the innocent babies haven't that advantage.