Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

A newspaper has the prerogative of promoting an unpopular social or political agenda.

It does not have the right to tell lies to support that cause.

The Sunday Times Ireland, published the editorial: “Assisted dying law in Ireland needs to be done right, but it must be done” on November 28, 2021 and the editors thinks it is “an appropriate time to debate the issue.” Perhaps they didn’t get the memo about the 1400+ submissions to the Justice Committee of the Oireachtas? (Overwhelmingly opposed to the Dying with Dignity Act / An Bille um Bás Dínitiúil, 2020.)

The editors contend:

“We now know the “slippery slope” argument has little credibility. That’s because in states and countries where assisted dying is allowed, there has been no evidence of abuse.” [my emphasis]

The Editorial team referenced Oregon as the paragon of safety in the provision of Assisted Suicide:

“In the American state of Oregon, for example, with a population of 4.2 million people and where the Death with Dignity Act was passed in 1997, there have been about 2,000 assisted deaths, and so far no wrongful ones have been reported or detected.” [my emphasis]

If these 3 key assertions are refuted, their thesis fails.

The Sunday Times may claim innocence because the Oregonian agency collecting data on Assisted Suicide — the Department of Human Services — does not document or investigate cases of alleged abuse. (“…has no authority to investigate individual Death with Dignity cases / The state law authorizing physician-assisted suicide neither requires nor authorizes investigations by DHS.”)

A quick Google search shows there are many cases of abuse even in Oregon but also Washington State, the Netherlands & Belgium. The best evidence of a precipitous “slippery slope” can be seen in Canada.

Their poor investigative skills aside, the editors miss the point: dead people don’t complain…

Oregon

In a letter to the editor of The Oregonian, Dr. Kenneth R. Stevens Jr. noted: “although the prescribing physician is to refer a patient for psychological evaluation if there may be depression or other conditions impairing patient judgment, only 4% of those dying from the drugs received such evaluation (only 0.5% in 2020). Recent changes in Oregon’s law have removed many safeguards from Oregon’s Death with Dignity law.”  In a group of people of whom 100% are trying to kill themselves, it beggars belief that only 4% merited a Psych Eval: Really?  

The seven quoted examples below are only a selection of those mentioned in an article by the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund. The first two are also discussed in the BMJ’s Journal of Medical Ethics.  

• Doctor shopping: “Kate Cheney, 85, died by assisted suicide under Oregon’s law even though she had early dementia. Her physician had declined to provide the lethal prescription. Her managed care provider then found another physician to prescribe the lethal dose. The second physician ordered a psychiatric evaluation, which found that Cheney lacked “the very high level of capacity required to weigh options about assisted suicide.” Cheney’s request was denied, and her daughter “became angry.” Another evaluation took place, this time with a psychologist who insisted on meeting Cheney alone. Disturbingly, the psychologist deemed Cheney competent while still noting that her “choices may be influenced by her family’s wishes and her daughter, Erika, may be somewhat coercive.” Cheney soon took the drugs and died, but only after spending a week in a nursing home.”

• Lack of psychiatric consultation: “Michael Freeland, age 64, had a 43-year medical history of acute depression and suicide attempts. Yet when Freeland saw a doctor about arranging an assisted suicide, the physician said he didn’t think that a psychiatric consultation was “necessary.” …When Freeland chanced to find improved medical and suicide prevention services, he was able to reconcile with his estranged daughter and lived two years post-diagnosis.”   (Freeland did receive a prescription for the fatal medication.)

• Coercion by family or friends: “Thomas Middleton was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, moved into the home of Tami Sawyer in July 2008, and died by assisted suicide later that very month. Middleton had named Sawyer his estate trustee and put his home in her trust. Two days after Thomas Middleton died, Sawyer listed the property for sale and deposited $90,000 into her own account. It took a federal investigation into real estate fraud to expose this abuse. Sawyer was indicted for first-degree criminal mistreatment and first-degree aggravated theft, partly over criminal mistreatment of Thomas Middleton.”

• Administration of the poison by others: “Patrick Matheny received his assisted suicide prescription by Federal Express. He couldn’t take the drugs by himself so his brother-in-law helped. Commenting on the Matheny case, Dr. Hedberg of Oregon Department of Human Services said that “we do not know exactly how he helped this person swallow, whether it was putting a feed tube down or whatever, but he was not prosecuted …”

• Duress from US health-care costs: “Barbara Wagner…a 64-year-old great-grandmother, had recurring lung cancer. Her physician prescribed Tarceva to extend her life. Studies show the drug provides a 30 percent increased survival rate for patients with advanced lung cancer, and patients’ one-year survival rate increased by more than 45 percent. But the Oregon Health Plan sent Wagner a letter saying the Plan would not cover the beneficial chemotherapy treatment “but … it would cover … [among other things,] physician-assisted suicide.”

• Duress from health-care workers: “Kathryn Judson wrote of bringing her seriously ill husband to the doctor in Oregon. “I collapsed in a half-exhausted heap in a chair once I got him into the doctor’s office, relieved that we were going to get badly needed help (or so I thought),” she wrote. “To my surprise and horror, during the exam I overheard the doctor giving my husband a sales pitch for assisted suicide. ‘Think of what it will spare your wife, we need to think of her’ he said, as a clincher.”

• Violation of procedure: “Wendy Melcher died in August 2005 after two Oregon nurses, Rebecca Cain and Diana Corson, gave her overdoses of morphine and phenobarbital. They claimed Melcher had requested an assisted suicide, but they administered the drugs without her doctor’s knowledge, in clear violation of Oregon’s law. No criminal charges have been filed against the two nurses.”

The Netherlands

In the Netherlands, euthanasia of children under 1 year of age is still technically illegal, but was “decriminalized” in 2005 for those doctors following The Groningen Protocol.

A tragic case of a Dutch nun was reported in the Psychiatric Times, 2004. She was dying painfully of cancer and her physician felt her religion prevented her from agreeing to euthanasia, so felt “justified and compassionate” in ending her life — without telling her he was doing so.

In 2019, Judge Mariette Renckens ruled that, "all requirements of the euthanasia legislation" had been met in 2016 when an anonymous female doctor decided that the prior directive of an 80-year-old woman should be enacted. First, she attempted to sedate the elderly woman by slipping medication into her coffee. The lady woke up and resisted the doctor’s attempts to kill her and said “NO” repeatedly. The doctor then asked the family to hold the elderly woman down while she administered the fatal medication.

Belgium

The Journal of the Canadian Medical Association reported that the physicians in one area of Belgium, admitted that over 30% of the Voluntary Euthanasia/Assisted-Suicides occurred WITHOUT explicit request…

Canada

Voluntary Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide [VE/AS] were legislated 2016 under the euphemistic term of Medical Assistance in Dying [MAiD]. Related legislation in 2021 immediately removed the requirement for natural death to be “reasonably foreseeable” and allows AS/VE for those suffering from mental illnesses alone by 2023.

In 2018, 42-year-old Roger Foley from Ontario wanted to live despite suffering from a progressive, neuro-degenerative disease. There were issues with home-care services and after being stuck in hospital, he recorded administrative staff offering him Euthanasia as an alternative to forced discharge or being billed $1,800 per day. 

Despite the Supreme Court of Canada specifying: “Nothing in this declaration would compel physicians to provide assistance in dying,” physicians in Ontario are mandated to provide an “effective referral” for MAiD/AS/VE by the provincial government, the medical College, the Divisional Court and the Court of Appeals.

(The courts admitted there was religious discrimination but over-ruled it saying, “The evidence in the record establishes a real risk of a deprivation of equitable access to health care, particularly on the part of the more vulnerable members of our society, in absence of the effective referral requirements of the policy.” Curiously, there is a perfectly effective self-referral system in Alberta which takes one phone call and it deprives nobody!)

Conclusion

Humanist, Dr. Donald Boudreau, McGill University noted: “My personal belief is that healing and euthanizing are simply not miscible.”

The Hippocratic Oath pre-dates Christianity, but again the Sunday Times verbalised their sad anti-religious sentiment while not providing any coherent rationale as to why a modern country like Ireland should introduce Euthanasia / Assisted Suicide. The emotive plea that “death should not be a trial or a trauma” and because ‘other countries are doing it,’ that basically Ireland ‘must do it too’ is a childish response. The platitude “This newspaper feels everyone should have the right to choose how they leave this world” is a trite response to a very difficult life-event — one which we will all face. 

Terms like ‘unbearable suffering’ are often used though physical pain (or even fear of pain) is an infrequent reason for people to request Assisted Suicide in Oregon. In the 2019 report, Oregon showed that the majority of requests arise from an existential crisis: “The most frequently reported end-of-life concerns loss of autonomy (87%), decreasing ability to participate in activities that made life enjoyable (90%), loss of dignity (72% ) and being a burden to family/caregivers 59%.”

The treatment of physical pain is one of the remarkable advances in modern Palliative Care — never mind the careful attention paid to resolving people’s existential issues. A truly caring society would call for the provision of universal access to Palliative Care, long before any call for Assisted Suicide/Voluntary Euthanasia.

Universal access to Palliative Care will help vastly more people than Assisted Suicide to achieve a truly dignified, peaceful death. 

Dr. Kevin Hay

* “LIES, DAMNED LIES AND STATISTICS” is probably from Leonard H. Courtney, (1832-1918), later Lord Courtney, New York in 1895.

The Empire of Evil Nears Defeat

Let us pray for the salvation of all of those who live in that totalitarian darkness—pray they will discover the joy of knowing God. But until they do, let us be aware that while they preach the supremacy of the State, declare its omnipotence over individual man, and predict its eventual domination of all peoples on the earth, they are the focus of evil in the modern world .... So, in your discussions of the nuclear freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation of pride—the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.

Ronald Reagan’s famous designation of the USSR as an ‘Evil Empire’ was no doubt an apt description of the Communist Totalitarian regime of the time. So apt, that it was not uncommon to contrast Communism with its opposite, the ‘Free World’.

For Reagan, the USSR embodied everything that impinged upon man’s freedom, it stifled creativity, it threatened violence without limits and posited a doomsday concept of permanent revolution and global control.

Yet Reagan could scarcely have foreseen the depraved moral descent of his United States at the turn of the Twentieth First Century. Illegal wars in the Middle East, as barbaric and unjustifiable as anything that Joseph Stalin committed, coupled with a permanent degeneration of basic morals with a concerted effort to corrupt every other nation in the process, have made the USA anything other than a shining city upon a hill. It is less a beacon of hope and more a bad example not be emulated.

As per Our Lady of Fatima’s warnings, the legalisation of abortion by Communists in Russia in 1917 set in motion events that would eventually lead to the Roe vs Wade ruling by the USA’s Supreme Court in 1973. Russia indeed spread her errors throughout the world in the Twentieth Century, but in the Twenty First, it is the United States that carries the heavy load of continuing the work of against the unborn that was started by Vladimir Lenin. It dangles money in front of poor countries if only they will abandon their family values and murder their own children in the womb. It asks of countries in Africa and South America, and one could say even Ireland, that they join the United States in killing their own babies in the womb. Its means of ‘asking’ are of the kind expected from a pimp or a drug dealer, it is the company sought by the miserable, it is the desire to unite the despondent by means of iniquity.

The USA’s love of abortion has seeped across the world, its prominence in the world has helped to make the violent act a staple of the West’s decline. Take for example the United Kingdom, where 1 in 4 pregnancies now ends in the destruction of the baby by the NHS. In nearby Ireland, the birth rate has completely collapsed with the advent of abortion, to the point now where it is well below replacement levels.

The numbers of abortions in the United States are simply staggering, they stand at almost one million per year. These depraved numbers recall the worst regimes in history, eclipsing even the worst crimes of the Americas under the human sacrifices of the Aztecs, both in volume and violence. That is not to even mention the depths to which some of these abortionists have sunk, such as mass murderer Kermit Gosnell who clipped the spines of babies with a scissors and kept their remains in jars that were found seeping onto the floor of his practice. One would be hard pressed to hear such stories on a guided tour of a concentration camp or a gulag. The excesses of violence that occurs in the abortion industry of the United States are of the sort which were predicted by Archbishop Fulton Sheen as being the logical result from the usage of the atomic bomb in 1945, with it the justification of unlimited evil as a means to an end. This is the evil that led to Abu Ghraib and other recent atrocities.

After almost a half century of genocide against their own unborn children, the first chink of light in trying to undo this great evil occurred in 2016, with the unexpected election of Donald Trump as the President of the United States. Much of the crazed and irrational overreaction and opposition to his term in office was motivated in both temporal and spiritual terms by opposition to his ability to elect Supreme Court Judges willing to put and end to Roe vs. Wade. Think of the many openly demonic forces who declared their opposition to his presidency in no uncertain terms, with many openly declaring their affinity for invoking occult practices in trying to bring about an end to it.

Now, despite the election of pro abortion Joe Biden and the mostly underwhelming contributions of apparent ultra Catholic Supreme Court Judges Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, Roe vs Wade is close to being aborted. Instigated by recent prolife successes in Mississippi and Texas, the Supreme Court judges now appear ready to tell the US abortion industry that they are ready to exercise their choice over them. Abortions could very well be limited to the point of being virtually illegal.

It is safe to say that pro abortion campaigners in the United States are not taking this well, reduced to babbling humourless messes in their efforts to articulate opposition, such as this reprobate low IQ effort from a once popular tv show. Such depraved and unimaginative propaganda will be studied for centuries to come. Sin has stifled the creativity of the United States more than any Communist edict ever could.

After a half century of massacring innocent babies, the United States might finally be ready to grow up and behave like a civilised nation, rather than as an Evil Empire committed to the physical, moral and spiritual destruction of human beings, of the kind that Reagan could scarcely foresee.

Perhaps now, the scales with fall from their collective eyes and they will cherish their children, from womb to natural death. Perhaps now, they will save themselves trillions on blindly annihilating the children of the Middle East. Perhaps now, those who prayed and prayed for an end to this enduring crime will see this evil stopped.

Each of us is loved, willed and necessary from conception until we return to the hands of the same God who created us.

In Luke’s Gospel, it is an unborn baby that is the first to recognise Our Lord’s presence upon the Earth. God can use the weak to shame the strong.

Father Fidelis Moscinski CFR being dragged from praying at an abortion clinic by United States police. pic.twitter.com/juvqt5SA88

— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) December 1, 2021

EU Backs Down on Anti Christian Guidelines

In the past number of years, the European Union has become an increasingly menacing and pernicious force for anti Christian bias.

Despite being the product of the vision of many Catholics such as Robert Schuman, the European Union now chooses to try to destroy Catholicism in countries like Poland and Ireland, it chooses to try to help annihilating European children in the womb and it seeks to reduce the continent’s rich cultural heritage into a soulless bureaucracy.

In the past week, they doubled down on their searing hatred for Europe’s Christian heritage, with the ironically titled ‘EU Commissioner for Equality’ Helena Dalli calling for the erasure of Christianity in holiday greetings.

Despite Christian people remaining by far the most persecuted peoples in the world today, and despite attacks on peoples of the Christian faith in the past year such as in Nice and the killing of David Ames, Ms. Dalli chose to compound the persecution of Christians even more with her discriminatory decree that ‘Happy Christmas’ be outlawed in official European Union documentation.

This was particularly hypocritical, as Ms. Dalli has repeatedly used official European Union communications to wish people a Happy Eid Mubarak.

Happy #EidAlAdha to all Muslim people around the world.

May this special day bring love and peace to you. #Tabaski2020 #EidMubarak #UnionOfEquality pic.twitter.com/AHsTAcy0it

— Helena Dalli (@helenadalli) July 31, 2020

Wishing #EidMubarak to all European Muslims and those around the rest of the world. #UnionOfEquality

— Helena Dalli (@helenadalli) May 24, 2020

Dalli refused to apologise for the attack on Christians, instead issuing an impersonal statement claiming that the discriminatory and bigoted suggestions were merely ‘work in progress’.

Concern was raised with regards to some examples provided in the Guidelines on Inclusive Communication, which as is customary with such guidelines, is work in progress. We are looking into these concerns with the view of addressing them in an updated version of the guidelines. pic.twitter.com/90ZK8rpPb2

— Helena Dalli (@helenadalli) November 30, 2021

Left wing Anglo newspaper The Guardian lamented the withdrawal of the discriminatory and bigoted proposals, with a headline stating:

EU advice on inclusive language withdrawn after rightwing outcry

Despite the many great things which can be said about the European Union, it is not worth gaining the whole world to sell one’s soul. It is becoming increasingly clear that there are those within power in the European Union who want to rid the continent of Christianity in order to remake the continent in their bland, cultureless image.

Christians should seriously consider whether such a malignant force is worthy of support or outright opposition.

Alternatively, you can wish Ms. Dalli a Happy and Holy and Joyous Commemoration of the Birth of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by contacting her office’s email:

cab-dalli-contact@ec.europa.eu

Advent by Patrick Kavanagh

Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh’s reflection on the beauty of Advent and the importance of fasting.

We have tested and tasted too much, lover-
Through a chink too wide there comes in no wonder.
But here in the Advent-darkened room
Where the dry black bread and the sugarless tea
Of penance will charm back the luxury
Of a child's soul, we'll return to Doom
The knowledge we stole but could not use.

And the newness that was in every stale thing
When we looked at it as children: the spirit-shocking
Wonder in a black slanting Ulster hill
Or the prophetic astonishment in the tedious talking
Of an old fool will awake for us and bring
You and me to the yard gate to watch the whins
And the bog-holes, cart-tracks, old stables where Time begins.

O after Christmas we'll have no need to go searching
For the difference that sets an old phrase burning-
We'll hear it in the whispered argument of a churning
Or in the streets where the village boys are lurching.
And we'll hear it among decent men too
Who barrow dung in gardens under trees,
Wherever life pours ordinary plenty.
Won't we be rich, my love and I, and
God we shall not ask for reason's payment,
The why of heart-breaking strangeness in dreeping hedges
Nor analyse God's breath in common statement.
We have thrown into the dust-bin the clay-minted wages
Of pleasure, knowledge and the conscious hour-
And Christ comes with a January flower.

Keeping The Spirit of Christmas by GK Chesterton

The following essay was first published by The Illustrated London News on St. Stephen’s Day in 1925 and it conveys GK Chesterton’s thoughts on commercial efforts at trying to create a Christmas without Christianity.

An article on "Christmas Old and New" appeared recently in a magazine, and said many things that many people are probably saying just now. I do not say they are very lucid things, but they revolve round a reality and something sincerely if vaguely felt.

They raise all the talk about tradition and change; about keeping the spirit but not the letter; about suiting something to modern conditions, and so on. We have heard a good deal about these things; unfortunately, we have not heard much sense about them.

For it has become a convention to say we must disregard conventions; and the demand for something new is already old enough to be in its dotage or (if we had luck) in its coffin. But I notice one rather queer paradox about all this talk of change or reform in customs like Christmas. People talk about sacrificing the letter and keeping the spirit; and then go and do exactly the opposite. They keep a few fragmentary letters (which no longer make a word) and then sacrifice the spirit altogether.

Now the difficulty in all talk about the letter and the spirit is that a man who goes by the spirit must be very sure that he does really understand the spirit. And in my little local experience, the man generally does not. To take a parallel, a sceptic might ask what is the permanent value of the particular forms of good manners that go to make up what is conventionally called a gentleman. He might say he wished to alter the letter of certain little observances, but keep the spirit of the social and historical type. He might say, "Need a gentleman take off his hat to a lady? Need he take it off on entering another man's house?" To which the universal philosopher will reply, "No, of course not. He might take off his boots. The Arabs already do it in the case of the house, when Arabs are so fortunate as to have any houses. And, although it would be tiresome to sit down on the pavement and unlace one's boots while an obliging lady stood still and patiently waited to be saluted, of course that symbol would do as well as any other symbol, if it were socially accepted as symbolising respect." That would be really to alter the letter but keep the spirit. But I do not observe that this is what the more casual or callous youths of the rising generation tend to do.

I do not observe many of them prostrating themselves on the pavement, or standing on their heads in the street (to show how completely the lady's beauty has bowled them over), or in any other fashion experimenting in new modes of expression for the chivalric sentiment. They are not inventing new forms for an old feeling; they are doing just the reverse. They are ignoring the old feeling, but preserving a few limp remains of the old forms.

Now suppose a man, when entering by his friend's front door, were to toss his hat off with a jerk and leave it lying in the middle of the floor. His gesture would not be, like the removal of his boots, a new gesture or antic to express respect. It would simply be the old antic without the respect. It would be going through the old arbitrary action in such a way as to make it mean the opposite of what it was supposed to mean. Suppose a young man were to stroll up to a lady with his hands in his pockets and tell her to take off his hat for him and hold it in the air for a few seconds before replacing it on his head. It would not be a new way of expressing courtesy, but an old way distorted to express discourtesy.

Now I do not say that the unconventional young man of fact and fiction is going quite so far as this; but what amuses me is that, so far as he goes, he is not repudiating the forms of courtesy to keep the soul of chivalry; he is rather repudiating chivalry and keeping a few of the merely mechanical and meaningless gestures of courtesy. Our latest romance of cocktails and rapid dramas is not unconventional; it is only languidly conventional. It is not a school of new manners; it is only old manners modified and softened by bad manners.

Now I notice the same contradiction about Christmas—and, indeed, about Christian traditions generally. It is apparent in the people who tell us, in the papers and elsewhere, that they have emancipated themselves from dogmas, and propose to live by the spirit of Christianity. To which I reply: "All right—go ahead," or words to that effect. But then I always find myself confronted with this extraordinary fact. They start out to live by the spirit of Christianity, and proceed to fling themselves with frenzy into preventing poor people from getting any beer, preventing oppressed nations from defending themselves against tyrants (because it might lead to war), tearing backward children away from their heart-broken parents and locking them up in some sort of materialistic madhouse, and so on. And then they are quite surprised when I tell them that I think they have far less of the spirit of Christianity than they have the letter of it, of the actual words and terminology of its dogmas.

In point of fact, they have kept some of the words and terminology, words like Peace and Righteousness and Love; but they make these words stand for an atmosphere utterly alien to Christendom; they keep the letter and lose the spirit. And as it is with Christendom, so it is with Christmas. If men knew exactly what they meant by Christmas, and then started out to make new symbols, new ceremonies, or new jokes, it might be a very good thing. Something of the sort may yet happen, very probably, in that world of modern men that does know what it means by Christmas. But most of the modern modifications which were discussed in the magazine and elsewhere were quite the reverse of this.

They were really ways in which men may keep the name of Christmas, and a few faded badges of Christmas, while doing something totally different. But what is meant by men like the magazine writer is simply this: that a few sprigs of a particular vegetation called holly and mistletoe should be stuck up in large, over-heated, homeless American hotels, where people shall forget all about Christmas, be bored with the very thought of Christmas, blaspheme the supreme and sacred soul of Christmas with their sophistication and their satiety and their despair. They are too tired to feel the spirit; they are too tired to improve the symbolism; only they are also too tired even to alter the name.

That sort of thing is nothing so creative as reform, just as it is nothing so tenacious as tradition. It is simply drifting, like a halfmelted iceberg which floats into warmer waters, without knowing why it differs from its surroundings, why it is changing, or how much of it is left. None of us should desire to see the noble snow man of the English Christmas melt in the meaningless fashion of that iceberg. It would be better that the snow man should be destroyed like an idol by iconoclasts like the Puritans.

It were better that those who know why they like it should have to defend it against those who know why they dislike it. I have very little fear that in the last resort the latter would ever be the majority. But the former would fight much better if they did know why they liked it, even at the expense of returning to some of the superstitions of their fathers. Anyhow, I know why I like it; and in the case of the Christmas of cocktails and central heating, I know why I dislike it.

I know that the reality is not relativity or progress or the mere passage of the ages. I know Father Christmas when I see him, even when he is in plain clothes. And I am not deceived by Father Time dressed up in holly and mistletoe.

Irish Anti Catholic Parties Lose Support in New Poll

This past week, two relics of the International Monetary Fund’s Irish based puppet government of 2011 disgraced themselves by trying to scapegoat religion for their failings.

One, a former Catholic school principal Aodhan O’Riordain made headlines around the world with an Ian Paisley like torrent of abuse that climaxed with a skin curling rallying cry of ‘LET’S GET THEM OUT!’

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin not trying to control his anti-Catholic rage at the Labour Party conference today, calling for the church to be removed from all public institutions. pic.twitter.com/5xuD2j1sRD

— JRD (@JRD0000) November 13, 2021

O’Riordain’s party had infamously brutalised Irish families with the IMF’s crushing austerity measures during the early 2010s, causing many women and children to become homeless.

Meanwhile, another relic of that government who did not have the decency to depart from politics afterwards, Roisin Shortall, became the laughing stock of Europe in the past fortnight when her efforts to remove God from the Presidential Oath were thrown out of the ECHR. Shortall’s party, the Social Democrats, have very little to offer the people of Ireland other than to badger Catholics and to blame them for problems that Shortall’s government created in 2011. In recent years, they have suggested government regulation of the Sacrament of Confession and of sexual education, but only in Catholic schools.

In a new poll published today by Red C, the Social Democrats have fallen 1% from 6% to 5% support. Labour have fallen from 5% to 4%. While these may seem like small numbers, micro parties such as these can lose some of the very limited numbers of seats based upon such differences.

What these polls show is that the public see through the efforts of Alan Kelly and Roisin Shortall to rewrite recent Irish history. They also show that ordinary Irish people are aware of the extensive damage to the education system by the IMF’s puppet government and do not trust its legacy politicians who are still trying to use the church as a scapegoat for their own mistakes.

Modernist Plot to Wreck Notre Dame Revealed

When Notre Dame was mysteriously set on fire in 2019, few Catholics could have imagined a scenario worse than seeing the historic cathedral in flames.

Yet it appears as though France’s Modernists have had other ideas, with their plans to wreck Notre Dame proving more horrifying than losing the church itself.

In a shocking exclusive from The Telegraph, it has been revealed that Modernists will perform vicious iconoclastic wreckovation on the historic church, as has been done to deter millions from the faith in the West over the past half century. The destruction of the church’s Catholic heritage will include:

• Removing Confessionals

• Sound and Light Effects

• Ugly Modern Art

• ‘Emotional Spaces’

• Scrapping of Traditional Altar and Statues

🔴Exclusive: Paris' fire-ravaged Notre-Dame cathedral risks resembling a "politically correct Disneyland" under controversial plans for its renovation seen by the @TelegraphWorld

Here's what they have planned⬇️https://t.co/SmSKeX2Qrh pic.twitter.com/ygh8gKPy1g

— Telegraph World News (@TelegraphWorld) November 26, 2021

In boasting of these plans, Paris Archbishop Michael Aupetit stated:

bring the Cathedral into the 21st Century while preserving its own identity in the spirit of the Christian Tradition.

Media reports this week have suggested that Aupetit is under investigation after reports of a ‘relationship’ with a woman emerged, which he readily admits were ‘suggesting the existence between us of an intimate relationship and sexual relations’.

Blessing the oaks which will be used to reconstruct Notre Dame in Paris. pic.twitter.com/dui6OIZ6Tp

— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) March 13, 2021

The first photos from inside Notre Dame Cathedral after the fire have emerged

The photographs include President Macron visiting the chapel#notredame #france pic.twitter.com/2xz5I88uTP

— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) April 15, 2019

Father Fournier

The Fire Department Chaplain

Is the man who saved the Blessed Sacrament and Crown of Thorns from the fire

God bless him! #notredame #france pic.twitter.com/zwSq2seI3Q

— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) April 15, 2019

He has today submitted his resignation to Pope Francis after admitting to having had an ‘ambiguous’ relationship with the woman in 2012. No wonder he wanted to get rid of confessionals!

The man who he entrusted to to carry out the plans, Father Gilles Drouin, must now do the right thing and step aside from the project also. Father Drouin said of the wreckovation plans:

let's take the opportunity to reread the space. With a clear principle: we want a place that is liturgical and open to all.

French Traditionalism has been organised, vocal and effective in recent years. It must raise its voice to stop this architectural terrorism from mocking the memories of the generations who worked on Notre Dame for centuries. A renovation aimed at renewing faith rather than taking it as an abstract pretext for architectural experimentation could work wonders for the faith in France and for wider French society.

It is quite remarkable architect Maurice Culot has seen the plans and has had the good sense to call them ‘Disney entering Notre Dame….very childish and trivial given the grandeur of the place’.

If only the clerics who have given the go ahead for such clerical monstrosities over the past half century could see things through Monsieur Culot’s eyes.

Priest, Catholic Children Injured in Christmas Parade Massacre

A Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin turned to tragedy last night as a crazed murderer ploughed through a crowd, killing 5 and injuring dozens and dozens more.

Left wing media created a bizarre conspiracy theory in the wake of the attack, in which it was falsely claimed that the suspect (who has a conviction for pimping children) was merely fleeing the scene of a crime and happened to drive through dozens of people.

The Catholic Community of Waukesha wrote on their Facebook page:

Thank you all for your prayers and offers of help. We have confirmed that several parishioners have been injured and are hospitalized.

Despite this horrific event, we will call on the Holy Spirit and come together as a community with Fr. Matthew and Fr. Chuck leading the Rosary tonight (8:30pm) on Facebook. Please join us to pray for those who were injured.

A prayer service is being planned for tomorrow night. We will continue to update you as we know more.

Monica Cardenas

Director of Stewardship and Communication

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee released a statement which said:

Our prayers are with the people who have been injured and killed during the tragic incident in Waukesha. Among the injured are one of our Catholic priests, as well as multiple parishioners and Waukesha Catholic school children.

Despite what many left wing outlets claimed, the attack was not accidental but completely intentional. He also stated that it was a ‘rumour’ that police were in pursuit of him.

Waukesha Police Chief: “I want to dispel some rumors. There was no pursuit that led up to this incident. This is not a terrorist event.”

I beg to differ. 🤷🏼‍♀️ pic.twitter.com/f5WO2fzAEl

— 𝓑𝓾𝓫𝓫𝓵𝓮 ❤︎ ❤︎ ❤︎ (@BubbleCovfefe) November 22, 2021

A prayer vigil will take place for the victims later this evening on the parish’s Youtube page.

Catholic Community of Waukesha - YouTube

Serenity Now

Dr. Kevin Hay

Serenity in a tumultuous world — what a dream!

We juggle the demands of work and family in this hectic life, ever more pressured by the constant connectedness. We stress out over minor issues, like getting that perfect holiday ‘selfie’ in that perfect exotic location: Smile! The world is now entering a third year of contagion from COVID19 as we struggle with the backlog of other problems — for me that includes colleagues who want to be the Bringers of Death, instead of providing comfort to the body and soul of their patients. Often, we leave our deepest issues as an after-thought: those personal failings — our “brokenness.”

Humans often seek respite in the wrong places. Laziness; anger; avoidance; withdrawal; gluttony; prognostication, etc. Some get trapped in the very destructive elements of “Sex, Drugs and Rock’n Roll” while seeking a false promise of escape. So, where do we find serenity? There are many ‘retreats’ which can relieve the hassles of daily life briefly. Some get pampered in a health spa, while others focus on healthy eating or returning to nature. There are ‘detox’ retreats ranging from “Colon Cleanse Retreats” (yowzer!) to those which help people with serious alcohol & drug issues. Meditation retreats give a sense of inner peace and self-awareness, but I would suggest that most of these are only respites from the fray: we need a proper antidote to the toxic mixture in our modern life!

My choice has been for a silent retreat at Mount St. Francis [MSF] Retreat Centre at Cochrane, Alberta, in view of the Canadian Rockies. The Centre has been run by Franciscan Friars since 1949 and they bring a welcoming, inclusive, tolerant attitude to their retreats. Director Susan Campbell, notes that a silent retreat ‘helps us to hear that inner voice’ which is often drowned-out in the cacophony of daily living. The Franciscans believe our ‘brokenness’ can only be healed through spiritual healing: a.k.a. finding or ‘meeting’ God.

Most retreats at MSF are for weekends, but some go up to 6-7 days. MSF provides several types of retreat, the commonest being silent weekends which can be for men alone, women alone, or mixed. “Serenity” retreats are for those challenged by addiction. Then there are youth & Anglican retreats and the Centre is sometimes used by other groups (Buddhists come for meditation retreats) or individuals who come for non-structured retreats: all are welcome!

On the silent weekends, Retreatants must be quiet after dinner/supper Friday to lunch on Sunday. The Friars or the Retreat Director give talks on the ‘theme’ of the retreat (such as Forgiveness or “wHoliness.”) For those who wish, there is individual spiritual counselling, prayers in the peace-filled chapel, Mass, Communion, Reconciliation and access to their extensive library. The sacraments are provided ‘in-house’ because some of the Friars are also Priests. (Who knew?!) Accommodations are basic but very comfortable and clean. Each room has a bed, sink and a small reading table, with a Bible. The meals are good, solid food and for those of us with insomnia there are snacks, fruit and hot beverages available 24/7. One of the things which has brought me back to MSF is the stunning view of the Rockies and the 500 acres of pristine woodland. MSF recommends a donation to cover their expenses but will gladly retreat anyone for whatever they can afford, or for free if they cannot.

The area surrounding Mt. Saint Francis Retreat Centre

The November Men’s retreat was hampered by the COVID restrictions so was much smaller than normal — even better for us retreatants. I had some meals with a retired Anglican doctor and a Lutheran minister who was taking a solo retreat to write his memoirs: pity there was not more time to chat. (One noted his satisfaction with the individualized menu accommodating his lactose & gluten-free diet.) The retreat house has no Wi-Fi, no TV and retreatants are gently encouraged to turn off their mobiles/cell phones.

 So who should consider going on a retreat?  Everyone!

More-so, if you perceive something is missing in your life, or if you know it is time to listen to that inner voice, or if you struggle with some significant problem — though perhaps it is just the right time to to reconnect with God.

People should also consider what they need from a retreat. Many Catholics are hurt and angry with the Church and have not been to Mass in a long, long time. If lapsed, you might want the option of attending the sacraments. Similarly, if you suspect that you need individual counselling or Reconciliation, choose a retreat where these are available. Most will be surprised how fast the time flies when silent, but perhaps start with a short retreat, just in case! You can always come back.

So, what of the Serenity? Definitely the retreat has given me a glimpse of Peace. Hopefully that leads me to being a wee bit kinder, or tad more Christian, especially when others are in need.

Pax.

Follow Dr. Kevin Hay on Twitter

Irish Anti God Proposal REJECTED By ECHR

In December 2010, the Irish people were subjected to a ruthless bailout agreement for ‘their’ banks after a deal was struck by their government with the International Monetary Fund.

Once the agreement was made, the Irish people had to begin to have their lives viciously inflicted with cutbacks in order to service their international banking masters.

The government of Fianna Fail and the Green Party fell not long after, with an election taking place subsequently in 2011.

One of those made a minister in the government formed from that election was Roisin Shortall. Shortall never spoke out against the wickedness of these laws. Instead, she served as Minister for Primary Care, as the health service deteriorated extensively due to cutbacks.

As their deference to the IMF and overall treason began to take its toll, the government, led by British Royal Family associate Enda Kenny, turned the public’s ire on the church instead. They shut the Vatican Embassy, concocted a ludicrous conspiracy theory about babies in septic tanks and blamed the church for a woman dying of sepsis in their poorly run health service.

The tendency to attack the church in lieu of fixing problems that the government of 2011 created has continued, not just from members of Fine Gael, but from Stephen Donnelly and Roisin Shortall’s party the Social Democrats. The Social Democrats are the most bland political party in Ireland, offering essentially a Fine Gael lite, but with added anti Catholicism, including one TD who threatened to murder one of her own unborn children for each moment devoted to the 2013 conclave on television.

Rather than focusing on the homeless crisis created by her government in 2011, or on the high levels of emigration that Ireland still has as a result of said government or even on any of the other social ills currently taking place, Shortall’s party decided this week to attack God instead.

The pro austerity politician, like her fellow pro austerity Aodhan O’Riordain of Labour last week, has clearly realised that attacking the Catholic faith is a much quicker way of gaining headlines than actually doing anything to improve the lot of those in need.

With this in mind, her ridiculous ‘political party’ wasted the money and time of the European Court of Human Rights this week with an absurd case whining about having to swear and oath to God in the Presidency. A co signatory of the case was David Norris, who once referred to Pope Benedict XVI as a ‘Nazi’ and who saw his 2011 Presidency campaign go down in flames.

What is really sad here is that the time and money spent on this ridiculous and childish case could have been better used in helping the many homeless created by Shortall’s government in 2011.

Perhaps they can show humility for their actions by volunteering at their local Catholic run homeless shelter or soup kitchen this weekend?

You can read the ECHR’s rejection of this laughable case below.

Article 34

Victim

No evidence of a real risk of having to take an oath with a religious element in the absence of realistic prospects to become President or a member of the Council of State: inadmissible

Facts – The seven applicants are politicians and three of them are members of the lower and upper houses of the Irish legislature.

Pursuant to the Constitution, persons taking up office as President or as members of the Council of State, a body advising the President, must take an oath with religious element, “In the presence of Almighty God... May God direct and sustain me”, before they can take up office.

The applicants believe that, due to their political prominence, they have a realistic prospect of either being appointed to the Council, or of being elected to the Presidency, but claim that the religious elements of the declarations required by the Constitution would either prevent them from taking up these offices or require them to make a religious declaration against their conscience.

Law – Article 34:

1. The declaration for Council of State appointees

Under the Constitution, the President has “absolute discretion” to appoint seven members of the Council of State. The question of whether any of the applicants were directly affected  by the requirement for such members to make the declaration required by the Constitution would only arise if and when one of the applicants could show that his or her appointment had been a realistic possibility. However, none of the applicants had so far been invited to serve on the Council of State, and none had claimed that such an appointment had been under consideration. While the first, second and fourth applicants had suggested that their current or future experience had qualified them for service on the Council, or might qualify them in the future,   this could only be a matter of speculation, given the purely discretionary nature of appointments to this body. The third applicant had made no submissions as to the Council and the fifth had not addressed the likelihood of such an invitation. It followed that none of the applicants had produced reasonable and convincing evidence of the likelihood that a violation affecting any of them personally would occur; mere conjecture was insufficient to establish their victim status.

Accordingly, none of the applicants could claim to be “victims" of the alleged violation.

2. The Presidential declaration

Any Irish citizen who had reached thirty-five years of age might take active steps to seek the Presidency, but a candidate must be nominated by twenty members of the Houses of the Parliament or four local authorities to satisfy the requirements of the Constitution in order to run for office, and then submit to a popular vote.

 In certain cases, the class of persons at real risk of being directly affected by an impugned measure might indeed be very broad when, for example, applicants had complained about their ineligibility to stand for election on account of their Roma and Jewish origin and could claim to be victims of the alleged violations due to their “active participation in public life” (Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina [GC]).The applicants in the present case had complained about a requirement applicable only upon election to the highest office in the Irish State and the class of persons who could claim to be “victims” of such a violation necessarily had to be much narrower.. Therefore, in order for the present applicants to be “victims” within the meaning of Article 34 they would have had to provide the Court with reasonable and convincing evidence that they had a real intention of seeking the office of President and that they had some realistic prospects in that regard. None of the applicants, however, had sought to establish that they had a realistic prospect of successfully seeking that office with reference to their own particular political circumstances and the constitutional requirements to be nominated.

For the Court, the applicants were seeking to have their victim status accepted, not in the context of a clear, immediate and compelling factual matrix which would allow them to adduce reasonable and convincing evidence that they were at a real risk of being adversely affected by the impugned measure, but rather as a hypothetical outcome, without addressing the very many challenges they would potentially have to overcome to secure that office. Thus, the dilemma of conscience described by the applicants was neither immediate nor imminent. Their situation  therefore had to be distinguished from those of the applicants who faced the dilemma either of complying with the impugned legal provision, or refusing to do so, on account, respectively, of their religious belief or sense of professional ethics, and in so doing exposed themselves to sanction (S.A.S. v. France [GC] or Michaud v. France).

In the absence of reasonable and convincing evidence that the applicants were at real risk of being directly affected by the impugned requirement of the Constitution, the complaints of all five applicants could be rejected pursuant to Article 34.

Conclusion: inadmissible (victim).

The Dublin Martyrs

Outside of St. Mary's Pro Cathedral in Dublin, there is a statue of two individuals underneath a cross.

If you do not know already, Protestants have two beautiful Cathedrals in Dublin City, while the Catholic Church which allegedly controlled the country in the 1900s, has only a Pro Cathedral.

The two individuals portrayed in the statue are Margaret Ball and Francis Taylor.

Margaret Ball was a Catholic woman in the 1500s who hosted priests and bishops for dinner in secret when they had been banned by the Protestant authorities. Margaret's son, Walter, was an apostate who knew of his mother's Catholic faith but refused to return to it. When he later became Mayor, the evil child had his own mother arrested ans dragged through the streets to prison for being Catholic.

She was imprisoned by her Protestant son and died there aged 70, refusing to recant her faith.

A successor to her son as Mayor of Dublin, Francis Taylor, was imprisoned for refusing to accept the Act of Supremacy and also died in prison.

Beneath the statue it reads a quote from Pope John Paul II.

The quote from 1992 reads:

‘Faithful witnesses who remained steadfast in their allegiance to Christ and his Church to the point of extreme hardship and the final sacrifice of their lives.

All sectors of God's people are represented among these seventeen Servants of God: Bishops, priests both secular and religious, a religious brother and six lay people, including Margaret Bermingham Ball, a woman of extraordinary integrity who, together with the physical trials she had to endure, underwent the agony of being betrayed through the complicity of her own son.

We admire them for their personal courage. We thank them for the example of their fidelity in difficult circumstances, a fidelity which is more than an example: it is a heritage of the Irish people and a responsibility to be lived up to in every age’.

Dublin's Catholic martyrs are often forgotten in the city's history, in comparison to its political ones. With the city having become a shallow and dingy wasteland of American fast food and coffee outlets in recent years, the Archdiocese of Dublin are missing a valuable opportunity by not using these beautiful locations and stories to reinvigorate both the church and the city at large.

Signs are Ominous on Abortion Consultations

The following is from prolife group Deise4Life.

What happens when a woman in Ireland contacts a GP about having an abortion?

Online HSE documentation makes it clear that the first consultation with the GP is not meant to be a rubber-stamping exercise, but what actually happens in practice?

The HSE abortion consent form

The HSE has posted online their abortion consent form for medical abortions (i.e. abortion pills). It can be accessed here: Medical abortion consent form (hse.ie). It gives a clear picture of what is supposed to happen under our new abortion legislation.

When a woman applies for a medical abortion in Ireland, she makes an initial appointment with a GP or other abortion provider. The consent form is to be read and signed by both parties.

The woman signs to being “fully informed..about side effects.. and potential risks and complications”. In fact, she signs that she understands to her “complete satisfaction”.

The medical practitioner signs the following statement: “I confirm that in my opinion, the patient understands the nature of the treatment. I have provided them with the ‘Your Guide to Medical Abortion’ booklet and explained what the treatment will involve, the benefits and risks of this and any alternative treatments. I discussed any particular concerns of this patient. These were explained to my patient in terms suited to their understanding and they are able to give informed consent.”

There is then a 3-day waiting period after the initial appointment, and the woman returns to receive her two abortion pills, the first of which is taken on the spot, the second the following day.

Sarah’s story

Some women have shared their actual experiences in conversation with the Life Institute, and these have been posted online. Here is one such story (Sarah’s Story); others like it are also listed on the Life Institute web page.

“I was surprised how quickly I got an appointment. He (the GP) went through the abortion and it all sounded very straightforward really. There was no offer of help, support, no counselling, no encouragement... just to return in 3 days. The next three days were a blur but you could cut the tension with a knife at home. I returned 3 days later and I always remember he didn’t tell me to sit down, and while I was standing up, he handed me the pills and the plastic cup filled with water. It was like I had no time to even think about what I was doing.

The next day I was to take the 2nd set of pills. I hesitated for a few hours but overwhelming stress came over me, and I convinced myself again that I just had to do it and the damage was already done anyway.

The next few hours were excruciating, I was told I would have mild cramps. This is not true. I bled so much and the pain was awful. I stayed in bed for the next two days and only got up to use the toilet. After all that was over, I thought ‘okay it’s done’, I just felt so fragile. After a week I was in the toilet and just felt something very strange and out came a perfect tiny baby. I couldn’t believe it, I always remember the perfect shape of his leg, you could see it so clearly. I took a photo, I just had to.

All I can say is, I am traumatised.

My life is now measured by everything before and after the abortion. I feel like a different person and I’ll never be the same. It has impacted every area of my life. This is the part you are never told, no one warned me about this. I wish I had known, I would have never done it.”

How typical is Sarah’s story?

The short answer to this question is that we have no way of knowing, because hardly any information is being collected about the operation of the new regime - but there are some disturbing indicators.

More than 2000 women, about 1 in 3 women who had an abortion that year, contacted the HSE post-abortion helpline in 2020. That suggests an awful lot of women who found the abortion experience harder to deal with than they were led to believe.

In 2019, according to the Irish Family Planning Association annual report, 8% (nearly 1 in 12) of a sample of their clients ended up in hospital after taking abortion pills. Nationally, that suggests more than 500 women in just one year ending up in hospital after the pills.

There have been huge variations in abortion rates in neighbouring Irish counties, suggesting that GP’s in some counties are doing a better job of listening and counselling than others, and that when this happens, more women change their minds about proceeding with an abortion.

It has recently been confirmed (parliamentary question from Carol Nolan TD) that there have been 94 abortion-related claims to the State Claims Agency up to end October 2021.

To sum up:

- More than 6500 abortions a year

- Large variation in abortion rates between neighbouring counties

- Traumatised women accessing post-abortion helplines in their thousands

- Hundreds of women being hospitalised after taking the abortion pills

- Nearly one hundred women to date have submitted abortion-related claims

Whatever happened to “rare” and “safe” in the 2018 slogan “safe, legal and rare”? At least three members of Cabinet used that slogan in the referendum campaign. It is rarely mentioned now, and it is easy to see why.

Another slogan - Rethink Abortion – seems far more apt.

'Get them out!' Austerity Extremist's Anti Catholic Rant

During his party’s years in government, Aodhan O’Riordain’s Labour decimated Ireland’s hospitals, its schools and its young people.

The cruel party increased hospital waiting lists, slashed teacher’s wages and delighted in making young Irish people emigrate.

Now, as the party tries to shoe its way in to an inevitable Sinn Fein led far left government, Labour have come out fighting. Not fighting against the injustices that they imposed over the course of the past decade, but rather against the injustices of the Protestant built Magdalene Laundry System, which the Irish State profited from until the 1980s.

For Aodhan O’Riordain, the tens of thousands of women and children that his party forced into homeless shelters are rather irrelevant, since they cannot be used as a stick to beat the church with. In an ironic twist, the church has been largely responsible for trying to clean up O’Riordain’s party’s mess, with establishments like the Capuchin Day Centre regularly feeding thousands of people per day in Dublin.

In a frightening and unhinged speech today at Labour’s Party Conference, Ryan was close to foaming at the mouth as he screamed ‘GET THEM OUT!’ about Catholics.

He also claimed that he would impose a referendum against the church’s involvement in providing public services.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin not trying to control his anti-Catholic rage at the Labour Party conference today, calling for the church to be removed from all public institutions. pic.twitter.com/5xuD2j1sRD

— JRD (@JRD0000) November 13, 2021

Irish Catholics better prepare for what is coming when these people get back in to power.

Labour know that the homeless crisis, the trolley crisis and the problems in education are completely of their doing and they are not going to allow that narrative to take route.

This same shrewd attitude was behind their unsuccessful efforts to remove History from Irish schools, lest anyone read about the horrific impact of their pro IMF ideology in the years to come.

They are going to come first for our schools, then for our churches, then for us. We have seen this story play out in Spain, China and countless others in the past century.

'Kevin Barry Would've Been Pro Choice' Claims Notorious Fianna Fail Member

Led by British born and raised politician Paul Gavan, Sinn Fein continued their unrelenting war against Catholic prayer for the protection of unborn children this week.

Sinn Fein, who recently came out strongly in support of the Orange Order and their anti Catholic 12th of July celebrations, have been consistent in their efforts to stop people from praying the Rosary at facilities where babies are being aborted.

Gavan claimed that ‘women and pregnant people’ need such legislation immediately, citing Astro Turf group Together for Safety as their evidence for such a ban being needed.

Let me be very clear. We need this legislation without further delay because women and pregnant people are entitled to access essential healthcare including access to termination of pregnancy services in privacy and dignity without being subject to intimidation, harassment and the subtle but deliberate chill effect that anti-choice protesters are bringing to hospital, family planning and GP settings across the State right now.

Legislation was promised three and a half years ago but to date has not been delivered. Indeed, as recently as August, the Minister's Department issued a statement to the effect that there was no need for such a Bill. 

Paul Gavan introduces Sinn Féin's bill to suppress the right of activists to protest near facilities performing abortions. pic.twitter.com/Mg6I8ArEfs

— JRD (@JRD0000) November 10, 2021

Anti free speech activist Gavan stated that the bill would allow for damages to be brought against people who took part in prolife events near any public place that was designated a ‘Safe Access Zone’ for killing babies. Gavan also claimed,

Ongoing anti-abortion protests outside healthcare providers aim to deter individuals from accessing healthcare and doctors from providing it. This can cause distress, exacerbate existing social stigmas and pose a serious risk to a range of rights.

This seems quite ironic considering Sinn Fein recently picketed a Catholic church in Dublin in a UVF style rally.

In an absurd presentation, Lynn Boylan, who ran for election in Ireland’s wealthiest constituency recently, presented a number of unverifiable anecdotes about alleged harassment of women availing of abortions.

Boylan also falsely claimed that Sinn Fein, who now want the Orange Order’s celebrations made a mandatory public celebration across the entire island, that this was not an attack on religious freedom.

The protestors know what they are doing. They know the chilling effect that their protests are having. They know exactly what they are doing. This is not about religious freedom. This is about curtailing women's freedoms.

Infamous ‘politician’ Lorraine Clifford Lee then spoke also. Clifford Lee made headlines in 2019, for her incendiary and abusive tweets about Dwarves, Brazilians, Travellers, Black People, ‘Common Folk’ amongst others. She now works as a Senator against the wishes of the public, who rejected her in subsuquent elections.

She began by bizarrely claiming that:

Women and pregnant people should be able to access health services

Lorraine Clifford Lee then bragged of taking part in abortion imperialism in Poland with Lisa Chambers, who was also rejected by voters last year after claiming to be ‘prolife’ while stating ‘abortion regret is a makey up term, it doesn’t exist’.

My colleague, Senator Chambers, and I visited Poland recently. On behalf of the all-party group on sexual and reproductive health and rights, we signed the Warsaw commitment to freedom of expression in Europe, and to the access and support of people's sexual and reproductive rights

Clifford Lee also claimed that although everyone has a right to protest, she does not like anti abortion ones, therefore she would prefer if they did not take place.

Protests are part of our psyche in Ireland. I am a prolific protester. I have protested with great gusto in the past, but I would never seek to protest outside a medical establishment. These protests are very far-reaching in their impact, not only on the people accessing termination services but also on everybody accessing health services within a particular establishment, the staff and the wider community.

In response, Senator Sharon Keoghan rightly pointed out that Astro Turf group Together for Safety should not be allowed to dictate our laws, with the help of unelected politicians like Clifford Lee and Lisa Chambers.

The Minister is very welcome to the House. As I read through this Bill, I was reminded of Senator McDowell's Children (Amendment) Bill 2020 which passed into law in April 2021. That was a targeted Bill, urgently drafted to remedy an obviously unintended legal situation. There was a universally recognised need for that Bill by the public but such does not seem to be the case with this Bill. The calls for protest prohibition zones, which, let us call a spade a spade, is what they are, do not appear to be coming from the grassroots but almost exclusively from special interest and political advocacy groups. Indeed, the Bill itself was gifted to Senator Gavan by a faceless campaign group, Together for Safety. As legislators, we should be extra vigilant when it comes to outsourcing our constitutional duties to pop-up activists.

As is common with Ireland’s low quality Senators when they are presented with reasonable arguments that counter theirs, Martin Conway responded:

That is a totally unacceptable comment. It is disgraceful.

Lorraine Clifford Lee, who once complained of having to sit beside a ‘black, Brazilian dwarf’ on a Dublin Bus, claimed that she found these comments ‘shameful’.

Sharon Keogan's statement on Sinn Féin's bill to suppress abortion protests, pointing out its origin among special interest groups whose seemingly anti-Christian agendas would see the banning of prayer in designated areas.

Part 1 pic.twitter.com/IkRPR5xOaV

— JRD (@JRD0000) November 10, 2021

Part 2 pic.twitter.com/GGL1md6BM0

— JRD (@JRD0000) November 10, 2021

Part 3 pic.twitter.com/XsNtGFnCly

— JRD (@JRD0000) November 10, 2021

Senator Martin Conway then laughably claimed, with no evidence, that they were ‘praying in women’s faces’, although there are no photographs of women attending abortion appointments even within the vicinity of such prayer events.

When Sharon Keoghan compared the treatment of these Catholics by pro Orange Order Sinn Fein to that of Kevin Barry, male Senator Martin Conway snarled menacingly ‘you need to be interrupted’. Sinn Fein Senator Niall O’ Donnghaile then joined the pile on against Keoghan said ‘Hear, Hear’.

Clifford Lee then mocked Irish hero Kevin Barry by claiming:

Kevin Barry would’ve been pro choice.

Senator Lisa Chambers, who voters made clear that they did not want representing them last year, then also bragged of the Seanad’s abortion imperialism in Poland before claiming:

Do not protest at innocent citizens who are accessing services that are legal.

Ronan Mullen then pointed out that such a ban on Catholics praying against abortion would be unconstitutional.

Ronan Mullen in response to Sinn Féin's bill to remove the right to peaceful protest from anti-abortion activists, pointing out its discriminatory and unconstitutional nature.

Part 1 pic.twitter.com/d6Av4pwfiD

— JRD (@JRD0000) November 10, 2021

Part 2 pic.twitter.com/Cni6LsOotQ

— JRD (@JRD0000) November 10, 2021

Part 3 pic.twitter.com/xp8Vx1S2YE

— JRD (@JRD0000) November 10, 2021

The debate fizzled into farce ultimately with a rambling and largely irrelevant contribution from Fintan Warfield.

Fintan Warfield adds a somewhat rambling addition to Sinn Féin's attempt to prevent Catholics from praying peacefully near abortion centres. pic.twitter.com/UQ6LTakQaT

— JRD (@JRD0000) November 10, 2021

Newry Rosary Rally Draws Large Crowds

In October of this year, Catholic men in Northern Ireland began the process of organising men’s Rosary Rallies.

These powerful public displays of faith have really taken off in Poland in the past number of years, with regular crowds throbbing the streets of Warsaw and other major cities.

The next event will take place on the 4th December in Belfast at 1pm.

You can watch a video of today’s event below.

Catholic Students Hold Rosary Rally in Reparation for Planned Parenthood

In most parts of the Western world in 2021, the term ‘Catholic education’ is in many cases a misnomer.

Whether it be President Joe Biden, his poet Amanda Gorman or his supporter Lady Gaga, the notion that just having gone to a school with Catholic in the name makes one a theologically sound individual is an idea that continues to do harm.

While some are passive in their failure to transmit the faith, some are more active in allowing anti Catholic forces to influence their ‘Catholic’ students.

One such recent example occurred in Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California.

The Jesuit run university shockingly allowed for Planned Parenthood, the company that aborts millions of children, to raise money on campus for killing babies.

In response to this shocking dereliction of duty from Loyola’s management, a group of Catholic students have taken part in a Rosary Rally of Reparation for the babies that will be murdered with the monies raised on campus.

One of the organisers of the Rosary, Megan Glaudini, spoke to Catholic Arena:

Loyola Marymount University, a Jesuit Catholic institution, has a Planned Parenthood fundraiser happening on campus put on by a student run club. This has caused much chaos in the Catholic world because this goes against the Church’s teachings and, therefore, should be shut down if the university actually cared to uphold its Catholic values. However, the president has allowed it to still happen.

A couple of outraged students, led by myself, spent countless hours and days emailing and setting up meetings to try and find support. We ended up coming up with a few ideas to implement to try and save our Catholic identity, the first being our Rosary Prayer for Life service happening just outside where the Planned Parenthood fundraiser will be as it begins. I really am emphasizing the fact this is not a rowdy protest, but for the spreading of love, prayer, and the right to life.

This has nothing to do with politics, but everything to do with respecting the intrinsic value of all humans, from conception to natural death.

Although it might seem like a small gesture in response to a great evil, the power of prayer should never be underestimated. Neither should we ever underestimate the power of reminding people, namely the Loyola staff, of what the Catholic faith should look like.

Christ the King by Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange

A reflection on the Feast of Christ the King by Reginald Garrigou Lagrange OP.

CHRIST THE KING, JUDGE, AND HEAD OF THE BLESSED

There are three parts:

(1)The principal testimonies of the Old and New Testaments concerning Christ's universal kingship.

(2) Whether and by what titles Christ even as man is the king of all, both spiritually and temporally.

(3) Christ's universal influence as king over all men in the social order.

It is of faith that Christ after His ascension sits at the right hand of the omnipotent Father and reigns forever. The various symbols of the faith express this.

In the time of the patriarchs, the Messias is announced as the Savior of the world, during the time of the kings He is described as king, Son of God, and priest; in fact, His passion or sacrifice are foretold. His royal dignity and universal power are proclaimed in the following text: "In His days shall justice spring up, and abundance of peace, till the moon be taken away. And He shall rule from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. Before Him the Ethiopians shall fall down... the kings of the Arabians and of Saba shall bring gifts. And all kings of the earth shall adore Him, and all nations shall serve Him. For He shall deliver the poor from the mighty, and the needy that had no helper.... And He shall save the souls of the poor.... For Him they shall always adore.... And in Him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed; all nations shall magnify Him," Likewise it is said: "The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes met together, against the Lord and against His Christ.... He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh at them... and trouble them in His rage. But I am appointed king by Him over Sion, His holy mountain, preaching His commandment. The Lord hath said: "Thou art My Son, this day I have begotten Thee. Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the Gentiles for Thy inheritance."

Also the prophet announces the Messias as king in this text: "For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace."[2359] And similarly another prophet speaks of a stone that struck the statue, and the stone became a great mountain and filled the whole earth, which is a symbolical announcement that Christ's kingdom is to replace all other kingdoms and be preferred to them. One of the minor prophets describes also the powers of this king, saying: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion.... Behold, thy King will come to thee, the just and Savior, He is poor and riding upon an ass and upon a colt, the foal of an ass." This prophecy is quoted by the Evangelist: "Behold thy king cometh to thee sitting upon an ass."

New Testament.

Here Christ's universal kingdom is more clearly affirmed. It is, indeed, first of all declared by the angel announcing Christ's birth to the Blessed Virgin, and saying: "The Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of David His father and He shall reign in the house of Jacob forever."

Christ Himself says: "All power is given to Me in heaven and in earth," which means right over all nations, so that nations are under obligation to hear His teaching, for He says: "Teach all nations," and they must observe His laws, to which they are subject after having been baptized, for He says: "Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you."

This universal power of Christ includes both angels and the elect, for He says: "He shall send His angels, and shall gather together His elect." This universal power extends to demons, whom Christ rejects by His power, and it also includes all created beings, inasmuch as miracles were worked over all creatures, which absolutely obey Him. The Fourth Gospel frequently refers to Christ's kingdom, especially in this text, when "Pilate said to Jesus: "Art Thou the King of the Jews?' Jesus answered: "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would certainly strive that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from hence. ' Pilate therefore said to Him: 'Art Thou a king then?' Jesus answered: "Thou sayest that I am a king.... Everyone that is of the truth heareth My voice.’’

Therefore His kingdom is of a higher and universal order. Likewise Pilate orders the title to be inscribed on the cross, "King of the Jews, " in three languages: Hebrew, Greek and Latin; that is, as Bossuet says, in the language of God's people, in the language of philosophers, and in the language of imperial power, jurists, and statesmen. Finally, St. John the Evangelist particularly exalts Christ the King, whom He calls: "beginning and the end, King of kings, and Lord of lords, the supreme Judge, who renders to each according to His works, the Prince of the kings of the earth.’’ St. Paul in one of his epistles also often speaks of Christ's universal reign; in fact, he even points out why Christ is the universal king, because He is: (1) the natural Son and heir of God; (2) the Redeemer.

As for the first reason, he says: "In these days, [God] hath spoken to us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things... who sitteth at the right hand of the majesty on high."

The second reason is given as follows: "Who is He that shall condemn Christ Jesus that died, yea, that is risen also again; who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us?" And again he says: "For He must reign. All things are put under Him," The liturgy often recalls the title of King as in the hymn, "Thou art the King of glory, Christ," and the antiphon, "O King of nations," and in the invocation, "Christ the King, Ruler of nations, let us adore." In the liturgy, Christ is called King of angels, of apostles, of martyrs; moreover, Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ commands. In the symbol of faith, we chant: "Whose reign will never end." That Christ is King is therefore of faith.

BY WHAT TITLES IS CHRIST ALSO AS MAN KING OF ALL CREATED THINGS?

His claim to kingship rests on three titles: (1) the hypostatic union; (2) plenitude of created grace, and these titles He claims by natural right; (3) His redemption of us, which is not a natural right, but one that is acquired by His sacrifice on the cross.

1) The hypostatic union.

Because of this title, Christ, as man, transcends all creatures, even the higher choirs of angels, who must adore and obey Him as we do. Moreover, because of this union His acts are theandric and of infinite value. This doctrine is clearly expressed by Pope Pius XI in the following words: "His kingship is founded upon that wonderful union which is called hypostatic. Hence it follows that Christ is to be adored by angels and men as God, and also that to Him as man, angels and men are subject and must recognize His empire, since, solely because of the hypostatic union, Christ has power over all creatures."

2) His claim to plenitude of grace, virtues, and gifts.

Because of this title Christ excels all creatures, and is the head of the Church. The Evangelist says: "Of His fullness we all have received," For this reason He also has the highest degree of the light of glory and charity. This plenitude of grace He also has by natural right. 3) He is entitled to be King because He has redeemed us. Since all Christ's acts are theandric, they are meritorious and satisfactory, and of infinite value. Under this aspect, He transcends the angels who are His ministers and who must assist the redeemed in attaining their end. Therefore Pope Pius XI says: "But a thought that must give us even greater joy and consolation is this, that Christ is asking for us by acquired right as well as by natural right, because He has redeemed us. Would that they who forget what they have cost our Savior might recall the words: "You were not redeemed with corruptible things as gold or silver... but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled." For we are no longer our own property since Christ bought us with a great price, St. Thomas expresses this doctrine clearly saying: "To sit on the right hand of the Father is nothing else than to share in the glory of the Godhead with the Father, and to possess beatitude and judiciary power, and that unchangeably and royally." Again he says: "Christ as man is exalted to divine honor, and this is signified in the aforesaid sitting." He also asks whether it belongs to Christ as man to sit at the right hand of the Father. His reply is: "To sit at the right hand of the Father belongs to Christ first of all as the Son of God..., because He has the same nature as the Father.... Secondly, according to the grace of union.... According to this, Christ as man is the Son of God, and consequently sits at the Father's right hand; yet so that the expression 'as' does not denote condition of nature, but unity Or suppositum, as explained above. Thirdly, the said approach can be understood according to habitual grace, which is more fully in Christ than in all other creatures, so much so that human nature in Christ is more blessed than in all other creatures, and possesses over all other creatures royal and judiciary power." St. Thomas goes on to say: "If 'as' denote unity of person, thus again as man He sits at the Father's right hand as to equality of power, since we venerate the Son of God with the same honor as we do His assumed nature, as was said above (q. 25, a. 1) concerning the adoration of Christ's humanity inasmuch as it is personally united to the Word."[2387] Afterward he says: "Judiciary power goes with royal dignity."

Again he says: "It belongs to no one else, angel or man, but to Christ alone to sit at the right hand of the Father."

Thus He alone is the King of all.

The holy Doctor also frequently speaks about Christ's title of Redeemer. In fact, he says: "Judiciary power belongs to the man Christ on account of His divine personality and the dignity of His headship and the fullness of His habitual grace; and yet He obtained it also from merit." To understand these assertions, we must properly define with St. Thomas the meaning of "king." The word "rex" comes from "regere, " which means to rule, to govern, and universal government belongs to the king, ordering things to a good end. Thus the king is in his kingdom as God is in the world, and as the soul is in the body.

Hence St. Thomas says: "To direct belongs more to the king, " wherefore "prudence and justice belong most properly to a king," especially legal justice and equity. To direct and to govern are defined by St. Thomas as follows: "To govern the world is to bring the things of the world to their end," and "the best government is government by one. The reason of this is that government is nothing but the directing of the things governed to the end; which consists in some good. But unity belongs to the idea of goodness.... Now the proper cause of unity is one.... From this it follows that the government of the world, to be the best, must be by one."

Thus the supreme and intelligent designer, who directs all things, corresponds to the ultimate end. But the spiritual king directs his subjects to a spiritual end; the temporal king, however, to a temporal end, to the common good of society, which is not only a useful good, but a moral good, and which is subordinated to the ultimate supernatural end. Is Christ as man, both the spiritual and temporal king of the universe, and was He the king of all kings and kingdoms in the whole world? Let us first see the three assertions on which all theologians are agreed.

1) All theologians always held that Christ as God rules as Lord and King of all, both spiritually and temporally, because "in Him were all things created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible."

2) All theologians also maintain that Christ, as man, is spiritual king of all men and societies, even of angels, as is evident from the abovequoted scriptural texts, for example: "King of kings, Lord of lords." Thus civil governments must accept Christian revelation, and legislate, for example, as regards indissolubility of marriage, in accordance with this revelation.

3) Theologians are also all in agreement thatChrist did not exercise this power as temporal king of the whole world. In fact, as the Evangelist says: "Jesus, therefore, when He knew that they would come to take Him by force and make Him king, fled again into the mountain Himself alone." But the theologians disagreed whether Christ as man, had, if not the exercise of the power, at least the power of temporal king of the world. St. Robert Bellarmine, Toletus, Sylvius, Billuart, and others reply in the negative.

On the other hand, St. Antoninus, the Salmanticenses, and others replied in the affirmative, quoting several texts of St. Thomas, and this opinion afterward becomes the more generally accepted one, and is finally approved by Pius XI in his encyclical.The summary of his declaration is that Christ as man is king by legislative jurisdiction, coercion, and administration, and has this right over members of His spiritual kingdom, over all men, all civil affairs; hence laicism must be condemned. Proof of affirmative opinion. St. Thomas says: "Christ, although established king by God, did not wish while living on earth to govern temporarily an earthly kingdom, because He came to raise men to divine things."

Objection. But the pope has only indirect power over temporal things. Therefore Christ also.

Reply. The Salmanticenses are right in saying that, although the pope may have only indirect power in temporal affairs, Christ could have direct and immediate power, by reason of the hypostatic union. Not all power that Christ had was granted to the Roman Pontiff even in spiritual things. Thus the pope cannot institute new sacraments. In our days, after the pope's encyclical, there is no more disagreement among theologians on this point. Pope Pius XI says in this encyclical: "This kind of kingdom is especially of a spiritual nature and concerns spiritual things.... It would be a grave error, on the other hand, to say that Christ has no authority whatever in civil affairs, since by virtue of the absolute empire over all creatures committed to Him by the Father, all things are in His power. Nevertheless, during His life on earth, He entirely refrained from the exercise of such authority."

Does this kingship of Christ consist of certain powers?

The Pope's encyclical replies by saying that it consists of a threefold power, namely, legislative, judicial, and executive, "which, if it be deprived of these renders this kingship scarcely intelligible. This becomes sufficiently clear from the scriptural testimony already adduced concerning the universal dominion of our Redeemer, and moreover it is a dogma of faith that Jesus Christ was given to man, not only as our Redeemer, but also as a lawgiver, to whom obedience is due (C. Trid., Sess. VI, can. 21). Not only do the Gospels tell us that He made laws, but they present Him to us in the act of making them. Those who keep them show their love for their divine Master, and He promises that they shall remain in His love (John 14:15; 15:10). He claimed judicial power as received from His Father, when the Jews accused Him of breaking the Sabbath by the miraculous cure of a sick man. 'For neither does the Father judge any man, but all judgment He has given to the Son, (John 5:22). In this power is included the right of rewarding and punishing all men living, for this right is inseparable from that of judging. Executive power, too, belongs to Christ, for all must obey His command; none can escape the sanctions imposed by Him. Nevertheless this kingdom is in a special manner of a spiritual nature and concerns spiritual things." The universal extent of Christ's influence as king is the same as His influence as head of the Church. Thus His influence is universal, bestowing upon the just grace and charity, upon sinners in the Church the supernatural virtues of faith and hope, upon schismatics, heretics, Jews, and pagans, actual graces of illumination and inspiration, which can dispose them for salvation.

Christ died for all men, and is king and lord of all. Christ also, as king of the angels, exerts at least accidental influence of grace and glory upon them, inasmuch as they are His ministers in the heavenly kingdom. He also reigns as judge by exercising His justice over demons whom He cast out of creatures during His life on earth. Christ the King, as explained in the encyclical, reigns in the whole of man, in our souls which He deifies, in our intellects so that they may always think of Him, in our wills so that they may be subject to Him, in the affections so that Christ may be loved above all things, in our bodies so that our members may serve "as instruments of justice unto God" for His honor and glory. This kingdom also includes civil society, for as Leo XIII remarks, civil society no less than the individual is dependent on God as its author, for "there is no power but from God," and without Christ's help man cannot observe even the whole natural law, provide for sound morality, pass good laws, for, as St. Thomas says: "In the state of corrupted nature man cannot fulfill all the divine commandments without healing grace," nor the whole natural law. Hence Pope Pius XI declares against laicism, "that by the rejection of Christ's universal kingdom, it gradually comes about that no distinction is made between the true religion and false religions, and then all religion, even natural religion, is abolished, and thus the reign of impiety and immorality is established," so that the words of our Lord are verified: "He that is not with Me is against Me."

In our times, because of the institution of this feast of Christ the King, some have taken occasion to object to the Thomistic doctrine concerning the motive of the Incarnation. They have said that Christ as man is King of all creatures, even of angels, independently of our redemption from sin. But in virtue of the present decree, Christ came as King. Therefore in virtue of the present decree, He came also independently of sin.

We concede that this could be so in virtue of another decree, but not in virtue of the present decree. And we reply: Let the major pass without comment, because for Christ to be King of all creatures, formally as such, does not depend upon redemption from sin. I distinguish the minor: in virtue of the present decree that Christ came primarily as King, this I deny; that He came so secondarily, I concede; for He came primarily as Savior, priest, and victim, although He is also King of all creatures. I distinguish the conclusion in like manner. Therefore, in virtue of the present decree, He came independently of sin if He came only as King, this I concede; if He also came, even primarily, as Savior of men, then I deny that He came so as king.

For the present decree, since it is efficacious and most prudent, concerns not only the substance of the Incarnation, but also all its circumstances, and therefore it is about the redemptive Incarnation, that is, it is about Christ who is to come in passible flesh. Hence, in virtue of the present decree, Christ nowise would have come unless man had sinned. This means that He would not have come in passible flesh, or in any other way, either as Savior or as King. But de facto, after the sin of the first man, He came principally as the Savior of man and as the King of all creatures. As we said, God, perceiving by His knowledge of simple intelligence the possibility of the fall of man and the redemption, by one decree willed the creation of the natural order, the elevation of the human race and of the angels to the order of grace, and at the same time, in permitting original sin, willed the redemptive Incarnation and therefore by the same sole decree ordered all created things for the incarnate Word and Redeemer, or for the conqueror of sin, the devil, and death, as also for Him as King.

This is also clearly seen in the Mass of Christ the King, in which the title of King is intimately connected with that of Savior, and this not only once a year in the Mass of this feast, but daily in every Mass that is celebrated throughout the year. The Introit of this Mass reads: "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and honor. To Him be glory and empire forever and ever." The oration says: "Almighty and eternal God, who has willed to restore all things in Thy beloved Son, who is King of all things, mercifully grant that all the nations of the earth, freed from sin, may be subject to His sweet rule." The Epistle thanks God "who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins... because in Him it hath well pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell, and through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself."

The Gospel of this Mass recalls that Christ affirmed His kingship during His passion and intimately connected this royal dignity with redemption. The same is said in the Secret prayer. Also the Preface, in which Jesus is declared Priest before He is called King, says: "Thou who didst anoint with the oil of exaltation Thine only-begotten Son Jesus Christ eternal Priest and King of all: so that of offering Himself... on the altar of the cross, He might accomplish the mysteries of human redemption, and having subjected all creatures to His empire, might deliver an eternal and universal kingdom to Thy immense Majesty...." Therefore the title of "King of kings" is nowise in opposition to the teaching of St. Thomas concerning the motive of the Incarnation. Christ is first of all the Savior.

Halloween: Good or Bad?

A number of priests have released some excellent videos reflecting on the complicated place of Halloween in our modern culture.

Sinn Fein Want 12th of July to be National Holiday

British political party Sinn Fein have become increasingly pro Unionist in their outlook in recent years, so much as recently accepting Westminster rule in order to deliver abortion into Northern Ireland.

The party, who are led in the South of Ireland by South Dublin’s Mary Lou McDonald, have even suggested rejoining the Commonwealth in recent years. They have simultaneously become increasingly anti Catholic, even trying to ban Catholics from praying near abortion clinics.

Now, Mary Lou McDonald has doubled down on a previously professed openness to making anti Catholic holiday the 12th of July a national holiday.

Speaking on the topic of a United Ireland today, pro Commonwealth McDonald actually stated that Sinn Fein would consider binning the Irish anthem, binning the flag and making the anti Catholic day a public holiday to appease the Orange Order:

“What about the anthem? What about the flag? What about a public holiday for the Twelfth of July, which I think is a good idea.”

On the 12th of July each year, anti Catholic and psuedo Masonic group the Orange Order march to commemorate the Battle of the Boyne, when Protestant King William of Orange’s men were successful against Catholic King James. The 12th of July each year sees Protestants march with the Orange Order through Catholic areas in a move designed to confront and intimidate them in their places of residence, continuing the tradition that has celebrated anti Catholicism since the 1600s and which glorifies not just the penal laws, but also the life and work of genocidal leader Oliver Cromwell and his various massacres.

Fine Gael Senator Neale Richmond drew controversy earlier this year after an historic photo emerged of him at an Orange Order parade where Oliver Cromwell was being commemorated only yards away. Richmond has not apologised for the deeply offensive photograph.

Every Catholic, every person from Drogheda, every person from Wexford

Should be calling for the resignation of Neale Richmond and his expulsion form public life after seeing these images

Those who honour genocide and slavery have no place in the Dail pic.twitter.com/7nDNgDPK06

— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) March 1, 2021

Sinn Fein are currently riding high in the polls in Ireland, with many naive ‘Catholics’ and ‘Nationalists’ convinced that the party, who now have more in common with the Orange Order than with their own voters, are going to deliver some Irish Catholic utopia.

It is quite clear from Ms. McDonald’s recent behaviour that Sinn Fein have absolutely no such intention.

In fact, they would rather enshrine a holiday where hatred of the Catholic faith and celebration of their persecution is widespread. At some point the Celtic fan portion of Catholicism has to wake up realise that they have bought into a political party that reviles them deeply.