By David Martin
In response to Catholic bishops who
are abusing their power by ordering the suspension of Masses over COVID-19, Bishop
Athanasius Schneider has said that a priest, observing due prudence and
following necessary health precautions, "has not to obey the directives of
his bishop or the government to suspend Mass for the faithful."
He has also criticized episcopal
orders forbidding priests from visiting the sick and dying. "Such a
prohibition is an abuse of power. Christ did not give a bishop the power to
forbid visiting the sick and dying. A true priest will do everything he can to
visit a dying person."
Schneider laments how "the
prevailing majority of bishops" have reacted "precipitously and out
of panic in prohibiting all public Masses and – what is even more
incomprehensible – in closing churches."
He says that "Such bishops”
have "reacted more like civil bureaucrats than shepherds. In focusing too
exclusively on all the hygienic protective measures, they have lost a
supernatural vision and have abandoned the primacy of the eternal good of
souls."
"A quasi-pathological fear has
overcome common reason and a supernatural vision," He adds.
Bishop Schneider is certainly
justified in what he says. It
is an indictment of our times that supermarkets, liquor stores, abortion mills
and transportation lines are allowed to operate while churches are required to
shut down. Attending Mass is every bit as "essential" as these
busy-body activities, so why have the churches been ordered locked? "One could guarantee
in churches the same and even better hygienic protective measures,” the bishop
said.
IT IS GOOD to finally hear a
religious leader say the truth. The state, under no condition, may impose rules
on the Church, so that if it does—either directly or through fallen
bishops—priests need not obey. The rule is that when obedience is going to mean
committing a sin or fault, one must not obey, and this applies to laity as
well.
Note that it is deep-state socialists
like Bernie Sanders and California governor Gavin Newsom who are
pushing this COVID-19 lockdown, which is every reason to resist it. The bishops have a solemn duty to
stand firm in defense of the Church and instead they are bowing to political
deities that are using them to close down the church. It appears that
persecuting humanity under the guise of "public health and safety" is
what this Coronavirus fuss is all about.
Chastisement for Sin
In the final analysis, the COVID-19
crisis is a punishment for sin, especially those of the Church.
Note that it isn't Beijing or Hong
Kong that have been the hardest hit with COVID-19, but the relatively small
town of Bergamo, Italy (pop. 122,000), the epicenter of the epidemic, where
over 600 people are dying each day from the virus.
Interestingly, it was the bishop and
diocese of Bergamo that published the prayer to Pachamama on its website and
that Pope Francis and his cardinals used in venerating the idol during the
Amazonian Synod that convened Oct. 6-27.
Note too, that the Coronavirus first
began infecting people in Wuhan just around the time when Francis and his
cardinals were "praying" before the idol in Rome. It appears that Rome’s
profanation of the temple is what spawned this plague!
Unfortunately, the Church is not
responding to this chastisement. What God expects is for bishops and priests to
open up the churches and go upon their knees, acknowledging sincerely that
their manifold sins against the Faith—Communion in the hand, ecumenism,
socializing in church, bowing to Pachamama, colluding with U.N. pro-abortion advocates, allowing women on the altar, appointing homosexuals to clerical
positions—have brought this plague upon us. According to Bishop Schneider, the
Eucharist has been trampled underfoot for the past fifty years though the pestilent
practice of Communion in the hand.
Lenten Repentance Needed
Lent is a time to make amends, so a
healthy amendment is for clergy and laity to make public reparation in the
churches, confessing sincerely that they have offended by their modern-day
attempts to change the Catholic Church. The present crisis is a wake-up call to either cleanse
the Church of modernism or suffer a just punishment in the form of communist
oppression and slavery.
Already, the storm clouds of
Socialism are gathering, so this is no time to close the churches but to bring
the people into the Church that they may be on their knees in reparation to God
who is "much offended."
Bishop Schneider says that "A
worldwide chain of monstrances carrying the Eucharistic Lord through the
streets of this world could be launched. Such mini-Eucharistic processions,
even if carried out only by a bishop or a priest alone, will implore graces of
physical and spiritual healing and conversion."
