Tea at Trianon: Pachamama Did This

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, February 27, 2022

Pachamama Did This

From Crisis:

You read that correctly: I believe that the Covid pandemic and the horrific response to it were directly caused by the veneration of this pagan idol in the Vatican by prelates, priests, and lay people. In October 2019 a false idol was set up in the heart of the Catholic Church, and soon after all hell broke loose on earth. Bishops worldwide locked the doors of our churches. The dying were denied Last Rites. Catholics could not find priests to hear Confessions. Governments forced citizens into lockdowns. Children were forcibly masked for hours each day. The unvaccinated were treated like lepers. Small business owners lost their life’s work with the stroke of a governor’s pen. Would this have happened if Pachamama had been kept out of Rome? I do not think so. (Read more.)

This critical moment. Also from Crisis:

But let it be known that a moment of crisis is a critical moment. It is a moment when we are given the opportunity to make a choice, to ask ourselves why we are Catholic? Why am I in this seemingly brown and decaying field when my neighbors seem to be munching on yummy green grass? Am I here because I believe the pope to be the pythonic oracle and I must cling to his every word? Am I here because I was raised Catholic and have been too hesitant to make my own decision? Am I here because it is where I feel welcome and have found a safe space? Or am I here because I have been enraptured by the Beauty of Christ?

My response to those who inquire into my loyalty to the Church is quite simple. My faith is not in the princes of the Church, the pope, the hierarchical structures, or a particular form of worship or expression of the truth. My faith is in Truth Himself, in Jesus Christ, in whose Cross there is salvation and in whose Resurrection there is hope. “Do not put your trust in princes,” says the psalmist, “in mortals, in whom there is no help…. Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God” (Psalm 146:3, 5). (Read more.)

The "Brave New World" is here.

The family has been dismantled, monogamy is reviled, and promiscuity is the norm. Parents are obsolete. The government indoctrinates and raises our children, and it keeps the population subdued through widespread state-sanctioned drug use. Reproduction has moved to the laboratory: new generations are genetically engineered into varying social classes and are industrially grown.

It might be the plot of a dystopian novel, but in the nearly 100 years since the publication of Brave New World, the details of Aldous Huxley’s dystopia have inched their way out of the realm of science fiction and into our headlines. (Read more.)

Also from Crisis:

Over the past two years, our society has created an idol out of physical health and safety, protecting them at all costs. But Jesus tells us Himself: “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell” (Matthew 10:28). He reminds us that there are things far worse than illness and bodily suffering—like separation from God.
Sadly, many of our Catholic schools have not been immune to society’s idolatry, as demonstrated by the strict Covid policies in many schools, and it will destroy the faith of our Catholic school children if we don’t remedy the situation. (Read more.)

The Cross of Saint Zacharias. From Daniel Mitsui:

This cross is a acrostic emblem, representing a set of prayers for protection against plague; these prayers are attributed to St. Zacharias, a 7th century Patriarch of Jerusalem. The letters in the emblem are those that begin each short prayer; the crosses stand for those that begin with the word CRUX. They are read in the order: +Z+DIA+BIZ+SAB+Z+HGF+BFRS. (Read more.)