Burn it with fire
Imagine just minding your own business and the antipope gives away your church to the orthos.
On Sunday, December 8, 2024, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew presided over the Divine Liturgy at the newly inaugurated Cathedral of the Dormition of the Theotokos, the official seat of the Holy Metropolis of Smyrna.
The historic church, originally built in the 17th century and dedicated to the Virgin Mary (Santa Maria), was granted to the Metropolis in 2023 by Pope Francis and the Franciscan Order following a request by the Ecumenical Patriarch. This gracious concession transformed the church into the Cathedral of the Orthodox Metropolis of Smyrna.
The inauguration ceremony was attended by prominent figures, including Archbishop Marek Solczyński, Vatican Nuncio to Turkey and Azerbaijan; Archbishop Martin Kmetec of Smyrna; a delegation of Franciscan monks from Rome led by John Wong, on behalf of the head of the Order, Saint Massimo Fusarelli; the Consuls General of Greece and Romania in Smyrna, Alexandros Konstas and Lilian Zamfiroiu; representatives of Smyrnaean associations from Greece; and many faithful from Smyrna and abroad.
In his homily, Patriarch Bartholomew reflected on the historical and spiritual significance of the church, emphasizing the generosity of Pope Francis…
Ten outrageous examples of Fedgov wasting your money on “higher education”
1. Gambling for Pigeons
The National Institute of Health (NIH) granted $465,339 to researchers at Reed College in Portland, Oregon to “create a token-based economy where pigeons are taught to gamble with slot machines.”
The study gave pigeons tokens that they can “earn, accumulate, spend, or gamble” on slot machines, the New York Post reports.
2. Chimps Throwing Feces
The US National Institutes of Health spent $592,527 at Emory University in Atlanta to explore why chimpanzees throw feces. Another $117,000 was necessary to conclude that most chimps are right-handed, the Washington Examiner reports.
Their research suggests that throwing feces is a sign of intelligence in chimps.
3. Drunken Finches
The National Institutes of Health gave $5 million to the Oregon Health & Science University to study if finches slurred their songs when alcohol was in their systems.
The birds were given white grape juice spiked with alcohol, which impacted their singing ability, NBC News reports.
4. Bees on Cocaine
The National Institutes of Health funded over $240,000 to study the impact of cocaine on honey bees at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
With cocaine in their system, the bees were more likely to dance, the researcher found.
5. Shrimp on Treadmills
The National Science Foundation (NSF) funded $1.3 million to make shrimp run on tiny treadmills at the College of Charleston in South Carolina.
The study tested how sickness impaired shrimp mobility.
6. $500k Study if Selfies Make you Happy
A University of California, Irvine-based research team received $500,000 in federal funding to study if taking selfies makes people happy.
The 4-week study found that taking selfies boosted participants’ moods.
7. Secret Language of French Butchers
The National Endowment for the Humanities funded $30,000 for a study at the University of Connecticut to research “a secret, highly endangered language spoken by Parisian butchers,” the New York Times reports.
8. Bee Sting Pain
The National Science Foundation funded $1 million to a researcher at Cornell University to rank how much it hurt to be stung by honey bees on different parts of his body, Real Clear Policy reports.
Spoiler alert, it’s the nostrils, upper lip, and genitals. The researcher endured roughly 200 bee stings.
9. Sexy Goldfish
The National Science Foundation awarded $3.6 million to a study at Bowdoin College in Maine, where a portion of this funding went to experiments on what makes goldfish feel sexy.
Researchers discovered that when given sex steroids, male goldfish exhibited more social behavior and swam closer to their female counterparts, the Daily Signal reports.
10. AI Toilets
The National Cancer Institute funded nearly $7 million to researchers at Stanford University to build an AI toilet, Real Clear Policy reports.
The toilet is equipped with cameras that scans the user’s waste and unique “analprint.” DOGE is not an official government agency and is expected to conclude its work by July 4, 2026. As of November 2024, the United States national debt is $35.97 trillion.
Biden is bombing ISIS in Syria so that Israel and non-isis jihadists can make their land grab…
Was this on your bingo card? One day after the CIA overthrew the elections in Romania, and on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Nothing to see here. Perhaps the only surprising thing is that ancient B-52s are carrying out the bombing runs. I can’t help but ask: How have the other recent Regime Changes worked out? Also, I’m old enough to remember when Trump bombed Assad over the fake chemical weapons story… Stay Confessed.
Ineffabilis Deus: The Immaculate Conception
Today is December 8th, Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
It was wholly fitting that so wonderful a mother should be ever resplendent with the glory of most sublime holiness and so completely free from all taint of original sin that she would triumph utterly over the ancient serpent. To her did the Father will to give his only-begotten Son — the Son whom, equal to the Father and begotten by him, the Father loves from his heart — and to give this Son in such a way thhat he would be the one and the same common Son of God the Father and of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was she whom the Son himself chose to make his Mother and it was from her that the Holy Spirit willed and brought it about that he should be conceived and born from whom he himself proceeds.
The Glorious and Immaculate Virgin Mary was already more holy at the moment of her conception, as a mere zygote, than all the saints at the end of their earthly journey. Preserved from Original Sin by the retroactive application of the redemptive act of Calvary, she was “full of grace” from the very beginning, and would remain so unto her Assumption.
“Concerning the most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, ancient indeed is that devotion of the faithful based on the belief that her soul, in the first instant of its creation and in the first instant of the soul’s infusion into the body, was, by a special grace and privilege of God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, her Son and the Redeemer of the human race, preserved free from all stain of original sin. And in this sense have the faithful ever solemnized and celebrated the Feast of the Conception.”
It is a great and terrible mystery that for all mankind since the fall, save for Mary, that our natures are wounded. When you were conceived, your first instant of life as a unique human being was marred by the transmission of Original Sin from our first parents, later remedied at your Baptism. Yet concupiscence never leaves us, and we remain wretched in plodding toward our reward. Not so for Mary, and she is always there to help us. She wants you to fly to her, so she can dispense the graces you need.
When the Fathers and writers of the Church meditated on the fact that the most Blessed Virgin was, in the name and by order of God himself, proclaimed full of grace by the Angel Gabriel when he announced her most sublime dignity of Mother of God, they thought that this singular and solemn salutation, never heard before, showed that the Mother of God is the seat of all divine graces and is adorned with all gifts of the Holy Spirit. To them Mary is an almost infinite treasury, an inexhaustible abyss of these gifts, to such an extent that she was never subject to the curse and was, together with her Son, the only partaker of perpetual benediction. Hence she was worthy to hear Elizabeth, inspired by the Holy Spirit, exclaim: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”
What does “full of grace” mean? It means FULL… no room for anything else. How could it be otherwise? Could the almighty and eternal God reside inside a stained vessel? Well, He could have done anything He wanted, but would it have been proper? Or does it make more sense, perfect sense, that He should have preferred His Mother… our Mother… to be Immaculate? Certainly we would never question his power to make it so.
Just as Christ, the Mediator between God and man, assumed human nature, blotted the handwriting of the decree that stood against us, and fastened it triumphantly to the cross, so the most holy Virgin, united with him by a most intimate and indissoluble bond, was, with him and through him, eternally at enmity with the evil serpent, and most completely triumphed over him, and thus crushed his head with her immaculate foot.
The Blessed Virgin Mary was to have such a unique bond with God, in both the natural and supernatural sense, that she could have no relation whatsoever with the serpent; he would be powerless against her from the very beginning and for all time. The Holy Ghost, infused in her soul at the first moment of her life, would later overshadow her to conceive the Second Person of the Trinity. She cooperated with the divine will by conforming her own free will to His; “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word.” In this way we know her also as Co-Redemptrix, as she gave life to the Redeemer and participated intimately in His life, Passion, and death. Her subordinate role in all of this in no way diminishes her glory.
The Virgin Mother of God would not be conceived by Anna before grace would bear its fruits; it was proper that she be conceived as the first-born, by whom “the first-born of every creature” would be conceived. They testified, too, that the flesh of the Virgin, although derived from Adam, did not contract the stains of Adam, and that on this account the most Blessed Virgin was the tabernacle created by God himself and formed by the Holy Spirit, truly a work in royal purple, adorned and woven with gold, which that new Beseleel[26] made. They affirmed that the same Virgin is, and is deservedly, the first and especial work of God, escaping the fiery arrows the the evil one; that she is beautiful by nature and entirely free from all stain; that at her Immaculate Conception she came into the world all radiant like the dawn. For it was certainly not fitting that this vessel of election should be wounded by the common injuries, since she, differing so much from the others, had only nature in common with them, not sin. In fact, it was quite fitting that, as the Only-Begotten has a Father in heaven, whom the Seraphim extol as thrice holy, so he should have a Mother on earth who would never be without the splendor of holiness.
https://www.papalencyclicals.net/pius09/p9ineff.htm
Immaculate Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Blessed feast!
All the gays to have their special gay day at the Gesù… what about the fornicators and adulterers?
“Gay Roman Catholic pilgrims will have a special day, September 6, during next year’s Jubilee Holy Year celebrations, the Vatican confirmed Friday after a report in Rome daily Il Messaggero. On that day, it said, members of the Church’s LGBT+ community will be welcomed into the Jesuit mother church, the Church of the Gesù, in central Rome.”
“The Jubilee of 2025 will open its doors to the first pilgrimage dedicated specifically to gays and LGBT+ people,” said Il Messaggero.
“An absolute novelty, unthinkable until a few years ago, the result of a pastoral attention that extends to milieux usually considered marginal”.
It said “the historic baroque Church of the Gesù has promoted welcoming LGBT+ pilgrims, their parents, workers and all those who gravitate towards these rainbow associations, led in Italy by Tenda di Gionata (Jonathan’s Tent), the association founded on March 18, 2018, at the request of Don David Esposito, a priest who died prematurely, who dreamed that Christian communities would know how to ‘widen the tent’ (Isaiah 54) to make room for everyone to become more and more sanctuaries of welcome and support towards LGBT people and towards every person affected by discrimination”.
Asked abut the report, Jubilee ‘director’ mons. Rino Fisichella told ANSA: “Everyone is welcome”. Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, and responsible for organizing the Jubilee, confirmed that “the initiative was born at the instigation of the Association ‘La tenda di Gionata’ and is on the calendar like many others.” Soon after his election in 2013, Pope Francis said “who am I to judge” when asked about gays in the Church.
In May 2022 he wrote a letter to gay Catholics saying “the Church does not refuse you”.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pope-francis-approves-lgbt-pilgrimage-2025-jubilee/
Dry run for J6 2025? Romania nullifies election results because the wrong guy won
They are screaming Russia Russia Russia. November election results cancelled. Current President “forced to extend his term.”
You don’t say?
Dude was too much Romania First. Vowed to cancel Ukraine aid and work to end the war. After winning the preliminary vote last month, apparently all the indications were for a landslide in tomorrow’s final election. So the CIA delivered “evidence” of Russian “election interference” to the Romanian spooks, who then had a court overturn the election and cancel the final vote which was scheduled for tomorrow. CIA openly acknowledges its role in the steel (see linked Politico article). Okay?
I am telling you, again, expect the unexpected in the next 30 days here in the USA. Go to Confession. Virgin Most Powerful, pray for us.
One of the biggest shifts would have been his challenge to Romania’s longstanding pro-Ukraine position, and his promise to switch to engaging with rather than challenging, Russia. Speaking to Reuters this week – before the vote was voided – he said he was planning to stop Ukrainian grain exports through Romania and bar further military aid to Kyiv.
“How could I agree to that? It is impossible. Romania and the Romanian people come first,” Georgescu said.
“It is unimaginable that there be a war next to us in the middle of Europe, so a priority will definitely be that this war in Ukraine must immediately be stopped.”
Georgescu said it was his country that interested him most.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/calin-georgescu-far-outsider-could-163151906.html
Feast of St. Nicholas – The Fairfield Carmelites are in need of a few items
If you feel like punching heretics, try the next best thing. Be generous with these Contemplatives, who wage spiritual warfare against heresy every day. These Nuns receive no funding from any source other than charitable donations from the faithful. Have a look at what they are building:
There are many items to choose from, starting as low as $9. Can you spare $9? CLICK HERE.
If you would like to make a more substantial gift, which I highly recommend, CLICK HERE.
Happy feast!
Dr Mazza new interview with Tim Gordon on +Vigano antipope essay
This click should begin at the 24 minute mark, which I recommend.
The “Why was Trump allowed to win?” mystery
By
What is indisputable is that the Left controls all the real power in the Western world–all of the key communication, finance, and administrative nodes. So some Rightists are perplexed: how can they seem so complacent at the ascendency of a man they’ve labeled a fascist? Where are the riots and lawsuits? Do we need to adjust our model of the world, since the world is not behaving as we predicted?
A few thoughts which are being ignored by most commentators.
- The 2nd Trump administration is allowed because Trump has accomplished something the Left could not have done on its own–the full disenfranchisement of American conservative Christians. There are now two pro-abortion, pro-sodomy parties. Just like in France, the Christian segment of the population has no representation. This is a massive consolidation of Leftist victory, and it is worth them allowing some of their fringier excursions to be temporarily curtailed if they can allow this to happen.
- At this point, economic collapse and military defeat are baked in, so they might as well let there be a Republican in office holding the bag when it happens, like in ’29.
- The Left wants war with Russia badly–they want gay pride parades in Moscow and are willing to pay for it in (others’) blood. They worry that Trump will derail this. However, they were able to coax him out of pursuing peace last time with Russiagate nonsense. That might work again. Even if it doesn’t, they can see that Trump is a fanatical Zionist who will probably start a war with Iran, so they’ll probably end up getting their war with Russia anyway.
- The Left has figured out that elections don’t matter when you control the permanent government and the professional classes. Winning elections tends to be more demoralizing for the Right than losing them, because we see that nothing changes.
The thing that really blows my mind is Harvard eliminating DEI statements on job applications. That I would have never expected. Maybe the Jews are more spooked than I’d imagined?