By Gina Christian • Posted October 18, 2021

“On Oct. 16, the archbishop celebrated a “Mass for Peace and Justice” at Chestnut Hill College (CHC) to honor lives lost to gun violence, now at record levels in Philadelphia. So far, the city has counted 435 homicides in 2021, with 375 fatal and 1,482 nonfatal shooting victims.

“Attended by some 130 Catholic and interfaith participants, Saturday’s liturgy was organized by CHC’s Institute for Forgiveness and Reconciliation (IFR) as part of its “Month of Nonviolence” observance… Surrounding the altar at the Mass were several T-shirts from the Philadelphia Memorial to the Lost, each representing a gun violence victim in the city last year…Also on display during the liturgy were several paintings of victims courtesy of the Souls Shot Portrait Project, which artistically commemorates individuals killed by gunfire.”

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As if this is really a mystery. A pandemic of black on black murder, amid a defunded police department, and a mayor who issued a public apology to the looters last summer, for insensitively using tear gas to break up a riot.

I’m sure a bunch of old, rich, white folk in Chestnut Hill can figure it out.

At least the Archbishop was distracted from Carmelite persecution for a few hours.

All faiths are welcome at this Mass. But if you’re unvaxxed, you’re uninvited.

Extra Vacciniam nulla salus!

https://6abc.com/archbishop-nelson-perez-philadelphia-gun-violence-chestnut-hill-college-mass-philly-guns/11133731/

https://catholicphilly.com/2021/10/news/local-news/faith-prophetic-voices-and-small-beginnings-can-end-gun-violence-says-archbishop/

https://www.chc.edu/events/mass-peace-and-nonviolence-philadelphia-archbishop-nelson-perez

I would like to submit this for a 2022 Emmy Award.

Whoever did this deserves an award.
pic.twitter.com/cJFcgpB9Y3

— Rising serpent 🇺🇸 (@rising_serpent) October 17, 2021

In case you don’t know who she is, Bari Weiss was hired away from the WSJ by the NYT in 2017. In the wake of Trump’s win, the stunned NYT leadership, who believed in their own fake polls showing Hillary with a 20 point lead, realized they were completely out of touch with the deplorables. So they hired Weiss to bring some reality, or at least center-left, to the op/ed page. After all, at the NYT, a lesbian from Columbia University represents balance.

But it was destined to end in failure. You can read about all that here:

https://nonvenipacem.com/2020/08/07/ultrawoke-beatdown-of-bari-weiss-a-lesson-in-whats-to-come/

The thing is, she seems really grounded in logic, rational thought, and intellectual honesty. So here she tries to explain to you how wokeism works. You need to push past the notion that logic, rational thought, or intellectual honesty are tools you can use in this war. That would be like bringing a fork to the dam break or an umbrella to the tsunami. Spoiler alert: Wokeism is NOT about seeing everything through the lens of race, class, privilege, victimhood, and past grievances. Rather… race, class, privilege, and past grievances ARE THE ONLY REALITY. Persons holding contrary opinions will be subject to all the things the Woke claim to be against: Exclusion, persecution, bullying, intolerance, prejudice, violence. Because in their minds, this presents no contradiction.

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We Got Here Because of Cowardice. We Get Out With Courage

Say no to the Woke Revolution

by Bari Weiss

A lot of people want to convince you that you need a Ph.D. or a law degree or dozens of hours of free time to read dense texts about critical theory to understand the woke movement and its worldview. You do not. You simply need to believe your own eyes and ears. 

Let me offer the briefest overview of the core beliefs of the Woke Revolution, which are abundantly clear to anyone willing to look past the hashtags and the jargon.

It begins by stipulating that the forces of justice and progress are in a war against backwardness and tyranny. And in a war, the normal rules of the game must be suspended. Indeed, this ideology would argue that those rules are not just obstacles to justice, but tools of oppression. They are the master’s tools.  And the master’s tools cannot dismantle the master’s house.

So the tools themselves are not just replaced but repudiated. And in so doing, persuasion—the purpose of argument—is replaced with public shaming. Moral complexity is replaced with moral certainty. Facts are replaced with feelings.

Ideas are replaced with identity. Forgiveness is replaced with punishment. Debate is replaced with de-platforming. Diversity is replaced with homogeneity of thought. Inclusion, with exclusion.

In this ideology, speech is violence. But violence, when carried out by the right people in pursuit of a just cause, is not violence at all. In this ideology, bullying is wrong, unless you are bullying the right people, in which case it’s very, very good. In this ideology, education is not about teaching people how to think, it’s about reeducating them in what to think. In this ideology, the need to feel safe trumps the need to speak truthfully. 

In this ideology, if you do not tweet the right tweet or share the right slogan, your whole life can be ruined. Just ask Tiffany Riley, a Vermont school principal who was fired—fired—because she said she supports black lives but not the organization Black Lives Matter.

In this ideology, the past cannot be understood on its own terms, but must be judged through the morals and mores of the present. It is why statues of Grant and Washington are being torn down. And it is why William Peris, a UCLA lecturer and an Air Force veteran, was investigated for reading Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” out loud in class.

In this ideology, intentions don’t matter. That is why Emmanuel Cafferty, a Hispanic utility worker at San Diego Gas and Electric, was fired for making what someone said he thought was a white-supremacist hand gesture—when in fact he was cracking his knuckles out of his car window.

In this ideology, the equality of opportunity is replaced with equality of outcome as a measure of fairness. If everyone doesn’t finish the race at the same time, the course must have been defective. Thus, the argument to get rid of the SAT. Or the admissions tests for public schools like Stuyvesant in New York or Lowell in San Francisco. 

In this ideology, you are guilty for the sins of your fathers. In other words: You are not you. You are only a mere avatar of your race or your religion or your class. That is why third-graders in Cupertino, California, were asked to rate themselves in terms of their power and privilege. In third grade. 

In this system, we are all placed neatly on a spectrum of “privileged” to “oppressed.” We are ranked somewhere on this spectrum in different categories: race, gender, sexual orientation, and class. Then we are given an overall score, based on the sum of these rankings. Having privilege means that your character and your ideas are tainted. This is why, one high-schooler in New York tells me, students in his school are told, “If you are white and male, you are second in line to speak.” This is considered a normal and necessary redistribution of power.

Racism has been redefined. It is no longer about discrimination based on the color of someone’s skin. Racism is any system that allows for disparate outcomes between racial groups. If disparity is present, as the high priest of this ideology, Ibram X. Kendi, has explained, racism is present. According to this totalizing new view, we are all either racist or anti-racist. To be a Good Person and not a Bad Person, you must be an “anti-racist.” There is no neutrality. There is no such thing as “not racist.” 

Most important: In this revolution, skeptics of any part of this radical ideology are recast as heretics. Those who do not abide by every single aspect of its creed are tarnished as bigots, subjected to boycotts and their work to political litmus tests. The Enlightenment, as the critic Edward Rothstein has put it, has been replaced by the exorcism. 

What we call “cancel culture” is really the justice system of this revolution. And the goal of the cancellations is not merely to punish the person being cancelled. The goal is to send a message to everyone else: Step out of line and you are next. 

It has worked. A recent CATO study found that 62 percent of Americans are afraid to voice their true views. Nearly a quarter of American academics endorse ousting a colleague for having a wrong opinion about hot-button issues such as immigration or gender differences. And nearly 70 percent of students favor reporting professors if the professor says something that students find offensive, according to a Challey Institute for Global Innovation survey.

Why are so many, especially so many young people, drawn to this ideology? It’s not because they are dumb. Or because they are snowflakes, or whatever Fox talking points would have you believe. All of this has taken place against the backdrop of major changes in American life—the tearing apart of our social fabric; the loss of religion and the decline of civic organizations; the opioid crisis; the collapse of American industries; the rise of big tech; successive financial crises; a toxic public discourse; crushing student debt. An epidemic of loneliness. A crisis of meaning. A pandemic of distrust. It has taken place against the backdrop of the American dream’s decline into what feels like a punchline, the inequalities of our supposedly fair, liberal meritocracy clearly rigged in favor of some people and against others. And so on.

“I became converted because I was ripe for it and lived in a disintegrating society thirsting for faith.” That was Arthur Koestler writing in 1949 about his love affair with Communism. The same might be said of this new revolutionary faith. And like other religions at their inception, this one has lit on fire the souls of true believers, eager to burn down anything or anyone that stands in its way…

Read the rest, and how we fix this: https://www.commentary.org/articles/bari-weiss/resist-woke-revolution/

What follows is a full cross-post with permission from Fred Martinez at Catholic Monitor. The first two paragraphs are an excerpt, then commentary from Fred, then the full letter below the last picture. As the deathvaxx mandates and deadlines creep nearer, this is the hill. The next six weeks will determine if we can defeat this tyranny, all of it, and these pilots know they are the tip of the spear. 30% unvaxxed, and I’m hearing American Airlines is about the same. Your entire airline collapses if a third of your pilots go missing, and replacing them costs money and time. These men and women have the power to cripple interstate travel, just in time for the holidays. This will never end until we say it ends, and this is it. Pray for them. -Mark

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And there stands the lonely Southwest Airlines pilot, on the taxiway facing that once beautiful jet, now threatening and deadly. He does not comply. He risks everything. All by himself if need be. And thereby, he speaks for us all. And we are all essentially with him, because the threat is universal.We win when we decide we’ve had enough and stand with that lonely pilot and any other lonely soul making their stand. And these souls, these people are everywhere, in every town, neighborhood, family, home.

This is the hill. The last hill. We must defend this hill and then take back all the others. Because there is no hill after this one. They have almost taken it all. It is late. But not too late. It is time to band together. This time, government won’t save us. The Courts won’t save us. The threat is against the individual and as individuals we must meet the threat. – A plea to the Southwest pilots and all Americans from a father as well as a former professional pilot 

This is a plea to the Southwest pilots and all Americans from a father as well as a former professional pilot who has been involved in professional aviation since the ‘60’s when his dad was an airline pilot – his entire conscious life. My friend in this American and worldwide battle told me after he emailed me this post: “The topic is very personal to me. It has genuinely changed the arc of my life, career, family. In submission to God, I am convinced that it is all for the good. But the change is profound. And so many, perhaps all, are experiencing it along with me.” The Catholic Monitor and I are honored to post it: When the power of the State comes calling and demands you submit to its will and that you do to yourself and your family whatever it asks, for any reason it chooses to ask – what will you say then to the fascist Oligarchy (government/corporate alliance) represented by HR, your supervisor, your boss, the armored-up policemeneea  at your door. What will you do?

The choice is pictured in this simple little Meme:

The tiny, insignificant lonely free individual citizen over here. The fascist power of the State and Big Business in alliance over there. One lonely man speaks for the multitude on one side, ultimate power speaks for one against the multitude on the other. America and individual liberty and autonomy under God, or Totalitarian collective forced compliance under, by and for Dear Leader.

This threat we face is not that of violence and the tank, as the young Chinese student in Tiananmen. That threat, terrible as it is, you can see, but aims at simple physical domination, no more.

This modern threat is more insidious but thereby more total. It is personal, individual, spiritual, economic oppression that enters in and takes from us at the most intimate and personal levels – and in that personal space, that was once before free, there it now asserts practical and total control over us. In that control and in our submission to it, it thereby breaks our will and capacity to live and survive as autonomous children of God. We do as directed in order to survive and get “cookies”.

Orders, orders, orders … always more orders flowing out through the channels of the PsyOp Information Network (PIN).

“Do this”. We do it.

“Lock down your business and every business to stop the spread. Shut it all down”. We shut it all down.

“Close all your Churches”. We close them.

“Prohibit the Sacraments”. We prohibit them.

“Stay home for a long time”. We stay home.

“Turn in your neighbor if they leave”. We turn them in.

“Wear a mask”. We wear a mask.

“Wear two”. We wear two.

“Stand six feet apart”. We distance.

“Mask your kids”. We mask them.

“Make all social and commercial enterprise dependent upon compliance”. We submit.

“Pat your head, stand on one foot and rub your stomach in circles”. We do it (just kidding, even though many would).

“Get a vax”. We get a vax.

“Get another”. We get another.

“Blame the non-compliant if you still get sick”. We blame them.

“Fire and exclude those who don’t comply”. We fire and exclude them.

“Hate those non-compliant who are starving and suffering on the peripheries of life”. Grrrrrrr!!

The list goes on and on and on. There will never be an end to this list as long as we allow ourselves to be ruled by a fascist oligarchy of government/big-business tyrants who have usurped our God given rights, endowed to us by our “Creator”, our God.
The point is not the action that they demand. The point is our obedience to futile and insane demands. The demands will never end and their incoherence will only grow to enforce our knowledge of subservience. The above list is just a sample prior to the main course being prepared for us.

And many don’t even realize it is happening to us. We are changed without knowing it, and living in ways thought impossible before. We’ve not been quantifiably defeated on a battlefield. We’ve been implicitly defeated in our souls, defeated again and again, every time we “comply” against our conscience, our good judgement.

It is as if a spiritual virus has run through society at the individual level and re-made what we’ve valued but taken for granted for generations. Presumptions of freedom, liberty, and autonomy as unique children of God, responsible to God for how we live for Him and for others have been replaced by assumptions of the collective, the common good, duties to the State led by a wise few as the source of wisdom and privileges for all.

We don’t stop and think about it. It just is. Government is all. We are nothing. God is absent (dead?). When did that happen?
And so – Southwest Airlines goes to its Pilots and asks them very personal questions about their medical choices and makes very personal demands about what substance they are required to inject into their body – the morality of that decision is for the CEO to calculate and decide, not the employee unit. You have no say. You are a widget that needs to comply. Inject or go to the hot place, both you and your entire family with you. Submit. By Dec 8. Have a nice day. 🤤

And there stands the lonely Southwest Airlines pilot, on the taxiway facing that once beautiful jet, now threatening and deadly. He does not comply. He risks everything. All by himself if need be. And thereby, he speaks for us all. And we are all essentially with him, because the threat is universal.

We win when we decide we’ve had enough and stand with that lonely pilot and any other lonely soul making their stand. And these souls, these people are everywhere, in every town, neighborhood, family, home.

This is the hill. The last hill. We must defend this hill and then take back all the others. Because there is no hill after this one. They have almost taken it all. It is late. But not too late. It is time to band together. This time, government won’t save us. The Courts won’t save us. The threat is against the individual and as individuals we must meet the threat.

They are trying to take it all from us without firing a shot.

Totalitarian Oligarchy or Constitutional Republic: that is the stakes.

We must stand together or we will all fall apart. 

Thank you!  God bless you.

https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/10/a-plea-to-southwest-pilots-all.html

Will you help us build a Home for the Lord?

DONATE HERE!

Dear friends in Christ, We are at a crossroads! We need to lay the Chapel foundation, but we currently lack the means to do so. Without the necessary funds, we will be unable to hire our brick contractor. Last year, the Nuns themselves laid the 20,000 bricks for the refectory section to help save money. It took them from July to end of October, working day and night. The Chapel has 360,000 brick to lay. We hope to take this burden off the Nuns, not only so they can continue to live out their life of prayer, but also because—and one of the Sisters admitted this—for every one brick they lay, the masons can lay 20!

This little Chapel is the jewel at the center of our project and is the most important part of the monastery: Our Lord will reside here! While it shares in the simplicity and rusticity of the rest of the project, it is also reminiscent of our European ancestry. 

The Chapel will stand as a physical and tangible manifestation of the Faith of the Nuns and our whole community. Romanesque in style and inspired by the chapel in Avila, Spain (St. Teresa’s monastery!), we want this Chapel to be home for not only the Nuns, but for the laity. Here, all of us can partake in the Carmelite charism of prayer and sacrifice. More than anything else, however, our monastery is an oasis for Our Lord, where He can, weary and battered, “lay His head,” as St. Teresa of Avila said.

If we can get the brick laid by November, 2021 then that means our spring plans, funds allowing, will not be delayed for another year. We ask for your support in this endeavor. The Nuns are intensely and sincerely grateful for every gift they receive. 

THE CRYPT

The Crypt — of our new Chapel will serve two main  functions. One, it will be a secondary summer chapel for both the faithful and the Nuns. This is necessary because there will be no electricity and therefore no air conditioning. The crypt will naturally stay cool during the hot Pennsylvania summers. In the section where the Nuns attend Mass, it is the plan to build a series of alcoves to serve as a Mausoleum. Each alcove is dedicated to a different saint and will be where the Nuns are buried.

ROOD SCREEN

Rood Screen — Once common to both the eastern and western traditions until the Protestant Reformation, the rood screen (iconostasis in the Eastern Rites) were used to signify the mystery of the Transubstantiation and Sacrifice of the Mass. Visually and architecturally it as like a veil that draws people towards something: telling the senses that there is something special behind it. The screen will be made of wrought iron with some gold detailing. Atop it, at the point of the arch above the sanctuary, there will be a Crucifixion scene with Our Lady and St. John.

THE PULPIT

The Pulpit — Like the Churches of old,  we will have a raised pulpit to help with acoustics.

Stained Glass — On the left side of the Chapel, each window will depict a scene from the life of St. Joseph, and on the right side, the life of Our Lady.

Lighting — The Chapel will be lit entirely with lamps and candles, as no electricity will be installed.

The Altar — The Nuns are designing their own altar with The Holy Family as the centerpiece. The Pieta, by Michelangelo, was meant to be on an altar seen from the priest’s perspective (looking up). It was designed so that when the priest raises the chalice he raises it to about the level of Our Lord’s Heart. This is what the Nuns hope to replicate in their own design.

Baptistry (side room) — where the Easter water is blessed, for baptisms, and for reposing the Eucharist during Holy Week.

DONATE HERE!

Maike Hickson broke this at Lifesite last night; I’ve pasted the first part below. I have not verified all the details, but I did reach out for Ken Gavin, the archdiocesan communications director, who did not immediately respond. One of the new accusations in the Lifesite piece is naming Auxiliary Bishop Michael Fitzgerald, the Vicar for Religious, as a specific collaborator in the Roman INFIL. Gavin had insisted in emails to me back in April that no one in the archdiocese had anything to do with the situation at the monastery.

Motives? Loot. The property itself is probably not that valuable. It’s relatively small, would cost a bundle to repurpose, and is not in a great neighborhood (not terrible, but not great). But once inside, it’s a treasure. The windows in the chapel are Tiffany, worth easily over $1 million apiece. Countless works of art, many priceless, including a portrait of St. Therese painted by her sister, Celine. Think that’s worth anything? Word has it that during the April inquisition, just after the Valparaiso and Fairfield nuns escaped, the interrogators were busy taking inventory, down to the last doorknob. Literally.

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(LifeSiteNews) — According to several sources, the Vatican is attempting to shut down the Carmelite monastery in Philadelphia that had been the cradle of devotion to St. Therese of Lisieux in the early 20th century.  

Collaborating with Archdiocese of Philadelphia Auxiliary Michael Fitzgerald, Rome has now discouraged younger traditional nuns who had moved into the monastery from staying to help some of the elderly nuns, with the result that this house of prayer would have to be closed. American Catholics should rally to make it possible that this heart of St. Therese of Lisieux – the “birthplace of devotion to St. Therese” – be preserved as a house of prayer and sacrifice instead of being turned into a museum and retreat center.

The Carmel of St. Joseph and St. Anne, founded five years after St. Therese’s death in 1897, has had a close connection with the “Little Flower” from its beginning. Its website states that one of the founding sisters, Sister Stanislaus of the Blessed Sacrament, was the “the pioneer in establishing devotion to St. Therese in the United States”: 

Her assignment as portress gave her the opportunity to share Therese with many others. Until Sister Stanislaus died in 1911, aged only 31, she corresponded with Mother Agnes of Jesus, Therese’s sister Pauline. The letters from Mother Agnes are posted on this site. As a result of this correspondence, the Carmelite Monastery in Philadelphia became the “depot” for thousands of booklets, pictures, and articles promoting devotion to St. Thérèse [as well as relics].

Until recently, this history has been fairly unknown, but Carmel has now posted on its website numerous historical documents showing the spiritual role of the Discalced Carmelites of Philadelphia in the spreading of devotion to St. Therese. The monastery also has custody of first-class relics of St. Therese and her parents, Saints Zelie and Louis Martin, which are on loan from the Magnificat Foundation. This alone should lead any church leader to do his utmost to protect this monastery and make it flourish.

However, Rome has other plans…

https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/vatican-on-the-verge-of-closing-down-the-us-birthplace-of-devotion-to-st-therese/

https://www.drugs.com/drug-interactions/sars-cov-2-mrna-tozinameran-vaccine,pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine-index.html

Medications known to interact with Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine (sars-cov-2 mrna (tozinameran) vaccine)

• abatacept
• abemaciclib
• acalabrutinib
• adalimumab
• adenovirus vaccine
• aldesleukin
• alefacept
• alemtuzumab
• altretamine
• anakinra
• anifrolumab
• anthrax vaccine adsorbed
• anti-thymocyte globulin (rabbit)
• asparaginase escherichia coli
• atezolizumab
• avapritinib
• axicabtagene ciloleucel
• azacitidine
• azathioprine

• bamlanivimab
• baricitinib
• basiliximab
• bcg vaccine
• belantamab mafodotin
• belatacept
• belimumab
• belinostat
• bendamustine
• betamethasone
• bexarotene
• bleomycin
• blinatumomab
• bortezomib
• bosutinib
• brentuximab
• brexucabtagene autoleucel
• brigatinib
• brodalumab
• budesonide
• busulfan

• cabazitaxel
• canakinumab
• capecitabine
• carboplatin
• carfilzomib
• carmustine
• certolizumab
• chlorambucil
• cholera vaccine
• cholera vaccine, live
• cisplatin
• cladribine
• clofarabine
• cobimetinib
• copanlisib
• corticorelin
• corticotropin
• cortisone
• cosyntropin
• cyclophosphamide
• cyclosporine
• cytarabine
• dacarbazine
• daclizumab
• dactinomycin
• daratumumab
• dasatinib
• daunorubicin
• daunorubicin liposomal
• decitabine
• deflazacort
• denileukin diftitox
• dexamethasone
• dimethyl fumarate
• dinutuximab
• diroximel fumarate
• docetaxel
• doxorubicin
• doxorubicin liposomal
• durvalumab
• duvelisib

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Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant might cause high viral loads, is highly transmissible, and contains mutations that confer partial immune escape 1,2. Outbreak investigations suggest that vaccinated persons can spread Delta 3,4. We compared RT-PCR cycle threshold (Ct) data from 699 swab specimens collected in Wisconsin 29 June through 31 July 2021 and tested with a qualitative assay by a single contract laboratory. Specimens came from residents of 36 counties, most in southern and southeastern Wisconsin, and 81% of cases were not associated with an outbreak. During this time, estimated prevalence of Delta variants in Wisconsin increased from 69% to over 95%. Vaccination status was determined via self-reporting and state immunization records (Supplemental Figure 1).

Main text

We observed low Ct values (<25) in 212 of 310 fully vaccinated (68%; Figure 1A) and 246 of 389 (63%) unvaccinated individuals. Testing a subset of low-Ct samples revealed infectious SARS-CoV-2 in 15 of 17 specimens (88%) from unvaccinated individuals and 37 of 39 (95%) from vaccinated people (Figure 1B). Low Ct values were detected in vaccinated people regardless of symptoms at the time of testing (Figure 1C). Ct values <25 were detected in 7 of 24 unvaccinated (29%; CI: 13-51%) and 9 of 11 fully vaccinated asymptomatic individuals (82%; CI: 48-97%), and 158 of 232 unvaccinated (68%, CI: 62- 74%) and 156 of 225 fully vaccinated (69%; CI: 63-75%) symptomatic individuals. Time from symptom onset to testing did not vary by vaccination status (p=0.40; Supplemental Figure 2). Infectious virus was detected in the sole specimen tested from an asymptomatic fully vaccinated individual. Although few asymptomatic individuals were sampled, these results indicate that even asymptomatic, fully vaccinated people might shed infectious virus. Combined with other studies 2–5 , these data indicate that vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals infected with the Delta variant might transmit infection. Importantly, we show that infectious SARS-CoV-2 is frequently found even in vaccinated persons when specimen Ct values are low. The inclusion ofviruses from Pango lineages B.1.617.2, AY.2, and AY.3, and multiple counties without a linkingoutbreak, indicate that Delta-lineage SARS-CoV-2 can achieve low Ct values consistent with
transmissibility in fully vaccinated individuals across a range of settings. Vaccinated and unvaccinated
persons should get tested when symptomatic or after close contact with someone with suspected or
confirmed COVID-19. Continued adherence to non-pharmaceutical interventions during periods of high
community transmission to mitigate spread of COVID-19 remain important for both vaccinated and
unvaccinated individuals.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.31.21261387v4.full.pdf

Jose Morgenstern ¹, Jose N Redondo ², Alvaro Olavarria ³, Isis Rondon ⁴, Santiago Roca ⁵, Albida De Leon ⁶, Juan Canela ⁷, Johnny Tavares ⁸, Miguelina Minaya ⁹, Oscar Lopez ¹⁰, Ana Castillo ¹⁰, Ana Placido ¹¹, Rafael Cruz ¹², Yudelka Merette ¹², Marlenin Toribio ¹³, Juan Francisco ¹³

• PMID: 34513523
• PMCID: PMC8405705
• DOI: 10.7759/cureus.17455

Free PMC article

Abstract

Background: Ivermectin is a drug that has been shown to be active against coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) in previous studies. Healthcare personnel are highly exposed to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Therefore, we decided to offer them ivermectin as a pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) method.

Purpose: Primary outcome was to measure the number of healthcare workers with symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection and a positive reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) COVID-19 test in the ivermectin group and in the control group. Secondary outcome was to measure the number of sick healthcare workers with a positive RT-PCR COVID-19 test whose condition deteriorated and required hospitalization and/or an Intensive Care Unit (ICU), or who died, in the ivermectin group and in the control group.

Material and methods: This observational and retrospective cohort study was carried out in two medical centers, Centro Medico Bournigal (CMBO) in Puerto Plata and Centro Medico Punta Cana (CMPC) in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. The study began on June 29, 2020, and ended on July 26, 2020. A Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Propensity Score Matching procedure was applied in a 1:1 ratio to homogeneously evaluate 271 healthcare personnel that adhered to a PrEP program with ivermectin at a weekly oral (PO) dose of 0.2 mg/kg, and 271 healthcare personnel who did not adhere to the program were assigned as a control group.

Results: In 28 days of follow-up, significant protection of ivermectin preventing the infection from SARS-CoV-2 was observed: 1.8% compared to those who did not take it (6.6%; p-value = 0.006), with a risk reduction of 74% (HR 0.26, 95% CI [0.10,0.71]). Conclusions: These results suggest that compassionate use of weekly ivermectin could be an option as a preventive method in healthcare workers and as an adjunct to immunizations, while further well-designed randomized controlled trials are developed to facilitate scientific consensus.

October 11th is the Feast of the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. If you proclaim unity and discipleship unto Jesus Christ, she is your Mother too. 90 years ago today, Pope Pius XI established this feast to be celebrated by the Universal Church; it was the 1500th anniversary of the Council of Ephesus in 431, which condemned the Nestorian heresy. Christ is one Person, with two natures, divine and human, united in the Hypostatic Union, and this whole Person was born of the Virgin. She was made perfect, full of grace, so that she could be His ark. As He was born of her, now all divine graces flow through her, to us. Go to her with all your troubles, and you will be consoled. Happy feast!

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To the Mother of God
Glory be to thee, O holy mother of God, masterpiece of the universe, shining star, luster of virginity, scepter of faith, indestructible temple, in whom He dwelt Whom immensity cannot contain. Virgin mother of Him Who, blessed forever, comes to us in the name of the Lord, by thee is the Trinity glorified, the holy cross praised and adored throughout the world, the heavens are made joyful and the angels to tremble with joy, the devils put to flight, and man enabled to pass from slavery to the freedom of Heaven. Through thee idolatrous creatures have known incarnate truth, the faithful have received baptism, churches have been erected in all parts of the earth. By thine assistance the Gentiles have been brought to repentance. And finally, through thee, the only Son of God, source of all light, has shone upon the eyes of the blind, who were sitting in the shadow of death. O virgin mother, who can speak thy praises? But let us make our laud of them according to such powers as are given us, at the same time adoring God thy Son, the chaste spouse of the Church, to Whom are due all honor and glory now and forever.  (St. Cyril–431 A.D.)

This feast, observed throughout the Western Church on October 11, honor Mary as Mother of God, and bears the same sort of relation to the Annunciation and to Christmas as does the Synaxis of Our Lady in the Byzantine rite. It was long known in Portugal and elsewhere, but was finally instituted in 1931 by Pope Pius XI in view of the fifteenth centenary of the Council of Ephesus.

At the same time the Pope ordered at his own cost the restoration of the Marian mosaics in Saint Mary Major, much decayed through age. He issued an encyclical letter, “Lux veritatis.” In this, among the objects of the new festival, is named one truth that was particularly close to the heart of Pius XI, “…that Mary, who is loved and revered so warmly by the separated Christians of the East, would not suffer them to wander and be unhappily led further away from the unity of the Church, and therefore from her Son, whose vicar on earth we are.”

Feast of the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Dom Gueranger, Abbott of Solemes.

IN the sixteenth century, even amidst their many divergences, the so-called Reformers agreed in utterly rejecting all the honors paid by the Catholic Church to the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the grounds that such veneration of the Mother detracted from the supreme worship due to her Divine Son. Four centuries have more than sufficed to show the result of so doing: the Son has followed the Mother! The descendants of those who refused to Mary the title and rights of Theotokos —–Mother of God—–refuse to Jesus the title of Son of God in the traditional sense of the term. Many reject His Godhead altogether, placing Him merely at the head of the line of great moral and social world-teachers; others still retain the word “divinity” with respect to Him, but for them it is no longer synonymous with “deity.”

Holy Scripture tells us that those who first came to adore Him Who is Son of God and Son of Mary found Him “with Mary his Mother.” At the scene of the first miracle at Cana, which marked the opening of his public life, “the Mother of Jesus was there.” In the tremendous hour when all was consummated, when types and shadows gave place to the mighty reality, ” there stood by the Cross of Jesus His Mother.” And when the little flock who were to be the nucleus of the Church of God awaited in prayer the coming of the Paraclete, Who would teach them all truth, again it was in company with “Mary the Mother of Jesus.” Far from taking from the honor and love due to the Word Incarnate, devotion to Mary is a strong bulwark protecting the central doctrine. He is ever found with His Mother; where Mary is denied her rights, sooner or later Jesus is denied His; they stand or fall together.

This was realized in the year 431 when, at the General Council of Ephesus, the Church condemned the Nestorian heresy, whereby the Patriarch of Constantinople, Nestorius, had taught that, since in Christ there are two persons, a Divine and a human, Mary was mother only of the Man “Christ”, and therefore could not be called “Mother of God.” He therefore denied “that wondrous and substantial union of the two natures which we call hypostatic.”

On the occasion of the fifteenth centenary of the Council of Ephesus, the Sovereign Pontiff, Pius XI, issued the Encyclical Lux Veritatis, recalling the history of the heresy and commenting thus upon the dogma of the hypostatic union: “When once the doctrine of the hypostatic union is abandoned, whereon the dogmas of the Incarnation and of man’s Redemption rest and stand firm, the whole foundation of the Catholic religion falls and comes to ruin.  . . . When once this dogma of the truth is securely established, it is easy to gather from it that, by the mystery of the Incarnation, the whole aggregate of men and of mundane things has been endowed with a dignity than which certainly nothing greater can be imagined, and surely grander than that to which it was raised by the work of creation.”

Proceeding to speak of the special dignity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Pope emphasizes that, “because she brought forth the Redeemer of mankind, she is also in a manner the most tender Mother of us all, whom Christ our Lord deigned to have as His brothers; wherefore we may confidently entrust to her all things that are ours, our joys, our troubles, our hopes; especially if more difficult times fall upon the Church —–if faith fail because charity has grown cold, if private and public morals take a turn for the worse.”

In this last connection we are reminded of another result of the loss of devotion to the Mother of God. Frequently and truly we hear and speak of the “paganism” of the present age. The decay of faith has been followed inevitably by a decline in morality, and our elaborate and complex civilization is threatened with the dissolving agent which contributed in no small measure to the overthrow of the magnificent civilization of old Rome: namely, the loss of the domestic virtues, the disappearance of healthy, normal family life, consequent upon the abandonment of the Christian ideals of marriage and parenthood.

It is a truism that one of the greatest social effects of Christianity was to raise the status of womanhood. Her legal position in the Ancient World was little better than that of a slave, and although classical literature furnishes us with examples of women who, in pagan homes, yet enjoyed high honor and affection, such are few indeed, and but serve to prove the rule. Divorce, infanticide, general degradation of womanhood, and not infrequently of childhood, were accepted features of pagan social order. The ideal and model of the “new woman ” of the Christian dispensation was the Mother of God. It was Mary, “Mother of fair love,” “Madonna,” “our Lady,” who ennobled the degenerate old civilization, just as she tamed the fierce barbarian peoples; she it was who inspired the ideals of the later chivalry. In Mary, all her sex was uplifted; in her motherhood all motherhood became blessed. Now again the world needs the hallowing influence of the Mother of God and of men, if “the life of the family, the beginning and the foundation of all human society” is to be preserved in all its nobility and its purity.

Desirous “to mark the commemoration, and help to nourish the piety of clergy and people towards the great Mother of God,” His Holiness concludes the Encyclical by establishing the new feast of the Divine Motherhood, to be celebrated on October 11 by the universal Church. (1)

Hymn: Te Mater alma
Sweet mother of the Lord most high,
To thee we bow in humble prayer,
To thee from evil powers we fly;
O shield and keep us in thy care.

It was to lift our fallen race
Above the curse of Adam’s crime,
The king bestowed on thee all grace
And shaped thy Motherhood sublime.

So Mother, unto thee we pray;
Thou sets our need; thy Son entreat
That He, His anger turned away,
May raise our souls in mercy sweet.

All glory, Jesus, unto Thee,
Born of the Virgin void of stain;
The same to Sire and Spirit be
Proclaimed through one eternal reign. Amen.

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