Month: March 2023

Excerpt from Sermon 51 on the Transfiguration by Pope St. Leo the Great (d. 461). Full sermon at the link below. Blessed Lent, everyone.

“And in this Transfiguration the foremost object was to remove the offence of the cross from the disciple’s heart, and to prevent their faith being disturbed by the humiliation of His voluntary Passion by revealing to them the excellence of His hidden dignity. But with no less foresight, the foundation was laid of the Holy Church’s hope, that the whole body of Christ might realize the character of the change which it would have to receive, and that the members might promise themselves a share in that honour which had already shone forth in their Head. About which the Lord bad Himself said, when He spoke of the majesty of His coming, “Then shall the righteous shine as the sun in their Father’s Kingdom,” whilst the blessed Apostle Paul bears witness to the self-same thing, and says: “for I reckon that the sufferings of this thee are not worthy to be compared with the future glory which shall be revealed in us:” and again, “for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in GOD. For when Christ our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” But to confirm the Apostles and assist them to all knowledge, still further instruction was conveyed by that miracle.”

“For Moses and Elias, that is the Law and the Prophets, appeared talking with the LORD; that in the presence of those five men might most truly be fulfilled what was said: “In two or three witnesses stands every word.” What more stable, what more steadfast than this word, in the proclamation of which the trumpet of the Old and of the New Testament joins, and the documentary evidence of the ancient witnesses combine with the teaching of the Gospel? For the pages of both covenants corroborate each other, and He Whom under the veil of mysteries the types that went before had promised, is displayed clearly and conspicously by the splendour of the present glory. Because, as says the blessed John, “the law was given through Moses: but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ,” in Whom is fulfilled both the promise of prophetic figures and the purpose of the legal ordinances: for He both teaches the truth of prophecy by His presence, and renders the commands possible through grace…”

piercedhearts.org/heart_church/transfiguration_leo_great.htm

NORWOOD, The Bronx (WABC) — New York City shop owners are finding themselves in a tough conundrum as the city’s finest look for ways to crack down on crime, but could the new guidance actually put owners in more danger?

“They have to try to do something to try to bring the crime down because it’s out of control,” shopper Norma Jean said. “I don’t remember it being this bold and in your face.”

Police say they’re having trouble identifying suspects who target stores because they’re wearing masks. They are now urging store owners to be proactive in the crime fighting effort.

“We are asking the businesses to make this a condition of entry, that people when they come in, they show their face, they should identify themselves,” NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said.

Bronx bodega owner Francisco Marte is no stranger to crime. “I’ve been myself, shot three times,” he said. But he says this latest guidance from the NYPD puts business owners in a bad spot.

“We don’t have a weapon to defend ourselves,” Marte said. “That would be great, everyone come with their face up so the camera can see, we all can see. But we cannot force them to take off the mask.”

Marte says that would lead to confrontation with customers who still want to mask up because of COVID.

“I would say I’d be kind of offended because it’s my own way of feeling safe and I got really used to it through the pandemic,” shopper Emmanuel Celestrino said…

https://abc7ny.com/nyc-crime-nypd-shop-owners-no-masks/12895637/

Posted by Kane on March 2, 2023 10:14 am

 

 

Fauci gave Anderson a $1.88M grant, and $16.5M funding.

The Federalist has all the details…

---

Recently released e-mails show that Dr. Anthony Fauci knew key facts about the origins of COVID-19 in January 2020. But at that critical time, when the country was first learning about the virus, Dr. Fauci chose not to share the facts with Americans. Instead, he acted to conceal them.

On January 31, 2020, at 10:32 p.m., Dr. Fauci received an email from British researcher, Dr. Kristian Andersen. Dr. Andersen has received millions of dollars in grants from the NIH. In the email, he warned Dr. Fauci:

One has to look really closely at all the sequences to see that some of the features look engineered . . . Eddie [Holmes], Bob [Garry], Mike [Ferguson] and myself all find the genome inconsistent with evolutionary theory.

Two hours later, at 12:29 a.m. on February 1, Dr. Fauci emailed his long-time deputy, Dr. Hugh Auchincloss. In the email, Dr. Fauci attached a paper written by Dr. Ralph Baric and Dr. Zhengli-Li Shi – the so-called “bat woman” from Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). The paper highlighted taxpayer-funded gain-of-function research on coronaviruses conducted by the WIV. Dr. Fauci told Dr. Auchincloss:

It is essential that we speak this [morning]. Keep your cell phone on . . . read this paper . . . you will have tasks today that must be done. Urgency. Intensity.

Two hours later, at 2:48 a.m., Dr. Fauci sent another email, to Dr. Robert Kadlec. Dr. Kadlec was the Trump-appointed Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services. Attached to this email was an article that downplayed the lab leak and advocated for an evolutionary origin to COVID-19. Dr. Fauci simply wrote:

Bob: This came out today. Gives a balanced view.

No urgency. No intensity.

Why was Dr. Fauci so concerned when emailing his deputy but so calm when emailing his boss? Why didn’t he send Dr. Kadlec the Baric-Shi paper? The paper that supported the original message from Dr. Andersen that COVID-19 looked engineered, was inconsistent with evolutionary theory, and linked American tax dollars to gain of function research at the WIV.

Later that morning, at 11:47 a.m., Dr. Auchincloss replied to Dr. Fauci:

The paper you sent me says the experiments were performed before the gain-of-function pause but have since been reviewed and approved by NIH. Not sure what this means since [we are] sure that no coronavirus work has gone through the P3 framework. [We] will try to determine if we have any distant ties to this work abroad.

Dr. Auchincloss’ email confirms Dr. Fauci’s worst fear. American tax dollars funded gain of function research at the WIV and that research didn’t go through proper oversight (the P3 framework).

Dr. Fauci already knew there was a lethal virus on the loose in Wuhan, China. In just 13 hours, between 10:32 p.m. January 31, 2020, and 11:47 a.m. February 1, 2020, Dr. Fauci learned three additional facts.

What did he do next?

He organized a conference call for the evening of February 1, 2020. On the call were 11 virologists from around the world, including Dr. Andersen who sent Dr. Fauci the email less than 24 hours earlier. Almost all the participants on the call had previously been awarded American taxpayer-funded grants by Dr. Fauci.

Who was not on the call?

Dr. Kadlec, Dr. Fauci’s superior at HHS.

Dr. Robert Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Brett Giroir, Assistant Secretary for Health.

Or Dr. Birx, the soon-to-be COVID-19 Response Coordinator.

In fact, there was not a single U.S. government official on the call, except for Dr. Fauci.

What happened on the call? We don’t know. All of the emails discussing the call are redacted.

However, we do know what happened four days later. Dr. Andersen, the virologist who sent the original 10:32 p.m. email on January 31, went public with this statement: “The main crackpot theories going around at the moment relate to this virus being somehow engineered . . . and that is demonstrably false.”

In four days, Dr. Andersen flipped 180 degrees.

The only intervening event appears to be the conference call with Dr. Fauci.

In addition, over the next few weeks, Dr. Andersen and three others on the conference call penned an article in Nature Medicine. The article included the definitive statement, that “Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct . . . “

https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/fauci-paid-scientist-18-million-to-change-his-opinion-on-covid/

h/t Fr. Nix

PATIENCE UNDER TEMPTATION & THE MEANS OF CONQUERING
With what arms are we to fight temptations in order to conquer?
by S. Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop & Doctor of the Church

The first and principal, and I may say the only, and absolutely necessary means for conquering temptations, is to have recourse to God by prayer.  This means is particularly necessary for conquering temptations against purity;  In temptations it is also very useful to make the Sign of the Cross.

The second means of conquering temptations is to humble yourself, and to distrust your own strength.  Thus let us humble ourselves, and at the same time let us have recourse with confidence to God Who protects all that hope in Him.   He is the protection of all that trust in Him. (Ps. Xvii. 31).

The third means of overcoming temptations is to make them known to your spiritual Father.

The fourth means, which is a very important one, of relieving one’s self from temptations is to avoid what occasions them.  He that loveth danger, shall perish in it (Ecclus. iii. 27). i.e. He that loves danger, and goes in search of it, shall perish in it: nor is it of any use to hope for aid from God; to trust in God, and to expose one’s self voluntarily to the occasion of sin, is not a holy but a rash confidence, which merits chastisement.