The respected Catholic historian John Rao has written the following incisive reflection on the coronavirus pandemic which places much of the current disturbing situation in context.
For many years, Dr. Rao, who is associate professor of history at St. John’s University in New York City, has run the Roman Forum which was founded in 1968 by Professor Dietrich von Hildebrand as a means of defending Catholic doctrine and culture following internal Church disputes over Humanae vitae.
These lectures, which now take place in Gardone, Italy, and New York City, have become increasingly popular. The Forum is now in its 28th year.
Professor Rao wrote the following May 4 message to members of the Roman Forum and has kindly given permission for it to be published:
“The more the panic grows, the more uplifting the image of a man who refuses to bow to the terror” — Ernst Jünger
The purpose of the Roman Forum is educational, and it would be a dereliction of duty not to make some comment on what we are witnessing around us and what it means for us as Catholics, as citizens, and as civilized men and women. I do not feel competent to discuss the initial cause of a disease that has affected the entire globe, nor would I in any way wish to minimize the real suffering and loss that this malady has entailed for many people. But what I do believe an educator needs to stress is the way in which a controllable pandemic has been transformed into a totally unnecessary pandemonium; a horrifying illustration of the diabolical disorientation accompanying all of the ravages of modernity, and one that has allowed a painfully hollow modern society to titillate itself with the “feel” of living through the Bubonic Plague without actually doing so.
Our Socratic forbears taught us through their “Seeds of the Logos” that the reasoning man does not have to be an expert in a given field to be able to make a competent judgment regarding whether he is dealing with leaders whose advice he should heed or reject as fraudulent. Frauds demand absolute faith in their claims, treating the confused doubter with contempt for his invincible ignorance. Such imposters may seriously believe that they are omniscient experts. But when they tell young or otherwise healthy persons that they are in the same condition as the weakest of the elderly or the already ill; when they say that in order to protect itself the vast mass of the population has to abandon its livelihood, the well-being of its country, the cultural life of its civilization, and the tools required for its eternal salvation they must be dismissed for what they actually are: quacks.
We find ourselves today at the mercy of well educated, possibly well meaning, but ultimately highly dangerous and arrogant guides of this sort. These Masters of Them That Know are pressing us to destroy everything that we hold dear for the sake of creating an antiseptic, barren, soulless world unfit for human beings to live in—and die in—with dignity. It will take calm study when and if this pandemonium ends to determine the full genesis and complexity of the quackery involved, but it certainly is clear that all of the destructive forces that play a role in the modern world, along with all of those who have voluntarily succumbed to them, have had their unfortunate part in it.
These include the media, which have far surpassed their traditional display of criminal irresponsibility by whipping the world into a state of mass hysteria and terrorized paralysis. The media have been accompanied in their work of diabolical disorientation by a political establishment that permits the cowed masses to venture forth from their cells only under the condition of donning the current yellow Star of David: the face mask. Both serve the cause of vaccine mad ideologues who smell a profit to be made from the panicked mob begging for its supposed physical salvation at any cost. So effectively has this work of unleashing a pandemonium been accomplished that it is now hard to determine whether it is the terrorized masses themselves or the actual purveyors of the great dread who are most vigorously encouraging the chaining of men and women to the dark, back wall of Plato’s cave.
Still, as a Catholic educational organization, it is urgently incumbent upon the Roman Forum to note and to lament how much this pandemonium has been voluntarily and quite pathetically accepted by the shepherds of the Church, who have taken flight and allowed the sheep to be handed over to the will of ideological fanatics and their power or money hungry global accomplices.
In our lectures through the last twenty-eight years we have recounted the way in which the French and Russian Revolutions have secularized society and contributed mightily to the destruction of Christendom. Our shepherds in the past suffered and were martyred to try to fend these horrors off. But now the believing population has been deprived of its right to worship openly and to gain access to the sacraments not through the guns and whips of the oppressors, but with the full agreement of the successors of the Apostles.
These sad and lamentable prelates have made it crystal clear to the entire globe that laundromats and abortion mills are more “essential” to the life of man than the grace of Christ. Why would the world possibly take their “magisterial” teaching seriously after that kind of confession? How much of the spiritual literature of the Church must be rewritten to justify their new mentality? How foolish must we consider the priests of the Black Death who perished to give last rites to the sick in comparison with the sensible bishops of the present, huddled in their pointless palaces, warning the clergy of the physical dangers of shepherding the sheep? Admittedly, they are filled with a kind of “holy terror”: the fear that, should they open the doors of the generally empty churches of the “renewal”— where social distancing is actually simple to maintain, even under normal circumstances — someone who enters might claim to have fallen ill and litigate. At that point a true disaster would ensue! The last pieces of property, whose material accumulation has always been the real pride and joy of much of the business minded American Hierarchy, might then be taken away from them.
This Friday, May 8th, 2020, is not only the date when all of this year’s Church History lectures will be made available. It is also the seventy-fifth anniversary of the end of the Second World War. The post-war era has been coming to a conclusion ever since the collapse of the Soviet Bloc in the years 1989-1991, the worldwide havoc wreaked by neoconservative warfare to make the world safe for Pluralism, and the election of a German pope. Now, with this pandemonium, I think we can safely say that we are finished referencing everything to that long dead conflict.
Would that we could proclaim the same for the ravages of modernity! Whether it advances today under the mantra of the “New Normal”, or just yesterday under the terminology of building a “Post-Modernity”, it is the same diabolical, naturalist, anti-Christian, soul killing, and therefore dreadfully boring agenda that the purveyors of Enlightenment have been foisting upon the world for centuries in the name of assuring its final liberation. This sophistic mess of pottage is always presented as being dictated by some absolute necessity or some exciting new insight. And it is in its seemingly more restrained, “health-friendly”, non-violent manner—its Moderate Enlightenment, John Locke, and therefore anti-social, atomistic, consumer materialist manner—that it is now gaining this, its greatest victory in the history of Christendom against a prostrate Catholic Church. How accurate of our chaplain to refer to our stay-in-place Diktat as a “John Locke-down”.
Dear friends, the apparatchiks of the wretched “New Normal” have popularized a fresh farewell greeting that one encounters everywhere when venturing forth wearing the Mask of Oppression: “stay safe”. This is not a farewell greeting appropriate to sons of God seeking a spiritual transformation in Christ ending in the resurrection of the body and eternal life in heaven. This is not a greeting that the Roman Forum suggests that Catholics who are horrified by the flight of our shepherds and our abandonment to the fulfilment of the earthbound visions of dangerous medical evangelists and their preposterous, petty dictatorial political allies should utilize when they trudge back from the godless city streets to their individual prison cells to live out ever more isolated, sterile, “safe” lives.
We have a tremendous battle ahead of us: for our churches, our sacraments, our traditional liturgy, our country, what remains of the glorious cultural life of the West, and of our very means of survival. “Stay strong and Viva Cristo Rey!” should be on our lips as we retreat into our “castles”. But we should retreat into those castles only to steel ourselves spiritually and intellectually to muster the courage needed to contradict the arrogant but confident authorities mandating the “New Normal”. Then we can more confidently lower our drawbridges to undertake ever more determined sorties into a world that must be re-conquered for the King of Kings. Deus lo vult!
Stay Strong and Viva Cristo Rey!
John C. Rao (D.Phil., Oxford)
Chairman, Roman Forum
Associate Professor of History, St. John’s University
“Even if the wounds of this shattered world enmesh you, and the sea in turmoil bears you along in but one surviving ship, it would still befit you to maintain your enthusiasm for studies unimpaired. Why should lasting values tremble if transient things fall?” (Prosper of Aquitaine)
This is all so true. The Barque of Peter is dashed on the rocks. There are nothing but simpering queens in their castles having destroyed the Kingship of Christ. Western Civilization died with abortion’s rise. We need a leader to stand up and arouse the Church Militant. Or is it the time to welcome Christ coming on the clouds of heaven?
I do not have the words to say how welcome I find this essay. Dr. Rao says so much, so well. The bit that stands out most to me is this: “…a horrifying illustration of the diabolical disorientation accompanying all of the ravages of modernity, and one that has allowed a painfully hollow modern society to titillate itself with the “feel” of living through the Bubonic Plague without actually doing so.”
This puts into words exactly what I see around me, a sort of panic about death without any death. In my state, 1,050 people have died out 11.6 million. Yet the talk is as if we are facing the black plague, and if you step outside your home you will be dead by nightfall. I understand completely the risk to the elderly and people with health problems (“the majority of the population!!” we are told — although the vast majority of the population, health problems or no health problems, seems to get this disease and have no symptoms at all). In a way it’s a perfect storm for generating fear, because it fits everyone: You might have it right now and not know it! You might give it to anyone! You might kill thousands without being aware! You might be perfectly healthy and still die from it! You might be dead by nightfall!!!
It seems so hard to hold on to sanity.
Yes. Excellent.
That line struck me as well because it’s so true. This is why the protests have hundreds of people instead of thousands or millions. Many people are loving the lockdown. It brings purpose and meaning into their otherwise meaningless lives.
I agree with most of what you wrote but wanted to mention one glaring inaccuracy. Comparing 1,050 COVID-19 deaths to the general population (11.6 million) is disingenuous & misleading. As a stastical determinant, it’s invalid. You need to compare COVID mortalities proportion to COVID infections for an effective value (mortality rate) that’s deterministic. If 10,000 people were infected and 1,050 died, you would have a staggering mortality rate of 10.05%. Now if 11.6 million people become infected aprox. 1.16 million would die. That’s catastrophic
The mortality rate is between 0.1 and 0.2% – equivalent to the seasonal influenza according to most respected epidemiologists.
https://www.thepressandthepublic.com/latest
So well said. I’m in total agreement.
This is what we should be listening to. Amazing article. Vivo Cristo Rey
Indisputable and eloquent from a natural perspective, but where is the acknowledgement that this is a supernatural chastisement, a Divine Interdict? As we so disgusted with our corrupt shepherds – whom St. John Eudes describes as the most severe manifestation of God’s wrath – that we are forgetting to look in the mirror? God administers his justice through wicked men, whether we like it or not. I’m struggling with this lock-down and this fraudulent panic-demic as well, but it is a struggle with my lack of humility and obedience, not a struggle with blaming others for my misfortunes. The message of Fatima is penance and self-examination, not recrimination. As to how to resist the secular fraud, I’m doing my part. As to how to behave during the elimination of public sacraments, I’m obeying my bishop, who is most certainly not spineless.
John, your comment exudes effeminacy. You state our shepherds are corrupt. Then you counsel more obedience to these wicked men. What!?
Why, then, wouldn’t you also afford the same obedience to the wicked secular authorities. After all, their authority is also from God. Thus, according to you, they should also be acknowledged as the sword of our chastisement and given our obedience in all things. Perhaps that should be the new Catholic norm for democratic elections, vote for the candidate most likely to be our chastisement, for it is God’s will.
I wonder, John, if a serial rapist were to break in to my home, should I treat him as a welcomed chastisement from God with servile obedience, or should I resist his motives toward my children? I agree with you. It would be a most difficult decision for the effeminate man.
I digress. My opinion is that the laity ought to smoke-out our wicked prelates – they deny us the sacraments, so we stop giving them money. Take away their carte blanche. Instead, funnel your contribution directly to the poor, such as, the 250 million persons on the brink of starvation due to this worldwide economic collapse.
Well said
Right on! Self examination and reflection on God’s message through all of this, along with obedience to our human leaders, spiritual and secular; these are the points we need to be asking ourselves. What is our part in this? Repentance, forgiveness, mercy. Our bishops are doing what they feel is best, pray for them! May God have mercy on us, forgive us, and prepare us for the reentry with the power of the Holy Spirit!
He gets it.
I have not been in harmony with the modern world. In spite of my flagrant opposition, I managed to remain employed in the health care field until last Friday when my job as an instructor was temporarily eliminated.
Modern man is too easily fooled.
I have found the acceptance of this fraud by so many, which is totally against scientific principals, very depressing.
May God bless you Dr.Rao, as you are one of a very few who have the courage to tell the Truth. Thank you so much. We here in Ontario, Canada have also been left without the sacraments and alone. Where are our bishops? Obviously in hiding and when they do speak once a month or two, it is all saccharine, mushy nonsense to save their hides. We do not have leadership in our country either so it takes great courage and faith to have Hope. Remember Pope Benedict years ago said that everyone should be praying for Hope. In Jesus Christ Christ, Penelope Costin
Great article Dr. Rao is brilliant. We are living in Brave New World. The sameness of it all, everyone chanting the same monotonous tune to the Moon.
The closing of the Catholic Churches give ample evidence we are living in a GODLESS Society.
It is in violation of canon law to deny the faithful the sacraments. Unbelievable that people are so stupid.
Our Lord wins in the end.
A battle cry! Nay, we don’t retreat, we “…steel ourselves spiritually and intellectually muster the courage…”. I love all of these blazing words. Thank you.
Baaaaa Baaaa Baaaa
I guess this is what vaccines have done to the population.
The Cristeros and the Vendee are examples that many of the Traditionally-minded Catholics hold up as examples of the Church Militant fighting secularism – and rightly so. However, the real sacrifices of those families and true glory of those men are slighted by the recommendation to dutifully “withdraw into our castles” as ordered by our betters.
Consider what glory could have been won by those Cristeros and Vendee if they instead opted to retreat into their homes, stay there ..and prepare intellectually for a combat that they would never undertake – even as they were deprived of the Holy Mass and Sacraments! As for spiritual preparation, the Cristeros and Vendee experienced that sharply on the eve of battle with far more efficacy than we will in our living rooms.
As Dr. Rao points out, moderate non-violent secularism has succeeded wonderfully. They have used violence to assume supremacy and authority over civilization and then hypocritically claimed that any use of force against their power is always an Evil. Even “their” Vatican II theology dutifully taught us that the use of force is unquestionably unchristian and damnable. St Joan of Arc must be ashamed of so many moderns who hold up her banner to parade with but will drop it and run from a real battle.
Will the last gasp of Christendom, just before the second coming of our King, end in a final exhale from complete defiance or a whimper from shame? I would suggest, given our modern thought, we abstain from wrapping the banner of our worthy Christian warriors of old around ourselves as if we are somehow their brothers-in-arms.
Absolutely, courageous defense of faith and family is a casualty of secular liberal indoctrination at school, in media and politically. It will take decades to unwind the harm.
Thank you for that gentle chastisement to many of us. I see that Mr. Rao’s place of employment requires employees to be masked and fully vaccinated. True courage is a cross.
Along these lines I highly recommend Michael Moore’s new documentary “Planet of the Humans.” It exposes “green energy” as a scam and concludes that the only way to save the world is for humanity to form a universal death cult by reducing our numbers and consumption–as Rao says, a more “isolated, sterile, safe” life.
Excellent analysis!Anyone with eyes and ears and not manipulated can watch the widespread anxiety and even anger directed towards those who chose not to wear the useless face masks. A lot of hysteria unleashed. Clearly there is an agenda here taking advantage of the current Covid virus to manipulate and control. And the reaction by the vast majority of Bishops has been like
the one of those ” mute dogs” as the Saints used to say many centuries ago about Bishops who kept silent in order to keep their own false peace and calm.
Barbara, I am one of those ” who choose not to wear the usless masks”. I live in one of the top four hotspot states. Im in my early 50s.
I think the masks are unsafe. My reasoning is that it makes me anxious, as if i need air, and i am not otherwise anxious person about other physical modifications. Just yesterday i came across an article in a scientific journal that validated my earlier concern. Also, if ever there would occur, and thereby recurring need for that level of self-protection, Our Creator would have installed one at the onset.
Oddly, i also feel anxious when i go to the grocery store without a mask. My anxiety here is my bracing for the confrontation of strangers or the store clerks. So far no one has said anything to me except at a gardening center where the young worker offered me one they had on hand. I refused and went a few blocks away and made my purchases at another garden center.
95% of the people out and about here are wearing them.
I cannot but believe that this is a vast experiment on population manipulation and control. Whether or not it was “arson” or “benign neglect” that brought it on cannot be known at this point. But it is clear – based on the variety of national responses – that many wicked manipulators are taking advantage and pushing nefarious ideas because of it.
If it gets to the point that i cannot go into Meijers – a place i go to so frequently we call it ‘the pantry’! – without a mask i may actually place a yellow star of David on it.
Those of us who believe the masks are more an issue of social control and a tee-up to “social credit” systems must push back. Be brave, be maskless.
I agree, recently a clip documentary exposing the frauds was downloaded to YouTube. Right away received millions of views. The documentary is Pandemic sheds light on what we all already know.
Dr. Judy Mikovits is a very credible scientist that exposed Fauci for the fraud he is.
https://youmightsharethis.com/plandemic-documentary/
Angela,
For what’s it worth, Dr. Mikovitz’s work and history in Plandemic appears to have been *highly* embellished:
https://respectfulinsolence.com/2020/05/06/judy-mikovits-pandemic/
https://www.reddit.com/r/CovIdiots/comments/gezery/plandemic_documentary_debunked/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
“…a controllable pandemic has been transformed into a totally unnecessary pandemonium…”
A pandemic is by definition un-controllable…It can be mitigated to reduce the number of fatalities and illnesses, but absent (near) universal immunity, people globally will continue to be infected by the virus and either get sick—with or without symptoms—or die.
“…when they tell young or otherwise healthy persons that they are in the same condition as the weakest of the elderly or the already ill; when they say that in order to protect itself the vast mass of the population has to abandon its livelihood, the well-being of its country, the cultural life of its civilization, and the tools required for its eternal salvation they must be dismissed for what they actually are: quacks.”
The “vast mass of the population” has not had to “abandon its livelihood.” Even in this country the unemployment rate is less than 20%. The billions of others who live outside the First World, and can’t have their sustenance delivered to their doorsteps, have been working all along. And all those who have continued to work are producing and providing the “tools required for” out temporal existence (i.e., creating circumstances of material plenty such that people like Professor Rao can sit comfortably at their keyboards pounding out anti-materialist diatribes without starving to death or…going without coffee).
“…It will take calm study when and if this pandemonium ends to determine the full genesis and complexity of the quackery involved, but it certainly is clear that all of the destructive forces that play a role in the modern world, along with all of those who have voluntarily succumbed to them, have had their unfortunate part in it.”
Let’s be clear: “if” this pandemonium does not end, millions if not hundreds of millions of people across the world will die because of (mostly, it seems) respiratory issues/failure due to a novel virus. That, it seems to me, is a set of pandemonic circumstances that some of the creative and Providential forces that play a role in the modern world” (i.e., empirical science and technology) will mitigate and (eventually—sooner rather than later, we work, hope, and pray) virtually eliminate.
“…the media, which have far surpassed their traditional display of criminal irresponsibility by whipping the world into a state of mass hysteria,,,
…and a political establishment that permits the cowed masses to venture forth from their cells only under the condition of donning the current yellow Star of David: the face mask.”
Yes, (many, but not all) the media have been irresponsible…but describing the face mask as “the current yellow Star of David” or “Mask of Oppression” is hysterical and hardly responsible. (In my State of Ohio it is not required but I choose to wear it in closed public spaces (grocery store, for example). I am “permitted” not to wear it if I so choose.
“…the cause of vaccine mad ideologues…”
Is the Professor suggesting by the use of this ambiguous phrase that vaccine rational–and even Christian–men and women of good will and mind do not—cannot—exist?
(I.e., is the pursuit of a safe and ethical vaccine “mad”?)
“…the believing population has been deprived of its right to worship openly and to gain access to the sacraments not through the guns and whips of the oppressors, but with the full agreement of the successors of the Apostles.”
I am not happy with the lack of creativity on the part of our pastors (at various levels). But several Catholic churches near where I live are open throughout the day, every day, and the Blessed Sacrament is available for worship. Confessions too. Open…and sadly, empty.
“These sad and lamentable prelates have made it crystal clear to the entire globe that laundromats and abortion mills are more “essential” to the life of man than the grace of Christ.”
The “grace of Christ” is available to my wife and I as we live out our marriage vows. Even in the kitchen. Ditto for Cross-carriers who make their Morning Offerings and labor to make material ends meet. It is “sad and lamentable” for Professors to implicitly denigrate this available and redemptive grace.
“…neoconservative warfare to make the world safe for Pluralism…”
Pluralism is a means, not an end. Do opponents of pluralism want to make the world safe for governments like the Communist Party of China?
“Dear friends, the apparatchiks of the wretched “New Normal” have popularized a fresh farewell greeting that one encounters everywhere when venturing forth wearing the Mask of Oppression: “stay safe”. This is not a farewell greeting appropriate to sons of God seeking a spiritual transformation in Christ ending in the resurrection of the body and eternal life in heaven.”
Years ago, when my children first learned to drive, as they headed out the door with my car keys, we would say: “stay safe”. Admittedly, it was not “a farewell greeting [sic] appropriate to sons of God seeking a spiritual transformation in Christ ending in the resurrection of the body and eternal life in heaven.” No. I just wanted them to…“be safe.”
Yes, there was a earthroadbound element to that loving supplication. No more. No less. I did not “utilize” it “godlessly,” but solicitously. And I am pretty sure that our current “stay safe” verbal exchanges are similarly appropriate, affectionate, and, it should (hysteria aside) go without saying, harmless.
‘We have a tremendous battle ahead of us: for our churches, our sacraments, our traditional liturgy, our country, what remains of the glorious cultural life of the West, and of our very means of survival.
“Stay strong and Viva Cristo Rey!” should be on our lips as we retreat into our “castles”. But we should retreat into those castles only to steel ourselves spiritually and intellectually to muster the courage needed to contradict the arrogant but confident authorities mandating the “New Normal”. Then we can more confidently lower our drawbridges to undertake ever more determined sorties into a world that must be re-conquered for the King of Kings…”
It should also go without saying that there is an earthbound–or at least earth-directed–aspect to producing, harvesting, and sustaining “our means of survival.” The vast majority of us planet-dwellers are not Platonists, just workers whose quotidian “battles” and “sorties into the world entail mostly physical labor—the Old Normal—in order to sustain and nurture our families. And we workers of the world need to unite, be, and stay, strong. And healthy too. Deus lo vult!
Thank you! So well said.
What is a “pandemonic” circumstance, Mr. Schneider?
I do understand what pandemoniac circumstances would be.
“That, it seems to me, is a set of pandemonic circumstances that some of the creative and Providential forces that play a role in the modern world” (i.e., empirical science and technology) will mitigate and (eventually—sooner rather than later, we work, hope, and pray) virtually eliminate.”
“millions if not hundreds of millions of people across the world will die”
Paul, these are FAKE numbers.
“Even in this country the unemployment rate is less than 20%.”
Paul, now you are talking about millions of REAL people. But, that’s no big deal to you. Right?
You forgot to mention how, exactly, those are “fake” numbers. Please include your formuala.
Paul, you are the one who posted numbers without justification. Just like a typical liberal revolutionary you throw out fake news and when someone calls you on it, then you demand “formuala” from them. Where is your “formuala”?
A few days ago my place of employment stopped using “New Normal” in its emails. The situation has been “upgraded” to the “Better Normal.” I’m still waiting to hear how this is better …
Really good article, Thank you. I think God has almost been completely erased from this world included among the shepherds of the Catholic Church. I say almost. I have 5 children and 16 grandchildren, most grown up. My 5 were all brought up in the Catholic Church and schools (Novus Ordo) Mass every Sunday. Now I think none believe in God, two have actually told me that. No one attends Mass ever. Two got married after the fact, seven live together and the rest are younger. What did I do wrong! Let the world get hold of them which I could not stop. Most of the world now is like my family. When there is no belief in God, then the world becomes your God and you listen only to it. This is what we have now, sorry to say. My wife and I pray for our children every, every, day and for the world, hoping our Lord will open their eyes. Are we not told that something good will always come from something evil, I hope.
God bless everybody and keep you safe,
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, help us.
Very true….I work in a elementary school and really see the sad effects of not incorporating God in your daily walk. God is the Alpha and Omega. You are doing what you can PRAYING for everyone and your family.
God Bless and may you have some peace amongst this storm xo
Thank you, Dr. Rao, for a superb, timely piece. I live in Ventura County, California, population 800,000+. There are 600 identified cases of the virus. A simple calculation shows that this is .00075 percent of the population. Yet, each day, I see one driver, no passengers, wearing a mask. As I walk the local beach, looking a mile in each direction, there appears to be five or six people, separated by hundreds of feet, and several wear masks. I realize that the situation is complex, but yes, we have , to some extent, been manipulated by an “Establishment” that becomes ever more totalitarian. Of course, it is all done “for the good of the people”. Next will be, “Are your papers in order”? Chilling.
The SSPX parish in West Palm Beach Florida never closed and ABS will be back there assisting at the Holy Holocaust this Sunday
The author seems to completely ignore the deeply integrated relationship between the church and state that preceded (and directly caused) the mass population’s distaste and outright disdain for churches the Russians and French, among others, viewed as defenders of their oppressors and, by extension, their oppressors with no regard for their well being. To suggest that bishops and prelates, now, in the modern age, should disregard the fact more than 1 in 20 people who contract this virus die from it (and that’s total infected – not accounting for the extreme skew towards older people who are more likely to be going to Mass) smacks of a similar attitude of disrespect and disregard for the masses. A few months of prayer at home is not going to shake the faith out of the faithful. Watching them die off rapidly with no concern for their health will.
“the fact more than 1 in 20 people who contract this virus die from it”
John, your numbers are vastly wrong.
I think that the villain here is Hobbes, not Locke. His motto, also that of Satan in the Book of Job, is “Skin for skin, all that a man hath he will give for his life.” Locke tries hard to avoid this sort of thing, though the resulting social philosophy is something of a mess. And some modern and even highly societies, notably Sweden, have tried to protect the public health without succumbing to coronaphobia.
I think you are correct in identifying Hobbes as the chief villain. Nevertheless, Locke tries to provide a “moderate” approach to dealing with what he actually accepts as the correct analysis. I believe that Locke is “Hobbes for sissies”.
John Rao
Thank you, Dr. Rao, for courageously proclaiming the truth. It is very sad how gullible and misinformed people are such as the previous person who commented 1/20 people who get the virus, die. Also, the person who commented that he and his wife get Grace in the kitchen. Not the Eucharist you don’t. Obviously, the bishops don’t believe in the supernatural or else they would have never rolled over before they were even mandated to close! What a bunch of pansies.
This was a great article. I see far too many ordinary people being fined, ticketed or arrested for being outside their homes or not “social distancing”. The Lady hairdresser in DALLAS who was JAILED is a case in point. Thankfully because of public outcry, she was just released.But this NEVER should have happened. In some places ( always leftist Democrat) they are attempting to dictate what you can or cannot purchase in a store. Kansas City wants churches to record the names and contact info of worshippers. In Germany, churches have been allowed to open but NO SINGING is permitted!!! What gives the govt the right to dictate that? More, why have their Bishops swallowed that with no arguments? Why did American Bishops ok this shut down when the average church could surely hold 50 or more people for Mass while observing social distancing? What will they do if the shut down is extended again and again and again??? Likely, nothing. They have already capitulated, its too late to argue. In some states they are using DRONES to observe peoples action from the sky, and in NYC, people are encouraged to inform on their fellow citizens.Communism is here. The Bishops have allowed the state to take away our Mass and our sacraments. Indefinitely. I wonder how they will explain themselves some day to Our Lord?
They’ll be tabulating the dead and sickened for decades.
What will NEVER be calculated will be the number of souls who died in mortal sin because they couldn’t receive confession or viatacum before expiring in a car crash, stroke, or on some ventilator.
I have only been Catholic for 22 years; but this was about as shameful a response from our prelates as history has EVER recorded. Tje WHOLESALE abandonment of the Flock by our Shepherds has been shameful … we will NEVER forget that when the chips were down, they folded to the unimpressive likes of Governor Whitmer, Governor Klan Robes, and all the rest.
If you’re a Catholic and NOT groaning for rescue from our own leadership, well, then I just don’t understand.
1) When Henry VIII took over the Church of England in the 16th century and required everyone to take an oath supporting his action, only 1 bishop refused, along with 1 politician and a number of Carthusians and Franciscans. This country was founded by the English.
2) I am appalled that our bishop has a statement on his website that when our local churches open, only healthy persons under the age of 65 may attend. This is what our governor stated when he allowed them to reopen. I wrote to the governor’s office immediately and the discriminatory limitations were removed from the state website, but the bishop obviously disagreed. I continued to help fund the parish until this happened, but since I’m not good enough to attend Mass I have better things to do with my money than give it to people who prohibit me from going to Mass. And I will be voting for whoever runs against the governor. I’m fed up with this stuff.