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In this week’s Mic’d Up, Michael Voris interviews Jack Fonseca of Campaign Life Coalition (CLC). CLC is the political arm of the pro-life movement in Canada, and they’ve been advocating since 1978 for the legal protection of every human life.
Also, to learn more about Delta Hospice Society, click here.
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As you know, Church Militant is always helping you understand the connections between the culture and the Church, the crossover between both worlds. Those two worlds parallel each other in many ways — they're practically mirrors. And, theologically, it makes sense. As Bp. Sheen used to say, the world is the theater of redemption: It's where the great spiritual war rages.
So as we look out on all of this, we see something happening in each arena. There is a great realignment occurring, in the Church and in the culture. In many ways, the old labels, which used to categorize things neatly, no longer apply. Consider, for example, "conservative" and "liberal." There's so much confusion over those classifications — especially liberal — that no one really knows what they mean.
The old labels are so ineffective at describing the new realities that, oftentimes, you find adjectives popping up in front of them which pretty much redefine them. So the old word is used, but there is a totally different meaning behind the word.
We no longer have just Catholics, but 'CINOs': Catholics in name only.Tweet
For example, there aren't just plain old Republicans anymore. But now there are actual Republicans and then there are RINO Republicans — Republicans in name only. Notice, to bring up the point of the crossover between culture and State, we also no longer have just Catholics, but "CINOs": Catholics in name only.
And, of course, we have not just Catholics but "cafeteria Catholics." All these adjectives are now necessary because the terms no longer mean what they used to mean. All of this redefining is going on because there is, underneath it all, a massive realignment going on — in the culture and the Church.
In the political world, Donald Trump has become the symbol of all that, not to mention also a precipitating cause. Tens of millions of Americans were beginning to sense a political shift, a new paradigm emerging where they, as individuals, no longer mattered.
They sensed correctly that the world they knew was being buried under a mountain of globalist Marxism. In the Church, faithful Catholics likewise sensed a major shift happening. They couldn't put a finger on it, but they knew something was up, something was off.
So they began realigning themselves, leaving the Church of Nice and hunting out the actual Faith. It's like a Catholic version of the Walkaway movement that is rippling through the Democratic Party — a movement of Democrats who have woken up and realized the party no longer represents them. And so they are walking away from it.
The Marxist Left, up until the arrival of Donald Trump, was able to keep the truth of its agenda under wraps.Tweet
There is a huge ideological shift, an enormous immigration, a mass migration where people are seeking out like-minded individuals and associating themselves with them. It's all over social media. It's all over politics. It's all over the Church. It's all over the place.
People are choosing sides, and in that choosing up sides, some people are waking up and realizing that the folks they thought they had a lot in common with, they really didn't. So they cut ties and are establishing new ones.
Now, some people find this upsetting. They bemoan the division, they lament the lack of unity. Frankly, that's a stupid response. There can be unity only if it's a unity around truth. In fact, this entire realignment is about the truth. Some waking up to it, others wanting to destroy it.
But truth is the cause. When truth is present, there are only two responses. It is either embraced or raged against. The Marxist Left, up until the arrival of Donald Trump, was able to keep the truth of its agenda under wraps, to conceal the truth.
But now, it's all out there. Nothing is hidden. And people are making choices. And that's a good thing. Even on the side of evil, it's good to know who's who. For Catholics and other Christian denominations — remember, this is how things will be at the end of the world. Truth will cause one great, final realignment — and it will be final.
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The Catholic Church infallibly teaches the truth that "Outside the Church, there is no salvation." The Church isn't saying here that only Catholics go to Heaven but that all graces needed for salvation originate in Christ and pass through His Mystical Body, the Church.
Section 846 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms that this dogma does mean "All salvation comes from Christ the head through the Church, which is His body."
Those unable to know this truth have what's called invincible ignorance. A little Jewish girl who dies at the age of 6 might be such a person.
Of these, Pope Pius IX in his 1863 encyclical, Quanto Conficiamur Moerore, wrote:
It is known to Us and to you that they who labor in invincible ignorance of our most holy religion and who, zealously keeping the natural law and its precepts engraved in the hearts of all by God, and being ready to obey God, live an honest and upright life, can, by the operating power of divine light and grace, attain eternal life, since God ... will by no means suffer anyone to be punished with eternal torment who has not the guilt of deliberate sin.
As cited in Denzinger §1677, Pius IX adds:
But, the Catholic dogma that no one can be saved outside the Catholic Church is well known; and also that those who are obstinate toward the authority and definitions of the same Church, and who persistently separate themselves from the unity of the Church, and from the Roman Pontiff, the successor of Peter, to whom "the guardianship of the vine has been entrusted by the Savior," cannot obtain eternal salvation.
Vatican II repeatsthis admonition in Lumen Gentium §14: "Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it, could not be saved. ... Not only shall they not be saved but they will be the more severely judged."
The Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ.Tweet
To learn more about the Catholic faith, check out the Catholicism series.
Nigeria: Muslim persecution of Christians reaches genocidal levels
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VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) - The Vatican's ambassador to Nigeria is downplaying the role of Islam in the persecution of Christians as this could "rekindle division" between Muslims and Christians.
"When we say a conflict is religious, we give it a moral justification. This makes the solution even more difficult, because everyone thinks he is in the right because he does it in the name of God, in the name of religion," Abp. Antonio Filipazzi told Vatican News Friday.
Nigeria's Christians plead for the world to come to their aid
Stressing it was important "not to present conflicts as if they are exclusively caused by religion," the papal nuncio to Nigeria was silent on the jihadi Muslim militia Boko Haram and the Fulani herdsmen.
But experts on religious persecution said both Islamic groups were specifically targeting Christians — including significant numbers of Catholics — expressly stating jihadi motivation for the massacre of Christians.
Filipazzi did not name the two groups even once, even though a preface to the Vatican News' interview acknowledged the role of "Boko Haram jihadists" in the "attacks and kidnappings" of 40,000 people in northeastern Nigeria alone.
Instead, arguing that "violence in Nigeria is a multiple issue," the nuncio cited ethnic clashes, kidnappings for extortion, terrorism and armed gangs as causes of conflict.
In comments to Church Militant, Dr. Martin Parsons, independent consultant on global persecution of Christians, said that Filipazzi's remarks failed to account for the jihadi-based slaughter and the Islamic slave trade kidnappings perpetrated by Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen.
For too long the religious motivation of the violence suffered by Nigerian Christians has been ignored.Tweet
"Of course, we want peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims, but peace without justice is oppression under another name," Dr. Parsons said, responding to Filipazzi's claim that "the discussion on division, precisely in the name of religion, must be very prudent, because in the past, as well as today, Muslims and Christians coexisted and coexist peacefully."
"For too long the religious motivation of the violence suffered by Nigerian Christians has been ignored," Dr. Parsons, who is also an Islamic scholar, asserted.
"When He Refused to Deny Christ, They Cut Off His Right Hand"
"For years, the U.S. State Department insisted the specific targeting of churches and Christians in northern Nigeria was simply a 'socio-economic conflict' — despite Boko Haram specifically claiming their actions were an Islamic jihad," noted Parsons, a former aid worker to Afghanistan.
"It wasn't until November 2013 that the U.S. finally recognized Boko Haram as a terrorist organization. That was less than a year before the Global Terrorism Index listed it as the world's deadliest terrorist organization — slaughtering even more people than Islamic State (ISIS) were killing in Syria and Iraq," he added.
Yet again, we hear naïve claims that this is simply a 'land dispute' between nomads and settled pastoralists even though the victims are overwhelmingly Christian and animist villagers.Tweet
In the local Hausa language, "Boko Haram" means "Western education is forbidden." The full Arabic name of the militant Muslim group is Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati Wal-Jihad, which means "People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad."
Parsons explained that there had been a significant development in the persecution of Christians with the rise of attacks by Fulani herdsmen.
Filipazzi (R) with Nigeria's Muslim president Muhammadu Buhari
"Now even Boko Haram has been overtaken by the numbers killed by Fulani herdsmen who are specifically targeting Christian villages in Nigeria's middle belt," he said.
"Yet again, we hear naïve claims that this is simply a 'land dispute' between nomads and settled pastoralists even though the victims are overwhelmingly Christian and animist villagers," he said, disputing Abp. Filipazzi's assertion of both "Muslim victims and Christian victims of this violence."
Parsons elaborated on the Fulani's Islamic basis for the slave trade which involved kidnapping Christians:
The truth is the Fulani are repeating a pattern of attacks carried out by their ancestors before the British took control in the early 20th century. The Fulani were then part of the Sokoto Caliphate — an Islamic empire — which regularly sent out slave-raiding expeditions against the Christian and animist villages in Nigeria's middle belt, attacks justified by the legitimization of slavery for non-Muslims in Sharia law.
"Those who fail to recognize that the teaching of Sharia on jihad is a significant motivating factor in these attacks risk worsening the horrific suffering which is already rapidly escalating among Christians and other minorities in Nigeria," Parsons warned.
The papal nuncio conceded that "in the southern area of Kaduna, Christians — who are particularly numerous in that area — have had to mourn many victims, have had to complain of suffering because they have been hit, driven out and live in a state of danger."
However, "religion is one of the factors; there is the ethnic factor, there is the economic factor, there are many factors of this violence that are present in different percentages in different situations," Filipazzi argued.
During the Angelus on Aug. 15, Pope Francis prayed "for the population of the northern region of Nigeria, victims of violence and terrorist attacks" without using the word "persecution."
The pontiff, who has rarely addressed the violence in Nigeria, refrained from naming Christians as victims, jihadis as perpetrators or Islam as the primary motivating factor for the slaughter, which has reached genocidal levels, according to Bp. Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto.
Nigeria's Islamic militants fight Christians in the name of Islam
Moreover, in an Aug. 8 statement on the violence, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) refused to name jihad, Boko Haram or the Fulani herdsmen, alluding only to "innocent people brutally murdered by religious fundamentalists."
Instead, in September 2019, the CBCN condemned "attacks" by traditionalist Catholics on Pope Francis "as the proverbial ill wind that blows no one any good."
The International Committee on Nigeria (ICON) reports that Boko Haram was responsible for nearly 35,000 deaths there between 2015 and 2020, while Fulani jihadis murdered more than 17,000 between 2010 and 2020.
In June, ICON praised a new executive order signed by President Donald Trump directing the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to combat religious freedom violations. The order called for a budget of $50 million for programs to fight religious violence and persecution of Christians.
The perpetrators of the violence are Muslim extremists who cannot submit to any other law apart from Islamic law.Tweet
Titled "Nigeria: Unfolding Genocide?" the report said the parliamentary committee had "received evidence to suggest many Fulani herders in Nigeria do adhere to an extremist ideology" and "adopt a comparable strategy to Boko Haram ... and demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity."
In contrast to the papal nuncio's claims, the report cited the Anglican bishop of Truro Philip Mounstephen who concluded: "the religious dimension is a significantly exacerbating factor" in clashes between farmers and herders and "targeted violence against Christian communities in the context of worship suggests that religion plays a key part."
Nigeria's Stefanos Foundation, among other advocacy groups, also confirmed to the APPG that "the violence is primarily for Islamic territorial expansion and the advancement of Sharia (Islamic law)," noting that "the perpetrators of the violence are Muslim extremists who cannot submit to any other law apart from Islamic law."
by Martin Barillas • ChurchMilitant.com • March 20, 2020 62 Comments
Asserts kids can 'benefit from bearing witness to a loved one's death'
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TORONTO (ChurchMilitant.com) - As physician-assisted suicide gains acceptance worldwide, a Canadian doctor is calling for children to witness the death of patients killed by their physicians.
Writing online, Canadian physician Susan Woolhouse has been present for approximately 70 so-called medically assisted deaths. In a blog post titled "Preparing children for the medically assisted death of a loved one," Dr. Woolhouse writes that "instinct told me that involving children in the MAiD [medical assistance in dying] process of their loved one was possibly one of the most important and therapeutic experiences for a child."
"My past experiences during my palliative care rotations reassured me that children could benefit from bearing witness to a loved one's death. Why would MAiD be any different?" she asked.
According to Woolhouse, roughly 7% of assisted suicides involve patients under the age of 55. She notes that "this will result in more children being impacted by the assisted death of a loved one," and argues that minors should be present during assisted suicides.
"Assuming that children are given honest, compassionate and non-judgmental information about MAiD, there is no reason to think that witnessing a medically assisted death cannot be integrated as a normal part of the end of life journey for their loved one," Woolhouse asserts. "If the adults surrounding them normalize MAiD, so will the children."
Woolhouse encourages doctors to show children the devices (syringes, stethoscope, IV supplies) they will use to mete out their loved one's demise in advance of the procedures. She also suggests avoiding euphemisms for what is about to happen:
Here is what I say: "I am going to give your [loved one] medication over a period of about 10 minutes. This medication will make her very look very tired and then she will very quickly go into a coma. This means that she will no longer be able to hear, see or feel any pain. You might hear strange breathing sounds, however these do not cause her any pain. ... When a body dies, it can no longer see, feel pain or hear. It can't ever be fixed." Note that once a person has died, I do not use the loved one's name when referring to the body so as to help children understand that their loved one is no longer alive.
Woolhouse also suggests that crafts can help children process their loved one's assisted suicide. She encourages kids to "make a hug" by tracing the outline of their outstretched arms on a bedsheet and wrapping it around their loved one before the suicide begins.
Make a Hug Blanket
The Death Tide Advances Worldwide
Last year, Quebec Superior Court Justice Christine Baudouin declared unconstitutional some parts of both the federal and provincial MAiD laws. She thereby annulled Canada's euthanasia laws which require death to be reasonably foreseeable before medically induced death can take place.
The Canadian government introduced a bill in Parliament in February to revise the country's Criminal Code to go further than the court's decision. If passed, the bill would remove safeguards previously in place to protect vulnerable people. There would be no waiting period, thus enabling physicians to diagnose, assess and kill their patients in just one day. In addition, independent oversight would be minimized, requiring but one signature.
The caretakers of the patients ostensibly asking for death would serve as "independent" witnesses. If a patient seeks to withdraw consent for medically assisted death, there is currently no mechanism to ensure that the process can be reversed.
Elsewhere, Germany's Federal Constitutional Court ruled last month that, despite the country's history of involuntary euthanasia, a law prohibiting professionally assisted suicide was unconstitutional because it supposedly deprives patients of "the right to a self-determined death." In the court's summation, Judge Andreas Vosskuhle wrote that this right includes "the freedom to take one's life and seek help doing so."
When a body dies, it can no longer see, feel pain or hear. It can't ever be fixed.Tweet
In the 1930s and 40s, Nazi Germany systematized and automated its death camps to kill millions with the help of corporations such as Bayer and IBM. Hitler's regime utilized its Aktion T4 program to annihilate hundreds of thousands of sick and disabled people even before it set about murdering other enemies of the state. Nazi Germany promoted assisted suicide with the movie Ich Klage an (I Accuse), a film commissioned by propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.
The right-to-die movement is forging ahead elsewhere in Europe. Spain and Portugal are on the cusp of legalizing euthanasia, and activists are likely to use the German court's decision to legalize it in Sweden and the United Kingdom. The German decision is more radical than in Belgium and the Netherlands — where euthanasia has been legal for more than a decade, even for children, with some restrictions — as it establishes induced death as a fundamental right, regardless of age or condition.
Bioethicist Dr. Arthur Caplan
The threat posed by the establishing of euthanasia as a human right has become even more patent in the midst of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Doctors in early hotspots China and Italy are faced with shortages of essential tools such as respirators. The elderly and those with compromised immunity are especially at risk. Bioethicist Dr. Arthur Caplan has long recognized that rationing scarce resources in medical treatment is appropriate, telling Voices in Bioethics in 2017: "It's pretty clear that rationing scarce resources is going to be a big issue for a variety of reasons: cost, aging population."
In an interview with The Washington Post, Caplan predicted, "The public will accept triage and rationing if they understand the process."
"But if it's secretive or looks like favoritism to politicians or the rich, they will not accept that — whatever the rules are," he added. Triage — the rationing of care according to the severity of a patient's condition — is frequently used on battlefields and in emergencies.
Helping the Aged Towards Death
A utilitarian approach to medicine and shortages during the current crisis has been broached in medical journals. A recent Clinical Ethics article, for example, argues that in cases of seriously ill patients with a poor quality of life, they should be allowed to die and the resources sustaining them directed elsewhere:
The first argument is that permitting assisted dying allows consenting patients to avoid negative quality-adjusted life years, enabling avoidance of suffering. The second argument is that the resources consumed by patients who are denied assisted dying could instead be used to provide additional (positive) quality-adjusted life years for patients elsewhere in the healthcare system who wish to continue living and to improve their quality of life. The third argument is that organ donation may be an additional potential source of quality-adjusted life years in this context.
They argue that denying medically induced death is to the detriment of patients who wish to die and those who do not. Legalizing medically assisted death, they argue, would allow patients to avoid negative "quality-adjusted life years" (QALYs). QALYs measure the quantity and quality of life lived, which are used by the health industry to assess the value of health outcomes. They write: "Legalizing assisted dying in the United Kingdom is likely to yield a substantial increase in QALYs across the patient population as a whole."
Dr. Michelle Cretella
Normalizing Suicide
In an e-mail response to Church Militant, Dr. Michelle Cretella of the American College of Pediatricians deplored suggestions that children should watch health professionals kill their patients. "For the time being," she wrote, "contrary to the blunted moral conscience of this pro-suicide blogging physician, most families and health professionals (including even those who participate in assisted suicide), realize deep down that assisted killing is not something to celebrate."
"Encouraging children to witness a loved one's assisted suicide teaches them that suicide and the killing of others are acceptable and sane solutions to personal and societal problems," Cretella added. "It is well known that favorable publicity about suicide — including assisted suicide — leads to 'imitative suicidal behaviors,' especially among children and adolescents."
Cretella cited the World Health Organization, which has warned the media: "Avoid language which sensationalizes or normalizes suicide, or presents it as a solution to problems. ... Avoid explicit description of the method used in a completed or attempted suicide." She noted that similar guidelines have been issued by U.S. authorities.
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