Religion, Nations, and Geopolitical Review: SATURDAY, AUGUST 31

by A. Joseph Lynch

THE WEEKLY BRIEF
PROGROGATION APPROVED - BREXIT MOVES FORWARD

We hope to help ease the hyperventilating that has taken place in regards to the Queen's approval of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's formal request to "prorogue" Parliament. Prorogation is no coup or attack on the democratic process. It is certainly not akin to a fascist takeover of power. Indeed, prorogation seemed to be the best way in which the people's vote to leave the European Union could be protected.

Prorogation, or discontinuing a session of Parliament (not dissolving Parliament), is a common practice that actually takes place around this time of year. It is often used in the month or two leading up the the Queen's annual speech to Parliament - a speech that, due to Brexit proceedings, hasn't taken place since 2017. With the speech long overdue, there's nothing out of the ordinary about proroguing Parliament through late October when the Queen has agreed to give her speech.

What is out of the ordinary, however, is a "hard" Brexit - a no deal Brexit - set to take place on October 31. With Parliament prorogued until the deadline approaches, it seems as though a no deal Brexit is likely. Peter Zeihan argues a no deal Brexit has always been a foregone conclusion. Dr. Steve Turley explains that Brexit is but a microcosm of what is sure to take place across Europe. Traditionalist, nationalist, and populist movements are on the rise. After Brexit fades out of the news cycle, Europe's many problems sidelined by the news will return to the forefront. Brexit is just the beginning.

I. POPE FRANCIS AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

PELL'S CONVICTION UPHELD: We at AoA have never thought his conviction smelled right. Pell was in charge of cleaning up Vatican finances and was soon after charged with sex abuse back home in Australia. An appeals court ruled his conviction stands, but we still suspect his innocence. 

AMERICA GETS IT WRONG: A response to James Martin's complaints about the "lack" of women's participation in liturgical ministry in America magazine. 

SHEEN MIRACLE APPROVED: This might be old news to some readers, but we want to be sure it gets full coverage at AoA. Last month a miracle attributed to Archbishop Fulton Sheen was confirmed. With is remains now returned to Peoria, Illinois, he will now receive beatification in the months ahead.

II. PRESIDENT TRUMP AND AMERICA

TRUMP LEAKER OUT: Madeleine Westerhout, personal secretary to the president and gatekeeper to the Oval Office, is out after the White House discovered she was leaking information to the press. Some reports indicate she had cried tears of sadness when Trump was elected - not exactly the person one would want in your inner circle. A Daily Wire article surmised only days ago that Trump's leaked idea of nuking hurricanes was planted to catch a leaker. Whether or not this was intended, a leaker has indeed been caught.

WALSH VS. TRUMP: On August 25, former GOP Illinois congressmen Joe Walsh announced he would provide Trump with a primary challenge. His campaign got off to a rocky start as the very next day he had to apologize for racist remarks: "I wouldn’t call myself a racist, but I would say... I’ve said racist things... There’s no doubt about it ― and apology is not enough." Does anyone think this man will still be in the race six months from now?

SENATE GOP TO SCOTUS DEFENSE: After Democrats threatened openly to pack the Supreme Court with liberal justices “in order to reduce the influence of politics” in decisions, the Senate GOP under McConnell pledged it would keep SCOTUS to nine justices, saying: "We share Justice Ginsburg’s view that ‘nine seems to be a good number,’ And it will remain that way as long as we are here.” Meanwhile, Justice Ginsburg has now been treated for pancreatic cancer. This comes after having colon cancer in 1999, early stage pancreatic cancer in 2009, lung cancer in 2018, and three broken ribs the same year. Is her time on the Court coming to a close?

U.S. MILITARY BASES: A good survey of U.S. bases, geostrategy, and global geography.

III. THE NATIONS

RESTORE THE G8?: President Trump again has asked for Russia to be restored to the G7 - which would then return to the name G8. France's Macron, however, thought that the G7 should be limited to "a community of liberal democracies." Trump rightly thinks the nation with the largest nuclear arsenal should be at the table rather than forced into the arms of the Chinese (an alliance we managed to break when Nixon went to China). We should ask ourselves why Canada is allowed into the G7 while major powers like Russia, China, and India are left out. A map of the G7 - which includes Japan - looks strangely similar to the geopolitical structure of the early 20th century.

FIRES IN BRAZIL - FAKE NEWS: It turns out that much of what is being said about forest fires in Brazil is fake news meant to hurt the rule of nationalist Jair Bolsonaro. The fires are not at record highs, and many if not most were started by farmers preparing their fields for the southern hemisphere's spring planting. Even the NY Times had to admit problems with the liberal narrative on Brazil's fires.

SALVINI AND LEGA OUSTED: Bad news in Italy for Matteo Salvini and his Lega ('The Leage') party. Their coalition government has collapsed and liberals have returned to power. Dr. Steve Turley explains why long term trends, however, favor Salvini - who has yet to lose at the polls among Italians.

IV. CULTURE OF LIFE, CULTURE OF PROTECTION

DANGEROUS SHIFT IN MILLENNIALS: Our readers now we at AoA speak frequently about the three loyalties of man: religion, nation, and marriage. Each gives us a unique communal identity (we might call the defense of these identities "consecrated identity politics"). These identities are cultivated in those who attend church and pray to God, live in a stable family, and learn history and geography. As more young people fail to attend church, live between parents, and are taught STEM over history, we are not surprised to hear that these thee fundamental loyalties are in decline among Millennials. This is not a good sign, but some values can are better appreciated with age. 

JOEL SCHUMACHER GETS CANDID: Filmaker, Joel Schumacher, got candid about his homosexual sexual exploits and the desire of sex over family life among gay men, explaining: "If you went into a gay bar and there were 200 men in there, and you said, ‘Okay, who wants to have a little house with a white picket fence, and a dog, and a child, raise your hands,’ or ‘Who wants to get laid tonight?’ The concept of a lovely suburban life or raising children was not a high concept.”

NO GAY GENE: Another study further confirmed that there is no "gay gene" that can predict one's sexuality.

SATANISM AND CHILD RAPE: Cincinnati police arrested two Satanist males for child rape and pornography. Officials reported "found pentagrams and satanic elements in the room where the pornography was filmed." One officer said: "I've been doing this for 31 years and have I ever come into contact with a case like this? No."

SPACE HEIST: Lesbian astronaut Anne McClain is under investigation for identity theft... in space. One may also remember astronaut Lisa Novak, who in 2007 drove cross-country in diapers over a love triangle. Who is conducting NASA's psychological evaluations?

August 25: Saint Louis - Authority and the Ruler

by David Pence

"Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee and I have power to release thee? Jesus answered, Thou shouldest  have no power against me  unless it were given thee from above."

On the same day Jesus rendered unto Ceasar what was his, He perfectly obeyed the authority of His Father. He conquered death in an act of authority over nature that reorganized the biological sphere under a new King. The alpha male of the human species having been born of a perfect Virgin drew a brotherhood of priests unto himself and conferred upon them the authority to maintain His Presence on earth. He made them a special band under a particular leader and ordained that communal hierarchical form of authority for public governance. The Kingdom of God was at hand. The victory of Christ is not a rebellion but a great act of authority and restoration of  proper rule. The great commission was a command to imbibe the new spiritual authority of the apostles in some way with the already existing authority of the civic rulers. The supernatural spiritual organism of the apostolic church was to transform the nations-kingdoms, republics, tribes and cities into a new level of accord.  "And Jesus came up and spoke to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth  has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.' "
                   

King Louis IX of France

There is no personality so absent in contemporary Christian life as the ruler and man of authority. We have been blessed with priests and prophets. We have been cursed by charlatans and weaklings. We hunger for the Kings. Their absence is always a disaster for the weak and the poor. Saint Louis was a king who fought in the Crusades, cared constantly and publicly for the poor of his kingdom, and was a man of deep prayer and many fasts. Here is his beautiful instructive letter to his son that Catholics pray in the Office of Readings every year on his feast day. (A Review of Before Church and State:Social Order in the Sacramental Order of Louis IX)

It is a fundamental obligation of Christian men to rule our civic communities as well as our passions and households. How men participate in civic rule can entail faithful loyalty to a good king or taking up arms as a minuteman in a republic. The servant ruler does not mean that a ruler or citizen soldier relinquishes his sword against external enemies or internal criminals. It means the acts of the ruling authority are done for the good of the community, not the aggrandizement of the ruler. The Shepherd is not a nursemaid. Community without authority recalls the decadent Israel "when every man did as he pleased." Acts of authority are not limited to proclaiming doctrine by churchmen or laws by civil rulers. The actual body -- civic and ecclesial -- must be shaped, pruned, and ruled by the ruling authority. Men are called and promoted. Other men are released. Some men are punished and shamed. Rulers inspire loyalty that shapes men into communal bodies capable of great acts of protection and love.

Saint Louis (b. 1214) did not become a saint by laying down his sword or neglecting the punitive duties of his office. Men obeyed him and some men rightly feared him. Saint Louis, pray for us that God will once again give us men such as thee.
                                                                                   

     
UPDATE:  "We know from Louis’s biographers that 'From the beginning when he came to hold his realm and knew himself of discernment, he began to build churches and many religious houses …' Most celebrated was the Sainte-Chapelle, his royal chapel on the Île de la Cité in Paris."

While on crusade in North Africa, Louis died from sickness in 1270 - four years before the death of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Religion, Nations, and Geopolitical Review: SATURDAY, AUGUST 24

by A. Joseph Lynch

I. PRESIDENT TRUMP AND AMERICA

TRUMP IS IN THE LEAD: A new poll shows Trump ahead in the race against Biden, Sanders, Harris, and Warren. The lead is tenuous based on Trump's great trade war gamble with China. Meanwhile, Trump is breaking fundraising records as Democrats look for money from ex-pats in Mexico.

DAVID KOCH (1940-2019): David Koch, younger brother to Charles Koch of the billionaire Koch brothers, has died. The Koch's generally offer financial support to Republicans but had a tense relationship with the populist President Trump, whose trade deals favoring American workers threatened their wealth. See our previous R&G from last August regarding the Koch brothers versus the American farmer.

TRUMP & VETERAN LOANS: President Trump did the right thing in honoring our disabled veterans by eliminating their student loan debts.

BUYING GREENLAND: President Trump put out feelers regarding a potential purchase of Greenland. Critics have forgotten that America has made cash purchases for territories before. Alaska was bought Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million and the Louisiana Purchase (13 states worth of property) in 1803 from France for $15 million. And don't forget that the U.S. Virgin Islands were purchased from Denmark - the current owner of Greenland - in 1917 for $25 million. Greenland's proximity to the arctic, and its natural resources of zinc, lead, gold, iron ore, heavy and light rare earth elements, copper and oil, would make it a great acquisition if the Danes - who subsidize $600 million a year for it - are willing to sell.

II. THE NATIONS

FIRES IN BRAZIL'S RAIN FORESTS: Forest fires are up 83% this year in Brazil, and President Bolsonaro plans to use the military to assist in putting them out. While environmentalists fear the damage caused to the forest that produces 20% of the world's oxygen, we remember that there are times when forest fires are a good thing for nature. And Jordan Peterson notes that the same is true in psychology.

NO ENTRANCE TO ISRAEL: The vehemently anti-Israel representatives, Omar and Tlaib, both Muslim, have been denied entry to Israel. According to Netanyahu: "As a vibrant and free democracy, Israel is open to any visitor and to any criticism, with one exception: The law in Israel forbids the entry of people calling for and acting to placing a boycott on Israel, as is the norm in other democracies that prevent the entry of people whom they see as harming the country."

III. CULTURE OF LIFE, CULTURE OF PROTECTION

EPSTEIN'S BROKEN NECK: Although billionaire Jeffrey Epstein's death has been ruled a suicide, reports have surfaced that his neck was broken in places that suggest strangulation. Other irregularities were also at play. Many important and powerful world leaders have been linked to Epstein - how likely is it that any of them were involved?

GILLETTE - GET WOKE, GO BROKE: After losing $8 billion, Gillette has given up on it's woke support for toxic masculinity.

PROUD BOYS VS. ANTIFA: The Proud Boys are claiming success in Portland as liberal city leaders wasted limited resources to prevent violence from the group who came with the express intention of being non-violent while watching Antifa, the "anti-fascist" left-wing counter-protesters, wreaked havoc, shattered bus windows, and lost more credibility.

FELONS NO MORE: San Francisco is doing away with "labels" like felon, offender, and convict. Instead, those released from prison will now be referred to as a “justice-involved” person or a “returning resident.” While compassion is needed, so is language sanity.

August 22: QUEENSHIP OF MARY - Ruling from the Inside

[first published August 22, 2014]


by David Pence



Keeping sacred time with the Church means that the central events are always prepared for by a season -- Lent for Easter and Advent for Christmas. It also means that solemn feast days are never allowed to come and go with one rising and setting of the Sun. The great solemnities are celebrated as Octaves. Eight days has an ancient meaning as a unit of time signifying a new creation. So, eight days after we celebrated the Assumption of Our Lady into Heaven... we are still contemplating her place in her new home as we celebrate her Queenship. A man who desires to love God our Father as a son and build brotherhood in the priesthood, city, and nation can never spend too much time contemplating the perfection of the feminine in Our Lady. These sacral sexual roles depend on each other and are clarified by contrast, complement, and communal context.

Our Lady lived the Trinitarian roles of the woman. She is the daughter of the Father, the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, and the Mother of Jesus. She humbly obeyed her Father. For all His life, she kept hold of her Son wrapped in swaddling at Bethlehem and draped in burial clothes at Gethsemane. Her perfect virginity established a perpetual barrier to the evil of sin while making her permeable to her Spouse: the Holy Spirit. She was "guarded by the angels, prefigured by the patriarchs, and promised by the prophets."

Feminism is the reigning atheist ideology of our day set against the person of Our Lady, as surely as the Dragon was set against her in Revelation. Wherever the confusing mist of feminism infiltrates the mind, statues of our Lady are put in the closet. Wherever feminist language is spoken, her songs are left unsung. Wherever she is photo-shopped into a picture of the Last Supper, the picture of her suffering heart is pulled from the wall as too gruesome. The "feminist implant" of atheist thinking has replaced the armed atheism of Marxism. This is a more devastating lie. Seven demons have filled the house that was swept clear of one. Wherever feminism reigns, Our Lady is dethroned.
 
It is hard for gentlemen to oppose even counterfeit femininity. But we must reject this anti-Marian heresy for the sake of women around the world. The white feminists of the West squandered the moral capital of the Christian interracial movement by twisting the just claims to be colorblind with the less virtuous desire to be sexually confused. The face-to-face sisterhood of Mary visiting Elizabeth was always too small a love for them. Thus they conjure the delusion that the coalition of selfish white female careerists in university, church, and government jobs is a worldwide sisterhood rivaling the masculine protective fraternity of priesthood and nations. Those who kill patriarchy multiply the widows and orphans, and at some point the dark skin of those victims will scream for justice against this racist trickery. Mary did not seek to be an apostle. She is a Queen. As Pope Francis said about women cardinals: "I don’t know where this idea sprang from. Women in the Church must be valued, not ‘clericalised.’ Whoever thinks of women as cardinals suffers a bit from clericalism."

It is an ancient tradition that after Christ’s death, the apostles hid Mary. The Roman soldiers and Jewish high priests could never lay a hand on her. Had they tried, the sword of Peter would not have stayed sheathed. Twenty centuries later the Church with her feast days, prayers, and contemplations tells the whole world who our Lady is and where she is. She is safe now, so the Apostolic Church can publicly proclaim what John and the apostles once held in secret, and the Catholic faithful affirmed in the glorious mysteries of the rosary. The Dragon and the violent world were too dominant for the apostles to speak too loudly and too clearly of her too soon. For it is always an imprudent risk to reveal a feminine beauty in an evil world if one cannot protect her from attack. But, now, let us rejoice and be glad.

Look up on this feast day and see the blue sky with white clouds in the daytime sun. Those are reflections of the Queen’s garments in Heaven. The Virgin Mother is safe up there in the midst of the Trinity, so the Church can now illuminate the world by explaining the nature of her rule. She is queen of the interior life. She rules in the vast expanse of the inner chambers opened by prayer and contemplation. The feminine rules from the inside. There is amidst the Trinity of masculine persons a feminine interior -- a whole, a beauty that is never spoken but is integral to God. That timeless feminine reality precedes Mary who is a creature. Mary is not the fourth person of the Trinity, nor is she the incarnation of the Holy Spirit. She is queen because she humbled herself before the Father. The whole world is at her feet because she opened a virgin’s heart to the wind of the Holy Spirit. In conforming herself to the will of the Father, she exercised the interior freedom of a soul in love. When men follow our mother in such acts of interior surrender we shall regain our stature as lords of creation. Only then will we fulfill the original mission of our species: to rule the Earth in his Name.

                                       

UPDATE: See the Assumption of Mary. And our review of Hildebrand’s classic study of purity and virginity in Catholic culture.

Religion, Nations, and Geopolitics Review POSTPONED

We apologize to our readers that this weekend's Religion, Nations, and Geopolitics Review has been postponed until next Saturday. We are hard at work in the final stages of publishing The Catholic Palette, which has taken up our efforts going into this weekend's posting. Please be sure to check in on Saturday, August 24 for our next edition of Religion, Nations, and Geopolitics Review.

August 15 -- THE SOLEMNITY OF THE ASSUMPTION: Femininity Shatters the Glass Ceiling

[first published August 15, 2014]


by David Pence

"By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly declaration of glory.”                (Pope Pius XII, November 1, 1950)

When Christ asked Peter who the apostles thought he was, Peter made the first infallible papal statement. He said, “Thou art the Son of the living God.” Christ made it clear it was not personal insight which allowed this Petrine testimony without error. “Not flesh and Blood but my Father in heaven” had allowed Peter to proclaim this central truth of our Faith for the brethren. And so again, 2000 years later, Pius XII did not wake up one November morning in 1950 and introduce to the flock a novel teaching he and some cardinals had been concocting about Our Lady. He stated what the praying Church had known devotionally for centuries. The pope, though, with a singular voice spoke the Truth from Rome as Peter had spoken for all the apostles at Caesarea Philippi.

The Pope in a few terse words described the perfection of matter -- the most perfect blossom of the tree of Jesse.  She was Immaculate -- conceived without sin. She is the Mother of God -- the locus of the Incarnation where God came into flesh to draw human flesh into his Body. She is ever Virgin -- an intact virgin not entered by man nor torn asunder by birth. And yet in the unity and holiness which the intactness of virginity represents there is a permeability to the Spirit which brings forth the Son. This moment in history of uncorrupted feminine flesh reminds all men of our original nature in Eden and of our present capacity for perfection. This Marian perfection of matter was never allowed to be corrupted by death. In this modern era when the corrupted mist of the world seems omnipresent, the Church reminds us that purity is possible. The person separated from Evil can bear Christ on earth and will be drawn into Him where he sits at the right hand of the Father. Purity on earth is possible and the spiritual ordering of the flesh leads to Eternal life. Humans are not evolving to some higher form; perfection comes from imitating a form who was already here in a specific time and place. Let us sing of Mary.
                                         

Of heaven there is less to say. How will she reign where her son is the King and the King has a Father? She might be drawn to some inner chamber where the feminine holds the three masculine persons of the Trinity in One.  C.S. Lewis described heaven as going higher and higher and deeper and deeper. Mary is not a Queen on a throne; she is the Queen of those depths. There is some inner chamber of the hidden God which we never name with a pronoun… but if we did it would be feminine. For the feminine is interiority.

There is an intact interior that separates God from all creation. This radical separation is the meaning of HOLY. Mary and the consecrated virgins of the Church seek not crowns for their heads, but an interior milieu where their hearts can come to final rest and ponder anew. Come, let us sing of Mary -- who on this day turns our eyes to Heaven where she abides with her Son. Let us admire from a distance the beauty of the Church’s consecrated virgins who keep us vigilant for our returning King by waiting for Him as their Bridegroom.

"Neither the tomb, nor death could hold the Theotokos,
Who is constant in prayer and our firm hope in her intercessions.
For being the Mother of Life,
She was translated to life by the One who dwelt in her virginal womb."


UPDATE: Take notice of what Christ is holding [click on the image above]: a small child clothed in white representing the soul of the Virgin Mary.
Taylor Marshall on the traditional teaching of the Church.

It is a good feast to remember  Dietrich von Hildebrand’s classic reflection on purity and virginity in Catholic culture. 

Here is an August 15th sermon by Monsignor Ronald Knox (d. 1957). A 2017 sermon by Fr Stravinskas.

Religion, Nations, and Geopolitical Review: SATURDAY, AUGUST 10

by A. Joseph Lynch
& Past Commentary of Dr. David Pence

THE WEEKLY BRIEF
EL PASO & DAYTON 

WHITE SUPREMACY VS. NATIONALISM

In two back-to-back shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, the topic of race and violence has returned. As Pat Buchanan points out, Democrat presidential contenders quickly jumped on President Trump as a racist and to blame for the El Paso attack by a white supremacist. Beto O'Rourke, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders were also sure to use the "white nationalist" label (rather than "white supremacist") in regards to Trump and the killer. This is because Trump has indeed described himself as a nationalist. What is confused is the fact that there are more kinds of nationalists than racial/white nationalists, and both the presidential candidates and the media at large fail to make the distinction. The problem is that both traditional conservatives and globalist liberals agree on an imperial approach to the world - the conservatives toward the use of armed military conflict and the liberals toward cultural hegemony with military assistance if necessary. Where nationalists like Trump focus on their nation and the self-determination of other nations, ethnic (in this case, white) nationalists tend to use their nationalism as a source of domestic policy with the aim of fostering the success of one ethnic group over others.

In the Weekly Brief of January 19, 2019, Dr. Pence explained this further following a controversy over comments made by Representative Steven King of Iowa:

The House of Representatives in response to comments of Representative Steven King of Iowa, "once again rejects white nationalism and white supremacy as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contrary to the values that define the people of the United States." There was only one dissenter who pushed for a stronger form of condemnation. Rep. King also voted for the resolution. The Republican party stripped King of all his committee assignments. In a long NYTimes interview published Jan. 10, King had asked, "White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization - how did that language become offensive?" No-one pushed for a vote on the concept of western civilization which has become an Anglo-European substitute for Christian civilization that excludes Latin Spain, Orthodox Russia, and anything hinting of black Africa and the perilous Asians rising from China.

The high point of "white nationalism" was the film, Birth of a Nation, by D W Griffith. The 1915 film was a technological breakthrough in movies and a great cultural success. Woodrow Wilson reviewed it inside the White House (Mar. 21, 1915) since he could not be seen publicly at the movies so soon after the passing of his first wife (August, 1914). {Shameless Gossip: he had met Edith Bolling three days before and would propose to her in May of 1915. None of this was made public until Oct. 1915 when they married after the suitable year of mourning.}  D.W. Griffith and many other Americans of that era wanted to overcome the North South divisions of the Civil War by reasserting a white Christian brotherhood as the essence of the American nation.  The film was to white nationalism what Uncle Tom's Cabin was to the Civil War. That film was based on a book called The Clansman and ended with a tribute to Lincoln and a romantic portrait of the KKK. It was a nefarious but powerful argument providing  a poisonous definition of American nationalism that would be the ideology of Southern Democrats for half a century.

Representative King thought several years ago (there is a video of him talking about this) that if a white guy was a nationalist, he was a "white nationalist." It did not mean he thought only whites could be citizens. It was more like being a "white football player." It was an adjective describing the particular player not a limiting term of the corporate group.  His inclusion of white supremacy in his quote is what nailed him and he has joined in condemning that notion. 

For several years, AOA has been arguing that every time a white man like Donald Trump says he is a nationalist, the media go wild and accuse him of "being a white nationalist".  This deliberate demonizing of nationalism is what Representative King was so inelegantly trying to get at in his NY Times interview. His later statements (see below) explaining his real intentions and understanding are eloquent and beautiful. Being a nationalist is a TERRITORIAL definition of loyalty. A white American nationalist is more tied to his fellow black citizen from Georgia than a white Eurocrat like Angela Merkel or a white British intelligence officer like Christopher Steele.

The more we understand our national loyalties, the more we will see we are a Christian civilization-not "the West." "Western civilization" is the term in King's statement that everyone ignored--but it is central to the debate that we are not having. In fact we will see that the alliance of the English speaking white countries: Britain, the US, Canada, and Australia in the name of the West is the ideology that is most set against multiracial American nationalism under God. The "West" is the way the globalist atheists say "us white people." And it was defenders of the "western values" in the Anglosphere  who combined to try to reverse the nationalist election of Donald Trump by the hinterland.  President Trump, the American nationalist, is ready to relate to the multi racial nation men- Eurasian Putin, the Chinese Xi Jinping, the Turkish Recep Erdogan, the Japanese Shinzo Abe, the Korean Kim Jong-un, the Indian Narendra Modi, and the Brazilian Jair Bolsonaro.  The "western alliance" of white security agencies correctly saw that Donald Trump, the American nationalist, was a threat to the status of Britain in the Anglo alliance which was using American soldiers to carry out the foreign policy of globalists and a few other countries (e.g. Saudi Arabia and Israel) who knew how to play the game.  Do we need a discussion about race, religion, the nation and the West? For sure!! Should we start by condemning white supremacy? Great idea! Now let's continue the conversation. 

American Nationalism is the antidote to racism not its expression. As Rep King said "every person is made in the image and likeness of God" and our nation is built on that spiritual principal. That would be a great resolution for the House of Representatives. The American nation is a corporate territorial community that bows to the Sovereignty of God and holds up the sacredness of every human person. We are all nationalists on that proposition. The scapegoating of the man from Iowa was an act of virtue signaling, moral posturing and mob hatred fed by such courageous Republican statesmen as Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney and led by such moral hate mongers as Maxine Waters. We need to define what we love to restore our political community. Maybe the House could put forth a nationalist unity proposal. Representative King would vote for such a resolution. Would all his accusers?

I. POPE FRANCIS AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

THE SURVEY SAYS...: A recent Pew Research survey revealed that only 31% of US Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. It also showed that 22% of Catholics who reject transubstantiation knew the Church taught it but refused to believe it themselves. The numbers were more encouraging among weekly church-goers, with 63% of them believing the Real Presence - yet given the fact that only around 1 in 5 Catholic attend weekly, only around 13% of total US Catholics both attend weekly Mass and believe in the Real Presence. Bishop Barron responded to the survey by blaming everyone in the Church for the problem, but he should hold more criticism for his fellow bishops. Many, many catechists in the US teach the Real Presence - but it's not enough to teach the dogma, one must celebrate the mystery and distributed Communion in a manner that befits it. If the Eucharist is what we hear it is, liturgies must be celebrated accordingly.

ABSENT BISHOPS IN URUGUAY: The bishops of Uruguay were divided and largely absent from the battlefield as voters failed to launch a repeal process of the nation's 2018 transgender law.

ARCHBISHOP CALLS TRUMP RACIST: In a series of tweets, San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller told President Trump to "stop racism, starting with yourself." He later deleted the series of tweets and apologized. In his apology, he attempted to give rationale for his tweets by saying, "This evil makes no sense and will never be fully understood. Disbelief and shock are the overwhelming feelings." We would suggest the bishop thinks long and hard about the reality of the Devil and sin. Knowing you have a real enemy to combat will hopefully strengthen the backbone against "overwhelming feelings" and cast one's weapons at the real enemy.

ANOTHER BISHOP, ANOTHER SCANDAL: Bishop Joseph R. Binzer, an auxiliary bishop in Cincinnati and member of the USCCB committee on child protection, failed to report a priest accused of inappropriate behavior with boys. Although it appears the bishop was told the priest would not continue his inappropriate actions, the bishop should have immediately reported the priest and saw to it he was pulled from ministry. The deeper scandal of course is the fear that more bishops like Binzer are on the child protection committee...

II. PRESIDENT TRUMP AND AMERICA

GABBARD SUES GOOGLE: Democratic Presidential candidate, Tulsi Gabbard is suing Google for $50 million after Google blocked her from buying adds after her popularity spiked. Gabbard explains her lawsuit to Tucker Carlson.

BIDEN'S COMEDY OF ERRORS: Former Vice President, Joe Biden, is the front-runner for the Democrats going into 2020. Unfortunately for him he has made mistake after mistake. He recently gave out the wrong web address for his campaign, apparently thinking the election year is 3030 rather than 2020. After the shootings in El Paso and Dayton, he sent his condolences to Houston and Michigan. Since then he has said that poor kids are "just as bright as white kids." Trump responded to all this by declaring that Biden is not playing with a full deck of cards. We're sure Trump would look forward to running circles around the 77 year old former VP in the campaign.

THE HUNT: An upcoming Hollywood film is set to depict the murder of Trump supporters. The Holywood Reporter has described The Hunt as a film that "follows a dozen MAGA types [called "deplorables" in the film] who wake up in a clearing and realize they are being stalked for sport by elite liberals." Meanwhile the leftist Reza Aslan has called for the eradication of Trump supporters and Julian Castro's brother, Joaquin, doxxed Trump supporters, placing them at risk of harassment or harm. The Hollywood death fantasy against Trump, intimidation of his supporters, and the calls for violence from the Left's intelligentsia must stop if we are to prevent more Dayton killers.

DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST CONVENTION: Although many have laughed at the video from the convention, what was depicted there is the future of "progressive" Left. Don't be surprised to see the behaviors there pushed in the media, the classroom, and the workplaces in the years to come.

August 8 - MEMORIAL OF SAINT DOMINIC: Teacher and Priest

[first published August 8, 2014]

                             

Dominic (pictured meeting with Francis of Assisi early in the 13th century) gathered a fraternity of preachers and teachers. He recognized that heresies could only be countered by knowledge of the Real Truth and delivery of this Truth by holy preachers. Thus the Dominican motto: VERITAS.

What was particularly lacking in Saint Dominic's day was articulate and intelligent doctrinal preaching. The whole reason of being for the Dominicans was spreading the Good News of our Lord.
(A good summary of his life and an explanation of why Dominicans celebrate another feast day for their founder.)

I came across a sermon by a Polish preacher in which he described Dominic as "God's athlete" for his implacable struggle against the Dragon who tries to deceive us and deliver us to eternal darkness. He mentioned three ways that the Spanish saint did this:

• as is shown by the painting (below) by Blessed Fra Angelico – St. Dominic eagerly adored the cross as the venue where Christ defeated death;

• through the preaching of the Word of truth and life for the conversion of others, St. Dominic tied up the demon by the Word of God, giving to the seekers the light of the true Gospel;

• as one of the Dominican legends says, when Satan visited one of the first convents, he got scared of the 'capitular' – the place where brothers confess their faults; the life rooted in humility, the awareness of the fact of how much a person needs the Savior, this is the moment when Satan loses.

                                               

                                         

"A man who governs his passions is master of his world. We must either command them or be enslaved by them. It is better to be a hammer than an anvil."                                (St. Dominic, d. 1221)

Fra Angelico (d. 1455) was one of the countless simple  souls whose spiritual gaze became more luminous through their association with the Dominicans. Pope John Paul II beatified the Florentine painter, naming him the patron of Catholic artists. Here is his free rendition of the Transfiguration of the Lord, with the inclusion of the Virgin Mary and Saint Dominic on either side:

                                 

AUGUST 6 -- Feast of the Transfiguration: "We were eyewitnesses of His majesty on the sacred mountain"

[first published August 6, 2014]

"Send forth your light and your truth...
  let them lead me up your holy mountain,
  up to your sanctuary.
 I shall go in to the altar of God,
  to the God of my gladness and joy."

              (Psalm 43)

                               

Our Lord climbed Mount Tabor with Peter, James, and John -- and revealed his glory as he spoke with Moses and Elijah. As someone has said: we can be transfigured by the love of God or we can be disfigured by the love of sin!

"... and it is indeed appropriate that the greatest God-seers of the Old Testament should be present at the glorification of the Lord in His New Testament, seeing for the first time His humanity, even as the disciples were seeing for the first time His Divinity."

This article explains more of the meaning of the Greek icon above.

["Although the event celebrated in the Feast occurred in the month of February, forty days before the Crucifixion, the Feast was early transferred to August because its full glory and joy could not be fittingly celebrated amid the sorrow and repentance of Great Lent. The sixth day of August was chosen as being forty days before the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (September 14th, old style), when Christ’s Passion is again remembered."]

Saint Helena (the emperor Constantine's mother, pictured) erected a church on Mount Tabor in honor of the Transfiguration, 'the excellence of His hidden dignity.'
                          

"On the mountain wast Thou transfigured, O Christ God, and Thy disciples beheld Thy glory as far as they could see it; so that when they would behold Thee crucified, they would understand that Thy suffering was voluntary, and would proclaim to the world that Thou art truly the Radiance of the Father."

"In the spirit, the angel took me to the top of an enormous high mountain and showed me Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down from God out of heaven. The city did not need the sun or the moon for light, since it was lit by the radiant glory of God and the Lamb was a lighted torch for it."    (Apocalypse 21)

One of our writers spent time in the Holy Land and took the photo below of the Church of the Transfiguration, which sits atop Mt. Tabor just south of Galilee. The church itself has two altars: the lower for daily use and the upper to which no stairs ascend. The latter altar has been reserved for the Second Coming. Also noteworthy is the fact that Mt. Tabor overlooks the Valley of Armageddon - the location of the final battle between the heavenly army and the forces of Satan.

August 5: Dedication of Basilica of Mary -- Celebrating Virgin and Mother

Alice von Hildebrand (b. 1923)

Some people consider you a Christian feminist. How do you understand feminism?

To distinguish myself clearly from Simone de Beauvoir's powerful and poisonous book, The Second Sex, I would not call myself a Christian feminist but a champion of femininity. The sublime beauty of the female mission as virgin, wife or mother has been so degraded that I felt a calling to shed light on "the privilege of being a woman," which is also the title of one of my books.

Of all creatures mentioned in Genesis, Eve is the only one whose body is taken from the body of a person; even Adam's body was taken from the "slime of the earth." She is declared by Adam to be the "mother of the living." He is not called the "father of the living." When Eve gives birth to Cain, she ecstatically says: I have brought a child into the world with God's help. Adam, the biological father, is not mentioned. Eve proclaims that the child's soul—which is made to God's image and likeness—is placed by God himself into her body. God, so to speak, "touches" the female body and in so doing gives it a note of sacredness.

The duel which takes place between the Woman and the Serpent, not between "the strong sex" and the Serpent, hints at the crucial role of women in the economy of redemption. The most perfect of all creatures, queen of the Angels, is a woman—not a man. It is high time that women should humbly acknowledge that they are privileged to be women.

Marian Femininity--A video talk

The Feminine Breaking of the Glass Ceiling : The Assumption of Mary

                 Pope Francis visits Basilica of St. Mary Major to begin his papacy

AUGUST 4 MEMORIAL OF ST. JOHN VIANNEY: Priest, Parish, and Practicing Catholics

[first published August 4, 2014]


by David Pence


John Vianney (1786-1859) is the patron saint of parish priests. He worked in a French town of less than 500 souls called Ars, and is often called the Cure of Ars. [It is about 90 miles west of Geneva, Switzerland].

'Cure' in French means priest. The Webster word history is instructive. The old Latin word 'cura' meant "the care given to someone, often medical." Christians expropriated the word to mean "the care of souls." The Latin root passed into French, and then English, with this spiritual meaning as cure in French meaning priest and curate in English meaning "one who takes care of souls, a member of the clergy." This word history reminds us that cultures can sacralize language as well as debase it. What a culture does to the words it receives, depends on what kind of life the people are living in that culture.

Jean Baptiste Marie Vianney was no star in his seminary studies. Thank God his superiors recognized his great soul garbed with a modest mind. He received his earliest sacraments in the underground French Church, avoided Napoleon’s draft to fight the disastrous war against Spain, and was ordained in 1815. His piety, prayer, and penance made his parish a gravitational center for Catholic renewal in post-revolutionary France. He knew the basics. God had become man in Christ; the priest had become sacred in ordination; and the souls of his parishioners would be sanctified only through prayer and penance.

The humble priest provides for us an antidote to living public life "as if God doesn’t exist." The French priest had a cure for practical atheism. He built his life on prayer. He centralized the tabernacle’s sacred space in gesture and building to proclaim Jesus present. He saw men as souls. In his celebration of the Mass, he directed all present to the reality of the Triune God. In the confessional he did not turn his head from the hold of Satan on unresolved penitents. He chastised those who repeatedly failed to "amend my life."
                     

The local parish is still today the physical and communal form of Christ’s Presence shining through the sulfurous mist of practical atheism. The priest is a watchman for the city of God whenever he mounts the walls of the confessional to beat back Satan assaulting the people. The Catholic life is a daily, weekly, and annual set of practices organizing a community of prayer around a sacred space and Personage. The priest prays the daily office of Church in communion with the worldwide apostolic priesthood, and puts on the mind of Christ for his local flock by this practice. Keeping Catholic time draws the local face-to-face body into the Universal Church, and the day-to-day calendar into the timeline of the Divine Drama. The antidotes to the foggy atmosphere of practical atheism are the tabernacle lights of countless parochial sacred hills where men worship the Father. As Jesus promised the woman at the well, there shall come a time when worship is no longer restricted to the mountains of Jerusalem and Samaria. That time has been achieved through the coming of the Spirit in the sacramental Church. Let us rejoice and be glad!

The priest is not a community organizer urging his parishioners to do public service projects or postcard-campaigns to lobby the civil authorities. He mans an ark and pulls us into a sacred space where we are set apart from the corrupting flood-waters of the world. Once in the ark, man can finally see reality with his head above the waters. He has been saved and is enlightened. He understands his purpose because, finally, he stands and kneels where he is fully oriented in space and time to the Divine Person. The parish priest directs hearts to God and cleanses souls of sin. He leads us in prayer, integrates us in the sacramental order of the Church, and teaches us the pillars of the faith -- which explain Nature, History, and Person in the light of Christ. The practicing Catholic becomes a new personality. These new Christian personalities shaped by communal liturgy and prayer will feed the hungry, heal the sick, enlighten the ignorant, protect the widows and orphans, and shelter the immigrant. The men will build cities and nations while the women will build homes, schools, and hospitals. The men will be apostolic in their communal public character, and the women will be virginal in their interior lives and maternal in their care of others. Catholic practice shapes Catholic personalities, and that practice is as tactile as it is local.

Seek first the things above and all else will follow. Holy priests make holy men and holy women. There is only one kind of village that explains the Cosmos -- the parish at prayer. The local parish has never been the end game of the careerist. But it remains the locus of prayer and penance where practicing Catholics muster in the formations which proclaim the Sacramental Presence of Christ in those golden tabernacles, and herald the Final Coming of our Lord and King just over the horizon.

From the Catechetical Instructions by St. John Mary Vianney: 

Man has a noble task: that of prayer and love. To pray and to love, that is the happiness of man on earth. 

Prayer is nothing else than union with God. When the heart is pure and united with God it is consoled and filled with sweetness; it is dazzled by a marvellous light. In this intimate union God and the soul are like two pieces of wax moulded into one; they cannot any more be separated. It is a very wonderful thing, this union of God with his insignificant creature, a happiness passing all understanding... 

Our prayer is an incense that is delightful to God... My children, your hearts are small, but prayer enlarges them and renders them capable of loving God... In a prayer well made, troubles vanish like snow under the rays of the sun.

May Saint John Vianney guide many parishes and their local priests into a prayerful weekly rhythm of the Catholic sacramental order: Baptism, Confession, and the Eucharist.

                                       

"I will show you the way to heaven!"

                                                                                                           

Religion, Nations, and Geopolitical Review: SATURDAY, AUGUST 3

by A. Joseph Lynch
& Past Commentary of Dr. David Pence

THE WEEKLY BRIEF
DEMOCRAT CONTENDERS DEBATE 

Democrats just held their most recent round of presidential primary debates. Absent was any reference to Vladimir Putin, the Russia collusion hoax, and the disastrous Mueller testimony on obstruction of justice. Instead, they practically spent more time criticizing former president, Barack Obama, than they did President Trump. This is understandable as the far Left has pushed the liberal agenda so far that even Obama, the most liberal president in American history, is now seen as too conservative (see this video that shows college students mistaking Obama on immigration for Trump).

The biggest headliner, however, was Tulsi Gabbard's take down of Kamala Harris saying that as a prosecutor Harris "put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana... she blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to do so. She kept people in prison beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California." It was quite a moment for Gabbard and we hope it is reflected her future poll numbers. Gabbard, however, is seen as too close to Trump in terms of foreign policy and is now facing attacks from the mainstream media for her attack on Harris. Twitter refused to acknowledge her trending after the Kamala take down. She is especially detested for meeting with Assad in 2016. Although it seems like the deck might be stacked against her, we wish Gabbard well in her presidential pursuits. Here is what Dr. Pence had to say about Gabbard after her meeting with Assad, and later President-elect Trump, in November 2016:

"The natural allies for Mr Trump’s foreign policy position should be antiwar Democrats. Representative Gabbard is Hindu and understands the radical Sunni nature of the sources of terrorism (think Pakistan as well as the Sauds). There will definitely be a tilt toward India in a Trump administration. Her being a Hindu is treated as an esoteric curiosity in the diversity conscious strategically clueless mainstream media. Anyone who understands the Pakistan-India world was not surprised at the Hindu nationalist support for his candidacy. One wonders where the antiwar left was in the Democratic primary. Rep Gabbard switched to Bernie Sanders after he lost South Carolina because she was so opposed to the Clinton/Weekly Standard foreign policy. The rest of the antiwar Democrats were in hiding, supporting the hawkish Mrs Clinton as they feared for their places in the pecking order of the brave new Clinton world. Mr. Trump is going to be aggressively opposed by Senator John McCain and insulted by Lindsey Graham as he changes our course in the Mideast. He needs to develop a solid base of Democratic senators and representatives who will help him pull away from war with Russia and assemble the forces (Russia, Syria, Iraq, and Iran?) which can crush ISIS. When it comes to who are our allies and who will be against us,  Rep Gabbard is a good trade for Lindsey Graham."

I. POPE FRANCIS AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

OPUS BONO SACERDOTTI: The small non-profit group has been supporting accused clergy for nearly twenty years, operating from un-marked buildings across rural Michigan. Although not "officially" tied to the Church, it was supported by the late Fr. John Neuhaus (d. 2009) and Avery Cardinal Dulles (d. 2008), both known conservatives in the Church. The group has also formed a spin-off group to "assist" accused priests called Men of Melchizedek, or "MOM" for short. How fitting. More from Crux.

CHURCH OF THE APOSTLES: Archaeologists have discovered the ancient church built upon the home of brothers St. Peter and St. Andrew on the northern shores of Galilee. It is also believed that this was the location of the biblical town of Bethsaida. More discoveries are expected in the season to come.

II. PRESIDENT TRUMP AND AMERICA

DAN COATS OUT: Effective August 15, Dan Coats - the director of national intelligence - is leaving his post. This a very good turn of events for the President as he needs more like-minded men facilitating his nationalist vision for America's foreign policy. Rumor has it that Bolton will soon leave as well, another positive development if true. We invite readers to re-read our February 2 post that includes our take on the 2019 threat assessment, partly presented by Coats. Here is an except of what Dr. Pence had to say:

Comey, Brennan and Clapper are gone. The deep state remains. It is not all powerful - it is ever present in its careerism but incestuously small in its grasp of events. There seems no comprehension that the Trump nationalist agenda of meeting with leaders of large influential nation-men can break up the most dangerous scenario of all: Russia and China leading African nations allied with Sunni Turkey and Shiite Iran vs the globalist West led ideologically by feminist Sweden and militarily by a dispirited NATO. If Haspel, Coats, and Wray are now considered "the adults in the room", the baby boomer project of first coarsening, then feminizing, and finally infantilizing American public discourse has been completed.

DEAL WITH GUATEMALA: President Trump reached a deal with Guatemala on immigration. In a huge win for his presidency, Guatemala agreed to a safe third country deal with the US. This now means that asylum seekers who pass through Guatemala, on Mexico's southern border, en route to the US must seek asylum in Guatemala first. The Trump Administration is working on similar arrangements with the two nations on Guatemala's southern border, Honduras and El Salvador. We invite readers to look at our post on mapping Central America to get a better sense of the region and map that might help explain the geographic importance of the agreements being reached.

EXODUS AT THE DCCC: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is seeing a rather large turnover as white leaders and their support staff begin to exit because they have the wrong skin color. Outgoing chairwoman, Cheri Bustos, said in her departure that the DCCC needs "a staff that truly reflects the diversity of our Democratic caucus and our party." Many who have left led the effort to re-take the House from the GOP in 2018. It remains to be seen who effective the new leadership will be in 2020. What's more, will this decrease odds of the two white men leading the pack of presidential contenders, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders? And will all this further alienate white and moderate voters going into the 2020 election? Time will tell.

MAGA HAT WEARER BEATEN: After a minority American who wore a MAGA hat was brutally beaten in NYC for supporting President Trump, liberals on social media said he deserved it, adding that he shouldn't dress that way. The media, which gave around the clock coverage to actor Jussie Smollett when he made the false accusation that MAGA-wearing attackers beat him for being gay, have paid no attention. Instead, they've focused coverage on a Trump supporting throwing a punch at a protester in Kentucky. While there is certainly anger on both sides, we should all be troubled that the media fails to cover it on the Left while liberals on social media attempt to justify violence so long as it's directed towards the Right.

NEW DEFENSE SECRETARY: Mark Esper is the new Secretary of Defense.

III. THE NATIONS

NEW UK PRIME MINISTER: Boris Johnson has won and becomes the UK's new prime ministry - but his Tory majority is holding on to power by a thread. It remains to be seen how this will this impact the October 31 Brexit deadline.

NEW GREEK GOVERNMENT: Dr. Steve Turley on the new Greek government defending its borders and the Orthodox Church.

TURKEY-US RELATIONS: Relations between the Turks and Russians have come a long way since the Turks shot down a Russian fighter in 2015. In buying Russian air defenses, the US cannot sell the Turks the F-35. Pat Buchanan comments as NATO cracks and Mideast tensions continue. 

IV. CULTURE OF LIFE, CULTURE OF PROTECTION

THE GENDER PAY GAP: ...is a myth.

MARIO LOPEZ SCANDAL: Mario Lopez found himself in hot water for making a common sense statement regarding transgenderism and three-year-old children. The fact that he had to apologize is indicative of how extreme the sexual Left is pressing itself in our culture and on cultural figures and celebrities.

GILLETTE - GET WOKE, GO BROKE: Do you remember this advertisement from Gillette accusing men of toxic masculinity? On YouTube it's received twice as many thumbs-down votes as thumbs-up. It's now cost its parent company 8 billion dollars. Insulting your customer is probably not the best way to make sales. P&G said "it was worth it." Was it really?

DECLINING US BIRTH RATE: Demographers are fearing a demographic time bomb if US birth rates continue to decline. 2.1 children per woman is required to maintain the current population, and the US is now down to 1.76. This puts us ahead of Italy's 1.33 and the UK's 1.75 but behind Russia's 1.82 and France's 1.85. All are behind the top ten (all African) nations whose birth rates are between 5 and 7 children per women (see all national birthrates here).

FARMER'S MARKET SHUT DOWN: The mayor of Bloomington, Indiana shut down the city's farmer's market for two weeks after protesters came to decry a vendor, Sarah Dye, with a privately-held conservative viewpoint. How much has this cost other vendors? Will Dye be allowed back?

DANCING, GENDER, AND WAR: An intriguing take on the origins of dancing and its relation to mate-selection and war.