Religion, Nations, and Geopolitical Review: SATURDAY, APRIL 25

by A. Joseph Lynch

I. POPE FRANCIS AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

SSPX INVESTIGATION: Church Militant released a damning exposé on sexual abuse within the SSPX, particuarly from homosexual predators. Read the full transcript.

SHROUD SCIENCE: An excellent video on the science behind the Shroud of Turin was recently released. Taylor Marshall had a good interview with the video's creator.

CHURCH FUNDING: How much does the US Catholic Church receive from its parishioners and how much is given from government coffers? A 2015 report says that the US Catholic Church received $1.6 billion from the US government over a period of three years - that's over $500 million a year. America Magazine ran an article in 2017 reporting fears that Trump's budgets might gut these revenues. Could this be one big reason why Trump is so unpopular with the Church's hierachy? And if this money is still coming in, it may be a big incentive to keep parishes closed.

II. PRESIDENT TRUMP AND AMERICA

IMMIGRATION SUSPENDED: President Trump has suspended immigration into the US for the next 60 days. Expect it to be extended. Although Democrats are hyperventaliting about the shut down, a USA Today poll reveals that 79% of Americans agree with the president/

BIDEN ACCUSATION ON CNN: The sesxual assault accusation against Joe Biden deepened this weekend as a 1993 video recording of the victim's mother calling in on Larry King surfaced.

CRITICISM OF CHINA: A leaked EU report reveals some harsh criticism of China during the virus outbreak. China hit back, and the New York Times is reporting that the EU caved to Chinese pressure. Don't expect this from America, where the state of Missouri has become the first state to sue China over the virus. And don't expect the US to drop the reports that Chinese agents were spreading disinformation in the US as the virus struck.

"LET THEM EAT ICE CREAM": As Americans struggle amid the virus shut down, Nancy Pelosi went on TV to talk about all the ice cream filling her $24k set of refrigerators. President Trump mocked the out-of-touch gaffe in a devestating ad released this week.

WHO NEEDS MONEY? Pelosi is not the only out-of-touch member of the liberal elites. Celebrities are being criticized anew for their "One World: Together At Home" concert that raised money for the World Health Organization. This is the same organization that happily fed the world Chinese propanda in a Janaury 14 tweet that said: "Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus."

III. THE NATIONS

BIBLICAL FAMINE: As nations begin keeping vital resources at home, like food, famine might kill far more people than the virus. The UN is now warning that famine of a biblical proportion could soon threaten dozens of nations and up to 265 million people.

FAILED PROTECTION: Canada announced that one million respirator masks it bought from China failed to meet safety standards and could not be used by frontline workers in the virus fight. As an international virus blowback is sure to befall China, the nation must do a much better job of assisting the nations in the struggle.

MORE CHINA FALLOUT: The president of Tanzania is cancelling a $10 billion loan from China because "the Terms and Conditions... can only be accepted by drunkard person." Expect more Afrian nations to follow suit in the months and years ahead.

PULLING OUT OF CHINA: According to a new report, three of the world’s four largest economies, the United States, Japan and the European Union, are drawing up separate plans to lure their companies out of China.

VIRAL SPREAD: A recent study of the virus outbreak at a call center in South Korea reveals how the virus can be limited even within an indoor setting. While 43% of the center became infected, the infection was remarkably limited to about one half of the center.

TRACKING THE VIRUS: Now available is a new userfriendly chart that allows you to select nations of your choice and track the virus deathtoll. It's an excellent comparison tool for those looking to see how the virus is impacting the nations.

FAULTY NUMBERS: To the surprise of no one, the real number of virus cases in China may have been four times higher in February than what was officially reported.

THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD ON DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY: “On that day are open all the divine floodgates through which graces flow"

[first published April 27, 2014]


Those are the words of Our Lord to Saint Faustina.

An entry from her Polish diary:

“Strangely, all things came about just as the Lord had requested. In fact, it was on the first Sunday after Easter [April 1935] that the image was publicly honored by crowds of people for the first time. For three days it was exposed and received public veneration.”   (#89)

Three years later she died in Krakow at the age of 33. The Church's  emphasis on the Octave of Easter that Christ's Passion is a manifestation of the mercy of The Father is not a peculiar quirk of a Polish nun made famous by a Polish Pope. The mystic nun did not invent this day. The liturgical readings were never changed. All octaves are resonating contemplations of the prior feast. That's been true since eight day circumcision established the spiritual communal identity of the Jewish male.   It is true on the Octave of Pentecost when we contemplate the eternal interpersonal communion of the Trinity which subsumes humans in the Church. Christ admonished Phillip that seeing Him clearly was "seeing the Father".  St Faustina needed no admonishing. She saw clearly the Father acting in her  contemplation of the Cross. This Octave is a great celebration of the Fatherhood of God. (This becomes especially clear  in reading St John Paul II on Dives in Misericordia. Here is a good explanation of his subsequent naming the Octave of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday)

                                                      

The image of Divine Mercy is the red and white lights of Mercy from our incarnate Lord. It is the blood and water that flowed from his side at Calvary, when like the first Adam he allowed the new Eve of the Church to come from his side. The water and blood are Baptism and the Eucharist, by which men are incorporated into the Body of Christ.

The Gospel on this Octave of Easter recounts the first act which Christ did on Easter evening. In a locked upper room, He transmitted the Father's  Divine Mercy in a sacramental form that would resonate through the ages.  He deliberately set aside the Apostles as He breathed the Spirit on them to empower them to forgive sins as He had done. He instituted the sacrament of mercy (reconciliation/confession) and just as the saving blood and water could only come from his side, forgiveness of sins is mediated only through His Apostolic priesthood. This part of today's Gospel reading almost always gives way to the second story about Thomas and his reluctance to believe without seeing and touching. (The Thomas episode happened eight days later on the Octave Sunday) Because his experience of doubting is such a universal one, that episode is almost always the topic of Catholic and Protestant homilies on this day. But on Divine Mercy Sunday -- in this special papal year of Divine Mercy -- let us concentrate on the first episode of today's Gospel.  This is the Christian Day of Atonement because there is a new designated Holy of Holies where every Christian through the ages can come to meet God face to face and beg forgiveness. The Divine Mercy of the Father is manifested in Christ and works through a sacramental order. Man is rescued from Satan in Baptism, confirmed in the Spirit by a bishop, forgiven of sins by a priest in confession, and  integrated into the salvific Body of Christ in the Mass. Mercy overflows but it comes from a narrow spigot, a very particular and well-formed font: the side of Christ, the Apostolic Church, the reality of the sacraments.
                                               

UPDATE: It's remarkable, but both Faustina and Hans Urs von Balthasar were born in the month of August 1905.  They certainly came to different views of Hell's existence!  Another excerpt from Faustina's diary:

“Today, I was led by an Angel to the chasms of hell. It is a place of great torture; how awesomely large and extensive it is …  I, sister Faustina, by the order of God, have visited the abysses of hell so that I might tell souls about it and testify to its existence. I cannot speak about it now; but I have received a command from God to leave it in writing. The devils were full of hatred for me, but they had to obey me at the command of God. What I have written is but a pale shadow of the things I saw. But I noticed one thing: that most of the souls there are those who disbelieved that there is a hell.” 

              
Good Pope John, son of the soil of northern Italy, was canonized today (along with the Polish man in full, John Paul). Angelo Roncalli's sharecropper parents had 13 children. An army chaplain in the First World War, Angelo later served in Bulgaria, Turkey, and France as a Vatican diplomat.


Here is Faustina (the first saint of the 'Great Jubilee' of 2000) on the power of the Eucharist:

"All the good that is in me is due to Holy Communion... Herein lies the whole secret of my sanctity... One thing alone sustains me, and that is Holy Communion. From it I draw all my strength; in it is all my comfort... Jesus concealed in the Host is everything to me... I would not know how to give glory to God if I did not have the Eucharist in my heart... O living Host, my one and only strength, fountain of love and mercy, embrace the whole world, and fortify faint souls. O blessed be the instant and the moment when Jesus left us His most merciful Heart!"

Religion, Nations, and Geopolitical Review: SATURDAY, APRIL 18

by A. Joseph Lynch

I. POPE FRANCIS AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

VICAR NO MORE?: The 2020 edition of the Annuario Pontificio, the official Vatican year book has placed the Pope's historic titles in a section of their own rather than include them at the beginning of the papal biography. Francis's bio includes only "bishop of Rome" in its title for the Pope. Conservatives focused only on the move of "Vicar of Christ" as though it alone was formally rejected. While Cardinal Gerhard Mueller has called the move "theological barbarism" the director of the Vatican press office has said that none of the Pope's historic titles have been suppressed - unlike the 2006 suppression of "Patriarch of the West" by Pope Benedict XVI.

PELL FREED: In a unanimous Australian Supreme Court ruling, the wrongful conviction of Cardinal Pell has been overturned. Could this mean that Pell will go back to work investigating corruption at the Vatican Bank? We suspect his accusation had something to do with this auditing of the Vatican Bank. Dr. Taylor Marshall discusses Pell and a history of corruption at the Vatican Bank (IOR).

CHURCH CLOSURE THREATS: In NYC de Blasio has threatened churches with permanent closure. In Mississippi police gave $500 tickets to those attending a drive-in church service. We suspect grocery store parking lots in the Mississippi remained packed and shoppers unimpeded by police ticketing. While AG Bill Barr seeks to protect church gatherings, the governor of New Jersey told Tucker Carlson this week that all but outed homosexual Cardinal Tobin was all to happy to keep Catholics from receiving sacraments.

II. PRESIDENT TRUMP AND AMERICA

VIRUS TREATMENT: Debate swirls about how best to treat the coronavirus in patients. One NYC doctor says the virus seems much closer to high-altitude disease — and not pneumonia. Here's a full interview with him.

THE PRICE OF VICTORY: Pat Buchanan ponders the cost of defeating the coronavirus.

PANDEMIC VOTING: Both Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden supported voting during the pandemic in Florida and Illinois. Biden even supported voting in Wisconsin on April 7, saying hours before the polls opened "that’s for the Wisconsin courts and folks to decide." Democrats changed their tune after seeing a partisan opportunity in blaming Wisconsin's GOP-led legislature and supreme court for holding the election. It worked. The conservative justice on the ballot, who abstained from ruling on postponing elections, lost in a huge upset to the liberal candidate.

SANDERS OUT: Bernie Sanders and dropped out and endorsed Joe Biden. Elizabeth Warren, who dropped out weeks ago, also gave her endorsement of Biden. Dejected by Sanders' poor performance after his early wins, Bernie supporters weigh staying home in November, as one Bernie supporter humorously tweeted (language caution), or even voting Trump.

DEMENTED BIDEN: He may have won the nomination but Biden seems to be losing his mind. Biden has making a series of gaffes from his home production office. He appears to be in full need of cue cards and notes during his interviews - and even these do not seem to help. His inability to speak was on full display during a CNN interview on Thursday. Famed podcaster Joe Rogan - who had said he planned to vote Bernie - says he can't vote Biden over what seems to be his early onset dementia.

TRUMP SLAMS BIDEN: Trump has also noticed Biden's cognitive slips. When questioned during a coronavirus briefing about a Biden tweet, Trump replied by saying: "He didn't write that. That was done by a Democrat operative. He doesn't write...  he is probably not even watching right now and if he is he doesn't understand what he is watching." Joe Rogan is right, Trump v. Biden will look like a boxing match between Mike Tyson and a three-year-old.

END OF ME TOO? The credible accusations of sexual misconduct against Joe Biden reveal cracks in the foundations of the "Me Too" movement. "Believe all women," is the clarion call of the movement. But now that the accused in a Democrat, even the Alyssa Milano (the movement's founder) has rediscovered the need for due process. The New York Times' article on Reade's allegation included a link to the law on filing false statements to police (it treated the Kavanaugh case much differently). Sen. Amy Klobuchar says this vile article is all people need to read about the allegations. So much for believing all women.

III. THE NATIONS

CHINA COVERUP? Reports reveal the Trump administration is investigating the coronavirus as an accidental release from a virus lab in Wuhan. This comes after China revised its death count upward by 50% in Wuhan.

BORIS JOHNSON: The British prime minister is recovering from his battle with the coronavirus. This Peter Zeihan tweet takes a look at world leaders by age.

ITALEXIT: Is Italy's version of Brexit coming? According to Church Militant, a mere 27% of Italians approve of the EU and 49% of Italians now want out.

EU IN DANGER: Dr. Steve Turley reports.

IV. CULTURE OF LIFE, CULTURE OF PROTECTION

UNNECESSARY ROUGHNESS: Authoritarianism from the Left is becoming more extreme during the pandemic. In Colorado a man was temporarily arrested for playing T-ball with his 6-year-old daughter and wife in a park that limited attendance to three. As protests against extreme measures begin to grow, the Democrat governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, is warning that such protests will only lead her to extend the stay-at-home orders. The same governor closed sections of stores that she deemed unnecessary - like home gardening sections that could be used by her citizens to socially distance by producing food at home.

WHAT'S IN A NAME? Bill Maher delivers a scathing monologue on the "Chinese" virus.

HUNGARY-RUSSIA PRO-LIFE: Dr. Steve Turley shares good news from Hungary and Russia. Seeking to increase marriage and birth rates, Hungary has given both financial incentives. The results have been dramatic. Marriage rates have begun to double and are now up 43% since 2010. During the same time, divorce rates dropped 23% and abortions decreased 35%. Hungary's rapid depopulation has now slowed by 43%. Dr. Turley reports that in Russia, abortion dropped by 10% in 2018 while seeing a 40% drop over the past seven years and about a 66% reduction since 2000. Meanwhile the number of Russian pro-lifers has increased 300% over the past 20 years.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD CLOSURES: There is some good news from the pandemic. NY Planned Parenthood is making cuts.

APOLLO 13 AT 50: Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 13's splashdown. The "successful failure" was immortalized by the 1995 film, which depicted the brilliant teamwork of men both on the ground and 250,000 miles from home. Watch an interview with 92-year old Jim Lovell, the commander of Apollo 13.

EASTER: A nation delivered from slavery; A species restored to life

"Father, You once saved a single nation from slavery and now you offer that salvation to all through baptism. May the peoples of the world become true sons of Abraham and prove worthy of the heritage of Israel. We ask this through Christ our Lord." 

(Easter Sunday Office)

From an Easter sermon of Saint John Chrysostom (d. 407):

"Come you all: enter into the joy of your Lord.  You the first and you the last, receive alike your reward; you rich and you poor, dance together; you sober and you weaklings, celebrate the day; you who have kept the fast and you who have not, rejoice today.  The table is richly loaded: enjoy its royal banquet.  The calf is a fatted one: let no one go away hungry.  All of you enjoy the banquet of faith; all of you receive the riches of his goodness.

"Let no one grieve over his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed; let no one weep over his sins, for pardon has shone from the grave; let no one fear death, for the death of our Savior has set us free: He has destroyed it by enduring it, He has despoiled Hades by going down into its kingdom, He has angered it by allowing it to taste of his flesh."

Easter in Sri Lanka - 2019. The island nation southeast of India has 22 million people, 70% Buddhist, 13% Hindu, 10% Muslim 7% Christian. Over 250 Christians are dead in eight coordinated explosions injuring 400 more. Three churches and several luxury hotels were the Easter Sunday targets. UPDATE Background of inter religious violence-good interview.  The Sunni Muslim group responsible.    ISIS  makes their claim. Muslim leaders warned officials about jihad preacher.

Easter in Jerusalem from a 2017 article by a Palestinian journalist:

Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre

"The dwindling Palestinian Christian population celebrated Palm Sunday in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and even in Gaza. Eastern and Western Christian calendars were united this year, bringing larger numbers to the celebrations than usual. Israel again this year issued permits for Palestinian Christians from nearby Bethlehem and Ramallah to enter Jerusalem to celebrate the Easter festivities. 

"This season witnessed an increase in Egyptian Coptic pilgrims to Jerusalem. Air Sinai, which used to run four flights a week, increased them to 12, bringing 547 pilgrims to participate in the Easter celebrations. Press reports said that the number of pilgrims participating in Palm Sunday celebrations this year was more than double last year. Some 30,000 are reported to have participated, compared to 12,000 last year. Clergymen in Jerusalem say that the main reason for the increase is that Palm Sunday this year was celebrated on the same day by Christians who belong to the Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical churches. In Gaza, Orthodox Bishop Alexas led the tiny Christian Palestinian congregation in celebrating the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem one week before his crucifixion. The traditional Palm Sunday celebrations follow the same route that Jesus took some 2,000 years ago, starting from the Mount of Olives neighbourhood of Beit Ania, down past the Church of Gethsemane and up to the old city via the Lion Gate. Boy scouts from various local Palestinian Christian churches usually participate in the pageantry, along with believers, church leaders, tourists and lay persons. Palm Sunday marchers on the traditional path carry branches of palm trees and sing hymns as they remember the days leading to Easter Sunday. Easter in Jerusalem is quite special; various churches and religious denominations hold events, church services and colorful pageants throughout the Passion Week.Greek and Cypriot pilgrims who often stay with local Palestinian Christians participate in these events leading to the Easter morning when Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus..."

President Trump's first Easter and Passover message as president.


                               The Law of Life, The Human Species, and Easter

“... the virgin birth, the incarnation, the resurrection... are the true laws of the flesh and the physical. Death, decay, destruction are the suspension of those laws... [It] would never have occurred to human consciousness to conceive of purity if we were not to look forward to a resurrection of the body, which will be flesh and spirit united in peace, in the way they were in Christ. The resurrection of Christ seems the high point in the law of nature.”                                             (Flannery O'Connor)

HOLY SATURDAY: Christ the Conqueror of Hell

[first published April 19, 2014]


by David Pence                  

Holy Saturday always seems the most mysterious day of the Church calendar. We are in between two vivid earthly scenes. The first is depicted in the last three Stations of the Cross: Christ’s death, His return to His mother’s arms, and His burial. The second event is on Sunday as eyewitnesses register their stunning reports. Christ’s last words commending his spirit to the Father, and pronouncing his suffering now consummated, are deeply comforting after a night and a day of torture. But what happened from the time of his death to the sighting on Easter morning?

When David went to slay Goliath, he rejected the sword of Saul. He brought five smooth stones – and trust in the Living God –  to his contest. When Christ went to his agony he ordered the sword of Peter back in the scabbard; and bore five open wounds, and trust in His Father, to the Cross.

David brought back the head of his foe to Jerusalem, and many say Golgotha is called the place of a very particular skull (the Philistine giant's). It sits over a grave as well: Adam’s. Christ, too, decapitated his foe – the Prince of this world – no longer Master and now deprived of his sting of death. David’s Lord delivered Adam, Abraham, and a host of others from the prison of death on this day. In the Eastern Church the triumph of the resurrection is depicted as the liberation of the captives. The resurrection of Christ delivers men from the bondage of Satan and initiates the ‘theosis’ of men. The liberated take their place in the Body of Christ, Who will soon be at the right hand of the Father. Finally, we will see man in his proper place.

The Dragon, meanwhile, mortally wounded – and stunned by the loss of so many souls – plots revenge against the new apostolic church which is sent out to exorcise demons, forgive sins, and baptize the nations into a worshipful fighting formation that will ultimately separate Satan from the land of the living.

Holy Saturday emits the same mysterious scent as the time between the Creation/Fall events of the Angels, and the first manifestation of matter. Pivotal angelic contests, transmitted in the shared patristic traditions of the Orthodox and Catholics, flesh out the Biblical narrative. These are not ancillary optional tales of the olden days. Only a drama employing the full cast of divine, angelic, and human characters can hope to present the cosmic scope of these high holy days of our liturgical life.  We learn about these characters as much from liturgical and patristic sources as from Scripture. This fuller view reminds us not to shrink the glory of this upcoming Octave of Easter to the return of "our friend Jesus" as an individual man who beat the Grim Reaper. Christ slew death and rises from the depths of a netherworld where he triumphed in a terrific battle. This is as much Bastille Day as a replay of Lazarus!

The Risen Christ is truly different. He now incorporates thousands of the liberated in His perfecting Body. He has freed our father Adam, and demonstrated the original mission of man: to take back from Satan his unlawful dominion on earth. No wonder our Lord looked so different -- even to those who knew Him best.



UPDATE:  Here are some further links on the subject. Probably the most compelling of all reflections on Holy Saturday is included in the Church's office of readings for this day. Read here an anonymous and ancient homily about our Lord’s harrowing of hell.

This 2002 sermon delivered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is a learned historical contrast of the Eastern and Western traditions on the meaning of this day and its implications for a time of decision after death for all men. Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev is one of the leading lights of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Also a post by Taylor Marshall, which explains the bizarre teaching of the late Hans Urs von Balthasar; and an exchange in 'First Things'  between a critic and a priestly defender of the Swiss theologian.

This short video on the two Adams is a beautiful refection on the harrowing of Hell and the meaning of Holy Saturday. It is a stunning audiovisual using the complete text of the ancient homily referenced above from the Church's office of readings for today. This is an explanation of the icon above.

GOOD FRIDAY: the Anthropology of Sacrifice

[first published April 18, 2014]


by David Pence

"Ecce Homo" (1881)
by St. Albert Chmielowski

Lord has been pleased to crush him with suffering."  (Isaiah 53)

On this Good Friday let us renew an old custom of speaking no words, except those of the liturgy or communal prayer during the three hours of Christ’s hanging on the cross from noon to three o'clock. (If we define the crucifixion as His taking up the cross and the journey up Calvary commemorated in the stations, the ordeal began at 9am), If ever there was a day that our Christian nation should declare as holy, it should be this day of the ultimate sacrifice.

Anthropologists say there are three elements to every sacrifice:

 1) a setting aside
 2) a sacred killing
 3) a communion

In many animal sacrifices a setting aside of some specially designated animal, a killing of the animal often by a set aside priest is followed by some portion of the animal being eaten as a sign of union between those who eat and the gods. In Christ’s sacrifice we see the setting aside of the one perfect Victim -- the Anointed One (Christos). We hear him cry out: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" And He is killed.

As we leave that haunted hill (where some say David buried the skull of Goliath and others call the Tomb of Adam) we read the rest of the words of Psalm 22 which Jesus invoked. After many verses depicting the numbering of his bones and the casting of lots for his garments, we hear that the innocent victim “will proclaim your name in the assembly,” that “all the ends of the earth will worship you,” and that “deliverance is brought to a people yet unborn.” When we read the “forsaken verse” in the context of the whole Scripture and the practice of the Church, we find our Lord foretelling the Communion that will come from his sacrifice. From his vantage on the cross, our Lord sees the Masses of the future made present at Calvary. From the ends of the earth, God's name is proclaimed in the liturgical assemblies.
                                                         

Moderns hesitate at the language of sacrifice. They would rather tell the story of Christ in the language of nonviolence and the salvation of all. It seems too primitive and bloody a tale. But sacrifice entails separation and killing—a sword that divides and a sword that slays. These must precede Communion. It is part of the Grammar of Sacrifice. Sacrifice ('sacrum facio' ) means to make holy. Holiness is not so much a statement about morality as one about separateness. We are being offered access to the One Who is Separate. "I am God who art Holy and because I am Holy you shall be Holy." In our prayers and gestures and liturgy, God must be approached as the HOLY ONE who is ultimately separate from all creation because He is the Creator. There is also in this cast of characters an unredeemable Evil One who has spread a pall of death, sickness, and darkness over humanity. In some radical way, man must be separated from the world, the flesh and the devil. All three must be killed for man to enter fully into communion with the God who is Holy.

The cosmos -- which man has only very recently begun to depict accurately -- is revealing to us the reality of election amidst widespread dissipation. Most of matter is heading out into oblivion, and those huge frightening angelic creatures who have been cast out of heaven and now roam the earth seeking the ruin of souls are going to be cast into the isolation of death at the final reckoning. Christ died to restore humans to our original mission and our role as priests, who in the ultimate sacrificial drama are going to participate in the killing of the victim who deserves to be slain. We will join in the exorcism of the Evil One. He was cast out of heaven by Michael. At the death of Christ, he was dethroned from the netherworld. Through the priestly power of the Church from now until the Last Judgment we are participating in casting Him out of our lives into Hell.

Adam was the first set-aside priest who was supposed to cooperate with the Angels in obeying the will of God to cast out Satan and dominate the earth. Out of all matter in the galaxies, some matter on the planet Earth was set aside for life. Out of the soil of life, only Adam was formed by a spiritual soul. Adam failed in his mission, so the new Adam came and died for the sins of humanity. We are now restored to our original mission. Our salvation is not the end of the story. We have been let out of jail to resume the contest that precedes communion. From now on, at the Mass we are at Calvary with the one-time victim who has become the eternal high priest; and the killing is of Satan, sin, self and death itself. The communion is the assembly of the new people foretold in Psalm 22. Those words of Our Lord seemed a cry of despair, but were indeed a promise of the means of our salvation and the restoration of our nature. Christ died on the cross first and foremost to obey the Will of His Father. It is his act of filial piety that returns mankind through our Head to communion with the Father. It is the Atonement. His perfect sacrifice has been done once and for all but we keep bringing those more deserving victims of self, sin and Satan to be killed as well.

Good Friday was predicted:
"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up."


And the Eucharist initiating the great separation of the Last Judgment was likewise foretold:
"Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself."

"The LORD is king, and he rules the nations... All mortal men will bow down before him."                                    (Psalm 22)          The Cross is a Triumph.

Religion, Nations, and Geopolitical Review: SATURDAY, APRIL 4

by A. Joseph Lynch

I. POPE FRANCIS AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

"MASS" REOPENING: Texas Governor Greg Abbott has declared that churches, synagogues, and mosques are considered essential during the coronavirus threat. Churches are still asked to follow social distancing and encouraged to hold online services or drive in parking lot services.

CLOSING CHURCHES: Cardinal Tobin of Newark has effectively placed his archdiocese under interdict, effectively ending the celebration of all sacraments for the foreseeable future. In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio claimed that, "BOY am I a fan of Pope Francis!” yet threatened the permanent closure of any church that holds services at this time.

END OF LAST RIGHTS? Bishop Mitchell Rozanski of Springfield, Massachusetts has suspended last rights in his diocese - including to those dying of coronavirus. As the sick meet their end the most the bishop is willing to give them is a chaplain in the hall and nurse applying a dab of oil on a cotton swab. More from Life Site News.

BLAMING EVANGELICALS: Although the coronavirus became a pandemic due to the lies and incompetence of communist Chinese officials, the New York Times didn't hesitate to blame Evangelical Christians for the virus.

AMERICA AT PRAYER: Despite the closure of churches, a new poll from the Pew Research Center reports that in addition to the vast majority of Christians praying daily, 15% those who never pray and 24% of non-believers are now praying as well.

II. PRESIDENT TRUMP AND AMERICA

AMERICA'S CHEMOTHERAPY: While individual Americans are suffering from a virus, the coronavirus is acting more like a national metastasizing cancer and the stay-at-home orders are akin to a national chemotherapy. Yet as chemo kills cancerous cells, many good cells die along with them. Unfortunately this is what is happening to America's economy. This is why the president has said he can't allow the cure to be worse than the disease. Too much chemo can be deadly to the patient. America is ill, but we cannot risk a cure that will prove more deadly than the disease.

BIDEN'S END? With the president hitting new approval highs, Pat Buchanan suspects the coronavirus could be the end of Biden's presidential ambitions.

MORE INVESTIGATIONS: With Biden tanking and GOP congressional approval on the rise after congressional Democrats nearly torpedoed the virus relief bill last week, Democrats are looking for ways to edge ahead in the polls. They're doing it the only way the know: not through leadership or policy ideas but but by claiming Trump is corrupt. Pelosi and Schiff have already begun "fact finding" in their new investigation into Trump over his handling of coronavirus. As the president has noted, although it's only going to help his poll numbers and fundraising, now is not the time to announce another witch hunt.

HISTORY OF HOSPITAL SHIPS: A short video on the history of hospital ships - including the USNS Mercy and Comfort. These two ships are almost 900 feet long, only 200 feet shy of the American super (aircraft) carriers, and have room to hold 1,000 patients. Stationed in New York and California, they are not being used to treat coronavirus patients but rather to care for non-coronavirus patients so that hospitals can focus on the infected without infecting patients with other sickness or injuries.

III. THE NATIONS

WHAT'S IN A NAME? The difference between a pandemic and an epidemic.

INTERNATIONAL LEADERS: Coronavirus media coverage of China and Russia is making the media's spin painfully obvious. Rather than call out China's leadership for its apparent lies and incompetence, the praises China as a global leader for its coronavirus efforts. Meanwhile the 60 tons of medical supplies sent to the US by Russia is being deemed as propaganda. The hypocrisy is palpable.

STEALING SUPPLIES: While smearing Russia, the media is also happy to attack America. While claiming that America's demand that American medical supplies go to Americans is an act of modern piracy, the media has been quite mum about France steeling medical supplies that belong to other nations. In one case, the Swedish company Mölnlycke provided the EU with 1/5 of masks for all regional surgeries. The six million masks stored in their French warehouse (which provides masks to hospitals in southern Europe, Belgium, and Netherlands) were stolen by the French government. We see this as yet another nail in the EU's coffin.

DEALING WITH CHINA: It remains to be seen what impact the coronavirus will have on China's relationship to the world. There are already calls within China to remove Xi Jinping from office. Meanwhile a leaked report from US government officials question official Chinese coronavirus numbers. Reports from China indicate that upwards of 50,000+ Chinese have died from the virus, far higher than the official 3,300 deaths reported. Although China is attempting to play the role of international savior, defective Chinese test kits and masks have been sent to Europe. With Trump likely to use the virus threat to return even more production from China to America, it is not hard to imagine one day seeing "Not Made in China" labels on store product".

"SHOOT THEM DEAD": Duterte of the Philippines minced no words as he spoke to the military, police, and his citizens in following slowing the coronavirus contagion. Duterte ordered the military and local police to shoot dead citizens who cause trouble, fight, and endanger lives. "Instead of causing trouble, I will bury you."

EMERGENCY POWERS: Viktor Orban of Hungary is being criticized for receiving new emergency powers during the coronavirus outbreak. Dr. Steve Turley explains what these powers really mean.

SWEDEN CHANGING COURSE? Sweden has attempted to keep the nation open for business, quarantining their limited number of coronavirus cases. The strategy is failing and the nation is now facing the same exponential growth others have faced.

IV. CULTURE OF LIFE, CULTURE OF PROTECTION

WORSE THAN CORONAVIRUS: On March 8, radical feminists in Spain defied coronavirus warnings to march against men with signs that proclaimed "Masculinity kills more than coronavirus." Fifteen days later Spain was seeing over 3,200 daily cases and 400 daily deaths. Since then these numbers have more than doubled. It appears Spain will overtake Italy this weekend in total coronavirus cases and may soon take the lead in deaths. The feminists should have stayed home.

9-1-1 EMERGENCY: Seattle is preparing to release hundreds of inmates over coronavirus fears and overwhelmed Seattle police lack the resources to stop robbery and physical assaults. This, however, didn't stop Seattle's female police chief from asking Seattle residents from dialing 9-1-1 if they hear anyone use hate speech. It's high time she reconsiders her priorities.

ARRESTED FOR SELF-DEFENSE: A Virginia store clerk was arrested after shooting in self-defense at robbers in his store. No charges have been made on the robbers. Read more here.

DEFENDING FATHERHOOD: Watch this surprisingly good Ted Talk from a female divorce lawyer on the importance of fatherhood.

VIRAL THREAT TO MARRIAGE: Divorce rates in Wuhan spike as the area slowing reopens. Divorce rates in America are expected to climb. The King of Thailand has reportedly locked himself away with his harem. His wife does not appear to be with him.