Posted on 03/14/2020 6:22:14 PM PDT by ebb tide
Doctor of the Church St. Robert Bellarmine said one of the signs of the Antichrist is suspending public Mass:
"[S]ure signs concerning the coming of Antichrist... the greatest and last persecution, and also the public sacrifice (of the Mass) shall completely cease."
(The Prophecy of Daniel, Pages 37-38)
Are bishops who suspend public Masses blazing a trail for the future Antichrist?
Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church as well as for the Triumph of the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
No they are not. As a very disppointed
Catholic I’m not a fan of the bishops of my church: but this time they had to do what they did. In the Black Plague era they probably did the same and the Catholic Church survived. It will survive this too.
That is incorrect. They did not do the same as today's apostate bishops.
I don’t know about that, but every Catholic should go to confession while they still can. When a full-fledged quarantine starts, you won’t be able to go see a priest. Don’t delay. Call your parish and ask your priest to hear your confession. We don’t have any idea how long it will be before we have access to the sacraments again.
Someone who lives in an assisted living apartment close to my church just called me and they are basically homebound/quarantined.
Unless someone is dying even the nursing patients cannot have guests.
This may make sense to them, but I wonder if they really can keep people from attending church.
This will be the first time ever we will be watching a tv Mass from our diocese and hopefully making a good spiritual communion. My hope too is people will still keep tithing even if they can’t attend.
yeah historically when we didn’t know how to make public health work bishops contributed to killing a lot of people unknowingly. what i don’t understand is why every church just can’t do sermons over video or the phone for the duration of an emergency. i get that communion can’t happen remotely, but if transubstantiation can happen with a wafer, why can’t it happen over the phone?
I think in a genuine public health emergency, they can. And make no mistake... this is a genuine public health emergency.
I'm not going to be able to discuss this anymore tonight, but I've been looking at the official numbers since February 28, and since then, the number of confirmed cases in the United States has increased by an AVERAGE of 30.6% per day, and 567.3% per week.
If that rate of increase continues, it will be a matter of two to three weeks before our hospitals are overwhelmed and we experience something like what Italy is experiencing now.
I'm not an epidemiologist, but I have studied epidemiology, preventive medicine, and statistics at the graduate level at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and have a Master's Degree in Medical Informatics from Northwestern University. I've worked with medical and epidemiological data for the last 30 years.
One of the first things I learned in my epidemiology studies is that there are enormous pressures on civil authorities NOT to act soon enough. And this is what happened in this case. Witness China, Italy, Spain, Iran, and Seattle. The problem is that the time to take action is when taking action seems like overreacting.
Things like social distancing work. But the time to implement them is early. While it's gotten out of hand in Seattle, the numbers in the rest of the country are still low enough that social distancing, if everyone does it, can definitely slow the progression of the disease enough that people will think that we've overreacted, when, in fact, we simply acted soon enough. It's a no-win situation for the decision makers. Either 1) they act quickly enough to avert a disaster, and when the disaster doesn't materialize because of their action, the public thinks they overreacted, or 2) they don't act quickly enough, and the disaster materializes.
If I were a politician with decision-making authority, I would know that my career was basically over at this point, do the right thing and act, and then hope the public was able to see I did the right thing. But failing to act will ensure the pandemic gets out of control and my career would be toast, too. Unless, of course, I was a Democrat. Then I would blame Trump.
But back to the bishops... I do think it's prudent of them to dispense with the obligation to attend Mass on Sundays. But I'm a little concerned that they are so anxious to actually prohibit public Masses from being said. Further, I haven't seen one yet encourage their priests to say Masses privately with prayers for a time of pestilence.
And in Baltimore, I'm, well, dismayed that Archbishop Lori has found within himself the authority to ban the public celebration of Mass, but has not found within himself the authority to ban a "retreat" for "gay" priests. The contrast disturbs me.
Didn’t do it for SARS
Didn’t do it for the Asian flu
Didn’t do it for many other flu epidemics.
This is the media blowing this out of proportion for political purposes.
Thank you for your post.
Some bishops have cancelled Easter, the most Sacred day if the year.
Didn’t do it for the Asian flu
Didn’t do it for many other flu epidemics.
This virus (not flu) is less deadly but TEN TIMES more contagious. That is why this is different. We are at the early phase of a bell curve. Numbers are increasing rapidly.
This is NOT being blown out of proportion except by hoarders who raid the stores. Fortunately, stores are now learning to ration certain products.
Strict social distancing will help a great deal. Take a look at Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now. It's a long read but very informative.
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