Ireland's Catholic Underground

2022 marks the centenary of the Legion of Mary, the Irish church’s greatest success in the Twentieth Century.

From confronting Communism in China and North Korea to confronting poverty in South America and Africa to confronting atheism in the West, Frank Duff’s visionary apostolate has amassed tens of millions of followers.

As part of the celebrations for their centenary, the Legion are running a series of Men’s Conferences throughout the year. The Morning Star Hostel, which provides accommodation, food and spiritual support for men in need, has hosted the first two events.

The second one involved Father Brendan Kilcoyne, of the Brendan Option podcast, hosted by Immaculata Productions who filmed the event for Youtube.

In a wide ranging keynote speech, Father Kilcoyne spoke about the upcoming Synod and the dangers of being too tame in conversations surrounding it. He also spoke about the need for Catholics to be unafraid of what they have to offer the world, a world which as Father Kilcoyne puts it, has little in the way of philosophical thought underpinning it.

The event is part of what Father Kilcoyne calls the ‘Catholic Underground’, a part of the burgeoning undercurrent of renewed faith and dynamism of spirituality that is taking place away from the mainstream establishment. Impressed with the turnout and vibrancy in the room, Father Kilcoyne asks, ‘Who knew that Catholic Underground was so big?’

How fitting that it takes place in so meek yet powerful of a place as the Legion of Mary headquarters.

Starting from those humble beginnings in Dublin, the Legion of Mary grew to encompass presidiums in China, South America and Africa, surviving and even thriving amongst poverty, tyranny and violence.

Frank Duff, if you are not familiar with him, was a civil servant who had a remarkable perception of theology and of its practical implications within the world. He had worked for Michael Collins and later for WT Cosgrave during the early years of the state. The Legion of Mary may have an image of being non confrontational, but when it came to proclaiming the gospel, Duff’s zeal for apostolic work was anything but. Fr. Thomas O’Flynn C.M. wrote in his book Frank Duff As I Knew Him:

He had unflinching honesty in asserting what he believed to be the truth. Sometimes at the Pauline Circle, the ecumenical group run by the Legion, I would wince at the fortrightness with which he put forward the teaching of the church to our separated brethren. But even if they did not always agree with him they respected him for his honesty.

He was a fighter, never afraid to defend his corner when the interests of the faith or the Legion were at stake. This courage was part of the psychological gear necessary for his task. When he was launching the new movement in the lay apostolate that later became known as the Legion of Mary he had encountered opposition: sometimes from people in high places. A pioneer in any walk of life needs courage. Frank Duff had it in plenty.

Duff was largely overlooked by the hierarchy in Ireland and one can only wonder how different the history of Twentieth Century Catholicism in Ireland would have been had he been listened to.

In a talk published on the Iona Institute website, Duff’s biographer Finola Kennedy wrote of how Duff broke the norms of secular culture in trying to help unmarried mothers to gain stability in their lives, housing them in his hostel The Regina Coeli. She wrote:

Duff’s special sympathy for unmarried mothers was at odds with the mores of the time when the consequences of an extra-marital birth were disastrous, rendering both mother and child social outcasts. He was probably close to the view of the writer George Moore who in his powerful novel, Esther Waters written at the end of the nineteenth century, tells the story of a mother’s fight for the life of her illegitimate son. Moore wrote, ‘Hers is a heroic adventure if one considers it – a mother’s fight for the life of her child against all the forces that civilisation arrays against the lowly and the illegitimate’.

Anyone who has ever visited Frank Duff’s house in Dublin will notice that in his living room, one finds copies of National Geographic, travel books and encyclopedias concerning every part of the globe and various dictionaries for other languages. The inception of the Legion coincided with the birth of international travel through airplane and also the missions of Irish priests, particularly the Columbans, to the Far East and elsewhere.

One of the most famous examples of these was Fr. Aedan McGrath SSC.

In his book Navan to China, McGrath tells the story of Chinese Legionaries who exhibited profound faith as he had witnessed on countless occasions since his first arrival there in 1930. One of the most striking of these was one where he says:

Under the most trying of circumstances, the Legionaries behaved splendidly in every way. On one occasion a drunken Army Official, who was suspicious of the Praesidia meetings, wildly broke into a junior meeting when the young girls were reciting the Rosary. As he strode into the room, swearing vengeance on all and sundry, not one little head turned: the Legionaries continued their prayers uninterrupted under the leadership of the young girl President! As he surveyed the scene, the officer’s face changed completely, he removed his cap, bowed his head reverently and quietly left the room - conquered by a group of little Legionaries praying to the Mother of God!'

How proud I was of the behaviour and spirit of my Legionaries both on this occasion and at other times when bombs and shells were dropping thickly all around the Mission.

McGrath also told of how in 1946, Pope Pius XII had sent word to the Chinese church to follow the model of the Legion of Mary so as to reach millions of Chinese people with the Good News. Pius XII was not naive however and told them:

You are going to be expelled sometime and in the meantime it is vital that you build up a framework which will caretake the Church in your absence, and that instrument lies ready for you in the Legion.

The Chinese bishops became familiar with the Legion handbook as a means of educating themselves with this new tool. The Chinese Communist Party were completely terrified of the Legion of Mary, it put women into positions of authority, it had no clear centralised structure and it seemed to be spreading like wildfire. Most terrifyingly, it carried with it the name of ‘Legion’ and other Roman inspired paraphernalia.

They tried to paint the Legion as a tool of Imperialism in order to deter Chinese people from joining it.

McGrath writes:

The legion was charged with being ‘reactionary’ at several ‘accusation meetings’ convened by the city authorities. The accusations were sustained, but the ‘reasoning’ at these mass meetings followed the line that ‘foreign priests’ were influential in organising the various groups of Legionaries and since foreigners were imperialists, the Legion was therefore a tool of Imperialism.

At this point in time, the Legion had reached 90 dioceses in China. Such was the disdain towards their success, that the Chinese Communist Party referred to Frank Duff as ‘Ireland’s greatest imperialist’.

Fr. McGrath ended up being imprisoned and tortured by the Chinese Communist Party for 32 months in 1951. In his recollection of his interrogations, he talks about how the Chinese police held one meeting in a church and demanded to know about what the Legion meant by ‘conquering the world’.

The Legion grew rapidly also in Hong Kong, where it was reported that 74 presidia were in operation in 1954.

One of the core motivations for Duff to found and build the Legion of Mary was St. Louis Mary de Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary.

The Legion has three causes for canonisation, one of which was Alphonsus Lambe, who recognised the importance of De Montfort’s book when he travelled to Argentina. In her book Envoy Extraordinaire, Hilde Firtel writes:

Alfie breached a very thorny subject, namely the sentimental and unenlightened devotion to Our Lady that is occasionally found in Latin America. In Europe one hears criticism that some people have saved nothing of devotion to Catholicism save devotion to Our Lady. But this fact which is taken as true is taken as an excuse to deprecate devotion to Our Lady. This is to err in the opposite extreme.

Alfie proposed the remedy as acquainting the faithful with the ‘True Devotion’ of Saint Louis Marie De Montfort. This would give them a true picture of Our Lady’s role in God’s plan of salvation and would gradually rectify their ideas.

The centrality of De Montfort and the deep Marian spirituality of the Legion handbook are core aspects, which transmit profound theological truths to even the lay person.

Duff met a number of popes, but was largely unappreciated in his home country. Perhaps it was because of the uncomfortably prescience with which he could perceive the future for Ireland not just in spiritual terms but economic terms also:

Obviously all this constitutes a danger signal for us in Ireland. We have arrived at the point when taxation has become oppressive and We know it is going to get heavier. At what stage will it amount to a taking over of our ,entire lives by the State" Then there will be no more effort; no more initiative. An eminent man of our own times has said that it is impossible for a dishonest people to become a great nation. I would amplify this thought and say that a people which does not give value cannot hope to keep the Faith.

The mere contemplation of such a nest of problems is enough to paralyse. Solution must be attempted in a spirit of pure faith. The crisis is as great as any of the classic ones of the past. So Legionaries of Mary will, quite naturally, turn to her who is the help of Christians, the destroyer of all heresies, the woman of perpetual succour, to whom recourse has never been made unavailingly.

Duff foresaw that Ireland’s poor catechesis would eventually lead the slide towards atheism:

It has always been imagined by us that the Irish people have a unique regard for the Mass. Therefore it is a shock to encounter proofs to the contrary. I have now covered a good deal of the surface of the country and I tell you our experience in regard to daily Mass, which surely is the test of appreciation. The attendance is miserable in proportion. Yet in the smaller places there is nothing doing at that time and the majority could attend. I specify one case where we had a priest with us and offered a week-day Mass to a village which normally has one on Sunday only. Not a single local person turned up for it. Other places would be better but not much better. Does that sort of thing afford justification for our alleged love of the Mass?

Quite evidently that degree of religion is not going to stand up to the adverse influences which are every day thickening and marshalling themselves. Therefore we find ourselves at a crisis point of religion. The thought forces itself upon me: Is it possible that the tragedy of France and so many other countries is going to reproduce itself in Ireland? We are walking on a slippery slope at the moment. That cannot continue. It improves or it deteriorates-usually the latter.

It was not possible to save France. Portugal. Spain. Italy. Holland. all of which have lost the Faith in the main. Acute French observers coming here soon after the Second World War declared that they saw a remarkable likeness between the Ireland of that time and the France of two hundred years previously: the same characteristics and the same weakness. Two hundred years ago would have been the period in which France would have prided itself on being the most Catholic country in the world that is immediately preceding the French Revolution. The Revolution did not create all thy hollowness and the hatred of religion which then appeared. It only revealed what was there. It was like taking off a mask.

Spain and Portugal spread the Faith over great tracts of the world's surface but those supreme services to the Church did not mean that the keeping of the Faith was guaranteed to them in perpetuity. They plunged into the most hideous phase of anti-religion which could exist and set themselves to propagate it over the world. It could not be said that the people in those country is put up any fight worth while against that horror. After a little flurry of resistance they abandoned themselves to the irreligion which their governments decreed. Even though the more violent aspects of atheism have worn off, the percentage of belief and practice there is negligible and it cannot be claimed that things are improving.

Does that likeness of conditions discerned by the French observers suggest that we will in due course slide into what they have become? We would be insane if we just shrugged off that possibility.

The Legion of Mary was an antidote to all of this. In many countries across the world, it has been a successful antidote. In Ireland, there is still time for it to be so.

Legionaries across Ireland can still be found today, visiting hospitals, feeding the homeless and handing out miraculous medals on streets.

Duff may have had a profound impact on the rest of the world, but he had a special place in his heart for Ireland, including Joseph Mary Plunkett’s poem I See His Blood Upon the Rose with accompanying artwork at the back of the Legion of Mary handbook.

He saw that the mission of the Legion in Ireland was similar to that of the St. Columbanus and the apostles before them, to go purify within before going out into a chaotic world:

These poured out from their little Isle into that continental wilderness. They invaded nearly every part of it. They rebuilt the lost Faith, built it better than it was before because this time it depended on conviction and not on State scaffolding. They may be said to have made modern Catholicism. That was the Peregrinatio pro Christo.

They would have viewed their mission in a very different way from that in which the Apostles looked on theirs. Much more was known about the world than in the year 33. Christianity moreover had taken root. It might have been laid waste over most of the world but those monks would have seen that as a mere temporary calamity which must be repaired. Certainly ( the Faith was not suffering in Ireland. It was new there and boiling with fervour. The monks were providentially ready for a supreme adventure of that kind.

100 years on from its foundation, the Legion of Mary still has the potential to show the vision and determination that Duff embodied and that has sustained millions of Legionaries, many in secret in China, North Korea and elsewhere.

How blessed we are in Ireland to be able to claim this as our recent spiritual heritage.

You can watch the full video of the conference below:

Traditionis Custodes Criticised for 'Clericalism' in France

The fallout from Pope Francis’s Motu Proprio Traditionis Custodes continues to cause trouble for parishes and for the spiritual lives of Traditional Catholics, mostly for those based in Europe.

In the latest disaster, the Traditionalist Community in Grenoble-Vienne in France have released a statement in their increasingly hostile relationship with the authoritarian nature of their episcopate’s imposition of arbitrary and abstract rules against providing adequate pastoral care to those who prefer the Latin Mass.

After public protests in November, the French Traditionalist representative group AFSAN have now escalated their efforts to stop the cruel efforts to crush their masses. A letter addressed to incoming Bishop De Kerimel has outlined this very position, decrying the heavy handedness of those who have imposed harsh measures to the detriment of the spiritual lives of their flock.

Many of these impositions have been imposed out of sheer spite, with the Anglo American blogosphere taunting their European counterparts for their attachment to the liturgy, with one even posting a local parish newsletter and calling for the Vatican to punish his fellow Catholics because they had advertised as to what time the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was available. Another wrote ‘Hopefully he (Pope Francis) imposes more restrictions on the Tridentine Mass’.

The letter from ASFAN contains within it a very interesting tone, something that Traditionalists would be wise to pay attention to. They are not merely begging, they are not desperately demanding that they be taken more seriously, rather it appears as though they are aware that they are in a strong enough position to start negotiating. They are offering their help to the church. Considering the fact that the church has completely collapsed in South America, as highlighted in this week’s Wall Street Journal, the letter from the Traditionalists rightfully warns the bishop that the church hierarchy needs the support of fervent groups of faithful and cannot afford to simply discard them forever. Traditionalists will stay faithful regardless, in five years time the Latin Mass societies around Europe will be in a far stronger position than progressive groups, who are seeing many members grow increasingly elderly, with no youth to replace them.

Cutting Masses with large attendances from 60 to 3 or 4 a month, as has been done in Grenoble, can only be designed to do one thing only, and that is to damage the Mystical Body of Christ. It is a situation that simply cannot last and Traditionalists merely have to stay strong and wait it out.

You can read AFSAN’s full document below:

AFSAN faces a deadlock situation in the diocese of Grenoble-Vienne

While AFSAN met Monsignor de Kerimel in a seemingly cordial interview, the association is obliged to once again express its discontent and sadness in the face of a situation of deadlock with no apparent outcome. Indeed, the bishop of Grenoble-Vienne remains entrenched in a position that he does not justify other than by an argument of authority – an abuse of authority?

"You never make a mistake in obeying." It is to this unequivocal argument that Monsignor de Kerimel returned relentlessly, evading questions, objections and substantive discussions. There is every reason to believe that the bishop has a notion of obedience at the antipodes of what the Church teaches, in manifest coherence with that which he has authority: he who has authority speaks, others must obey without discussion. In the jargon, this is called clericalism. Since the Sauvé report, we unfortunately know better what abuses this kind of positioning has led to.

AFSAN is sure, however, to be in obedience, having read, listened to, worked on the words of the Holy Father, who explained the ins and outs of his Motu proprio. Francis told
the French bishops visiting Rome that he did not want the destruction of all groups using the traditional Mass. He asked them to ensure that the use
of this liturgy was not the screen of an ideology of rejection of the Second Vatican Council. He asked them to be paternal with the other groups that use this liturgy in an ecclesial and peaceful spirit.

Faithful to the magisterium, we are not concerned by the designated ideology and therefore by the Motu Proprio, we do not have to undergo an attitude that is akin to a sanction. As the Pope has said, bishops must be pastors who break out of the rigidity of laws. Wouldn't that be just that, obeying?

"At the judge of what is happening in his diocese, the bishop can apply the status quo." The bishop's own words then resonate as a sentence: to our request for the status quo, accompanied by a proposal for working groups to reflect on better integration in the diocese and bridges with the parish, the bishop replied "there is no question of it". We are therefore not worthy, confined by our bishop to an alleged disobedience and an "incomplete communion with the Church".

Particularly attentive to the place of the laity in the Church, as shown by the Synod on Synodality inaugurated on Sunday, October 10, Pope Francis asks his pastors to be "attentive to
the requests, anxieties and hopes of each Church, of each people and nation"? Isn't Bishop de Kerimel's decision in total inconsistency with these remarks?

Behind a so-called smooth transition, the bishop announces in the coming weeks a decisive decree, which will gradually limit the Mass said according to the missal of John XXIII. Already, priests are constrained in their apostolates: prohibition to baptize adults, to be a scout chaplain, ... Not because we "represent a danger", but because "there is a danger within us". Remove what could be a source of danger, such as spiritual euthanasia... Saint-André, Notre-Dame-de-l'Isle, #Mychurchtoo...

Is it really the priority of a bishop today, to hinder the proper functioning of two full and radiant churches, when there are so many more urgent challenges: lack of priests, empty churches and / or for sale, financial crisis, sexual abuse. Can the Bishop of Grenoble afford in the current context to revive an old internal war, which has already hurt so much, while the situation was precisely peaceful and stable for about ten years, with flourishing apostolates? A petition is circulating to call on Bishop de Kerimel not to revive this liturgical war that has done so much harm.

The association takes note that the inflexible positioning of the bishop leads to a situation of blockage that it deplores. In conscience, it cannot resolve not to
defend a legitimate, authorized, pastorally fruitful position.

His pleas rebuffed out of hand, AFSAN decided to turn to the Metropolitan Archbishop of Lyon, as well as to the President of the Conference of Bishops of France, asking them for a meeting, a return, an active and soothing look.

We reaffirm our desire to be fully integrated into diocesan life and its works, in the preservation of our own charism. We officially request the maintenance of the current functioning of these two communities served by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, not only in the immediate but in the long term.

Paris Churches RANSACKED as Anti Catholic Violence Increases

The rising tide of anti Catholic violence and terror in France continues to spread unabated.

This past week, it was the Parisian Diocese of Saint-Denis which became the target of a wretched attack on the Catholic faith.

In a statement by the Diocese of Saint Denis, they told of the desecration of their tabernacle at Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois in Romainville:

the priest who opened the church immediately realized that a collection box had been torn off, that the tabernacle was fractured, the sound equipment was stolen, and the cabinets of the sacristy, stripped of several sacred vessels.

The following night, a similar attack took place at Saint-Pierre de Bondy , with the desecration of the tabernacle also showing that this was no mere burglary. The diocese stated that the following occurred

- A broken stained glass window

- The tabernacle desecrated, fractured and emptied of its contents

- The sacristy with a broken door and where another liturgical object was stolen, as well as a laptop. The room was left upside down.

The Basilica Saint Denis was also targeted by a terrorist, who broke in with an iron bar. In a sickening attack, the terrorist, a Guyanese national, destroyed the Nativity Scene and smashed up a number of statues. According to French media, he had initially intended on trying to desecrate the Royal Necropolis contained in the building.

Another terror attack at St. Pierre le Vieux. saw similar violence.

The latest anti Catholic attack in France.

This time at Saint Pierre le Vieux.

Don't expect mainstream European media to even acknowledge it. pic.twitter.com/4xmF7qtwNK

— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) January 11, 2022

After a decade of watching Notre Dame burn, watching priests being beheaded, watching their processions attacked, one can only ask what it will take to make the French awaken from their stupor.

Tony Blair Knighthood Is An Insult to Christians

My spiritual journey began when I began going to Mass with my wife. And when we decided to baptize our children in the Catholic faith. It's a path which has taken 25 years, and maybe longer. Over time, emotionally, intellectually and rationally it became clear that the Catholic Church was the right home for me. But it happened after a very long period of time. When I left my political post, and no longer had all the tensions linked to being prime minister, it was something I wanted to do.

It would be unfair to suggest that Tony Blair’s Catholicism is a mere veneer, or to say that it has originated from a place of insincerity within him.

Nonetheless, it is worth mentioning his conversion while considering the reason for which he has made the news this past week. The announcement that Queen Elizabeth II had included him in her list of honours has caused widespread disgust, with one million people quickly signing a petition of opposition.

When Blair made the fateful decision to join George W. Bush and the United States in their illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003, he was not a practicing Catholic, though his wife was. Yet, the horrific decision to willingly commit war crimes was to have consequences for people of faith across the world. Initially cast in Islamic media as a ‘crusade’, the criminal invasion was the most devastating single event to happen to any Christian population in this century.

As Christian Iraqis huddled in fear inside their homes in March 2003, they crouched together in terror and breathlessly counted down the seconds until the deadline set by the United States came into effect.

Saddam Hussein had been given 48 hours to leave Iraq by US President George W. Bush. The conditions were academic, Bush was ready to strike regardless, having ensured the cooperation of a vast array of characters including the New York Times and Joe Biden, to create the blatant lie that Iraq had been readied to unleash Weapons of Mass Destruction. Outside of the States, Fabian Society member Tony Blair rowed in behind Bush’s lies. Blindsided, most of the West was left powerless to oppose those who were exploiting the terror elicited by the sight of those planes crashing into the Twin Towers in 2001, apart from France’s Jacques Chirac.

At 2.30 on the morning of March 20th, the first explosions could be heard inside the historic city. A ‘bunker’ believed to have contained Saddam Hussein was amongst the targets heavily bombed by the jets, a ‘bunker’ which it was later revealed to have been entirely fictitious.

Journalist Robert Fisk detailed these attacks from within Iraq:

It was an outrage, an obscenity. The severed hand on the metal door, the swamp of blood and mud across the road, the human brains inside a garage, the incinerated, skeletal remains of an Iraqi mother and her three small children in their still-smouldering car.

It’s a dirt-poor neighbourhood, of mostly Shia Muslims, the same people whom Messrs Bush and Blair still fondly hope will rise up against President Saddam Hussein, a place of oil-sodden car-repair shops, overcrowded apartments and cheap cafes. Everyone I spoke to heard the plane. One man, so shocked by the headless corpses he had just seen, could only say two words. “Roar, flash,” he kept saying and then closed his eyes so tight that the muscles rippled between them.

How should one record so terrible an event? Perhaps a medical report would be more appropriate. But the final death toll is expected to be near to 30 and Iraqis are now witnessing these awful things each day; so there is no reason why the truth, all the truth, of what they see should not be told.

For another question occurred to me as I walked through this place of massacre yesterday. If this is what we are seeing in Baghdad, what is happening in Basra and Nassiriyah and Kerbala? How many civilians are dying there too, anonymously, indeed unrecorded, because there are no reporters to be witness to their suffering?

These were the sufferings of the Iraqi people as a whole, but the sufferings of the Christians of Iraq were entirely unique and entirely awful.

Early in the war, Christians began to be targeted by Islamists, leading to many having to either flee the country or face certain violence. The full scale of this nightmarish crescendo became apparent in 2008, when Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was kidnapped in Mosul, murdered by Islamists and dumped in a shallow grave.

Another priest, Fr. Ragheed Ganni, was was shot dead in a church in Mosul after refusing to convert to Islam. He has celebrated his first Mass at the Irish College in Rome, which now depicts his image on the wall alongside St. Oliver Plunkett and others martyrs for the faith.

There are countless other stories. Take for example that of 3 year old Christian boy Adam, who begged terrorists ‘enough’ after they had murdered his family and others. He was shot dead by them.

On this day in 2010, 52 Iraqi Christians were murdered by Islamic State of Iraq

3 year old Christian boy Adam witnessed his family being murdered by the terrorists

He bravely approached the terrorists and told them 'enough,enough' before they killed him

God bless his soul pic.twitter.com/3vStFyp6OQ

— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) October 31, 2020

To the Christians of the Middle East, this is the legacy of Tony Blair’s political career. This is the legacy which Queen Elizabeth II has decided to honour.

Perhaps Tony Blair the Catholic has repented of these abominable war crimes, comparable to any of the horrors of the Twentieth Century. However, even if he already has, he should do the right thing and turn down this insult to the Christian peoples of the Middle East.

They have suffered enough.

Police Supervise French Mass After Beheading Threats

A recent terrorist incident in Nanterre, France has shaken the Catholic world.

The violent Islamist attack on a Marian Procession has barely made a dent in the secular media however, with mainstream European news outlets refusing to carry the story of torches being swiped from faithful, a priest being spat on by Islamists and threats to decapitate Catholics in the name of the Quran.

Now, images have emerged of Mass in the town being supervised by police as the threats were eerily similar to events in recent years in Normandy and Nice, where a priest and parishioners had their heads severed from their bodies during Mass.

To their credit, a number of Muslim groups have done what President Emmanuel Macron is refusing to do and have condemned the terrorism against Catholics.

@92catholique #Nanterre #Nanterreprocession #a2cmgfhttps://t.co/FryQNYYkIH pic.twitter.com/G2ZcVSso31

— a2cmgf (@2cmgf) December 12, 2021

French Catholic Procession Attacked by Islamists

French Catholicism has hit the headlines in many different ways over the past number of weeks.

There has been the scandal involving the Archbishop of Paris who has now resigned, there has been the proposed wreckovation of Notre Dame and there was also the protest against a secular concert at a church in Nantes.

Now, a far more sinister story has emerged from Nanterre.

A number of Catholics were attending a Marian Procession in the town when a large group of Muslim men attacked them.

The Muslims shut down the event, screaming ‘THIS IS THE LAND OF ALLAH, ON THE QURAN I WILL SLIT YOUR THROAT!’ echoing the recent martyrdom of Father Jacques Hamyl in Normandy in 2016 and three Catholics in Nice last year.

The details of the attack were released in a Twitter thread belonging to an account which has since been deleted, apparently due to threats.

Twitter user Nicolas Phillippe wrote:

Today we celebrated the immaculate conception in our parish of Fontenelles in Nanterre. For the occasion, a short procession of 1km is organized in the evening with the statue of the blessed virgin as well as songs to the virgin

After only a hundred meters, for our first stop, we began to be insulted by passers-by. Then several young men began to surround us, in total a big dozen, who sneered while insulting us

Then sneers followed increasingly violent insults "children of whores", "gang of whores",then increasingly Christiannophobic words "here is not a cathedral", "you are khouffars of disbelievers", "break you are not at home" 

Faced with the hostility of these young people, it was decided to continue the procession route. There, they get closer to us, the insults become more and more violent, and it spits on the ground in our direction.

The father is attacked first being at the head of the procession. He gets spat on, then thrown cold water. The tension rises, and the group that surrounded us comes into contact. "wallah on the Qur'an I'm going to slit your throat." 

The father explains that it is a procession dedicated to the virgin. Nothing to do, "this is the land of Allah, break yourself". Other words are spoken in Arabic, while several parishioners are violently jostled by these young

We were followed and insulted for almost the entire duration of the procession, under infamous words, which were covered by songs to the virgin. In the end, calm only returned when we returned to the Church, where a police patrol was waiting for us because alerted

No one was injured, but the parishioners were shocked by this inexplicable violence towards a simple procession that was done in a good mood, authorized in the prefecture and on a classic course. The hatred in their eyes was there, without being able to explain it.

Honestly, the climate is very heavy, and it is more and more complicated, even dangerous, to be a Christian in certain territories. I am not trying to take pity only to explain the verbal and physical violence that Christians in France face

Most of the shocking details were confirmed today by the diocese’s social media:

A Marian procession took place at Hauts de Seine prefecture

During this march were planned two stops. During the first stop the procession was taken to task by several people who uttered insults and coarse and violent threats. The torch of a devotee was snatched and thrown on the participants. The procession started again and continued to be joined by the police until Saint Marie des Fontenelles. A complaint is about to be filed. The Diocese has contacted the public authorities so that the public so that the security of legitimately iniquitous faithful is fully assured now and in the future.

#Nanterre pic.twitter.com/BZL7Ezxsk9

— Diocèse de Nanterre (@92catholique) December 11, 2021

With the French Presidential Election currently focusing on the disparate nature of French society, priests being spat on by Muslim gangs threatening to slit the throats of Catholics carrying statues of Our Lady can only add more urgency to the need to solve France’s broken identity.

Based French Catholics Protect Church From Secular Concert

On the even of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a group of based French Catholics successfully defended their church in Nantes from being used to make money for a secular pop musician.

Echoing the Gospel story of the money changers in the Temple, these brave Catholics successfully orchestrated to sing hymns and show solidarity outside the Notre Dame de bon Port church in the city of Nantes.

The Mayor of Nantes, Bassem Asseh, has had the gall to condemn Catholics for defending their own church, stating that it impinged ‘freedom of expression’.

Une poignée de radicaux intolérants provoque l’annulation d’un concert à N-D du Bon-Port programmé en accord avec l’évêché. Rien n’autorisait l’expression d’une telle censure. Ce n’est pas notre conception d’un projet de société fondé sur le dialogue et l’ouverture culturelle.

— Bassem ASSEH (@3asseh) December 7, 2021

The booking of Swedish singer Anna von Hausswolff to play a Catholic church on the even of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception is really quite bizarre, considering her music features such lyrics as:

These pills keep me alive
These pills keep me alive
Oh my love
I'm holding it
Caressing it.
Oh, I'm sick
The heat and cold.
The presence of a dual code.
I'm on the floor constantly, intensivley,
Making love.
I made love
I made love
With the devil
With the devil.
Oh I, I made love with the devil
With the devil.
Oh I, I made love with the devil
With the devil.
Oh I, I made love with the devil
With the devil.
Oh I, I made love with the devil
With the devil.
Devil
With the devil.
Devil.
With the devil.
Devil.
With the devil.

There is no reason to think that the civic authorities could not have arranged a more suitable non religious venue for this concert and had it pass off without trouble. To arrange it in a church on a normal day is offensive, to do so on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception is an act of war.

French media outlets, panicked since the rise of politician Eric Zemmour, have condemned the Catholics, with Le Monde calling them ‘fundamentalist Catholics’ and others calling them ‘integralists’.

Mostly however, they were just young men and women who did not want to see their churches desecrated.

Traditional French Catholics have tonight blocked their church in Nantes from being misused to host a secular concert.

💪 pic.twitter.com/6M7tVd4Zzz

— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) December 7, 2021

Seville Hosts STUNNING Procession

One of the most stunning jewels in the crown of European Catholicism is the majestic series of processions which occur each year in Spain.

On the 75th anniversary of its official recognition by the Holy See, Spanish in the city of Seville honoured the patronage of the Virgen de los Reyes.

There are a number of stories regarding the origin of the icon, including a donation to King Ferdinand III of Castile by King Louis IX of France after a dream, and that it played a part in the Reconquista of Seville in 1248.

In 1946, the Vatican officially recognised the long standing devotion with a ceremony that took place involving Pope Pius XII.

In celebration of that event, thousands took to the streets of Seville today, including marching bands, priests and public officials.

The rich beauty of Spanish Catholicism is something that has been attacked in recent months by members of the White Anglo Saxon Catholic American Blogosphere, with attacks on everyone from Saint Junipero Serra to Christopher Columbus to Queen Isabella to even statues of and stained glasses of the Reconquista. Yet the incredible videos of the Seville processions speak for themselves. Perhaps the ailing European continent can love to learn to herself and feel young once more by reengaging with these treasured traditions and the faith that they venerate.

Irish Group to Host Webinar on Upcoming Synod

Family Solidarity will host a webinar with Sr Nathalie Becquart, under-secretary of the Synod of the Bishop in Rome, and Dr Vincenzo Bassi, president of the European Federation of Catholic Families Organisations (FAFCE).

In October, Pope Francis called the Catholic Church to embark on the synodal journey, asking for a broad participation, particularly at the local level. Sr Nathalie will talk about the role of the family, and of family organisations, in this process of spiritual discernment.

“Synodality is a call for mutual listening between all the members of the Church, and inspired by the Holy Spirit. Encouraged by the opening of the Synod, family associations wish to become protagonists of the synodal movement initiated by Pope Francis. In the same way that family members care for each other and move forward in a common understanding of unity, family associations wish today to work within the Church to create a true path of unity and communion for the common good.”, said Vincenzo Bassi of FAFCE.

He added: “This webinar is a way that FAFCE and Family Solidarity have to raise awareness about the responsibility that Christians and, specifically, our organisations have in this goal in the first instance, by working to create a network of encounters between families and by developing Family Associations. In fact, as Pope Francis said at the opening of the synodal path, “As we initiate this process, we too are called to become experts in the art of encounter. Not so much by organizing events or theorizing about problems, as in taking time to encounter the Lord and one another“.”

The webinar will take place on Thursday 9th December at 7.00 pm (Irish time) and it will be moderated by journalist Jason Osborne (Irish Catholic). Dr Angelo Bottone, chairman of Family Solidarity, will make the closing remarks.

The event will be livestreamed on the FAFCE Youtube and Facebook pages.

For ZOOM registration and more details, see https://familysolidarity.org/synodality/

EU Ambassador Says Virgin Mary 'Had Beard'

The increasingly fraught relationship between Christians and the European Union hit new lows in recent weeks.

Firstly, there were calls to remove the term ‘Happy Christmas’ from official documentation, per a request from an EU Minister.

Now, a European Union Ambassador has claimed that Our Lady had a beard, while mocking Catholics with a deliberately offensive photoshoot where he dressed up as Our Lady.

The photoshoot was taken for German magazine Siegessäule, who went out of their way to offend Christians during Advent with the deliberately blasphemous set of pictures.

Earlier this year, Riccardo Simonetti was made an LGBTQ Goodwill Ambassador for the European Parliament. Sharing the images on his social media, he wrote:

If we ignore the fact that Jesus wasn’t white, we could as well believe the Virgin Mary had a beard, why not? 🧔‍♀️

The shocking images and lack of reaction stand as yet another example of the European Union’s soft stance on anti Christian sentiments within its ranks.

There has been strong condemnation of the provocative attacks, with one MEP calling for Simonetti to be removed from his ambassador position.

🚨 El “Embajador del Parlamento Europeo” para el colectivo LGTBI, un tal @RicciSimonetti hace mofa de la Virgen María.

El nivel de idiocia y de falta de escrúpulos de estos profesionales del timo es insoportable. Se cree intocable por esa falsa teoría de la tolerancia. Pero no. pic.twitter.com/7UI3qINtog

— Jorge Buxadé (@Jorgebuxade) December 2, 2021

Exigiremos en @VOX_Europa_ hoy mismo su cese y que pida perdón público a todos los cristianos. No argumento el clásico “con Mahoma no lo haría”.

No hemos de aceptar más esta basura contra la Cristiandad, y menos de quien “representa” una institución. #OtraEuropaEsPosible

— Jorge Buxadé (@Jorgebuxade) December 2, 2021

Jorge Buxadé of the VOX party, has demanded that the EU removes him from his ambassador role.

You can read their open letter to the EU below:

EU Backs Down on Anti Christian Guidelines

In the past number of years, the European Union has become an increasingly menacing and pernicious force for anti Christian bias.

Despite being the product of the vision of many Catholics such as Robert Schuman, the European Union now chooses to try to destroy Catholicism in countries like Poland and Ireland, it chooses to try to help annihilating European children in the womb and it seeks to reduce the continent’s rich cultural heritage into a soulless bureaucracy.

In the past week, they doubled down on their searing hatred for Europe’s Christian heritage, with the ironically titled ‘EU Commissioner for Equality’ Helena Dalli calling for the erasure of Christianity in holiday greetings.

Despite Christian people remaining by far the most persecuted peoples in the world today, and despite attacks on peoples of the Christian faith in the past year such as in Nice and the killing of David Ames, Ms. Dalli chose to compound the persecution of Christians even more with her discriminatory decree that ‘Happy Christmas’ be outlawed in official European Union documentation.

This was particularly hypocritical, as Ms. Dalli has repeatedly used official European Union communications to wish people a Happy Eid Mubarak.

Happy #EidAlAdha to all Muslim people around the world.

May this special day bring love and peace to you. #Tabaski2020 #EidMubarak #UnionOfEquality pic.twitter.com/AHsTAcy0it

— Helena Dalli (@helenadalli) July 31, 2020

Wishing #EidMubarak to all European Muslims and those around the rest of the world. #UnionOfEquality

— Helena Dalli (@helenadalli) May 24, 2020

Dalli refused to apologise for the attack on Christians, instead issuing an impersonal statement claiming that the discriminatory and bigoted suggestions were merely ‘work in progress’.

Concern was raised with regards to some examples provided in the Guidelines on Inclusive Communication, which as is customary with such guidelines, is work in progress. We are looking into these concerns with the view of addressing them in an updated version of the guidelines. pic.twitter.com/90ZK8rpPb2

— Helena Dalli (@helenadalli) November 30, 2021

Left wing Anglo newspaper The Guardian lamented the withdrawal of the discriminatory and bigoted proposals, with a headline stating:

EU advice on inclusive language withdrawn after rightwing outcry

Despite the many great things which can be said about the European Union, it is not worth gaining the whole world to sell one’s soul. It is becoming increasingly clear that there are those within power in the European Union who want to rid the continent of Christianity in order to remake the continent in their bland, cultureless image.

Christians should seriously consider whether such a malignant force is worthy of support or outright opposition.

Alternatively, you can wish Ms. Dalli a Happy and Holy and Joyous Commemoration of the Birth of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by contacting her office’s email:

cab-dalli-contact@ec.europa.eu

Keeping The Spirit of Christmas by GK Chesterton

The following essay was first published by The Illustrated London News on St. Stephen’s Day in 1925 and it conveys GK Chesterton’s thoughts on commercial efforts at trying to create a Christmas without Christianity.

An article on "Christmas Old and New" appeared recently in a magazine, and said many things that many people are probably saying just now. I do not say they are very lucid things, but they revolve round a reality and something sincerely if vaguely felt.

They raise all the talk about tradition and change; about keeping the spirit but not the letter; about suiting something to modern conditions, and so on. We have heard a good deal about these things; unfortunately, we have not heard much sense about them.

For it has become a convention to say we must disregard conventions; and the demand for something new is already old enough to be in its dotage or (if we had luck) in its coffin. But I notice one rather queer paradox about all this talk of change or reform in customs like Christmas. People talk about sacrificing the letter and keeping the spirit; and then go and do exactly the opposite. They keep a few fragmentary letters (which no longer make a word) and then sacrifice the spirit altogether.

Now the difficulty in all talk about the letter and the spirit is that a man who goes by the spirit must be very sure that he does really understand the spirit. And in my little local experience, the man generally does not. To take a parallel, a sceptic might ask what is the permanent value of the particular forms of good manners that go to make up what is conventionally called a gentleman. He might say he wished to alter the letter of certain little observances, but keep the spirit of the social and historical type. He might say, "Need a gentleman take off his hat to a lady? Need he take it off on entering another man's house?" To which the universal philosopher will reply, "No, of course not. He might take off his boots. The Arabs already do it in the case of the house, when Arabs are so fortunate as to have any houses. And, although it would be tiresome to sit down on the pavement and unlace one's boots while an obliging lady stood still and patiently waited to be saluted, of course that symbol would do as well as any other symbol, if it were socially accepted as symbolising respect." That would be really to alter the letter but keep the spirit. But I do not observe that this is what the more casual or callous youths of the rising generation tend to do.

I do not observe many of them prostrating themselves on the pavement, or standing on their heads in the street (to show how completely the lady's beauty has bowled them over), or in any other fashion experimenting in new modes of expression for the chivalric sentiment. They are not inventing new forms for an old feeling; they are doing just the reverse. They are ignoring the old feeling, but preserving a few limp remains of the old forms.

Now suppose a man, when entering by his friend's front door, were to toss his hat off with a jerk and leave it lying in the middle of the floor. His gesture would not be, like the removal of his boots, a new gesture or antic to express respect. It would simply be the old antic without the respect. It would be going through the old arbitrary action in such a way as to make it mean the opposite of what it was supposed to mean. Suppose a young man were to stroll up to a lady with his hands in his pockets and tell her to take off his hat for him and hold it in the air for a few seconds before replacing it on his head. It would not be a new way of expressing courtesy, but an old way distorted to express discourtesy.

Now I do not say that the unconventional young man of fact and fiction is going quite so far as this; but what amuses me is that, so far as he goes, he is not repudiating the forms of courtesy to keep the soul of chivalry; he is rather repudiating chivalry and keeping a few of the merely mechanical and meaningless gestures of courtesy. Our latest romance of cocktails and rapid dramas is not unconventional; it is only languidly conventional. It is not a school of new manners; it is only old manners modified and softened by bad manners.

Now I notice the same contradiction about Christmas—and, indeed, about Christian traditions generally. It is apparent in the people who tell us, in the papers and elsewhere, that they have emancipated themselves from dogmas, and propose to live by the spirit of Christianity. To which I reply: "All right—go ahead," or words to that effect. But then I always find myself confronted with this extraordinary fact. They start out to live by the spirit of Christianity, and proceed to fling themselves with frenzy into preventing poor people from getting any beer, preventing oppressed nations from defending themselves against tyrants (because it might lead to war), tearing backward children away from their heart-broken parents and locking them up in some sort of materialistic madhouse, and so on. And then they are quite surprised when I tell them that I think they have far less of the spirit of Christianity than they have the letter of it, of the actual words and terminology of its dogmas.

In point of fact, they have kept some of the words and terminology, words like Peace and Righteousness and Love; but they make these words stand for an atmosphere utterly alien to Christendom; they keep the letter and lose the spirit. And as it is with Christendom, so it is with Christmas. If men knew exactly what they meant by Christmas, and then started out to make new symbols, new ceremonies, or new jokes, it might be a very good thing. Something of the sort may yet happen, very probably, in that world of modern men that does know what it means by Christmas. But most of the modern modifications which were discussed in the magazine and elsewhere were quite the reverse of this.

They were really ways in which men may keep the name of Christmas, and a few faded badges of Christmas, while doing something totally different. But what is meant by men like the magazine writer is simply this: that a few sprigs of a particular vegetation called holly and mistletoe should be stuck up in large, over-heated, homeless American hotels, where people shall forget all about Christmas, be bored with the very thought of Christmas, blaspheme the supreme and sacred soul of Christmas with their sophistication and their satiety and their despair. They are too tired to feel the spirit; they are too tired to improve the symbolism; only they are also too tired even to alter the name.

That sort of thing is nothing so creative as reform, just as it is nothing so tenacious as tradition. It is simply drifting, like a halfmelted iceberg which floats into warmer waters, without knowing why it differs from its surroundings, why it is changing, or how much of it is left. None of us should desire to see the noble snow man of the English Christmas melt in the meaningless fashion of that iceberg. It would be better that the snow man should be destroyed like an idol by iconoclasts like the Puritans.

It were better that those who know why they like it should have to defend it against those who know why they dislike it. I have very little fear that in the last resort the latter would ever be the majority. But the former would fight much better if they did know why they liked it, even at the expense of returning to some of the superstitions of their fathers. Anyhow, I know why I like it; and in the case of the Christmas of cocktails and central heating, I know why I dislike it.

I know that the reality is not relativity or progress or the mere passage of the ages. I know Father Christmas when I see him, even when he is in plain clothes. And I am not deceived by Father Time dressed up in holly and mistletoe.

Modernist Plot to Wreck Notre Dame Revealed

When Notre Dame was mysteriously set on fire in 2019, few Catholics could have imagined a scenario worse than seeing the historic cathedral in flames.

Yet it appears as though France’s Modernists have had other ideas, with their plans to wreck Notre Dame proving more horrifying than losing the church itself.

In a shocking exclusive from The Telegraph, it has been revealed that Modernists will perform vicious iconoclastic wreckovation on the historic church, as has been done to deter millions from the faith in the West over the past half century. The destruction of the church’s Catholic heritage will include:

• Removing Confessionals

• Sound and Light Effects

• Ugly Modern Art

• ‘Emotional Spaces’

• Scrapping of Traditional Altar and Statues

🔴Exclusive: Paris' fire-ravaged Notre-Dame cathedral risks resembling a "politically correct Disneyland" under controversial plans for its renovation seen by the @TelegraphWorld

Here's what they have planned⬇️https://t.co/SmSKeX2Qrh pic.twitter.com/ygh8gKPy1g

— Telegraph World News (@TelegraphWorld) November 26, 2021

In boasting of these plans, Paris Archbishop Michael Aupetit stated:

bring the Cathedral into the 21st Century while preserving its own identity in the spirit of the Christian Tradition.

Media reports this week have suggested that Aupetit is under investigation after reports of a ‘relationship’ with a woman emerged, which he readily admits were ‘suggesting the existence between us of an intimate relationship and sexual relations’.

Blessing the oaks which will be used to reconstruct Notre Dame in Paris. pic.twitter.com/dui6OIZ6Tp

— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) March 13, 2021

The first photos from inside Notre Dame Cathedral after the fire have emerged

The photographs include President Macron visiting the chapel#notredame #france pic.twitter.com/2xz5I88uTP

— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) April 15, 2019

Father Fournier

The Fire Department Chaplain

Is the man who saved the Blessed Sacrament and Crown of Thorns from the fire

God bless him! #notredame #france pic.twitter.com/zwSq2seI3Q

— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) April 15, 2019

He has today submitted his resignation to Pope Francis after admitting to having had an ‘ambiguous’ relationship with the woman in 2012. No wonder he wanted to get rid of confessionals!

The man who he entrusted to to carry out the plans, Father Gilles Drouin, must now do the right thing and step aside from the project also. Father Drouin said of the wreckovation plans:

let's take the opportunity to reread the space. With a clear principle: we want a place that is liturgical and open to all.

French Traditionalism has been organised, vocal and effective in recent years. It must raise its voice to stop this architectural terrorism from mocking the memories of the generations who worked on Notre Dame for centuries. A renovation aimed at renewing faith rather than taking it as an abstract pretext for architectural experimentation could work wonders for the faith in France and for wider French society.

It is quite remarkable architect Maurice Culot has seen the plans and has had the good sense to call them ‘Disney entering Notre Dame….very childish and trivial given the grandeur of the place’.

If only the clerics who have given the go ahead for such clerical monstrosities over the past half century could see things through Monsieur Culot’s eyes.

UK Politician Claims Jesus was Euthanised

Post Christian United Kingdom is the type of place where security guards allow terror attacks to occur for fear or racism and where members of parliament are denied the Last Rites by police, yet it still manages to find new ways to emphasise its clown world status.

In a lengthy debate on the topic of Assisted Dying in the House of Lords, there were many speakers, most of whom were against the proposal that will likely empower elder abusers and will greatly disadvantage palliative care provision.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby was amongst those opposing the shocking proposals, which had been introduced by Baroness Meacher.

Archbishop @JustinWelby speaking in the House of Lords today, on why he cannot support the Assisted Dying Bill. pic.twitter.com/Qe3erPiVkw

— Church of England in Parliament (@churchstate) October 22, 2021

With the majority of speakers pointing out that this was a poorly composed and ill intentioned piece of legislation, one figure in the House of Lords, Lord Vinson made the deranged claim that Our Lord Jesus Christ was euthanised by a Roman soldier.

The crazed remark has to be heard to be believed.

Was Jesus’ death an assisted suicide?

In a House of Lord’s debate on assisted suicide, Lord Vinson claimed that “Christ was put out of his agony by a kindly Roman centurion.” pic.twitter.com/k4ZJjQow0w

— Christian Concern (@CConcern) October 22, 2021

Polish Man Arrested For Cutting Down Cross

Poland has been under repeated assault from Globalist forces over the course of the past year.

They have tried everything, pushing abortion, storming churches and even trying to force the idea of Poland being responsible for the Holocaust, in order to try to damage Poland’s prolife policies.

Although Polish people have held off well, the situation is intensifying.

Just this week, a 31 year old man has been arrested for cutting down a cross on a Polish street.

Policjanci z Zielonej Góry w wyniku intensywnych działań operacyjnych ustalili i zatrzymali 31-letniego mężczyznę,który może odpowiadać za zniszczenie krzyża na Os.Zastalowskim.Trwają czynności procesowe z jego udziałem.@PolsatNewsPL @tvn24 @tvp_info @radiozachod @gazetalubuska pic.twitter.com/I56Sw4KjeT

— Marcin Maludy 🇵🇱 💯 (@Marcin_Maludy) October 19, 2021

The shocking video of the attack shows the depths of depravity which are no commonplace in Polish society. It is going to be a very difficult decade ahead for those who wish to save it from becoming the living hell that much of Europe has become.

Those who have uploaded the video have promised to cut more, presumably out of loyalty to their Globalist authority figures abroad.

Policjanci z Zielonej Góry w wyniku intensywnych działań operacyjnych ustalili i zatrzymali 31-letniego mężczyznę,który może odpowiadać za zniszczenie krzyża na Os.Zastalowskim.Trwają czynności procesowe z jego udziałem.@PolsatNewsPL @tvn24 @tvp_info @radiozachod @gazetalubuska pic.twitter.com/I56Sw4KjeT

— Marcin Maludy 🇵🇱 💯 (@Marcin_Maludy) October 19, 2021

‘Bye Baby!’ British MP's Shocking Pro Abortion Protest

British MP Tommy Sheppard has caused disgust after uploading an image of a protest that he attended, with a sign reading ‘Bye baby!’ in a disgusting taunt against helpless unborn children.

Sheppard's unhinged protest claimed to be against those ‘intimidating women who are seeking help' however it is unclear how his protest's repulsive bragging about killing babies can be considered anything other than intimidating in itself, especially when the repulsive ‘Bye Baby!’ poster was displayed without due regard for those who may have miscarried.

The sick event undermines efforts by faux nationalist parties, such as Shephard's own SNP and Mary Lou McDonald's Sinn Fein, to ban Catholics from praying near places where babies are brought for destruction. The fake nationalists in the SNP and Sinn Fein have both claimed that their bans are motivated by good taste and by their inclination towards preventing apparent indecency from becoming the norm in abortion discourse, yet ‘Bye Baby!’ is an obvious indictment of the vacuous nature of those apparent claims.

💥HAPPENING NOW💥
Delighted to come and join these woman at a local sexual health clinic and support their protest against the "vigil" by a couple of anti-abortionists attempting to intimidate woman who are seeking help. pic.twitter.com/FqSjPkK5bI

— Tommy Sheppard MP (@TommySheppard) October 12, 2021

It is quite clear that Sheppard and his gaggle of young female colleagues aware that it is indeed a baby in an abortion and that there is no compassion in his decision to support their destruction.

1 in 4 pregnancies in the UK ends in abortion of the child now, a completely abhorrent and dysfunctional depravity which is a stain on their entire society.

Prolifers would do well to remember the casual vulgarity of an elected member of parliament the next time they feel inclined to fall for the trap of condemning one another for apparent ‘insensitive’ demonstrations against abortion.

Perhaps ‘Hello baby!’ could form a sign at a future prolife event.

A Scottish Tale of Assisted Suicide

Many Scots believe that Liam McArthur, member of the Scottish Parliament for the Orkney Islands, just introduced a bill to legalise assisted dying/suicide. This is because the media promoted that misleading notion even before McArthur presented the recent 39-page consultation document with 4 pages of “outline” clauses.

Apparently a consultation document [CD] is required by the Scottish Parliament / Pàrlamaid na h-Alba as the first step towards a ‘Member’s Bill.’ I do not know if a draft bill would normally be appended at this stage, but McArthur’s CD is proposing the concept of an assisted suicide bill.

That acknowledged, the approval process will move quickly, so anyone wanting to oppose assisted suicide [AS] has to get stuck-in now to prevent this movement from succeeding — especially since the British Medical Association just voted for “neutrality” on the issue of assisted suicide. The first step is to complete the online survey before mid-December. Please also communicate with your MSP [member of the Scottish parliament] and if possible, show opposition publicly too. (Letter to the Editor, etc.)

Scots may search for their Member of the Scottish Parliament at: https://www.parliament.scot/msps/current-and-previous-msps

The survey link is:

https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/AssistedDyingProposal/

Scots opposed to assisted suicide should be heartened by the success the Irish had against the Dying with Dignity Bill 2020.

Why reject Assisted Suicide?

If there is one practical argument against assisted suicide, it is the dramatic increase in regular non-assisted suicide which has occurred in the Netherlands and those US states which legalised AS.

There has been over 30% increase in ‘regular’ suicide in the Netherlands since they legalized Voluntary Euthanasia in 2001. The US states which legalised AS also have a significant increase in non-assisted suicide, in comparison to the States which did not.

By 2023 it will legal for Canadian doctors and Nurse Practitioners to euthanise people suffering from mental illnesses alone. (This IS the slippery slope.) Please, listen to ‘Lia’ Garifalia Milousis as she tells her poignant story.

“I’m the future version of myself who survived to tell you this.”

Misled Media

The media clearly believes that McArthur was presenting a draft A.S. bill. McArthur can claim that they should have read the CD properly, but that might be disingenuous seeing the June newspaper reports.

The CD states that there is no draft bill at least twice. (One line on page 6: “At this stage, therefore, there is no Bill, only a draft proposal for the legislation” and on page 19: “It is important to emphasise that the information below is only an outline of what is being proposed and consulted on, it is not a Bill.”) A cynic might wonder whether the disclaimers were meant to stay un-found, considering they were so deep in the 39 pages of text.

Politico article (June 21, 2021) By Andrew McDonald:

“Lawmakers in Scotland have embarked on a third attempt to legalize a form of assisted dying, with hopes high for a political breakthrough.”

“The bill — submitted Monday — is backed by a cross-party group of Scottish Parliament members (MSPs).”

BBC (5 July 2021):

“His bill aims to introduce the right to an assisted death for terminally ill, mentally competent adults.”

BBC headline (20 June 2021)

“Assisted dying bill to be lodged at Scottish Parliament.”

The Herald Scotland on 5 July 2021

“…after the new Bill was lodged by Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur last month.”

Misleading Consultation

Allowing for the disclaimers in the CD, McArthur has done little to corrected the widely-held misinterpretation that there is a draft AS bill. That silence leads me to suspect that he is running to particular game-plan — he may be trying to present the bill as a ‘done-deal,’ which later would allow him free rein to write pretty much whatever bill he wants.

Even the subtitles in McArthur’s video link project a certain message: “…who now have access to safe and legal assisted dying.”

During the video, McArthur promotes the myth which has been voiced by most every suicide advocate around the world: that A.S. is needed to avoid the dying from having a “prolonged and painful death.” Palliative Care does not ‘prolong life’ and it has been shown repeatedly (e.g. Oregon) that physical pain — or fear of pain — is an infrequent reason for people to request AS (and the vast majority not receiving proper palliation.)

Misleading safeguards

McArthur claims the Bill will have “vitally important safeguards…” but the CD indicates that he will mirror legislation in jurisdictions where safeguards have failed…spectacularly.

• Canada:

Canada legalized AS & Voluntary Euthanasia [VE] in 2016 for people with “a grievous and irremediable medical condition (including an illness, disease or disability)” when their “natural death has become reasonably foreseeable.” In just 5 years, the condition: “reasonably foreseeable death” has been removed.

The Supreme Court of Canada stipulated in the 2015 Carter decision: “…assistance in dying in other situations, such as for “minors or persons with psychiatric disorders or minor medical conditions” would not fall within the parameters suggested in its reasons...” yet by 2023 it will be legal to euthanize people suffering from mental illnesses alone.

• Oregon:

“N. Gregory Hamilton, M.D., Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, demonstrated how Oregon’s flimsy safeguards do not protect people with psychiatric and other mental health disabilities.”

“Linda Fleming, the first to use the WA state law, was divorced, had had financial problems, had been unable to work due to a disability, and was forced to declare bankruptcy. Yet the Director of Compassion & Choices of Washington said that her situation presented "none of the red flags" that might have given his group pause in supporting her request for death.” Clearly, financial duress.

• The Netherlands:

“A doctor is under criminal investigation over a potential breach of Dutch euthanasia laws after slipping a sleeping drug into a woman’s coffee before asking family members to hold her down to allow the insertion of a drip through which a fatal dose could be administered…Should a prosecution be launched, it would be the first since Dutch laws on euthanasia were relaxed in 2002 to allow a doctor to euthanise a patient if it could be shown they were in unbearable suffering and making an informed choice to die.”

The outcome: “A doctor accused of failing to verify consent before performing euthanasia on a dementia patient has been cleared of any wrongdoing by a Dutch court.”

• Belgium:

“In Belgium, the rate of involuntary and non-voluntary euthanasia deaths …is 3 times higher than it is in the Netherlands. …A recent study found that in the Flemish part of Belgium, 66 of 208 cases of “euthanasia” (32%) occurred in the absence of request or consent.”

Misleading Conscientious Objection

McArthur’s statements in the ‘Conscience’ section [3.3] initially sound reasonable, till read carefully.

“It is recognised, however, that if the Bill becomes law it would be the patient’s legal right to request assistance, and a referral to another consenting doctor should be made if the initial doctor declined to assist the patient because of their personal beliefs.”

If this is put into legislation, every doctor will have to make a specific referral for A.S. on demand.

The real twist comes from the General Medical Council:

“Guidance from the General Medical Council on personal beliefs and medical practice states that doctors may practise medicine in accordance with their beliefs, provided that they act in accordance with relevant legislation and:

• do not treat patients unfairly.

• do not deny patients access to appropriate medical treatment or services.

• do not cause patient’s distress.

A doctor refusing to aid with the provision of A.S. — or failing to make a referral — might “cause patient distress” and be accused of “treating patients unfairly” by “denying access” to a legal service.

Doctors will be coerced into compliance.

Misleading poll

“…recent polling showed that over half the population in Scotland would consider travelling abroad for an assisted death if they had a terminal illness, or one which caused them incurable suffering.”

The question begs the answer: any rational person with “incurable suffering” would naturally “consider travelling abroad for an assisted death.” That is absolutely human. What HSS does not mention is that this scenario is moot for most receiving adequate palliation. Universal palliative-care would help many more people than assisted suicide.

Such a question and response is no surprise when one considers that the poll was commissioned by the Humanist Society Scotland (2017) and performed by the polling firm, Survation, on their registered panel of 1,016 Scottish adults.

Survation proudly states: “Our record with traditionally difficult to win campaigns sets Survation apart from the crowd and we count numerous policy successes as part of our research work…We understand how the industry works and use this to develop research that guarantees press coverage.”

Misleading links

McArthur mentions the HSS / Survation poll above in his consultation document. Curiously the appended web-link in the CD https://www.humanism.scot/wpcontent/uploads/2017/09/Assisted-Dying-Poll-Data.pdf brings you to an error message from the Humanist Society Scotland website: “Epic 404 - Article Not Found.”

In contacting HSS and receiving a rapid response from Mr. Fraser Sutherland who advised that the correct link is:

https://www.humanism.scot/what-we-do/news/half-scots-travel-abroad-assisted-death-money/

That page links to the more relevant 3-page summary of the poll at:

https://www.humanism.scot/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Assisted-Dying-Poll-Data.pdf

One wonders how many other links in the CD have similar problems.

Data collection

The on-line survey data will be collected by the Non-Government Bills Unit [NGBU] of the Scottish parliament. That is likely to be a neutral process but the NGBU do not receive e-mail or hard-copy / Royal Mail responses. Those are directed to McArthur, which provides a conflict of interest.

McArthur has the discretion to eliminate certain responses:

Even if the data is fully collated, McArthur has the discretion as to whether he releases the report or not (note “may” below.)

Misleading comments

There is inadequate space to counter each misleading comment made by McArthur.

Below are two showing how this is indeed an issue “of transparency, accountability, safety and justice.”

• Trust in doctors

“First, assisted dying is associated with greater trust amongst patients and medical professionals. In countries where assisted dying is legal, trust in doctors is high. For example, research has shown that the country where doctors are most trusted is the Netherlands.”

Trust? Some elderly people go to hospital in the Netherlands with a card saying they are NOT to be euthanised without consent: unlikely “the most trusted.”

Then, a quick Google-search shows the following table at Statista.com indicating levels of trust of doctors in European countries. The Netherlands is high, but definitely not first.

• Lack of Complaints

Disability Rights Oregon has said that they have never “received a complaint that a person with disabilities was coerced or being coerced to make use of the Act”

Dead people can’t complain…

Please read the case of Roger Foley in Ontario, Canada who wants to live but administrative staff attempted to coerce him into taking Medical Assistance in Dying (AS/VE.)

Alba gu bràth

Again, please call your Member of Parliament / Pàrlamaid na h-Alba. Search at:

https://www.parliament.scot/msps/current-and-previous-msps

Also, the survey on assisted suicide must be completed by mid-December:

https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/AssistedDyingProposal/

Good Luck, Scotland!

Dr. Kevin Hay MRCPI MRCGP (inactive) FCFP

Kevin was born in the UK, graduated from University College, Dublin and now works as a family physician in rural Alberta, Canada. You can follow him on Twitter @kevinhay77

Polish Embassy Reacts Angrily to Irish Government's Slur

Under anti family parties Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Green Party, Ireland has pursued an aggressive foreign policy which has sought to damage the efforts of Poland and Hungary to implement ways of helping couples to take care of their children.

Lower taxes, limits on Sunday trading and financial supports for families have all contributed to increases in birth rates and higher standards of living in Eastern Europe. In Ireland, the inverse has been tried with the government dramatically reducing birth rates through austerity, the legalisation of abortion and encouraging young people to emigrate.

As part of the West’s new Cold War, Ireland has been at the forefront of attacks against these countries. Politicians such as Fiona O’Loughlin, who was emphatically rejected by voters before being made a Senator against the wishes of the public, have repeatedly attacked Poland with baseless accusations of discrimination. MEP Maria Walsh recently stormed Budapest to help to undermine the government in an astro turfed parade sponsored by banks that was mostly attended by activists from around Europe rather than by locals.

The tactic of trying to undermine Poland and Hungary has now switched to a new front, accusing the Poles of running the same concentration camps that millions of them died in during World War II.

First, there was the move from Israel to demand billions from Poland in restitution for Germany’s seizure of Jewish owned property from the late 1930s through World War II. This was exploited by Western media outlets who sought to portray the Catholic Polish government as being ‘far right’ and extremist when they are nothing of the sort. A remarkable charge was levelled at the Polish people which asserted that the concentration camps in which millions of Poles died were actually Polish and not German.

Now, the Irish government have joined in on the anti Polish bigotry.

Their propaganda arm, RTE, has now also used the term ‘Polish Concentration Camps’. RTE are funded by a mandatory tax which Irish people must pay or face imprisonment. Many of the higher ups at the station are heavily connected to the government and the ruling parties, through family and other connections.

In a report broadcast on the 30th September, concerning a Nazi prison secretary facing charges, RTE News repeatedly used the term ‘Polish Concentration Camps’. In a strong response to the slur, Polish Ambassador to Ireland Anna Sochanska claimed said that:

This repeated mistake is causing huge distress in the Polish community in Ireland.

In reaction to the false information on @rtenews yesterday 30.09 where Stutthof Nazi German concentration camp in occupied Poland was wrongly called “Polish concentration camp”, Ambassador of Poland to Ireland @sochanska issued this letter requesting correction. pic.twitter.com/8TFcSxGdTH

— Polish Embassy IRL (@PLinIreland) October 1, 2021

It is highly unlikely that such a ‘mistake’ is accidental from RTE. Their close connections to the government and their recent successes at assisting support for austerity programs, abortion and other state initiatives has made them into maestros of propaganda linked to domestic and foreign policy. They have been adept at isolating Catholics and encouraging disparaging treatment towards them, earlier this year they even broadcast a ‘sketch’ which claimed that Catholics worship a rapist god. The deliberately offensive and painfully unfunny segment caused uproar leading to an eventual apology, but it revealed the incredible disdain with which the broadcaster holds people of faith.

These types of attacks test the waters for more overt aggression towards Poland and dehumanisation of its people to precipitate further efforts to impose isolation. Poland and Hungary should hold firm, there is no reason for them to listen to a country like Ireland which is facing electricity blackouts in order to facilitate American data centers and freefalling birth rates.

Notre Dame Rebuilding Begins ahead of 2024 Reopening

In 2019, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris spontaneously combusted during the most virulent wave of arson attacks on Catholic churches in French history.

The first photos from inside Notre Dame Cathedral after the fire have emerged

The photographs include President Macron visiting the chapel#notredame #france pic.twitter.com/2xz5I88uTP

— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) April 15, 2019

Since then, architects have worked at trying to make sure that the building was stable before attempting to begin their restoration work. They have announced this week that that time has finally come, with such work set to begin immediately ahead of a 2024 reopening.

Despite the best efforts of many Modernists to ensure an iconoclastic wreckovation which would have mutated the historic cathedral into some grotesque novelty, decency has prevailed and the church will be restored with its original design.

The restoration will also use the same types of oak trees which were used in the original.

Blessing the oaks which will be used to reconstruct Notre Dame in Paris. pic.twitter.com/dui6OIZ6Tp

— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) March 13, 2021

Although this was a disaster, the powerful image of French Catholics praying and singing the Rosary outside their fallen church was one which travelled around the world. With God’s grace, a reopening in 2024 can be such a moment of unity also.

🙏🙏🙏
Catholics sing Ave Maria in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral as it burns
😇
Source: https://t.co/LOgySFFKPt
🙏🙏🙏#NotreDamedeParis #BasiliqueNotreDame #Catholics #Rosary #Chapelet #Prayer #Prayers #AveMaria #vatican #JeSuisNotreDame #OurLady #France #Paris #Parish ✝️ pic.twitter.com/XYQ3FnS1Pv

— Christian Laflamme (@L_a_F_l_a_m_m_e) April 15, 2019