Tradicat

   + JMJ   We need to be objective about the situation and base our reasoning on fact and not speculation. In December 2019, the world became aware of the emergence of a new SARS virus.  The virus was likely circulating a couple of months prior to this public knowledge. The virus was labelled as 'novel' because it is new and has not previously been observed as a disease caushing agent in humans. Therefore there is no pre-existing immunity, which makes the general population as a whole vulnerable to infection. So, regardless of what people want to use as a label for this virus, it exists, and causes illness in people.  This illness has varying degrees and while more dangerous to those with compromised immune systems, it also strikes the young as well as the old. The following stats were obtained from Canada's infobase website (link). Fig 1. COVID-19 Cases In Canada There have been over 850,000 cases of COVID-19 in Canada.  As shown in the graph, the distribu...

 + JMJ Following Pope St. Pius X's example in writing Pascendi, I will start with plumbing the depths of  Catholic Moral Theology and Principles. One element I learned is that I was wrong, St. Thomas Aquinas' principles of double effect are relevant and explicitly a part of the principles of Moral Theology. The moral decision centers around the cooperation in the evil act that someone else commits. This cooperation is subject to some very important distinctions and factors The first distinction is between formal and material cooperation. This is straightforward, in formal cooperation you share evil intention of the person who is committing the evil act. In material cooperation you are not. An important factor is that a sharing of the evil intention transforms even remote cooperation into a sinful act. The next distinction is between immediate and mediate cooperation. Actual cooperation in the evil act is always sinful, even when forced.  Mediate cooperation is the ena...

 + JMJ   For the past couple of months I have been researching how to make moral decisions with respect to the COVID-19 vaccinations that are becoming available.  I have spent most of today putting all that research into a series of posts. Two articles will be posted tomorrow and the remainder will follow until the last is posted on March 5th. I have noticed quite a few Traditional / Conservative websites that are on their soapbox about the vaccines. I said it before and I say it again, this is not the soapbox that I am going to die on. After some consideration, I think those Catholics do a disservice by their un-reasoned rejection of Catholic Moral Theology, the conclusions of Rome and the SSPX.   By doing so they de-legitimatize the principles of the Catholic Church, paving the way for a Godless society to ignore us with greater ease. N.B.  As is my wont, I will be re-reading these articles and if I make any changes I will add "updated' to the title....

+ JMJ  Lent is an opportunity to throw another part of the 'Old Man" (or woman) out the window and move up another rung of the ladder to holiness. In this time, the suffering caused by the pandemic is just an added opportunity. P^3 Courtesy of SSPX.org The Archbishop Speaks: Fast & Abstinence February 22, 2017 Source: District of the USA   Archbishop Lefebvre giving an explanation in his Ecône seminary office One week before Lent, let us reflect on both the letter and spirit of the 40 days, with this letter written in 1982 by the Archbishop. Just more than a decade after founding the Society, Archbishop Lefebvre sent this letter in order to bring context to the Lenten season. As it was true when he wrote this in 1982, it is even more in 2017: often, faithful ask what they should do, or have to do during the Lenten times. The Catholic Church does indeed have a rich history in regards to the proper norms practiced during Lent, as Father Danel discuss...

 + JMJ  I have to apologise to Murrax for my earlier replies to his comments in the 'How many more must die ...' post.  I misunderstood his question and will now try to answer his question(s), but of course I am fallible and may misunderstand again.   I have just posted some preparatory work (link) that will inform my responses to Murra. My general thoughts, not specific to Murrax's questions but on the situation as a whole:   <Rant> Based on the reactions that I have seen in the media, I get the impression that North Americans have had it so soft, for so long (myself included), that they take are making a mountain out of a mole hill (myself not included).    There are far worse pathogens in the world and we have gotten off lucky that SARS-COV2 is dangerous enough to get people serious about preparing for a pandemic. The SARS-COV outbreak was more dangerous and more contagious, yet it was a 'blip' as far as people were concerned. That ...

 + JMJ   As I was  doing my spiritual reading, I was distracted by the question(s) posed by Murrax (post is WIP).  I set aside the distraction and finished my reading. The distraction was the image of how I could create a decision tree to frame our response to the various situations being created by the COVID pandemic. Introduction Now, I have a basic understanding of the principles of obedience from my previous studies, but one thing I don't know as well is the limits of civil authority. In other words what is inside and outside the sphere of civil authority. While searching for references, I happened across an article plumbing the depths of St. Thomas' thoughts on this very matter (link) .  Here's a couple of excerpts that I think frame St. Thomas' thoughts quite well. While Thomas Aquinas firmly believed that citizens should obey those in authority, he justifies civil disobedience under two circumstances; civilians can disobey during the reign of a tyrant or ...