The COVID-19 pandemic unfortunately provided a platform for some of the most unhinged in the hierarchical ranks, and [Playing God‘s author Mary Jo] McConahay uses that recent era to introduce a core cast. For San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, the government mandates to temporarily close churches were not protective of people, but an act of “willful discrimination” against Catholics. With no medical background, he declared that the vaccines “don’t give any immunity at all.”
Bishop Jerome Listecki of Milwaukee, announced that “fear of getting sick, in and of itself, does not excuse someone from the obligation” of attending Mass in person. Likewise, Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, who had been vaccinated, proclaimed that he made no exception to attending Mass in person because “eternal life is the most important consideration.”
Cordileone was joined in language and outrage by Cardinal Raymond Burke, a COVID-19 vaccine opponent who eventually became infected with COVID and spent several days in 2021 on a ventilator at the Mayo Clinic, as well as by Tulsa Bishop David Konderla and the irrepressible Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas. They were among the first to openly support the rantings of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, another opponent of COVID vaccines who openly engaged with QAnon conspiracy theories, the extreme-right Catholic and one-time Trump White House official Steve Bannon, and who in a 2018 letter openly called for Pope Francis to resign.
In collecting the record and placing them and a sampling of their fringy ideas all in one space, the effect becomes a kind of chorus of, as she puts it, the delusional….
Original story from NCROnline.
Fishwrap.
Fr. Z tried to disparage NCR by labeling it that. Don’t listen to Fr. Z: he’s a priest who lives a carefree life without doing priestly duties like running a parish because people give him money and his local ordinary (in an Italian diocese) for some reason doesn’t mind him being rogue instead of serving as a diocesan priest where he’s incardinated. Fr. Z belongs on the list too since he parrots and promotes a lot of what these bishops have said.
“Fishwrap” has been declared un-Catholic by its own local ordinaries, long before Fr. Z came along.
But they didn’t call it fishwrap. Fr. Z did that, trying to be snarky.
I have no problem with snark against liars and those who misrepresent themselves.
Catholics who know the Faith can read things that are unfaithful and just pray for the people who believe wrongly.
I still don’t recommend it because of boiledfrogitis.
No, some called it bird cage lining before that.
What a disgusting article.
The author is a longtime contributor to National Catholic Reporter, so what else would we expect from her than such irresponsible reporting?
Totally support Archbishop Cordileone. There were so many lies about the experimental gene therapy injection. The lie that if you take the jab you won’t get Covid. Well that didn’t turn out to be true. Pfizer admitted that no testing was done in trials to show whether or not transmission was possible with the jab. These bishops were correct. Many of us who declined to take it are fine and well. Fear mongering – that sums it up.
Even where there were no outright lies, there were a lot of hasty conclusions and policy based on a panicked over-reach. Some of it started off with good intentions, but as doubts arose they were suppressed and not aired. The vaccines offered some, if not perfect protection, to the aged and other vulnerables, but little or nothing to the young and healthy. Kids did not need them and there were undiscussed side-effects. We did not need to shut the whole economy down, we never needed to close the schools or arrest people out in their boats. We certainly never needed to near-criminalize dissent from Fauci’s diktats.
The vaccine is not gene therapy. No one said that if you get the vaccine you won’t get COVID. They said they HOPED it would prevent or reduce the incidence of infection. The vaccine does in most cases prevent serious illness and death, and possibly reduces the incidence of long COVID. The vaccine saved hundreds of thousands of lives among those who got it. Most deaths now are among the unboosted and those with weakened immune systems. The lies are that it is gene therapy or is somehow made with fetal tissue.
Questions aren’t lies….”But off-the-shelf fetal cell lines are of limited use for scientists because they do not faithfully mimic native tissue and represent only a subset of cell types: WI-38 and MRC-5, for example, were derived from fetal lungs. The lines can also accumulate mutations after replicating in vitro over time. And creating humanized mice such as Su’s requires whole pieces of fetal organs to provide sufficient numbers of stem cells. For all of these reasons, researchers turn to fresh tissue.”
https://www.nature.com/articles/528178a
What is the source of the cells used to test the batches of new vaccine doses that you advocate?
I actually wanted to know what the author had to say until I realized the piece was published in the NCReporter. Progressive narrative bias confirmation is about the most predictable and boring genre of writing on the planet. I can turn on MSNBC to see people read off of scripts….
The first paragraph made me confused, but then when I saw it was from “NCROnline”, I sort if went…”Oh, yeah, now I get it”. Bleah!
These quotes are taken out of context.
In Milwaukee, those who have a high risk of complications from Covid were dispensed from Sunday obligation even after the obligation returned.
the Cordileone quote is accurate but he said that vaccines do not give immunity but they give protection.
Those who supported Vigano after his first statement stayed quiet after he got so far out. So I would not say they were a Vigano supporter. even Strickland says he cannot support some of what Vigano says.
I’m confused. Is Cal-catholic publishing this as a position and attacking those of us who didn’t get the vaccine? Or is this illustrating NC Reporter’s attack on these individuals by equating them with “Qanon” conspiracy theories? Those of us who did not get the mRNA shot pushed by Big Pharma, Big Government, Big Medicine and Big Tech/Media refused to get it because we educated ourselves by reading and viewing the likes of Dr. Robert Malone, Dr. Pierre Kory, Dr. Peter McCullogh and countless others – not “Qanon” or some conspiracy theory. In light of the Covid shot and what is happening now with the increased number of people who are ‘dying suddenly’, those who have contracted serious and terminal illnesses and have developed myocarditis, and the increased mortality rates that have been happening after the introduction of the ‘safe and effective’ vaccine (as we were all told), I am not sure what the point of this smear piece was supposed to be. What exactly are you trying to say?
Very articulate piece, Joe C. I too was wondering. I hope you will visit Cal Catholic more often, as you have both good reason and good conviction, a gravitas, in what you write. From an interested bystander…
Well, one thing that can be said about these “unhinged” men, they survived COVID without the shots. I would include Bishops Strickland and Schneider of Kazakhistan among the “unhinged” as they gave some good advice and comfort to those of us who did not want to take it. My doctor recommended the two pneumonia shots (not connected to abortion) before COVID shots were even available. That, along with a St. Blaise Day throat blessing, healthy eating with proper vitamins and zinc did the trick. Good physicians produce good health. If you listen.
Saints Luke and Raphael, pray for us.
Bishop Burke almost did not survive. And he has been seen much less since that episode, if you noticed.
And there are not lots of sudden deaths among those who took the vaccine. The vaccine saved hundreds of thousands of lives. And it seems to reduce the incidence and duration of long COVID.
There ARE more and more studies showing that those who take modest amounts of Vitamin D orally are less likely to get noticeable infections and seem to have less severe disease. I’m going to venture out on a limb and say that when all the studies are in, Vitamin D *might* actually ward off infection better than the vaccine (though the vaccine does a much better job at preventing serious infection and death). And of course Vitamin D is important for all of us oder adults anyway and most don’t get enough.
You’re right about vitamin D. I’ve taken it since mid-forties and drank a lot of milk in my youth. I’ve also been outside a lot with hat and sunsreen, but not enough to totally block out all sun’s benefits. I’ve lived in very hot areas. Vitamin D, C and zinc, especially with quercetin are four great protectors against COVID. I am sure Ivermectin is another, under a good doctor’s supervision. I’ve never had a flu shot. Never felt any need for it. Know others who are the same.
Cardinal Burke might have gotten a serious blood clot if he HAD taken COVID vaccines We don’t know. Many have.
Slightly more than 2 years ago the same author of the NCR piece cited published ‘Wealthy Catholics are the New US Magisterium’ in an April 2021 NCR issue, naming the many of the same ‘hidden actors’. He’s using the same argument used against liberation theology , that religion is being used for political ends. It’s a clever reversal, but untrue. the wealthy donors and clergy involved truly believe the Catholic faith and its full teachings. They support our doctrines as allies of the inherited , living magisterium. To be pro-life supports the timeless natural law, ratified by science and biblical revelation. This position is interpreted by many as a political stance in a world that doubts that truth exists and that values are just constantly shifting opinions discerned by polling. I think Roberts’ article is valuable for letting us see how some chagrined actors are trying to influence the next conclave by maligning our best as dupes or frauds. the Church of the chagrined has been chomping at the bit since the elections of John Paul II and Pope Benedict.
I don’t know whether you are referring to the author of the book or the author of the article.
Book author is a female.
My favorite conspiracy theory is that Steve Bannon is future Baron Trump who has traveled back in time to help his dad.
Some Trad Catholics believe that.
it’s not a theory
Marty is correct: it is not a theory. It is a hypothesis that has not been proven, so it cannot be a theory.
Fake news! You and those who do not like traditionalists just made that up. That is not a traditional teaching. That is as stupid as the idea that Corona Beer is connected to the Corona virus.
Qvestioning the regime’s narrative is not permitted. No debate on this topic is permitted. Herr Fauci has spoken.
Off vit der heads.