Account: "Living faith without sacraments, community is dangerous, pope says." Sees it as a problem during the coronavirus epidemic

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And I would argue that in the US at least that the governors have violated our first amendment right to religion. If the governors are being selective and random on what is allowable and not allowable then they have no case in a court of law that would stand up. Why can WalMart and Target be open and considered essential businesses when the mom and pop who may have 3 people in their store not be essential? Clearly WalMart has a lot more people. More risk in a WalMart than in a mom and pop. If mom and pop can’t sell clothing, why can Walmart?

Thus, if our guaranteed right to religion is subverted, yet Walmarts are chosen randomly and selectively, and going to a Walmart is NOT a right, then think about how much a gross violation they have made not allowing us to worship?!
 
I understand, and accept at a specific time shutting things down was necessary, but now it’s not. They need to allow churches to open again especially place where other things, like car washes, hair stylist are open.
 
I definitely feel adrift.
It’s one of the main themes of my meditation/prayer during this quarantine.
But it’s also humbling to see how much I really am like a “little one” in need of the sacraments. I’m not as strong as I thought I was. 🙂
 
It has made me realize how much I rely on the Eucharist to be my steadying and calming anchor in difficulties.
One sometimes doesn’t realize the benefit one is getting from Jesus until it becomes more difficult to receive him.
 
What I am truly scared about is what could be implied in my state’s reopening plan that was agreed to by our cardinals and our governor. It is a convoluted plan to phase the plan’s phasing of phasing in a plan to phase in the phasing. But mockery aside, one of the elements of the proposal is that a lottery and ticket system will be used for when masses return, in order to facilitate contact tracing. This implies that the names of those who attend Mass will be documented, so when, or if, someone were to be diagnosed with COVID, all of the names of the people attending Mass on that day and that time will be provided to government officials at multiple agencies, to notify everyone else. Now government officials have documented records of attendance and who is attends Masses.

This is a gross violation of my first amendment and my right to privacy. This scares me more because in pre-WWII Germany this is exactly what they did to start documenting who the Jews were and where they lived, and obviously we know what the ultimate end was there. While I’m not concluding that this will be our end but we know two things, 1) history repeats itself for those who wish to not learn it and 2) evil exists in our world and those seeking worldly power are vast and currently in power and may stop at nothing to obtain more power (this has been going on since the beginning of time).
 
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Are you asking me?

As I posted in another thread:

There is a great article by Denis Prager here: Some Thoughts About Being Safe by Dennis Prager

Some excerpts:

Until it’s safe’ means 'never.
The pursuit of “safe” over virtually all other considerations is life-suppressing.
We’re going crazy on the safe issue. It is making police states. That’s my worry: In the name of safety, many Americans are dropping all other considerations.

Trading perfect safety with no risk is silly nonsense. Especially when the survival rate is 99.5%. We are overreacting and doing some emotionally and against what the actual facts are, but we’ve had a media bearing down doom and gloom since day one.

We know that the average age of death is 80+. We know the elderly are the most vulnerable. Had NY governor Cuomo not forced nursing homes to take back COVID patients from hospitals, thousands, if not 10’s of thousands of deaths could have been prevented. 50-60% of the deaths have been out of nursing homes.

Protect the elderly and fragile. Protect them well. Let everyone else do what they normally would do to protect themselves from disease. Stay home if you feel sick, wash your hands, cover your mouth and turn away if you need to sneeze. People do this during the flu season.

But spraying people with chemicals at the airport or doing full body scans and contact tracing and lockdowns don’t work.

Quarantining is what you do to SICK people, not healthy people. This lockdown has NEVER been done before in history. Never. The studies and models of the millions upon tens of millions are substantially flawed. The lockdowns have served to increase spread and done the exact opposite of what it intended to do. Think about this. I want a security system that locks my doors from people going in and going out. But the burglar/murder gets in. Now I’m locked in, with the murderer. We’ve done the same thing by forcing people to stay home.
 
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What you’re saying sounds efficient and workable, however the reality is a whole different story.
Your ascribing so much of the national failure to Cuomo’s decision for example. In this case quarantining only the elderly and vulnerable pretty much condemns them to death since they rely on the outside world for so much already. Nursing home residents all over the world were the canaries down the mine along with the elderly and vulnerable not in nursing homes. They weren’t protected by quarantine.

Maverick states like Texas are starting to see this with the opening of Church’s. Even with all the recommended cleaning and social distancing measures the virus has spread and the human cost if being felt as a devastating blow rather than simply collateral damage.


The reason that the CDC recommends as it does is because this is the reality. On paper the elderly and vulnerable can seem expendable but in homes and families and peoples lives, the loss are not just personal grief but a loss for the heart of society.
 
Emeraldlady said:
On paper the elderly and vulnerable can seem expendable but in homes and families and peoples lives
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I hope you are not attributing this to mean I believe this because I would expect a retraction.

And what I’m saying is that there is clearly evident and documented counter-productive results going on throughout America as people avoid going to hospitals altogether for fear of COVID and hospitals not allowing to be able to treat “so-called ‘elective’” procedures as bypass surgery, and are dying as a result of not being treated.

To those who have chastised we who support opening up now and calling us “granny-killers” (there’s a hashtag #grandmakiller), I respond to all those who want us locked down indefinitely and say “everyone killers”.
 
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JoeFreedom said:
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Emeraldlady:
On paper the elderly and vulnerable can seem expendable but in homes and families and peoples lives
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I hope you are not attributing this to mean I believe this because I would expect a retraction.
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I’m saying that in secular ideology, there is a definite preference for the welfare of the fittest and most productive. Social Darwinism justifies lots of political, social and economic views today. I don’t know what your motives are but I’m talking about the fact that natural selection and survival of the fittest are the motives of many influential pundits.
JoeFreedom said:
And what I’m saying is that there is clearly evident and documented counter-productive results going on throughout America as people avoid going to hospitals altogether for fear of COVID and hospitals not allowing to be able to treat “so-called ‘elective’” procedures as bypass surgery, and are dying as a result of not being treated.
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Fears of this sort are more likely to increase as the disease spreads more rapidly in a prematurely opened environment.
JoeFreedom said:
To those who have chastised we who support opening up now and calling us “granny-killers” (there’s a hashtag #grandmakiller), I respond to all those who want us locked down indefinitely and say “everyone killers”.
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No one is talking complete lockdown ‘indefinitely’ but until there is a vaccine the world will need to be on guard in different ways.
 
Emeraldlady said:
No one is talking complete lockdown ‘indefinitely’ but until there is a vaccine the world will need to be on guard in different ways.
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No one? No one?




Emeraldlady said:
Fears of this sort are more likely to increase as the disease spreads more rapidly in a prematurely opened environment.
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We quarantine healthy people and we call ourselves sane. Never in the history of mankind have we done anything so irrational. Quarantines and lockdowns are for sick people.

But hey, we wouldn’t want to kill grannie by opening early. Fear-mongering.

Florida opened back up nearly eight weeks ago and despite the dire predictions from the media they’ve seen a steady decline in COVID cases and deaths – all this while housing a large senior population.
 
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There’s little value in posting articles over 2 months old. All those places have taken steps towards re-opening already now that more is known about the virus and its spread.
JoeFreedom said:
We quarantine healthy people and we call ourselves sane. Never in the history of mankind have we done anything so irrational. Quarantines and lockdowns are for sick people.
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History will write the story of this pandemic and it’s policies. I believe that what is happening around the world is a truly human response. One that God will be pleased with and reward us for.
JoeFreedom said:
Florida opened back up nearly eight weeks ago and despite the dire predictions from the media they’ve seen a steady decline in COVID cases and deaths – all this while housing a large senior population.
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I don’t know much about Florida but I googled Florida news and the first article points to some dodgy stuff going on to make the figures look good.

 
Fortunately, the vast majority of us Catholics in the Western World couldn’t care less if the government knows we go to Mass. I know I sure don’t. I’ll be happy to call up the police, the governor and the President and tell him I’m going to Mass and where at.
 
I’m not sure how soon I’ll be going back - but it’s been awfully hard without the sacraments and community. They are my anchor that keeps me going throughout the week. I’ve missed my community so much. We are opening Pentecost Sunday, but at 25% capacity. I’m supportive of the direction from our Bishop and our Governor throughout all of this. It will be so good to be back.
 
I would add that my parish is never full during Mass, not even close. So keeping the required safe distance between parishioners would not be a problem, allowing every regular parishioner in. But we are bound by obedience to our Bishop.
 
I’m not sure where you live, I’m in the US. They tried to do that when the AIDS epidemic first start. Saying hospitals should be mandated to share the names of people who tested positive for HIV… its a sad sad day when the world lets a health crises put them in such a state of panic they will allow their themselves to lose their rights to privacy. 😦 God Help Us.
 
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Couple of things come to mind. The nascent Korean Church had neither Priest nor Sacrament for 12 long years! When the first Chinese Priest sneaked into Korea, he found 4,000 Catholics!

Secondly, the words of the Archangel Raphael to Tobias and Tobit (12:13):
“And because thou wast acceptable to God, it was necessary that temptation should prove thee.”
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And our Lord:
“In this world you will have tribulation. But take heart, for I have overcome this world” John 16:33
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“Acceptable to God…temptation should prove thee”, “Take heart…I have overcome this world”

We are tested; we are to take heart, for God has found us acceptable and His Son has overcome this world (i.e. death). Are there more comforting words in any language?
 
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