“Whoever deters souls from frequent Communion is doing the work of the devil.” Thus says St. John of Avila, as quoted by St. Alphonsus Liguori. He also cites St. Bernard and St. Thomas Aquinas, who tell us that Holy Communion defeats the devil. Hence, it’s no wonder that the devil would gloat during the lockdowns of 2020 and restrictions we see in 2021. He has to be extremely pleased with the prospect of so many Catholics throughout the world being denied Communion.
What We’ve Come To
Through well-documented arguments, other authors at Catholic Stand show how distorted everything regarding COVID has become. Social media sites have deleted millions of posts that contradict prevailing mainstream propaganda. Doctors and other medical providers are coerced to go along with the mainstream media message or find another field of employment.
People are being forced to take the jab or lose their jobs. Businesses and other organizations are requiring proof of vax to enter or work at them. Even the Vatican “…will require all visitors and personnel to show a COVID-19 pass proving they have been vaccinated, have recovered from the coronavirus, or have tested negative for the disease in order to enter the city-state…”
Are Churchmen Doing the Work of the Devil?
In Australia, a two-tier system of faithful now exists. The vaccinated have more access to Mass than the do the unvaccinated. Of course, that even depends on whether the unvaccinated can find a priest to say Mass for them, based on my Australian sources. As well, a Canadian Archdiocese only allows fully vaccinated faithful into Mass.
Some of us where I live recently received a letter from a nearby parish. In it, we read that several counties have renewed their mask mandates for all indoor settings. This parish chooses to follow the “wisdom of the authorities.” Thus, the parish will allow the fully jabbed to go without a mask, although it’s still encouraged. For all others, they are to “respect the health and wellbeing” of others by staying masked up.
Of course, this mask “wisdom” from the authorities flies in the face of reality, as noted in the New England Journal of Medicine but that doesn’t seem to matter. (These same, wise authorities told us that ivermectin and other inexpensive treatments didn’t work, although they actually do.)
Another Trick Up the Evil One’s Sleeve?
Now, just in time for Christmas, we read about a new “Omicron” variant of COVID, coming out of South Africa. At this writing, the folks supposedly in the know are still researching this new version of the virus. Yet, already, Pfizer says it could have another shot aimed at this variant within 100 days. What do you suppose the odds are that governments globally will try to enact lockdowns and other restrictions on civil liberties in the not-too-distant future?
Damages From the Work of the Devil
Having come through the lockdowns of 2020, the Catholic Church now faces the aftermath of shuttered sanctuaries. According to a recent Pillar survey, weekly Mass attendance has decreased by 14% after the COVID shutdowns. In a time of high anxiety driven by a barrage of media fear-mongering regarding the virus, too many parish churches were closed for far too long.
The proverbial chickens are coming home to roost now. The faithful, some less well-catechized than others, to begin with, we’re told it’s okay to miss Mass, and that Spiritual Communion is as good as the Real Presence. So, let’s do Mass in our pajamas, right? But, watching Mass remotely is not the same as being there. And Spiritual Communion is not the same as actually receiving the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Our Lord. But that doesn’t seem to matter to some. An average of 14% of weekly Mass attendees, it seems, have fallen out of the habit of weekly Mass. They’ve removed themselves from access to the graces available to them in a time when such graces are sorely needed.
Learning from Past Mistakes
Although our Church hierarchy may have done what they thought was appropriate in early 2020, looking back it clearly seems that wasn’t the case. In retrospect, and looking at it with more of a Biblical worldview, closing the churches and restricting the sacraments was and continues to be, a bad move. So, the devil promoted and continues to promote, fear, division, and anxiety in society in the midst of all of this. Yet access to sacraments and the grace and peace that only come from Christ was, and in some cases continues to be, restricted.
Does this make any sense? At least some of the bishops and clergy probably would agree that decision-making in this regard has been spiritually suboptimal at best, knowing what we know now. Of course, this assumes that they have paid attention to any information other than that being spewed out by various government agencies and their propaganda machines.
Two Standards–Choose One
A great saint of the Church tells us that deterring souls from frequent Communion is the work of the devil. Unfortunately, it seems many in Church leadership already have gone along with the government line, doing exactly that, as one can see from what’s happening in Australia, Canada, and elsewhere. Faithful Catholics, who in good conscience choose not to take the jab, have begun to comprise a lower class in a two-tier system. Because of this, they have restricted access to sacraments. And because of that, their bishops and clergy will have to answer to Our Lord.
We all make mistakes. Let’s pray that they learn from theirs, amend their ways and not repeat such behaviors. If any of us hold any resentment toward them over this, let’s reject it in the name of Jesus. And through an act of our will, let’s forgive them in His name. Pray for them; the devil is out to destroy them and our Church. They need our prayers and God’s grace and blessing.
We can’t fight for both sides in a battle, and we are engaged in an intense spiritual battle at this time. All of us, from the laity on up through the leaders of the Church, must choose one standard or the other. In the end, each of us will be called to account for which standard we chose. Whose do you choose?
Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man. – Lk 21:36
48 thoughts on “Doing the Work of the Devil”
Dom Cingoranelli: We know that the sacraments presuppose faith; but does faith presuppose the sacraments. We know that there was no sacrament of Confirmation administered at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the 120, and that there was no sacrament of Baptism administered before the Holy Spirit fell on the people in the house of Cornelius. They all received it by faith prior to the sacraments (see Acts 10:44-48; 15:9).
I believe that God is the final arbiter of how His grace is imparted to individuals.
Peter, thanks for sharing your apparently non-Catholic beliefs in this response. This discussion has become somewhat tangential to the point of the article. If you contact Catholic Stand and give them your contact info, I’d be pleased to respond to you, and to talk with you about all of this sometime. God bless you – Dom
Your Australian source is incorrect. Catholic churches here do not check the vaccination status of people attending. Although our bishops have mostly comported themselves as agents for the civil government during this pandemic, they have at least stood firm on one principle, that the Church does not discriminate against or turn away, on any grounds whatsover, anyone who wants to attend Mass or enter a parish church building.
Although they did exclude almost everyone except a select few “involved in producing the performance”, er, Mass, for two extended periods of several months, they haven’t excluded one class of people and admitted another class.
Thanks, Peter. I’m in contact with folks from different parts of your country, and some say that they face only restrictions on the number of attendees, and others say that if one is not vaccinated, at least in their immediate area/diocese, they are restricted to Masses, when they can find them, for the unvaxxed. So I’ve taken them at their word.
The Melbourne guidelines would seem to support the latter position – https://melbournecatholic.org/uploads/documents/53-18November21-UPDATE-COVID_19-GENERAL-LITURGICAL-GUIDELINES.pdf
Thank you for reading and responding to this article.
Dom, note that the document you supplied states that the archbishop orders that there must be at least one Mass in every parish every weekend where vaccination status is not checked. So it is not the case that unvaccinated people are restricted to “masses when they can find them for the unvaxxed”.
In Sydney archdiocese and as far as I’m aware in all other Australian dioceses except Melbourne, the bishops have made clear that parishes must NOT police attendees’ vaccination status nor exclude anyone from attendance at ANY Mass for being unvaccinated.
Thanks. I look forward to circling back around with my Australian friends on this.
Good article. I think someone above referenced Jesus flipping tables as being because of people taking advantage of one another… that’s not what scripture says… It says Jesus was angry because it was a house of prayer that they turned to a den of thieves. Always, always throughout scripture what we see as the “wrath” of God is for breaking one of the first 3 commandments which all have to do with our love of God. We should love God so much that nothing keeps us from worshipping Him. Not even a pandemic. Not even a vaccination status. All are invited, or at least they should be.
Thanks, Susan!
DOM CINGORANELLI
You ARE very welcome.
Each one of us has a free will to accept with consequences, or to reject with consequences.
Do the Research yourself, and what you choose, that is your choice.
God Bless, and good luck.
Wow…so many “men of little faith.” Small is the number who put their trust in God. He said when He comes again He will find very little who have faith. Masked or unmasked, vacced or not vacced will not keep me away from the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the worship due to Almighty God. To not attend Mass because of fear (which comes from the devil) is a mortal sin. It’s a violation of a Commandment. Live only to do his Holy Will and trust Him. He is in charge.!! Whatever happens, happens because God wills it…whether you live or die! Thy will be done! Christus Vincit, Christus Regnat, Christus Imperat!!
Amen, Bonnie–thanks!
Thank you for this article. It is ‘spot on’. The shepherds of the Church bear a heavy responsibility and people who choose not to be vaccinated should not be barred from attending Mass. it is not as though they have committed a mortal sin.
Satan is working overtime right now in the battle for souls.
However, we always need to remember that we are on the way to the Triumph of Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart. We need to hold fast to this.
Hold fast, indeed–thanks Mary!
Dom Cingoranelli: We now have the Church and the sacraments as a result of what Christ completed on earth, and we can now have His Spirit within us to individually connect us with the Body of Christ and the sacraments.
Vatican II, in Sacrosanctum Concilium 59, says of the sacraments: “They not only presuppose faith, but by words and objects they also nourish, strengthen, and express it; that is why they are called ‘sacraments of faith'”. This tells me that our humility towards God is required for grace and that it interacts with the outward signs of the Church.
No argument there, Peter. We do need to humbly respond to God’s graces. The Church through its sacraments provides us with many graces. Denying the sacraments to the faithful through closure of churches restricts therefore their opportunity to receive the graces of those sacraments and the strengthening of our souls that those graces would provide.
Please do your own Research, as God gave us intelligence to use for Good, or with sorrow, evil.
Abstract 10712: Mrna COVID Vaccines Dramatically Increase Endothelial Inflammatory Markers and ACS Risk as Measured by the PULS Cardiac Test: a Warning. Originally published 8 Nov 2021 in AHA Journals (American Heart Association)
These changes resulted in an increase of the PULS score from 11% 5 yr ACS risk to 25% 5 yr ACS risk. At the time of this report, these changes persist for at least 2.5 months post second dose of vac. We conclude that the mRNA vacs dramatically increase inflammation on the endothelium and T cell infiltration of cardiac muscle and may account for the observations of increased thrombosis, cardiomyopathy, and other vascular events following vaccination.
EudraVigilance, Pharmaceutical companies that hold the marketing authorization of a medicine, as well as medicines regulatory authorities in the EEA, are legally required to submit reports of suspected side effects to EudraVigilance. This includes reports received from healthcare professionals and patients. This excludes non-serious side effects occurring outside the EEA.
The web report does not include reports from studies (e.g. clinical trial, non-interventional study) or other types of reports (i.e. only spontaneous reports).
VigiAccess was founded in 2015 by the World Health Organization (WHO) to allow the public access to VigiBase, the WHO’s database.
WHO’s version of VEARS (CDC)
SARS–CoV–2 Spike Impairs DNA Damage Repair and Inhibits
V(D)J Recombination In Vitro
Hui Jiang and Ya-Fang Mei
Published: 13 October 2021
Department of Molecular Biosciences, The Wenner–Gren Institute, Stockholm University,
Stockholm, Sweden Department of Clinical Microbiology, Virology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
Mechanistically, we found that the spike protein localizes in the nucleus and inhibits DNA damage repair by impeding key DNA repair protein BRCA1 and 53BP1 recruitment to the damage site. Our findings reveal a potential molecular mechanism by which the spike protein might impede adaptive immunity and underscore the potential side effects of full-length spike-based vaccines.
Applied Eugenics also devoted a chapter to Lethal Selection, which operated through the destruction of the individual by some adverse feature of the environment, such as excessive cold, or bacteria, or by bodily deficiency.
Eugenics and the Nazis—the California connection (excerpt) By Edwin Black, San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday 9 November 2003
Thomas, thank you for this information–it seems to augment/support the information the three authors have provided in their three-part series referenced in my article.
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Saving the physical life of a person is not what the Church does! Caring for the physical is what Doctors and Nurses like me do. The Church is required to care for souls. If you die in a state of mortal sin you lose your life for eternity! People died alone and without the sacraments! I’m blessed to live somewhere that the churches were not closed for long. We cleaned, we distanced and had more Mass times. Many came to Mass and our collections continued without dropping. Many thanks to my Bishop and Pastor who did THEIR job of caring for our souls! “What profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, but lose his soul?” Mark 8:36
Thanks, Eileen. And I’d add Lk 12:4-5 to piggy back on your Scripture passage.
Thanks, Eileen–well said.
I enjoyed this article very much. Fear does not come from God. Yes Covid is real and people die from it. So is heart failure, the flu and all other kinds of diseases real. Living in the state of grave sin is much more dangerous and should be addressed as soon as possible. If one dies and knows their destination is heaven they should be full of joy looking forward to that day.
In the past when one got a vaccine it was to protect them from the bug. If one is vaccinated why are they so frightened from getting the bug from those who don’t have a vaccine. I haven’t been vaccinated in fifty years. I also haven’t had a cold or flu for ten plus years. I do try to eat in such a way that my immune system helps me along the way. Jesus is Christ the King, Our Lady is the Queen of Peace. Enter their hearts
Amen, brother! Thank you.
Dom, I understand you likely believe many of the things you have written about COVID, but they are not reality. They are conspiratorial fantasy and nothing more.
And by your actions, you are doing the exact thing you warn against – keeping people from mass. I’ve been to mass a few times since the pandemic began. I live in a conservative diocese, and I assume many of the people that go to my church are similar to you. Even though my city has a mask mandate, well under half of the mass attendees actually wear a mask and I assume many of them are not vaccinated. I am not comfortable in this situation, and I therefore have been staying away from mass for my own safety and the safety of my family. I simply do not feel safe being around a large number of people that refuse to acknowledge the reality of the pandemic and take reasonable precaution. You speak of division in this article. Wouldn’t it be easier to just wear a mask and get vaccinated to make others feel safe? By refusing to do so, you are part of what is keeping people from mass. And by keeping people like myself away, you are increasing the division I am personally experiencing from my church. And I am not alone.
So Kyle wants us to just take the jab so he feels comfortable regardless of our physical, spiritual and educated feelings regarding this evil experimental world depopulation poison.
Just knowing Gates and Fauci are world depopulation creatures, and they had their sticky little fingers in this is enough for me but looking on Vaers and seeing the number of heart attacks blood clots strokes, neurological disorders including M.S. (which I already have) and organ failure, tinnitus, should give anyone pause. Look at all the lawsuits against gates in Africa where he caused thousands of women to be paralytic, sterilized or died from being forced to take his vaccine. Why aren’t Government officials, post office employees or people illegally coming through our border being forced to be injected?
A Dr. was on tv stating that the needle size being used on politicians getting their fake injections on tv are a scam because the needle size is too small for the injection.
Why is there so much rabid demonic hatred towards those who are skeptical and refuse to comply. Everything about this planned pandemic says God is our only hope. Not Biden, Fauci or a dangerous experimental vaccine.
See J Wilder’s response.
Spot ON.
Thanks for your response. I expected you and a couple of others who have posted here to take a contrary position, based on what I saw of the com box threads in the well documented, three-part series referenced in my first paragraph that showed evidence to back up those authors’ claims which are not fantasy, conspiratorial or otherwise.
cf. Lk 12:4-5
That 3-part series was a 3-dumpster fire. I’m not sure whether it was written out of ignorance or malice, but everything in the piece was a mischaracterization of data and reality. There was no evidence there. It was not legitimate.
If you want to stake your lot with people who think the COVID vaccine is a “depopulation” poison, I guess that is your right. But I do wonder if you have an ulterior motive in this “battle” – mainly to push people like me out of the church. The battle you speak of isn’t with the devil. It’s with other factions of the church and with reality itself. It’s quite convenient to take advantage of people that don’t know who to trust and don’t necessarily have the ability to decipher the truth around COVID and other unsettling current topics. So you decide to scare them by telling them the devil is after them, after their church, and after their country. And oh by the way, the devil is effectively running both the church and the government. None of it is true, but that doesn’t matter, does it? The only thing that matters is political victory in the “battle” for the church and the country. And you’re willing to take advantage of and use whoever is necessary to secure “victory”. I can assure you it would be a hollow victory.
Kyle, as I said before, I fully expected you to show up and respond as you have, based on your previous responses to the other three-part article wherein you denied any validity of any of the sources cited in those authors’ writings. (By the way, Thomas has provided additional information in his comment on this article, which you may not have had access to.)
In any event, it’s clear that you have made up your mind on this. It’s interesting that you ask others to help you feel safe. Yet you won’t help others feel safe by their not being forced to getting jabbed. (You do know that getting vaccinated won’t keep you from getting the virus, right?)
And unless a parish right now tells you not to come to Mass, no one keeps you away from Mass but yourself.
“…I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body but after that can do no more. I shall show you whom to fear. Be afraid of the one who after killing has the power to cast into Gehenna;[a] yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one…”
Oremus pro invicem, frater meus
I’ll let Thomas respond to your colorful descriptions of the research articles he pointed out.
And as Our Lord said, in this world, we’ll face many tribulations, so be of good cheer…
Kyle. What you just wrote is a perfect example of fear based on propaganda. The narrative of the media/ globalists is falling apart, and it is so obvious that it’s getting embarrassing to watch supposedly educated people carry on like clowns. I used to wonder how in the world the holocaust could have happened but now I can see it clearly. Some people are manipulated by fear and propaganda.
People who say churches were closed for good of everyone do not know their faith…and do not embrace the incompehensible value of The Eucharist and Sacraments. Saints crawled to churches to receive Jesus, were courages and died for Eucharist. Now a days we run and flee and say it’s for the common good. Rubbish. Jesus our Strength. Jesus our All.
Laura, you are acting like the people on top of the roof in a flood who pray for God’s help. They repeatedly refuse to be rescued by helicopters and boats because God is going to save them. They eventually die in the flood, and then they ask God why he didn’t save them. God of course tells them they had the opportunity to be saved with boats and helicopters.
God can do anything, and He is not limited in any way. He can reach us however He wants. When He has given us the ability to know how viruses are spread, it is up to us to take reasonable precaution. Don’t reject the gifts God has given us. There were times during the pandemic that gathering for mass would’ve lead directly to many deaths – especially given the average age of mass attendees. Gathering would’ve been akin to human sacrifice. That is not what God wants. If you can’t keep your bond with God strong through tough times, I would say your faith in God and His power might not be all that strong.
Amen, Laura – thank you.
Laura, thank you for your response. Jesus is, indeed, Our Rock, Our Refuge, Our All. What we’re dealing with are two widely divergent worldviews–a Biblical worldview and another, secular worldview, it would appear.
Why not put on a mask, right or wrong, preventive or superfluous to go to Mass, isn’t it worth it?
Several reasons I pass on the mask:
Many Drs and virologist including that windbag fauci said cloth masks are completely useless. The disposable ones are made in China so are we to trust a mask to protect us made in a Country that released the virus?
Some Drs. have said that mask wearing weaken immunity.
Fauci n 2011wrote a paper which was posted online stating that the reason so many people died during the Spanish Flu was because they were wearing masks. He denied that he wrote that.
Finally, for me after several months of wearing masks my face started getting burns on the bridge of my nose and on both sides of nasal area and my bottom lip where they looked like chemical burns and extremely painful which were caused by the masks.
Saving lives is not “the Devil’s work”.
“Saving” lives at the cost of losing souls is very much the devil’s work.
https://www.dioceseofcleveland.org/news/2020/03/22/coronavirus-pandemic-has-similarities-to-1918-flu-epidemic
Then, as now, the Catholic Church did what was required to save lives, which included closing churches.
cf. Lk 12:4-5
Unclear how protecting lives is killing the soul.
Do you have children? Do you have them vaccinated for measles? TB? Polio?
I’m not sure you’ve actually read my article. Dividing up society through use of a “vaccine” that is not all that effective, and using that division to deny access to sacraments is clearly not the work of God. (cf. Lk 12:4-5)
As I noted in my response to Kyle in this string of comments, I expected some of you who showed up to take a position contrary to what my article posits, based on what I saw of your comments in the well-documented, three-part series referred to in the first paragraph of my article here.
Unfortunately the three-part article was well-documented but from spurious sources. This was pointed out by Kyle and others in the comments. The truth is this vaccine does work and (perhaps more to the point) there is nothing that makes us think that it was developed in bad faith or for some nefarious purpose. It is on par with the polio vaccine, esp. given the short time span.
The grace and peace that can only come from Christ cannot be restricted by anyone who is outside of that person because grace and peace come from personal humility towards God. 1Peter 5:5-7 says to “be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, Casting all of your care upon him; for he careth for you.”
Thank you. We do need to respond to His graces, and He does care for us. That’s why we Catholics believe that He left us the Church and the Sacraments.
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church :
1084 “Seated at the right hand of the Father” and pouring out the Holy Spirit on his Body which is the Church, Christ now acts through the sacraments he instituted to communicate his grace. The sacraments are perceptible signs (words and actions) accessible to our human nature. By the action of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit they make present efficaciously the grace that they signify. (662; 1127)
1085 In the liturgy of the Church, it is principally his own Paschal mystery that Christ signifies and makes present…