I don't think it's entirely coincidental that Fr Sam, who's in residence at our parish and the smartest man I've met, gave a homily yesterday on Pope St John Paul II. And Fr William Nicholas, another very smart priest I sometimes follow on YouTube, also gave a homily on St John Paul yesterday, which is well worth watching:
At 2:48, he says,
Where Jesus tells us to welcome one another, we are told to keep one another at a distance. Where we are told to recognize one another as followers of Christ and brothers and sisters in Christ, we are told to cover our faces.He isn't speaking as an expert on epidemiology or public policy, but his theme certainly parallels other opinion in the secular public square that suggests an increase in COVID "cases" is simply a result of positive tests from increased testing, and most are asymptomatic. In at least some instances, increases in hospitalizations are counted in the same way deaths were counted at the start of the manufactured crisis: people who died from a wide range of causes were counted as COVID deaths if someone thought they might also have contracted the virus.
Now, people who are hospitalized for a wide variety of reasons are routinely tested for COVID, and if they test positive -- as some percentage of the population now will, though most are asymptomatic and thus immune -- they are counted as COVID hospitalizations, and the numbers will automatically increase. But COVID deaths have been declining nevertheless, and the idea of a new "spike" is another manufactured crisis.
Both Fr Sam and Fr Nicholas referred to St John Paul in their homilies because he was a powerful and effective advocate of natural rights. They both quoted his exhortation "Be not afraid".
And although the riots seem to be tapering off, it's worth noting that Abp Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco performed a public exorcism after the statue of St Junipero Serra was pulled down in Golden Gate Park. The Archbishop of St Louis is forced to respond to demands that the statue of St Louis be removed from a park there, and even that the name of the city be changed.
It probably isn't entirely coincidental that after the July 4 holiday, our parish will be doubling its mass schedule to accommodate as many people as possible given the current restrictions, while maintaining the mandated "social distancing" measures. It strikes me as the sort of thing St John Paul would endorse.
It isn't over. Hey, where's Bp Lopes? Where's the ordinariate in all this?
UPDATE: My regular cvorrespondent says, "I think a number of OCSP communities are offering extra masses. St Thomas Becket, Ft Worth (which uses a small chapel), St James, Jacksonville (ditto) and SJE, Calgary are three I know of."
