Breaking Bad: Philosophy and Art

Posted on by charliej373
I refuse to put bad art up to illustrate this piece. So enjoy some great art celebrating truth and beauty instead!

By Charlie Johnston

I got four complaints yesterday that people could not get the “Donate” button to work on the CORAC site. The best I can come up with at this point is that some browsers do not integrate well. Also, when people use duck-duck-go as the search engine on their phone to donate, it often does not go through. We have checked and double-checked here and with our service provider – and it is almost certain now that the problems are coming from individuals’ browsers and security settings. Obviously, as you can see from the thermometer above, many are getting through. We are up to $11,180 now of our $20,000 goal for this Epiphany campaign.

If you can’t get through, you can always mail a check directly, made out to:

Corps of Renewal and Charity (The bank prefers you spell it all out)

13940 W. 26th Ave.

Golden, Colorado 80401

Your generosity will help us kick what promises to be a very active year off right! God bless you.

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We are working right now to get volunteers to help CORAC arrange ride-sharing to Washington, D.C. for the Epiphany. I will have more solid information up tomorrow. Meantime, if you want to make arrangements today, you can go to the Wild Protest website. At the bottom of the site it is connecting people to share rides. If you are going and can offer a ride to others along your way, please contact Mary Lapchak at lapchakma@gmail.com. Mary has asked that people contact her with the following information:

  • People who are willing to give a ride
  • People who need a ride
  • Notification if you are planning to attend, even if you are driving yourself. That way we can notify everyone there of any rally points or any problems that develop. 

We will keep track of the caravans, put people who are offering rides together with people looking for rides and keep people apprised of any needed information along the way. I give thanks for the wonderful people who are assisting Mary to organize all of this.

If you would like to join the volunteer pool of people who can help generally with sporadic administrative and organizational projects, drop Mary a line, too.

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Many people were deeply heartened by the Proclamation issued by President Trump on Monday honoring St. Thomas Becket. I am one of them. Many here have commented on it – and I figured all should be able to take a look at this noble proclamation. 

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Our friend the eschatologist, Desmond Birch, has been putting up articles on Facebook examining the larger consequences of bad philosophy on society and our culture. His latest examines the attack on truth and beauty in art. Vatican Nativity Scene? All of these are themes he will be developing in his coming new book. You are among his first audience. Here then, the piece is reprinted:

By Desmond Birch

Brothers and Sisters, we are back to the series on the disastrous effects of bad philosophy on our world.

This piece has developed as a result of a recent ‘The Catholic Thing’ article, which was a commentary about a New York Times column written by the ‘Times’ art/culture critic. That critic recently attended a Tridentine Mass in Paris – and was struck by the beauty of the Church and the service. She described that experience in the ‘Times’. The author of the ‘Catholic Thing’ article lamented the disappearance of beauty in many venues – including liturgy – and seemed to think that the Tridentine Mass in and of itself might bring the whole world back to its senses.

I found it difficult to understand how the New York Times CULTURE CRITIC in Paris, Laura Cappelle, was unaware that the very definition of ART was formally changed primarily by mid-20th century philosophers. They did so by formally dropping “beauty” as a requisite part of the definition of art. Those 20th century philosophers’ deletion of beauty as a part of art – whether in sculpture, painting, architecture, music, literature , etc., – was accepted first by the ‘art world’, and, then was trickled down to the man in the street by our highly cultured media. [The book to come at the end of this series will be listing a broad chain of disastrous results of bad philosophy in our time. The virtual destruction of appreciation for true beauty in the majority of our culture will be prominently portrayed in that list.]

In the entire history of art [certainly in the Western world], the very central essence of art was formally defined and understood to be “beauty”. As a boy in the 1940’s, I had already been taught and understood common understanding that “beauty” was the very heart and soul of all art, no matter what the form, fom painting to poetry, etBy the 1940’s, the dropping of beauty from the philosophical definition of art had not yet filtered down from the art world ‘s ‘philosophy’ to the common man and woman on the street. Today, over half a century later, only a veritable handful of people know that the central cause of the UGLY components in our Western culture today – particularly in art – was, and is, a direct result of bad philosophy.

By the 1960’s during my University studies, I vividly recall an issue of a popular news magazine of the day (as I recall it was ‘Time Magazine’). Its cover portrayed a black and white photo of a beat up old toilet seat resting in a heap of refuse at a public garbage dump. Many equally ugly imitations followed and were passed off as art in the following years.

The magazine article proceeded to explain to the readers that art was no longer limited by the requirement that beauty be part of any true art. It described how ART now could include patently UGLY and base elements – with nothing essentially beautiful about it. I clearly remember how those alleged ‘art objects’ and that article completely revolted me. I thought it clearly insulted the intelligence of any reasonably rational reader.

Years later, I was asked to tutor a number of university students taking a philosophy course entitled ‘Philosophy of Art’. It had, as its primary course text, a book of some 700 pages of small print. Therein were included selections from the writings of 13 philosophers throughout human history on the subject of art.

I’ll name a few just to give an indication of the scope and flavor of the book; Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Augustine, Kant, Nietzsche, ending with Heidegger. That book was first published in 1964. POINT: The cultural aberrations of today rejecting beauty are nothing new. They are products of the latter general directions of philosophy since Renes Descartes’ ‘dualism’ in the 17th century. The promotions of the grotesque and ugly in art first clearly came to light in the 1930’s and 1940’s – and were directly related to modern philosophy’s rejection of questioning of the existence of absolute truth.

You can imagine the déjà vu moment I experienced when we came to the phrasing in that class’ textbook which pointed out that, now, modern man had removed the last obstacle to a true understanding of art. I.e, in 1964, beauty had long since been done away with as integral to true art. The major thesis was that while beauty could be part of some art, beauty no longer limited art’s scope. All that was required for something to be considered as ‘true art’ was that “some established artist” declared something to be art – no matter how trashy or idiotic the ‘work’ he or she called ‘art’ might be.

As a result, today man commonly finds himself surrounded by the ugly, and is, at this point, starved for the beautiful. The greatest problem is that, today, most do not understand they are so starved. It’s true in music, architecture, painting, poetry, literature in general, etc.

In Catholic liturgy, warmed over, old Protestant hymns with hazy to bad theology are a key component of the problem. So is modern, syrupy-sweet, purely emotional, sentimental trash passed off as liturgical music.

Regardless of the particular liturgy of the Eucharist being celebrated, in many of the churches erected over the last fifty years or more, I must also keep my eyes fixed on the altar and celebrant in order to keep the influence of the surrounding ‘ugly’ from interfering with my concentration on participating in the greatest prayer, the Mass.

What the New York Times’ culture critic doesn’t appear to recognize is that while some of the young are still attracted to the beautiful, a much greater number are not so attracted and could care less. They have been counter conditioned by bad philosophy, either taught in the classroom or just learned from the trashy or lack of true culture around them. They have been conditioned/programmed to appreciate the grotesque and the ugly much more than beauty. That is an unfortunate fact of our Western world today.

We are going to have to take on and vanquish bad philosophy (and the depraved culture it has generated around us) to attract more than the few who still desire beauty over the shockingly grotesque and ugly. That, I’ve learned over the last half century.

Why is this so important? Well, let us assume for the moment that I’m attending a Tridentine Mass described by the New York Times culture critic. When the priest begins the, “ORATRE FRATRES”, and the priest says, “Brethren, pray that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God the Father almighty,” – as the nuns and priests taught us so well in the 1940’s – our minds and hearts are to be centered and rooted in the great prayer of the Mass. God provides us, at Mass, with the sacrifice, His own Son. But he asks of us an interior sacrifice so that we can worship Him completely. When we pray the Mass properly, as the sacrifice of the ‘body and blood, soul and divinity’ of His only begotten Son is offered to the Father, we properly offer up also our lives, comparatively minuscule as they are, to God the Father.

It’s much more difficult to do that if and when you are surrounded by truly ugly architecture and decor, with sentimental, syrupy melodies as part of the liturgy/service. It is going to take a great deal more than just offering Tridentine or any other Eucharistic liturgies to cure what ails our culture in the West. If the people are not strongly encouraged to, once again, seek the beautiful rather than the ugly, a very small percentage only, in my experience, will actually choose the beautiful over the ugly. Why? They have been systematically pre-programmed to reject beauty for over half a century now.

In the Infant Church which peacefully conquered the ‘pagan’ element in the Roman Empire, simply introducing converts to ‘liturgical beauty’ did not lead them to God as well as keep them in His fold. The Church’s bishops quickly recognized that converts had to be catechized on a broad range of subjects, prominently including the philosophical defense of Christian belief, which included the philosophical concept that all ‘beauty’ is a reflection and reminder of God. [AUGUSTINE is likely the greatest example in the Infant Church of utilizing philosophy to both present, and to defend, the Mysteries of Faith.]

POINT: Sound liturgies of the Eucharist were an absolutely essential part of bringing converts into the infant Church. But as heresies and schisms rapidly developed, the Church discovered that good liturgy alone was insufficient either to keep them in the Church or remain faithful to the apostolic tradition on Christian belief.

We too are going to have to catechize entire generations once again – utilizing sound philosophy as a tool to pursue all truth in God and his creation.

All my love in Christ

Desmond

85 thoughts on “Breaking Bad: Philosophy and Art”

  2. Hey Charlie,

    I’ve been trying to make a donation for a few days….even knowing that there is a site glitch. I decided to try logging into the forum first and then try to make a donation – IT WORKED! Of course saying, “oh, please Lord…” right before helped 😉

    God Bless!!!

    Liked by 6 people

    1. Hi Becky — I am trying to troubleshoot this for others … when you say you logged into the Forum first and it worked (YAY!!!!) — what does that mean? Did you go to corac.co and then what? I think most people are hitting the big red donate button on the home page of corac.co. — Mary Lapchak

      Liked by 4 people

      1. Hi Mary,

        I went to the CORAC.co site. I went to the Community Forum tab at the top right of the screen. I clicked it. I then clicked “log In”. Once signed in, I then hit the “donate” button. Followed the directions for there and it worked.

        I hope this helps.

        God Bless,

        Becky

        Liked by 6 people

  3. What Desmond here describes as foolishness in art appreciation, such that beauty is not a synonymous with what is artistic, is actually a direct reflection of current social decay of all standards of excellence.

    Take that awful motto by Army recruiting a few years ago based on marketing research that invited recruits to become “An Army of one.” Now we have BLM declaring that high, competitive standards for educational achievement are an evil of Western culture (they could have included Asian culture too). If minorities perform poorly at school, their proposed solution is not improvement of student motivation, nutrition, and teaching, but eliminating standards, as ALL are members of society are equal by their definition. High quality achieved by competitive effort is denounced as the enemy of self-respect, as the ideal of equal rights gets distorted into equal everything. So, it’s not just art that’s taking a hit, but anything of value beyond what is common and possibly dreary.

    The ideal citizen of the New Left is a dullard by design; their social ethic is not equal opportunity to achieve, but equal property ownership– which eventually translates to state ownership of everything, even one’s soul.

    Liked by 12 people

    1. Excellent commentary, Jack. The writing is on the wall. But, thanks be to God, the severely whiny left is not really the majority, I think. The real problem is not giving control to these adolescents. Our leadership in the Congress, the courts, the media, and the governor’s houses seems to think that appeasement is the way to go. This is most definitely not the way to handle the situation. The bullies only grow more brazen if there is no one to challenge them to obey the law. We are definitely dealing with people who enjoy being bullies and who are paid by elites who have an agenda. However, we need leadership to handle the situation and we most definitely not get it from a Biden/Harris administration.

      Liked by 8 people

    2. Jack, you’ve hit the nail on the head. I’m always harping on the “dumbing down” that has taken place, from the time I first set foot in a classroom in the 60’s until today. Now, if the curriculum, the books, the standards, tests, etc. are too difficult, just lower the standards! Let’s have the lowest common denominator! It’s the method for leaders to get people under their control or manipulation. OK, rant over.

      Desmond, we can see what has happened to art, but I appreciate your explanation of the time table! It reminds me of learning in college that attributes of God are Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. (My poor brain cannot remember who came up with that.) Religious art has suffered the same ordeal as secular; just look at the “Nativity Set” erected in Rome this year!!

      Liked by 9 people

    4. Thank-you, Desmond and thank-you, Jack, for the very good explanations. I graduated from high school in the mid-60’s and we still had a semblance of sanity in education back then. But since? Sadly, it has all gone downhill…rolled to the left…dropped off the cliff.

      I agree with Jen that we must pray and pray some more for the conversion of all.
      Praying for all here and for the preservation of our country according to God’s will.

      Katey, still in Oregon (and glad we were to see the sun today!)
      Blessed feastday of Mary the Mother of God💙🙏🏼💕

      Liked by 2 people

    5. Yep, Jack! it has even infiltrated incrementally over the past 50 years on how we present ourselves to the world by the way we dress, both male and female. My freshman year at Villanova, I dressed for class-Skirt, sweater, stockings and heels, comb hair, jewelry, makeup. The following year that all disappeared and jeans aka wranglers aka dungarees were “in”. Now ripped versions are among us. Some don’t bother with jeans. They wear pajama pants! But my real concern is if the left gets control of our government we will enter into the beginning of a new Dark Ages. They want to stop teaching the Great Books and authors of Western Civilization from Augustine to Twain. They will have to burn Fahrenheit 451, Animal Farm, 1984 and probably The Little Engine that Could and The Little Red Hen. Can’t have communists portrayed as uneducated, lazy, cruel, brainwashed bullies. I have recently read an article noting some leftist actually said “sometimes 2 + 2 = 5”. Our government recently decided not to use the words: mother, father, daughter, son, father in law, mother in law, step mother etc.

      Liked by 1 person

  5. Gosh wish I could go !!!! You guys are soooo lucky! As I said in the piece b4 this piece, I could not donate to the actual CoRaC site but then went into the Facebook pieces Charlie put up clicked on the donate button and vwaaaala!!! Ya gotta get a little squirrely!!!😂 🐿

    Liked by 5 people

  6. Love being fb friends with Desmond and all his pieces!!! Never before have I met such a kindhearted and considerate man as Desmond A. Birch!!! He is so kind to all his fb friends and answers all our questions to the t!!! If ur not his fb friend or you haven’t purchased his book “trial tribulation and triumph before during and after antichrist,” I highly recommend you do! Often emmet o’Reagan chimes in too another world renowned eschatologist!!! Billbad42 (46) I still want to get his book yet too!!!

    Liked by 8 people

    2. It’s not Mac, Katicos. I’ve tested this on 5 different Mac and PC devices in Chrome, Firefox, and Safari without a single hiccup. So that means the likely difference between my systems and yours are browser versions and browser settings.

      Liked by 5 people

      1. Actually, MP, what happened for me was that I got to the page for donating and carried through all the way until I had filled in everything and clicked to donate. I got a pop-up window that told me that Safari didn’t want to complete the transaction because the page itself was not secure, and sure enough when I looked in my locator bar, it said http://, not https://. So I *think* my transaction has not gone through. So I think the issue is ConvergePay’s process which has a page which is secure for the credit card info but is not an https:// page. In other words, a portion of the page is secure but not the entire page. Safari doesn’t look for partial secure areas in a page but expects the https:// in the locator bar so it knows the entire page is secure. I don’t know if you can duplicate that on your computers, but it stops me dead.

        Liked by 3 people

        1. I inspected the source code on that page, Steve, and could not find any http. Maybe it’s something minor with the Javascript library that needs an update or security patch. Can’t imagine Converge Pay process contains anything unsecure in their payment portal. Bank level encryption there.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Indeed, I was shocked, since it’s so unnecessary. I tried once a few months ago, and it did the same thing, so this is not recent. Glad you’re on it. I’m not sure where to start! 🙂

            Like

  9. Genuine art is sacramental, whereas modern art is anti-sacramental. Genuine art points the soul to God, whereas ugly art obscures him. Allow me to explain:

    A “sacrament” is one of those seven unique visible signs instituted by Christ which give grace, but God has created all material things to act “sacramentally”–God created the material universe to point us to himself. You’d be correct to think of all God’s creation as deliberately designed to dispose the soul to receive God’s grace. This it does, by means of being beautiful. The beauty of nature, of sunrises, of landscapes, of seasons—all these act sacramentally—because they are beautiful, they lead us to seek the face of God, and prepare us to meet him.

    Genuine art is human handiwork which works in the same fashion. Art is a work of human skill which uses some material thing to lead the soul to goodness and truth, by the hook of beauty. That’s why all genuine art, somehow, helps us to see the face of God. The danger of ugliness is that it works in an anti-sacramental fashion. Just as beauty lifts the soul upwards, so too does ugliness tug the soul downwards. (The late Fr. Thomas Dubay, a frequent host on EWTN, has an extended meditation on this idea in a book entitled “The Evidential Power of Beauty.”)

    Sadly, a culture embraces ugliness in art only when it no longer seeks the face of God. That’s why whenever I see any desire whatsoever for beauty, I know it is actually a desire for God, and it gives me hope.

    Liked by 11 people

    3. That brings to mind Gunther von Hagens’ “art” displays using real naked corpses and parts of human bodies. Those art displays attracted crowds… I hope Pope Francis will not go that far and will stop where it is now with the Nativity Scene at Vatican… Perhaps Pope Francis thought it over and concluded a toilet paper-like Nativity Scene may touch more people of the current generation.

      Liked by 3 people

      1. Pawel: The Chinese had a duplicate exhibit of pealed back corpses. I turned away in disgust at the concept and the pictures. I wondered who those poor persons were. They all seemed to be corpses of very young formally healthy people. Political prisoners? Jailed criminals? Then the reports surfaced of the Chinese body parts business and other reports of the Chinese harvesting those parts from live individuals.

        Liked by 1 person

  10. I do not express it enough, since it really does go without saying, this ASOH article and all others, bar none, are such gifts that truly provide peaceful resolve. Looking back at this year, I am in awe of our resilience and integrity on behalf of people of good will. I offer my sincere gratitude to all here in this lovely ASOH family for the blessings that you are. ❤

    Thank you POTUS for this, your proclamation.
    https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/proclamation-850th-anniversary-martyrdom-saint-thomas-becket/

    Side note…At Mass, yesterday, I was again the only one without a mask on. The lovely lady at the table at the vestibule gifting us on the way into church with the most recent Matthew Kelly book, gestured to me to mask up. I proceeded quietly without masking. After Father Mike's brilliant homily that touched on the life of St. Thomas Becket, I was prepared to say, if rebuked, that being without a mask covering my face was my Godly response to civic authority, which should be the new declaration for any card carrying, lanyard wearing non-masker, imho. 😉

    Liked by 9 people

    2. only problem is that people have been brain-washed into thinking it’s a matter of life
      and death, they are paranoid, (well, maybe not all, but most)
      I wonder how soon doctors will be able to prescribe invermectin as a preventative
      (sarcasm- yeah, like they did with hydroxychoroquine)

      Liked by 7 people

  11. I would love to make another donation to CORAC but I’ve used 3 different browsers and it won’t work for me. I made a donation with the same browser last month and it did work for me then,

    Liked by 4 people

  12. St. Thomas Becket Day! Wow. Trump is really doing some soul searching and reaching deep inside himself. He knows that we stand before a great precipice and the potential fall will be massive. He is rising above the fray to be an inspiration to Christian men and women who are looking for leadership that will not wilt (or even dilute the truth) as that leader confronts the evils of the day. Truly significant, though most people will not even notice. Who knew that this erstwhile playboy could transform into a courageous defender of the most basic Christian principles, religious liberty, and the very fabric our Founders laid out when they formed this Republic. Rev. M L King knew the dangers of his arduous pursuit for justice. Is this proclamation a revelation of the steel in his heart and soul? If so, then the Spirit has touched him beyond what we can imagine. I pray that St. Michael and Our Blessed Mother will stand with him in this battle.

    Liked by 13 people

  13. Hello there, greetings in the Lord. Desmond birch is one of the best when it comes to prophecy and his bringing sound approved prophecies and making them understandable to the average lay person and it very especially helps in wading through the myriad of unapproved prophecies that are out there. Does anyone know how to contact him. I don’t use facebook for a lot of reasons,

    Liked by 5 people

  14. I am pretty sure the Christmas Star this year was not heading towards Vatican. I bet it was heading towards the White House nativity scene. And again, with this St. Thomas Becket Day, Trump appears to be more Catholic than Pope himself… Btw, the church we go to here every week is St. Thomas Becket church, but to be honest I never paid attention to this saint…

    Liked by 10 people

  15. Desmond, thank you. I was conflicted for a very long time with the music used in our church when more traditional priests were starting to be assigned to our church. I decided to accept whatever happened in this and through obedience followed what our new priests wanted. Many left our church because of it, but our congregation seems to be growing again with many loving the beauty of the mass for the Eucharist and not just coming for the music, as it should be.

    I think it’s time to say a PMT calling upon Our Lady of Tepeyac and St. Isidore, patron saint of computers, for a little help and intercede for the computer problems our CORAC donation site is having, and to help Mary and MP to figure it out. God Bless you two.

    Liked by 8 people

  16. One of you had a link to Health Freedom Summit a couple of days ago. I signed up for it and there’s a lot of info! There are actually several talks each day and I can only listen to 1 or 2, but they are sensational! Thank you to whoever posted that, Judith? Highly recommended to get true information, not the pablum we hear in the media every day!

    Liked by 7 people

  17. Hello Charlie, thank you for all the hard work you do. We go to the FSSP Trinidine Mass.  We are also blessed to have the seminary close to us in Lincoln and can go to mass there and we have the deacons assist at Mass. I love these masses. I really have a hard time focusing when I’m at the novus ordo.  I have attached photos from.our Christmas Mass Thank you,Mary Miller Einstein once said, “A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of the truth”.

    Liked by 4 people

  18. JESUS = GOOD NEWS.. … 😉

    Merry 7th Day of CHRISTmas!

    This CTH Post has link to DC Native for DC Info for 6 Jan MAGA Rally.
    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/12/31/lets-roll-america-video-ground-report-from-new-mexico-en-route-to-washington-dc-january-6th/

    https://issuesinsights.com/2020/12/30/bidens-dark-winter-is-a-warning-about-his-economy-not-the-virus/

    https://thefederalist.com/2020/12/03/chuck-schumer-endorses-bidens-plan-to-force-public-schools-to-allow-males-in-female-bathrooms/

    https://www.crisismagazine.com/2020/stupiditas-omnia-vincit

    https://www.theblaze.com/op-ed/levin-on-january-6-we-learn-whether-our-constitution-will-hold

    https://www.theblaze.com/horowitz-gov-dewine-threatens-to-veto-self-defense-law-as-crime-skyrockets-in-ohio

    https://leadpatriot.com/pentagon-calls-out-biden-on-his-dirty-lies-already-off-to-a-bad-start/9977/

    https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/12/30/hawley-dems-exercised-right-to-object-to-electoral-college-certification-why-cant-gop/

    https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/dec/30/china-arrests-nuns-stuns-clerics-with-unusual-move/

    DeepState venting
    https://www.wnd.com/2020/12/federal-judge-lashes-trump-calls-criminal/

    https://www.newsmax.com/politics/2020-census/2020/12/30/id/1003685/

    https://townhall.com
    https://www.americanthinker.com
    https://spectator.org/

    GOD SAVE THE REPUBLIC & ALL HERE!

    Liked by 7 people

  19. The below article reveals that approximately half the country has had Covid-19 already- about 150 million people.
    This said, we can expect a faster “herd immunity because of the multiplier effect of exposure. The more people who have it, the more people will catch it. This is actually why so many more people are testing positive (along with all the extra testing). And as Patrick noted, the forever science was once someone had an infection, one was immune to it. This reality is shown with many diseases like chicken pox and the mumps (for those of us old enough to have had them). We only had them once. It is only those with a weak immune system that catch the “same cold twice”. Mutations need to be rather substantial to cause a repeat infection in a short period of time and this is more likely if someone from another region brings in a substantially different “strain”, but even this is uncommon if it is to be a serious infection beyond ones immunity to the original strain.
    If blood samples from 2015-2017 are showing immunity to this “novel” (new) coronovirus, it stands to reason that the four known coronoviri are similar enough that our long term T-cells can identify them and stop an infection. Obviously the 125 million asymptomatic Americans have shown this reality!

    “Dr. Harvey Risch, professor of epidemiology and public health at Yale University, said Monday that Fauci seems to have ignored the acquired immunity of the 20 million Americans who have tested positive for COVID-19, as well as the estimated 125 million Americans who have had the infection asymptomatically. “Also, you may notice that the WHO removed the fact that having the infection provides immunity,”
    https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/health/trust-science-biden-facing-scrutiny-keeping-fauci-after-doctor-says-polls

    Liked by 6 people

    1. Sansan: TY so much for this video. It really confirms so much of what is right before our eyes on the political end through the medical treatment of it. So much needless dead. And no where is he saying that the China virus isn’t real. The gaslighting of science began with the politicalizaion of birth, then Global Warming and Climate Change, sex, race, etc.,once you get started the next issue is easy to fool most of the people most of the time. Thank the Lord that some in the medical establishment is ignoring the politics and relying on reported results.

      Like

  23. My apologies didn’t realize the actual article above had been written by Desmond Birch himself, Hello Desmond thanks for the above article on reflections on evangelization following good philosophy and liturgy of which I fully agree with you,
    ‘POINT: Sound liturgies of the Eucharist were an absolutely essential part of bringing converts into the infant Church. But as heresies and schisms rapidly developed, the Church discovered that good liturgy alone was insufficient either to keep them in the Church or remain faithful to the apostolic tradition on Christian belief.

    We too are going to have to catechize entire generations once again – utilizing sound philosophy as a tool to pursue all truth in God and his creation’..
    By utilizing sound philosophy I guess you mean the Teachings and doctrines of the catholic church, i.e the deposit of the faith. If so this hasn’t been very well assisted and expounded by our Present Pope francis. Just wondering what are your views on Pope francis as the head of the church his input is vital. Under the great Pope John Paul ll it was like there was a great wind in the sails of the church of the faithful carrying them along as the sought to expound sound doctrine to edify people of various backgrounds catholic and non catholics alike. do you think the present Pope francis is giving this impetus to the church. Would be very interested in your reply. much thanks in advance and thank you for all your doing for the faith and escathology. God Bless

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Ste Rocque, I’m sure Desmond will reply to you. In addition to his reply, you might find these guest pieces by Dez helpful as you ponder Pope Francis:
      https://asignofhope379.com/2019/10/24/to-kill-two-birds-with-one-stone-part-i/
      https://asignofhope379.com/2019/11/03/to-kill-two-birds-with-one-stone-part-ii/

      https://asignofhope379.com/2020/02/14/pope-francis-the-jesuits-and-syncretism-repost-with-missing-text-added/

      https://asignofhope379.com/2020/02/19/interview-with-fr-ignacio-maria-donoro/

      https://asignofhope379.com/2020/03/21/what-has-been-bothering-me-and-where-am-i-being-led/

      https://asignofhope379.com/2020/11/12/pope-leo-xiii-1878-1903-on-the-need-for-sound-philosophy/

      Liked by 3 people

    2. I’d also recommend purchasing his book trial tribulation and triumph before during and after antichrist either from ur local library or from Amazon! It really timelines coming events🤗

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      1. Hello Linda, Its a great book i’ve read it three times, hence the reason I was seeking Desmond’s wise counsel on possibly one of the most thorniest questions posed to many catholics at this time. God bless.

        Liked by 3 people

        1. Ooh Ste Rocque I’d like to know ur question.. he’s answered a few of mine that were hard ones to ask but he is unafraid to tell us hard truths. I like that about him🤗

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          1. Hello Linda, Happy new year to you and all, The question is as mentioned above;

            By utilizing sound philosophy I guess you mean the Teachings and doctrines of the catholic church, i.e the deposit of the faith. If so this hasn’t been very well assisted and expounded by our Present Pope francis. Just wondering what are your views on Pope francis? as the head of the church, his input is vital. Under the great Pope John Paul ll it was like there was a great wind in the sails of the church of the faithful carrying them along as the sought to expound sound doctrine to edify people of various backgrounds catholic and non catholics alike. Do you think the present Pope francis is giving this impetus to the church? Would be very interested in your reply. much thanks in advance and thank you for all your doing for the faith and escathology. God Bless

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            1. Roque, Charlie has posited, and I so agree, that perhaps God allowed Pope Francis to lead because, with him at the helm, all the bad actors in the hierarchy who have contributed to the ongoing corruption and crimes, have emerged from hiding. This, in turn, has revealed the depth and breadth of the corruption as our Church suffers in this, her Passion Time..

              Not sure how much you’ve read of Charlie but in his major posts and comments as well as those of many here, this topic of Pope Francis and what he’s has done and is doing has been discussed frequently and heartily… and we’ve moved to focus on what we can actually do. (The links to Desmond’s pieces which I already shared with you contribute greatly to understanding and reaching acceptance of what is.) Not trying to shut your topic down, but I am going to give you some more links that may well help you in coming to peace in seeing Pope Francis for what he is right now and how we can still be faithful sons and daughters of the Church, growing in holiness and contributing to the reform and renewal that’s needed both in the world and in the Church.

              Have you, by chance read Charlie’s pieces about the Ballad of the Ordinary Man? The insight that God is calling on ordinary, faithful people to step forth to partner with God in giving witness and evangelizing in these times is rising from many lay and priestly evangelists. The old cliche: We’re not here to curse the darkness but light the candle of a New Beginning, comes to mind.

              Here are some pieces that also address your concerns about Pope Francis, giving you thoughts to contemplate:
              https://asignofhope379.com/2018/01/14/the-foundation-of-authority-mileposts-on-the-road-to-rome/
              https://asignofhope379.com/2018/02/21/this-is-not-the-end/
              https://asignofhope379.com/2018/03/31/is-the-pope-catholic/
              https://asignofhope379.com/2018/04/23/the-ballad-of-the-ordinary-man-part-one-a-strange-land/
              https://asignofhope379.com/2018/05/21/the-ballad-of-the-ordinary-man-part-two-the-fellowship-of-true-believers/
              https://asignofhope379.com/2018/08/06/the-smoke-of-satan-chokes-the-faithful/
              https://asignofhope379.com/2018/08/13/a-crucial-time-for-the-laity/
              Here’s another Desmond guest piece:
              https://asignofhope379.com/2019/03/05/the-middle-coming/

              I’ll stop here, but as you can see, this takes us to March of the year before last. No one can possibly catch up overnight with the wealth of material on Charlie’s blog, but there’s lots here which I hope eases your dis-ease about our Pope. Desmond has also written about taking the eagle’s view of salvation history. SO many in the Cloud of Witnesses who have gone before us lived through tremendous trials in the Church. God bless you and God bless us all as we co-create with Him in renewing the Church. 🙂

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              1. Thanks Beckita for taking the time to answer I do appreciate it and as you say there is a lot to get through. God bless your faith.

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            2. Oooh ste rocque that IS a loaded question!!!😂😂😂. I think I’d rather answer when the 3 days of darkness are coming than that. Lol. Sure would like to know his answer but knowing and following Desmond as I do I’m sure he’ll answer it just “perfectly,” as a good loyal son of the church would do🤗. God bless you too and happy new year!🎆🎊🎈

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              1. Greetings in the Lord linda, Sorry You see it as a loaded question, Don’t know why. I have always help the popes in the highest honour and saw them as the vicar of Christ on earth but when this person who represents Christ on earth gives us teachings and actions so contrary to the gospel (I won’t enumerate them all here I’m sure youre aware of them ) then what is one to do. I know people who feel the same way and are perplexed. Can we stand idly by when we see the faith and truth coming under attack. I pray for pope Francis. There are so many who see what Pope Francis says and does and take that as a que to act accordingly can we nod and say its ok e.g. homosexuality for one example. Yes as Beckita has said what is is. This the person who occupies this chair. I look on the situation as David looked on saul. He is Gods anointed even though he has gone off the rails he is Gods anointed and in the appointed time God will deal with Pope Francis. As regards asking the question I was simply putting in to practice the advice given by Tobit to his son Tobias, “Ask advice of every wise person” Tobit 4, 18
                May God Bless you.

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                1. Good morning ste Rocque…don’t mind me…I’m sort of a jokester and often try to answer serious questions in a joking sort of way. I know it’s nothing to joke about but I guess I just trust God that if He put Pope Francis in, then he’s there for a reason even if it might be to expose all the corrupt men around him. I truly believe that God is in complete control and we will get a new Pope when God decides it’s time. God bless and protect you in this new year!!!🤗

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                2. Ste Rocque: Pachamamma did me in. What CJ and Beckita says is so. The bad actors have been uncovered. You know what they/he says is antithesis to the Magisterium. Have you noticed that each of the sacraments have been attacked by the Rome itself. My conclusion of this started with McCarrick and Wuerl in DC. For me, especially with Wuerl’s reaction to the priest who denied communion to a women who accosted him in the sacristy as he dress for Mass, announced she was gay as her partner blocked Father’s exit and demanded Communion. Wuerl reprimanded the priest because he told the woman he could not give her the Eucharist under her announced declarations. Wuerl in fact sent the visiting priest packing and apologized to the woman. That was one big HUH? for me. This is the question I asked. Does Wuerl believe in the Eucharist, the body and blood and that we are to be in the state of grace to receive. You could only react if you diminish the sacredness of the Eucharist.

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                  1. Hello Joanne 1950., Greetings. “The bad actors have been uncovered”. Indeed. Not only have they been uncovered but they then go on to get promotions to important positions.There is so much going on its hard to keep up with it. Lets keep praying for the church thats the most important thing we can do. Lets pray for each other. with peace in the Lord

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  24. The satan in his arrogance and colossal pride has convinced himself he can defeat God through the weakness of His love for His weakest creation, man. Man was so easy to tempt and cause to fall and yet God never ceases to rush to his aid. Satan could not believe that God would even send His only son to take on a human nature in order to redeem that foolish creature that he had so easily tricked into disobeying God, thus falling into sin, weakening his nature even further and getting expelled from Eden and forced to live in a world loaded with dangers on every side with almost endless threats from wild animals, hunger, thirst, sickness of many kinds, tempests and storms, earthquakes, extreme weather of many kinds, just to mention a few, subject to all kinds of suffering and finally death. He had succeeded in bringing man halfway to the hell he had been thrust down into for committing the first sin, “I will not serve” in response to learning that he in God’s time would have to adore the God-Man Jesus when man had been created far inferior to himself, the brightest angel in Heaven. The satan and his cohorts have constantly throughout history worked at overcome all of humanity in preparation to bringing the Anti-Christ to earth to rule over all mankind and bring them the rest of the way to hell at their death. He is convinced that he has so advanced his victory that he is unstoppable and has freely entered into the unveiling since September of 2017 that he and his cohorts openly conduct his plans and gloat over his coming triumph.
    But God has His own plan and like throughout history, He will use His feeble humans to achieve His own final victory. We are entering into this final phase where we are being called to do our own part in helping Our Blessed Mother to finalize the triumph of Her Immaculate Heart. We are all called to pray for the key players such as Charlie, that they may have the guidance and strength that they need to lead us all in these final days. Each part no matter how small we may have, will be necessary to bring God’s plan to fruition. so, let us resolve to be steadfast in seeing this task through to the end. Let us support each other as we move forward to do what we can, to do our part as God is calling us to. To God be the honor and glory, we are but His humble servants. Jas

    Liked by 5 people

  27. Happy New Year to all and success in all endeavours!

    I spent the day, after mass, reading Joan of Arc by Mark Twain. It is excellent! Now I understand Hoozah!

    Amazing how she contended with treason and treachery. She had fixed dates in her mission of success…. do you have any fixed dates Charlie?🙏🏻😀

    Here is my Bishop Gainer’s remarks on the COVID vaccine. Please note that Bishop Rhoads came from the diocese of Harrisburg and it breaks my heart that he is condoning the vaccines. I thought he was a solid, faithful Bishop.

    https://www.hbgdiocese.org/a-letter-from-bishop-gainer-on-covid-vaccines/

    Yes CD God save all here!

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Published by charliej373

Charlie Johnston is a former newspaper editor, radio talk show host and political consultant. From Feb. 11, 2011 to Aug. 21, 2012, he walked 3,200 miles across the country, sleeping in the woods, meeting people and praying as he went. He writes on cultural, global and political issues from an orthodox Catholic perspective. He emphasizes that we find God most surely through the ordinary, doing the little things we should with faith and fidelity. His constant refrain is that, to live real joy, we must acknowledge God, take the next right step, and be a sign of hope to those around us. He lives in the Archdiocese of Denver in the United States.