Of pandemic rules and Russia

focus

By Modesto P. Sa-onoy

Governments had imposed rules during the pandemic that in ordinary times would be vehemently opposed by the citizens. Due to fear of contagion by the Covid-19, citizens readily submitted to whatever the government-mandated even the most absurd one like arresting a person for taking off his mask for a moment to drink.

Never in our history have churches been ordered closed by government fiat and our bishops and priests complied, even priests saying Mass with their mouth covered with a mask although they are far off from the congregation and the worshippers so few and scattered inside the church. Communicants cannot say “Amen” when about to receive the Sacred Host on the baseless theory that they might spread the virus although their mouths are covered.

A recent report from California says that Governor Gavin Newsom has ordered that “places of worship must… discontinue singing” in addition to other restrictions. How singing inside the church would cause the spread of the virus is not explained except probably that a person opens his mouth. If this is the reason, the first people to ban would be politicians who keep on talking.

There is a warning in California that “tomorrow, churches will be silenced. We have warned you that the radical Left has been trying to weaponize COVID-1 to push their extreme agenda and churches are their first target. Leaders on the Left are trampling the scriptures in this blatant violation of religious liberty… under the guise of suppressing the Coronavirus in California. Banning singing in church is an unconstitutional abuse of power.”

Singing is part of worship since ancient times. The Bible is replete with instances of calls for singing and our own forms of worship are incomplete without singing. American Catholics are now preparing to bring this restriction to the US Supreme Court challenging it as an infringement of the freedom of worship and other constitutionally protected rights.

While leftist and radical Americans and Europeans are attacking the Church and Christian civilization, Russia is becoming more Christian.

Report last week said that “a new amendment to the Russian constitution was approved by the people just a few days ago. That amendment determines that only monogamous heterosexual unions are recognized as marriages.”

This automatically bans marriages between people of the same sex which is contrary to natural and Church law but people in so-called Christian countries have embraced and tried to introduce into the Church with the help of infiltrators in the hierarchy and the clergy.

Other amendments put up for referendum include one that adds the phrase “faith in God” to the Russian constitution, and another that would eliminate term limits for the Russian president, effectively allowing Putin to remain in power for life.

Months ago, Putin said, “We need to clarify some things. A marriage is a union of a man and woman. A family is a different thing, but the idea is right, and it should be supported. We need to only think about how to formulate it and where.”

Citing polygamous marriages, he said, “As for ‘parent #1’ and ‘parent #2,’ I have already publicly said it and I will repeat it once more: as long as I am president, we will not have parents #1 and #2, we will have (only) ‘papa’ and ‘mama.’”

Putin appears more Christian than many political leaders who profess they are Christian or Catholic. In 2013, as prime minister, Putin signed a bill outlawing the promotion of homosexuality, homosexual “marriage,” and so-called “gay pride” parades throughout the country.

The law banned the distribution of information on “non-traditional sexual concepts” to children, describing such actions as attractive, promoting a “distorted understanding of social equality of traditional and non-traditional relations,” and being involved in the “unwanted solicitation of information that could provoke interest in such relations.”

Putin, head of a communist state used his awesome power to enforce Catholic moral law while politicians and church leaders in “democratic” societies are promoting homosexuality, transgenderism, same-sex unions, and other aberrations of human sexuality.

Is the movement in Russia a result of the consecration of Russia to the Blessed Mother as she asked in Fatima to avert a worldwide catastrophe? Did we think of that worldwide devastation as a nuclear war rather than a war of morality?

Indeed, while Russia still allows abortion, this practice is declining.