Roma Locuta Est

June 2, 2022 (Edward J. Barr) – Now that the world has taken a brief pause from the “COVID pandemic” we can reflect on the response of the Church.  To the average Catholic there appears to be no connection between how the Church responded to post-Vatican II developments and how the world has and is responding to the global COVID situation and future “health emergencies.”  However, upon deeper investigation the thought process between the two responses is quite similar.  The common intellectual framework of current Church leadership is almost completely in sync with that of the global elites that are managing the COVID crisis.  This is evidenced by the Vatican’s near complete capitulation to the secular powers in every aspect of the response.  From lockdowns to mandates, the Vatican has either accepted or championed Caesar’s iron fist. Not even the rushed delivery of experimental abortion tainted vaccines slowed the Church’s acquiescence to the World’s view of man’s preeminence over nature.  This focus on the world is what links the Spirit of Vatican II with the Vatican’s response to the COVID challenge.

Let us first stipulate that the situation the Church finds itself in has a much longer history than the ordained COVID crisis.  Men of good will were part of the Vatican II process.  Many believed that the Church could effectively craft a plan to meet the needs of the faithful by employing the principles of ressourcement and aggiornamento. Ressourcement sought to return the Church to the authoritative sources of the faith.  By understanding time tested truths, the Church would have a sound basis for solving problems faced by modern man.  Aggiornamento referred to reformulating those truths to more effectively preach the Gospel.  They are two sides of the same coin.  When St. Paul preached in Athens, he preached the truth in a way the Athenians could understand. The Council was hoping to do the same thing, to create a framework that would point mankind to God through Christ and his Church. From this perspective Vatican II was primarily a spiritual exercise, though one that accepted the realities of the material world in which mankind must reside.  

The COVID crisis is still of relatively short duration, though some seem to be intent on extending the crisis to other related crises – hello Monkeypox.  It was not created by men of good will.  The evidence is near-conclusive that it was created through the US funding of gain of function (i.e., to make a more deadly pathogen) research in China.  The research was completely focused on the material world.  It pointed to the supremacy of man.  Scientists would create a pathogen and then seek to find a remedy; or use that pathogen for biological warfare.  Manipulation of man’s natural (i.e., God-given) immune system would be welcomed as part of the program.  Profit and power appear to be the driving forces for the creation and response programs. From this perspective, the birth and policies of COVID have been completely materialistic.

While there are some differences between the two situations, there are more similarities.  

Both the Vatican II and COVID responses were products of detailed planning that created or at least facilitated the crises.  The Council itself consisted of years of discernment and planning, with the Council documents serving as guides for the future of the Church.  The COVID response was the result of many more years of planning, whereby governmental bureaucrats, Pharmaceutical companies, public health officials, scientists, and medical professionals engaged in discernment and planning for a COVID like crisis.  The SPARS Pandemic scenario, Event 201 global pandemic scenario, and the World Economic Forum’s Plan 2030 provided the blueprint for the world’s response to COVID. 

Each scenario included major innovations or novelties employed by the power brokers.  Here we must separate what was written in Vatican II documents from how it was implemented – in the “spirit of Vatican II.”  Even a cursory reading of the Council proclamations will reveal that what was supposed to be is not what is in the Church today.  Consider the initial document issued by the Second Vatican Council, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy(Sacrosanctum Concilium). In that text the Council stated that “the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites” (36) and “the Church acknowledges Gregorian chant” is especially suited to the Roman liturgy and “should be given pride of place in liturgical services.” (116) Today, the Novus Ordo is characterized by practices that directly contradict the guidance of Vatican II or are fabricated out of thin air.  An example of the latter is the practice of several members of the laity running around the sanctuary doing the work of priests and deacons.  It is more akin to stagehands changing the sets of a play between acts, rather than solemn worship offered to the God of the universe. Today, the spirit of Vatican II is the policy of the Church, which is why senior officials are so comfortable joining forces with atheists, dictators, eugenicists, and globalists.  Therefore, while the results of the post-Vatican II era may not have been officially planned, some Church officials planned the spirit of Vatican II innovations.

The novelties embraced by the COVID response are equally innovative.  Never in the history of mankind have healthy people been forcefully quarantined.  Never was it believed that asymptomatic people were a threat to mankind.  A mere 8 years ago the discovery of Ivermectin was awarded the Nobel prize; today, it is still challenging to get the drug in many parts of the US, despite an unparalleled safety record.  The US Center for Disease Control (CDC) changed the definition of what is a COVID death; they admit that it means you die with COVID but not from it.  This has never been done for another illness.  The definition of what is a vaccine has also been changed by the CDC.  The ability of doctors to prescribe off-label medicines that can assist in early treatment has been limited by federal and state regulators. 

Another similarity is the purposeful ignoring of reality.  The spirit of Vatican II that is embraced by some Church leadership has been an abysmal failure by any metric.  Secular polls such as Pew Research and Church affiliated groups such as Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate present a bleak picture of the recent past and future of the Church.  Falling vocations, an aging priesthood, and increased numbers of Catholics leaving the Church is the fruit (albeit unintended) of the spirit of Vatican II.  The number of Catholics that belong to a church has dropped from 76% in 2000 to 58% in 2020.  On moral issues Catholics are no different than their secular and non-Catholic neighbors in their beliefs.  Entire national churches embrace modernity and even ignore the mild rebukes offered by papal offices.

The response of the Vatican to the sad demise of the “Spirit of Vatican II” Church is to attack orthodox and traditional Catholics, specifically those that are attracted to the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM).  They are the fastest growing cohort in the Church.  They comprise a much higher percentage of young people that their counterparts that attend Novus Ordo parishes.  Not surprisingly, vocations flourish.  Most importantly, they are faithful to the teachings of the Church.  Whereas overall only about one-third of all Catholics believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, nearly 100% of TLM attendees adhere to this core tenant of the faith.  A mysterious Vatican inquiry was used as the reason for the suppression, though no details of it have been released.  Even traditional focused Novus Ordo masses are now being suppressed.  The most recent example is the banning of the priest facing east during mass in the Archdiocese of Chicago. Of course, there is nothing in Vatican II that said this should not be done; rather, it is a spirit of Vatican II innovation.  Any priest that objects to the heavy handiness is marginalized, censured, or eliminated in one form or another.  Those that support the new reality are championed, praised, and promoted.  Support of the spirit of Vatican II is the sine qua non for gaining power in the Church.

A similar response has come from the masters of the COVID response.  From their initial proclamation of ‘15 days to slow the spread,’ to the creation of ‘social distancing, to ‘masks don’t work, now they do’ guidance, the power brokers have been wrong.  They told us that getting the inoculation would prevent us from getting the illness and prevent transmission of the illness.  These have been proven incorrect. When studies showed those who received COVID inoculations were getting the disease (and others) at higher rates that the unvaccinated, they declined to gather the data. In addition, numerous studies have demonstrated the ‘unforeseen’ consequences of lockdowns, from increased depression and suicide to lower IQ scores for children.  Natural immunity has proven superior to the inoculations that bypass the innate immune system, but it still has limited impact on governmental policies. We are amid a global rise in all-cause mortality, but no authority will dare investigate any link to the injections.  Their response to the evidence, like some of those in the Church facing the abject failure of spirit of Vatican II policies, is to double down on what went wrong.  More lockdowns, more jabs, more ignoring and manipulation of the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting system.

Like the Vatican’s cancelling of orthodox priests, national and state governments suppress and censor anyone that question their decisions.  Internationally recognized experts in immunology, microbiology, biochemistry, and other medical disciplines are de-platformed by the technology companies that are owned by or affiliated with the pharmaceutical industry that is in bed with global governments. International experts warned that inoculating during a pandemic would cause the virus to mutate quicker; these experts continue to be censured even though their predictions have been proven correct.  State health boards attack doctors who report on their findings that non-vaccinated patients fare better than those inoculated with the COVID serum.  Hospitals fire nurses who go public with cases of post-inoculation injuries.  The power of the federal government offers health care organizations immense profit to support their dictates.  The individual is at the mercy of the collective.  

The spirit of Vatican II Church leaders and the COVID response authorities have an inherent aversion to traditional remedies to what ails the Church, and global health, respectively. In both cases the power brokers reject the good that has been proven for the promise of manmade solutions.  The Church seeks to suppress Latin, though exorcists report the devil fears the Church’s sacred language.  The global health authorities ignore the ability of man’s God-given immune system for one that evades and manipulates our natural defenses.  Fear is an essential tool.  Fear of promotion, fear of censorship, fear of not being able to dine in restaurants, fear of not being able to travel, fear of being able to live a ‘normal’ life free of attack.  Any dissent to Church or State propaganda is ruthlessly crushed.  Outsiders are punished, whether they are priest or laity, doctor or patient.  

Determining the intent behind both groups’ decisions is challenging, yet both Church and governmental officials employ the same motivators.  The common denominators are power, control, profit, and a material world first mindset.  They are strange bedfellows that subscribe to a disjointed progressive-Pelagian mentality. Both groups use similar tactics to impose their will on their subjects.  Bribery, censorship, coercion, isolation, and ostracization are employed.  Carrot first, then the stick.  Then a bigger stick.  Is it any wonder many power brokers in the Vatican have joined forces with the global elites?  The promoters of the spirit of Vatican II and the COVID response are fellow travelers, in the worst sense of the term.  

Edward J Barr is a Catechist, an attorney, an intelligence officer, and a Marine. He earned a Master of Theology degree from the Augustine Institute.