Crushing Dissent

The punishing penal sentences meted to two groups of protestors – a group of pro-lifers who blocked an abortuary, as well as those who wandered through the Capitol on ‘January 6’ – are indicative: People – at least, the ‘wrong’ sorts of people – with no weapons, nor prior criminal records, and who caused no bodily harm to anyone, have been handed down near-life-long prison sentences, harsher than those meted out to rapists and murderers with rap sheets as long as your leg.

What gives?

Totalitarian regimes, aspects of which are already infecting the United States and Canada, always have a shaky and uncertain hold on their authority. There are two reasons for this: They know the vast majority of the populace despise them, so whatever governance they have must be coerced, rather than elicited, as would be the case were their authority legitimate, or at least legitimately exercised. And many of the laws that they put in place and enforce are manifestly evil, which, again, most of the populace recognizes, and, again, despises.

Hence, they must increasingly impose their rule with ‘vim et metum‘ – ‘force and fear’, as Saint Thomas would put it. Machiavelli said it’s better to be feared than loved, but if all you have is fear…Well, that is why they can brook no dissent, even of the moderate sort. Those who do so must be made an example of,  pour encourager les autres. Curious, as an aside, that the sentence imposed on the pro-life protestors was handed down on the Beheading of John the Baptist, who lost his head to an inebriated and infatuated adulterer, but who, in doing so, gained his soul for God. There is a bit of Herod in all of us, but also something of John the Baptist, and it all hinges on which one wins out.

Examples abound of such Herods, weak, flaccid, corrupt leaders, veritable mediocrities or worse, who would never be chosen to lead a lemonade stand in real life, but who maintain their positions by raw power – which is not the same thing as authority. As Nero advised, they pay their legions of subservient police and soldiers well. But woe unto them if these latter start to see the truth, and turn against the hand that feeds them.

Now our own Trudeau here in the Dominion of Canada is about to enforce his censorship law, so that even saying or writing the ‘wrong’ thing could land you in the slammer – or, what may be worse, ‘re-education’ camp, a la Jordan Peterson, who of course will not go, for he has the resources to refuse to comply – but many do not.

But they can’t put everyone in jail, or in white-walled brainwashing compounds, and eventually all such tottering regimes fall. This, either by their own inherent contradictions, or by fomenting the conditions for revolution, or, as is often the case, both. As Christ prophesied, a house divided against itself cannot stand. But the Church is built on solid rock, and will withstand what floods and storms there be.

So stay strong and steadfast, and resist, dear reader, in the ark of salvation, the holy Catholic Church. By our own strength, we’d be like a flimsy can of woke beer, crushable with the least whisper of force. Most of us are like Thomas More, not the stuff of which martyrs are made. But by the grace of God, we are able, and capable, of far more than we may think.

Carney’s Amoral Majority

After five defections – euphemistically described as ‘crossing the floor’ – and three by-elections, Mark Carney and his Liberals how have their coveted majority. One wonders what bowls of pottage were offered in back-room deals. In the archaic monarchical system that is the Dominion of Canada, this majority allows the newly-minted Prime Minister to rule[…]Continue reading→

Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress

This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→

A Tale of Two Benedicts

A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading→

My Name is Bernadette

April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading→

Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully

Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading→

The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus

As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading→

Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów

We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→

Saint Gemma Galgani

On this April 11th, in 1903 – the same year that the Italian Guiseppe Sarto was elected Pope later that summer as Pius X – a lovely, young Italian woman died, by the name of Gemma Galgani. She lived a brief life of 24 years, as did a number of other young saints, including Pier[…]Continue reading→

An Ideological and Improper Translation

I noticed something odd with the psalm reading at Mass the other day. Our bishops’ conference here in Canada has decreed that the Mass in English – Novus Ordo – use the ‘NRSV’, the ‘New Revised Standard Version’, an ‘updated’ translation of the original RSV, first published in 1952. This ‘new translation’ has the tendency[…]Continue reading→

Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle: A Teacher for Teachers

Jean-Baptiste de la Salle (1651 – 1719), a French nobleman, ordained a priest, founded the first order in the Church’s history entirely without priests, and this came about almost by accident. I say ‘almost’, for, of course, there are no accidents with God. Destined for ordination from an early age, Jean-Baptiste never looked back, even[…]Continue reading→