Incredible:
An attempt by Italian police to halt a Mass in a northern Italian church because it appeared to be violating state-decreed lockdown rules has led to criticism of heavy-handedness on the Catholic Church by overzealous civil authorities.
Captured on video and published by local newspaper Cremona Oggi, as Father Lino Viola was celebrating Mass on Divine Mercy Sunday in the church of San Pietro Apostolo in Soncino in the province of Cremona — one of the areas hardest-hit by the coronavirus — a member of the Carabinieri, Italy’s military police, entered the church before the canon and ordered the Mass to stop.
Father Viola, 80, had left his church open, which is allowed, and was saying Mass for six parishioners whose relatives had died from the virus, including one recently who could not be given a funeral. Seven others helped him with the liturgy, which is permitted under the rules of the lockdown decree. All of those attending wore gloves and masks and kept the required social distance, according to Father Viola.
The police officer got the local mayor on the phone when Father Viola continued to celebrate the Mass, but the priest refused to speak with him and carried on with the liturgy..
The police fined Father Viola 680 euros ($735) for non-compliance, which he said he would pay, and the faithful were also fined. “That’s not the problem,” the priest told the Italian-language La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana newspaper on April 20, saying the real problem was the violation of the sacred liturgy. “Nobody can desecrate the Mass in this way — not even the police,” he said. “I had to say, ‘Enough.’”
Go here to read the rest. Anyone seeking to stop a Mass like this should endure automatic excommunication. Instead of wasting time taking a survey of the traditional Mass, this is what the Pope needs to address.
The principle of separation of church and state dictates that government has no authentic authority over private property. The Catholic Church is private property. The Catholic Church is held in trust for all future generations, the saints in heaven, the just on earth and the suffering in purgatory.
Evidently the police are not the just on earth.
Dennis Prager has an article regarding how this CV fiasco is, as the title of the article says, a dress rehearsal for a police state.
https://townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/2020/04/28/our-dress-rehearsal-for-a-police-state-n2567744
A powerful piece Greg.
The coronavirus pandemic is a blessing for having exposed the current state of affairs in our culture. These conditions were fomenting long before the pandemic: from the time the Supreme Court redefined atheism as the worship of God, the baby as a blob of cells and freedom as a gift from government. “The rights the state gives, the state can take away.” Thomas Jefferson.
Only an infinite God can endow unalienable innate, human rights. With God removed from our nation all hell is breaking loose.
I like the cut of Father Viola’s jib. That is some Grade-A ‘priesting’. As for the Carabinieri, I hope he has the decency to be ashamed of himself.
The bishop of Rome would side with the Carabinieri. He would find some reason to fault the priest offering this Mass.
Look, its over. Jesus Christ will correct this mess. But not this pope, not these bishops. We may or may not deserve it, but we have been sold out. Bet on it.