From the Daily Sceptic, out of Blighty:

We’re publishing an excellent piece today about the risks of the booster roll-out by Dr. David Livermore, Professor of Medical Microbiology at the University of East Anglia. He points out that Geert vanden Bossche, a critic of the Covid vaccines, may be right – that leaky vaccines deliver a brief adaptive protection against infection but simultaneously impair innate immunity, causing a reduction in non-specific protection once the initial protection has worn off. If that’s true, he doesn’t think it’s an argument for not boosting the over-50s or the vulnerable. But it is an argument for not boosting the young and healthy. Here are the opening few paragraphs:

The Government’s answer to Omicron is boosters, boosters and more boosters. Everyone over 18 is eligible. Early queues exceeded five hours; December 18th saw 904,000 boosted. Israel is doling out fourth shots to…

This pope has a bee in his bonnet.

VATICAN CITY, Jan 6 (Reuters) – Pope Francis took an apparent dig at conservatives resisting change in the Roman Catholic Church on Thursday, lamenting those whose religion he said was self-referential and encased in a “suit of armour”.

On the Feast of the Epiphany, Francis seemed to direct specific criticism at those who have balked at his decision to restrict the traditionalist Latin Mass, saying the liturgy could not be trapped in a “dead language.”

“Have we been stuck all too long, nestled inside a conventional, external and formal religiosity that no longer warms our hearts and changes our lives?,” Francis said.

“Do our words and our liturgies ignite in people’s hearts a desire to move towards God, or are they a ‘dead language’ that speaks only of itself and to itself?”

At his pastoral best.

. . . unless he’s turned around the looking same way you are looking, at God incarnate in the tabernacle, or up to God in heaven above in a tried and true symbolic gesture — He’s everywhere, we know — God being the most important person in the room.

But no, it’s the mass of the faithful kneeling, standing, sitting together under the same room in His house, the mass of gazing on Father at the altar and what he does, hearing his voice (as prescribed) almost constantly, requiring (demanding) our attention. It’s his time to shine, whether he or we like it or not.

And He? Gets a lot of lip service, He does. Priest keeps things moving right along. Few empty (of words) moments.

Not good, not good, not good . . .

Would do 92% of it all over!

Roger Finnell ’59 has spent the past 59 years teaching math at Fenwick, which he calls “his second home. And to him, his classroom looks rather lived in.”

Mr. Finnell, who turns 80 in June, is retiring after this school year. “If I had to do it all over again, I’d repeat 92% of it …,” he tells the Oak Park Wednesday Journal.

A judicious statement!

Oak Park:

Two Oak Park District 97 schools have switched to remote learning after returning from winter break this week, citing staff absences as the main reason for the change. With school set to start Jan. 4, students from Longfellow Elementary and Percy Julian Middle schools are asked to shift to e-learning until Jan. 5, according to an email announcement sent to district families over the weekend.

Chi-town:

(Bloomberg) — Chicago schools have canceled instruction for Wednesday after the teachers’ union voted to shift to remote learning, escalating a clash with city officials.

The result of an electronic citywide ballot showed 73% of the members of the Chicago Teachers Union were in favor of the action, according to its posts on Twitter. Mayor Lori Lightfoot wanted to keep the U.S.’s third-largest district open amid nationwide staffing shortages as Covid-19 cases surge. City officials have called the step illegal…

Cited by Pope Francis’ most articulate opponent in the Church’s internecine warfare, Archbishop Vigano:

Polish Archbishop Jan Paweł Lenga said that it is time for a Catholic counterrevolution if we do not want the Church to sink under the heresies and vices of mercenaries and traitors. The promise of the Non prævalebunt [“{the gates of hell} will not prevail”] does not exclude in the least, rather it asks and demands firm and courageous action not only on the part of bishops and priests, but also of the laity, who as never before are treated as subjects, despite the fatuous appeals to active participation in his role in the Church.

Take note: clericalism has reached its peak under the “pontificate” of those who hypocritically do nothing but stigmatize it.

+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop December 27, 2021

Matters have not reached such a pass for many, what? Decades?…

Gets a kick out of this.

The prelate offered a pagan blessing dotting paint onto the lion’s eyes, nose, mouth, ears and body while reciting the invocation:

“Good fortune upon your head, miraculous light glittering to your eyes, your ears capturing sounds from all directions. May the most favorable auspicious big fortune and great profit be to you throughout the whole year, from the beginning all the way to the end.”

He did versions of this ritual at St. Therese Chinese Catholic Church in 2016 and more recently at Carmel Catholic High, in Mundelein.

Cardinal Blase Cupich visited Carmel Catholic on Tuesday, January 7, 2020 to preside over an all-school Mass celebrating the Lunar New Year, a prominent liturgical custom in certain Asian countries. This Mass of Thanksgiving highlighted the cultural importance of family, service, and gratitude — above all, gratitude to God for the blessings we have…

. . .  In fact quite a few when we look at what two popes and one ecumenical council had to say about Latin in the mass.

Take Pius XII in 1947 with his Mediator Dei.

Regarding the use of Latin within the Mass, Venerable Pius XII wrote:

“The use of the Latin language, customary in a considerable portion of the Church, is a manifest and beautiful sign of unity, as well as an effective antidote for any corruption of doctrinal truth.” (MD 60)

While the Holy Father recognized that “the use of the mother tongue in connection with several of the rites” may be of advantage to the faithful, nowhere did he advocate for the removal of Latin from the Holy Mass.

Much less call it a disrupter of unity to be treated as a fly in the ointment.

That’s not all. Nothing is more revered and…

Cardinal Cupich issues new restrictions on Traditional Latin Masses

Cardinal Blase Cupich has issued a new policy for the Archdiocese of Chicago that curtails the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass and other sacraments in Latin using liturgical books that pre-date Vatican II.

Under the policy, which takes effect Jan. 25, priests, deacons, and ordained ministers who wish to use the “old rite” must submit their requests to Cupich in writing and agree to abide by the new norms.

Those rules specify that the Traditional Latin Masses must incorporate scripture readings in the vernacular, using the official translation of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In addition, such Masses cannot take place in a parish church unless both the archbishop and the Vatican agree to grant an exemption.

The new policy also prohibits the celebration of Traditional Latin Masses on the first Sunday of every month, Christmas, the Triduum…