Can Adult Baptisms Be Canonically Suspended during COVID-19?
This was an email I received from out of country. He gave me permission to reproduce it below under condition of anonymity. I changed his name and retracted the country of origin: Dear Father Nix, Here in COUNTRY-X, the government have banned all baptisms, and, by extension, all receptions into the Church. The bishops'conference have followed suit issuing their own edicts to this effect. There is, at the time of writing, no end date in sight for these measures, or even a vague time frame. Two catechumens, one whom was being prepared for unconditional Baptism, and the other who was being prepared to be received (with conditional Baptism), have asked me if there was anything that could be done for them, as their Baptism and Reception have been deferred indefinitely. If a date had been given to review the situation, [...]
Evangelization with Steve Cunningham
My evangelization stories from the streets and taxis and other places. This podcast was originally an interview done with me on a TAN Books podcast by Steve Cunningham just a couple weeks ago. Steve is also the executive producer of Sensus Fidelium. Thanks to TAN Books for letting me re-publish this podcast with Steve and me.
Restoring the Reflection of God
11 minute sermon from the 5th Sunday after Easter.
Chernobyl and Coronavirus
34 years ago last month, the former states of the USSR remembered the anniversary of the most destructive nuclear meltdown in world history: Chernobyl. Although the HBO series takes Chernobyl takes some historical-fiction liberties with what happened under the Russian government in the 1980s, there's some similarities to what we are currently facing in the USA: Both governments manipulated statistics of a health crisis so as to maintain authoritarian control over their people. The difference is that the Russian government downplayed Chernobyl so as to manipulate the people into submission, where the US government is currently overplaying a real flu so as to manipulate the American people into submission. But both governments played the same thing: Fear and control during a health crisis. The last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, wrote 20 years after the Chernobyl disaster that [...]
The Nanny-State Wants to Babysit Your Family
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPrbGU0Wyh4 Last week, on 28 April 2020, Tucker Carlson had a 15 minute segment on Fox News (above) called “Big Tech Censors Dissent Over Coronavirus Lockdowns." At minute 5, Tucker talks about how Dr. Erickson MD (the doctor who countered corona-hype with data that was unwelcome) was removed from numerous internet platforms. The CEO of YouTube, Susan Wojcicki, justified such removals on a CNN clip that Fox News borrowed. She said anything “medically unsubstantiated..anything that would go against World Health Organization” would be removed from YouTube. Tucker continues his critique: “Big Technology companies are using this tragedy [of COVID-19] to increase their power over the American population. They’re working in concert with politicians to do it…But suddenly our media are not concerned about freedom of speech. Reporters applaud our overlords as they punish us for disagreeing. You just saw it in [...]
The Designation “Essential” Goes Against Catholic Social Teaching
I took the above picture today at a parking lot near Denver International Airport. I'm sure they're a fine company, and this is not a blog post against them. But as I left the lot, it hit me that what most US governors now consider "essential" is really just a categorization that is at best arbitrary and at worst discriminatory against the small business owner. My words above do not reveal a very brilliant epiphany, to be sure. Every one of us have noted the long lines to get into Home Depot or Wal-Mart (big business) while a Dallas hair stylist (small business) gets thrown in jail for trying to stay open. The governor of Massachusetts was clever to never give a definition of "essential," only a random categorization: “The production and service sectors identified in Exhibit A are hereby designated as [...]
A Mexican Catholic’s Thoughts on Trump
Today's podcast has Jesse Romero, retired Los Angeles County sheriff and son of Mexican immigrants, as he discuss his new book, A Catholic Vote For Trump.
3 Ways Out of Coronavirus
https://youtu.be/Lze-rMYLf2E In this 15-minute video (24 Apr 2020) Bill Maher interviews Dr. David Katz, a physician helping in an Emergency Department in the Bronx that is treating COVID-19 patients. Dr. Katz went to the Einstein college of medicine and got his degree from the Yale school of Public Health. He is also the founding director of Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center and recently wrote in the New York Times about COVID-19. In the above video, both of these men mock Trump and Fox News, and yet they propose a moderate solution for our country to come out of lockdown now. I quote two liberals proposing an end to the lockdown not because I trust liberals, but so as to give you an argument a forteriori (so much the more) that we should trust anyone with science—conservative or liberal—instead of falling on a [...]
Catholics Facing a Police-State
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJgRk1p8ktY In the above 10 minute Fox News segment from this week (April 2020) Tucker Carlson says: "People in power abuse their power. That may be the lesson here. The arrival of a terrifying new virus from China gave our leaders more power than anyone has had in the history of this country. Six weeks ago, America was something resembling an imperfect democracy...But suddenly everything has changed. Now, this is an oligarchy managed by bureaucrats and tech-moguls, none of whom are accountable to voters. Our leaders are making decisions that will affect your family forever with no oversight or accountability. And of course they love it. We shouldn't be surprised they don't want it to end." The brilliant Jewish writer, Mr. Dennis Prager, recently wrote: "All my life, I have dismissed paranoids on the right ('America is headed to communism') [...]
DNR Orders and Your Medical Power of Attorney
This is a solo podcast I did on Do Not Resuscitate orders, Living Wills and the importance of a well-educated Medical Power of Attorney.