Go ye therefore, and infect all nations

Over at the National Catholic Register, Msgr Charles Pope has an article on why Masses should not be suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic – “Canceling Public Masses in Rome is Not the Answer to Coronavirus”.

Illustration of SARS-COV-2 Case Fatality Rate as on 2020-02-28
Illustration of SARS-COV-2 Case Fatality Rate as on 2020-02-28

That makes him and the NCR dangerous right now. This is horrific coming from a Catholic priest. This is cult mentality.

A lot of respect for both lost here by me. It’s not nice to see a priest and a website one respects start to promote death and disease in the name of piety. Now their opinions are left to be judged by the degree of drivel they have published.

“Be ready to abandon this mortal life and take along with you the people committed to your care. Go forward among the faithful and cause them to be plague-stricken, as a reward, even if there is only one soul available to be sent to Christ.”
– nobody sane

Saying that going to Mass is fine is all well and good for a priest currently in the USA where people aren’t dying there like they are elsewhere. Italy has had 827 deaths due to COVID-19 as I write this, with a 6.6% mortality rate. One prediction indicates that the USA and the rest of Europe will be in the same position by the end of next week. Maybe then he’ll change his mind.

827 deaths may not seem like much, but the figure is low because, at the moment, pandemic mitigation is effective. This is the first pandemic that we actually have the knowledge and skills to mitigate and control. But if it went out of control, we’d see many more deaths. That is why measures must be in place to prevent loss of control.

Snake handling
Snake handling

What Msgr Charles “Covid” Pope is suggesting is NOT pious, it is NOT traditional, but rather it is provoking Catholics into becoming Typhoid Marys and spreading the SARS-CoV-2 virus in their communities, all in the name of religion and piety. He risks making himself into a “Covid Charles”, a modern day Typhoid Mary. He risks converting sincere Catholics to a Kool-Aid* or snake-handling sect willing to spread disease in the name of God.

*“Drinking the Kool-Aid” is an expression used to refer to a person who believes in a possibly doomed or dangerous idea because of perceived potential high rewards.

– Wikipedia, Drinking the Kool-Aid

He thinks that risking COVID-19 disease by going to Mass during an epidemic would make one a martyr, and we should just trust in God. What he’s really unwittingly promoting is enhancing the spread of a virus amongst Mass-attending Catholics, who will then take it out into the community and spread it further, resulting in more deaths than necessary.

His article starts with a quote from St Charles Borromeo, twisting it and applying it inappropriately to the current situation.

“Be ready to abandon this mortal life rather than the people committed to your care. Go forward among the plague-stricken as to life, as to a reward, even if there is only one soul to be won to Christ.”
– St. Charles Borromeo [this is the actual quote cited by Msgr Pope, but he inserts his own new meaning into it.]

That is what St Charles Borromeo wrote. What follows is NOT what he wrote:

“Be ready to abandon this mortal life and take along with you the people committed to your care. Go forward among the faithful and cause them to be plague-stricken, as a reward, even if there is only one soul available to be sent to Christ.”
– NOT St. Charles Borromeo

Joseph Shaw, chairman of the Latin Mass Society of the UK, a respected conservative, wrote the following on Twitter:

Baltimore Catechism on expecting miracles
Baltimore Catechism on expecting miracles

“Some will call me irresponsible for calling for public and communal Masses to resume. “People are dying,” they will say. I can only respond by saying that souls are dying due to fear and worldly obsession with death.”
– Msgr Charles Pope

Is it my right to go to Mass in the middle of an outbreak and risk the lives of others? No. Instead, trust God and behave responsibly.

Catholics going to Mass will not only be martyring themselves to KoolAid Catholicism, but will be helping to send the unwilling – both at Mass and outside – to martyrdom too. Hell is not filling up faster because the Church encourages people to stay safe and takes measures to protect lives.

“Jesus said, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations“. He did not say “Go ye therefore, and infect all nations“. Be wary of non-medical people telling you to go out and infect yourself and transmit it to others, in the name of our Lord.”

– Quote from one of the comments at NCR, slightly modified

The Church will find her role in the crisis, but it’s not to encourage virus spreading at Mass.

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3 comments

    • Roger Jameson on March 22, 2020 at 10:07 am

    God, through an angel, told Mary and Joseph to flee to Egypt. He didn’t tell them to be martyrs by endangering baby Jesus.

    • vee man on April 10, 2020 at 9:27 pm

    I think this corona virus was a set up , n this implementations of a vaccine is the cause because everyone will need it when things are hard , I can understand the meaning of this statement go ye therefore infect everyone , its a set up

    1. When crises come, the paranoid and dangerous become more obvious.

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