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Cardinal Meisner, One of the Four Dubia Cardinals, Has Died

Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Germany, one of the four stalwart cardinals who authored and signed their name to the dubiahas passed on to his eternal reward. He did not live to see the dubia answered. He did not, in fact, even live to see his request for an audience with Pope Francis to discuss the matter dignified with a response.

Cardinal Meisner was singled out early on for criticism by papal ally Msgr. Pio Vito Pinto  — criticism that Vatican journalist Edward Pentin reported last December came at the pope’s specific instruction. But he did not respond. He merely remained resolute in his request for answers.

In a profile of Cardinal Meisner last December for OnePeterFive, Maike Hickson drew our attention to the character of the man as expressed in a foreward the cardinal wrote for a book by fellow German theologian Dr. Markus Büning. In it, Meisner wrote:

“I can do everything through Him Who gives me strength” (see Phil. 4:13), says the Apostle Paul – and many courageous Christians have taken and made this same Apostolic word the orientation of their own lives. To be a Christian means at all times, but especially in our time, diligence and commitment. It is here not about learning goals, but about Graces that are here being offered. The Christian only has to make use of them [the Graces offered].

In my episcopal coat of arms, the motto for my own episcopal service comes from the Second Letter to the Corinthians: “Spes nostra firma est pro vobis” (2 Cor. 1:7). That means, in translation: “Our Hope for you is firm.” I think that Hope is the heart of the three Theological Virtues. That is why it stands between Faith and Charity. The symbol of Hope is the anchor which saves the boat from sinking even in a strong storm. To each of us, with the Faith, is given such an anchor which very firmly connects us with the reality of the living God and thus renders us also effective in our charity.

Meisner went on to recount the story of his appointment to the episcopacy, the notification of which came by letter from Pope Paul VI when he was living under the oppressive conditions of Communist East Germany. He wrote of his fear and consternation over the appointment — a call which he described as “traumatic” — and his recourse to the scriptures when he could not reach his spiritual director or confessor by telephone to seek counsel:

In my need I took the New Testament into my hand and said: “Holy Ghost, after all, You are the Author of the New Testament. And You are the Spiritual Guide par excellence.” I then closed my eyes and prayed: “Come, Holy Ghost!” I then opened the New Testament and had in my hands the 6th chapter of the Gospel of St. John concerning the miraculous multiplication of the loaves. There I identified with a touching marginal figure – the little boy with [his basket of] the five loaves and the two fishes who was called into the center by Our Lord. That little boy also gave away all that he had so that he may become a starveling just like all the others. But the little he had to offer he gave there at the most important place in the world – that is to say, into the hands of Our Lord. And thus, what was a lack turned into abundance. Everybody had become replete. And there were still twelve baskets filled with the left-over bread pieces. And one of these twelve full baskets I then placed into my episcopal coat of arms and heraldry, with the words of Hope: “Our Hope for you is firm.”

Our Lord fills our emptiness. He relieves our need. He satisfies our hunger. He makes us strong. Without a living Faith, we have no access at all to Hope. And this Hope then becomes efficacious in virtue of Charity. Even five thousand hungry men attained to repletion: “Spes nostra firma est pro vobis.” The center of the Divine Virtues is Hope. It does not die in our lives if the prior Faith is alive and the Charity comes forth afterwards.

Cardinal Meisner was the Archbishop of Cologne for 25 years. He died in his sleep while on holiday at the age of 83. May God grant him eternal rest, and should he attain heaven, the intercessory power to assist the Church in the time of need to which he showed particular attention and devotion.

126 thoughts on “Cardinal Meisner, One of the Four Dubia Cardinals, Has Died”

  1. May He rest in peace!
    Eternal Rest Grant unto him, O Lord, and let Perpetual Light shine upon him. May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the Mercy of God, rest in peace. Eternal Memory! Blessed Repose! Eternal Memory!
    I and my family shall keep Cardinal Meisner in our prayers.
    God bless
    +JMJ+

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  2. May the Lord reward him for his willingness to defend the Catholic Faith and suffer so many calumnies in his old age for the Love of Jesus Christ and the salvation of souls. Pope Francis’ refusal to answer, and worse, his refusal to even grant an audience to Cardinal Meisner will go down in infamy.

    As for Joachim Cardinal Meisner, may he have heard these words upon his translation from this mortal coil: Luke 6:22-23: “Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

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  3. Amid our era of episcopal milquetoast, one cannot help but admire the singular courage with which Cardinal Meisner undertook his ministry, from its very beginning to its very end.

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  4. He did live long enough to get the Bergoglian slap in the face and the knife in the back.
    God reward this good and faithful servant!

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    • Unfortunately, I believe you have it right. Especially with regards to what has previously happened to Cardinal Muller. On the other hand, I hope Bergoglio will feel more uncomfortable knowing that he is mistreating the Catholics in front the eyes of the whole world, and that now God took away from him the possibility to repair a terrible injustice he did to the “four Cardinals”. Moreover, there is a rumour that the secretary of the Cardinal Coccopalmerio was recently caught overdosed during homosexual party in Vatican, which doesn’t sound like a good news for Bergoglio either. I am not sure if Bergoglio himself can realize that his mistakes have consequences, but it seems like they are coming back to him.

      May God bless the soul of Cardinal Meisner!

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  5. I’m sure more than a few people would be interested in knowing with WHOM was traveling with Joachim Card. Meisner, WHEN, WHERE and HOW he was found, and if a possible will an autopsy be carried out.

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  6. I suspect if he had been a 38 year old man, he wouldn’t have lived to see ” his request for an audience to discuss the matter dignified with a response.” May he rest in a place of light, a place of refreshment…may his memory be eternal. He will be sorely missed.

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    • He was German. Given the extravagance he lived as a “prince” of the church, no doubt he is screaming at God letting Him know he is going to issue a correction to the way God is treating him

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      • Shut it. You are speaking ill of the Dead, and one who served both God and the Church very well. Your all burnt out here. Bye, bye.

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      • You might want to reconsider your ignorant, uncharitable remark. Cardinal Meisner was one of the few who did his best to defend the faith. Your sentiment shows a sad lack of charity that is fed by lack of knowledge of the facts and – oh – maybe a bit of prejudice? Go troll somewhere else, bigot.

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  7. High fives all around in Casa Santa Marta!!

    Well……..now he has his audience…. the only one that counts. Francis may shut the door in his face but God never does. Well done, good and faithful servant.

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  8. Death comes to us all.
    The bad guys, too.
    No matter who or where they are.
    Any bad guys dancing on his grave? In Rome? Anywhere?
    I wouldn’t do that if I were you.

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    • Why would they dance? They are too busy feeding the hungry, spreading the Good News and all of the other mandates Christ gave all of us…except for the Cappa Magna wannabes

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      • Wrong again. The Pope said “Proselytism is solemn nonsense.” Spreading the Good News (evangelization) is not a priority anymore.

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  9. it appears there is now one less “prince of the Church” cardinal suppoting the dubia, he who rejected, mocked and showed pride towards the Vicar of Christ. It appears he has withdrawn his support. in fact he has completely withdrawn. he died in a grave state of mortal sin…pride

    so now there are 3 “princesses” ala Agatha Christie, and unless if someone doesnt state the obvious ominous sentiment we are all thinking, the other 3 will quietly disappear. These 3 princesses know a “sign” no matter if it is Ad Orientalem or in a herd of swine headed over a cliff.

    Maybe the 3 will volunteer to feed the poor, visit the sick, comfort prisoners and…,oh who are we kidding.

    Cappa Magnas are quite heavy to wear. Their yoke is heavy, their burden crushing.

    Pray for his soul. He will be burning for a very long time given he embraced lovingly the worst of all sin: no not Gluttony, Sloth, Anger, Greed, Envy, or Lust – but that too!

    Pride.

    Tough luck your “Eminence”. You were warned repeatedly.

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    • It is always edifying to observe that, far from diminishing recourse to concepts such as mortal sin and eternal damnation, we witness them re-emerging during the present pontificate with a vehemence unseen since Savonarola.

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    • And you’re a vile troll filled with hate toward those who Love Christ, His Vicar and His Church, so you are now banned and can join the other trolls in troll-land.

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      • But you on the other hand are light incaranate given your allegiance to the schismatics.
        If you’re a priest you should be laicized and if you’re retired then you should spend time with the sheep…not the internet

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        • One Peter Five is not Schismatic, neither was Cardinal Meisner. And I spend most of my time with the sheep, and some of them are on the internet.

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          • Yes, it is truly sad. Any priest that is willing to publicly judge others, and on the internet no less, is truly a magnificent specimen of an individual.

            There’s a reason Christ talked about love growing cold in Matthew 24. It is because of folks like this. I feel sorrow for them, but no pity, and when the time comes, I won’t make a move to help them. The vileness and vindictiveness that rolls off of them illustrates clearly from whence they came, and whom they serve.

    • Well, you’re quite the little judge, aren’t you. Even the Pope said “Who am I to judge?”. Did he give you a special dispensation?

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        • Isn’t it interesting how now the Francis apologists can’t actually speak positively of anything he’s done, or offer any sort of evidence as to how he’s doing a fantastic job? Instead, they are reduced to accusing us of being schismatic, prideful, et cetera, because they have nothing of substance to say otherwise.

          I mean, if Francis/Bergoglio was truly the incredible pope they all say he is, surely they could point to evidence of a growing Church, increased vocations, increased piety, or what have you. But they can’t even do that because those things don’t exist, and I think, deep down, they’re scared to death. Hence, they call others schismatic, because the Novus Ordo media complex has trained them that to be a good Catholic is to go along with the pope, no matter what, and they don’t know what else to do, as criticizing the pope would, in their minds, put them outside the Church.

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    • I cannot keep up with the Francisites:
      1. There is no hell;
      2. But we on Earth now able to determine who is going to hell; and
      3. The people going to hell are those who attempt to uphold Church teaching and who are guilty of asking that the pope answer questions that have caused widespread confusion and pitted Catholics of every caste against each other?

      Well….in order to assure my spot in Heaven, I guess I better get busy cheating on my wife, giving into atheism and feeding the poor. Oh….shoot….lest I forget: I should start making out a list of people going to hell (because that’s not prideful)…..

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    • Your mother’s basement must be a very cold and dark place for you to be so agitated.

      My suggestion, get yourself a fresh diaper, get a larger binkie and put on some big boy pants.

      Maybe then you join us ‘growed up’ folks at the big table. Until then.

      Hushhh up!

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        • Dear Comrade,

          My Irish grandma used to call a baby’s pacifier a “binkie’.
          No ideas of the origin.

          Many Ametican parents in my youth often relied too much on the binkie to keep a child in line.

          Rather than do the work of parenting, they’ d shove a pacifier in the child’s mouth.

          Many years later these babies
          turned out to have been whiners of the world raised w a binkie not parental diacipline.

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          • My mother, a mother of nine, used to tell us never to use a dummy (or “pacifier”) – not ever. She said that crying and gurgling was a baby’s way of talking to us and with the world. Its use would lead to the baby’s poor development.

          • Gay Men ? Yeah…. No wonder why the Church has collapsed in so many places. Eucharistic Adoration is down.

  10. Perhaps the Sturm und Drang afflicting the Church became too much for the cardinal in the end. May the angels receive him in paradise and bring him into the holy city Jerusalem.

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  11. I hate to interrupt the canonization process, but Card. Meisner approved the use of the morning after pill.
    From ‘The Eponymous Flower’: “One year before his retirement, a shadow fell over his episcopate. It was about the case of a woman who was allegedly raped, who had requested the “morning after pill” from Catholic hospitals, but had been rejected. Because of the potentially abortifacient effect, the “morning after pill” was rejected by the Catholic Church. Meisner reversed his rejection at the end of January 2013, which made a corresponding decision of the bishop’s conference possible. Since then, the “morning after pill” can be administered to Catholic hospitals

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      • Fair enough, but some of the praise here is rather effusive….which kind of shows just how far the bar has been lowered.

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        • He was a good Cardinal, especially for the present age, but certainly not perfect. No one is. Some words of thanks for his service to God’s church is appropriate, as are prayers for the repose of his soul.

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          • You guys pull the trigger too fast. Sometimes it’s better and more fun to let the hounds worry the bear a bit before shutting down the fight.

            {Sorry, but as an old bear hunter, the thought just came to mind! LOL}

          • Thank you and thanks to Fr. RP for defending the flock against online wolves. Philemon 1: 3.

          • This is the problem.

            Or rather, identifies the problem in the Church today; For decades we have had nice, quietly orthodox prelates who have essentially stood by while the Church was ransacked. No the “good guys” didn’t necessarily smash a window or take an ax to the altar rail, but they didn’t AGGRESSIVELY FIGHT those who did. They were NOT combative. They were effeminate.

            They should have been combative in a Pauline sense and remained so in the service of truth.

            “Orthodoxy” is worthless smack talk if it does not motivate to action in defense of the truth, and defense of the truth is best effected with offensive operations against the enemy OR A DEFENSE MERELY BECOMES A STATIONARY TARGET which is EXACTLY what orthodoxy is in the catholic Church today.

            The enemies of the Church cannot be defeated if they are not publicly exposed and named and vigorously denounced. Over and over and over and over and over if necessary.

            And yes, that means naming names.

            Our prelates have lived in and advanced an effeminate culture where they speak of each other as good friends and respected colleagues and all the rest of the rot when in fact, some are simply the members of the Army of Satan.

            This must stop.

            Pope John XXIII kicked off this change in culture in his opening address to V2 with his proclamation that no longer would the Church condemn the wrong but only affirm what is good. It is a worm that has been eating the keel of the Barque of Peter ever since. In my opinion, this is the most egregious thing to come out of V2, far worse even than the ambiguous words of some of the texts, for with THIS paradigm shift it MATTERS NOT HOW ABSOLUTELY ORTHODOX AND UNAMBIGUOUS THE TEXTS OF V2 might have been. For it has given us a culture of pervasive effeminacy whereby evil can be advanced without adequate condemnation, while the truth is merely quietly repeated, just loud enough that it can be belittled by the enemies thereof.

            Every Catholic priest and prelate {and layman!} who is unaware of this fact should wake up to it: The war against the Church isn’t being fought on the open fields before the castle. Our primary enemies now aren’t Protestants or even Muslims. The war is being fought inside the walls, in the courtyard, in the armory, in shops and streets, in the very bedrooms of the soldiers who are charged with the defense of that castle.

            The enemies of the Church must be rooted out and their demonic falsehoods exposed and condemned. And at the same time we must leave some troops to combat the lies and distortions of the Protestants and the Muslims and all others who stand outside the castle and take glee at the rising plumes of smoke they see above the ramparts.

            The Church MUST get back into the work of the condemnation of evil and those who advance it. We have ignored it for far too long. The proof of the failure is manifest to all.

          • I’m with you in this argument 100%. But we also need to make sure our argument is directed in the right place. Cardinal Meisner, for his part, did what he thought he should and could do, as far as I can see. There may have been more he could have done, but I don’t know for sure and I would guess none of us here do. He was reportedly influential in getting Ratzinger elected to the papacy which, all things considered, was probably the best thing that could have happened at that conclave. I would hazard a guess that, had Bergoglio been elected instead as other reports indicate would have happened, that you, from what you’ve said in the past, wouldn’t even be Catholic. You can thank Cardinal Meisner for that. He was also one of the four dubia cardinals, as we all well know, the single thing in existence that’s posing an sort of opposition to the Bergoglian innovations today. We all wish there was more. We all want all the Cardinals to stand up. We want a council and Francis trial, and we want a new holy and orthodox pope… but these things, short of a miracle, come in bits and stages. Direct your anger in the right place. John XXIII is a good place to start.

          • “Direct your anger in the right place. John XXIII is a good place to start.”

            Whoa.

            If you think I have anger against Meisner, I apologize. I have no anger against Meisner. He has been on my daily Rosary prayer list {as a friend} since I first heard his name and when I read the report of his death it struck me. And I don’t even know the man.

            Let’s leave Meisner for a moment. A priest once told me, and it clarified what I thought I saw for myself: Since V2, priestly formation creates priests who don’t fight. They are taught to not make waves, not to confront, not to argue, not to be aggressive. I think this must have crept into the culture of the priesthood somewhat before V2. i personally think it crept in as a result of World Wars 1 and 2. That’s anther topic.

            Now, admittedly, some priests have utterly strayed from this mark and fallen off the wagon. you know, like Fr RP here.

            And praise GOD he has!! LOL. {He hasn’t taken me up on my and my wife’s offer yet.}

            I have ZERO anger against Meisner.

            And yes, Pope John XXIII was there at the official kickoff, for sure. Probably a really decent guy, a guy I’d love to have tossed back a few with, but any Pope that disclaims infallibility is worthy of being taken at his word.

    • Yes, I would have liked to have spoken to him about that: if I remember correctly, it was only if conception had not yet taken place that the approval was given for. And if conception had taken place, then under no circumstances was the drug to be administered.

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      • And just how does one determine if conception has taken place in that brief time frame??? I don’t think he gets a pass on this one…at best he was incompetent,

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          • Thank you for this clarification. Please tell Rorate Coeli as they are casting aspersions on the Cardinal–their link on this matter does not convey the whole story!

          • You can tell them, I don’t have any contact with them. It’s always good to remember that there is usually more to the story than when it first appears. When it comes to things like this, its best to suspend belief (so, don’t buy in to it, but investigate it) and look for clarity many times it will turn out very different then what it first looked like.

            In this case the Cardinal was misinformed (and it appears that he was lied to) and what he said was not against Church teaching. It would have been better if it had never been said, that is for certain. But when one reads the statements they are clear that they do not permit any drug that affects implantation to be administered.

        • My understanding is the same as Fr. RP’s. Technically, rape is not the conjugal act but an act of violence. If conception has not occurred, for which there are tests to determine, then it is permissible to prevent conception from occurring. This is not contraception in the traditional sense because the act itself is a perversion of the natural order and not an act of conjugal love. The act is not intended to be one that brings forth life, or a sign of affection, or anything of the sort but one that is used to do whatever it is a person is trying to get through rape.

          That said, while there may be rare cases in which this is acceptable, I don’t know that the public announcement of such is a good idea… it gets easily twisted by the modern media into something it is not.

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          • What happend was the German media attacked Cardinal Meisssner because of this rape case so there was no way a public announcement was not going to happen. It was a lose-lose situation. If the Cardinal had said nothing they Churhc would be seen as having no pity for the raped woman, but when he said something he was then accused by the likes of Gloria.tv of being a nazi.

          • Whoa. What you just outlined was a rational defense of abortion in the case of rape. In fact, what you described is EXACTLY the defense some make when they say that since rape is NOT an act of love, the embryo is a threat to the mother and hence, using catholic doctrine on self defense, may be defended against using appropriate force including deadly force.

          • The reason that makes sense in this case, though, is that a life has not been conceived. Once a child is conceived the situation completely changes. The direct killing of an innocent is always gravely evil. Always. If you go further than I have, then, sure, you can get to the argument you’re talking about for abortion, but an error in logic is made. You’re moving from one kind of an act to another kind.

            Let me try to explain this a little further. Sex makes babies, right? Ok. Is an act of rape an act of sex? The argument here is no, it’s not. Scientifically speaking, sexual intercourse is sexual intercourse, but philosophically speaking there is a difference. Rape is the violation of the body of the victim and the abuse of one’s own body as a tool of violence. So rape is not sex in the true sense. Contraception prevents conception during sex. This is not sex. Therefore, the morning after pill in these EXTREMELY RARE cases is not contraception in the right sense. Furthermore, if conception has occurred, we’re moving on to a different act, the killing of an innocent. The embryo is not a threat. It never is. Even in difficult pregnancies (life of the mother argument) the embryo is never the threat. Something else is. The pregnant condition may be the threat, but not the child. So killing the child is always wrong.

            I find it a little surprising that even here, people can make the argument that one act is the same as the other. I suppose we’re so used to slippery slopes being true that we’re hesitant to take even one step, but we have to be wise and understand where a slippery slope actually exists and where it’s a fallacy… like this one here.

          • The slope got steeper and the ground slipperier under your feet.

            I know.

            I was once a Methodist.

      • It takes a few days for a fertilized ovum (new person) to implant. Conception at this time cannot be detected by a lab test so every day in emergency departments in hospitals throughout the world (in addition to being used privately) the morning after pill annihilates a lot of new people. It is immoral. I agree with Edison below.

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    • I’m not going to justify such a decision, but since we covered this issue a couple years ago, I know there were other bishops and bioethicists under false impressions based on decades-old research about how such situations could ethically be handled. New scientific data shows that to be wrong. From the first few paragraphs of the article:

      The February 2015 Linacre Quarterly (the official journal of the Catholic Medical Association) features a groundbreaking study by Chris Kahlenborn, MD of The Polycarp Research Institute titled Mechanism of action of levonorgestrel emergency contraception. The study, contrasting the theoretical basis on which emergency contraception (otherwise known as “Plan B”) is claimed to function with the facts and statistics of the most recent research outlining the mechanism by which they cause early abortions, is sure to cause heartburn among Catholic bishops and ethicists who, based on scientific thought and bioethics theories several decades old, continue to permit their use in Catholic institutions.

      The study’s abstract lays out the serious nature of the debate right up front:

      … Proponents of LNG-EC have argued that they have moral certitude that LNG-EC works via a non-abortifacient mechanism of action, and claim that all the major scientific and medical data consistently support this hypothesis. However, newer medical data serve to undermine the consistency of the non-abortifacient hypothesis and instead support the hypothesis that preovulatory administration of LNG-EC has significant potential to work via abortion. The implications of the newer data have important ramifications for medical personnel, patients, and both Catholic and non-Catholic emergency room protocols.

      The article goes on to debunk the operating assumptions.

      https://onepeterfive.wpengine.com/emergency-contraception-at-catholic-institutions-bishops-can-no-longer-claim-ignorance/

      Reply
          • It is unexpected news and a little shocking, but then again he was 83. Once I really heard his age, it figures. Everyone should be expecting death after age 70 or so.

          • My paternal grandmother lived to be 98.5 years old and my maternal grandmother (the one who was in her chair praying the rosary when she passed away) was in her early 60s.

            The way the world is going, I don’t know if I’ll make it to my 60s, let alone late 90s.

          • Hello Asbury. The other site removes all my comments because I refuse to agree with Salza and Siscoe. That’s why they let you appear to have the last word in the discussion. They are extremely heavy handed with anyone who does not tow their party line. I’m not the only one it happens to though. I don’t know why I bother with them.

  12. I am not fearful. God will raise up other heroes to fight this modernist pontificate. Let Pope Francis believe he is slowly winning but any student of heresy knows that all heresies and heretics are defeated in the end. I look forward to this great day.

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  13. Just to be clear. Cardinal Mesiner was 83 years old when he died. So there’s no Secret Conspiracy.

    Rest in Peace. Say Hello to Andy Williams for his Fans.

    Reply

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