Injection Rejection

Posted by HolySmack on August 20, 2021

The purpose of this post is not to discuss any vaccine in particular, but to provide information to those who intend to reject a vaccination, and how the Catholic Church actually reaffirms such noncompliance. Being that a certain vaccine is very popular these days, and with many Catholic clergy encouraging and even attempting to impose vaccination, it’s a matter of clarity and charity to emphasize that “practical reason makes evident that vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation and that, therefore, it must be voluntary”, despite what priests and pope may say.

Those who want to provide explanation for why they voluntarily reject the injection can find these items and documents helpful:

The Roman Catholic Church’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith reiterates the voluntary nature that vaccination must entail, among other reasons why a vaccine may be rejected in good faith (see here for a letter used successfully to exempt oneself at a Catholic university from vaccination, citing this Church document).
The National Catholic Bioethics Center provides here a template for any Catholic’s pastor to sign on a parishioner’s behalf, explaining why their parishioner is exempting him or herself from vaccination. Different from the letter above, this letter also argues therapeutic proportionality, which is an assessment of whether the benefits of a medical intervention outweigh the undesirable side-effects and burdens in light of the integral good of the person, including spiritual, psychological, and bodily goods. The judgment of therapeutic proportionality must be made by the person who is the potential recipient of the intervention, not by public health authorities or by other individuals who might judge differently in their own situations.
The Christ Medicus Foundation here explains further why vaccination mandates (and by extension, any imposed, compelled, or coerced invasive medical interventions) are immoral and violate human rights: Coercing or pressuring people to receive a COVID-19 vaccination as a condition to maintain employment, as a condition of travel, as a condition for obtaining an education, or for any reason whatsoever is a grave violation of the fundamental human, civil, and religious right to act according to one’s conscience in receiving or refusing medical interventions.
The Colorado Catholic Bishops Conference provides this letter template also for wide use, echoing the points made above, but also reminding that the free-exercise clause of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment requires state accommodation of individuals who object to vaccinations on religious grounds.
The Thomas More Society offers some excellent advice from a legal standpoint, to help defend your religious rights and beliefs, and also help take your fight to the courts if violations continue.
The good Bishop Athanasius Schneider here offers a letter (signed by him, and affirmed by legal counsel) for use as an exemption declaration to whomever it may concern, or the letter serves as an ideal template for one to use in writing his/her own letter.
If the above was too much for you to read (stop being lazy!), then a video interview:
And a very well though-out and explanatory presentation:
My former moral theology professor weighs in (see her article here):
As more resources are proven useful, this post will be updated.

May Jesus, the Divine Doctor, heal us from the true diseases of sin, evil, and eternal death.

Enemy of My Enemy

Posted by HolySmack on October 24, 2020

The foe of my foe is my friend. That’s how the logic goes. If it’s true, then voters have some serious thinking to do for this 2020 doomsday election. Catholics and other Christians vying for Joe Biden should consider these points, since if President Trump is your enemy, then it seems to follow that others opposed to Trump are your allies in a common cause.

One ally in your camp is witches who have been throwing monthly hexes and spells on Trump since 2017. Occultists conjured evil spirits again to hex Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings, which an exorcist countered with his own prayers. At last, their satanic sacrifices paid off when Trump caught Covid-19, so the witches claim and believe. Ironically, the occultists actually think they are doing good by calling on evil sources for help. I don’t think they know who they’re dealing with.
The Democrat Party of today is funded and defended furiously by Planned Parenthood (PP) and other abortion advocates. These organizations may also provide other services for women, such as cancer screening and medication, but any organization that does so while also aborting children renders all its good works null. Imagine defending a government because it built schools, hospitals, parks, and campsites, but also murdered millions of Jews on the side. That analogy isn’t uncalled for, since PP’s founder was a racist and eugenicist who wanted non-whites aborted from society. But let’s hear directly from a former award-winning PP director herself:
The turmoil in Hong Kong (HK) and tension between China and Taiwan reveals even more about Trump’s policies. During the height of Hong Kong’s protests against Communist China, many HK citizens flew the American flag, sang the American anthem, and even praised Trump by name: As for Taiwan, the underdog against China in its fight for the right to exist, Trump’s relationship and support for the island and its pro-freedom president (a woman, nonetheless) is praiseworthy.

All this is not to say, however, that Trump is a perfect man. Like all humans, Trump is flawed on many levels and has a past. Yet, these three issues reveal that his fiercest opponents are far worse, among them including genocidal dictatorships (who monitor and imprison millions of citizens), systematic racists and eugenic planners (who inspired Hitler), and occultists (who conjure demons for favors).

Thus, the enemy of these enemies is my friend. And I am shocked to this day that Trump has became the leader who has dared to boldly poke these monsters in the eye. I never thought Trump would be worthy of support, and even if you aren’t convinced yet, remember that I know what you think. I was there before. Here’s another man who was there before, and became convinced:

I’ll be praying and fasting for the man’s continued conversion. May God use Donald J. Trump and all of us for His Kingdom.

Blessings this Feast Day of St. Raphael the Archangel.

Netflix Flicks Us Off

Posted by HolySmack on September 19, 2020

In the mood to save some cash? If you have a Netflix account, canceling it would help, especially since they do not value you as a customer.

Despite Netflix’s hypocrisy about being pro-abortion (their film I Am Mother conflicted with their claim to be pro-abortion), which gave a small reason to tolerate their offenses, the last two insults have made any tolerance impossible for me. When someone brazenly mocks God and molests girls, any Christian should revile and revoke support.

In 2019, Netflix in Brazil featured a Christmas special depicting our Blessed Lord in a perverse romantic relationship with Satan, living in a dysfunctional family, and suggesting our Blessed Mother was adulterous (so I’ve heard, as I refuse to view the feature). Thinly veiled as satire, the feature drew immense backlash from Brazilians and others around the globe (including Muslims).

Now, Netflix features Cuties, a pedophile-pornographic film depicting actual children in perverse actions. Netflix and the film’s producers claim the work is trying to bring awareness to the plight of girls and their objectification as sex toys, yet they fail to realize they have actually objectified the girl actresses and molested them on set.

So what happened to the #MeToo movement? Surprised yet about hypocrisy in Hollywood? It would be naive to think that every Netflix user who finds Cuties wouldn’t use this film for their own perverse pleasure. It would be even more naive to think that every person responsible for this film was pure and chaste when directing and filming these starring girls. We know purity and chastity can’t be so since they had to imagine the graphic scenes first, play them out in their twisted heads, and then watch them get played out with these victim-actresses before them, cameras on.

And so, besides the money you’d save (and perhaps donate to victims of sex trafficking), here’s more convincing criticism:

Netflix is Anti-Abortion

Posted by HolySmack on July 5, 2019

iammother

So Netflix was threatening to boycott the State of Georgia for its pro-life laws. Netflix is worried that Georgia will abort abortion. Because of this boycott threat, many pro-lifers are boycotting Netflix.

But Netflix is a hypocrite. It’s not really serious about abortion rights. Because if it were, it wouldn’t be streaming pro-life movies like I Am Mother. That’s right, Netflix actually streams a very pro-life, very anti-abortion movie. If Netflix doesn’t realize its contradictory stance, then it’s either simply hypocritical, or incredibly ignorant of its own content, or it’s secretly anti-abortion. I’m not sure what they are, but here are the pro-life signs from their recent critically acclaimed hit film itself:

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—SPOILER ALERT—

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The film presents a feminine-voiced robot as a mechanical mother tasked with raising a baby girl. In fact, every mother figure in this film is female/feminine. In our LGBTQRSTUV+ conscious culture, why is the mother presented as womanly and feminine? Why do advanced, super artificial-intelligence robots of the future use old-fashioned traditional family roles in its attempt to raise the perfect human? Hint: because that’s how humans are meant to be best nurtured.
There’s no mistake that motherhood is the theme of the film (the title?). But notice the plot twist: Mother-Bot has been long terminating human girls when they failed to qualify for continued existence. Mother-Bot administers tests on her daughters, and only raises the current protagonist because she has been passing. When we find that other girls had been gestated, born, raised, tested, failed, and then incinerated, we sense the film wants us to feel horrified. The fact that we don’t know how many girls have been burned to bones alludes even more to the fact that we may perhaps never know how many girls have been aborted in our world (in China alone, its missing an estimated 30-50 million girls. Talk about an actual war-on-women).
But back to the film: so what if Mother-Bot terminated some girls during gestation? So what if Mother-Bot discovered a mutation, or a disease, or some other condition the unborn baby had, and then deemed her unqualified for the perfect life (whatever perfect even means)? What difference is there between terminating the girl then or terminating later? The motive is the same: the girl is not good enough.
Here we see a commentary on the rampant objectification of girls and women in our culture. If she isn’t beautiful enough, hot enough, smart enough, small enough, skinny enough, et cetera enough, then she’s not worth it. If she doesn’t make me happy enough, proud enough, successful enough, then she’s something I must destroy. I decide if her life is worth the work I need to put in. –Mother-Bot
But why does the film try to make us sense this mentality is horrific? If abortion is a woman’s right (as Netflix claims), then why is Mother-Bot not just an everyday hero doing what every mother should be free to do? Sure, you can say it’s because the baby isn’t actually inside Mother-Bot, but Mother-Bot even says in the film that she is more than just one robot, she is all of them, and the entire gestation/nursery facility, by extension. She runs everything, so actually Daughter is very much inside Mother-Bot, using her resources, time, energy, and space. And that relates very much to the argument for abortion-after-birth that is getting popular among many politicians of a certain political party: John Rogers (AL), Governor Northam (VA), Del. Tran (VA). After all, born babies keep using their mother’s resources, time, energy, and space… for years and decades.
So point made: real motherhood is not about killing one’s children. We see this argued for by Daughter when she is upset about her culled siblings. If termination wasn’t bad, why all the outrage and fear from Daughter? Remember, Daughter is human: she is the protagonist who represents us in the film, as fellow humans who are pro-life/dignity/children/parenthood. Mother is the cold, mechanical, utilitarian, false-motherhood antagonist who is pro-choice/abortion. The choice is easy: be like Daughter!
If that’s not enough signs of the film’s pro-life message, consider how the myriad fetuses are addressed: they’re called brothers and sisters. Including the unborn embryos! Their not called “clumps of cells”, or “potential people”, or merely “products of conception”. They are already family members.
Additionally, quite a few Catholic symbols appeared both prominently and subtly in I Am Mother. Obviously, the rosary (as our Blessed Mother’s prayer), and the Marian icons (in the shipping container where the woman lived), but also that Daughter becomes the mother-figure for her newborn brother. Daughter, in a sense, is the virgin mother of the baby boy. For any astute Catholic, that’s an obvious reference to the only real-life Virgin Mother. Sadly, where the film is going with all this religious motherhood imagery is still lost on me, so if you have any insights, I’d be glad to hear it.
On a related note, there’s also the issue of manufacturing children and growing them in gestation machines (as opposed to to conceiving children and carrying them in their mothers’ wombs). I’ve been mulling on writing something about this topic for a while, so this is a sign for me to get it out. But before it gets written, please see #3-4 above for arguments closely relevant, and also my philosophy thesis discussing the humanity and absurd predicament of frozen embryonic children.

So there we have it. Signs strongly suggesting that Netflix is flip-floppy about its abortion advocacy. Sure, boycott a pro-life state, but don’t boycott a pro-life movie streaming from your own collection? Come on. Just come out and say it: Netflix is secretly anti-abortion (or at least conflicted).

Avengers Against Abortion

Posted by HolySmack on April 26, 2019

So I just spent approximately six hours of my life watching Infinity War and Endgame, and here are the most meaningful moments I noticed–mostly hinted in Infinity War, and fully displayed in its sequel.

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—SPOILER ALERT—

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The overarching theme of the films revolves around Thanos’ goal: controlling overpopulation. This applies to our society today, considering many politicians and scientists who claim the world will end unless our numbers are drastically cut. They tout the necessity and value of sterilization, contraception, euthanasia, and abortion. However, Thanos brings it all together to the logical conclusion, and from this epic, we see truly the flaws of this overpopulation control: it is unjustifiable and unheroic. Let me explain with examples from the films: [First], the longer abortion is promoted, the more we reach Thanos’ coveted ratio: 50% decimation. In America alone, the ratio is already currently 1/6 (missing 50 million out of 300 million)! If this trend continues, we’ll be at 1/2 soon. So, do we really want to fulfill Thanos’ dream in our reality? Especially when we’re so invested in the Avengers countering his actions? Don’t we want to imitate the Avengers and end this legalized decimation? [Second], many who support abortion and population culling may claim that this mischaracterizes their goal since living people were just abruptly wiped out in the film, whereas abortion in reality is more tolerable since those lives never even got to start living, thus if they never got to live, it doesn’t cause any suffering to anyone: they don’t miss us, we don’t miss them, because we never got to meet. But, here’s where Thanos comes in: after realizing the inability of the surviving Avengers to accept his necessary evil of 50% decimation, Thanos revises his scheme. He will destroy 100% of life in the universe, and then recreate new life that is oblivious to the fact that there was life before it. In short, Thanos thinks that ignorance will make the universe’s recreated inhabitants gratefully accept his benevolent decimation, sort of saying: “If I never knew what I lost, I’d be happy, so that’s all that matters.” Yet this fails to satisfy the Avengers’ morality, and more importantly, this fails to satisfy audience’s morality. We know in our rational core that this remains evil, and ignorance is not a tolerable solution.
And just in case we still couldn’t tell the Avengers are pro-life (although some of the actors contradict themselves here): when Warmachine hatches the idea of time-traveling to abort or murder baby-Thanos, the rest of the team not only dismiss the idea, but revolt against it. They rightly protest the idea of assassinating a young, innocent Thanos, because such a Thanos simply remains innocent of his future undecided crimes! This reminds me of when certain people pilloried a political commentator for defending another baby before his possible-future-undecided crimes, when actually he was just arguing the same thing the Avengers would in Endgame. Have a listen to Ben Shapiro’s point here, and why the logic of aborting criminals (while they are innocent infants) is unethical and absurd.
One of the most moving moments of Endgame must be Natasha’s martyr-like self-sacrifice, and Clint’s competing with her for the mission. This scene drew some sort of moisture from my eyes, because I saw that this is how we are called to live and die, especially as Christians. If only we all fought to die for one another like these two did. Truly an inspirational moment here, and one that applies not only to times of great struggle, but also to moments that only seem mediocre. Get your tissues (or sleeve) ready for this scene.
Another great moment was when Hulk/Banner realized that there was no mistake with his Jekyll-Hyde condition; there was a meaning, a purpose. He volunteers to use the Infinity Stone gauntlet to snap the decimated 50% back into life, knowing that doing so would cripple him as it did Thanos when he had snapped that same 50% into death. Banner says, upon realizing that he alone must do this: “The radiation [from the stones] is mostly gamma. It’s like I was made for this,” meaning that his radioactive condition happened so he could rise to this challenge. Banner [the super scientist] understands here that everything truly does happen for a reason.
Speaking of everything happening for a reason: notice how traditional the Avengers are. Each one of them either gives up marriage to be celibate and serve others with their lives, or they marry, start a family and have children the natural organic way. Stark and Potts, Clint and Nicole, Rogers and Carter. Their relationships are healthy, wholesome, and heartening. In a culture so confused about marriage, family, and children, this reminder in the film is subtle and important, but very needed.
[Some quality daddy-daughter time.]
After overcoming the final battle with Thanos, Clint mentions that he wishes Natasha somehow knew they had succeeded, that her sacrifice was not in vain. Wanda responds that Natasha does know, even though she had been long dead. This hints at the reality of an afterlife, a life that is beyond the physical universe, and in our current hyper-materialistic culture, any reminder of this reality is welcome.
Which leads into what will happen to us at the end of time, the end of this material universe. Endgame‘s ending depicts the joy of reuniting with long-lost loved ones, with the global (and even universal) reunion of all. The cathartic joy in the film is palpable, and I don’t recall any popular film that presents this universe-wide reunion so well. In our true Christian faith, the film’s ending hints at the coming communion of saints, the resurrection of the dead, and the life everlasting, where we who have chosen God will have the life, the family, and the love that He has originally made us to know. For more about this epic reunion, please see here where I daydream how the New Heaven and New Earth might be like. It’s really the only thing worth daydreaming about, and unlike Endgame, it’s only the beginning of a far better life than any human could dream up, because it’s God’s dream for us.

Order and the Border

Posted by HolySmack on January 12, 2019

060617-A-3715G-017 In the last few weeks, there’s been a ton of yelling and shouting about the immigration system and situation in America. But sadly, because our national discussions are manipulated by an unreliable media, all this attention will be replaced in a few weeks with another topic–whatever topic makes the media more money. Think about it! What topic was dominating our time and minds just a few months ago?* And today nobody in media remembers or cares.

So before immigration is replaced with another money-making topic, let’s order things out and think through the deeper issues that all the hateful yelling and ad hominems are smothering:

Asylum seekers do not want to come to America. Some might, but they all want their own nation of origin to have been worth staying in. Refugees wish they never had to leave their homeland. Nobody desires to abandon and forsake the country of their culture! When my parents (and hundreds of thousands of other refugees of the Vietnam War) escaped to America, they longed for freedom and dignity to determine their lives. If Vietnam was a free country, with human rights respected, nobody would have risked death crossing jungles and oceans to find freedom elsewhere. So the deeper crisis is how to help nations of origin improve their economies, governance, and societies so that their own citizens are glad to stay and build up their nation. Just imagine how bad the reality must be for refugees to flee the only home they’ve known! If we don’t think creatively and effectively here, then we’re not solving any core problems–we’re just putting bandages on a busted Titanic. America cannot physically and realistically take in every Earthling–even if she wanted to–and especially when so much of the rest of the world is gorgeous but tragically doomed because of corruption and poverty. But corruption and poverty are solvable through hard work! Let’s stop overthinking how to bandage the sinking ship, and focus on how to prevent ships from hitting icebergs, and then people will stop desperately resorting to lifeboats because their own ship is in great shape! Long-term solutions typically have long-term results.
America is not safe for anyone. There is a secret system of legalized prejudice and murder in this country responsible for at least 50 million victims since 1973. Anyone serious about welcoming immigrants and refugees must be even more serious about abortion, or else risk being a hypocrite. How can we say we care for those in danger when we allow children to be murdered in hospitals and clinics? How can we fight for children being separated from their mothers when we already allow children to be slaughtered from the womb of their mothers? If we want America to be a land of welcome to every human life, then we must actually welcome every human life. That’s only consistent and to be expected. We can start by diverting federal funding for abortion (millions of bucks) to helping refugees and Americans in need (babies and struggling parents included). If we do not generously love our own children, then how can we… (finish the logical conclusion).
America is not at her best right now. For our nation to be even better, she needs to know Christ and His Church. The only reason why we have a culture and civilization that seeks to care for the suffering and the struggling is because Jesus Christ taught us to (and slowly His teaching became general civil law). So do not think we will solve this situation, nor any situation, without God. We need prayer to replace all the shouting and attacking. If only the most vociferous and outspoken among us and in government and media were just as insistent with their prayer life… if only…
Lastly, I leave you with balanced thoughts from this insightful and real article, and from Fr. Mike Schmitz:

*Hint: it was about school violence.

Freakin Freakonomics

Posted by HolySmack on December 26, 2017

freakonomics_movie_2010_freecomputerdesktopwallpaper_16001 The popular Freakonomics book really does have some great insights into our world. Though I did not read the text, I did watch the film version, and I found it rewarding, then disturbing…. Here’s why:

The authors’ analysis on the steep crime drop of the 1990’s is enormously inaccurate. I post here, for your viewing convenience, their segment on the fallen crime rate:

So there you have it! The reason is simple math: the less unwanted babies who are born, the less people who may potentially become criminals! Put another way: subtracting unwanted children in the past equals less unwanted adults in the future, which means less criminals and crime! Voila!

800x-1 But Freakonomics fails–it fails to mention that at least 50 million murders have occurred in America alone to force this false peace. And when murders occur, murderers are always nearby, and our culture is full of them.

So, there is not a drop in crime in America. There is actually a surge, a flood in murders, a genocide against children whose only fault was that their parents and their culture did not love them enough. The crime rate has never dropped; murder was only legalized and disguised.

What a tragedy of a nation when it believes that unwanted people are better off dead, just because they might become criminals, when actually, those who believe and live such a lie are the criminals themselves! Unwanted children are none other than unloved children, and all unlovers are also known as haters.

And since when did murder and hate become prime solutions to crime in America?

Since January 22nd, 1973.

AbortionCost2

*In dedication to, and in defense of, the millions of Holy Innocents who have been massacred by the Herod-like.

Bill Nye’s Lie

Posted by HolySmack on January 25, 2017

An educator from my childhood, from our childhoods, has released a video of him explaining a few things. Here is the short video:

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And now here are the reasons why Bill Nye’s argument has fallen short of scientific (and logical) reasoning, which is a shame because I admired him greatly! I love biology and anatomy/physiology and chemistry. I love science!

——1) From the overall comments in the video, we can assume Nye is addressing abortion, claiming that it should be a moral right because the procedure does not terminate human life. Nye repeatedly claims that the fertilized egg is not human. But then what is it?

What if we took all the fertilized eggs (viable embryos) of pandas, and then terminated them (aborted/killed them)? What would happen to the panda species? Surely then, those fertilized eggs in female pandas are pandas.

And surely a fertilized egg in a female human is also human. And surely the embryo is alive, for otherwise why would it have to be killed in order to be aborted?

——2) Nye claims that fertilized eggs pass through the reproductive tract regularly, failing to implant and thus resulting in miscarriages. But these are caused by natural processes. When an egg fails to implant, or implants incorrectly (e.g., ectopic pregnancies), there is nothing medical science can really do (at this time) to recover/rescue the embryo, nor are we obliged to. These are not defined as abortions because an abortion is a deliberate act to kill the embryo/fetus/unborn child.

There are many forms of abortion, but they all involve the unnatural and forced intrusion of materials into a mother’s body, which her body resists to protect her. Some abortions involve injections of chemicals that attack the child in the womb. Some use artificial hormones to alter a healthy woman’s body to becoming infertile and hostile to fertilization and/or implantation, which also damages her body and brain (these artificial hormones are classified as class one carcinogens by the World Health Organization). Other abortions forcibly dilate the cervix in order to allow probes, forceps and other instruments into the womb to tear the fetus/unborn child to pieces before extracting her body parts. Still, partial-birth abortions have the child delivered and decapitated before she is fully born.

——3) The question at issue then is whether miscarriages and abortions are the same. They are not. One is caused by natural bodily functions, and one is a deliberate killing of embryos/fetuses/unborn children.

Yet, I’ve met mothers who have experienced miscarriages, and the pain they suffer from losing their child is difficult to understand–it is a very deep pain. They know profoundly that they lost a child.

I’ve also met mothers who have aborted, and the pain they suffer from losing their child is difficult to understand–it is a very deep pain. They know profoundly that they lost a child… even if they wanted to abort… even if it was years ago.

——4) As for Nye’s claim that abstinence fails, I’d like to see evidence that human beings don’t have free will and cannot control their urges, whatever they be. To say we cannot have self control is derogatory and insulting, and also prejudiced and untrue. We are constantly called to be under self control, otherwise rape would be rampant, abuse would be the norm, and maybe even murder would be a hobby. Even right now, chances are we are abstaining from sexual activity! So instead of downplaying abstinence encouragement, we should be motivating each other to have self control, because self control in this area would automatically help us have self control in other areas of life (studying, working, defense, exercise, saving money, thinking, etc.).

——5) And I’m glad Bill Nye’s mother was a woman. Mine is too. All moms are, and all are irreplaceable. And I’m grateful she didn’t treat me like a blob of tissue, but allowed me and loved me enough to let me live and love her in return. I’m glad Nye’s mom did the same for him, too. And I’m glad yours did, too.

Please see these videos for another scientist’s perspective, a scientist doctor who has spent years aborting children. He shares his experience and scientific knowledge, as well as detailed explanations of various abortion procedures.

Malice and Maleficence

Posted by HolySmack on October 28, 2016

MALEF_001A_G_ENG-SG_70x100.indd Recently, a dear friend of mine requested I should view and review one of her favorite films. At first I was reluctant, because I had heard negative reviews about Maleficent, and I also secretly dislike Angelina Jolie as an actress (yes, she bores me). But after giving the film a look, here are the really powerful moments of the tale:

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—SPOILER ALERT—

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—–1) The reviews I tend to read before considering an unknown film saw Maleficent as a poor remake of the original Sleeping Beauty. Now I am not a fan of the original, so this gave me even more reason not to see the remake. However, seeing Maleficent as a standalone (isolated and without memory of the original) film is the perspective I am sharing from, and from this point of view, let me continue…

—–2) “Don’t curse in the first place! You will spend your lifetime regretting it.” In the film, we see Maleficent take revenge on the selfish Stefan by cursing Stefan’s most loved one: his daughter Aurora. As the film progresses, we see that Maleficent seeks to undo the curse, but it is impossible.

This reminds me of some advice from St. Philip Neri about gossip (and other sins we commit). The story goes: Once a woman came to confess her sins, and the priest gave her a penance to help her make better choices in the future. He told her, “Take a pillow filled with feathers, and climb to the highest point in the city. From there, shed all the feathers from the pillow and let the wind catch and scatter them across town. Afterwards, climb down to the ground and collect every feather, stuff them back into the empty pillowcase. This is to show you that when you sin, even when merely gossiping, your sins and malicious words spread out and cause evil everywhere. And you can never undo and unsay everything.”

—–3) From this tragic and irrevocable curse, we see that it is never right to punish a child for the sins of the parent! NEVER. So what Maleficent does is unacceptable, is evil, and malicious (hence, her name). This may seem obvious, but there are many people who indeed even murder their children in order to escape the responsibilities and consequences of their actions. I wrote about this just a few weeks back, so please check it out here: Children of Crime.

—–4) Once the curse takes hold and sends Aurora into indefinite sleep, we see the metaphor: her perpetual sleep is a death, with only a glimmer of hope that is more like hopelessness. Desperate to raise the girl from sleep (think of Luke 8:40-56 when Jesus woke Jairus’ dead daughter!) but unable to because the Prince has no real love for Aurora, Maleficent (who at this point has become like a mother to the girl) kisses Aurora’s brow, saying goodnight and goodbye.

It is here where we see that true love is not necessarily romantic or sexual! In this world, so many people confuse sex and romance for love, when actually the greatest love does not depend on those things. When parents love their children, when friends love one another, when children love their parents, when God loves us and tells us to even love our enemies, none of these loves should ever be sexual or romantic, and they are all powerful examples of love, true and chaste.

Of course, the love between a husband and wife have romance and sexual aspects, but the point is that their love is not based on those aspects, that even when their is no sex or romance, their love is still true because they choose to be faithful, loyal, selfless, and generous. Love is based on how we help get each other to Heaven, not on how much we can get from each other. maleficent-kiss-aurora

—–5) Lastly, we see that despite the evil Maleficent did, forgiveness is always possible if there is love, and only if there is love. Her many sins are forgiven, for she loved much, and love makes forgiveness always possible! Evil does not win unless we let it. For a great post about this, please see: Forgiveness is For Giving.

—–End) All in all, though not a film I think everyone must see, if you do see it, it wouldn’t be a waste!

Will You Also Leave?

Posted by HolySmack on October 26, 2016

Even when Jesus walked this earth, even when people saw His miracles, even when some followed Him, many more left Him when they did not like hearing what He taught.

They abandoned Jesus because His words were too difficult, too harsh, too extreme, too loving and honest (think of his teachings on divorce, marriage, lust, and the Eucharist).

They left because they never believed in Him in the first place.

Today, people who once walked with Jesus are now deserting Jesus, again. It’s called a great apostasy. And this time, the difficult, harsh, and [one of] the extreme issues is this: choose life for every child, do not murder children anywhere, including in the womb. And there really is no acceptable excuse, despite what fakeful Catholyks may say (e.g., Tim Kaine, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, etc.).

If you knowingly vote for pro-abortion politicians, then you automatically vote against Christ. Then you are no Christian. You have become a hypocrite.

If you are voting pro-abortion politicians, here is why I cannot do the same (please watch this video and listen carefully, for your own awareness and informed conscience):

(Find the video transcript here)

Is that too hard for you to accept? Will you leave Christ and His Church over this difficulty? Is it really that tough to want babies to have birthdays?

Is it really that confusing which presidential candidate you must not vote for, because they are against Christ and His Church?

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deservebirthday