Michael Brown on the latest ‘Lia’ Thomas development: ‘What kind of madness is this?’
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‘The Lord always surprises us’
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Children participating in a Catholic Action initiative helped to release colorful balloons at the end of the Angelus on Jan. 30, 2022. | Vatican Media
Vatican Media
Vatican City, Jan 30, 2022
Pope Francis encouraged people Sunday to be open to the newness Jesus wants to bring in their daily lives and to cultivate the capacity to wonder.
“The Lord always surprises us. This is the beauty of an encounter with Jesus,” Pope Francis said Jan. 30.
“The Lord asks us for an open mind and a simple heart. May Our Lady, model of humility and willingness, show us the way to welcome Jesus.”
Speaking from the window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter’s Square, the pope told the crowd gathered below that “it takes humility to encounter God” and to “let ourselves be encountered by Him.”
“Jesus asks you to accept him in the daily reality that you live; in the Church of today, as it is; in those who are close to you every day; in the reality of those in need, in the problems of your family, in your parents, in your children, in grandparents, in welcoming God there,” he said.
The pope added that it is foolish for someone to think that just by studying theology or taking catechesis classes one can “know everything about Jesus.”
“Perhaps, after many years as believers, we think we know the Lord well, with our ideas and our judgments, very often. The risk is that we get accustomed, we get used to Jesus,” he said.
“And in this way, how do we grow accustomed? We close ourselves off, we close ourselves off to his newness, to the moment in which he knocks on our door and asks you something new, and wants to enter into you. We must stop being fixed in our positions.”
After praying the Angelus prayer in Latin with the crowd, the pope greeted a group of children participating in the “Caravan of Peace” organized by Catholic Action, who released colorful balloons into the sky.
As he watched the balloons ascend, Pope Francis said: “It is a sign of hope that the young people of Rome are bringing to us today.”
The pope extended greetings to those in East Asia and other parts of the world who will celebrate the Lunar New Year on February 1.
“How beautiful it is when families find opportunities to gather together and experience moments of love and joy,” he said.
“Many families, unfortunately, will not be able to get together this year because of the pandemic. I hope that we will soon be able to overcome the ordeal.”
Dominican priest killed in Vietnam
Bishop Aloisiô Nguyên Hùng Vi of Kon Tum says a funerary Mass for Fr. Giuse Trần Ngọc Thanh, O.P., at Plei Đôn chapel in Kon Rơbang parish, Vietnam, Jan. 30, 2022. | Diocese of Kon Tum.
By CNA Staff
Kon Tum, Vietnam, Jan 30, 2022
Father Giuse (Joseph) Trần Ngọc Thanh, O.P., was killed in a knife attack on Saturday.
Fr. Trần was attacked Jan. 29 at a mission of Dak Mot, about 40 miles northwest of Kon Tum. He was hearing confessions before the last Mass of the evening, according to Ordo Praedicatorum on Facebook.
The Diocese of Kon Tum said he was murdered in his house, and that a suspect has been arrested.
Fr. Trần was born in 1981 in Ho Chi Minh City, and took his religious vows in 2010. He was ordained a priest in 2018.
A funerary ceremony was held Jan. 30 at the Dominican monastery in Kon Tum.
His interment will be held Jan. 31 at St. Martin Chapel in Biên Hòa.
“Please unite to pray so that Father Guise’s soul may soon enjoy the glory of God,” the Diocese of Kon Tum said Jan. 30.
Chinese elite have paid some $31 million to Hunter and the Bidens. (Insightful Report)
By Peter Schweizer January 27, 2022
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., slammed the Secret Service’s lack of transparency on Hunter Biden’s travel records on Jan 20
For those wondering why Joe Biden is soft on China, consider this never-before-reported revelation: The Biden family has done five deals in China totaling some $31 million arranged by individuals with direct ties to Chinese intelligence — some reaching the very top of China’s spy agency.
Indeed, every known deal that the Biden family enjoyed with Beijing was reached courtesy of individuals with spy ties. And Joe Biden personally benefited from his family’s foreign deals.
What are these deals? And who are the individuals who made them happen for the Bidens?
Here, then, are a few key facts about the Biden family’s $5 million-plus deals with individuals in bed with Chinese intelligence.
DEAL #1: BOHAI HARVEST RST
Payout: estimated $20 million
In 2018, I was the first to report on Hunter Biden’s involvement with a Chinese investment fund called Bohai Harvest RST (BHR). Hunter even introduced his dad to a company executive in December 2013 when father and son flew to Beijing on Air Force Two.
In October 2019, Hunter Biden’s lawyer George Mesires said Hunter would be resigning from the BHR board, without receiving any return on his investment or shareholder distributions.
What Team Biden failed to address was the fact that Hunter Biden still owned a stake in the investment fund, said to be 10%.
When I first reported on Hunter Biden’s China ties in 2018, Team Biden denied that they existed. Then they absurdly claimed that his stake in the BHR investment fund was only $420,000.
Steven Kaplan, who conducts research on issues in private equity, venture capital, entrepreneurial finance, corporate governance and corporate finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, said a private equity fund with $2 billion under management will typically generate fees over its life of hundreds of millions of dollars.
“It is difficult to imagine, if not incomprehensible, that a 10% stake in those economics is worth only $420K,” Kaplan said via email. “The distinction they appear to be making is they capitalized the management company with $4.2M even if the fund manages $2B. The value of that management company is likely far in excess of $4.2M if they are managing $2B.”
Kaplan pointed to two large publicly traded private equity firms for reference, both of which have a market value of about 10% of the assets under their management. Using that as a rough guide, that would put the value of Hunter Biden’s share closer to $20 million, he said.
Two months ago, Hunter Biden’s lawyer said he sold his equity stake. They have not disclosed how much he made.
But courtesy of the Hunter Biden emails on his abandoned laptop, we now know two of the key individuals who made that deal happen. And at the time, they had close ties to the very top of the Chinese intelligence apparatus.
A Chinese tycoon named Che Feng, a k a “The Super Chairman,” played a key role in getting the deal going by introducing Hunter and his partners to large Chinese state-backed investment funds. Hunter saw a big payday. As he wrote in one email to business partner Devon Archer, “I don’t believe in lottery tickets anymore, but I do believe in the super chairman … I think the sky’s the limit.”
Who exactly is Che Feng?
At one time, he was business partners with the then-vice minister for state security in China, which is China’s KGB.
This man was reportedly the director of the ministry’s No. 8 Bureau, which targeted foreigners with its intelligence apparatus — including reporters, diplomats and businessmen. It was also reported that he oversaw intelligence operations for North America.
Another key figure in putting this investment deal together was Zhao Xuejun (a k a Henry Zhao) of Harvest Fund Management. Zhao is a Communist Party official. (“The mission of our Party is to bring happiness to people, and to revive the nation for people,” he has said.)
But more troubling — Zhao was at that time business partners with Jia Liqing, the daughter of the former minister of state security, Jia Chunwang.
In short, he was in charge of espionage, domestic and overseas intelligence work for China. Jia was famous during his tenure for developing China’s “deep water fish” (Chendi yü) strategy of developing thousands of special agents on foreign soil.
Zhao was also a key figure for Biden prospects in China. His fund participated in BHR, where Hunter Biden received a board seat. The business that he co-founded with Jia Liqing, Harvest Global Investments, also figures in Deal #2.
DEAL #2: BURNHAM ASSET MANAGEMENT
Payout: $5 million
Hunter Biden had another company called Burnham Asset Management. According to court documents filed by disgruntled investors, Harvest Global wired Burnham $5 million.
The purpose of this payment is unclear, but it may have been intended as an investment in Hunter’s business.
According to emails obtained from Hunter Biden’s laptop, Zhao may have sent other money, too.
“Henry remains committed to also making something work with myself and Hunter outside of this Burnham matter as mentioned before,” business partner James Bulger wrote. “He has a few interesting ideas.”
Zhao had suggested to Hunter and his business partners that he would structure a deal they estimated would be “putting money directly into our pockets.”
DEAL #3: HUNTER TEAMS UP WITH CHINA’S ‘DRAGON HEAD’
Payout: $188,000+
Hunter Biden had co-founded a firm called Rosemont Realty, and as early as 2011, he was looking for a Chinese buyer.
Rosemont Realty owns commercial buildings around the United States.
He had little luck initially, but then he and his partners received an “unsolicited offer” from a Hong Kong-based firm called Gemini Investments to buy his firm.
What is Gemini? The company is controlled by something then called Sino-Ocean Land, which was also chaired by the head of China Ocean Shipping Corporation (COSCO).
Japanese government agencies report that “Chinese intelligence services are closely linked” to COSCO. Some scholars in the West refer to COSCO as the “fifth arm of the Chinese Navy.”
For his part, President Xi Jinping has called the company “the dragon’s head for China” because of its strategic activities in Europe.
Hunter worked even more closely with COSCO in an attempt to buy the Greek national railway.
How much has Hunter Biden made from the Chinese deal that took over Rosemont Realty? It is impossible to know. But emails reveal at least one payment of approximately $188,000 from Rosemont Realty to Hunter Biden.
He also retained his stake in the company after the Chinese leadership took over.
DEAL #4: CEFC CHINA ENERGY
Payout: $6 million
Ye Jianming, a wealthy Chinese businessman and the head of CEFC China Energy, provided $6 million to the Biden family, according to a Senate investigation into Hunter’s activities.
In early 2017, one month after his father left office as vice president, Hunter Biden worked for Ye as a counselor and adviser, and Joe Biden’s brother James received some of the funds that Ye transferred to Hunter.
Five million came in the form of a forgivable, interest-free loan. Ethically, a loan is worse than a cash gift for a politician’s family, because the loan giver can always demand their money back if the recipient of the funds is not doing as they like.
Who exactly is Ye?
Ye Jianming once served in a leadership position within the China Association for International Friendly Contact (CAIFC), which is funded directly by Chinese military intelligence.
CEFC’s corporate documents confirm its self-perceived role in advancing China’s national energy strategy. Ye Jianming’s close relationship with both the Chinese military intelligence apparatus and the government cannot be overstated.
DEAL #5: CEFC’s PATRICK HO
Payout: $1 million
Hunter Biden received even more money in his relationship with CEFC and Ye Jianming.
In 2017, one of Ye Jianming’s “top lieutenants,” Patrick Ho, was arrested on bribery charges by the FBI for offering money to African officials in exchange for energy deals.
He immediately called James Biden, Joe Biden’s brother, looking for Hunter Biden.
Hunter was soon hired by CEFC to be Patrick Ho’s defense attorney despite his little experience in criminal defense. CEFC paid Hunter a $1 million fee. Hunter referred to Patrick Ho as “the f–ing spy chief of China,” according to leaked audio obtained by RealClearPolitics.
These deals are disturbing enough, and are exacerbated by the fact that every one of them was made possible by an individual with ties that sometimes went to the highest levels of Chinese intelligence.
But there is also the curious fact that in 2014, Hunter Biden took the unusual step of telling the Secret Service that he did not want protection when he traveled overseas. The request happened shortly after he began securing deals in Beijing.
Money that Hunter Biden received from his overseas deals flowed to other members of the Biden family.
Joe Biden’s brother James received over $1 million originating from the spy-connected Ye, according to a US Senate investigation.
WATCH: How thousands of ‘mules’ dropped harvested ballots in 2020
True the Vote may have finally cracked the code behind the undercover massive voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. It’s apparently through the use of “mules” – or delivery people – who dropped off harvested ballots into absentee-ballot boxes like one in Georgia. True the Vote, a non-partisan effort, says they have similar cases from…
Source: WATCH: How thousands of ‘mules’ dropped harvested ballots in 2020
The Party of Insurrection
One year after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, President Joe Biden gravely informed the nation that the incident, during which exactly one person, an unarmed female pro-Trump protester, was killed – unnecessarily shot to death at close range, without warning, by a Capitol Hill policeman – was “the most significant test of our democracy since…
Source: The Party of Insurrection
Winning the Battle Against Covid Tyranny
Lockdowns and mask mandates have caused an upheaval in our economy and ruined the quality of life for many people. They don’t work against Covid, and not only are vaccines a failure but they have killed a large number of people. Governments around the world are using these perverted policies to control us and reduce us to mindless animals to be manipulated at will. But our high-minded masters in Washington and elsewhere have encountered a surprise. People are not taking it any more. They are saying “no” to vaccine mandates and lockdowns and refusing to wear masks. They are demonstrating … Continue reading →
Source: We Are Winning the Battle Against Covid Tyranny – LewRockwell LewRockwell.com
Why is St. Thomas Aquinas called the “Angelic Doctor”?
Lawrence OP | Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Why is he called a “doctor”?
First of all, in the Catholic Church, besides naming certain individuals as saints, recognizing their extraordinary practice of virtue, popes over the centuries have singled out specific saints as Doctors of the Church.
These men and women are seen as exemplary teachers in various theological or spiritual topics. The official title of doctor stems from the Latin root word docere, meaning “to teach.”
Aquinas wrote extensively during his lifetime, producing one of the most foundational texts for Catholic theology, called the Summa Theologiae. In it, he answers a variety of questions that were raised in his time, and his responses continue to be used today in defense of Catholic doctrine.
What about “angelic”?
It’s not entirely certain why St. Thomas became known as the “Angelic Doctor.” There are a variety of possibilities, including one explanation given by Pope Benedict XVI in a general audience in 2010.
He was also called the Doctor Angelicus [Angelic Doctor], perhaps because of his virtues and, in particular, the sublimity of his thought and the purity of his life.
The Catholic Encyclopedia offers a similar explanation.
Purity of mind and body contributes in no small degree to clearness of vision. By the gift of purity, miraculously granted at the time of the mystic girdling, God made Thomas’s life angelic; the perspicacity and depth of his intellect, Divine grace aiding, made him the “Angelic Doctor.”
This entry refers to a story from St. Thomas’ life, recounted in his canonization records.
Two angels came to him from heaven and bound a cord around his waist, saying, “On God’s behalf, we gird you with the girdle of chastity, a girdle which no attack will ever destroy …” The angels’ gift preserved Saint Thomas from sexual temptation and bestowed upon him an enduring purity that ennobled all his thoughts and actions.
St. Thomas also wrote extensively about angels, and his theology on angels is one of the most comprehensive in all of Church history.
Some Characteristics Of God’s Love
The Love of God Is Justice!
How could God be good if He loved the bad equally with the good? The essence of love is not indifference to morality. ‘‘The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: he that followeth justice is beloved by him” (Prov. 15:9).
“You have wearied the Lord with your words, and you said: Wherein have we wearied him? In that you say: Every one that doth evil, is good in the sight of the Lord, and such please him: or surely where is the God of judgment?” (Mal. 2:17)
The Love of God Is Freedom!
How could love be love if it were forced? By making man free, God made it possible for man to reject Divine Love. Man cannot be made to love God any more that he can be made to enjoy Bach’s classical music. The power of choice is not necessarily the choice of what is best. Hence, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).
The Love of God Is the First Cause of All Things!
Though God is the First Cause of all things, man is a secondary and instrumental cause, and not a mere robot. God wrote a wonderful drama and gave it to free men to play, and sometimes they make a botch of it. Not in time, but at the end of the world, all things will be restored according to Justice. “For because sentence is not speedily pronounced against the evil, the children of men commit evils without any fear. But though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and by patience be borne withal, I know from thence that it shall be well with them that fear God, who dread his face” (Eccles. 8:11–12).
The Love of God Is Eternal!
Therefore, I can never escape it. I can tend toward it freely and thus receive mercy, or I can freely rebel against it and in my frustration feel His Justice. “For we must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he hath done, whether it be good or evil” (2 Cor. 5:10).
The Love of God Is All-Powerful!
God would never have given men the power to choose evil if He could not draw goodness out of evil. The power to crucify Christ is mine, but the effect of that crucifixion, namely, the conquest of death by resurrection, is not mine, but God’s. “There is no wisdom, there is no prudence, there is no counsel against the Lord. The horse is prepared for the day of battle: but the Lord giveth safety” (Prov. 21:30–31).
The Love of God Is All-Seeing!
“Every man that passeth beyond his own bed, despising his own soul, and saying: Who seeth me? Darkness compasseth me about, and the walls cover me, and no man seeth me: whom do I fear? The Most High will not remember my sins. And he understandeth not that his eye seeth all things, for such a man’s fear driveth from him the fear of God, and the eyes of man fearing him: And he knoweth not that the eyes of the Lord are far brighter. . . . For all things were known to the Lord God, before they were created: so also after they were perfected he beholdeth all things” (Sir. 23:25–29).
The Love of God Is Strong!
Love is not “broadmindedness.” Capacity for indignation is sometimes a test of love, for there are enormities which true love must not only challenge, but resist. The sun which warms so gently can also wither; the rain which nourishes so tenderly can also rot. The change is not in the sun or the rain: it is in that upon which it falls. So the Love of God to the good is love; to the wicked, it seems wrath. “For we know that the judgment of God is, according to truth, against them that do such things…. Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and patience, and longsuffering? Knowest thou not that the benignity of God leadeth thee to penance? But according to thy hardness and impenitent heart, thou treasurest up to thyself wrath, against the day of wrath, and revelation of the just judgment of God” (Rom. 2:2, 4, 5).
The Love of God Is Merciful!
If we had never sinned, we never could have called Christ “Savior.” “But thou hast mercy upon all, because thou canst do all things, and overlookest the sins of men for the sake of repentance. For thou lovest all things that are, and hatest none of the things which thou hast made: for thou didst not appoint, or make any thing hating it” (Wisd. 11:24–25).
The Love of God Is the Cause of Our Love!
There are sparks of love in us because there was first the Flame in God. “Jesus answered, and said to her: Whosoever drinketh of this water, shall thirst again; but he that shall drink of the water that I will give him, shall not thirst for ever: But the water that I will give him, shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into life everlasting” (John 4:13–14).
The Love of God Rules the Universe
Because all things in the world, from atoms to angels, were made by Love, it follows that the whole universe seeks and moves toward its own perfection and its own good. Acorns tend to become good oaks; two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen united by an electrical spark tend to become water.
Inasmuch as all things have a natural inclination toward the perfection befitting their nature, they tend in some way to become like God. Scientists only discover the laws of nature; they do not invent them.
The chemical and biological laws which govern animals are all participations in the Eternal Reason and Love of God. They act for a purpose, that is, according to reason because Eternal Reason created them; they seek their own good because Eternal Goodness or Divine Love called them into being.
The Love of God Made a Moral Universe!
But Divine Love acted differently when He created man. Water must seek its own level, but man ought to be good. A stone cannot choose to fly upward when released from my hand, but a man can choose to disobey the law of his nature. In other words, lower nature is determined, and therefore amoral; man is free, and therefore moral.
God compels the stone to obey the law of gravitation, but He does not compel us to be good. How could we really love if we were forced?
Is it not the possibility of a No that gives so much charm to our Yes? God, therefore, gave us the power to seek deliberately a goal and purpose other than His Perfect Love, in order that there might be meaning in our allegiance and love when we freely choose to give it. To man alone on this earth did God communicate some of His Freedom.
And if it be asked: “If God knew that I would rebel against His love and be a sinner, why did He make me?” The answer is: God did not make you as a sinner. You made yourself a sinner. In that sense, you are your own creator.
The possibility, not the necessity, of moral evil, of wars and social injustices which follow them, is the price we have to pay for the greatest good we possess—the gift of freedom. God could, of course, at any moment stop a war, but only at a terrible cost—the destruction of human freedom.
There are only two things that could possibly remove evil and suffering from the world: either the conformity of human wills to the will of God, or God becoming a dictator and destroying all human wills.
Why is it that men, who by forgetting the Love of God turn the universe into a house of mass suicide, never think of blaming themselves, but immediately put God on the judgment seat, and question His Love and Goodness?
We all have a share in the evils of the world, and it ill behooves us to ignore our faults and become critics of God. It is we who are in the prisoners’ dock in a world crisis like this. Instead of questioning the God of Love, we ought to be throwing ourselves on the Mercy of His Judgment.